Chapter 14
 Free- Soil Movement
 Did not demand end of slavery
 Keep land in west a land of opportunity for whites only so that the would not
have to compete with labor of slaves or free blacks
 “free soil, free labor, and free men”
 Advocated free homesteads
 Public land grants to small farmers
 Advocated internal improvements
 Southern Position
 Any restriction a violation of rights
 Saw abolitionists and free-soilers intent as the destruction of slavery
 Moderates wanted extension of Missouri Compromise
 Popular Sovereignty
 Lewis Cass, Michigan
 “Squatter” sovereignty
 Election of 1848
 Cass – Democrat nominee
 Zachary Taylor- Whig Nominee
 Martin Van Buren- Free-Soil
http://en.wikivisual.com/images/8/81/Electo
ralCollege1848-Large.png
 Ralph Waldo Emerson’s prediction:
 “American victory in Mexico would be like swallowing arsenic”
 Balance of free/slave states
 End of Mexican War 15 states each
 New territory
 Gold rush of 1849 and influx of 100,000 into California created need for
law and order in west
 Zachary Taylor
 Elected President, 1848
 Strategy:
 Prompted California to bypass the territorial stage, draw up constitution, and
apply as free state
 Wanted New Mexico to do the same
 Thought it was practical solution
 Response
 Angered Southerners in both parties
 Nine states agreed to send delegates to a convention in Nashville, June
1850
 Henry Clay
 Proposed:
 Admission of California as a free state
 Division of the remainder of the Mexican cession into two territories,
New Mexico and Utah with restrictions on slavery
 Settlement of Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute on terms
favorable to New Mexico
 Texas, an agreement that the federal government would assume the
considerable public debt of Texas
 Continuance of slavery in District of Columbia but the abolition of the
slave trade
 More effective fugitive slave law
 “Omnibus” Bill
 Debates: Clay, Webster, Calhoun
 Fillmore steps in July 9, 1850
 Appointed Daniel Webster secretary of state
 Stephen Douglas takes over for Clay
 Chopped into parts
 Included popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah
 Passed by Summer 1850
 Assessing the Compromise
 Each section gained and lost
 North
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California Free State
New Mexico and Utah future free states
Texas- New Mexico border settlement
Abolition of slave trade in D.C.
 South
 Fugitive slave law
 Law:
 Denied alleged fugitives the right of
trial by jury
 Not allowed to testify on their behalf
 Permitted return to slavery on
testimony of claimant
 Paid $10 if ruled for the slaveholder,
only $5 for the slave
 Federal marshals allowed to “hunt”
fugitives in North
 Outrage:
 Abolitionists
 Anthony Burns incident
 “The Funeral of Liberty”
 Vigilance communities
 “Personal-liberty” laws
 Underground Railroad
 Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe,
1852
 Daughter of Lyman Beecher
 Reaction to Fugitive Slave Act
 Story
 Targeted slavery
 How slavery tears apart family
 Reaction
 Sold 300,000 copies in 1852
 Enthralled working-class
 Consequences
 Impact cannot be measured
 Northern attitude toward slavery in
North “never quite the same”
 Impending Crisis of the South
 1857, Hinton R. Helper
 Attacked slavery by using statistics to
prove its negative impact on southern
economy
 Southern Reaction
 Counterarguments
 Slavery “good”
 Wage slaves of the North
 Effects
 In North, slavery became a moral issue
 Growing number of southerners
convinced North’s goal was to destroy
institution of slavery and way of life
 Problems:
 Fugitive Slave Act fragmented
Whig party
 Nominees:
 Whigs: General Winfield Scott
 Mexican War Hero
 Virginia, but supported by “freesoil” Whigs
 Focused on improving roads and
harbors
 Democrats: Franklin Pierce
 dark-horse candidate
 No one really opposed him
 Compromise of 1850 and
Popular Sovereignty
 Supported Fugitive Slave Law
 Results:
 Pierce sweeps to victory
 Kansas- Nebraska Act
 Shattered second party system
 Originally a bill by Stephen Douglas to organize Nebraska
territory
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Wanted to promote settlement in Mid-West, railroad
Needed to make concessions for southerners to vote for his bill
Apply popular sovereignty
Superseded Missouri Compromise, voided it
 Set off protest
 Passed the Senate, but barely the House of Rep.
