www.ushistory.org

The presidential election of 1828 brought a great
victory for Andrew Jackson. Not only did he get
almost 70 percent of the votes cast in the electoral
college, popular participation in the election soared
to an unheard of 60 percent. This more than doubled
the turnout in 1824; Jackson clearly headed a
sweeping political movement. His central message
remained largely the same from the previous
election, but had grown in intensity. Jackson warned
that the nation had been corrupted by "special
privilege," characterized especially by the policies of
the Second Bank of the United States.

The proper road to reform, according to Jackson, lay
in an absolute acceptance of majority rule as
expressed through the democratic process. Beyond
these general principles, however, Jackson's
campaign was notably vague about specific policies.
Instead, it stressed Jackson's life story as a man who
had risen from modest origins to become a successful
Tennessee planter. Jackson's claim to distinction lay
in a military career that included service as a young
man in the Revolutionary War, several anti-Indian
campaigns, and, of course, his crowning moment in
the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of
1812.

Jackson's election marked a new direction in
American politics. He was the first westerner elected
president, indeed, the first president from a state
other than Virginia or Massachusetts. He boldly
proclaimed himself to be the "champion of the
common man" and believed that their interests were
ignored by the aggressive national economic plans of
Clay and Adams. More than this, however, when
Martin Van Buren followed Jackson as president, it
indicated that the Jacksonian movement had longterm significance that would outlast his own
charismatic leadership.

A new era of American politics began with Jackson's
election in 1828, but it also completed a grand social
experiment begun by the American Revolution.
Although the Founding Fathers would have been
astounded by the new shape of the nation during
Jackson's presidency, just as Jackson himself had
served in the American Revolution, its values helped
form his sense of the world. The ideals of the
Revolution had, of course, been altered by the new
conditions of the early nineteenth century and would
continue to be reworked over time.

Economic, religious, and geographic changes had all
reshaped the nation in fundamental ways and pointed
toward still greater opportunities and pitfalls in the
future. Nevertheless, Jacksonian Democracy represented
a provocative blending of the best and worst qualities of
American society. On the one hand it was an authentic
democratic movement that contained a principled
egalitarian thrust, but this powerful social critique was
always cast for the benefit of white men. This tragic mix
of egalitarianism, masculine privilege, and racial
prejudice remains a central quality of American life and
to explore their relationship in the past may help suggest
ways of overcoming their haunting limitations in the
future.

At Andrew Jackson's 1828 inauguration,
hundreds of bearded, buckskin-clad
frontiersmen trashed the White House
while celebrating the election of one of
their own to the Presidency. Though
born in South Carolina, Jackson, like
many others, had moved to the frontier.
Indeed, America was a country on the
move west.

On July 4, 1826, less than two years before "King
Andrew" ascended to the "throne," the Yankee John
Adams and the aristocratic Virginian Thomas Jefferson
both passed away. America's Revolutionary generation
was gone. With them went the last vestiges of the
Federalist and Republican parties. This helped to bring
about a new balance of political power, and with it two
new political parties. The 1828 election was portrayed by
Jackson's Democrats as proof of the "common people's
right" to pick a President. No longer were Virginia
Presidents and northern money-men calling the shots.
Class systems were breaking down. To that end, some
states had recently abolished property requirements for
voting. These poorer folk supported General Jackson.

Jackson's strong personality and controversial
ways incited the development of an
opposition party, the Whigs. Their name
echoes British history. In Great Britain, the
Whigs were the party opposed to a strong
monarch. By calling themselves Whigs,
Jackson's enemies labeled him a king. And
they held firm in their opposition to "King
Andrew" and his hated policies.

Sectional rivalries bubbled to the surface as the Era of
Good Feelings slipped into history. The South began
feeling more and more resentful of the influential
manufacturers of the North. The South's resentment
came to an ugly head in the nullification battle of the
early 1830s in which South Carolina considered leaving
the Union because it disagreed with a federal law. The
Second Bank of the United States was seen by westerners
and southerners as a tool to make northerners and
easterners rich at the expense of the rest of the country.
Through force of personality, Jackson got his way in the
nullification battle and triumphed again when he vetoed
the charter of the national bank. These regional rifts
would only get worse over time.

Finally, the westward movement was not
only reserved for pioneers. Native
Americans were moving west as well — and
not because they wanted to. Andrew Jackson
had initiated an Indian removal policy that
forced all natives to relocate west of the
Mississippi River. Indian lands were open to
settlers and land speculators. Thus began
another sad chapter in the federal
government's dealings with Native
Americans.

The Jacksonian Era was nothing short of another
American Revolution. By 1850, the "common man"
demanded his place in politics, the office of the
president was invigorated, and the frontier exerted
its ever more powerful impact on the American
scene. Hated by many, but loved by many more,
Andrew Jackson embodied this new American
character.


By the late 1820's, the north was becoming increasingly
industrialized, and the south was remaining
predominately agricultural.
In 1828, Congress passed a high protective tariff that
infuriated the southern states because they felt it only
benefited the industrialized north. For example, a high
tariff on imports increased the cost of British textiles. This
tariff benefited American producers of cloth — mostly in
the north. But it shrunk English demand for southern
raw cotton and increased the final cost of finished goods
to American buyers. The southerners looked to Vice
President John C. Calhoun from South Carolina for
leadership against what they labeled the "Tariff of
Abominations."

Calhoun had supported the Tariff of 1816, but he
realized that if he were to have a political future in
South Carolina, he would need to rethink his
position. Some felt that this issue was reason enough
for dissolution of the Union. Calhoun argued for a
less drastic solution — the doctrine of "nullification."
According to Calhoun, the federal government only
existed at the will of the states. Therefore, if a state
found a federal law unconstitutional and detrimental
to its sovereign interests, it would have the right to
"nullify" that law within its borders. Calhoun
advanced the position that a state could declare a
national law void.

In 1832, Henry Clay pushed through Congress a new
tariff bill, with lower rates than the Tariff of
Abominations, but still too high for the southerners.
A majority of states-rights proponents had won the
South Carolina State House in the recent 1832
election and their reaction was swift. The South
Carolina Ordinance of Nullification was enacted into
law on November 24, 1832. As far as South Carolina
was concerned, there was no tariff. A line had been
drawn. Would President Jackson dare to cross it?

Jackson rightly regarded this states-rights challenge
as so serious that he asked Congress to enact
legislation permitting him to use federal troops to
enforce federal laws in the face of nullification.
Fortunately, an armed confrontation was avoided
when Congress, led by the efforts of Henry Clay,
revised the tariff with a compromise bill. This
permitted the South Carolinians to back down
without "losing face."

The Second Bank of the United States was chartered
in 1816 for a term of 20 years. The time limitation
reflected the concerns of many in Congress about the
concentration of financial power in a private
corporation. The Bank of the United States was a
depository for federal funds and paid national debts,
but it was answerable only to its directors and
stockholders and not to the electorate.

