APUSH Lecture 4B
(covers Ch. 13)
Mrs. Kray
Some slides taken from Susan Pojer
The Wilmot Proviso, 1846

Called for the prohibition of
slavery in lands acquired from
Mexico in the Mexican War

Never became law
 Southern senators blocked passage

Endorsed by all but one of the
free states

Came to symbolize the polarizing
issue of extending slavery into the
territories
Positions of Slavery:
The Southern Position

Radicals viewed
any attempt to
limit the spread of
slavery in the
territories as a
violation of their
constitutional-held
property rights

Moderates
proposed
extending the
Missouri
Compromise line
to the west coast
Positions of Slavery:
Free-Soilers

Sought to prevent the
expansion of slavery into
the territories
 NOT ABOLITIONISTS

Also advocated free
homestead and internal
improvements
 Racist component to the
organization

Made up of anti-slavery
Democrats & “conscience”
Whigs
“Free soil, free
labor, and free
men!”
Positions of Slavery:
Popular Sovereignty

Compromise position between
Southerners and Northern
free-soilers
 Popular with moderates

The settlers of a given
territory would have the sole
right to decide whether or not
slavery would be permitted
there
 Developed by Lewis Cass
 Sen. Stephen A. Douglas
(Democrat) was a leading
proponent of this idea
Dems nominated
Cass on platform
of popular
sovereignty
Whigs
nominated war
hero Gen.
Zachary Taylor
who took no
position
Free Soil Party
nominated
former president
Martin Van
Buren
Slave Debate is Tearing the Whig
Party Apart
Election Results

Taylor narrowly
defeated Cass in part
because of the vote
given to the Free-Soil
Party in key states like
NY & PA

Strong performance of
the Free Soilers
signaled the inability of
the existing parties to
contain the political
passions the slave
debate was creating
The California Gold Rush, 1849

1848: Gold is discovered at
Sutter’s Mill
 Hundreds of thousands of Forty-
niners rush to California
 30% of them were Chinese

1849: California applied for
statehood
 It’s constitution banned slavery
 President Taylor favored admitting
CA and New Mexico
Rising Sectional Tensions

Southern frustrations
 Angered at anti-slavery efforts to ban
slavery in Washington D.C.
 Felt Northerners were aiding fugitive
slaves
○ Underground Railroad
○ Personal liberty laws
○ Prigg v. Pennsylvania

1850: Southern fire eaters meet in
Nashville
 Secession is discussed
 Sectional tensions threaten to explode

The Great Compromiser to the
rescue?
 Henry Clay drafts an omnibus bill
 Daniel Webster supports compromise
 It fails to pass
Getting the Compromise of 1850
Passed

New Leadership
 William H. Seward
 Jefferson Davis
 Stephen A. Douglas

Pres. Taylor died

Temporary Compromise
 Douglas broke up Clay’s “omnibus bill”
 Unlike Missouri Compromise, this one was not a
product of wide spread agreement on common
national ideals but rather a victory of self-interest

Admission of California as a free state

Abolition of the slave trade in D.C. but permitted
whites to hold slaves as before (therefore slavery
not abolished)

Passage of a new fugitive slave law with vigorous
enforcement

Establishment of territorial governments in New
Mexico and Utah, without an immediate decision
on the status of slavery
 Popular sovereignty would be used to decide the slave
issue there

Bought time for the nation

Added to the North’s political power

Deepened the commitment of many northerners
to saving the Union from secession

Signaled the beginning of the end for the Whigs

Parts of the compromise became sources of
controversy
 New Fugitive Slave law
 the provision for popular sovereignty
Opposition to the New Fugitive
Slave Law
Only reason
many southerners
had accepted the
loss of CA
Enforcement in the
North was bitterly &
sometimes forcibly
resisted by abolitionists
Led to aggrieved
feelings on both
sides
The Election of 1852

Democrat Franklin
Pierce won mainly
because anti-slavery
Whigs defected to
the Free Soil Party
 Break up of the 2
national political
parties mirrors the
break-up of the nation

