Unit Five

The Road to War

• EQ: Which economic, social, and political events contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War?

• Video Clip

Runaway slaves

• Southerners believed they had the right to go North and recapture runaway slaves

• Article 4 section 2 of the Constitution, any person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime

• Northern citizens thought differently• They gave shelter to runaways and helped

them escape

Victory in the Mexican War

• US victory in the war with Mexico made the slave issue more troublesome-led to greater sectional division

• The victory added new land for settlement• Territorial expansion brought the issue of slavery

in the territories to national attention• Should slavery expand westward?• Southerners asked for new laws to help them

recapture runaway slaves in free territories

Polk’s Viewpoint

• Polk, Southern Democrat and a slaveholder• Slavery in the Southwest not an issue• The dry climate not conducive to growing the

types of crops that made slavery profitable• There was heated debate in Congress about the

issue• Polk could not dismiss the slave issue, was afraid

it would divide the Democratic Party and possibly divide the Union

Wilmot Proviso

• August 1846, Representative David Wilmot, (D), Pa.

• Proposed an addition to a military spending bill• Wilmot Proviso, any territory gained from

Mexico would not allow slavery or involuntary servitude

• Wilmot and a group of Northern Democrats felt Polk was pro-Southern

• 1. Polk supported a new tariff that helped the South at the expense of the Northern manufacturers

• 2. Polk had compromised on the Oregon Territory with the British where slavery was likely to be banned

• 3. Polk had gone to war with Mexico for land Southerners would occupy

• The Wilmot Proviso upset Southerners, no slavery in the new territories would threaten slavery everywhere

• The Proviso passed the House with a coalition of Northern Democrats and Whigs

• The Senate refused to vote on it

Calhoun Resolutions

• Senator John C. Calhoun from SC presented a series of resolutions (Calhoun Resolutions) to counter the Wilmot Proviso

• The Senate refused to consider them• Calhoun argued:– The states owned the territories of the US in

common– Congress had no right to ban slavery in the

territories

• Calhoun warned of political revolution, anarchy, and civil war if the North did not address Southern concerns

Popular Sovereignty

• Slavery divided the nation along sectional lines- North against the South

• Moderates in Congress looked for a way to settle the issue without Congressional involvement

• Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan:– The citizens of each new territory would be

allowed to decide for themselves if they wanted to permit slavery or not = popular sovereignty

• Popular sovereignty was a popular idea in Congress

• It would remove slavery as a national issue• It was more democratic, the people would decide• Abolitionists argued it denied African Americans

their right not to be enslaved• Northerners in the Midwest supported popular

sovereignty

• They felt most settlers in the new territories would come from the North and would ban slavery in their states

Conscience Whigs

• 1848 election the Whigs nominated Zachery Taylor, this split the Whig Party in the North

• Northern Whigs called Conscience Whigs opposed slavery

• They believed Taylor would expand slavery westward

Cotton Whigs

• Other Northern Whigs supported Taylor, voted with Southern Whigs

• They were tied to the Northern cloth manufacturers who needed Southern cotton

• Known as Cotton Whigs

Liberty Party/Free Soil Party

• Conscience Whigs quit the party with Taylor’s nomination

• Joined with anti-slavery Democrats from New York who were angry over the nomination of Lewis Cass over Martin Van Buren

• Joined with abolitionists to form the Liberty Party

• They then formed the Free Soil Party

• Opposed to slavery in the Western territories• Some Free Soilers against slavery, felt it was

immoral, most wanted to keep western land for white farmers

• If slavery expanded west, it would be hard for free men to find work

• Party slogan; “Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men”

The Election of 1848

• Lewis Cass, Democrat• Zachery Taylor, Whig• Martin Van Buren, Free Soil• Cass, popular sovereignty• Van Buren, against slavery in the territories• Taylor avoided the slave issue• Election day, Free Soilers split the Whig vote, and

the Democratic vote in New York, allowed Taylor to win

California

• January, 1948, carpenter James Marshall found small flakes of gold in the millrace at Sutter’s Mill

• Marshall and the remainder of John Sutter’s employees were panning for gold in California streams

• News of the gold strike did not reach the east coast until the Fall of 1848

• The excitement and adventure associated with the Mexican-American War now directed towards California- the new El Dorado

• Thousands left farms and jobs to head west by land and sea to make their fortunes

• Called “forty-niners”- the year the Gold Rush began in earnest• Miners came from all over America and the world• Changed a quiet ranching area into a teaming and tumultuous

community searching for riches in California rivers and streams• 80% of the “forty-niners” were Americans- came from every

state• Gold Rush was an eye-opening expansion of their horizons for

most who had only known hometown people

• Second largest group were from Mexico and the west coast of Latin America

• The rest came from Europe and Asia• Presence of Chinese miners surprised many Americans• Chinese in California in 1849 and 1850, • 1852 over 20,000 Chinese arrived in San Francisco to

share the wealth of the “Gum Sam” (Golden Mountain)• Most Chinese, like Americans, came on a temporary

basis- return home as soon as they made some money

• Most of the Chinese miners were like American miners- they were males who left wives at home

• Chinese miners dressed in blue cotton shirts, baggy pants, and broad-rimmed hats

• Hard working Chinese miners were commonplace in the mine fields

• Creation of “China Towns” added to threat of economic competition- brought American hostility

• Special tax on foreign miners in 1852 and in the 1870s- slowed Chinese immigration sharply

• 1849, beginning of Gold Rush- San Francisco, major port of entry and supply point came to life

• Settlement of 1,000 in 1848- grew to a city of 35,000 in 1850

• Real money was made in California not panning for gold but feeding, clothing, housing, provisioning, and entertaining miners

• First to figure this out was a German Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss- sold tough work pants to miners- name became synonymous with the product (Levi’s)

• Jerusha Marshall opened a 20 room boardinghouse in San Francisco- wrote to eastern relatives “ Never was there a better field for making money than now presents itself in this place…..We are satisfied to dig our gold in San Francisco.”