The supporters of a central bank were those involved
in industrial and commercial ventures. They wanted
a strong currency and central control of the economy.
The opponents, principally agrarians, were
distrustful of the federal government. The critical
question — with whom would President Jackson
side?

At the time Jackson became
President in 1828, the Bank of the
United States was ably run by
Nicholas Biddle, a Philadelphian.
But Biddle was more an astute
businessman than politician. His
underestimation of the power of a
strong and popular President
caused his downfall and the demise
of the financial institution he
commanded.
Jackson had been financially damaged by
speculation and a tightening of bank credit early in
his business career. He retained a distrust of financial
institutions throughout his life. At first, however,
Jackson's position on the Bank was not outwardly
antagonistic. He was concerned about the Bank's
constitutionality and the general soundness of paper
money in place of gold and silver ("hard money").
Jackson was also sympathetic to "soft-money"
supporters from the west who wanted access to easy
credit.

In January 1832, Biddle's supporters in Congress,
principally Daniel Webster and Henry Clay,
introduced Bank recharter legislation. Even though
the charter was not due to expire for four more years,
they felt that the current Congress would recharter
the Bank. They felt that Jackson would not risk losing
votes in Pennsylvania and other commercial states
by vetoing it. Jackson reacted by saying to his vicepresident, Martin Van Buren, "The Bank is trying to
kill me, Sir, but I shall kill it!"

Jackson's opposition to the Bank became almost an
obsession. Accompanied by strong attacks against
the Bank in the press, Jackson vetoed the Bank
Recharter Bill. Jackson also ordered the federal
government's deposits removed from the Bank of the
United States and placed in state or "Pet" banks. The
people were with Jackson, and he was
overwhelmingly elected to a second term. Biddle
retaliated by making it more difficult for businesses
and others to get the money they needed. This
caused an economic contraction at the end of 1833
and into 1834. The bank charter expired in 1836.

Henry Clay was viewed by Jackson as politically
untrustworthy, an opportunistic, ambitious and selfaggrandizing man. He believed that Clay would
compromise the essentials of American republican
democracy to advance his own self-serving
objectives. Jackson also developed a political rivalry
with his Vice-President, John C. Calhoun.
Throughout his term, Jackson waged political and
personal war with these men, defeating Clay in the
Presidential election of 1832 and leading Calhoun to
resign as Vice-President.

Jackson's personal animosity towards Clay seems to
have originated in 1819, when Clay denounced
Jackson for his unauthorized invasion of Spanish
West Florida in the previous year. Clay was also
instrumental in John Quincy Adams's winning the
Presidency from Jackson in 1824, when neither man
had a majority and the election was thrown into the
House of Representatives. Adams' appointment of
Clay as Secretary of State confirmed Jackson's
opinion that the Presidential election has been
thrown to Adams as part of a corrupt and
unprincipled bargain.

Clay was called The Great Compomiser, and
served in the Congress starting in 1806. He
had a grand strategic vision called the
American System. This was a federal
government initiative to foster national
growth though protective tariffs, internal
improvements and the Bank of the United
States. Clay was unswerving in his support
for internal improvements, which primarily
meant federally funded roads and canals.
Jackson believed the American System to be
unconstitutional — could federal funds be
used to build roads? He vetoed the Maysville
Road Bill, Clay's attempt to fund internal
improvements. His veto of the Bank
Recharter Bill drove the two further apart.

Jackson's personal animosity for Calhoun seems to
have had its origin in the Washington "social scene"
of the time. Jackson's feelings were inflamed by the
Mrs. Calhoun's treatment of Peggy, wife of Jackson's
Secretary of War, John Eaton. Mrs. Calhoun and
other wives and daughters of several cabinet officers
refused to attend social gatherings and state dinners
to which Mrs. Eaton had been invited because they
considered her of a lower social station and gossiped
about her private life. Jackson, reminded of how
rudely his own wife Rachel was treated, defended
Mrs. Eaton.

Many political issues separated Jackson from
Calhoun, his Vice President. One was the issue of
states rights. Hoping for sympathy from President
Jackson, Calhoun and the other states-rights party
members sought to trap Jackson into a pro-statesrights public pronouncement at a Jefferson birthday
celebration in April 1832. Some of the guests gave
toasts which sought to establish a connection
between a states-rights view of government and
nullification

Finally, Jackson's turn to give a
toast came, and he rose and
challenged those present, "Our
Federal Union — It must be
preserved." Calhoun then rose and
stated, "The Union — next to our
liberty, the most dear!" Jackson had
humiliated Calhoun in public. The
nullification crisis that would
follow served as the last straw.
Jackson proved that he was
unafraid to stare down his enemies,
no matter what position they might
hold.

Not everyone was included in the new Jacksonian
Democracy. There was no initiative from Jacksonian
Democrats to include women in political life or to
combat slavery. But, it was the Native American who
suffered most from Andrew Jackson's vision of
America. Jackson, both as a military leader and as
President, pursued a policy of removing Indian
tribes from their ancestral lands. This relocation
would make room for settlers and often for
speculators who made large profits from the
purchase and sale of land.

Indian policy caused the President little political
trouble because his primary supporters were from
the southern and western states and generally
favored a plan to remove all the Indian tribes to
lands west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson
and other politicians put a very positive and
favorable spin on Indian removal in their speeches,
the removals were in fact often brutal.

In 1832, a group of about a thousand Sac and Fox
Indians led by Chief Black Hawk returned to Illinois,
but militia members easily drove them back across
the Mississippi. The Seminole resistance in Florida
was more formidable, resulting in a war that began
under Chief Osceola and lasted into the 1840s.

The Cherokees of Georgia, on the
other hand, used legal action to resist.
The Cherokee people were by no
means frontier savages. By the 1830s
they developed their own written
language, printed newspapers and
elected leaders to representative
government. When the government of
Georgia refused to recognize their
autonomy and threatened to seize
their lands, the Cherokees took their
case to the U.S. Supreme Court and
won a favorable decision.
Sequoyah, the child
of a Native American
woman and a white
settler, came up with
the first Cherokee
alphabet in the early
1800s. By 1821 the
Cherokee Nation had
officially recognized
this form of writing
and thousands of
Cherokee became
literate.

John Marshall's opinion for the Court
majority in Cherokee Nation v.
Georgia was essentially that Georgia
had no jurisdiction over the
Cherokees and no claim to their
lands. But Georgia officials simply
ignored the decision, and President
Jackson refused to enforce it. Jackson
was furious and personally affronted
by the Marshall ruling, stating, "Mr.
Marshall has made his decision. Now
let him enforce it!"

Finally, federal troops came to Georgia to remove the
tribes forcibly. As early as 1831, the army began to
push the Choctaws off their lands to march to
Oklahoma. In 1835, some Cherokee leaders agreed to
accept western land and payment in exchange for
relocation. With this agreement, the Treaty of New
Echota, Jackson had the green light to order
Cherokee removal.


