Causes of the Civil War
1850-1861
Daniel Webster
Compromise of 1850
Components:
 California admitted free
 Popular sovereignty in New Mexico
 Tougher fugitive slave law
 Abolition of slave trade in DC
Compromise stirs debate
 Clay, Calhoun, and Webster
 Calhoun: “If you (North) will not yield, let the
states agree to separate and part in peace. If
you are unwilling, we should part in peace.”
 Webster on secession: “Heaven forbid!
Where is the flag of the republic to remain?
Where is the eagle still to tower?”
 Futures…
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
 “to provide for the appointment of federal
commissioners with authority to issue
warrants, summon posses, and compel
citizens under pain or fine or imprisonment to
assist in the capture of fugitives.
 Commissioners who decided an accused
person was a fugitive slave received $10...$5
if they decided otherwise.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
 Told the story of Uncle Tom, a kind slave who
is physically and emotionally terrorized by
sadistic overseer Simon Legree.
 His death and the story shock Northern
readers.
Election of 1852
 Franklin Pierce
(Democrat-New
Hampshire)
 Winfield Scott
(Whig-Virginia)
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Why was each
selected?
2/3 caucus rule
 Election Results
The Sad Legacy of Franklin Pierce
 One of America’s
worst…usually 39-40
on most rankings.
 Sad tragedy prior to
inauguration
 Sad story of wife Jane
Appleton Pierce
 Strong leadership
needed…not provided
Transcontinental Railroad
 Franklin Pierces initiative…
 Gadsen Purchase designed to add remaining
continental territory as to build a southern
route from coast to coast.
Gadsden Purchase
Kansas-Nebraska Act
 To support a railroad, the remaining territories
need to be “organized into statehood” for the
purpose of having the railroad.
 The “Terminus”
 Stephen A. Douglas emerges to
prominence…
 Principal of the act: If South is to accept the
Northern railroad route, they must get
something…what do they get?
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Popular Sovereignty in Kansas/Nebraska
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Slavery in Kansas/Nebraska?
 Douglas thought the idea absurd, it was
geographically impossible for slavery to exist
there? So his thought, we need a railroad, so
who cares if they want to have slaves in a
northern climate…it will die out?
 Result: wrong. This became a fury!
The race is on…
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Populate Kansas as quickly as possible with
free soilers and pro slavery forces.
Congressional quotes!
“There are 1,1000 coming over from Platte,
Co. to vote and if that ain’t enough we can
send 5,000-enough to kill every #$%#
abolitionist in the territory.”
Quotes:
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“Come on Gentleman of the slave states,
since there is no escaping your challenge,, I
accept it on behalf of freedom. We will
engage in competition for the virgin soil of
Kansas, and God give victory of the side
which is stronger in numbers as it is in
right”. Charles Sumner
Impacts of Kansas/Nebraska Act
 The reopening of the slavery question in the territories with
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almost immediate tragic results in “Bleeding Kansas”
The president's hope for reelection dashed
The complete realignment of the major political parties
The Democrats lost influence in the North and were to become
the regional proslavery party of the South
The Whig Party, which had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
died in the South and was weakened in the North
A new Republican Party emerged as an immediate political
force, drawing in anti-Nebraska Whigs and Democrats.
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas Defined
 The Raid on Lawrence, Kansas. In May 1856, a
band of Border Ruffians crossed the border from
Missouri and attacked the free-soil community of
Lawrence, looting and burning a number of
buildings. Only one person was killed (one of the
Ruffians), but the door to violence had been
breached.
 The Pottawatomie Creek Massacre. A few days
later, in retaliation for the Lawrence raid,
abolitionist forces under the zealot John Brown
attacked a small proslavery settlement on
Pottawatomie Creek. On Brown’s orders, five men
were executed with a scythe.
John Brown
John Brown
The most shocking event?
 Charles Sumner is beaten to within an inch of
his life for slandering a relative of Preston
Brooks and his pro slavery views.
 Problem…the beating occurred in the US
Senate!
Sumner-Brooks
Dred Scott
 Scott was transported
from slave Missouri, to
Wisconsin, sued for his
freedom as he entered
into free territory he
must be free.
Language of the decision
 Roger Taney the Chief Justice:
 “Negros had no rights which the white man was
bound to respect; and that the negro might
justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his
benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as
an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic,
whenever profit could be made by it."
 all men are created equal," Taney reasoned
that "it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved
African race were not intended to be included,
and formed no part of the people who framed
and adopted this declaration. . . ."
Formation of the Republican Party
In 1854 a group of discontented
Northern Whigs who were opposed to
slavery met at this building in Ripon,
Wisconsin to found the Republican
Party.