• San Francisco became a major American city

• White population of California went from an estimated pre-Gold Rush number of 11,000 to over 100,000 by 1852The population increased so much that the California Territory applied for statehood

• End of 1849 over 80,000 forty-niners in California searching for gold

• Mining towns appeared overnight• Chaos and violence• To keep order in California a strong government was needed• California admitted to the Union as a state in 1850

Mining Camps

• Most mining camps boomed instantly, unlike San Francisco most were empty in a few years

• Famous camps; Poker Flat, Angels Camp, Whiskey Bar, Placerville, Mariposa

• Usually dirty, miners lived in tents of shacks- not willing to take time from mining to build decent places to live

• Cooked meals of beans, bread, and bacon• If they had money they bought meals at expensive

restaurants and boardinghouses- table may be no more than a plank over two flour barrels

• Miner’s life- cheerless, uncomfortable, unhealthy- especially during long, rainy winter months

• Few distractions, except saloon and gambling hall• Most miners young, unmarried, and unsuccessful• Same percentage struck it rich in California• Gold deposits accessible with pick and shovel (placer mining)

soon were gone• Deeper deposits required capital and machinery (corporate

mining)• Some areas in the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada

were a half a mile deep in the ground

• Miners who stayed in California had to give up status of independent miner and become a wage earner for large mining companies

• Like San Francisco, most reliable way to earn money in the mining camps was to supply miners

• Mining communities had; saloonkeepers, gamblers, prostitutes, merchants, and restauranteurs

• Theses business people were transient like the miners- ready to move with the news of a new gold strike

• Most of the women in early mining camps were prostitutes- some grew rich or married respectably

• Most young women died of drugs, venereal disease, or violence

• Other women were hardworking wives of miners and made good money doing domestic work- kept boardinghouses, cooked, washed clothes

• Wives of professional men also took advantage of the monetary opportunity and kept boardinghouses

• Some women made $100 per week washing clothes• French girls charged an ounce of gold just to sit next to a customer• Swiss women with on organ grinder made $4,000 in a few months• Women made up 3% of the population- about 800 women to 30,000

miners• Married American women reminded miners of home, mothers,

sisters, and wives- treated like queens• 1849 California Constitution allowed married women the right to

own property separate from their • Husbands• Women had rights and economic opportunities in the Gold Rush

West that women back East did not enjoy

• Beef $10.00 per lb. $279.81 per lb. • Butter $20.00 per lb. $559.63 per lb. • Cheese $25.00 per lb. $699.53 per lb. • Coffee beans $0.15 per lb. $4.20 per lb. • Crackers, in tins $0.15 per tin $4.20 per box • Eggs $3.00 each $83.94 each • Flour $13.00 per bag $363.76 per bag • Oranges $0.15 each $4.20 each • Rice $8.00 per lb. $223.85 per lb. • Optional • Boots $6.00 per pair $167.89 per pair • Flannel shirts $1.50 each $41.97 each • Blanket $5.00 each $139.91 each • Shovel $36.00 each $1007.33

• Little effort made to build communities- too busy looking for gold

• Violence in the mining towns/camps was a problem• Racial discrimination- especially among Chinese,

Mexicans, and African Americans was common• Miners had their claims jumped• Thieves would rob miners of their gold, kill them, or

run them off and then file own claim to victims strike

• Some miners used to law to take the claims of other miners- take advantage of high tax on foreign miners

• Most mining camps were temporary• Gold played out, people moved- left ghost towns• Mid 1850s immediate effects of the Gold Rush were

over• California was left with a large population• Growing agriculture and corporate mining industries

• Gold Rush left California a population that was larger and more affluent, in the case of San Francisco- more culturally sophisticated than any other newly settled territories

• Population of California was more culturally diverse than the rest of the nation; Chinese, Mexican, and European immigrants remained after the gold was gone

• The “lesser races” were kept in a subordinate position• Gold rush destroyed the foothill landscape• Led to the virtual extermination of California Indians

• Many Californios were legally deprived of their land grants

• Increase in racial animosity- especially for Chinese

• Lack of stable communities and worsening racial tensions; started in California and followed “rushes” in Colorado, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, Arizona, and Alaska

The California Debate

• Congress was urged to create territorial governments for California and New Mexico

• Congress divided over sectional lines, could not decide whether or not to allow slavery in the territories

• Taylor to avoid a fight in Congress let the people of California make their own decision

• The population of California great enough to apply for admission as a free state in December 1849, the Gold Rush forced national decision making on the slave issue

