THE ROAD TO
CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER 18/19
1848 election
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Dem-Gen. Lewis Cass
Whigs-Taylor (Fillmore as VP)
Free Soil—Van Buren
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“free soil, free speech, free labor, free men”
KEY ISSUE--SLAVERY
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ABOLITION?
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Compare slaves to wage earners
Free Soil party
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Missouri Compromise
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Popular Sovereignty—
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3 Great Leaders
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Clay—”Great Pacificator”
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Calhoun-”Great Nullifier”
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Webster—Pro-Union til the end
William Seward
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NY Senator
No concession on slavery
“higher law than Constitution”
Immorality of slavery
New conscience of north
The problem of California
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1849-gold rush
Need a constitution & statehood
Lawlessness abounds
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Southern worries
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California?
New Mexico & Utah?
Loss of slaves from Underground RR.
North vs. South
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North
Doesn’t want secession
South
Controls Presidency, Senate, Supr. Ct
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Need a compromise
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Daniel Webster’s “Seventh of March Speech”
 Compromise at all costs
Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
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NORTH
California—free
Abolish slave trade in
Washington D.C.
Disputed territory to
New Mexico
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SOUTH
Texas gets $10 mil
from Fed. Gov’t
New Mex & Utah use
popular sovereignty
Fugitive Slave Law
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Get to go to the North to
take back runaways
PRESIDENT TAYLOR
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Dislikes Compromise
But, dies in office
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Fillmore takes over
Ok to Compromise of 1850
“Compromise Saves Union”
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Results of Compromise:
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Election of 1852
√ Franklin Pierce
Democrat
Gen. Winfield Scott
Whig
John Parker Hale
Free Soil
1852 ELECTION
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Pierce-Dem
Pro-Slavery Northerner
Scott-Whigs
Pro-Fugitive Slave Law
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Ends Whig Party
PIERCE AS PRESIDENT
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Expansionist
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1-easy route to California—use Nicaragua
William Walker
Result: Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Brit.
2-Japan
Commodore Perry
1854 treaty for trade rights
PIERCE CONTINUED
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3-Gadsen purchase 1852
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Southern-New Mexico & Arizona
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Near Gila River
$10 mill to Mexico
Needed for transcontinental rr
Cuba
Ostend Manifesto
 Cuba as the next slave state?
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
(1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady who started the
Civil War.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852
Sold 300,000 copies in
the first year.
2 million in a decade!
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854
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Use popular sovereignty
Need territory organized to get Transcontinental
RR built
Act-proposed by Stephen Douglass
Senator from ILL
Benefits ILL—Chicago is Eastern port for RR
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Needs Southern voters to pass this Act
Southerners want slavery here
Reaction to K-N Act
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Abolishes Missouri Compromise
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Republican Party develops
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Northern Whigs
Northern Democrats
Free Soilers
Know-Nothings
Kansas Bleeds
“Bleeding Kansas”
“The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston
Brooks
(D-SC)
John Brown: Madman, Hero or
Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol building
by John Steuart Curry (20c)
1856 Election
James Buchanan
Democrat
John C. Frémont
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Whig/Know
Nothing
Election of 1856 Results
Dred Scott v. Sanford 1857
The Problems in Kansas 1857
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1- 1855 Territorial legislature elected
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1st-anti-slavery
2nd pro-slavery
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Which territorial gov’t is the right one?
NEED A COMPROMISE??
2-Le Compton Constitution 1857
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Vote for the Kansas Constitution with slavery or without
slavery
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If no slavery, Kansas slave owners can keep slaves in
Kansas
 President Buchanon—agree!
 Stephen Douglass-LeCompton is undemocratic
1857 Economic Panic
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Reasons
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1-increased gold from Calif—inflation
2-increased speculation on land & RR
3-Crimean War in Europe—increases demand
for grain—increase Supply
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Decreased price
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South—”Cotton is King”
Lincoln-Douglass Debates 1858
for Illinois Senate
A House divided against
itself,
cannot stand~Abe Lincoln
Freeport Doctrine~S.
Douglass
John Brown @Harper’s Ferry
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln
Republican
John Bell
Constitutional
Union
Stephen
Douglas
Northern
Democrat
John
Breckenridge
Southern
Democrat
Republican Platform
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No extension of slavery (free soilers)
Protective Tariff (industrialists)
Gov’t $ to build RR (NW)
Internal improvements with Federal $ (W)
Free homesteads for farmers
No abridgement of rights for immigrants
Other 3 Candidates & their issues
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Douglass
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Breckenridge
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Pro-Popular Sov & anti-Fugitive
Annex Cuba
Pro-extension of slavery
Bell
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Compromise
Union needs to stay together
1860 Election—A nation coming
apart!
Election Results