The party was unified in their
opposition to the extension of slavery
and to the misguided KansasNebraska Act
The Republican caucus initially
competed with the “Know-Nothing”
party for influence. Both were
opposed to Slavery, but the KN’s
insistence on anti-Irish and antiimmigrant views limited their appeal.
Impact of Dred Scott
 North outraged
 Slavery rendered possible everywhere, Mo.
Compromise and Great compromise
abolished.
 Slaves now have constitutional protection
thanks to a vile 7-2 decision led by
Southerner Roger B. Taney
 Dred Scott was labeled “property”.
Election of James Buchannan
 Northern
“doughface”.
Northern (Penn)
man able to move in
Southern political
circles…
 Worst president in
American
History…by far.
LeCompton Constitution
 A proslavery constitution
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that…was arrived at illegally.
When passed by the proslavery forces illegally it was
backed by President
Buchannan!
Even southern senators
insisted on a more
democratic process.
Result: the fraudulent
constitution was defeated by a
6-1 margin by a full body of
Congress!
Buchannan shamed and
humiliated. He chose to do
next to nothing for the next
few years, opening the door
for the civil war!
Excerpts
 “The legislature shall have no power to pass
laws for the emancipation of slaves without
the consent of the owners”
 “Free negroes shall not be permitted to live in
or travel in this State under any
circumstances.”
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 Senate seat in Illinois, young representative
and lawyer Abraham Lincoln v. Stephen A.
Douglas.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 Debate #2 at Freeport.
 Freeport Doctrine: responding to Lincoln’s
attacks on his being pro-slavery.
 Douglass stated that slavery could legally be
barred from the territories if the territorial
legislatures simply refused to enact the type
of police regulations necessary to make
slavery work. Without a legal framework and
enforcement officials, slavery would be
excluded.
John Brown and Harpers Ferry
 Importance of the
event?
Impact of John Brown
 Led to the creation
of the Southern
militia system—
precursor to the
confederate army.
 Created the belief
that Northern
Abolitionists would
kill for their cause.
 Execution divided
the country
Election of 1860
Election of 1860
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“I will say then that, I
am not nor have ever
been, in favor of
bringing about in any
way the social and
political equality of the
black and white race”.
Lincoln’s views on
race
Why was Lincoln
such a hated figure in
South?
Lincoln
 Denied to deal with
Slavery.
 Denied rights of
South to secede.
 Promised to protect
union and federal
institutions.
 Words were
conciliatory.
Secession
 South Carolina – Dec.
20, 1860
 Alabama, Mississippi,
Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Texas – Feb.
1, 1861
 “Confederate States of
America”

President Jefferson
Davis
Secession
Order of secession
 South Carolina (December 21, 1860),
 Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
 Florida (January 10, 1861),
 Alabama (January 11, 1861),
 Georgia (January 19, 1861),
 Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and
 Texas (February 1, 1861).
The Confederacy
Border States?
 Lost
 Preserved
 Tennessee
 Maryland
 Virginia
 Delaware
 North Carolina
 Kentucky
 Arkansas
 Missouri
Challenges
 Missouri-Border Ruffians
 Maryland-suspension of Habeas Corpus
 Delaware-only 2% slave
 Kentucky-”losing Kentucky is like losing the
whole game” Abraham Lincoln.
Antebellum Review: 1848-1860
 What are the primary causes of the Civil
War?
 What were the key events during the
Antebellum that fostered the coming of war?
 What could have been done during the
Antebellum to stop the war?
 Some have argued that the civil war had
been coming since 1776…would you agree?
Theatres of War
1861-1865
Tale of the Tape
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Northern Advantages
Industry
Executive Leadership
Naval superiority
Ability to supply
armaments.
Number of fighting men
European relations
Stability of political
system
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Southern Advantages
Caliber of fighting men
Military leadership
Defensive war
“King Cotton Diplomacy”
Don’t have to win the
war?
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
 Lincoln made two promises at his
innauguration that are vital…
 He would be “friends of the South” and not
invade or pursue unprovoked military action.
 He had a duty to protect Federal property.
Bull Run (Manassas)
 Federals named things after geographic
features, rivers, etc…Confederates after civic
sites like railroads or cities (Manassas
Junction Railroad)
All myths about the war dispelled
 This is not the Mexican American War
 Lincoln’s initial call for 75,000 men seems
feeble. Issues a new call for 500,000 men. The
war will be unlike any that we have seen.
 It appears clear as Irving McDowell is routed by
Pierre Gustave Toutant (PGT) Beauregard that
the confederates will have a distinct advantage
in military leadership.
Manassas
 Casualties were light for a civil war battle,
2000 confederates, 1600 union.
 Southerners lauded it as “one of the decisive
battles of the world”.
 McDowell replaced with young bravado
George McClellan who despised Lincoln and
will contest his leadership in the election of
1864.
Lessons of Manassas: Finance
 Congress passed an income tax. 3% over
incomes of $800.