• California admitted as a free state• The slaveholding states a minority in the

Senate• The South was fearful of losing political power• This would open the door to limits on slavery

and state’s rights• Talk of secession begins

Henry Clay’s Solution

• 1850, Senator Henry Clay attempts to find a compromise to let California in as a state

• Clay, “The Great Compromiser”, Missouri Compromise, nullification crisis, proposed 8 resolutions to solve the problem

• The resolutions were grouped in pairs, this offered concessions on both sides

• 1. California admitted as a free state but organized the remainder of the Mexican Cession without restrictions to slavery

• 2. Settled the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico in the favor of New Mexico, but compensated Texas, the federal government would take on the debts of Texas, this gained Southern support, many Southerners held Texas bonds

• 3. Outlawed the slave trade in Washington, D.C. but not slavery

• 4. Congress could not interfere in the domestic slave trade and would pass a new fugitive slave act– Concessions needed to ensure that after California

was admitted to the Union the North could not use the advantage it gained in the Senate to abolish slavery

Calhoun’s Response

• Clay’s resolutions sparked debate, any compromise would require Calhoun’s approval

• Calhoun read a prepared speech in reply to Clay

• 1. Northern agitation against slavery was a threat to the South

• 2. Clay’s compromise would not save the Union

• 3. The South needed acceptance of its rights• 4. The return of fugitive slaves• 5. A guarantee of a balance between sections

Daniel Webster’s Response

• Daniel Webster replied to Calhoun three days later

• 1. called for national unity above sectional loyalties

• 2. voiced support for Clay’s plan as the only way to save the Union

Changes in leadership

• Clay’s bill did not pass Congress, due in part to president Taylor who was opposed

• Taylor died in office that summer• VP Millard Fillmore became president• End of the Summer Calhoun was dead,

Webster now Secretary of State, and Clay had given up leadership of the Senate

• Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois divided Clay’s large compromise into several smaller bills

• Members of Congress now from different geographical sections could abstain or oppose parts of the bills they did not like and support the other parts

• All of the parts of the compromise proposed by Clay had been approved by the fall and Fillmore signed them into law

The Compromise of 1850

• The Compromise of 1850 would for a short time ease the tension caused by slavery

• A permanent solution would not be accomplished by compromise

• 1. California admitted as a free state• 2. Popular sovereignty would be used to settle

the issue of slavery in Utah and New Mexico

• 3. The Texas border dispute with New Mexico was resolved, Texas received $10 million

• 4. The slave trade in Washington, D.C. was abolished, but not slavery

• 5. Strong federal enforcement of a new Fugitive Slave Act

Fugitive Slave Act• Early days of abolitionist movement slaves had been

encouraged to escape• Most escaped slaves found reliable help within Northern free

black communities• Northerners appalled by Southern professional slave catchers• African Americans seized in the North were taken back South

and enslaved• African Americans no legal rights to defend themselves• Nine northern states passed personal liberty laws, would not

cooperate with federal recapture efforts

• Southerners insisted a stronger fugitive slave law be part of the Compromise of 1850

• Fugitive Slave Act, 1850 increased the power of the slave owners to capture escaped slaves

• Full authority of the federal government supported slave owners

• Fugitives were guaranteed a hearing before a federal commissioner, could not testify on their own behalf- commissioner got $5 for African Americans allowed to stay in the North and $10 for each African American sent South into slavery

• Law imposed federal penalties on citizens who protected or helped fugitive slaves, or who did not cooperate in their return

• As many as 30,000 to 40,000 African Americans some free and some runaway slaves moved to Upper Canada

• Resistance to the law was fierce in Boston• Frederick Douglass supported armed resistance to the

law- “The only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter is to make a half dozen or more dead kidnappers”

• Fugitive Slave Law brought the reality of slavery to residents of free states

• Forced northern communities to confront the full meaning of slavery

• Most people still unwilling to grant social equality to free African Americans who lived in northern states, more and more began to believe that the institution of slavery was wrong

• Northern protests to the law raised southern suspicion in the South and encouraged secessionist thinking

Slave Power• Northerners increasingly questioned why they should

compromise when the South would not• Southern secession threats confirmed for many in the

North the warnings of antislavery leaders that they were endangered by a menacing “slave power”

• Liberty Party leader James Birney, speech 1844 explained that the “slave power” was a group of aristocratic slave owners who not only dominated the political and social life of the South, but conspired to control the federal government, posing a danger to free speech and free institutions in the nation

• Birney’s “slave power” was illustrated in the defensive position of southern representatives in national politics after 1830

• Proslavery strategy of maintaining supremacy in the Senate by keeping at least as many slave states as free states admitted to the Union- this required the expansion of slavery

• Northerners viewed this a sectional conspiracy to control national politics

• Defensive southern strategies of the 1850s convinced a growing number of northern voters that the “slave power” did exist

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s account of slavery

• Brought the slave issue to many households• Changed the Northern perception of African

Americans and slavery• Sold 300,000 copies the first year• Depicted slaves as real people imprisoned in

horrible circumstances

• Touched readers, emotions ran from pity to outrage where national arguments could not

