Renewing the
Sectional
Struggle
Overview:
Controversies over slavery in
the territories along with the
influx of immigrants in
America contributed to the
splintering of old political
parties (Whigs) and the
emergence of new parties
(Republicans / American).
Political Parties were forming and
dissolving in the 1840s and 1850s
Parties (1840s
and 1850s)
Section of
country where
most lived
Slavery in
exist. States?
Slavery in
terr.?
Popular
sovereignty?
Immigration?
Whig
Mainly
Easterners
Split on this
issue
NO
NO
Not a party
policy
Democrat
Mixed at first,
mainly
Southerners
by 1850s
Split at first,
then
proslavery as
it became
southern
YES
YES
Not a party
concern at
this time
American
“KnowNothing”
All sections
Split (but antiBlack)
NOT A
FOCUS
NOT A
FOCUS
Antiimmigration
and antiCatholic
Repub.
North, East
Anti-, but not
abolitionist
(Northern
party)
NO
NO
Liberal Policy
The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]

Nativists.
 Anti-Catholics.
 Anti-immigrants.
 1849  Secret Order of the
Star-Spangled Banner created
in NYC.
Angered by the tactics employed by defenders of
slavery, anti-slavery factions emerged
ELECTION OF 1844 - “Territorial Expansion” OR/TX/CA
Whigs: Henry Clay vs. Democrat: James K. Polk
Liberty Party
(Universal emancipation achieved gradually by law)
1844: James G. Birney
-Drew votes from Whigs (NY)
ELECTION OF 1848 - “Slavery issue” - New terr.
Whigs: Zachary Taylor “Old Rough and Ready” vs.
Democrat: Lewis Cass
Free Soil Party
(Not abolitionist - opposed terr. expansion of slavery)
1848: Martin Van Buren
“Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men!”
-Drew votes from Democrats
Free Soil Party
Free Soil!
Free Speech!
Free Labor!
Free Men!
 “Barnburners” – discontented northern Democrats.
 Anti-slave members of the Liberty and Whig Parties.
 Opposition to the extension of slavery in the new
territories!
WHY?
The 1848 Presidential Election Results
√
Problems of Sectional Balance
in 1850
 California statehood.
 Southern “fire-eaters” threatening
secession.
 Underground RR & fugitive slave issues:
* Personal liberty laws
* Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
Compromise of 1850
1852 Presidential Election
√ Franklin Pierce
Democrat
Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale
Whig
Free Soil
1852
Election
Results
Whig Party splintered and dissolved
after the 1852 elections (slavery)
Whigs: Winfield Scott vs. Democrat: Franklin Pierce
1. “Cotton” Whigs:

Proslavery; Moved to
Democratic Party
2. “Conscience” Whigs:

Radical Northerners,
anti-slavery; moved
to Republican Party
3. “Silver Gray” Whigs:

Northerners
unopposed to
slavery; moved to
Democratic Party
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border “Ruffians”
(pro-slavery
Missourians)
Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
 Northern Whigs.
 Northern Democrats.
 Free-Soilers.
 Know-Nothings.
 Other miscellaneous opponents
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Key issues: Kansas-Nebraska Act / “Bleeding
Kansas” / extension of slavery
Republicans (represented
Northern business
interests and Western
farmers)
John C. Fremont (“Free Soil,
Free Speech, Free Men,
Fremont”)
Demanded: Admission of KS
into Union as free, opposed
expansion of slavery into
new terr., denounced the
Ostend Manifesto (annex
Cuba)
Democrats (represented
Southern interests)
James Buchanan (Polk’s
sec. of state and “never
uttered a word which
could pain the Southern
heart”)
Endorsed: “popular
sovereignty” (supported
Kansas-Nebraska Act),
resisting all attempts at
renewing the slavery
question”, or Ostend
Manifesto
1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan
Democrat
John C. Frémont
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Whig
1856
Election
Results
ELECTION OF 1860
Democrats split by sections:
N - S. Douglas
S - J. Breckinridge
Constitutional Union Party:
(Former Whigs hope to
preserve Union)
Nominate J. Bell
Republicans:
Nominate Lincoln as a
moderate compromise
candidate
Results:
Sectionalism evident from
results
Lincoln wins electoral vote
(40% of popular vote)
√ Abraham Lincoln
Republican
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
1860
Presidential
Election
John Bell
Constitutional Union
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
Republican Party Platform in 1860
1. Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
2. Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
3. No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the
“Know-Nothings”].
4. Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].
5. Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.
6. Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!
1860
Election
Results