 Taxed states
 Took out loans amounting to $140,000,000
during that first year.
 Sold bonds
 Issued a national currency called
“Greenbacks”.
Lessons of Manassas: Politics
 Republicans in factions
 Democrats in factions
 Emergence of Radical Republicans-Charles
Sumner.
 Uncompromising view of slaves and their
future.
 Benjamin Wade’s view on slavery…?
 Peace democrats-Copperheads. “Same
Constitution, Same Country, Same Slavery”.
Lincoln and Dissent
 Lincoln didn’t care for dissent.
 Suspended Habeas Corpus, imprisoned
13,000.
 Rights of the imprisoned
 Ex Parte Merryman: failing to give a trial to
accused…Court ruled in favor of accused.
 Ex Parte Milligan: declared military couts
illegal in areas where regular courts were
functioning…didn’t matter.
Clement Vallandingham
 Congressman
banished to
Confederacy for his
views…fled to
Canada.
“A Rich Man’s War and a Poor
Man’s Fight”
Confederacy
 Exemptions for slave
owners (20 or more)
 Tax in Kind
 Southern currency: 2
cents on the dollar by
1865, hard on the poor.
Union
 Conscription could be
combated by buyin a sub
for $300.
 Income tax
 Failed greenback
currency
Shiloh
Consequences
 Union coming off big
wins at Fort Henry
and Fort
Donnellson.
 Grant’s men
surprised at Shiloh
Church.
 Staggering #’s.
Death toll (13,000)
in 2 days exceeded
the combined total
of the American
Revolution, War of
1812, French and
Indian War, and
Mexican American
War.
May 1862: Union Offensive
 On to Richmond
 Peninsula Campaign May, 1862. McClellan
moves, hammered by Johnston and then
Lee.
 Lee/McClellan contrast.
 Battle of Seven Days: 30,000 lost. McClellan
replaced with John Pope.
McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign
 Instead of advancing
through northern Virginia,
where he was sure huge
rebel armies lurked, the
Union commander
proposed instead to ship
his 121,500-man Army of
the Potomac to the tip of
the York-James Peninsula
by sea, then fight his way
west to Richmond. The
Peninsular Campaign
began in March 1862 more than seven months
after McClellan took
command.
Lincoln and Emancipation
 Believed in “gradual
emancipation”
 Had spoken of this
“type” of plan as far
back as 1849.
 Offered south
“compensated
emancipation”
Emancipation: Summer of 1862
 Lincoln’s unwavering goal:
 “my paramount objective is to save the Union.
It is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I
could save the Union without freeing any
slave I would do it, and I if I could save it by
freeing all the slaves I would do it”
 July 1862
 Correspondence with Horace Greeley
Contradiction
 From the “London Times”
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“Where he has no power Mr. Lincoln will set
the negroes free, where he retains power he
will consider them as slaves.” (referencing the
border states.)
Emancipation Proclamation
 Changed focus of
 Secretary of State:
war from restoration
of union to slavery.
 Many found it ironic
that it only dealt with
slaves in lands
outside of union
control?
William Seward:
 "We show our
symapthy with
slavery by
emancipating slaves
where we cannot
reach them and
holding them in
bondage where we
can set them free."
Antietam
Bloodiest Day in US History
 McClellan’s big break.
 23,000 casualties
 McClellan’s failure proves costly.
 Emergence of Ambrose Burnside.
“An act of justice”
 Confiscation Act. Slaves were being
confiscated by the union army.
 July 1862 all “rebel slaveholders slaves were
forever free of their servitude”
 A bold national statement was needed.
 Lincoln viewed it a military, political, and
emotional necessity.
 Promised after Antietam
 Legal?
1/1/1863
 Emancipation takes effect
 Democrats roared in anger
 Republicans were anything but united.
Fredericksburg
 One of the worst union defeats. An attack on
a Confederate stronghold. Several day
totals: 13,000 Union, 5,000 Confederate.
US Grant emerges
 Failure from Galena,
Illinois.
 He had the
aggressiveness that
Lincoln craved, he
matched Lee in that
regard.
 Victories at Fort
Donnellson and on the
Tennessee River drove
the confederates out of
Kentucky.
 His perseverance at
Shiloh secured a Northern
victory and facilitated a
slow Southern defeat in
the West.
Union Blockade
 Severing Southern
commerce was key for the
Union.
 King Cotton.
 “Shut the confederacy out
from the world, deprived it
of supplies weakened its
military and naval
strength”.
 Union victories and their
contempt for slavery
dashed any hope of
intervention on behalf of
the Confederacy.
