Part II
The Crime Against Kansas”
•
Charles Sumner – leader of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate – abolish
slavery
•
Preston Brooks - Senator from South Carolina- state’s right
•
The two strongly disagreed over the settlement of Kansas and it led to Brooks
severely beating Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate
In the presidential election of 1856 there were 5 political parties.
Whig Party
Failed to nominate a candidate
Republican Party
Won one-third of the popular vote and
11 northern states
Know-Nothings
Put up a candidate but dissolved over
the slavery issue
Democrats
Won with James Buchanan promising to stop the “agitation
of the slavery issue”
Free-Soil Party
Absorbed into the Republican Party
1856 Presidential Election
Who Won???? James Buchanan
The Democrats
•The Democrats held their convention in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 2, 1856.
•Among the
candidates running for the democratic nomination were Stephen Arnold
Douglas, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan.
•Their
platform included endorsing the Kansas Nebraska Act.
•Once again
the 2/3rd’s rule is in effect and Douglas and Buchanan are in a deadlock.
Afraid of giving the nomination to another dark horse, Stephen Arnold Douglas took
himself out of contention, making a deal and hoping for support in 1860.
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Part II
The New Republican Party
•The Republican Party held their convention in Philadelphia on June 17, 1856.
•Their
party platform rested on a single issue, the containment of slavery into the new
territories.
•The Republicans
nominated John Fremont, the “Pathfinder of the West.” He, like most
Northern Republicans, all agreed on federal aid for internal improvements, the creation of
a transcontinental railroad, and a protective tariff. Democrats are split on these issues.
The Administration of James Buchanan
•James Buchanan (PA) took office on March 4, 1857. Two days later the United States
Supreme Court announced a decision that shook the nation concerning slavery in
territories.
•Mr.
Buchanan believed that the question over slavery belonged to the Supreme Court.
He felt it was judicial dispute, not a political dispute.
The Dred Scott Decision
•Dred Scott, a black man who was born a slave in VA and raised in Missouri.
•In 1834, his master took to the Free State of Illinois, then to free territory of Wisconsin,
then back to Missouri.
•In 1846, Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that freedom went with the landsince he lived in a free state and a free territory, he was a free man.
•The Supreme Court faced two questions.
•Was Scott a citizen of the US? If not, he could not sue and the case would have been
thrown out.
•Did Scott’s residence in a free territory make him a free man even through he returned
to a slave state?
Roger B. Taney’s Decison
•The decision was handed down on March 6, 1857.
•The opinion was written by Chief Justice Taney. He ruled that Dred Scot was still a
slave. As a slave, Scott was not a citizen and had no right to bring a lawsuit. Then, he
addressed the broader issue of slavery in the territories. Taney’s decision of slavery in the
territories was, in effect, protected by the Constitution of the United States.
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Part II
•He wrote that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in any territory. He discredited
the legality of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the
doctrine of popular sovereignty.
•He further suggested that since slaves were property, Congress had no power to taking
property away without “due process of law.”
Roger B. Taney’s Decision--Reaction to the Decision
•The decision reached further reaffirmed what many southerners had always maintained,
which said nothing could legally prevent the spread of slavery.
•Northern Republicans and antislavery groups were outraged, considering the courts
decision as the “greatest crime” ever committed in the nation’s courts. Republicans
promised that if they won the presidency in 1860, they would add justices to the court
and reverse the decision.
The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln
•In the congressional elections of 1858, the Senate race for Illinois was the center of
national attention. The race seated incumbent Democrat Stephen Arnold Douglas against
the unknown, poor Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln.
The Lincoln Douglas Debates
•Lincoln, in 1858, challenged Douglas to a series of debates. Douglas reluctantly
accepted. They met seven times in August, September, and October at all locations in
Illinois. The main topic was slavery.
What They Said
•Douglas believed deeply in popular sovereignty.
•Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong and that Congress could and should keep
slavery out of the territories.
•While neither man wanted slavery, they disagreed on how to keep it out.
Douglas’s Freeport Doctrine
•In Freeport, IL, Lincoln posed the question whether settlers of a territory can vote to
exclude slavery before it became a state.
•Douglas acknowledged that slavery could not exist without laws to support it- laws
dealing with runaways and the sale of slaves- if the people refused to pass such laws,
slavery could not exist in practice, no matter what the Supreme Court said.
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Significance of Debates
•Following the debates, Douglas won reelection to the Senate.
•However, he lost much support in the South. Lincoln may have lost the Senate race, but
his debating skills gave him national attention.
•For he would receive the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1860.
The Raid on Harper’s Ferry
•On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown led 18 men on a raid on Harper’s Ferry,
Virginia. He targeted an arsenal, a storage place with weapons and ammunition.
•He wanted
to seize a federal arsenal to encourage an uprising of enslaved African
Americans, whom he would arm with weapons.
The Plan Fails
•The plan failed. No slaves rebelled, and the Marines under the command of Robert E.
Lee captured Brown and several followers.
•The raid lasted 36 hours. During that time, 10 men, including 2 of his sons, were killed.
Others were also killed.
The Death of John Brown
•Brown was tried and found guilty of murder and treason and was sentenced to hang on
December 2, 1859. The death of John Brown became a rallying point for Northern
Abolitionists.
Attempts at Compromise
•Senator John Crittendon of Kentucky proposed a series of amendments to the
Constitution. One provision included protecting slavery south of 36º30’N latitude.
•Neither Northerners nor Southerners accepted the plans. One wrote “No human power
can save the Union.”
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Part II
1860 Presidential Election
Four-Way Race
•Southern –Democrats took the position set forth by the Dred Scott Case- the Federal
gov’t is obliged to protect slavery in the territories- John C. Breckingridge of KY was
nominated.
•Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas- declaring popular sovereignty was the
best way.
•The remnants of the Whig & American Parties formed the Constitutional Union Party,
it simply supported “the constitution, the Union, and the laws”- nominated John Bell of
TN
•The Republican Party ran Abraham Lincoln on a platform that opposed slavery into the
territories.
The Results-Lincoln Wins
The South Secedes
•Fearing that the Republican government would not protect southern rights, South
Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.
The Confederacy
•By February, 1861, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had
joined South Carolina.
•Delegates from these states met in Montgomery, Alabama on February 4, to form a new
nation and a new government. Calling themselves the Confederate States of America, on
February 18, 1861, they chose Jefferson Davis as their president.
Legality of Secession
•The Confederacy argued that they had voluntarily joined the Union. They defined their
membership as a contract among the states and the federal government.
•Since
the national government violated the contract, by refusing to enforce the Fugitive
Slave Act and by denying southerners equal rights in the territories, the states were
justified in leaving.
•Do
you think they were justified?
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