1850’s: Sectional Conflict
Prelude to the Civil War
America in the 1850’s
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Agriculture still mainstay of economy
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Growth of northwestern states changes politics
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Urban population increased from 6% to 20%
Rural population increased from 5 million to 25 million
(80% of population)
Population of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin &
Iowa increased from 500,000 to 5 million, 1830-1860
Meant free states had majority in Electoral College
Free labor ideology–individualism & egalitarianism
4 million immigrants enter U.S., 1840-1860
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1.4 million Germans
1.7 million Irish
The Election of 1848
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Whigs elect war hero
Zachary Taylor without a
platform
Conscience Whigs join antislavery Democrats & Liberty
Party to form new Free
Soil Party
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Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s
Nominated Van Buren
Received 10% of vote
Democrats nominated
Lewis Cass & criticized
politicization of slavery
Sutter’s Mill, California
Modern re-creation of the sawmill
John Sutter
James
Marshall
The Debate over California
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California Gold Rush (1848-49) brings over 80,000 white
Americans to California
Organized free state government, backed by Taylor
Clay offered compromise Omnibus Bill
William Seward denounced compromise & spoke of
obeying “higher law”
Calhoun warned South would leave union if right to own
slaves not guaranteed
Taylor died in July 1850, making Millard Fillmore
president
Stephen Douglas broke up Omnibus Bill & engineered
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850
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California admitted as a free state
New Mexico territory organized on basis of
popular sovereignty; Texas reduced to present
size & compensated
Utah territory organized on basis of popular
sovereignty
Fugitive Slave Act made federal government
responsible for catching & returning escaped
slaves
Slave trade (but not slavery) abolished in the
District of Columbia
Map: Compromise of 1850
Northern Response to the
Compromise of 1850
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin (1851)
The Election of 1852
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Franklin Pierce won
back Van Buren
Democrats
Defeated Gen. Winfield
Scott (Virginia Whig)
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Franklin Pierce
Winfield Scott
50.8% - 43.9% in
popular vote
254-42 in electoral vote
John Hale (Free Soil
candidate) polled 4.9%
The End of the Missouri
Compromise
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Gadsden Purchase (1853) meant to secure southern
route for transcontinental railroad
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Arranged by James Gadsden & Secretary of War Jefferson
Davis
U.S. paid $10 million to Mexico for over 45,000 acres south
of the Gila River
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) meant to secure
northern route
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Stephen Douglas wrote bill organizing remaining Louisiana
Purchase territory into 2 territories on basis of popular
sovereignty
Explicitly repealed Missouri Compromise
Rounding Out the Lower 48
Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Bleeding Kansas
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Abolitionist & proslavery forces race to
populate Kansas & write state
constitution
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Both sides stage terrorist attacks
Jayhawks led by John Brown responsible
for Pottawatomie Massacre
157 violent deaths, but only 38 definitely
related to slavery conflict
Congressman Preston Brooks savagely
beat Senator Charles Sumner in the
Senate (May 22, 1856)
John Brown
Brooks Beats Sumner
The Election of 1856
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James Buchanan
John C. Fremont
Democrats nominate
Ambassador James
Buchanan
Southern Whigs & KnowNothings form American
Party – nominate Fillmore
Conscience Whigs,
Antislavery Democrats &
Free Soilers form new
Republican Party –
nominate Fremont
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
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Dred Scott was slave of Army doctor
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had lived in free state & territory
sued for freedom
Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled:
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Scott had no standing to bring suit
African Americans are not citizens &
have no rights
Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional
Any attempt to limit slavery in territories
(even by territorial legislature)
unconstitutional
Dred Scott
Roger Taney
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
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Buchanan backed fraudulent
pro-slavery Lecompton
Constitution (1858)
Douglas opposed – declared
“Freeport Doctrine” in
debates with Lincoln
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Dred Scott ruling must be
respected
Territories could still bar slavery
by failing to pass necessary laws
Lincoln pointed out inherent
contradiction
John Brown’s
Body
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Brown was Connecticut
native with apocalyptic
vision
Led raid on federal
arsenal in Harper’s Ferry,
VA to start slave rebellion
Convicted of treason
against Commonwealth
of Virginia & executed
Became martyr to
abolitionists
The arraignment of John Brown
Brown’s Last Moments, by
Thomas Hovdenden (1884)