Other Cherokees, under the leadership of Chief John
Ross, resisted until the bitter end. About 20,000
Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on
the infamous Trail of Tears. Nearly a quarter
perished on the way, with the remainder left to seek
survival in a completely foreign land. The tribe
became hopelessly divided as the followers of Ross
murdered those who signed the Treaty of New
Echota.
The Trail of Tears is the most sorrowful legacy of the
Jacksonian Era.


During the first 30 years of the 1800s, American
Industry was truly born.
In 1790, Samuel Slater built the first factory in
America, based on the secrets of textile
manufacturing he brought from England. He built a
cotton-spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island,
soon run by water-power. Over the next decade
textiles was the dominant industry in the country,
with hundreds of companies created.

In the iron industry,
Pennsylvania's furnaces and
rolling mills were fast
supplanting small local forges.
In 1804, Oliver Evans of
Philadelphia developed a highpressure steam engine that was
adaptable to a great variety of
industrial purposes. Within a few
years it powered ships, sawmills,
flour mills, printing presses as
well as textile factories.

In 1798, Eli Whitney, who had invented the cotton
gin in 1792, contributed one of the most important
elements of the industrial age. He came up with the
idea of making guns using interchangeable parts.
The idea of interchangeable parts had been raised in
Europe, but it took an American to successfully
commercialize the concept.

The concept was seized by industry after industry.
Canal and railway construction played an important
role in transporting people and cargo west,
increasing the size of the US marketplace. With the
new infrastructure even remote parts of the country
gained the ability to communicate and establish
trade relationships with the centers of commerce in
the East.

The new industrialization was very expensive. Out
of the need for money grew the corporation.
Chartered under state laws, corporations could
accumulate capital from as many investors as were
interested in them, each of them enjoying some stock
or stake in the corporation's success. There was no
limit to how much investors could earn, yet each
with "limited liability" whereby they were financially
responsible for the corporation's debts only to the
extent of their investment.

Yet, the Industrial Revolution would not have been
possible without one further ingredient — people.
Canals and railways needed thousands of people to
build them. Business schemes required people to
execute them. The number of projects and businesses
under development was enormous. The demand for
labor was satisfied, in part, by millions of immigrants
from Ireland, Germany, and elsewhere. As is often
the case when there is a mass immigration, there was
a great deal of resistance. Old and new political
parties took strong positions on the rights of
immigrants. Ultimately these positions hardened,
leading to major political changes in America.
Canal Era

For over a hundred years, people had dreamed of
building a canal across New York that would connect
the Great Lakes to the Hudson River to New York
City and the Atlantic Ocean. After unsuccessfully
seeking federal government assistance, DeWitt
Clinton successfully petitioned the New York State
legislature to build the canal and bring that dream to
reality. "Clinton's Ditch," his critics called it.
Canal Era

Construction began in 1817 and was completed in
1825. The canal spanned 350 miles between the Great
Lakes and the Hudson River and was an immediate
success. Between its completion and its closure in
1882, it returned over $121 million in revenues on an
original cost of $7 million. Its success led to the great
Canal Age. By bringing the Great Lakes within reach
of a metropolitan market, the Erie Canal opened up
the unsettled northern regions of Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois. It also fostered the development of many
small industrial companies, whose products were
used in the construction and operation of the canal.
Canal Era

New York City became the principal gateway to the
West and financial center for the nation. The Erie
Canal was also in part responsible for the creation of
strong bonds between the new western territories
and the northern states. Soon the flat lands of the
west would be converted into large-scale grain
farming. The Canal enabled the farmers to send their
goods to New England. Subsistence farmers in the
north were now less necessary. Many farmers left for
jobs in the factories. The Erie Canal transformed
America.
Canal Era

Pennsylvanians were shocked to find that the cheapest
route to Pittsburgh was by way of New York City, up the
Hudson River, across New York by the Erie Canal to the
Great Lakes — with a short overland trip to Pittsburgh.
When it became evident that little help for state
improvements could be expected from the federal
government, other states followed New York in
constructing canals. Ohio built a canal in 1834 to link the
Great Lakes with the Mississippi Valley. As a result of
Ohio's investment, Cleveland rose from a frontier village
to a Great Lakes port by 1850. Cincinnati could now send
food products down the Ohio and Mississippi by flatboat
and steamboat and ship flour by canal boat to New York.
Canal Era

The state of Pennsylvania then put through a great
portage canal system to Pittsburgh. It used a series of
inclined planes and stationary steam engines to
transport canal boats up and over the Alleghenies on
rails. At its peak, Pennsylvania had almost a
thousand miles of canals in operation. By the 1830s,
the country had a complete water route from New
York City to New Orleans. By 1840, over 3,000 miles
of canals had been built. Yet, within twenty years a
new mode of transportation, the railroad, would
render most of them unprofitable.
Railroads

The development of railroads was one of the most
important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution.
With their formation, construction and operation,
they brought profound social, economic and political
change to a country only 50 years old. Over the next
50 years, America would come to see magnificent
bridges and other structures on which trains would
run, awesome depots, ruthless rail magnates and the
majesty of rail locomotives crossing the country.
Railroads

Baltimore, the third largest city in the nation in 1827,
had not invested in a canal. Yet, Baltimore was 200
miles closer to the frontier than New York and soon
recognized that the development of a railway could
make the city more competitive with New York and
the Erie Canal in transporting people and goods to
the West. The result was the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, the first railroad chartered in the United
States. There were great parades on the day the
construction started. On July 4, 1828, the first
spadeful of earth was turned over by the last
surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence,
91-year-old Charles Carroll.
Railroads

Road Company was formed to draw trade from the
interior of the state. It had a steam locomotive built at
the West Point Foundry in New York City, called The
Best Friend of Charleston, the first steam locomotive
to be built for sale in the United States. A year later,
the Mohawk & Hudson railroad reduced a 40-mile
wandering canal trip that took all day to accomplish
to a 17-mile trip that took less than an hour. Its first
steam engine was named the DeWitt Clinton after
the builder of the Erie Canal.
Railroads

originally failed as opposition was mounted by
turnpike operators, canal companies, stagecoach
companies and those who drove wagons. Opposition
was mounted, in many cases, by tavern owners and
innkeepers whose businesses were threatened.
Sometimes opposition turned to violence. Religious
leaders decried trains as sacriligious. But the
economic benefits of the railroad soon won over the
skeptics.
Railroads

Perhaps the greatest physical feat of 19th century
America was the creation of the transcontinental
railroad. Two railroads, the Central Pacific starting in
San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union Pacific,
starting in Omaha, Nebraska, would build the railline. Huge forces of immigrants, mainly Irish for the
Union Pacific and Chinese for the Central Pacific,
crossed mountains, dug tunnels and laid track. The
two railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10,
1869, and drove a last, golden spike into the
completed railway.
New Inventions

