(PS)
• California’s admission would
disrupt the sectional balance
either as a free or slave state.
• Southern “fire-eaters”
demanded secession if CA
became “free.”
• Aging H. Clay, and D. Webster,
championed union while J.C. Clay argues for the Compromise
Calhoun backed “states rights.”
• Clay’s compromise made CA a
free state, gave the south the
tough fugitive slave law.
• Signed by Pres. Fillmore after
the death of Taylor.
Coincidence?
• Massachusetts's legislature virtually
nullified the fugitive slave law by making
it a crime to enforce it there.
• Abolitionists were upset at D. Webster
for becoming “pro-slavery” in his
infamous 7th of March Speech in the
Senate.
• “There is no such thing as peaceful
succession”- Webster’s warning.
• Calhoun died before the final
compromise vote, and Clay and
Webster would soon die as well…...
Free blacks warned
• The Compromise of 1850 began the
of “slave-catchers” (PS)
countdown to the Civil War…….
• Franklin Pierce (Dem.)
defeated Winfield
Scott(Whig) in 1852.
• The Whigs after fell
apart afterwards.
• Many would help form
the new Republican
party.
• Pierce, from New
Hamp., was pro-South
and an expansionist
Pierce wins in a landslide
• Published in 1853 as a
serial, this book was the
most effective piece of
anti-slavery propaganda
• Queen Victoria of
England wept after
reading it.
•
Southerners
attacked
Stowe’s book inflamed
already tense relations
Stowe
as
an
“agitator
between the North & South.
and liar”.
• Sponsored by Stephen Douglas
(Dem-ILL)
• Open up Kansas and Nebraska to
“Popular sovereignty” in part to get
southern legislators to support a
northern route for the transcontinental
RR
• It repealed the Missouri Comp. and
36.30 parallel.
• Pro and anti slavery supporters
rushed to Kansas to influence the
vote, the pro-slavery folks won in a
fraudulent election.
Map showing the affected • The stage was set for………...
territories of Kan. + Neb.
• A small scale civil war
erupted as two leg were
elected, one pro slave, one
anti-slave. Gov’t struggles
to decide which one is legit.
• The New Eng. Emigrant Aid
Society sent “Beecher’s
Bibles” or guns to help antislavers.
• John Brown and his sons
killed 5 pro-slavers at the
Pottawatomie Massacre.
• Brooks attach on Sumner
brought the violence to the
U.S. Congress
Fighting between pro and anti
slavery forces in Lawrence Kan.
• James Buchanan (Dem.)
defeated John C.
Fremont(Rep.)
• The new Republican Party
was a mix of Whigs and
others including abolitionists
and Free-Soilers.
• Republicans platform included
an anti-extension of slavery.
• Reps lose but realized they
didn’t have to carry a single
southern state to win the
presidency.
“Old Buck” carried the South in 1856
• Slave who was recruited by northern
abolitionists to sue for his freedom.
• His master had taken him north for
several years to free states, then died.
• Sued for his freedom in Missouri, but
he lost at every court level.
• Finally, the Supreme Court of the US
ruled declare that blacks were not
citizens and therefore could not use the
courts to sue for their freedom.
• Slaves were also defined as property
just like a horse or dog
Dred Scott (PS)
• Financial panic caused by inflationary
pressures from California Gold, over
speculation on western land and RR stocks.
• Particularly hard on the North due to industry,
while the South was fine thanks to high cotton
prices…..
• Business failures, bankruptcies, soup kitchens,
unemployment in the North. South believe that
their cotton economy was more superior.
Versus
(PS)
•
•
•
•
“Honest Abe” Lincoln
The “Little Giant” Douglas
The Senatorial Election of 1858 in Illinois between Lincoln and
Douglas would set the political agenda for years…..
Debated the Kan.-Neb. Act, pop. sovereignty, westward
expansion of slavery and slavery in general.
Douglas’ Freeport Doctrine argued that local communities could
deny slavery legally by not protecting it legally…….
Douglas won the Senate seat, Lincoln began to run for
President.
• In 1859, John Brown’s scheme to
free the slaves by seizing arms at
the Federal Armory at Harper’s
Ferry VA backfired.
• He was captured and a swift trial
found him guilty of treason…...
• He was hung and instantly became
the abolitionist’s martyr.
• Southern states fear more Brown’s
& responded by building up their
militia’s and preparing for
conflict…..
(PS)
John Brown, “the meteor”
• Most important in US History.
• 4 candidates with the Dem. Party split
into north and south.
• Lincoln (Rep.) won without a southern
electorate.
• S.C. threatened secession with a
Lincoln victory as the Rep. Party was
seen as radical
• SC unanimously voted for secession- to
leave the Union
• Many northerners called on “do-nothing”
Buchanan to invade S.C. but he didn’t.
• 7 Southern states soon followed
4 candidates split the popular
vote while Lincoln clearly won
the Electoral College