The Union in Peril
I.
Slavery in the
Territories
The Wilmot Proviso
 Amendment added to a congressional
appropriations bill prohibiting slavery for
ever existing in any territories acquired
from Mexico
Popular Sovereignty
 The idea that individual territories
applying for statehood should decide the
issue of slavery for themselves.
The Compromise of 1850
 California entered the Union as a free
state
 Territorial governments were organized in
New Mexico and Utah to apply the
principle of popular sovereignty
 The slave trade was abolished in the
District of Columbia
 A new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Consequences of
Compromise
 Political alignment along party lines grew
stronger
 Previously unheard, Americans were now
discussing ideals of higher law than the
Constitution: succession and disunion
 Abolitionists stepped up work on the
Underground Railroad and several states
prohibited elected officials and
organizations from participation in slave
hunting
II. Political Disintegration
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Stephen Douglas of the Whig party, introduced a
bill organizing the Nebraska Territory (which
included Kansas)
 Southerners opposed the organization of the
territory unless slavery was permitted
 Douglas suggested the application of popular
sovereignty to the issue as the entire territory fell
north of the Missouri Compromise line
 Issue inflamed all sides of the slavery issue,
dragging the country closer to war.
“Young America”
 Americans dedicated to the ideals of a
nationalistic vision that included slavery
and was modeled upon the revolutions of
the era in Europe
 Specifically interested in the expansion of
America into the Latin American
continent and the Caribbean
The Know-Nothings
 Nativist political action party comprised
mostly of former Whigs who were
dedicated to staunching the tide of
foreign immigrants to the United States
 If asked about their affiliation with the
group, members were told to respond, “I
Know Nothing.”
III. Kansas and the
Two Cultures
“Bleeding Kansas”
 On the eve of the Civil War, militant
abolitionist John Brown and a few
followers crept into a pro slavery
settlement outside of Lawrence, Kansas
 They dragged five men out of their
homes and hacked them to death with
swords
 This act led to a series of violence in the
divided territory
IV. Polarization and the
Road to War
Sectional Splits in the
Democratic Party
 Dred Scott v. Sanford: Supreme Court decision
regarding the claims of freedom of a slave that
had been transported into a free state.
 The constitutional crisis in Kansas: the proslavery Lecompton constitution was created
without a mandate from majority of settlers of
Kansas; it led to an uncertain status for Kansas
and divided the Democrats further
 The Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois:
Lincoln’s persuasive debates regarding
slavery drew away a substantial chunk of
the Democratic party.
 John Brown’s Raids: Still on the lose after
the Kansas massacre, John Brown hope
to provoke a general uprising of eastern
slaves by attacking the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Brown was
captured, tried, executed, and eventually
became a martyr for the abolitionist/
Unionist cause
V. The Divided House
Falls
Secession
 On December 20, 1860, South Carolina
seceded form the Union; by February, six other
Deep South states had followed her lead.
 A week later a delegation met in Montgomery,
Alabama to create the Confederacy.
 On April 12, shelling of Fort Sumter signaled the
start of the American Civil War.