In the second decade of the nineteenth
century, roads were few and poor.
Getting to the frontier and instituting
trade with settlers was difficult. In 1807,
Robert Fulton sailed the first
commercially viable steamboat, the
Clermont, from New York City to
Albany. Within 4 years, regular
steamboat service from Pittsburgh took
passengers and cargo down
the Ohio into the Mississippi.
Within 20 years, over 200
steamboats were plying these
routes.
New Inventions

While New England was moving to
mechanize manufacturing, others
were working to mechanize
agriculture. Cyrus McCormick
wanted to design equipment that
would simplify farmers' work. In
1831, he invented a horse-drawn
reaper to harvest grain and started
selling it to others in 1840. It allowed
the farmer to do five times the amount
of harvesting in a day than they could
by hand using a scythe. By 1851, his
company was the largest producer of
farm equipment in the world.
Cyrus McCormick's
reaper was five times
more efficient than
hand harvesting
wheat, but at first
farmers looked upon
the invention as a
novelty.
New Inventions

In 1837, John Deere made the first commercially
successful riding plow. Deere's steel plow allowed
farmers to turn heavy, gummy prairie sod easily,
which stuck to the older wooden and iron plows. His
inventions made farm much less physically
demanding. During the Civil War, 25 years later,
even women and young children of the South would
use these devices allowing the men to be away at
war.
New Inventions

Another notable American inventor was Samuel F.B.
Morse, who invented the electric telegraph and
Morse Code. Morse was an artist having a great deal
of difficulty making enough money to make ends
meet. He started pursuing a number of business
opportunities which would allow him to continue his
work as an artist.
New Inventions

Out of these efforts came the telegraph. With the
completion of the first telegraph line between
Baltimore and Washington in 1844, almost instant
communication between distant places in the country
was possible. The man who was responsible for
building this first telegraph line was Ezra Cornell,
later the founder of Cornell University.
New Inventions

Charles Goodyear invented one of the most
important chemical processes of the century. Natural
rubber is brittle when cold and sticky when warm. In
1844, Goodyear received a patent for developing a
method of treating rubber, called vulcanization, that
made it strong and supple when hot or cold.
Although, the process was instrumental in the
development of tires used on bicycles and
automobiles, the fruit of this technology
came too late for Goodyear. He died a
poor man.
New Inventions

Perhaps no one had as great an impact on the
development of the industrial north as Eli Whitney.
Whitney raised eyebrows when he walked into the
US Patent office, took apart ten guns, and
reassembled them mixing the parts of each gun.
Whitney lived in an age where an artisan would
handcraft each part of every gun. No two products
were quite the same..
New Inventions

Whitney's milling machine allowed workers to cut
metal objects in an identical fashion, making
interchangeable parts. It was the start of the concept
of mass production. Over the course of time, the
device and Whitney's techniques were used to make
many others products.
New Inventions

Elias Howe used it to make the
first workable sewing machine in
1846. Clockmakers used it to make
metal gears. In making the cotton
gin, Eli Whitney had played a
major part in expanding slavery. In
making the milling machine to
produce precision guns and rifles in
a very efficient and effective way,
he set the industrial forces of the
North in motion.
Immigration

In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more
than one-half of the population of Ireland emigrated
to the United States. So did an equal number of
Germans. Most of them came because of civil unrest,
severe unemployment or almost inconceivable
hardships at home. This wave of immigration
affected almost every city and almost every person in
America.
Immigration

From 1820 to 1870, over seven and a half million
immigrants came to the United States — more than
the entire population of the country in 1810. Nearly
all of them came from northern and western Europe
— about a third from Ireland and almost a third from
Germany. Burgeoning companies were able to
absorb all that wanted to work. Immigrants built
canals and constructed railroads. They became
involved in almost every labor-intensive endeavor in
the country. Much of the country was built on their
backs.
Immigration

In Ireland almost half of the population lived on
farms that produced little income. Because of their
poverty, most Irish people depended on potatoes for
food. When this crop failed three years in succession,
it led to a great famine with horrendous
consequences. Over 750,000 people starved to death.
Immigration

Over two million Irish eventually moved to the
United States seeking relief from their desolated
country. Impoverished, the Irish could not buy
property. Instead, they congregated in the cities
where they landed, almost all in the northeastern
United States. Today, Ireland has just half the
population it did in the early 1840s. There are now
more Irish Americans than there are Irish nationals.
Immigration

In the decade from 1845 to 1855, more than a million
Germans fled to the United States to escape economic
hardship. They also sought to escape the political
unrest caused by riots, rebellion and eventually a
revolution in 1848. The Germans had little choice —
few other places besides the United States allowed
German immigration. Unlike the Irish, many
Germans had enough money to journey to the
Midwest in search of farmland and work. The largest
settlements of Germans were in New York City,
Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee.
Immigration

With the vast numbers of German and Irish coming
to America, hostility to them erupted. Part of the
reason for the opposition was religious. All of the
Irish and many of the Germans were Roman
Catholic. Part of the opposition was political. Most
immigrants living in cities became Democrats
because the party focused on the needs of
commoners. Part of the opposition occurred because
Americans in low-paying jobs were threatened and
sometimes replaced by groups willing to work for
almost nothing in order to survive. Signs that read
NINA — "No Irish Need Apply" — sprang up
throughout the country.
Immigration

Ethnic and anti-Catholic rioting occurred in many
northern cites, the largest occurring in Philadelphia in
1844 during a period of economic depression.
Protestants, Catholics and local militia fought in the
streets. 16 were killed, dozens were injured and over 40
buildings were demolished. "Nativist" political parties
sprang up almost overnight. The most influential of these
parties, the Know Nothings, was anti-Catholic and
wanted to extend the amount of time it took immigrants
to become citizens and voters. They also wanted to
prevent foreign-born people from ever holding public
office. Economic recovery after the 1844 depression
reduced the number of serious confrontations for a time,
as the country seemed to be able to use all the labor it
could get.
Immigration

But Nativism returned in the 1850s with a vengeance.
In the 1854 elections, Nativists won control of state
governments in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, New Hampshire and California. They won
elections in Maryland and Kentucky and took 45% of
the vote in 5 other states. In 1856, Millard Fillmore
was the American Party candidate for President and
trumpeted anti-immigrant themes. Nativism caused
much splintering in the political landscape, and the
Republicans, with no platform or policies about it,
benefited and rode to victory in the divisive election
of 1860.

The pretty woman who stood before the all-male
audience seemed unlikely to provoke controversy.
Tiny and timid, she rose to the platform of the
Massachusetts Legislature to speak. Those who had
underestimated the determination and dedication of
Dorothea Dix, however, were brought to attention
when they heard her say that the sick and insane
were "confined in this Commonwealth in cages,
closets, cellars, stalls, pens!

Chained, beaten with rods, lashed into obedience."
Thus, her crusade for humane hospitals for the
insane, which she began in 1841, was reaching a
climax. After touring prisons, workhouses,
almshouses, and private homes to gather evidence of
appalling abuses, she made her case for statesupported care. Ultimately, she not only helped
establish five hospitals in America, but also went to
Europe where she successfully pleaded for human
rights to Queen Victoria and the Pope.

