The Road to Secession
America’s Descent into Civil War
1850-1860
The Great Compromise of 1850
• California’s petition for admission as a free state precipitated a
national crisis over the issue of slavery
• President Zachary Taylor (Whig-LA) proposed “popular
sovereignty” as a way of avoiding a crisis – leave the decision
on salve or free status to the states themselves
• Henry Clay (Whig-KY) proposed a five-part compromise:
• 1. California admitted as a free state
• 2. creation of New Mexico and Utah territories with no federal
restrictions on slavery (new states to decide for themselves)
• 3. awarding of territory by Texas to New Mexico in exchange
for federal assumption of Texas debts
• 4.abolition of the salve trade in the District of Columbia
• 5.a stronger fugitive slave law
The Compromise Raises Tensions
Henry Clay defending the
compromise on the floor of
the Senate, 1850
• Clay & Daniel Webster
(Whig-MA) eloquently
defended the compromise
• John C. Calhoun (Democrat –
SC) condemned it and warned
that it would lead to civil war
within a decade
• All three “giants” of the
Senate passed away within a
year
• Stephen Douglas (D – IL)
took up Clay’s cause and
steered the compromise
through Congress
Who won the most from the Compromise of 1850 –
North or South? How did Northerners and
Southerners react to the Compromise of 1850?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Highlights the Evils of Slavery
• The stronger Fugitive Slave Act of 1851
angered many Northerners and encouraged
more activity along the Underground
Railroad, which provided slaves a means
of escaping to freedom in Canada
• Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s
Cabin in 1852 – the book became a
bestseller and awoke Northern readers to
the evils of slavery
• Stowe based the work on extensive
research of slavery and slave conditions in
the South
The Gadsden Purchase & Southern Expansionists
• In 1853, President Franklin Pierce’s administration negotiated
the purchase of the southern strip of what is now Arizona and
New Mexico from Mexico’s government for $10 million
• Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sought the purchase to
encourage construction of a transcontinental railroad from
New Orleans to southern California
• Southern expansionists went even further and demanded the
annexation of Cuba and Central America to help America add
more potential slave territory in North America and the
Caribbean
• Three U.S. ambassadors to Europe formally called on the
Pierce administration to annex Cuba in the Ostend Manifesto
of 1854; encouraged Southern adventurism in Latin America
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• In 1854, Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act
to organize western territories and encourage settlement of the
Plains
• His objective was to encourage westward expansion and pave
the way for a transcontinental railroad that would connect
Chicago with the Far West
• To avoid the issue of slavery, Douglas proposed that each
territory be able to choose its own status through “popular
sovereignty” – the idea was that Nebraska would likely want
to be a free state and Kansas would vote to be a slave state
• The act further eroded the Missouri Compromise by opening
up the possibility of slavery extending north of the “36 30”
line
How would Northerners and Southerners
have reacted to the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
“Bleeding Kansas”
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act created
conflict in Kansas territory
between pro-slavery and antislavery forces
• Violence and bloodshed gripped
the nation’s attention and
foreshadowed the Civil War
• Rival governments emerged in
Kansas and vied for recognition as
the “legitimate” government
• Rep. Preston Brooks of SC caned
Massachusetts Senator and
abolitionist Charles Sumner on the
floor of the Senate – the “Bleeding
Sumner” incident provoked
outrage in the North
The Election of 1856
• The Whig Party disintegrated because of disagreements over
the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the issue of slavery; many of its
anti-slavery supporters gravitated to the new Republican Party
(founded in 1854 in opposition to the Act)
• The Republicans promoted free-soil and the restriction of
slavery’s expansion westward; they nominated famous general
and “pathfinder” John C. Fremont as their first presidential
candidate in 1856
• Other Whigs and some Democrats supported the “KnowNothing” Party, which campaigned for restrictions on
immigration and nominated former President Fillmore
• The Democrats united behind James Buchanan, a Northerner
who was well liked by Southern Democrats because of his
favorable positions on Bleeding Kansas and slavery
What were the results of the election? How would
Southern Democrats react? How would northern
Republicans react?
The Dred Scott v. Sandford Case
• Dred Scott sued for his freedom, arguing that
his master had taken him to free territory for
a time and that this made him a free man
after his master’s death
• The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice
Roger Taney (a Southerner) argued that:
• 1. Dred Scott was a slave and could not sue
in court because he had not citizenship rights
(nor did any other black American)
• 2. The Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional because it had sought to
limit slavery to a certain region; the Court
argued that owning slaves was a property
right that could not be restricted by any
territory (or state!)
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Abraham Lincoln, a Republican,
challenged Douglas for his Illinois
Senate seat in 1858
• Their series of seven debates grabbed
national media attention because the
campaign focused on the issue of
slavery and the Dred Scott decision
• Lincoln argued that slavery was
morally wrong and should be limited
if not ended altogether
• Douglas took the moderate position
that slavery should be allowed where
people wanted it (despite Dred Scott)
but angered many Northerners and
Southerners as a result
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
• John Brown led a group of radicals
who attempted to take over the
Harper’s Ferry federal armory in
October 1959 to prepare for an
armed slave revolt
• The raid was unsuccessful and
resulted in Brown’s capture and trial
– he was hung on December 2, 1859
• Southerners suspected that Brown
had been funded and encouraged by
Northern abolitionists
• Was Brown a hero or a madman?
The Election of 1860
• Growing tensions over Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott
decision, and Brown’s raid contributed to one of the most
divisive national elections in American history
• The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln to run as a
moderate who appealed to free-soil and anti-slavery forces; he
beat out the Republican front-runner, Senator William Seward
of New York, who was considered too controversial
• The Democrats split over the issue of slavery – Southern
Democrats rejected Stephen Douglas as too moderate on the
issue of slavery and nominated John Breckinridge of
Kentucky; Northern Democrats nominated Douglas
• More moderate Southerners, who wanted to preserve national
unity, created the Constitutional Union Party and nominated
John Bell of Tennessee
Election results: Who won and why? Why did this
election contribute directly to Southern secession?