The
Sectional
Crisis
two Party System
Breaks down
Wilmot Proviso
Antislavery groups wanted to make sure that slavery
would not expand in the case of an American victory.
Added to the appropriation bill meant to end the MexicanAmerican War.
Banned all African-Americans, slave or free, from
whatever land the United States took from Mexico.
Preserved the area for white small farmers.
Wilmot introduced the amendment to defuse the charge by Northern
Whigs that Polk intended the appropriations being considered for a
down payment to the Mexicans for territory – especially California.
By W
denying slavery in the newly acquired territory Northern
i
Democrats
could go to voters without the necessity of explaining the
l
expansion
of slavery. (The Political Crisis of the 1850s)
m
Wilmot Proviso
Northern hostility toward slavery sprang from several sources.
• A minority of northerners viewed slavery as an intolerable
moral evil that could not be allowed to expand and perpetuate
itself. Preventing the expansion of slavery would lead to its
demise.
• Many hated it as an economic system in competition with and
inimical (injurious) to the northern system of free labor.
• Many – if not most – northerners begrudged southerners the
overweening (conceited, egotistical or arrogant) political power
in both the national parties and national government.
• Most northerners were racist and many simply wanted to
remove the threat of blacks – free or slave – from the
territories.
Wilmot Proviso
Southerners hated the proviso because of its potential danger
to slavery.
• Seventy-five percent of southerners did not own slaves.
• Many southerners felt that the new territories could not
support slavery.
• The RIGHT to expand slavery – even into areas in which
the south really had no ambition (see above) – was critical
to the southerner: it represented his equality in
government
• Inequality meant slavery to the southerner.
Wilmot Proviso
Passed the House (Aug. 1846 & early 1847) but failed in
the Senate.
John C. Calhoun argued that Congress had no right
to bar slavery from any territory.
Polk suggested extending the 36-30 line of the
Missouri Compromise to the Pacific coast.
In 1848 Lewis Cass proposed to settle the issue by
“popular sovereignty.”
Popular Sovereignty seemed a democratic way to
solve the problem and it got Congress off the
hook.
Blend of racism and antislavery won great support in the
North, but although it was debated frequently, it
never passed.
Foreshadowed an even more urgent controversy once the
peace treaty with Mexico was signed.
Reactions in the “North”
“… we will establish a cordon of free States that
shall surround you; and then we will light up
the fires of liberty on every side, until they
melt your present chains, and render all your
people free. This is no idle boost.
Columbus Delano
Whig
future Republican
Ohio
“Southern” Response
If the “aggressive measures” of the nonslaveholding
states continued and if the sectional balance in the
Senate was destroyed, then “political revolution,
anarchy, civil war, and widespread disaster” would
follow.
John C. Calhoun
Democrat, South Carolina
The Silent Majority?
“… out of the state of South Carolina … Mr.
Calhoun was not sustained in any State of this
Union by five per cent. Of the population. In
fact, his strength at the South was about as great
as that of the abolitionists at the North. His
violence or denunciation was food for the
abolitionsists, just as their fanaticism gave him
materials to work with.
Thomas L. Clingman
Democrat, North Carolina
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso polarized the nation not just the politicians.
It was not just a question of extending or not extending slavery into
the new territories, it was that north and south alike saw a threat to
republican values in the position of the other.
HOWEVER – the north was not welded to the absolute prohibition of
slavery in the new territories and the south did not insist on the
expansion.
The north did not want southern political power to grow.
The south wanted to ensure their equal rights.
They would not be forced to submit to Northern diktat.
Suppression would result in inferiority, subjugation and – worst of all - slavery.
Wilmot Proviso
Democrats
Finding a Solution: Popular Sovereignty
Move the crisis away from absolute prohibition by congress,
allowing each side to embrace a common resolution.
Popular Sovereignty:
• left the decision of accepting or prohibiting slavery to the
settlers of each territory
• removed from Congress the entire question that had disrupted
party lines
• assured Southerners an equal opportunity to expand their
institutions
• allowed Northern Democrats to argue climate would prohibit
the expansion of slavery
Wilmot Proviso
Whigs
Finding a Solution: Anti-Expansion
Move the crisis away from absolute prohibition by congress,
allowing each side to embrace a common resolution.
Anti-Expansion:
• Allowed Whigs their traditional opposition toward any
territorial expansion
• Southern Whigs were protecting Southerners from the
Proviso’s insults by preventing expansion into any
territory to which it could be applied
• Northern Whigs were stopping the expansion of
slavery by rejecting the expansion into any area into
which slavery might go
The Compromise of 1850
Main provisions:
Admitted California as a free state
New Mexico & Utah territories established
Slavery issue sidestepped by establishing concept of “popular
sovereignty”
More powerful Fugitive Slave Act
(stacked in favor of slave-catchers)
Slave trade abolished in District of Columbia
Additional provision:
Texas boundaries established at their present limits
TX paid $10 million to give up extreme boundary claims
The Fugitive Slave Issue
Allowed federal agents
to seize any black
suspected of being a
fugitive
Status of accused
determined without
trial or testimony
Many blacks fled to
Canada
Stephen A.
