Drifting Towards
Disunion
1854-1860
Incendiary Literature
Harriet Beecher Stowe &
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Portrayed the evils of
slavery (physical
abuse/splitting of families)
Helped start the war &
helped win it
Uncle
Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Sold 300,000
copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a
decade!
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
“So you’re the little woman who
wrote the book that made this
great war.”
- A. Lincoln (1862)
Hinton H. Helper (1857)
The Impending Crisis of the
South
Tried to prove that nonslaveholding southerners
suffered the most from
slavery
“Bleeding Kansas”
Southerners believed that
agreement had been
reached that Kansas
would be slave &
Nebraska would be free
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
New England Emigrant
Aid Company
Northern abolitionists &
free-soilers fought this
assumption by sending
pioneers westward
2000 settlers many armed
with “Beecher’s Bibles” the new Sharps rifle
1855: Pro-Slavery “border
ruffians” crossed west
from Missouri into Kansas
on election day to elect
the new government
Free-soilers elected their
own government at
Topeka
May 21, 1856:
Pro-slavery
raiders invaded
the free soil
town of
Lawrence &
burned part of
the town
border-ruffians
May 24, 1856:
Pottawatomie
Creek
John Brown &
his followers
hack 5 proslavers to death
with swords
John Brown:
Madman, Hero or Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol
building
by John Steuart Curry (20c)
“Bully” Brooks (1856)
Senator Charles Sumner
makes a speech in the
Senate denouncing
southern slavery &
insulting Senator Butler of
South Carolina
Congressman Preston
Brooks of SC attacks &
beats Sumner on the floor
of the Senate - whips him
with a cane
Incident underscored the
inflamed passions arising
from the issue of slavery &
free-soil
“The Crime Against Kansas”
Senator Charles
Sumner
(R-MA)
Congressman
Preston Brooks
(D-SC)
Lecompton Constitution
(1857)
Created by Pro-Slavery forces
Election forced voters to
choose between the
constitution with slavery or
without slavery - slaves in the
state would be protected no
matter what
Free-soilers boycotted the
election & constitution
passes with slavery
President Buchanan backs
the Lecompton Constitution
Douglas is against it
Entire constitution is
submitted to a vote - freesoilers defeat it
Kansas does not gain
statehood until 1861
Buchanan & Douglas
forces split the
Democratic Party along
sectional lines
QUICKWRITE
Assess the moral arguments and
political actions of those opposed
to the spread of slavery in the
context of TWO of the following:
Missouri Compromise
Mexican War
Compromise of 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Election of 1856
Democrats
nominate James
Buchanan over
Douglas & Pierce
Both have too
much political
baggage from the
Kansas-Nebraska
Act
Republicans
nominate
John C.
Fremont,
“The
Pathfinder” over “Higher
Law” Seward
Republicans for free-soil
Democrats for popular
sovereignty
American Party (“Knownothings”) nominated exPresident Fillmore
Also endorsed by few
remaining Whigs
1856 Presidential Election
James Buchanan
Democrat
John C. Frémont
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Whig
Southerners threatened
that a Republican victory
would be a declaration of
war
Buchanan won the
electoral vote without
gaining a majority of the
popular vote
1856
Election
Results
Republican loss was a
gain for the North
Secession in 1856 would
have been easier for the
South
The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott,
having lived
in the North
for 5 years,
sued for his
freedom
Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney
ruled that Scott
was a black
slave & not a
citizen,
therefore could
not sue
Pro-southern majority
went further ruling that
slaves, as property,
could be taken into any
territory & held in
slavery there
th
5
The
Amendment
denies Congress the
power to deprive citizens
of their property without
due process
The Missouri
Compromise, repealed by
the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
was now ruled
unconstitutional
Northern free-soilers
called the ruling merely an
“opinion” & refused to
abide by it
Southerners considered
the unlikelihood of
maintaining the bonds of
Union with states that
would not abide by
rulings of the Supreme
Court
The Panic of 1857
Causes:
Inflation caused by gold
Overproduction of grain
caused by the Crimean War
Over speculation in land &
railroads
Results:
Northwestern grain
growers hit the hardest
High cotton prices kept the
South safe from recession
Power of the southern
economy reinforced
southern ideas that cotton
was “king”
Increased westerners’
demands for free land
Demand for higher tariff
rates
Homestead Act
Northerners increased
demands for laws giving
away government land as
160 acre farms
Easterners opposed in fear
that free land would drain
off the labor force
South opposed it because
160 acres was too small
for slave farms
Buchanan would veto a
homestead bill in 1860
The Illinois Rail Splitter
Illinois Senate election of
1858 pit Republican
Abraham Lincoln against
Democrat Stephen
Douglas
Lincoln…
born in a log cabin
self-educated
married Mary Todd
became a trial
lawyer
served one term in
Congress (1847-49:
“Spotty” Lincoln)
“A house divided
against itself
cannot stand. I
believe this
government
cannot endure,
permanently half
slave and half
free.”