• Southerners attempted to have the novel burned• Attacked it as a false portrayal of slavery• Southern outrage did not stop sales, ultimately sold millions

of copies• Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a profound impact on public opinion-

many consider it one of the causes of the Civil War• Stowe was prompted to write the novel in response to the

Fugitive Slave Act

Election of 1852• Both parties had problems at their nominating conventions• Whig Party leader Henry Clay was dead• William Seward of New York became the unofficial party head• Seward preferred General Winfield Scott to the pro-southern Millard Fillmore• 52 ballots later Scott won the nomination• This alienated many southern Whigs• This would be the last Whig candidate• Democrats had a wide choice of candidates• Lewis Cass (popular sovereignty), Stephen Douglas (Compromise of 1850), and

James Buchanan (self-described as a northern man with southern principles• 49 ballots none of the candidates could win the nomination• Convention turned to Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire- thought to have

southern sympathies

• Democratic platform- pledged faithful execution of all parts of the Compromise of 1850, including the fugitive slave law

• Democrats polled well in the south and the north• Most democrats who voted Free Soil in 1848 voted for Pierce• Immigrant Irish and German voters voted for Pierce• Strong showing among immigrants was due to strong Democratic

machines in the Northern cities• Reformers complained of wide spread corruption and vote buying by

urban bosses• One Ohioan reported that General Apathy is the strongest candidate out

here.• Pierce easily won the election of 1852, 254 electoral votes to 42• Voter turnout below 70%, lower than it had been in 1836

The Underground Railroad

• The Fugitive Slave Act had heavy fines and prison terms for whites and free blacks who helped runaway slaves

• Still many continued their work with the Underground Railroad

• An informal, well organized system that helped thousands of slaves to escape

• Members of the Underground Railroad were called conductors; they secretly transported runaways North

• They gave shelter, food, and water along the way to freedom in Northern states or Canada

• Many members were African American

Harriet Tubman

• Most well known conductor on the Underground Railroad; Harriet Tubman

• Risked her life on many trips South to help slaves escape

• Made 19 trips helped over 300 slaves escape

Isaac Brandt/Levi Coffin• Isaac Brandt, Des Moines, Iowa used secret signals to

communicate with conductors on the Underground Railroad• Levi Coffin a Quaker born in North Carolina• Allowed escaping slaves to stay at his home in Indiana,

where three major Underground Railroad routes came together

• It is estimated that 2,000 African Americans stopped at Coffin’s home

• Coffin relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio and aided 1,300 find freedom who had crossed the river from Kentucky

Westward Settlement and the Transcontinental Railroad

• As settlers moved West so did sectional tensions• They remained Northerners or Southerners• 1850s settlers and land speculators were

interested in the fertile lands of Missouri and Iowa

• The territory was unorganized, until it was organized as a territory it could not be surveyed or settled

• The opening of Oregon and admission of California as a state led to a call for a transcontinental railroad

• Connect the West and East coasts• 1850s, going to the West coast required months

of travel overland, or an ocean voyage around the tip of South America

• A railroad would cut the time to travel from one coast to the other to four days

The Gadsden Purchase

• Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sent James Gadsden to buy land from Mexico for the Southern route of the Transcontinental Railroad

• Santa Anna agreed to sell 30,000 square mile strip

• Part of Arizona and New Mexico• In 1853 Mexico accepted $10 million dollars for

the land

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• In order to make a Northern route possible, Congress had to organize the territory west of Missouri and Iowa

• 1853, Stephen Douglass proposed a bill to organize the region into Nebraska

• The bill passed the House of Representatives, Southern Senators refused to allow a vote in the Senate

• Southern Senators let Douglass know that if he wanted Nebraska, he would have to push for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and allow slavery in the new territory

• Douglass knew repeal of the Missouri Compromise would divide the nation

• Wanted to open the Northern Great Plains to settlement

• Douglass hoped to move a bill through Congress that would split the Whig Party and push the slave issue aside

• His attempts set the nation on a course to war

• 1. to gain Southern support for the bill, any states in the Nebraska Territory would be allowed to determine free or slave through popular sovereignty– Southern leaders would not support Douglass

while the Missouri Compromise still in effect, slaveholders would not move to the Nebraska Territory, the new states would be free

• 2. the next bill proposed the end of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slavery in the region

• Divide the region into two territories, Nebraska to the North and Kansas to the south and west of Missouri

• Nebraska would be free and Kansas would be slave

• Northern Democrats, Whigs, and Free-Soilers angry

• Charged that the abandonment of the Missouri Compromise broke the promise to limit the spread of slavery

• Democratic leaders in Congress garnered enough support to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act May, 1854

Bleeding Kansas

• Kansas was the first open battleground for those who wanted to extend slavery and those opposed to it’s expansion

• Eastern Kansas similar fertile soil as Missouri• Setters moving from Missouri would bring

slaves, claim Kansas a slave state• Established proslavery strongholds in

Leavenworth, Kickapoo, and Atchison

• 1855 the second of several fraudulent elections, 6,307 ballots cast in a territory with fewer than 3,000 eligible voters

• To stop Kansas from becoming a slave state, Northerners went to the territory to create an anti-slave majority

• The first to arrive were a party of New Englanders, summer 1854

• Established the free soil town of Lawrence, named after former “Cotton Whig” Amos Lawrence who paid for their migration

• A thousand more joined them by the next summer• Many migrants were free soilers and religious

reformers• There was a contrast of values between them and the

border ruffians• Nondrinking William Phillips refused an offer of a

drink from a Missourian, the response was “ That’s just it! This thing of temperance and abolitionism and the Emigrant Aid Society are all the same kind of thing.”