Dorothea Dix, a tireless
crusader for the treatment of
the mentally ill, was made the
Superintendent of Nurses for
the Union Army during the
Civil War. After the war, she
retired to an apartment in the
first hospital that she had
founded, in Trenton, New
Jersey.

The year 1841 also marked the beginning of the
superintendence of Dr. John Galt at Eastern Lunatic
Asylum, in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first publicly
supported psychiatric hospital in America.
Warehousing of the sick was primary; their care was
not. Dr. Galt had many revolutionary ideas about
treating the insane, based on his conviction that they
had dignity. Among his enlightened approaches
were the use of drugs, the introduction of "talk
therapy" and advocating outplacement rather than
lifelong stays.

In addition to the problems in asylums, prisons were
filled to overflowing with everyone who gave
offense to society from committing murder to
spitting on the street. Men, women, children were
thrown together in the most atrocious conditions.
Something needed to be done — but what?
Until the 19th century, juveniles offenders
were passed into the custody of their
parents. During the time of prison and
asylum reform, juvenile detention centers
like the House of Refuge in New York were
built to reform children of delinquent
behavior..

After the War of 1812, reformers from Boston and
New York began a crusade to remove children from
jails into juvenile detention centers. But the larger
controversy continued over the purpose of prison —
was it for punishment or penitence? In 1821, a
disaster occurred in Auburn Prison that shocked
even the governor into pardoning hardened
criminals.

After being locked down in solitary, many of the
eighty men committed suicide or had mental
breakdowns. Auburn reverted to a strict disciplinary
approach. The champion of discipline and first
national figure in prison reform was Louis Dwight.
founder of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, he
spread the Auburn system throughout America's
jails and added salvation and Sabbath School to
further penitence.

After several bad starts, America finally enjoyed
about a decade of real reform. Idealism, plus hope in
the perfectibility of institutions, spurred a new
generation of leaders including Francis Lieber,
Samuel Gridley Howe and the peerless Dix. Their
goals were prison libraries, basic literacy (for Bible
reading), reduction of whipping and beating,
commutation of sentences, and separation of women,
children and the sick.

By 1835, America was considered to have two of the
"best" prisons in the world in Pennsylvania.
Astonishingly, reformers from Europe looked to the
new nation as a model for building, utilizing and
improving their own systems. Advocates for
prisoners believed that deviants could change and
that a prison stay could have a positive effect. It was
a revolutionary idea in the beginning of the 19th
century that society rather than individuals had the
responsibility for criminal activity and had the duty
to treat neglected children and rehabilitate alcoholics.

Eastern State Penitentiary's radial plan served as the model
for hundreds of later prisons. located on 2027 Fairmount
Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street
in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and was
operational from 1829 until 1971. emphasized principles of
reform rather than punishment

Expansion westward seemed perfectly
natural to many Americans and
courageous pioneers believed that
America had a divine obligation to
stretch the boundaries of their noble
republic to the Pacific Ocean. The spirit
of nationalism that swept the nation,
demanding more territory.

The "every man is equal" mentality of the
Jacksonian Era fueled this optimism.
Now, with territory up to the Mississippi
River claimed and settled and the
Louisiana Purchase explored, Americans
headed west in droves. Newspaper
editor John O'Sullivan coined the term
"manifest destiny" in 1845 to describe the
essence of this mindset.

A symbol of
Manifest Destiny,
the figure
"Columbia"
moves across the
land in advance
of settlers,
replacing
darkness with
light and
ignorance with
civilization.

At the heart of manifest destiny was the
pervasive belief in American cultural and
racial superiority. Native Americans had
long been perceived as inferior, and
efforts to "civilize" them had been
widespread since the days of John Smith
and Miles Standish. The Hispanics who
ruled Texas and the lucrative ports of
California were also seen as "backward."

Expanding the boundaries of the United States
was in many ways a cultural war as well. The
desire of southerners to find more lands suitable
for cotton cultivation would eventually spread
slavery to these regions. North of the MasonDixon line, many citizens were deeply concerned
about adding any more slave states. Manifest
destiny touched on issues of religion, money,
race, patriotism, and morality. These clashed in
the 1840s as a truly great drama of regional
conflict began to unfold.

In 1840, the entire southwestern corner of the United
States was controlled by foreign powers (shown in
orange), and the territorial dispute over the Oregon
Territory (light green) had not been settled. By 1850
the U.S. had control of lands from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, covering almost all of today's continental
United States.

In 1823, Stephen Austin led 300
American families onto land
granted to his father by the
Mexican government. A
prosperous province was greatly
in the interest of Mexico, so no
alarm was raised. Mexico was also
interested in creating a buffer zone
between the Mexican heartland
and the Comanche tribe.


There were, however, strings attached.
The American settlers were expected to become
Mexican. All immigrants from the United States
were by law forced to become Catholic. When the
Mexican government outlawed slavery in 1829, it
expected the Texans to follow suit. None of the
conditions were met, and a great cultural war was
underway.

In the hopes of easing tensions, Stephen Austin
journeyed to Mexico City in 1833. But Mexico's
dictator, Santa Anna, was not the negotiating type.
Austin was simply thrown in jail. Although he was
released after 18 months, relations between the
Texans and the Mexicans deteriorated. Finally in
1835, war broke out between Santa Anna's troops
and a ragtag group of Texan revolutionaries. On
March 2, 1836, representatives from Texas formally
declared their independence. Four days later, Santa
Anna completed an infamous siege on the Alamo
mission.

Despite a 13-day holdout, the 187 Texans
were crushed by Santa Anna's forces,
which numbered 5000 strong. The
deaths of commander William Travis,
Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett angered
Americans as cries of "Remember the
Alamo!" rang throughout the land.

Americans flocked to Texas, and, led by commander
Sam Houston, defeated Santa Anna's forces. The
Battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes,
but it sealed the fate of three republics. Mexico
would never regain the lost territory, in spite of
sporadic incursions during the 1840s. The United
States would go on to acquire not only the Republic
of Texas in 1845 but Mexican lands to the west after
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican
War in 1848.

On May 14, 1836, the public and private treaties of
Velasco, were signed by Presidents David G. Burnet
and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. They confirmed
the Mexican retreat and declared an end to the war.
Neither the Texas nor Mexican governments
accepted the treaties, however, and a state of war
existed throughout most of the Republic of Texas'
existence.

Most Texan-Americans wanted to be
annexed by the United States. They
feared that the Mexican government
might soon try to recapture their land.
Many had originally come from the
American south and had great interest in
becoming a southern state. President
Andrew Jackson saw trouble.

Many Whigs and Abolitionists in the
North refused to admit another slave
state to the Union. Rather than risk
tearing the nation apart over this
controversial issue, Jackson did not
pursue annexation. The Lone Star flag
flew proudly over the Lone Star Republic
for nine years.