Pierce tried to avoid
slavery issues while
in office
Sectional Tensions Grow

Young America Movement
 Attempt by Pierce and other Democrats to divert attention from domestic
controversy and expand American ideals abroad

Southern Expansionist Desires
 Hoped to acquire new lands to expand slavery – targeted Latin America
 William Walker
○ 1853: Tried to take Baja California from Mexico
○ 1855: Briefly took control of Nicaragua
Ostend Manifesto, 1854

Failed Attempts to Gain
Cuba
 Polk had tried to buy Cuba from
Spain for $100 million
 Several Southern expeditions
tried to take Cuba by force

Ostend Manifesto
 President Pierce secretly sends
3 diplomats to negotiate the
purchase of Cuba from Spain
 Meeting was leaked to the
press
 Anti-slavery forces react angrily
○ Evidence of a “slave power
conspiracy”?
Even Transcontinental Railroads
Are Controversial

U.S. wanted to build a transcontinental RR but
where – North or South?
 Shows sectional tensions again

Gadsen Purchase, 1853: Purchased land from
Mexico for $10 million for Southern RR

Douglas wanted the RR to go through
Chicago
 Desired western expansion & incr. value of his own real estate
holding in Chicago
 Needed southern approval

Proposed Nebraska Territory be divided into Kansas
Territory & Nebraska territory
 Settlers would use popular sovereignty to decide slavery issue
These territories were located north of the 36o 30’
line est. by the Missouri Compromise

Renewed the sectional controversy

Essentially repealed Missouri Compromise

Northern Democrats condemned as a surrender to
the “slave power”

Whig Party divided and destroyed

Republican Party created to stop spread of slavery
to territories

Led to a blood contest for control over Kansas

Leadership composed of mostly northern and
western moderates who opposed spread of
slavery





Northern Whigs
Northern Democrats
Free-Soilers
Know-Nothings
And other miscellaneous
opponents of Kansas-Nebraska Act

1st Platform called for repeal of KansasNebraska Act and Fugitive Slave Law

Not against slavery, although abolitionists did
join!!!
Bleeding Kansas, 1855-1861

Most expected slavery issue to
be decided peacefully
 Pro-slavery Border Ruffians from
Missouri pour into Kansas to vote
in the election
 Northerners respond in kind

Rival governments set up
 Pro-slavery in Lecompton; Anti-
Slavery in Topeka

Civil War in Kansas
 1856: Pro-slavery forces attack &
kill 2 in anti-slavery town of
Lawrence
 1856: Fanatical Abolitionist John
Brown retaliated by killing 5 proslavery forces in Pottawatomie
Massacre
Senator
Charles Sumner (MA)
Congressman
Preston Brooks (SC)
Free-Soil Ideology –free-soil & free labor
• Owning property & opportunities for advancement
at heart of our democracy. Slavery made southern
society closed & static.
• “Slave power conspiracy”  South was engaged
in a conspiracy to extend slavery & destroy the
openness of Northern capitalism
Pro-Slavery Argument – no apologies,
slavery is a “positive good”
• Attitude hardened b/c of slave rebellions, profitability of
cotton, abolitionist movement
• Southern way of life better than all others & it was based
on slavery. Justifications for slavery: paternalism,
religious justifications, better off than Northern “wage
slaves”
Uncle Tom‘s Cabin, 1852

Literature like Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
made Northerners, who were
previously scornful of the
abolitionist movement, view
slavery more and more as a
moral issue.
 “So you’re the little woman who wrote the
book that made this great war” Abraham Lincoln

Southerners felt sure that
Northerners’ attempts to
remove slavery was an attack
on their very way of life.
John C. Fremont (R)
James Buchanan (D)
Platform: no
expansion of slavery,
free homesteads, &
protective tariff
Expected to win b/c last
national political party.
Can’t nominate Pierce or
Douglas b/c of KansasNebraska Act
Millard Fillmore
(Know-Nothing)
Made a strong showing,
earned 20% of the vote

