Chapter 14 Outline
From Compromise to Secession, 1850-1861
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a. The Compromise of 1850
i. Zachary Taylor at the Helm
1. Zachary Taylor was elected without a platform but for his position on
slavery (pro-slave)
2. While the Wilmot Proviso proposed to give Congress the right to bar
slavery in the territories ceded by Mexico, Taylor left the decision to the
states
a. California and New Mexico were accepted into the Union as
free states
3. Southerners were disillusioned with Taylor
a. Questioned if slavery could never take root in California or New
Mexico
i. Both could employ slaves profitably in the mining of
gold and silver
b. 9 southern states sent delegates to a southern convention in
Nashville (June 1850)
ii. Henry Clay Proposes a Compromise
1. Henry Clay challenged Taylor by creating a set of compromise proposals
which were summarized in one “omnibus” bill
a. Admission of California as a free state
b. Division of the rest of the Mexican cession into New Mexico and
Utah which had no federal restrictions to slavery
c. Boundary disputes between California and New Mexico are
settled on terms favorable to New Mexico
d. Federal Government would assume most of the public debt of
Texas
e. In the District of Columbia, the continuation of slavery but the
end of the slave trade
f. More effective fugitive slave law
2. Late winter of 1849 and early spring of 1850 marked the last major
appearances of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun
a. Clay played the role of the conciliator
i. Warned South against the evils of secession and assured
North that nature would check spread of slavery more
effectively than the Wilmot Provisos
b. Calhoun warned against the North’s growing power, enhanced
by protective tariffs and the dearth of slaveholders due to the
Missouri’s Compromise, had created an imbalance between the
sections
c. Webster believed in slavery to be exclusive to certain parts of
the country
i. In “Seventh of March” speech, he chided the North for
attempting to “reenact the will of God” by legally
excluding slavery from the Mexican cession
ii. Declared himself a forthright proponent of compromise
3. President Millard Fillmore, successor of Zachary Taylor after his death of
gastroenteritis, was more favorable to the compromise measure
4. Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas took over floor leadership from
Henry Clay in late July 1850
a. Chopped Clay’s “omnibus” into a series of several measures
b. Included the principle of popular sovereignty in the bills
organizing New Mexico and Utah to secure support from
Democrats
5. Congress passed each component of the Compromise of 1850 by the
end of the summer
iii. Assessing the Compromise
1. Southerners opposed admission of California and abolition of the slave
trade
2. Majority of northerners opposed the Fugitive Slave Act and the
organization of New Mexico and Utah without a forthright
congressional prohibition of slavery
iv. Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act
1. Disagreeable to many northerners
a. Denied alleged fugitives the right of trial by jury
b. Didn’t allow fugitives to testify in their own behalf
c. Permitted their return to slavery merely on the testimony of the
claimant
d. Enabled court-appointed commissioners to collect $10 to rule in
favor of slave holder and $5 for the fugitive
2. North made into a hunting ground by slave catchers
a. Former slaves and runaways were all fair game
3. Vigilantes sprouted to save runaways
a. Boston mob tried to save fugitive slave Anthony Burns
b. Lawyers used obstructive tactics to drag out legal proceedings
and increased costs for the slave-catcher
v. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
a. Abolitionist novel describing how slavery tore families apart
2. Proslavery lawyer predicted that it would convert 2 million to
abolitionism
3. Southerners feared impact so much that anti-Uncle Tom novels were
written
vi. The Election of 1852
1. Whig nomination Winfield Scott widened the sectional split within the
party
2. Democratic nomination Franklin Pierce bridged sectional divisions
a. No faction of the party strongly opposed him
b. The Collapse of the Second Party System
i. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
1. National expansionists looked to the day when a railroad would link the
Midwest to the Pacific
2. Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed to organize Nebraska as a
territory
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
a. Promote continuous line of settlement between Midwest and
Pacific
3. Senator Douglas ignored the Missouri Compromise
a. Douglas divided Nebraska into two territories: Nebraska and
Kansas
b. Made Missouri Compromise void and Nebraska and Kansas
became slave states
The Surge of Free Soil
1. Some opposed slavery on moral grounds and rejected racist legislations
2. Others were racist and opposed allowing African-Americans into the
West
a. From supreme hatred of blacks
3. Several beliefs
a. Slavery impeded whites’ progress
b. Slavery doesn’t have natural limits and the ideal can be
contagious through the colonies
The Ebbing of Manifest Destiny
1. Free-soilers were increasingly suspicious about expansion
a. Believed it was Slave Power conspiracy to grab more territory
for slavery
b. Gadsen Purchase of southern Arizona and part of southern New
Mexico was passed only after reducing it by 9 thousand square
miles
2. Expansion was still attempted
a. John Quitman, former Mississippi governor, planned a filibuster
to seize Cuba
b. President Franklin Pierce still wanted to purchase Cuba but
Ostend Manifesto changed his attitude towards expansion into
Caribbean
c. William Walker led filibustering expeditions into Central
America and talked of making Nicaragua a US colony
The Whigs Disintegrate
1. Kansas-Nebraska Act wrecked Whig Party
a. Divisions between northern Whigs and southern Whigs
prevented unity
b. Northern Whigs divided between Conscience Whigs led by Sen.
