The Civil War on the Horizon
Unit 6, Lesson 3
Essential Idea
• Rising sectional tension during the 1850s
brought the United States to the brink of civil
war.
Transcontinental Railroad
• 1853:
• The Gadsden
Purchase
• Details:
• Transcontinental
Railroad—a railroad
that would unite the
West (California and
Oregon) to the East
• The North wanted a
northern route; the
South wanted a
southern route
Gadsden Purchase
• Gadsden Purchase—the United States bought land (now southern Arizona and New
Mexico) from Mexico that would be used to build a SOUTHERN railroad
• Reactions:
• The South liked this because it would lead to future southern states, helping slavery
expand
• The North wanted to a northern, not southern, railroad route
Rising Sectionalism: Kansas-Nebraska Act
• 1854:
• Kansas-Nebraska
Act
• Purpose:
• This law was
meant to organize
new northern
states in the
Midwest for a
northern railroad
• The South worried
because this land
was above the
36°30’ line (where
slavery was
banned)
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Terms:
• The Missouri
Compromise was
REPEALED
• The Midwest was
divided into a
Kansas and
Nebraska territory
• Both territories
would decide on
slavery using
POPULAR
SOVEREIGNTY
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Reactions:
• Northerners were furious that slavery could now expand above the 36°30’
line
• Both northerners and southerners moved to Kansas, fighting to control it
• Political parties split over the issue
Rising
Sectionalism: The
Republican Party
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1854:
Republican Party forms
Details:
Anti-slavery Whigs, Democrats,
and the Free-Soil party hated
the Kansas-Nebraska Act
They joined together to form
the Republican party, which
existed in the NORTH
Republican party platform—
slavery could NOT expand west
Reactions:
Southerners saw Republicans in
the north as a threat to slavery
Rising Sectionalism: Bleeding Kansas
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1855-1856:
Bleeding Kansas
Details:
Abolitionists from the North and
slave owners (“border ruffians”)
from the South poured into Kansas
• Bleeding Kansas—Kansas had a civil
war between abolitionists and slave
owners
• Popular sovereignty failed because
people in Kansas could not agree
over slavery
•
John Brown
• John Brown—a
violent white
abolitionist who
murdered five
slave owners in
“Bleeding Kansas”
•
Rising Sectionalism: Caning of Charles
Sumner
• 1856:
• Caning of Charles
Sumner
• Details:
• “The Crime Against
Kansas”—this speech,
made in the Senate by
Sumner, denounced
slave states, especially
South Carolina
• Preston Brooks, a
congressman from
South Carolina, nearly
beat Sumner to death
with a cane
Caning of Charles Sumner
• Reactions:
• North, outraged – South, happy and Violence in
Kansas and in Congress foreshadowed the Civil War
Rising Sectionalism: Dred Scott v. Sandford
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1857:
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Details:
The Supreme Court
made a ruling about
slavery in the West
• The case:
• Dred Scott, a slave, was
taken by his owner into
a free territory
• Scott sued and argued
that this meant he was
now free
Dred Scott v.
Sandford
• The ruling:
• 1. Scott was property, not a
citizen, and therefore could
not sue
• 2. The Constitution protects
people’s property, including
slaves
• 3. Slavery could NOT be
banned in ANY western
territory
• Reactions:
• North—Republicans and
abolitionists were angry that
slavery could legally spread
west
• South—southerners loved
the ruling
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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
1858:
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Details:
Republican Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephen Douglas for Senate and
challenged him to a series of debates
• Lincoln asked Douglas how popular sovereignty could work since the Dred Scott
ruling said slavery could not be banned in the territories
The Freeport
Doctrine
• Freeport Doctrine—
Douglas said that slavery
could be allowed but a
territory did not have to
pass laws to protect it
• Results:
• Lincoln lost the election,
but he and the Republican
party gained popularity
• The South felt more
threatened by Lincoln and
northern Republicans
Rising Sectionalism: John Brown’s Raid
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1859:
John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry
Details:
John Brown and his followers seized a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
Brown intended to smuggle military weapons to the South and start a major slave
rebellion
John Brown’s
Raid
• Brown was
stopped, captured,
and executed
• Reactions:
• Abolitionists in the
North viewed John
Brown as a martyr
• Southerners feared
more northern
conspiracies to
attack slavery