1. Father of “popular sovereignty” and Democratic
candidate in 1848
2. Whig Mexican War veteran candidate who had never
held civil office. He was elected in 1848.
3. Pro-southern Northern Democrat (“doughface”)
elected in 1852.
4. “Pathfinder” and the first Republican presidential
candidate in the election of 1856.
5. Last Whig presidential candidate (former general) who
lost in election of 1852.
6. In the 1856 election, this anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic
third party was organized.
7. In the 1848 election, this third party nominated
former President Martin Van Buren to take a stand
against the spread of slavery into the new territories.
“The Frenzied 50s”
The American tradition of compromise appeared
to solve the troublesome slavery question in
1850. As the generation’s great orators and
compromisers passed from the scene however,
the emotional controversy began to heat up.
Popular sovereignty reopened the opportunity
for the expansion of slavery and led to civil
conflict in KS. The slavery controversy
splintered political parties and was intensified
by a series of provocative events, including a
controversial Supreme Court decision. The
election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in
1860 caused SC to secede from the Union. Last
minute compromise efforts before Lincoln’s
inauguration failed.
I. Economic Prosperity of the 1850s and the
Fabulous 40s
All sections of the country grew in various
ways.
A.
1.
2.
3.
B.
1.
2.
Railroad building
Most in NE
First federal land grants to
RRs (set pattern of govt.
assistance)
NW and NE connected (few
links S to N)
Transcontinental RR
Gadsden purchase (1853)
Chosen route would
economically benefit the
section it passed through
1.
Market expands for NE
manufacturers
a. RRs for domestic
markets
b. Faster and cheaper
shipping to foreign
markets (steam and
clipper ships)
2. CA gold rush added
capital
a. $50 million shipped
east yearly
3.
Expansion of labor
supply
a. NE farmers (unable to
compete with W) sent
workers to cities
b. Immigrants from
Ireland and Germany
(as a result of famines
and unrest in Europe)
1. Slavery indispensable
for South’s prosperity
2. Cotton production
expansion
a. Price: 6 - 14 cents / lb.
(1845 - 1857)
b. 1860: 7/8 of world
cotton supply
3. Tobacco market
expansion
a. 200 million - 430
million lbs. (1850 1860)
1. Railroad growth and
opening of European
markets fueled growth
2. RESULTS:
a. Westerners became
aware of world hostility
to slavery
b. Westerners became
more convinced of
importance of NE to
their prosperity (S
purchased smaller share
of their produce)
II. Persistence of Slavery Controversy
B. ABOLITIONIST RESPONSE
Small in #, but kept issue alive
1. Gradualists (Theodore Weld)
Only 1750 families owned over 100
slaves in 1850, but they exerted
-Gradual erasure of slavery
enormous political and social
by South
power in the South
-Financial compensation to
Defenses of slavery:
owners
1-Ordained by God, permitted in the
2. Militants (W.L. Garrison)
Bible
-No compromise possible
2-Greek and Roman cultures used
slavery
-Immediate emancipation
3-Essential to southern economy
w/o compensation
4- Preferable to “wage slavery” in
Organized abolitionists:
the North
-Underground RR; petitioned
5- Beneficial to African blacks
Congress (despite “gag
(security and Christianity)
rule”); entered politics
(third parties)
A. SOUTH & SLAVERY
C. Compromise of 1850
Angered extremists on both sides
1. CA admitted as free
state
2. Assumption of TX debt
by natl. govt.
3. No slave trade in DC
4. Territories (Mexican
Cession) to have no
slavery restrictions
5. Strict fugitive slave law
Last of the compromisers:
1. JCC: States’ rights
2. DW: Preserve Union
3. HC: Compromise
1 - Slavery
Moral issue in North vs. Defense & Expansion in