William Seward of NY and conservatives led by former president
Millard Fillmore
The Rise and Fall of the Know-Nothings
1. Know-Nothings evolved out of a secret nativist organization, order of
the Star-Spangled Banner founded in 1850
a. Sought to rid US of immigrant and Catholic political influence by
pressuring parties to nominate and appoint only native-born
Protestant and extending naturalization period before suffrage
2. Many nativists went towards the Know-Nothings after the 1852
elections
a. Kansas-Nebraska Act cemented allegiance who opposed
extension of slavery and Catholicism
b. Fear of conspiracies unified Know-Nothings
i. Evil influence of Slave Power everywhere
3. Amazing surge of Know-Nothings
a. Captured governorship, all congressional seats, and almost all
seats in the state legislature in Massachusetts in 1854
b. Strong in West to retard emergence of Republican party
c. Strong in East preventing Whigs from capitalizing hostility to
Kansas-Nebraska Act
4. Know-Nothingism fell in 1856
a. Vulnerable to sectional conflicts over slavery as the Whigs
b. Southern wing composed of former Whigs who loathed
antislavery northerners abandoning the Whig party
i. Combined with northern conservatives to accept
Kansas-Nebraska Act
vi. The Origins of the Republican Party
1. Born from the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and 1855
a. United by opposition to Kansas-Nebraska Act
b. Held various shades of opinion
i. Some wanted restoration of Missouri Compromise
ii. Others were Liberty party abolitionists
iii. Middle held free-soilers
2. Confronted task of building organizations on the state level
a. Voters’ allegiances shaped by state issue
b. Republicans faced dilemma competing against Know-Nothings
i. Attacking them might lose voters needed to win
ii. Conciliating to them might lose identity
c. In 1856, only organized in half the northern states and lacked
national organization
i. Unity accomplished by violence in Kansas aka Bleeding
Kansas
vii. Bleeding Kansas
1. Boston-based abolitionists organized the New England Emigrant Aid
Company to send antislavery settlers into Kansas
a. Stifle escalating efforts to turn Kansas into slave state
b. Bulk of early settlers came from Missouri or in Midwest
i. Few opposed slavery on moral grounds
2. Kansas became battleground between proslavery and antislavery
a. In March 1855, proslavery Missourians crossed into Kansas to
vote illegally for a territorial legislature
i. Cloud of fraudulence hung over proslavery legislature as
consequence
3. Legislature held in Lecompton expelled antislavery legislators and
passed outrageous acts
a. Limited officeholding to individuals who would swear allegiance
to slavery
b. Punished harboring of fugitive slaves by 10 years’ imprisonment
c. Circulation of abolitionist literature a capital offense
4. Free-staters enraged by proceedings at Lecompton organized a rival
government at Topeka
5. Popular sovereignty failed in Kansas
a. Two rival governments were created
viii. The Election of 1856
1. John C. Fremont from the Republican party vs. James Buchanan of the
Democrats
a. 2 separate races
i. Free and slave states
2. Buchanan was the only truly national candidate in race so secured
presidency
3. Yielded three clear conclusions
a. American part finished as major national force
b. Most northern Know-Nothings joined Republican party
c. Southern Know-Nothings gave up their party and sought new
political affiliations
c. The Crisis of the Union
i. The Dred Scott Case
1. Two key issues settled by Supreme Court (1856)
a. Residence of slave in specific state granted freedom
b. Did Dred Scott have right to sue federal court
2. Buchanan wanted a far-reaching decision dealing with broad issue of
slavery
3. Ruling so controversial that it settled little
4. Conclusion
a. A slave could not sue for freedom
b. No black could become citizen of the United States
c. Missouri Compromise which prohibited slavery in Scott’s
residence was in itself unconstitutional
5. Decision blast new controversy over slavery
6. 5/6 of justices who rejected the principle of the Missouri Compromise
were from slave states
ii. The Lecompton Constitution
1. President Buchanan sought a concrete solution to Kansas where two
governments existed
a. Plan for Kansas: elected territorial convention that would draw
