Drifting Toward Disunion
 Abolitionists, although a minority in the North,
mounted a highly visible campaign against slavery,
adopting strategies of resistance ranging from fierce
arguments against the institution and assistance in
helping slaves escape to willingness to use violence to
achieve their goals.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe—Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in
response to the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1850
 It was very successful, popular, millions of copies
 Showed how evil slavery really was
 Influenced many soon to be soldiers
 Popular in Europe, helped convince gov’ts not to help
the South
 The Impending Crisis—Hinton R. Helper
 Tried to prove the non slave holding south suffered
the most from slavery
-Popular sovereignty gone wrong
-Northerners moved into the area to
throw the vote under the New
England Emigrant Aid Company; over
2,000 people immigrated
-Only 10 slaves in Kansas in 1860 and 15
in Nebraska
-1855 it was time to elect the
territorial legislature, proslavery
border ruffians from Missouri
crossed the border to vote
-The proslaveryites set up a government
at Shawnee Mission
-Abolitionists set up a government in
Topeka
-Proslaveryites burned Lawrence and
started Bleeding Kansas
-John Brown
-An avid abolitionist
-He led a group of men to Pottawatomie Creek and killed 5
proslaveryites
-Civil War erupted in Kansas in 1856 and lasted until 1865
-By 1857 they had enough people to apply for statehood, most were
Freesoilers
-Lecompton Constitution
-The people could only vote for the state constitution with slavery or without,
not against the constitution as a whole
-If they voted against slavery it protected those slave owners already in Kansas
-The Freesoilers boycotted the vote and the proslaveryites voted for slavery
-President Buchanan was for the Constitution but Stephen Douglas was
completely against it, for true popular sovereignty
-Compromised, popular vote for the entire constitution, and the Freesoilers
voted it down by a landslide
-Kansas stayed a territory until 1861
-Charles Sumner a very out spoken
abolitionist and one of the most
disliked men in the Senate
-Speech The Crime Against Kansas
-He condemned proslavery men in
Kansas and insulted Senator Andrew
Butler of South Carolina
-Preston Brooks was a member of
the House for S.C. and cousin to
Butler
-Beat Sumner with his cane on
the floor of the Senate
-Brooks resigned but was
reelected and met with a deluge of
canes
-Sumner was almost killed, had to go
to Europe for treatment for over 3
years, was also reelected
-This gave the abolitionists a
martyr and a target
-Democrats put up James Buchanan, a rich Pennsylvania
lawyer who was gone during the Kansas fiasco
-Republicans put up John C. Fremont—the pathfinder of the
west, had little political experience and few enemies
-Republicans were against the extension of slavery while
the Demos were for popular sovereignty
-The Know Nothings (large nativist push in this election) and
the dying Whigs endorsed Fillmore
-174-114-8 Buchanan, Fremont, Fillmore, no candidate with
a majority
-Buchanan won because of fear the South would secede,
North was still tied economically to the South,
conservatism won with the help of the southern bullyism
-Dred Scott vs. Sanford 1857
-Black slave sued for his
freedom because he lived in free
territory
-Court ruled he was a slave
not a citizen and couldn’t sue in
federal courts
-Slaves were property and could
be taken into any territory
-The Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional; Congress didn’t
have power to ban slavery in the
territories
-Shocked the country, undid popular
sovereignty, pushed to war
-Not as economically bad as 1837 but it was
worse psychologically
-Causes—California gold, inflation, Crimean War
in Europe raised grain prices led to
overproduction, speculation in land and RR,
-North was hardest hit, South was fine because
cotton prices stayed high; was false proof to
the South they were better off than the North
and it helps push to war, South thinks they are
stronger, more needed by Europe
-Creates two issues for the election of 1860: free
land, and higher tariffs
-Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas for Illinois
Senate
-Very little schooling, self-educated,
wrestler, story teller, married up into
the Todd family of Kentucky, became a
lawyer in Illinois, carried his papers in
his hat
-Served in the Illinois legislature as a
Whig, and one term in Congress from
1847-49, Spot Resolution
-Lincoln Douglas Debates
-Seven debates from August to October
1858
-Slavery was a main issue
-Threw Lincoln into the national
spotlight
-Douglas won the Senatorial election
-Scheme to invade the South and
use the slaves as his army
-Attacked Harpers Ferry in 1859 but
the slaves didn’t rise up to help
him; Robert E. Lee captured him
and his band
-Brown was convicted of treason
and murder and executed giving
the abolitionists a martyr
-The South saw him as the symbol
of abolitionists which scared
them
-Most important election in US History
-The Democrats failed to nominate a candidate, split,
North for Douglas, South for Breckinridge,
Constitution Party for John Bell
-Republicans put up Lincoln
-Platform was no extension of slavery, protective
tariffs, Pacific RR, internal improvements, free
homesteads
-Lincoln won with 40% of the vote, 180-123
-Douglas had 12 electoral votes but he campaigned for
himself, unusual
-Republicans had a president but didn’t control
congress of the courts
-December 1860 South Carolina was the first followed by
6 in 6 weeks, total of eleven seceded
-Created the Confederate States of America with
Jefferson Davis as President
-West Point Graduate also Sec of War
-Buchanan did nothing while the states left the Union
-Crittenden Amendments
-Designed to appease the South, guarantee slavery
south of 36 30
-Failed partially because Lincoln rejected it
-Secession was based on slavery, the underground RR,
abolitionists, John Brown
-Most in the South thought it would be unopposed
-Held to a false belief in their savior—King Cotton
-They entered the Union voluntarily why couldn’t
they leave the same way?