The Civil War
THE UNION IN PERIL
1848-1861
• Facts, sequence of events
• 4 main causes for why war erupted when it did:
• Slavery as a moral issues in North vs. defense, expansion in
South
• Constitutional disputes over nature of federal union vs.
states’ rights
• Economic differences b/t N and S
• Tariffs, nat’l bank, internal improvements
• Political mistakes, extremism
Why would war erupt?
• Issues of slavery in territories after Mexican War
• 1840s
• Wilmot Proviso vs. Compromise of 1820
• Balance of 15/15 states
• Proviso failed  increase in sectional feelings
• 3 competing views
• Free Soil
• Pro-slavery
• Popular Sovereignty
Territories
• N. Dems + Whigs that supported Wilmot Proviso
• Believed ALL African Americans should be excluded
from Mexican Cession (1848)
• Little opposition to slavery in S
• West should be kept land of opportunity for whites only
• No competition w/ slave labor, free blacks
• “Free soil, free labor, and free men” = Free-Soil Party
• Also advocate free homesteads, internal improvements
Free-Soil Movement
• Any restriction of expansion of slavery = violation of
constitutional right to take, use property as see fit
• Free-Soilers, abolitionists attempting to destroy slavery
• Moderates want to see 36/30 extend to Pacific
The Southern Position
• Promoted by Lewis Cass (Dem. Senator, MI) as
compromise
• Supported by moderates from N and S
• Extension of slavery into territories decided by vote of
people who settle there, NOT by Congress
• = squatter (popular) soverignty
Popular Sovereignty
THE ELECTION OF 1848
• 1848- Cass nominated by Dems
• Focus solely on popular sovereignty
• Whigs nominated Gen. Zachary Taylor
• War hero, not political, no position taken on extension of
slavery- was a Southerner, slaveholder
• Vs. 3rd party Free-Soiler MVB
• “conscience” Whigs (opposed slavery), antislavery Dems
• Antislavery Dems called “barnburners”- defect threated to
destroy Dem. party
• Taylor win b/c split vote
• Free-Soilers take votes from NY, PA
Enter Taylor
AGITATION OVER SLAVERY
• Gold rush of ‘49 + 100k settlers  need for law, order
• Draft of state constitution, application for statehood
• Banned slavery
• Taylor support admission of CA, NM as free
•  secession talk by “fire-eaters” (S. radicals)
• Met in Nashville to discuss secession
Compromise of 1850
• Henry Clay step in & organize compromise
• CA in as free
• Mexican cession divided into Utah, New Mexico & allow
slavery determined by pop. sovereignty
• Disputed land b/t TX, NM settled- land to new territories in
exchange for US assuming $10 mil. Of TX public debt
• Slave trade banned in DC
• Whites still able to hold slaves as before
• New Fugitive Slave Law that will be enforced
Enter Clay
• Senate debates led by
• Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun
• Webster- for compromise to save Union  end of support from
abolitionists in MA
• Calhoun- vs. compromise, want South to have = rights in
territory
• N. opposition from younger antislavery lawmakers
• William Seward- argue a higher law than the constitution
• 1850- death of Taylor brings in Millard Fillmore
• Desire compromise
• Stephen Douglas step in- pass each part separately
Compromise passes
• Added to help South accept loss of CA to antislavery forces
• Purpose to track down fugitive slaves, capture them, return to
owners
• Fugitive slave cases under fed.gov.