• The New England Emigrant Aid Society recruited and outfitted anti-slavery settlers headed to Kansas

• The pro-slavery governor of Missouri David Atchison sent men from Missouri to Kansas in the spring of 1855

• Thousand of Missouri border ruffians voted illegally in Kansas, elected a pro-slavery legislature

• Anti-slavery settlers held their own convention in Topeka, Kansas; wrote a constitution that outlawed slavery

• May 1856, Kansas has two governments• May 21, 1856, border ruffians attacked the town

of Lawrence, Kansas; an anti-slavery stronghold• The newspaper presses were destroyed, homes

and shops looted, a hotel and the home of the elected free-state governor burned

• In response to the attack on Lawrence, John Brown and his sons raided proslavery settlers of Pottawatomie Creek, killed 5 unarmed people

• Bands roamed the countryside, burnings and killings became commonplace

• John Brown and his followers were one of many bands of murderers who were never arrested, nor brought to trial, not stopped from committing violence

• Peaceful residents of rural Kansas forced to flee to military forts when rumors of armed bands arrived

• Nation watched in horror as residents of Kansas slaughtered each other in pursuit of sectional goals

• “Bleeding Kansas” home to a territorial civil war; pro-slavery versus anti-slavery settlers

• By the end of 1856, 200 dead and property losses of $2 million

The Caning of Charles Sumner

• The bloodshed in Kansas led to debate in the Senate

• May 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an abolitionist, gave a speech accusing pro-slavery senators of forcing slavery on Kansas

• Sumner singled out Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, said Butler had “chosen a mistress…..the harlot, slavery”

• May 22, 1856 Butler’s second cousin, Representative Preston Brooks went to Sumner’s Senate chamber, shouted that Sumner’s speech was a libel on SC and Mr. Butler

• Brooks took his gold-handled cane and beat Sumner severely

• Brooks became a hero of sorts to many Southerners, some sent him canes inscribed with “Hit him again”

• Northerners were shocked by the growing support for Brooks and became more determined to resist slavery

• They must strike back or be slaves

The Republican Party

• Northern Whigs, the Free-Soil Party, and anti-slavery Democrats joined together due to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• They took many names; the Anti-Nebraska Party, the Fusion Party, the People’s Party and the Independent Party

• By and far the most popular name was the Republican Party

• The Republican Party was officially organized at a convention in July, 1854

• The party wanted to revive the spirit of Jefferson and the American Revolution

• Just as Jefferson chose the name to prevent the U.S. from becoming a monarchy, the new Republicans feared Southern planters were becoming an aristocracy that controlled the federal government

• The Republican Party did not agree on the issue of abolishing slavery

• The Republican Party did agree to keep it out of the territories

• A large number of Northern voters agreed with the Republicans and other anti-slave parties which made gains in the 1854 Congressional elections

The Know-Nothings

• Public displeasure with Northern Democrats allowed the American Party or Know-Nothings to make gains was well

• The party was an anti-Catholic and nativist party• Opposed immigration, especially Catholic

immigration• Used prejudice and fears of losing jobs to

immigrants, Know-Nothings won numerous seats in the Congress and State Legislatures in 1854

• After the elections the Know-Nothings experienced the same problems as the Whigs

• The party spilt over support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Violence in Kansas and the caning of Charles Sumner made slavery a greater issue to most Americans than immigration

• The Know-Nothings were absorbed by the Republican Party

The Election of 1856

• To get support the Republican Party nominated John C. Fremont who supported Kansas as a free state

• Fremont had little political experience, but had no skeletons in his closet

• The Democrats nominated John Buchanan• He had served in Congress for 20 years• Served as ambassador to Russia

• Buchanan was in England when the Kansas-Nebraska debates took place

• Buchanan’s record showed he would make concessions to the South to preserve the Union

• The American Party attempted to reunite their membership

• Northern delegates walked out of the convention because the party would not call for the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• The remaining members at the convention nominated Millard Fillmore in hopes of getting the former Whig vote

• The election was in reality two contests• 1. Buchanan and Fremont in the North• 2. Buchanan and Fillmore in the South• Buchanan had solid Southern support, needed

only win his home state of Pennsylvania and one other state

• Democrats campaigned that Buchanan was the only candidate that could save the Union, and the election of Fremont would lead to Southern secession

• Buchanan won

Dred Scott vs. Sandford

• Dred Scott v. Sandford, decided March 6, 1857• Southern dominated U.S. Supreme Court tried to end the

political controversy over slavery• Scott had been a slave all of his life• Owner, army surgeon John Emerson had taken Scott with him

on military assignments in the 1830s to the Wisconsin Territory- free territory north of the Missouri Compromise line

• Scott married another slave, had a daughter who was born in a free territory

• 1846 Scott sued for freedom for himself, his wife, and daughter- women had no legal standing on their own