- Lincoln’s
nomination
speech
Lincoln
challenged
Douglas to a
series of
debates at
various
locations from
August to
October 1858
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858
(Illinois Senate)
At Freeport, Lincoln
challenged Douglas to a
dilemma:
“If the people of a territory
voted against slavery who
would prevail --the courts
or the people?”
The Freeport Doctrine
Douglas answered that
court or no court, the
people would ultimately
decide the fate of slavery
in the territories
Douglas defeated Lincoln
- but because of the way
Senators were elected Lincoln actually carried
more popular vote
Douglas’s victory, in
defiance of the Dred
Scott decision, further
split him from southern
Democrats
John Brown & Harper’s Ferry
John Brown began
developing a plan to
invade the South, start a
slave uprising, & establish
a black free state
JOHN
BROWN
October 1859 - Brown &
20 followers seized the
federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry in Western
Virginia
PENNSYLVANIA
Harper’s Ferry
VIRGINIA
DC
Colonel Robert E. Lee &
the U.S. Marines captured
Brown & 4 survivors
Brown is tried for treason
& hanged
His death note warned that
slavery would be purged
only by “much bloodshed”
The South saw in Brown
their worse fears - that the
North was dominated by
“Brown-loving”
Republicans seeking to
steal their property
South begins organizing
militias for defense
“John Brown’s
body lies a
mold’ring in the
grave…”
John Brown's zeal for the
cause of freedom was
infinitely superior to mine.
Mine was the taper light; his
was the burning sun. I could
live for the slave. John Brown
could die for him.
-- Frederick Douglass
The Fateful Election of 1860
Democrats meet in
Charleston, SC
Southern anti-Douglas
delegates walk out
Douglas fails to get 2/3rds
vote needed for nomination
Democrats meet again in
Baltimore
Southerners again walk but
Douglas gets nomination
Democratic platform is for
popular sovereignty &
enforcement of the
Fugitive Slave laws
Southern Democrats meet
& nominate John C.
Breckinridge of Kentucky
Platform favored extension
of slavery & the annexation
of Cuba
Former Whigs & “Know
Nothings” form the
Constitutional Union Party
Nominate John Bell of
Tennessee
“The Union, the
Constitution, and the
enforcement of Laws”
Republicans meet in
Chicago
William Seward had too
much baggage
Lincoln gets the
nomination on the 3rd
ballot
Republican platform
included:
non-extension of slavery
protective tariff
no abridgment of immigrants
rights
northern transcontinental
railroad
internal improvements
free homesteads
Abraham Lincoln
Republican
1860
Presidential
Election
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
John Bell
Constitutional
Union
John C.
Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!
Southern secessionists
warned that the South
would secede if Lincoln
were elected
Lincoln won the electoral
vote by a bare plurality of
the popular vote
South Carolina
secessionists rejoiced at
Lincoln’s victory - they
now had their excuse
Southern voting did not
show a strong sentiment
toward disunion
South still had the votes
to protect slavery from a
constitutional amendment
1860
Election
Results
Secession
4 days after the election
South Carolina votes to
hold a special convention
to debate secession
Failure of Compromise
December 18, 1860: John J.
Crittenden of Kentucky
proposed amendments to
appease the South:
Extend the Missouri
Compromise line to the
Pacific
Popular sovereignty for
future states
President-elect Lincoln
flatly rejected the
Crittenden Amendments
December 20, 1860: South
Carolina votes to secede
from the Union
Secession! SC Dec. 20, 1860
Reasons for Secession
Loss of political balance
Republican party
Free-soil, abolitionism (J.B.)
Thought they’d be unopposed
End to dependence on North
Moral high ground
Compact theory
John Locke & DOI
Members of the Buchanan
cabinet begin to quit in
protest over his inaction
Buchanan held that the
southern states had no
right to secede, but that
he had no right to make
them stay by force
Fort Sumter in Charleston
harbor is held by Major
Robert Anderson
SC formally calls for the
removal of all federal forces
from their territory
Lincoln is unable &
unwilling to do anything in
this lame-duck period
Fort Sumter
January 1861: Miss, Fla, Ala,
GA, & LA meet in
Montgomery, Alabama & form
the Confederate States of
America
Jefferson Davis elected
President