• Authority given to US commissioners to issue warrants, arrest
fugitives
• No trial by jury if claimed to be free, not fugitive
• Enforcement resisted by antislavery groups  division b/t N &
S on issue
• Underground Railroad
Fugitive Slave Law
• Emotions of people affected by laws, also popular books
• Harriet Beecher Stowe- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Conflict b/t Tom and owner (Simon Legree)
• Show slave owners as cruel, inhuman; present MORAL
issue of slavery
• Could be overcome
• Southerners see as “untruth,” proof that N prejudiced
against Southern way of life
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
• 1857- Hinton Helper wrote non-fiction, Impending Crisis
of the South
• Attack slavery through statistics- show as institution that
weakened South’s economy
• Book banned in South, circulated in North by antislavery,
Free-Soilers
Southern
Antislavery View
Category
Free States
Slave States
Slave States as %
of Free States
Population
18, 484, 922
9,612, 979
52%
Patents for New
Inventions
1,929
268
14%
Value of Church
buildings
$67, 778, 477
$21,674, 581
32%
Newspapers,
periodicals
1,790
740
41%
Bank Capital
$230,100,840
$109, 078, 940
47%
Value of Exports
$167, 520, 098
$107,480,688
64%
• Proslavery whites argue slavery was positive, good for
slaves & masters
• Slavery sanctioned in Bible, grounded in philosophy &
history
• Contrast conditions of N. wage workers w/ familial bonds
of slavery (patriarchy)
• George Fitzhugh- Sociology of the South (1854),
Cannibals All! (1857)
• Question principle of equal rights for unequal men, attack
capitalistic wage system (worse than slavery)
Southern Reaction
NATIONAL PARTIES IN CRISIS
• Division in Dem., Whig party weak
• Whigs- Gen. Winfield Scott
• Attempt to ignore slavery, focus on improving roads,
harbors
• Drove out antislavery, Southern factions (fighting  party
on verge of split)
• Dems- Franklin Pierce
• Favor compromise, supported Fugitive Slave Law (was a
Northerner- NH)
• FP win electoral votes in all but 4 states = Whigs on the
out
Election of 1852
• 1854- Dems control White House, Congress
• SD propose bill to split Nebraska Terr. into Kansas &
Nebraska, allow settlers to decide slavery based on pop.
sovereignty. Passes both houses & pres.
• Douglas plan to build RR, promote western settlement
• Need southern support to build transcontinental RR through
central US and not south
• KS, NE both above 36/30  South see as opportunity to
expand slavery in areas that had been closed
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• K-N effectively repeal MO Comp.  cap blown off regional
tensions
• SD assume those into KS antislavery farmers from Midwest
• Problem? “Border Ruffians”
• Response – New England Emigrant Aid Co. (1855)
•  FIGHTING b/t pro, antislavery groups
• Proslavery gov. in Lecompton
• Antislavery gov. in Lawrence
• John Brown, Pottawatomie Creek
• Other violence: Sumner-Brooks incident
Bleeding Kansas
NEW POLITICAL PARTIES
• Sectional divisions in US + nativist feeling
• Ethnic tension from WASP groups vs. immigrant Germans,
Irish Catholics
•  American Party
• Oppose Catholics, immigrants
• Into N. cities
• Support drawn from Whigs  weakening of party
Know-Nothing Party
• 1854- Wisconsin
• Response to passage of K-N Act
• Free-Soilers + antislavery Whigs & Dems
• Purpose to oppose spread of slavery INTO
TERRITORIES
• Repeal K-N Act, Fugitive Slave Law
• Bleeding Kansas + violence  abolitionists joining
Birth of the Republican
Party
• Republicans 1st test- Fremont
• No expansion of slavery, free homesteads, protective tariff
• Know-Nothings- Fillmore
• Dems- James Buchanan
• Incumbent Pierce, Douglas too close to K-N Act
(controversy)
• Popular sovereignty
• Buchanan take majority of pop. & electoral vote
• Freemont- 11/16 free states  shows Republicans may not
need South to take White House
Election of 1856
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
• JB seen as weak president (1857-1861)
• Challenge in ‘57 to decide on Kansas
• Proslavery constitution submitted
• JB know majority of setters opposed
• JB ask Congress to accept Lecompt. Const. and enter KS
as slave
• Congress reject
• Many Dems agree w/ Republicans & oppose
• 1858- settlers reject proslavery constitution in vote
Lecompton Constitution
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1857
Proslavery decision of Taney Court
Scott = slave, into free states = freedom?
 lawsuit against owner
Decision?
• Scott not a citizen
• Slaves = property, so protected by 5th
•  Congress cannot exclude slavery from territory
•  MO Comp = unconstitutional
Dred Scott v. Sandford