• The case took 11 years to make it to the Supreme Court• Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (Maryland) insisted on

reading the majority opinion in its entirety- took 4 hours• Declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional on

the basis of the 5th amendment- no person may be denied life, liberty, or property without due process of law

• Taney and the Court asserted that the federal government had no right to interfere with the free movement of property throughout the territories

• Taney was supporting Calhoun’s states’ rights argument an extreme viewpoint the law of the land

• Taney dismissed the Dred Scott Case on the grounds that only citizens could bring suits in federal courts- black people slave or free were not citizens

• Taney with judicial intervention into the issue of the day intended to settle the issue over the expansion of slavery once and for all

• Instead the Court made the situation worse

• Five southern members of the Court concurred in Taney’s decision as did one northerner- Robert C. Grier

• It is possible that President Buchanan had pressured Grier- both were from Pennsylvania to support the majority

• Two of the three other northerners on the Court strongly dissented and the last voiced other objections

• The decision was a sectional decision

Southern Reaction to Dred Scott

• Southerners expressed satisfaction with the decision and voiced strong support for the Court

• Georgia Constitutionalist announced “Southern opinion upon the subject of southern slavery….is now the supreme law of the land….opposition upon this subject is now opposition to the Constitution, and morally treason against the Government”.

Northern Reaction to Dred Scott

• Northerners disagreed• Many were so upset that for the first time they found

themselves questioning the power of the Supreme Court to establish the law of the land

• New York legislature passed a resolution declaring the Supreme Court had lost the confidence and respect of the people of that state

• Passed an additional resolution refusing to allow slavery within its borders “in any form or under any pretense, or for any time, however short”

• New York Republicans proposed an equal suffrage amendment for free African Americans- were disenfranchised by strict property qualifications in order to vote

• State’s voters defeated the amendment• Racist attitude hurt free African Americans in the

North, F. Douglass considered moving to Haiti• Dred Scott Decision was a challenge for the

Republican Party

• Nullifying the Missouri Compromise took away free soil the foundation of the Republican Party

• To challenge the Supreme Court was a formidable task• Lincoln and William Seward, accused President Buchanan of

conspiring with the Southern Supreme Court justices to subvert the American political system by withholding the decision until after the presidential election of 1856

• Lincoln raised the possibility that the next Dred Scott Decision would legalize slavery even in free states that abhorred slavery

• Buchanan’s response to events in Kansas, including the drafting of a proslavery constitution, provoked sectional antagonisms

The Kansas Lecompton Constitution

• In an attempt to end troubles in Kansas, president Buchanan called for the territory to apply for statehood

• The pro-slavery legislature set a date for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention

• Anti-slavery Kansans boycotted the election, claimed it was rigged

• A constitution was drafted in Lecompton, 1857 which legalized slavery

• Each side had its own referendum• The anti-slavery forces voted the constitution

down• The pro-slavery forces voted the constitution’s

approval• Buchanan accepted the pro-slavery vote

• Buchanan asked Congress to accepted Kansas as a slave state

• The Senate voted to accept Kansas as a slave state

• The House of Representatives blocked admittance

• During Congressional debates fistfights occurred

• Southern leaders were surprised when Stephen Douglas did not support them

• Hoped that Douglas a Northern leader and presidential candidate would work to a compromise to keep the South in the Union

• Buchanan and Southern leaders agreed to second vote on the Kansas constitution, the South expected the pro-slavery vote to win, if Kansans rejected the Lecompton Constitution it would take an additional two years for Kansas to gain statehood, 1858 Kansas voters rejected the Lecompton Constitution, did not want slavery in Kansas

The Panic of 1857

• Added to the nation’s political problems was a short but sharp economic depression 1857-1858

• August 1857, an Ohio investment house failed• News that would have taken weeks to be widely

known was subject of a news story that hit the telegraph wires to Wall Street and other financial markets

• Panic selling occurred, led to business failures, and slowdowns that put thousands out of work

• Major cause of the panic was a sharp, temporary drop in agricultural exports to Britain, recovery started in 1859

• Hurt cotton exports less than it hurt northern exports- Panic of 1857 was less harmful to the South than the North

• Southerners used this a proof that the economic system of the South was superior to the economic system of the North

• Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina in his celebrated “King Cotton” Speech, March 1858

• -When the abuse of credit had destroyed credit and annihilated confidence; when thousands of the strongest commercial houses in the world were coming down…when you came to a deadlock, and revolutions were threatened, what brought you up?....We have poured in upon you one million six hundred thousands bales of cotton just at the moment to save you from destruction…We have sold ijt for $65,000,000, and saved you

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• 1858, Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas for his Senate seat

• Douglas the “Little Giant”, popular campaigner who drew crowds

• Lincoln requested a series of debates• This would expose Lincoln to larger crowds

than he could draw alone• Video Clip

• Douglas accepted• Lincoln had little political experience• Was a small town store keeper, mill hand, rail

splitter, practiced law• Lincoln had served in the Illinois State

Legislature• Lincoln served one term in the US House of

Representatives as a Whig

• Lincoln was a skilled debater• Lincoln was not an abolitionist• Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong and opposed

westward expansion of slavery• Douglas was a supporter of popular sovereignty• Douglas won the debates• Lincoln made clear the principles of the Republican

Party, established a national reputation as a man of clear, insightful thinking, and able to argue with force and eloquence

The Freeport Doctrine

• Lincoln asked Douglas if citizens could vote to exclude slavery before gaining statehood

• If Douglas answered yes, he would be supporting popular sovereignty over the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott and lose Southern support

• If Douglas answered no, he would abandon popular sovereignty, on which he had built a national following

• Douglas in an attempt to avoid a dilemma, answered with what became known as the Freeport Doctrine

• Douglas stated that he accepted the Dred Scott decision, but that people could still keep slavery out by not passing laws to regulate and enforce slavery

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry

• John Brown, abolitionist, 1859 planned a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va.