Buchanan wins

But Southerners
realize it is now
possible for
Republicans
could win the
White House
without a single
vote from the
South
“Run on the
Seaman’s
Savings Bank in
NY”

Ended economic boom
 Serious drop in prices – especially for Midwestern farmers
 Increased unemployment in northern cities

South largely unaffected
 Gave them false sense of superiority & invincibility; “King Cotton”
 They don’t need the North
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

Missouri slave taken to live
with his master in a free state
for 2 years
 Master dies, Dred Scott sues for
freedom

The Dred Scott decision
 Taney court decided blacks are
NOT citizens, thus have no right
to sue
 Under the Constitution, slaves
were private property and thus
could be taken into any territory
○ Therefore any Congressional
ban on slavery was
unconstitutional
Effects of the Dred Scott
Decision
 Southerners delighted
 Missouri Compromise
declared unconstitutional
 Slavery now open in all
territories

Northerners outraged
 “Greatest crimes in the annals
of the republic”
 Seemed to confirm “slave
power conspiracy” fears
 Turned many Northern
Democrats Republican
Kansas Continues to Simmer:
The Lecompton Constitution, 1857

Pro-slavery government in
Lecompton applied for statehood
 Did not have support of most of the
Kansas settlers (Topeka)
 President Buchanan asked Congress to
accept the pro-slavery constitution any
way

Congress is outraged
 Sen. Stephen Douglas and other
Democrats join forces
 Send the constitution back to Kansas for
a vote of the people

1858: Lecompton Constitution
rejected by the people of Kansas

Pro-slavery Lecompton
legislature applied for
statehood
 Didn’t have support of most
Kansas settlers (Topeka)
 Buchanan asked Congress to
accept constitution

Congressional outrage
 Stephen Douglas & many Dems
join forces w/Republicans
 Send constitution back for state
vote

1858  constitution defeated
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates,
1858

Sen. Stephen Douglas (D) must run for re-election to
the Senate

Meets with his Republican opponent Abraham Lincoln
for a series of debates

Debates Alienate Douglas & Lincoln from Southerners
 Although NOT an abolitionist, Lincoln questioned the morality
of slavery – sought to limit its spread to the territories (freesoiler)
○ “This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half
free. . .a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
○ South sees Lincoln as a radical
 Douglas’ Freeport Doctrine – continued to defend popular
sovereignty in spite of Dred Scott ruling
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s
Ferry, 1859

Hardened lines between the sections to the breaking point
 Fanatical abolitionist John Brown tried to seize an arsenal
 Planned to arm slaves and lead a rebellion
○ Plan was thwarted by a troop under the command of Robert E. Lee
 Brown along with six of his followers executed for treason

Event seemed to prove the South’s worst fears that there was
a Northern conspiracy to end slavery and destroy their way of
life
Deadlock at Charleston Convention. Hold 2nd
convention in Baltimore, but delegates from slave
states walk out. Last national party is gone!

Northern Democrats
• Nominated Stephen Douglas
• Platform: popular sovereignty, enforcement of
fugitive slave law
Southern Democrats
• Nominated John C. Breckinridge
• Platform: Unrestricted extension of slavery into
territories, annexation of Cuba

Met in Chicago, hoped for easy
win over divided Democrats

Nominated moderate, Lincoln
over more radical Seward

Platform:
 No extension of slavery (for Free-Soilers)
 Protective tariff (for Industrialists)
 No abridgement of rights for immigrants (for Know-
Nothings)
 Gov’t aid to build a Pacific RR (for Northwest)
 Internal improvements (for West)
 Free homesteads (for farmers)

Nominated John Bell of TN

Made up of former Whigs,
Know-Knothings and
Moderate Dems

Platform:
 Enforcement of the laws and
the Constitution
 Preserving the Union

Lincoln carried
every free northern
state (59% of
electoral vote)

Only received
39.5% of the pop
vote
 minority president

Final signal to white
southerners their
position in the Union
was hopeless