 Surge of Free Soil
 United Northerners who agreed on nothing else
 Believed slavery impeded white progress
 Labor loses its dignity
 Kansas-Nebraska Act last straw
 Bleeding Kansas
 Majority of population anti-slavery farmers
 Slaveholders from neighboring state of Missouri set up
homesteads as means of winning control of the territory for the
South
 Response: New England Emigrant Aid Company
 Northern Abolitionists and Free-Soilers
 Paid for transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas
 Fighting broke out
 Proslavery Missourians
 “border ruffians”
 Created pro-slavery legislation in Lecompton, Kansas
 Anti-slavery Missourians
 Refused to recognize Lecompton legislation
 Created new one in Topeka
 Response
 Attack of Free-soil town Lawrence, Kansas
 Caning of Senator Sumner
 Know-Nothing Party
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Nativists hostile to immigrants
“I know nothing”
Drew support away from Whigs
Opposed Catholics
Won few local and state elections
Lost influence when sectional influence became center
 Republican Party
 Founded 1854, Wisconsin as reaction to Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Coalition of Free-Soilers and anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats
 Platform
 Repeal of Kansas-Nebraska Act and Fugitive State Law
 Prohibit slavery in new teritories
 Abolitionists eventually joined
 Grew rapidly in North, became 2nd largest party
 Success only alienated and threatened South
 Nominees
 Republicans
 John C. Fremont, senator from California
 No expansion of slavery, free homesteads, probusiness protective
tariff
 Made strong showing
 South not needed to win election
 Foreshadowed emergence of powerful political party that would win
all but four elections between 1860- 1932
 Know-Northings
 Millard Fillmore
 Won 20% of popular vote
 Democrats
 James Buchanan
 Won majority of both popular and electoral vote
 Lecompton Constitution
 Buchanan’s challenge whether to accept
 Asked Congress to accept it, admit Kansas as a slave state
 Rejected, mainly by Republicans led by Stephen Douglas
 Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857
 Dred Scott
 Slave, taken to free territory and returned to Missiouri
 Sued for freedom
 Decision
 Chief Justice Roger Taney
 No right to sue in Federal court, Africans not U.S. Citizens
 Congress had no power to deprive a person of property without due
process of law
 Missouri Compromise Unconstitutional
 Campaign for senator of Illinois
 Douglas
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Seeking re-election
Popular
“Little Giant”
Angered South by not supporting Dred Scott decision enough
“Freeport Doctrine”
 Slavery could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass and enforce
laws (slave codes) for maintaining it
 Lincoln
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Successful trial lawyer
Former member of Illinois legislature
Publically unknown
Morality of slavery, though not yet an abolitionist
“House-divided” speech
 Results
 Douglas wins campaign
 Lost ground in party by alienating Democrats
 Lincoln emerged a national figure and contender for Republican party
 Election of 1860
 Breakup of Democratic Party
 Sectional divisions
 South alarmed at Republicans
success
 Antislavery platform
 Economic program
 Favored Northern industrialists at
expense of the South
 Higher tariffs, hurt South’s
dependence on cotton
 John Brown’s Raid
 Harper’s Ferry 1859
 Attacked Federal Arsenal
 Wanted to inspire a slave revolt
 Federal troops called in
 Robert E. Lee
 Tried for Treason, convicted, and
hanged in Virginia
 Consequences
 Condemned in the North by
moderates
 Southern whites had final proof of
North’s true intentions
 Later became humanitarian martyr
 Democratic convention last hope for
compromise
 Held in Charleston, SC
 Stephen Douglas leading candidate,
blocked by Buchanan
 Deadlock led to walkout
 Remaining delegates nominated
Douglas
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Platform: popular sovereignty and
enforcement of FSL
 Southern Democrats nominated John C.
Breckinridge
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Platform: unrestricted extension of
slavery and annexation of Cuba
 Nominations
 Republicans: Lincoln
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Platform: appealed to economic selfinterest of North and West and
exclusion of slavery from territories
 Constitutional-Union Party
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Former Know-Nothings and Whigs
John Bell, Tennessee
 Enforce laws and preserve Union
 Results
 Lincoln Wins
 Lincoln’s Election
 December 1860, a special
convention needed for
disunion in SC
 Within 6 weeks, six states
followed
 FL, GA, AL, Miss, LA, TX
 February 1861
 Representatives of seven
states of Deep South
 Created Confederate States
of America
 Created Constitution
 Placed limits on
governments power to
impose tariffs and restrict
slavery
 Elected President Jefferson
Davis, Alexander Stephens
Vice President
 Crittenden Compromise
 Buchanan lame-duck
president for 5 months
 Did nothing to prevent
secession
 Congress had last-ditch
effort
 Proposed by John Crittenden
 Guaranteed slavery south of
36’30
 Lincoln would not accept, it
violated the Republican
position