The Oregon Territory spanned the
modern states of Oregon, Idaho, and
Washington, as well as the western coast
of Canada up to the border of Russian
Alaska. Both Great Britain and America
claimed the territory. The Treaty of 1818
called for joint occupation of Oregon — a
solution that was only temporary.

Led by missionaries, American settlers began
to outnumber British settlers by the late 1830s.
But Britain was not Mexico. Its powerful navy
was still the largest in the world. Twice before
had Americans taken up arms against their
former colonizers at great expense to each
side. Prudence would suggest a negotiated
settlement, but the spirit of manifest destiny
dominated American thought. Yet another
great showdown loomed.

Map
showing
the
Oregon
Trail,
Oregon
Country,
and
northern
Mexico

Oregon fever swept the nation in the 1840s.
Thousands of settlers, lured by the lush Willamette
Valley headed west on the Oregon Trail. Families in
caravans of 20 or 30 braved the elements to reach the
distant land. Poor eastern families could not
generally make the trip, as outfitting such an
expedition was quite expensive.

The Conestoga wagon, oxen and supplies comprised
most of the cost. The families fought Native
Americans at times, but often they received guidance
from the western tribes. It took six months of travel
at the speed of fifteen miles per day to reach their
destination.

In the east, the subject of Oregon
was less personal and more
political. In 1844 the Democrats
nominated James K. Polk, an
unknown candidate from
Tennessee. It appeared as though
the Whig Party candidate, Henry
Clay, would win in a landslide.
Very few Americans had ever
heard the name Polk, but Clay's
illustrious career was widely
known.

However, Polk was an excellent strategist. He
tapped into the public mood and realized that
manifest destiny was the very issue that could
lead him to victory. Polk called for expansion
that included Texas, California, and the entire
Oregon territory. The northern boundary of
Oregon was the latitude line of 54 degrees, 40
minutes. "Fifty-four forty or fight!" was the
popular slogan that led Polk to victory against
all odds.

Claiming the territory in an election
campaign was one thing. Acquiring it
from the powerful British was another.
Although Polk blustered about obtaining
the entire territory from Britain, he was
secretly willing to compromise.
Nevertheless, Polk boldly declared to
Great Britain that joint occupation would
end within one year.

The British were confident they
could win, but by 1846 they were
vastly outnumbered in Oregon by a
margin of greater than six to one. In
June of that year, Britain proposed
splitting Oregon at the 49th parallel.
Polk agreed to the compromise, and
conflict was avoided.

Congress admitted Texas to the Union in a joint
resolution passed the day before Polk's inauguration.
Mexico was outraged. Inclusion in the United States
would forever rule out the possibility of re-acquiring
the lost province.

Furthermore, the boundary was in dispute. Mexico
claimed that the southern boundary of Texas was the
Nueces River, the Texan boundary while under
Mexican rule. Americans, as well as the incoming
President, claimed that the boundary of Texas was
the Rio Grande River. The territory between the two
rivers was the subject of angry bickering between the
two nations. Soon it would serve as the catalyst for
an all-out war.

In July of 1845, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor
to cross the Nueces River with his command of 4,000
troops. Upon learning of Slidell's rejection, Polk sent
word that Taylor should advance his troops to the
Rio Grande River. From the standpoint of Mexico,
the United States had invaded their territory. Polk
hoped to defend the disputed area with armed force.
He also knew that any attack on American troops
might provide the impetus Congress was lacking to
declare war.

Sure enough, in May of 1846, Polk received word
that the Mexican army had indeed fired on Taylor's
soldiers. Polk appeared before Congress on May 11
and declared that Mexico had invaded the United
States and had "shed American blood on American
soil!" Anti-expansionist Whigs had been hoping to
avoid conflict, but news of the "attack" was too much
to overlook. Congress passed a war declaration by an
overwhelming majority. President Polk had his war.
President Polk's true goal was
to acquire the rich ports of
California. He envisioned a
lucrative trade with the Far East
that would revolve around San
Francisco and Monterey.
When war broke out against Mexico in May
1846, the United States Army numbered a mere
8,000, but soon 60,000 volunteers joined their
ranks. The American Navy dominated the sea.
The American government provided stable,
capable leadership. The economy of the
expanding United States far surpassed that of
the fledgling Mexican state. Morale was on the
American side. The war was a rout.

Polk directed the war from Washington, D.C. He sent
a 4-prong attack into the Mexican heartland. John
Fremont and Stephen Kearny were sent to control the
coveted lands of California and New Mexico.
Fremont led a group of zealous Californians to
declare independence even before word of hostilities
reached the West. The "Bear Flag Republic" was not
taken seriously, but Fremont and his followers did
march to Monterey to capture the Mexican presidio,
or fort. By 1847, California was secure.

Meanwhile, Kearny led his troops into Santa Fe in
August of 1846 causing the governor of New Mexico
to flee. The city was captured without a single
casualty. Soon he marched his army westward across
the desert to join Fremont in California.

two other commanders. Zachary Taylor crossed the
Rio Grande with his troops upon Polk's order. He
fought Santa Anna's troops successfully on his
advance toward the heart of Mexico. Winfield Scott
delivered the knockout punch. After invading
Mexico at Vera Cruz, Scott's troops marched to the
capital, Mexico City. All that remained was
negotiating the terms of peace.

The Mexican-American War was formally concluded
by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The United
States received the disputed Texan territory, as well
as New Mexico territory and California. The Mexican
government was paid $15 million — the same sum
issued to France for the Louisiana Territory. The
United States Army won a grand victory. Although
suffering 13,000 killed, the military won every
engagement of the war. Mexico was stripped of half
of its territory and was not consoled by the monetary
settlement.

In January of 1848, a man named James Marshall
innocently noticed a few shiny flecks in a California
stream at Sutter's Mill. Word spread of gold and
soon people from all over California flocked inland
seeking instant fortune. By autumn, word had
reached the east, and once again Americans earned
their reputation as a migratory people. During the
year that followed, over 80,000 "forty-niners" flocked
to California to share in the glory. Some would
actually strike it rich, but most would not.

Life in a mining town was not easy. Often the towns
consisted of one main street. It is in these towns that
the mythical "Old American West" was born. The
social center of these new communities was the
saloon. Here, miners might spend some of their
meager earnings after a hard day's work. Gambling,
drinking, and fighting were widespread, and justice
was often determined by the hardest punch or the
fastest draw.

About 95% of the mining population was young and
male. Female companionship was in high demand.
Sometimes the saloon doubled as a brothel, and as
many as 20% of the female population earned their
living as prostitutes.

In addition to the white American settlers who
comprised the majority of the mining populace, free
African-Americans could also be found among their
ranks. More numerous were Mexicans who were
hoping to strike it rich. Word reached European
shores and immigrants headed to America's west.

German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss invented
trousers for the miners — his blue jeans became an
American mainstay. Another significant segment of
the diversity was the Chinese, who hoped to find
gold and return to their homeland.