1863-1865
 5/1863: Chancellorsville
 6/1864: Cold Harbor
 7/1863: Gettysburg
 9/1864: Fall of Atlanta
 7/4/1863: Vicksburg
 12/1864: Fall of
 9/1863: Chickamauga
Savannah
 4/2 1864: Fall of
Richmond
 4/9: Appomattox
Surrender
 5/1864: Battle of the
Wilderness
 5/1864: Spotsylvania
Court House
US Grant
 History
 Ideas of warfare
Chancellorsville
 Despite doubling
Confederate forces in
Chancellorsville
Virginia, the recently
appointed Joseph
Hooker is outwitted by
Lee’s genius. A
devastating Union
defeat, a huge victory
for Lee.
 Key loss: Stonewall
Jackson (friendly fire)
The Twin Disasters
 Vicksburg and Gettysburg were the turning
points of the Civil War. Southern forces
endured cataclysmic defeats in both the
North and the South, the tide had turned.
 They occurred one day from each other and
signaled the end of the war.
Vicksburg
 Impregnable stronghold that was sieged with a
brilliant move by Grant. The civil war’s most
brutal reminder of Grant’s total war philosophy.
Vicksburg conclusions
 Lee refused the call of the Eastern armies to
save western Vicksburg. He felt an invasion
of the North to be more important and that
eventually the weather would hamper Grant’s
efforts.
 Grant and the Union controlled the
Mississippi, the confederacy had been cut in
two.
 Emergence of US Grant
 No British involvement
Gettysburg
Lee’s miscalculation
 Chancellorsville gets to his head. Invades
North.
 Meade intercepts the force at Gettysburg, where
Northern forces occupied the high ground atop
the field at Little Round Top.
Cemetery Ridge
 Lee ordered George Pickett and his men to
charge the union forces, fortified atop big and
little round tops. The result 28,000
casualties.
 The hopeless maneuver cost Lee 1/3 of his
battle hardened force.
 Last offensive in the North for Lee.
Chickamauga and Chattanooga
Grant’s reputation grows
 Rescues victory from the jaws of defeat at
Chattanooga and deals a devastating blow to
the confederacy as the victory paved the way
for Georgia and Sherman’s march to the sea.
Grant v. Lee
 Total War v. Strategic War
 Astonishing casualty totals at:
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Wilderness
Spotsylvania Court House
Cold Harbor
The Overland Campaign
Wilderness
 Lee negated Grant’s numbers in the trees.
18000 casualties. Usually considered a draw,
set the stage for other bloodshed in Spotsylvania
County Virginia.
Spotsylvania Court House
 Grant moving to Richmond, Lee moves to
stop him. 120,000-60,000. Lee inflicts
staggering death tolls, but Grant’s total war is
taking its toll on the smaller armies.
Cold Harbor
Overland Campain
 Grant’s Union Army of the Potomac’s quest to get
to Richmond.
 Staggering Union defeat that left even Grant
bewildered at a 3-1 death toll ratio.
 He indicated:
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"I have always regretted that the last assault at
Cold Harbor was ever made. I might say the same
thing of the assault of the 22d of May, 1863, at
Vicksburg. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever
was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we
sustained."
Sherman’s March to the Sea
 Grant’s apocalyptic march to Richmond
distracted Confederate forces and after union
Victories at Chattanooga and Vicksburg,
Sherman had a clear path to the sea..
 Battle of Kennesaw Mountain paved the way.
 Goal—”make Georgia howl”.
 Impact on election of 1864
Kennesaw Mountain
 Sherman embraces Lee’s concept of Total
War.
 Atlanta left in ruin. Only Savannah spared.
The March to the Sea
 Scorched Earth, Theft, Destruction, ruined
Railroad transportation.
Appomattox Court House
Differing opinions
 April 7th, 1865
 HEADQUARTERS, ARMIES
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT,
Commanding Armies of the U. S.
GENERAL: I have received your note of
this date. Though not entertaining the
opinion you express of the
hopelessness of further resistance on
the part of the Army of Northern
Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to
avoid useless effusion of blood, and
therefore, before considering your
proposition, ask the terms you will offer
on condition of its surrender.
R.E. LEE,
OF THE U. S.
5 P. m., April 7th, 1865
GENERAL R. E. LEE,
Commanding C. S. A.:
 The results of the last week
must convince you of the
hopelessness of further
resistance on the part of the
Army of Northern Virginia in
this struggle. I feel that it is so,
and regard it as my duty to
shift from myself the
responsibility of any further
effusion of blood by asking of
you the surrender of that
portion of the Confederate
States army known as the
Army of Northern Virginia.
Generous Terms
 Lee was surprised to learn that Grant allowed
the men to return home immediately and
plant a crop, using their horses to do so.
The Election of 1864
 Republican and
Democrats divided.
Issues ranging from
war handling, to
emancipation, to
finances, to
character.
 Copperheads
 Amazing it occurred
at all?
Assassination of Lincoln
 Details
 Impact
Toll