up a constitution either permitting or prohibiting slavery
b. Submission of constitution would admit Kansas as a state
2. Plan blew up in his face
a. Essence of plan was popular sovereignty which was nonexistent
in Kansas
3. December 1857: Buchanan endorsed the Lecompton Constitution even
though it was drafted by less than 10% of eligible voters
iii. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
1. Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham Lincoln for United States Senate
2. Douglas believed that popular sovereignty was surest way to attain the
goal of keeping slavery out of the path of white settlement
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
3. Lincoln doesn’t believe the nation can exist permanently half slave and
half free
4. Contest solidified sectional split in the national Democratic party
The Legacy of Harpers Ferry
1. Lincoln called free soil a step toward extinction of slavery
2. Southerners believed that republicans and abolitionists were joined in
an unholy alliance against slavery
3. Brown’s raid rekindled southern fears of a slave insurrection
a. Hysteria followed and vigilantes rounded thousands of slaves,
forced confessions out of them and lynched them
The South Contemplates Secession
1. Southerners believed that the South should govern the South
a. Gradual and reluctant conclusion
2. Southerners saw resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act and slavery in
Kansas as illegal or unconstitutional
3. Secession did not make a great deal of sense
a. Made it easier for South to acquire territory for slavery
b. Not united in desiring additional slave territory
The Election of 1860
1. Republican leaders concluded that they needed to forge an economic
program to complement advocacy of free soil
a. Panic of 1857 provided a severe economic slump
b. Republicans developed an economic program in response
i. Support for a protective tariff
ii. Federal aid for internal improvements
iii. Grant of free 160-acre homesteads
2. Abraham Lincoln was nominated over the front-runner William Seward
for the Republican party
a. Seward couldn’t convince the party he could carry the key
states
3. Democratic party had to bridge sectional differences
a. Dread Scott decision and conflict over the Lecompton
constitution had weakened the northern Democrats and
strengthened the southern
b. Couldn’t rally behind a single nominee so the divided Democrats
ran with Stephen Douglas and John C. Breckinridge
4. Former northern Whigs who opposed both Lincoln and Douglas forged a
new Constitutional Union and nominated John Bell
a. Took no stand on slavery extension
The Movement for Secession
1. Southerners felt Lincoln’s election as a northern insult
a. Few believed that Lincoln would fulfill promise to protect
slavery and would act as a front man for more John Brown
2. Dec. 20, 1860: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas,
and South Carolina seceded and established the Confederate States of
America
3. Secession was laced with uncertainty
a. Many southerners resisted immediate secession
b. Not entire South seceded (Upper South rejected calls for
secession)
viii. The Search for Compromise
1. Lincoln believed that loyal majority of southerners would wrest control
from fire-eating minority
a. Perception stiffened Republican resolve to resist compromise
2. Moderate John Crittenden proposed several steps to reinstate the
South back into the Union
a. Compensation for owners of runaway slaves
b. Repeal of northern personal-liberty laws
c. Constitutional amendment to prohibit federal government from
interfering with slavery in southern states
d. Restore Missouri compromise line and protect slavery below it
i. Stead fast Republican opposition caused plan to
collapse
3. Lincoln was faced with a new issue
a. Issue wasn’t slavery extension but secession
ix. The Coming of War
1. When Lincoln took office in March 1861, a spark was all that was
needed to ignite war
2. William Seward was obsessed with the idea of conciliating the Lower
South to hold the Upper South in the Union
3. Fort Sumter was attacked by Confederate batteries on April 12
a. Lincoln responded with appealing for 75,000 militiamen to
suppress the rebellion
b. Caused Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee to
league with the Confederacy