Over 45,000 immigrants swelled the population
between 1849 and 1854. Diversity did not bring
harmony. The white majority often attacked the
Mexican and Chinese minorities. The miners
ruthlessly forced the California Native Americans off
their lands. Laws were passed to restrict new land
claims to white Americans.

The California Gold Rush soon peaked, and by the
mid-1850s California life stabilized. But the pattern
established there was repeated elsewhere — in
Colorado, South Dakota, and Nevada, among others.
As in California, ambition merged with opportunity
and ruthlessness — ethnic and racial discrimination
was part of the legacy of the American West.

The land obtained from Mexico quickly became the
subject of a bitter feud between the Northern Whigs
and the Southern Democrats. Abolitionists rightly
feared that attempts would be made to plant cotton
in the new territory, which would bring the blight of
slavery. Slaveholders feared that if slavery were
prohibited in the new territory, southern
slaveholding states would lose power in Congress.

Even before the treaty ending the war had been
ratified by the Senate, both houses of Congress
became the scene of angry debate over the spoils of
war. Congress represented every political philosophy
regarding slavery. Legal scholars discussed the right
of Congress — or anyone else — to restrict slavery
from the new lands. The specter of secession had
risen again. Desperately the elder statesmen of the
federal legislature proposed methods of keeping the
country together.

The country's founders left no clear solution to the
issue of slavery in the Constitution. Popular
sovereignty, amendment, nullification, and secession
were all discussed as possible remedies. Conflict was
avoided with the passing of the Compromise of 1850.
The cooler heads prevailed — this time.

By the standards of his day, David Wilmot could be
considered a racist.Yet the Pennsylvania
representative was so adamantly against the
extension of slavery to lands ceded by Mexico, he
made a proposition that would divide the Congress.
On August 8, 1846, Wilmot introduced legislation in
the House that boldly declared, "neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in lands won
in the Mexican-American War. If he was not opposed
to slavery, why would Wilmot propose such an
action? Why would the north, which only contained
a small, but growing minority, of abolitionists, agree?


Provided, That, as an express and fundamental
condition to the acquisition of any territory from the
Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of
any treaty which may be negotiated between them,
and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein
appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory,
except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly
convicted.
– The Wilmot Proviso, 1846

Wilmot and other northerners were angered by
President Polk. They felt that the entire Cabinet and
national agenda were dominated by southern minds
and southern principles. Polk was willing to fight for
southern territory, but proved willing to compromise
when it came to the north. Polk had lowered the
tariff and denied funds for internal improvements,
both to the dismay of northerners. Now they felt a
war was being fought to extend the southern way of
life. The term "Slave Power" jumped off the lips of
northern lawmakers when they angrily referred to
their southern colleagues. It was time for northerners
to be heard.

Though Wilmot's heart did not bleed for the slave, he
envisioned California as a place where free white
Pennsylvanians could work without the competition
of slave labor. Since the north was more populous
and had more Representatives in the House, the
Wilmot Proviso passed. Laws require the approval of
both houses of Congress, however. The Senate,
equally divided between free states and slave states
could not muster the majority necessary for
approval. Angrily the House passed Wilmot's
Proviso several times, all to no avail. It would never
become law.

For years, the arguments for and against slavery
were debated in the churches and in the newspapers.
The House of Representatives had passed a gag rule
forbidding the discussion of slavery for much of the
previous decade. The issue could no longer be
avoided. Lawmakers in the House and Senate, north
and south, would have to stand up and be counted.

In the heat of the Wilmot Proviso debate, many
southern lawmakers began to question the right of
Congress to determine the status of slavery in any
territory. According to John Calhoun, the territories
belonged to all the states. Why should a citizen of
one state be denied the right to take his property,
including slaves, into territory owned by all?

This line of reasoning began to dominate the
southern argument. The Congress had a precedent
for outlawing slavery in territories. It had done so in
the Old Northwest with the passing of the Northwest
Ordinance in 1787. The Missouri Compromise also
had banned slavery above the 36º30' latitude lines.
But times were different.

no compromise could be reached in the Wilmot
argument, the campaign for President became
heated. The Democratic standard bearer, Lewis Cass
of Michigan, coined the term "popular sovereignty"
for a new solution that had begun to emerge. The
premise was simple. Let the people of the territories
themselves decide whether slavery would be
permitted. The solution seemed perfect. In a country
that has championed democracy, letting the people
decide seemed right, if not obvious.

However simple popular sovereignty seemed, it was
difficult to put into practice. By what means would
the people decide? Directly or indirectly? If a popular
vote were scheduled, what guarantees could be
made against voter fraud? If slavery were voted
down, would the individuals who already owned
slaves be allowed to keep them? Cass and the
Democrats did not say. His opponent, Zachary
Taylor, ignored the issue of slavery altogether in his
campaign, and won the election of 1848.

As the 1840s melted into the 1850s, Stephen Douglas
became the loudest proponent of popular
sovereignty. As long as the issue was discussed
theoretically, he had many supporters. In fact, to
many, popular sovereignty was the perfect means to
avoid the problem. But problems do not tend to
disappear when they are evaded — they often
become worse.

California was admitted to the Union as the 16th free
state. In exchange, the south was guaranteed that no
federal restrictions on slavery would be placed on
Utah or New Mexico. Texas lost its boundary claims
in New Mexico, but the Congress compensated Texas
with $10 million. Slavery was maintained in the
nation's capital, but the slave trade was prohibited.
Finally, and most controversially, a Fugitive Slave
Law was passed, requiring northerners to return
runaway slaves to their owners under penalty of law.
North Gets
South Gets
California admitted as a free state
No slavery restrictions in Utah or New
Mexico territories
Slave trade prohibited in Washington D.C.
Slaveholding permitted in Washington
D.C.
Texas loses boundary dispute with New
Mexico
Texas gets $10 million
Fugitive Slave Law

Who won and who lost in the deal? Although each
side received benefits, the north seemed to gain the
most. The balance of the Senate was now with the
free states, although California often voted with the
south on many issues in the 1850s. The major victory
for the south was the Fugitive Slave Law.

In the end, the north refused to enforce it.
Massachusetts even called for its nullification,
stealing an argument from John C. Calhoun.
Northerners claimed the law was unfair. The flagrant
violation of the Fugitive Slave Law set the scene for
the storm that emerged later in the decade. But for
now, Americans hoped against hope that the fragile
peace would prevail.
The
Compromise
of 1850
settled the
issue of
slavery
temporarily,
but may
have further
divided the
country
along the
lines of slave
and free
territory.


For decades, both northern states and southern states
had threatened secession and dissolution of the
Union over the question of where slavery was to be
permitted. At issue was power. Both sides sought to
limit the governing power of the other by
maintaining a balance of membership in Congress.
This meant ensuring that admission of a new state
where slavery was outlawed was matched by a state
permitting slavery. For example, at the same time
that Missouri entered the Union as a slave state,
Maine entered the Union as a free state.