the South
2 - Constitutional Disputes
Nature of federal Union vs. States’ rights
3 - Economic Differences (tariffs, banking,
internal improvements)
Industrializing North vs. Agricultural South
4 - Political blunders and extremism
Compromise?; Abolition and Extension of slavery?
10 - Compromise of
1850
9 - Uncle Tom’s Cabin
published (1852)
8 - Kansas-Nebraska
Act (1854) / Repubs.
7 - “Bleeding Kansas”
(1854 - 1860) /
Sumner Caned (1856)
6 - Dred Scott decision
(1857)
5 - Financial Crash of
1857
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
1811 - 1896
So this is the lady who started the
Civil War.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Sold 300,000 copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a decade!
“The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks
(D-SC)
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
What caused the
Panic of 1857??
What were its
affects on the nation?
4 - Lincoln-Douglas
debates (1858)
3 - John Brown’s Raid
(1859)
2 - Election of 1860
1 - Secession (1860)
and Sumter (April
1861)
Stephen Douglas & the
Freeport Doctrine
Popular
Sovereignty?
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)
Debates, 1858
A House divided against
itself, cannot stand.
John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
John Brown’s Raid
on Harper’s Ferry, 1859
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Lincoln won with a plurality (Nov. 1860) of pop.
votes but an electoral majority in the 4-man race
Reasons for Southern Secession
1. Emotional
“The North wants to establish black
rule in the South. Their goal is
not equality, but the reversal of
roles for the races.”
2. Economic
“The policies of a Republican
president (protective tariffs,
free homesteads in the West,
etc.) will prevent the South
from prospering
1.
2.
3.
4.
Confederacy formed
Ordinance of Secession
adopted by SC (Dec. 1860)
6 other “Deep South” states
left by Feb. (1861)
TX secession came through
voter referendum (Houston
opposed)
4 “Upper South” states (VA,
TN, AR, NC) rejected
secession until after
Lincoln’s inauguration & the
firing on Ft. Sumter
1.
2.
3.
Most opposed forcing
the South to return to
the Union
“Lameduck” James
Buchanan believed the
Constitution did not
deny Southern right to
secede (did not act)
Sen. J.J. Crittenden
(KY) Compromise
proposed
-Restore the Missouri
Compromise line
-Rejected by Lincoln
Crittenden Compromise:
A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J.
Crittenden
(Know-Nothing-KY)
The new Lincoln administration faced the problems of
suppressing secession, of retaining the border states, and of
protecting federal property in the South.
1st Inaugural Address:
-Union was “perpetual”
1.
2.
3.
Promised not to interfere
with slavery in the States
where it exists”
Denied secession’s
legality
Vowed to preserve the
Union in the face of
“insurrection”
Choices of loyalty divided many families
DE had few slaves, but MD’s
secession could surround
D.C.
-Lincoln imposed martial
law and a pro-Union
election result
MO bitterly divided and became
a battleground (AR border
particularly)
KY attempted neutrality
(Lincoln/Davis birthplace),
but Confederate armed
intervention led to Union
countermeasures
WV “mountain whites” broke
away from VA (1861)
through voter referendum
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861
As states’ seceded, they seized federal arsenals, mints, and other
public property within their borders
Forts in the South (FL & SC)
were still in federal hands.
Lincoln dispatched a relief
ship with supplies for
Sumter.
1 - On Confed. Govt. orders,
Gen. Beauregard delivered
an ultimatum and opened fire
on Sumter
2 - Lincoln called up militia to
suppress the rebellion and
proclaimed a blockade of
rebel ports in the South