Evaluate the relative importance of political events and
issues that divided the nation and led to civil war,
including the compromises reached to maintain the
balance of free and slave states, the abolitionist
movement, the Dred Scott case, conflicting views on
states’ rights and federal authority, the emergence of
the Republican Party, and the formation of the
Confederate States of America.
For the North:
1. Admit
as a
For the South:
Fugitive Slave Law
2.
The New Mexico Territory:
3.
4.
in Mexican Cession
sells land / Federal Gov. assumes debt
Slavery in Washington, DC:
5. Abolish
in Washington, D.C.
1850
1860
The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to be the
final compromise between the sections…
and it was – just for different reasons than Clay
had intended.
Passed by Wisconsin and
other Northern states
– Guaranteed jury trials
for accused slaves
De facto Nullification
Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestselling
anti-slavery novel (1852)
Original Illustrations: http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/uncletom/illustra/53illf.html
1852 Presidential Election
1852
1856
1860
Franklin Pierce
(D-NH)
Fourteenth President of the U.S.
1853-1857
“Handsome Frank”
Mexican War Veteran
Kansas-Nebraska Act
“Doughface” (Pro-Southern)
NOT RENOMINATED
“There's nothing left to do but get drunk."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fp14.html
POPULAR
SOVEREIGNTY
In Kansas and Nebraska
Territories on the issue
of slavery
MISSOURI COMPROMISE
ANIMATED MAP:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ne
h/interactives/sectionalism/lesson3/
“Bleeding Kansas”
“Race to Kansas”
– Proslavery vs. Antislavery
– “Border Ruffians” (from MO)
– N.E. Immigrant Aid Society
• Beecher’s Bibles
ANIMATED MAP:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/ne
h/interactives/sectionalism/lesson3/
1855-1859
56 Dead
“Beecher’s Bibles”
New England Emigrant Aid Society
"He (Henry W. Beecher) believed that the
Sharps Rifle was a truly moral agency, and
that there was more moral power in one of
those instruments, so far as the
slaveholders of Kansas were concerned,
than in a hundred Bibles. You might just as
well. . . read the Bible to Buffaloes as to
[pro-slavery settlers]; but they have a
supreme respect for the logic that is
embodied in Sharp's rifle.”
New York Tribune, 2/8/1856
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
(H.B. Stowe’s relative)
“Bleeding Kansas”
1855-1859
56 Dead
Lawrence, KS, after the “Sack of Lawrence”
by proslavery settlers
– Abolitionist
– Pottawatomie Creek Massacre
John Steuart Curry, “Tragic Prelude,” 1937-1941
Topeka
Antislavery
Lecompton
Proslavery
Republican Party
Whig Party
(1832-1854)
FAIL
• No longer viable after
1852 election
• SPLIT: Northern Whigs
and Southern Whigs
Republican Party
(1854-Present)
Northern Whigs +
Northern Free Soil Democrats
• Free Soil
– NOT abolitionist
• (although abolitionists supported
the Republican Party)
• New England and
“Northwest” power
base
Document 6.5
CHIVALRY
DON
QUIXOTE
“The Crime
Against Kansas”
Charles Sumner
US Senator (Mass.)
Chivalry
Brooks/Sumner Incident
Rep. Preston Brooks (SC)
Sen. Charles Sumner (MA)
READ Sumner’s Speech
READ Brooks’ Defense
Nativism = Anti-Immigration
Anti-Catholic violence
St. Augustine’s Church
on Fire
The American Party
“Know Nothings”
NATIVISM
CATHOLICS
IMMIGRANTS
NOTE: Antebellum
immigrants were
“I know nothing…”
mostly from
Germany and Ireland.
“Citizen Know
Nothing”
A Mascot for the Movement
Ted Nugent: A Real American
Click for Article
1856 Presidential Election
1852
1856
1860
Confound the Gun! if
I can only get out of
this muss I’ll stick to
preaching and let
fire-arms alone.
Oh! Brother Beecher!
Our Kansas Gun has
bursted and upset our
gunner. I’m afraid we
put in too big a load.
Abolition Bog
Ah! Fremont, your sectional Gun
has exploded just as I predicted, but
my American rifle will bring down
that Old Buck.
James Buchanan
(D-PA)
Fifteenth President of the U.S.
1857-1861
Pierce’s Minister to Great Britain –
abroad during Kan/Neb Act
controversy
Sectional Turmoil Escalated
Indecisive concerning secession
Only bachelor to occupy the White
House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jb15.html
FACTS OF THE CASE:
Dred Scott, a slave, lived
with his master in free
territory for two years.
Scott claimed this made
him a free man.
THE DECISION:
1. People of African
descent (incl. Scott)
could not be U.S.
citizens.
2. Congress can’t forbid
slavery in federal
territories (violation of
property rights)
– Ergo, the Missouri
Compromise is
Unconstitutional
Judicial Activism
Judicial Activism
When Judges
Write the Law
EXECUTIVE
LEGISLATIVE
JUDICIAL
BRANCH
BRANCH
BRANCH
President
Congress
Supreme Court
____________ Laws
_____________ Laws
____________ Laws
“Slave Power”
Conspiracy?
• Illinois Senate Race
– Stephen Douglas
• (Democratic Incumbent)
– Abraham Lincoln
• (Republican Challenger)
• FOCUS: Free Soil
• Significance:
– Douglas wins, but loses
popularity in the South.
– Lincoln becomes a
national figure.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Memorial
OBJECTIVE:
– Seize a federal arsenal
• Harpers Ferry, VA
TREASON
– Tried, Convicted,
Executed
– Different reactions in
North and South
NORTH:
“Slave Power” Conspiracy
The South wants to spread
slavery throughout the nation
Mason-Dixon Line
SOUTH:
North plans to destroy
Southern slavery by
igniting slave revolts.
1860 Presidential Election
1852
1856
1860
Abraham Lincoln
(R-IL)
Sixteenth President of the U.S.
1861-1865
Democratic Party split
Election prompted
secession of states in
the Deep South
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html