Chapter 12:
The Failure of the Politicians
How the Compromise
Collapsed
How the Compromise Collapsed
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Ironically, President Pierce, who
declared his administration would not
be controlled by seeking land, was the
man to go full speed ahead searching
for new territory.
James Gadsden was sent to buy the
northern part of Mexico and all of
Lower California
Pierre Soulé went to Spain to buy Cuba.
Then after Hawaii was reached, Pierce
looked into buying Alaska from the
Russians.
How the Compromise Collapsed
Mexico had no interest,
but sold a small tract
south of the Gila River
 Northern congressmen,
however, were opposed.
 The Gadsden Purchase
was only approved after
9,000 acres were removed
from the treaty.
 Expansion was no longer
a means of compromise.
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South of Rockys
The Ostend Manifesto
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President Pierce wanted to
buy Cuba for slave territory
but Spain would not sell.
Secretary of State William L.
Marcy sent American
ministers to Ostend in
Belgium to shape the U.S.
policy of Cuba in 1854.
The “Ostend Manifesto”,
meant to be a secret
dispatch to Marcy, reached
the press and caused an
uproar.
Marcy and
his ministers
The Ostend Manifesto
The ministers advised the
United States to take Cuba
by force if need be.
 Pierce and Marcy claimed to
not want anything to do
with this, but Pierce was
now labeled as pro-slavery
and a war-like expansionist.
 The Ostend Manifesto firmly
identified slavery with
expansion.
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William L. Marcy
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
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Stephen Douglas
Keeping the question of slavery
out of congress was the only
hope for the success of the
Compromise of 1850.
Senator Stephen A. Douglas,
architect of the Compromise of
1850, was the man to revive
the slavery issue in Congress.
The American dream was to
build a railway from the East to
the West.
Only organized and surveyed
land would be included
because government grants
controlled the railways.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
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Douglas
introduced a bill
providing for
Kansas and
Nebraska
Territory.
Southerners
would not want a
bill passed for
anti-slavery
states, and
Douglas needed
their votes.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
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To win their support, Douglas
made two provisions.
– Missouri Compromise of 1820
would be updated to Compromise
of 1850
– Popular Soverignty would decide
whether the two new states were
free or slave states. (Kansas and
Nebraska)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
He knew the promise
would cause problems, but
he felt he needed southern
votes and Pierce could help
him.
 In 1854 Douglas managed
to have his KansasNebraska bill passed.
 Southerners were happy, but Northerners held
protests, transforming the question of slavery
into a battle over the spread of slavery to new
territories.
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Expansion and Slavery
The Congressional battle over slavery was about where it did
not exist and might never go.
 Northerners did not want the expansion of slavery or to live
near and compete with blacks.
 Several Midwestern states banned blacks.
 Southerners felt it was an attempt to bar them and their
property from territories.
 The thought the north was trying
to prevent them from growing.
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The New Republican Party
In the North, the KansasNebraska bill was greeted by
anger. Parties were formed to
resist slavery expansion.
 July 6, 1854, two new parties
were founded. One new party
was the Republican party, who
took their platform against
slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, and the Fugitive Slave Act.
 Congressional elections in
November 1854 produced a
revolution in American politics.
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1795
1851-1852 ((Whigs vs.
Democrats))
1854 ((Know Nothing &
Republicans vs. Weakened
Democrats))
1860s – North vs. South
The New Republican Party
The Old Whig Party was shattered and
members joined other parties.
 The Democratic Party stagger but did not
collapse.
 In 1852 Democrats were a substantial part
of Congress, but in 1854 there were only
83 Democrats and 108 Republicans.
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The Know-Nothing Party
The other 43 representatives of
Congress in 1854 were members of the
new Know Nothing Party.
 Know-Nothings were a reaction to the
flood of immigrants.
 The Party grew out of the Order of the
Star-Spangled Banner, a secret
association formed in 1849.
 Its real name was the American Party.
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The Know-Nothing Party
The group seeks refuge in hate
and prejudice rather than real
issues of their day.
 Together, Republicans and
Know-Nothings won enough
seats to control Congress.
 It was hard to tell Republicans
and Know-Nothings apart,
especially when a majority were
both.
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Bleeding Kansas
Douglas thought slavery
troubles were banished
from Congress to the
west.
 The Kansas-Nebraska Act
did bring blood-shed to
Kansas.
 Popular sovereignty did
not say when a territory
could decide about
slavery.
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Bleeding Kansas
The Northerners and Southerners raced to the
territory to be the first to decide the fate of the land.
 Antislavery New Englanders raised money to rush
emigrants to Kansas.
 They used guns to fight for popular sovereignty
rather than votes.
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Bleeding Kansas
Violence in Kansas was inevitable but
the situation became critical only
twice.
 In May 1856 a proslavery sheriff led
a mob into antislavery Lawrence,
sacking and burning the town.
 Antislavery messiah John Brown led
a party including his four sons to a
Pottawatomie Creek settlement.
They split the men’s skulls there and
killed them.
 Somehow Kansas avoided becoming
a territory of total anarchy and civil
war.
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Antislavery messiah
John Brown
Charles Sumner is Attacked
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Charles Sumner delivered a speech
called “The Crime Against Kansas”
to the Senate using insulting words
to attack the south.
Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina
was a nephew of a senator and
avenged this hate on May 22, 1856
by beating Sumner at his desk with
a cane.
Brooks resigned and was reelected.
He became a southern hero.
Sumner became a Northern martyr
and never regained his health.
Before his return, the empty seat
proclaimed northern and southern
leaders were no longer on speaking
terms.
Brooks beats
Sumner with
a cane
Quote
“Did John Brown fail? John Brown
began the war that ended American
Slavery and made this a free republic.
His zeal in the cause of freedom was
infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as
the taper light; his was as the burning
sun.’ I could live for the slave, John
Brown could die for them.” – Frederick
Douglass
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