Topic Ten: Sectionalism
A. Problems with the Mexican Cession
1. Texas is slave, Oregon is free. What about NM and CA?
a. Wilmot Proviso begins the sectional debate
- David Wilmot, D-PA, proposes an amendment that would forbid slavery in the
Cession
- splits nation, majority of northern Dem. and Whigs vote for, southern Whigs and
Dem. vote against
- blocked by the Senate
2. Election of 1848
a. Polk keeps promise to only run for one term
b. issue of slavery and the Mexican Cession not solved
c. Whig Zachary Taylor (Mex. War hero) wins the election
- does not commit to slavery question, would leave it to Congress
d. the Free-Soil Party is created by northern politicians who feel betrayed by both Whigs
and Democrats
3. The Compromise of 1850
a. Pres. Taylor then pushes a policy of admitting CA and NM as states
- bypass territorial state, and hopefully the question of slavery
- CA applies as a free state, large Anglo population, esp. after 1849
- NM has largely Hispanic population, cannot get statehood movement off the
ground
- South is alarmed, would only free states come out of the Mexican Cession?
b. Congress tries to forge a compromise
- Taylor objects but dies in 1850
- new president Millard Fillmore supported the compromise
c. The Compromise of 1850
- CA is admitted as a free state
- NM and UT are organized as territories, with popular sovereignty to decide the
issue of slavery
- Slavery was outlawed in Washington DC
- new Fugitive Slave Law passed
d. the compromise was a sectional compromise that solved the problem temporarily,
but like the Missouri Compromise, did not settle the question of slavery
permanently
B. False Peace
1. Election of 1852 shows that there was no pressing national issues
a. Democrat Franklin Pierce wins the election easily
b. Not really prepared or capable of dealing with the coming issues
c. His wife Jane fainted when she learned that her husband had been nominated
d. Their only son Benny was killed shortly before Pierce was inaugurated
e. Gadsden Purchase in 1853 completes the territorial U.S
f. Ostend Manifesto hurts his reputation
C. Sectionalism splits the country
1. Kansas-Nebraska Act 1853
a. sponsored by Stephen Douglas, D-IL
b. would organize the territory west of MO and IA into two territories
c. to forestall Southern opposition, popular sovereignty in KS and NB
d. would also repeal the MO Compromise
e. Douglas wanted to build a transcontinental railroad
f. hoped to unite the Democratic party around a “national” issue
g. instead split his party, and the South will control the Democratic party
h. Kansas-Nebraska passes
2. Results of Kansas-Nebraska
a. New England ministers call the act a surrender to slave power
b. Northerners are furious that the South “broke” their agreement of MO Compromise
c. South responds with fervent support of the act
d. No future compromises, both sides will fight for political power
e. Ostend Manifesto also made public during the K-N controversy
f. Whig Party disintegrates, Democratic Party survives as a Southern party
3. Birth of the Republican Party
a. forms in the Midwest states of Wisconsin and Michigan
b. absorbed Northern Democrats and Whigs who were upset with K-N
c. message included
- slave power conspiracy
- resist spread of slavery in the “free” lands of the west
- build a transcontinental railroad
d. able to build a strong base and support because professional politicians join
4. Bleeding Kansas 1854
a. settlers of KS were mostly anti-slavery
b. in the first election of the territorial legislature, thousands of MO citizens vote illegally
c. results in a pro-slavery legislature that legalizes slavery, also illegal to speak against it
d. Pierce also recognized the legislature, even though Congress said it was elected
illegally
e. a rival anti-slavery legislature was set up in Topeka, Pierce declared it illegal
f. guerilla warfare breaks out in KS between the pro/anti slavery settlers
5. Bleeding Sumner
a. Mass. Senator Charles Sumner made a speech in Congress against slavery
b. Rep. Preston Brooks attacked him with a cane, severely beating him
c. Sumner couldn’t return to Washington DC for three yrs, but re-elected
d. provided much support for the Republican Party
6. Election of 1856
a. Republicans nominate John Fremont
- liberation of Kansas
- law to prohibit slavery in all western territories
b. Democrats nominate James Buchanan
- popular sovereignty in the territories
c. Buchanan wins the election, but the Republicans do very well
D. A House Divided
1. Country is divided on all levels
a. Religious
- Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians split
- North declares slavery immoral and a sin
- South declares the Bible permits slavery
b. Literature
- Thoreau, Emerson in the North
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Southern writers produced very romanticized works about Southern life
c. Education
- textbooks are rewritten with a pro-North or South bias
d. Popular Media
- newspapers, magazines, journals all reflect either North or South views
2. Dred Scot Case
a. Dred Scot was a slave who lived in Wisconsin, owner died
b. Scot sues for freedom because lives in a “free” territory
c. Supreme Court rules against Scot
- he is not a citizen, could not sue in U.S. courts
- no black, free or otherwise, could be a citizen
- even if he had been a citizen, would not be free because Congress has no right to
prohibit slavery in the territories
- reflected the extreme southern view of slavery and states’ rights
d. 5 out of 6 justices were southern slave owners
e. helped the Republican Party, who declared it the “greatest crime” in the history of
the US
3. LeCompton Controversy
a. Pro-slavery minority in KS decide to apply for statehood
b. only pro-slavery leaders run for convention
c. LeCompton Constitution submitted to voters
- could not vote against the Constitution, only on one provision
- did not allow for abolition, only to allow/forbid future importation of slaves
- most voters boycott the election
- the LeCompton Constitution was sent to Washington DC
d. Pres. Buchanan put pressure on Congress to approve the Constitution
- it was clear that the majority of Kansans were anti-slavery
- fist fights broke out in Congress over the constitution
- the Senate narrowly approved it, but the House defeated it
- it was sent back to KS to be tweaked
- by this time new elections in KS put an anti-slavery legislature in place
- the constitution was resubmitted to the people of KS, vote overwhelmingly against
e. Kansas enters the union in 1861 as a free state
f. Stephen Douglas spoke against the LeCompton Controversy, first real break with
Democrats
4. Lincoln-Douglas Debates
a. Republican Abraham Lincoln challenges Douglas for his senate seat
b. They engage in a series of debates throughout Illinois
c. Lincoln says “a house divided cannot stand”
- evidence of a slave power conspiracy
- slavery is immoral, and only strong moral opposition to slavery is permissible
- does not agree to equality for African-Americans, or freeing slaves where slavery is
legal
- but does say that everyone is entitled to the fruits of their labor at the end of the
day
d. Douglas accuses Lincoln of being an abolitionist
- will endanger the union with talk of freedom for the slaves
- slavery should have support of Congressional legislation
- popular sovereignty would ensure that slavery would be kept out of territories
e. Douglas wins re-election
5. Southern Paranoia
a. expansion of slavery in the western territories a symbolic issues
b. Raid on Harper’s Ferry
c. Helperism
6. Election of 1860
a. Democrats cannot decide on a candidate, eventually nominate Stephen Douglas
- Douglas takes no stand on the slavery issue
b. Republicans nominate Abraham Lincoln
- self made man
- advocated high protective tariff
- transcontinental railroad
- Homestead Act
- halt expansion of slavery
c. Lincoln wins the election
d. South Carolina secedes from the United States one month later