1850’s: Sectional Conflict
Prelude to the Civil War
America in the 1850’s

Agriculture still mainstay of economy


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Growth of northwestern states


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Urban population increased from 6% to 20%
Rural population increased from 5 million to 25 million
(80% of population)
Population of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin &
Iowa increased from 500,000 to 5 million, 1830-1860
Free labor ideology–individualism & egalitarianism
4 million immigrants enter U.S., 1840-1860


1.4 million Germans
1.7 million Irish
The Election of 1848


Whigs elect war hero
Zachary Taylor without a
platform
Conscience Whigs join antislavery Democrats & Liberty
Party to form new Free
Soil Party



Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s
Nominated Van Buren
Received 10% of vote
Democrats nominated
Lewis Cass & criticized
politicization of slavery
The Debate over California







California Gold Rush (1848-49) brings over 80,000 white
Americans to California
Organized free state government, backed by Taylor
Clay offered compromise Omnibus Bill
William Seward denounced compromise & spoke of
obeying “higher law”
Calhoun warned South would leave union if right to own
slaves not guaranteed
Taylor died in July 1850, making Millard Fillmore
president
Stephen Douglas broke up Omnibus Bill & engineered
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850


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California admitted as a free state
New Mexico territory organized on basis of
popular sovereignty; Texas reduced to present
size & compensated
Utah territory organized on basis of popular
sovereignty
Fugitive Slave Act made federal government
responsible for catching & returning escaped
slaves
Slave trade (but not slavery) abolished in the
District of Columbia
Map: Compromise of 1850
Northern Response to the
Compromise of 1850
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin (1851)
The Election of 1852


Franklin Pierce won
back Van Buren
Democrats
Defeated Gen. Winfield
Scott (Virginia Whig)



Franklin Pierce
Winfield Scott
50.8% - 43.9% in
popular vote
254-42 in electoral vote
John Hale (Free Soil
candidate) polled 4.9%
The End of the Missouri
Compromise

Gadsden Purchase (1853) meant to secure southern
route for transcontinental railroad



Arranged by James Gadsden & Secretary of War Jefferson
Davis
U.S. paid $10 million to Mexico for over 45,000 acres south
of the Gila River
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) meant to secure
northern route


Stephen Douglas wrote bill organizing remaining Louisiana
Purchase territory into 2 territories on basis of popular
sovereignty
Explicitly repealed Missouri Compromise
Rounding Out the Lower 48
Copyright 2000, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Birth of the Republican Party
ß
Northern Whigs.
ß
Northern Democrats.
ß
Free-Soilers.
ß
Know-Nothings.
ß
Other miscellaneous opponents
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Mid-term Election of 1854


Horace Greeley printed in June 1854:
"We should not care much whether those thus united
(against slavery) were designated 'Whig,' 'Free
Democrat' or something else; though we think some
simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly
designate those who had united to restore the Union
to its true mission of champion and promulgator of
Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery.“
The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
ß
Nativists.
ß
Anti-Catholics.
ß
Anti-immigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.
Party
Democratic
Party
American
Party
Whig Party
Republican
Party
Totals
Seat
percentage
Total seats (change)
84
-73
33.3%
62
+62
24.6%
60
-11
23.8%
46
+46
18.3%
252
+18
100%
Kansas Territory

1855: Kansas Ready for Territory
Elections

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2,905 eligible voters
6,307 people voted
Two governments


Lecompton - Slave
Topeka - Free
Bleeding Kansas

Abolitionist & proslavery forces race to
populate Kansas & write state
constitution



Both sides stage terrorist attacks
Jayhawks led by John Brown responsible
for Pottawatomie Massacre
157 violent deaths, but only 38 definitely
related to slavery conflict
John Brown
Application for Statehood


Topeka Constitution
Lecompton Constitution


Sent to Washington


With slavery, or without
Buchanan vs. Douglas
Kansas a free state in 1961
Brooks Beats Sumner
Congressman Preston Brooks savagely
beat Senator Charles Sumner in the
Senate (May 22, 1856)
The Election of 1856



James Buchanan
John C. Fremont
Democrats nominate
Ambassador James
Buchanan
Southern Whigs & KnowNothings form American
Party – nominate Fillmore
Conscience Whigs,
Antislavery Democrats &
Free Soilers form new
Republican Party –
nominate Fremont
√ James Buchanan
Democrat
John C. Frémont
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Whig
1856
Election
Results
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)


Dred Scott was slave of Army
doctor – had lived in free
state & territory
Chief Justice Roger Taney:


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African Americans cannot be
citizens, state laws to the
contrary
Missouri Compromise was
unconstitutional
Any attempt to limit slavery in
territories (even by territorial
legislature) unconstitutional
Dred Scott
Crash of 1857
Causes?
Response?
Effects?
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates


Buchanan backed fraudulent
pro-slavery Lecompton
Constitution (1858)
Douglas opposed – declared
“Freeport Doctrine” in
debates with Lincoln



Dred Scott ruling must be
respected
Territories could still bar slavery
by failing to pass necessary laws
Lincoln pointed out inherent
contradiction
John Brown’s
Body



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Brown was Connecticut
native with apocalyptic
vision
Led raid on federal
arsenal in Harper’s Ferry,
VA to start slave rebellion
Convicted of treason
against Commonwealth
of Virginia & executed
Became martyr to
abolitionists
The arraignment of John Brown
Brown’s Last Moments, by
Thomas Hovdenden (1884)
John C.
Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
√ Abraham
Lincoln
Republican
1860
Presidential
Election
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
John Bell
Constitutional Union
Republican Party Platform in 1860
ß
Non-extension of slavery [for the FreeSoilers].
ß
Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
ß
No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a
disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].
ß
Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the
Northwest].
ß
Internal improvements [for the West] at
federal expense.
ß
Free homesteads for the public domain [for
farmers].
1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!
1860
Election
Results
Crittenden Compromise:
A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J.
Crittenden
(Know-Nothing-KY)
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861