• The raid was to free and arm slaves and to start an insurrection against slaveholders

• Free African Americans, including Fredrick Douglass did not support Brown, believing it was doomed to fail

• The night of Oct. 16, 1859, Brown 22 white and African American men seized the federal arsenal

• No plan for escape, did not notify the Virginia slaves that the rebellion was to free

• A group of US Marines led by Robert E. Lee arrived and 36 hours from the start of Brown’s slaver rebellion it had ended with his capture

• 8 of Brown’s men including his two sons were dead

• No slaves joined the raid

• To stop Brown from a lynching by local mobs the state of Virginia tried and convicted Brown of treason, murder, and fomenting insurrection

• Brown quite possibly insane was a noble martyr• Brown’s closing speech prior to sentencing, “Now, if it is

deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the end of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say, let it be done”

• Brown was hanged December 2, 1859• Northern communities marked his death with

public rites of mourning that seen since the death of G. Washington

• Church bells rang, buildings draped in black• Ministers preached sermons, prayer meetings

held, abolitionists issued eulogies• Ralph Waldo Emerson said that Brown would

“make the gallows as glorious as the cross”

• Henry David Thoreau called Brown “an angel of light”• Not all in the North support Brown’s actions,

Northern Democrats and conservative opinion repudiated Brown

• Many did reject Brown’s Raid, did support the antislavery cause Brown represented

• Brown’s Raid shocked the South• Slave rebellion had been the greatest fear of the

South

• Southerners believed northern abolitionists were provoking slave revolts

• This was to some degree confirmed when documents taken at Harpers Ferry revealed Brown had financial support from six members of the northern elite

• “Secret Six”, Gerrit Smith, George Stearns, Franklin Sanborn, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, and Samuel Gridley Howe had been willing to finance armed attacks on the slave system

• More shocking to the Southerners than the raid was the extend of northern mourning for Brown’s death

• Republican Party disavowed Brown’s actions• Southerners did not believe the Republican Party’s

statements• How could the South stay in the Union in the face of

Northern insolence• Richmond Enquirer, “The Harpers Ferry invasion has

advanced the cause of disunion more than any other event that has happened since the formation of the government”

• Referring to the Election of 1860, Senator Robert Toombs of Georgia warned “that the South would never permit this Federal government to pass into the traitorous hands of the Black Republican party”

• Talk of secession as the only possible response was common across the South

The Election of 1860

• Brown’s Raid was a turning point for the South• Always fearful of slave uprisings• To have Northerners attempting to arm slaves and

push them to rebellion was too much• Republicans denounced Brown’s Raid• Many in the South blamed Brown’s Raid on the

Republicans• Both Brown and Republicans were opposed to

slavery

• April, 1860, Democrats met in Charleston, SC to select a presidential candidate

• The slavery debate in the West had finally split the Democratic Party

• The first Democratic nominating convention ended in dispute• The Northern Democrats supported popular sovereignty• The Southern Democrats wanted the Party to uphold the Dred

Scott Decision and endorse a federal slave code for the territories

• Stephen Douglas did not get enough votes for the nomination

• Douglas supporters organized a rival delegation to get Douglas nominated

• Southern delegates walked out• Remaining delegates nominated Douglas• Southern delegates held their own convention

and nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky• Breckenridge supported the Dred Scott Decision

and a federal slave code for the territories

• Radical Southern Democrats hoped the Republicans would win, allow the South to secede

• Whigs, feared the Union in danger, formed the Constitutional Union Party, chose John Bell of Tennessee- to uphold the Constitution and the Union

• The Republicans no hope for Southern votes, needed a candidate who could win the North

• At the Chicago Convention, William Seward was the Republican first choice, lacked appeal, it was decided to nominate Abraham Lincoln, gained popularity in the North due to the debates with Douglas

Lincoln’s Election

• During the campaign the Republicans tried to show they were more than just an anti-slavery party

• The Republican Party denounced John Brown’s Raid

• The Republican Party reaffirmed the rights of the Southern states to keep slavery within their borders

• Supported higher tariffs• Wanted a new homestead law for western

settlement• Promoted a transcontinental railroad• The Republican platform angered many

Southerners• Douglas and Breckenridge split the Democratic

vote

• Lincoln won the election without any Southern support

• The South saw the victory for the Republicans as a victory for the abolitionists

• Southern culture and society in danger• The South had no choice but secession

Secession

• The South Carolina legislature called a convention after Lincoln’s election and voted for the Ordinance of Secession

• By Feb. 1,1861 six additional states in the lower South voted to secede

• South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded

• Many in the South viewed secession in the spirit of the American Revolution, a fight for American rights

