Unit V Part 7 2859 Buchanan’s Sec of State (Floyd) received an anonymous letter warning about a...
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Transcript of Unit V Part 7 2859 Buchanan’s Sec of State (Floyd) received an anonymous letter warning about a...
Unit V Part 7
2859 Buchanan’s Sec of State (Floyd) received an anonymous letter warning about a raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
He ignored it.
John Brown with 18 others tried to take control of a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
John Brown
Remember…he was responsible for the Pottawatomie Massacre which sparked Bleeding Kansas
He was violently anti-slavery and believed himself to be an instrument of God
His plan was to free the slaves of the South and arm them and to establish a Black nation in the Appalachians.
John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, Va
John Brown was given financial support from a group of Northern Abolitionists called The Secret 6
Brown and his friends had hostages. One was the great grandnephew of George Washington!
Buchanan called for the marines!
John Brown’s raid
The first man killed in the skirmish was a free Black man who was in the area to try to buy his wife’s and son’s freedom. Later his ears were taken for souvenirs
After 10 of Brown’s men were killed, the others were captured (by Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart) and executed for treason
In 1859
Most (even abolitionists) thought John Brown to be a lunatic.
Lincoln and others said that they sympathized with his cause but condemned his actions.
Later, after 1863, John Brown will be seen in a different light…as a martyr and a visionary…
Why?
Preparing for the Election of 1860
In April of 1860 the Democratic National Convention met at Charleston, SC
They adjourned without a nomination when 50 delegates representing the Deep South walked out…
The Party refused to adopt a platform that guaranteed the constitutional rights of slave owners
June 1860
The Democrats met again in Baltimore, Maryland
No compromise was reached.
This time the delegates from ALL of the South walked out
The Northern Democrats Remained
Those who stayed behind, the Northern Democrats, nominated Stephen Douglass for their candidate
The Southern Democrats met at another Baltimore location and nominated Chase Breckenridge as their candidate
The Republicans
May 1860, the Republicans met in Chicago.
Lincoln won the nomination on the third ballot
He was the first choice for Westerners
His heritage and principles were acceptable to the rest of the party
The Republican Party Platform
Committed to the exclusion of slavery in the territories
Were called Protectionists because they favored a high protective tariff
Wanted a National Banking System Supported federally funded internal
improvements
Also
The Republicans denounced the Know-Nothings
Denounced John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry
Lincoln promised not to touch slavery in the STATES where it existed
Lincoln was not on the ballot in the South
The Democrats
Split over the issue of slavery in the territories
The Northern Democrats chose Stephen Douglass who supported popular Sovereignty
The Southern Democrats chose Chase Breckenridge who swore to protect the rights of persons and property in the territories and wherever else the U.S. constitutional authority extended
Another Third Party
The Constitutional Union Party chose John Bell and avoided the issue of slavery all together…no platform
Was also called the “Do Nothing Party” or “the Old Man’s Party”
The Election of 1860
Republicans: Lincoln 180 Northern Democrats: Stephen
Douglass 12 Southern Democrats: Breckenridge
72 NOTE: Breckenridge carried the
South 10 to 1 Constitutional Union: Bell 39
After Lincoln’s election But before Lincoln’s inauguration 7
states left the union: South Carolina Georgia Florida Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Texas (just a tad after the 1st 6)
Buchanan
Believed that Succession was unconstitutional BUT also believed that anything he might do to stop it would also be unconstitutional
The Southern States that Remained
Threatened to leave the union if the North made any aggressive moves against the Succeeded states
While Buchanan did nothing
And before Lincoln COULD do anything (before his inauguration)
The Succeeded states established a Confederation and wrote a constitution
Jefferson Davis (Mississippi) President Alexander Stephens (Georgia) Vice-
president First Capital: Montgomery, Alabama
The Succeeded States
Hoped and prayed that the rest of the South would join them
They especially needed Virginia
Lincoln was VERY careful NOT to offend the remaining Southern states so that they would remain in the union
An Immediate Problem
There were two federal forts in the succeeded states that were running low on supplies
Fort Pickens in Florida and Fort Sumter in SC
Lincoln insisted that the Federal government had ownership the federal forts
Buchanan
Had tried to send supplies to Fort Sumter but the supply ship was fired upon by the South Carolinians and turned back
Lincoln decided it try it again BUT without appearing too aggressive
Lincoln notified Jefferson Davis
That the Supply Ship was coming (when) and that the ship did not carry armaments…just food, medicine, blankets, etc.
The fort was occupied by a union officer and troops (Anderson)
It was surrounded by SC state militia under Beaureguard
Beaureguard attacked April 12, 1861
Fort Sumter surrendered
After 40 hours of fighting
At this point, Lincoln called for volunteers
The other Southern states believed this to be aggressive and left the union
The new capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, Va.
The War
Was about preserving the union
NOT SLAVERY (until later, 1-1-1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation)
Four slave states remained in the union. Lincoln did not want to lose them too
The Crittenden Compromise
Even before Lincoln’s inauguration, there was a last-minute attempt to compromise in Congress.
Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky ( a disciple of Henry Clay) proposed a constitutional amendment in which slavery would be “recognized as existing” in all territories south of the 36-30
The Crittenden Compromise
He also proposed another Constitutional Amendment saying that no future amendment would tamper with slavery in the slave states and offered other guarantees in the south.
A committee of 30 worked on this compromise in the House
A Committee of 13 worked on this in the Senate
The Crittenden Compromise
Was too little too late Remember the Dred Scott Case:
Congress had no authority over slavery (although a Constitutional Amendment WOULD change that)
BUT the Republicans would not budge on the issue of slavery in the territories so it was all for nothing.
As it had no impact, the Crittenden Compromise was the least of the causes of the Civil War
The American Colonization Society
Was established by compensated slave owners in 1817
By 1830 Liberia was established by Freed American Slaves.
Capital was Monrovia The plan was to send freed Blacks
“back” to Africa (They had been HERE for several generations and many did not want to go