Renewing the Sectional Struggle:
1848-1854
Theme: The sectional conflict over the expansion of slavery that erupted after
the Mexican War was temporarily quieted by the Compromise of 1850, but
Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 exploded it again.
Theme: In the 1850s American expansionism in the West and the Caribbean
was extremely controversial because it was tied to the slavery question.
Theme: A series of major North-South crises in the late 1850s culminated in the
election of the antislavery Republican Lincoln to the presidency in 1860. His
election caused seven southern states to secede from the union and form the
Confederate States of America.
I. Compromise of 1850
A.
Background Events
1.
2.
Wilmot Proviso, 1848
The compromise: Popular
Sovereignty
Election 1848
3.
a.
b.
4.
B.
Taylor/Fillmore (W) v. Cass (D)
“Free soil, free speech, free labor,
free men.”
CA Gold Rush
Background Issues
1.
2.
3.
Political balance of slavery
CA and Mexican Cessation?
Fugitive Slave Law, 1793
a. Harriet Tubman
4.
5.
C.
Disputed territory with TX
Slavery in D.C. (1000 per year)
Negotiations
A.
B.
C.
D.
Clay and Douglas and Webster and
Fillmore
Calhoun
William “higher law” Seward
Provisions (PopFACT)
Manifest Destiny SF Walking Tour, Dec. 21st
II. Expansion of Slavery
A. Election of 1852
1.
2.
Pierce a proslave northerner
supported the F.S.L. (D)
Scott’s (W) support of F.S.L.
alienated southern Whigs
B. International Expansion
1.
Asia
a.
b.
2.
Treaty of Wanghia, 1844
Commodore Perry, 1852
Latin America
a.
b.
c.
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 1848
W. Walker in Nicaragua
Ostend Manifesto, 1854
II. Expansion of Slavery (cont.)
C.
Domestic Expansion:
Transcontinental RR
1.
2.
Gadsden Purchase
Proposed territory of NB
and KS
a.
b.
3.
S. Douglas
Popular Sovereignty
Reactions!
a.
b.
c.
d.
North “Free-Soilers”
Southern “Fire-eaters”
Crash of Democratic
Party-28 years
Creation of GOP
III. Rise of Sectionalism
A.
Voices of Sectionalism
1.
2.
B.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Hinton Helper
Case Study: “Bleeding KS”
1.
Emigration into KS
a.
2.
Territorial vote, 1855
a.
b.
John Steuart Curry’s Tragic Prelude (1938-1940)
3.
“border ruffians”
Free-soilers in Topeka
Violence
a.
b.
c.
d.
4.
NEEAC and “Beecher’s Bibles”
Attack on Lawrence, KS
Pottawatomie Massacre, 1856
Lecompton Constitution, 1857
Caning of Senator Sumter
Election of 1856
1.
Buchanan (D) v. Fremont (R) v.
Fillmore (“Do Not”)
IV. Failure of Compromise
A.
Dred Scot Decision
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B.
Financial Crisis of 1857
1.
2.
3.
4.
C.
Ca Gold and Over-production/speculation
Western demand for free land/160
Industrialists demand for higher tariffs
Cotton is King!
Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858
1.
2.
D.
Pro-Slave majority on court (Taney)
Hit #1: No citizenship for blacks
Hit #2: Slaves be taken anywhere (5th)
Hit #3: Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional (5th)
North horrified, “It’s an opinion, not
decision!”
GOP spotlight
Freeport Doctrine-territories could refuse to
pass laws protecting slavery—ending
slavery.
Harper’s Ferry, 1859
1.
2.
Establish free black state
Became a martyr in north and feared in the
south
Standing Lincoln, Lincoln Park, Chicago
IV. Failure of Compromise (cont.)
E. Election of 1860
1.
Democrats
a. Douglas
b. Breckinridge
2.
Constitutional Union
1. Bell
3.
Republicans
1. Lincoln
F. Tragic Chain Events
1.
2.
3.
11 states secede by VA
Confederate States of
Am., 1861
Crittenden amendments
Review Question
1. Analyze the ways in which controversy
over the extension of slavery into western
territories contributed to the coming of the
Civil War. Confine your answer to the
period 1845-1861 (2010, A)
2. Analyze the social, political, and economic
forces of the 1840s and early 1850s that
led to the emergence f the Republican
Party (2009, A)