Douglas
Democrat
Senator from Illinois
Saw himself as the
leader of the Senate
Saw himself as a
moderate
Hoped to run for the
presidency in 1856
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854)
Divided the remaining unorganized territory of the
Louisiana Purchase into the territories of Kansas and
Nebraska
Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820
Extended Popular Sovereignty to the new territories
Douglas’s attempt to win Southern support
Considered the land unsuitable for plantation
agriculture
Considered the slavery issue a moot point
The Republican
Worldview
Depicted the North as the home of:
Progress
Opportunity
Freedom
Demonized Southern Society as the home of:
Degraded slaves
Poor whites
Idle aristocrats
Saw the struggle over the territories as a contest
Which labor system would dominate the West
Outcome in the West would dictate the nation’s future
Saw the national division into free and slave states as an
“irrepressible conflict”
John Brown and the
Pottawatomie Massacre
Radical abolitionists & free soiler
Wanted to avenge the “sack” of
Lawrence
With seven others, attacked proslavery camp at Pottawatamie creek
Hacked five men to death in front of
their families
Ignited a guerilla war between the
pro-slavery and anti-slavery
factions that lasted for nearly two
years
Violence in the Senate
Preston Brooks (SC) assaults
Charles Sumner (MA)
Have the North and the South become different civilizations?
Election of 1856
Buchanan
Presidential Candidate
Party
Home State
Popular Vote(a)
Count
Electoral Vote
Percentage
James Buchanan
Democratic
Pennsylvania
1,836,072
45.3%
174
John Charles Frémont
Republican
California
1,342,345
33.1%
114
Millard Fillmore
American/Whig
New York
873,053
21.6%
8
Other
3,177
0.1%
0
Total
4,054,647
100.0%
296
Needed to win
149
Fremont
Fillmore
Dred Scott
Dred Scott v. Sandford
 People of African descent, whether or not they were slaves,
could never be citizens of the United States
 Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal
territories
• Scott was not a "citizen of a state" within the meaning of the
United States Constitution
• Since Scott was not a citizen, and no state could confer citizenship
to him, the Court had not jurisdiction in the case
Despite the lack of jurisdiction:
 Scott was not a free man despite his residence for a time in a
free state and territory
 The Missouri Compromise was beyond Congressional
authority
 A slaveowner had a right to his property guaranteed by the
Fifth Amendment
Lecompton
Constitution
One of four proposed Kansas state
constitutions
• Supported the existence of slavery in
the proposed state
• Protected the rights of slaveholders
Proposed a referendum to vote concerning the introduction of “new” slaves
An attempt by Buchanan to get the proposed constitution through
Congress causes a split in the Democratic Party – Douglas & Breckinridge
Voters could vote for the proposed constitution or against it in its entirity
If rejected, statehood would be delayed
Kansans rejected the proposed constitution
Harper’s Ferry
John Brown’s Raid
Fire-Eaters
Nathaniel Beverly Tucker
John A. Quitman
Thomas C. Hindman
William Porcher Miles
Laurence M. Keitt
James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow
1850 Democratic Convention proposed secession because of the vast,
incompatible differences between North and South.
In the 1850’s they cited recent events such as “Bleeding Kansas,” and the SumnerBrooks Affair to accuse the North of attempting to abolish slavery.
Accused Lincoln of abolishing slavery during the election of 1860.
Election of 1860
Ah! Ha! Gentlemen! You
need’nt think to catch me
napping for I am a regular Wide
awake.
Hurry up Douglas! And
get the door open, so that
I can get in, for the
watchman is coming.
Confound it! None of these keys
will unlock the door so I’d better
be off, for old Abe is after me
with a sharp stick.
I’ll do what I can to
help you Beck, but
my strength is failing
and I’m afraid you’ll
pull me out before I
can pull you in.
I’m too weak to get
up - - and we shall be
compelled to
(gravely) dissolve the
Union.
Election of 1860
Popular Vote(a)
Presidential Candidate
Party
Electoral Vote
Count
Percentage
Abraham Lincoln
Republican
Illinois
1,865,908
39.8%
180
John Cabell Breckinridge
Southern Democratic
Kentucky
848,019
18.1%
72
John Bell
Constitutional Union/Whig
Tennessee
590,901
12.6%
39
Stephen Arnold Douglas
Northern Democratic
Illinois
1,380,202
29.5%
12
Needed to win
Lincoln
Breckinridge
Home State
Bell
152
Douglas
Fort Sumter