Crittenden’s Compromise

• As the Southern states left the Union, Congress tried to compromise to save the Union

• Secessionists ignored Congressional attempts and began to seize federal property in their states

• Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, SC

• Fort Pickens in Pensacola Harbor, Florida• And several islands off the Florida coast

remained under Federal control• Congress unhappy with the seizures, still

looked for compromise• Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden proposed

several Constitutional amendments

• Guarantee slavery where it already existed• Reinstate the Missouri Compromise, extend it to the

California border; slavery prohibited north of the line and protected south of it

• Lincoln urged Congressional Republicans to stand firm• Crittenden’s Compromise did not pass• Virginia, a slave state held a convention, lasted 3 weeks

no secessionist states attended, came up with a modified version of Crittenden’s Compromise, it also was defeated

Northern Political Options• Compromise: from full adoption of Breckinridge’s

campaign platform to reinstatement of the Missouri Compromise line

• Lincoln refused all, made it clear he would not compromise on the extension of slavery, which was the key demand by the South

• Lincoln hoped to appear moderate to discourage any more southern states from seceding and give pro-Union Southerners time to organize

• Lincoln and the Republican Party overestimated the strength of pro-Union feelings in the South

• Second possibility- Horace Greely of the New York Tribune, let the southern states go in peace- what many secessionists hope for and expected

• Too many in the North including Lincoln believed in the Union for this to happen

• Lincoln- “the necessity of proving that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle the question now, whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose”

• At stake was the pride of the people in the federal government as a model for democracies world wide

• Third possibility was force• Lincoln felt the actions by the seceding states were

wrong- he did not want to go to war to force them back into the Union

• He did refuse to give up federal power over military forts and customs posts in the South

• The seceding South needed these powers in order to function as an independent nation

• A confrontation would occur- Lincoln waited for the other side to strike first

The Confederacy/Confederate Constitution

• Seceding states met in Montgomery, Alabama and decided to form a new nation

• The Confederate States of America• Drafted a constitution based on the US

Constitution• 1. each state remained independent• 2 guaranteed slavery in Confederate Territory• 3. banned protective tariffs

• 4. limited the President to one six year term• Former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis

chosen as president• Alexander Stephens named vice-president• In his inaugural address President Davis “the

time for compromise has passed, the South is determined to make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel”

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address

• The months before taking office Abraham Lincoln watched as the nation splintered

• In writing his inauguration speech he had a new country to the south

• And the real possibility more states would leave the Union

• In his inauguration speech President Lincoln spoke to the seceding states

• He stated there would be no interference with slavery where it already existed

• Lincoln insisted that the Union of these states was perpetual

• Lincoln did not threaten the seceding states, but, intended to hold federal property in those states

The fall of Ft. Sumter

• April, 1861 President Lincoln announced his decision to resupply Fort Sumter

• President Jefferson Davis had to make a decision

• To tolerate federal troops in the South’s most important harbor was unacceptable

• To fire on the supply ship after Lincoln’s warning would lead to war with the United States

• President Davis decided to take Fort Sumter before the supply ships arrived

• If successful peace would be maintained• Confederate leaders sent a message to Major

Robert Anderson demanding Fort Sumter be surrendered by the morning of April 12, 1861

• Anderson refused• Confederate cannon fire from Charleston

bombarded Fort Sumter for 33 hours

• The fort was destroyed but there were no deaths

• Anderson finally surrendered• The Civil War had begun

The Upper South Secedes

• Fort Sumter fell, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days of military service

• The call for troops created a crisis in the Upper South

• Many did not want to secede, but when faced with Civil War, no choice but to leave the Union

• Virginia was first, passed an Ordinance of Secession April 17, 1861

• The Confederate Congress responded by moving the capital of the Confederacy to Richmond, Virginia

• Early June 1861, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined the Confederacy

Border States

• Upper South gone, Lincoln had to keep the slaveholding border states

• Delaware not likely to secede• Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, might• With Virginia’s secession a Confederate State was

across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital

• If Maryland seceded the capital would be surrounded

• To keep Maryland Lincoln imposed martial law in Baltimore

• Mobs there had already attacked federal troops• Military now controlled Baltimore• Lincoln replaced civilian authorities and

suspended certain civil rights• Anyone supporting secession was arrested and

held without trial

• Army officers imprisoned dozens of suspected secessionist leaders

• Kentucky was divided over secession, it controlled the south bank of the Ohio River

• Kentucky was important to the Union and Lincoln declared it was neutral

• Lincoln agreed to leave Kentucky alone if the Confederacy did also

• Kentucky remained neutral until Sept. 1861, Confederate troops moved to occupy the southwest corner of the state, Union then moved in

• The Confederate invasion angered members of the Kentucky legislature which voted to go to war against the Confederacy

• Confederate supporters in Kentucky created a rival government and seceded

• Missouri, with many Confederate sympathizers, a state convention voted against secession

• Pro-secession forces led by Governor Claiborne F. Jackson struggled with the convention

• Missouri remained in the Union with the support of federal troops

• From the very beginning Lincoln was willing to take political and constitutional risks to preserve the Union

• The preservation now would be determined on the battlefield