New states were organized into self-governing
territories before they became states. Hence, they
developed a position on the slavery issue well before
their admission to the Union. Southerners held that
slavery must be permitted in all territories.
Northerners held that slavery must not be extended
into new territories.

If slavery were not permitted in the territories,
slavery would never gain a foothold within them
and southern power in Congress would gradually
erode. If either side were successful in gaining a
distinct advantage, many felt disunion and civil war
would follow.

Kansas would be the battleground on which the
north and south would first fight. The KansasNebraska Act led both to statehood and to
corruption, hatred, anger, and violence. Men from
neighboring Missouri stuffed ballot boxes in Kansas
to ensure that a legislature friendly to slavery would
be elected. Anti-slavery, or free soil, settlers formed a
legislature of their own in Topeka. Within two years,
there would be armed conflict between proponents
of slavery and those against it.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 may have been the
single most significant event leading to the Civil
War. By the early 1850s settlers and entrepreneurs
wanted to move into the area now known as
Nebraska. However, until the area was organized as
a territory, settlers would not move there because
they could not legally hold a claim on the land.


The southern states' representatives in Congress
were in no hurry to permit a Nebraska territory
because the land lay north of the 36°30' parallel —
where slavery had been outlawed by the Missouri
Compromise of 1820. Just when things between the
north and south were in an uneasy balance, Kansas
and Nebraska opened fresh wounds.
The person behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act was
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

He said he wanted to see Nebraska made into a
territory and, to win southern support, proposed a
southern state inclined to support slavery. It was
Kansas. Underlying it all was his desire to build a
transcontinental railroad to go through Chicago. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed each territory to
decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular
sovereignty.

Kansas with slavery would violate the Missouri
Compromise, which had kept the Union from falling
apart for the last thirty-four years. The long-standing
compromise would have to be repealed. Opposition
was intense, but ultimately the bill passed in May of
1854. Territory north of the sacred 36°30' line was
now open to popular sovereignty. The North was
outraged.

The political effects of Douglas' bill were enormous.
Passage of the bill irrevocably split the Whig Party,
one of the two major political parties in the country
at the time. Every northern Whig had opposed the
bill; almost every southern Whig voted for it. With
the emotional issue of slavery involved, there was no
way a common ground could be found.

Most of the southern Whigs soon were swept into the
Democratic Party. Northern Whigs reorganized
themselves with other non-slavery interests to
become the Republican Party, the party of Abraham
Lincoln. This left the Democratic Party as the sole
remaining institution that crossed sectional lines.
Animosity between the North and South was again
on the rise. The North felt that if the Compromise of
1820 was ignored, the Compromise of 1850 could be
ignored as well. Violations of the hated Fugitive
Slave Law increased. Trouble was indeed back with a
vengeance.

The KansasNebraska act
made it
possible for the
Kansas and
Nebraska
territories
(shown in
orange) to
open to
slavery. The
Missouri
Compromise
had prevented
this from
happening
since 1820.


The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act would lead
to a civil war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery
settlers in Kansas.
Slavery was quite likely to be outlawed in Nebraska,
where cotton doesn't grow well. The situation in
Kansas was entirely different, where the land was
similar to Missouri's, which was a slave state. Kansas
was to be governed by the principle of popular
sovereignty. Whether Kansas was to be slave or free
would be decided at the polls. Both free and slave
forces were determined to hold sway.

Missouri counties that bordered Kansas were
strongly pro-slavery and wanted their neighbor to be
a slave state. In the fall of 1854, Senator David
Atchison of Missouri led over 1,700 men from
Missouri into Kansas to vote for their pro-slavery
representative. These were the infamous "border
ruffians," who threatened to shoot, burn and hang
those opposed to slavery.

Although their votes were later ruled fraudulent,
their candidate was elected to Congress. When it
came time to elect a territorial legislature the
following March, almost 5,000 men came into the
state from Missouri to cast illegal ballots. Pro-slavery
forces had the numbers, not the ethics, on their side.
Anti-slavery settlers, though the majority in Kansas,
were outvoted. The result of the election through
fraud was a legislature with 36 pro-slavery delegates
and 3 anti-slavery delegates.

As one of their first acts, this legislature passed a
harsh slave code that provided fines and
imprisonment simply for expressing opinions against
slavery. The death penalty would be administered to
any individual found guilty of assisting slaves to
revolt or escape. It also legalized the "border ruffian"
vote by not requiring voters to be residents in Kansas
prior to voting and made the law retroactive to the
preceding elections.

Within a year, the population of anti-slavery
residents in Kansas far outnumbered legal residents
of Kansas who were pro-slavery. They were not
prepared to obey the laws of the "bogus legislature,"
seated in Shawnee Mission. Organized under the
name of Free Soilers, they drew up a free state
constitution and elected a separate governor and
state legislature located in Topeka. The result was a
state with two governments. Violence would soon
follow.

The violence at
Fort Scott,
Kansas, led the
governor to call
for a peace
convention on
June 15, 1858. The
meeting broke
out into a riot.

Lawrence was the center of Kansas's anti-slavery
movement. It was named for Amos Lawrence, a New
England financier who provided aid to anti-slavery
farmers and settlers. This group went beyond simple
monetary aid. New England Abolitionists shipped
boxes of Sharps rifles, named "Beecher's Bibles," to
anti-slavery forces. The name for the rifles came from
a comment by Henry Ward Beecher, the anti-slavery
preacher who had remarked that a rifle might be a
more powerful moral agent on the Kansas plains
than a Bible. The lines were now drawn. Each side
had passion, and each side had guns.

William Clarke Quantrill came to Kansas as a young
man in 1858. Two years later he acheived a measure
of notoriety by engineering a scheme with four freestate men to liberate the slaves of a Missouri farmer;
however, Quantrill warned the farmer before the
raid occurred, and three of the Kansas men were
killed in the ambush. Quantrill adapted well to the
ruthless chaos that Civil War brought to the
Southwest, and until 1864 was the most popular and
powerful leader of the various bands of Border
Ruffians that pillaged the area..


William Quantrill and the Lawrence Massacre
While he and the men who followed him had more in
common with the Confederate than the Union cause,
they were by no means enlisted soldiers. They terrorized
the Kansas countryside almost entirely for profit: to rob
the citizens and loot the towns. In addition, the
innumerable atrocities committed on both sides made the
guerilla armies convenient vehicles to carry out personal
vengeance. The sack of Lawrence in 1863 by Quantrill's
Bushwackers is one occasion in which revenge and
avarice produced a bloodbath.

Prior to this attack the pro-slavery farmers of
Missouri had been continuously antagonized by the
marrauding forces of Jim Lane and "Doc" Jennison's
Jayhawkers; due to their obvious position as
abolitionist headquarters in Kansas, the citizens of
Lawerence were frequently sent into hysterics when
rumors of an attack from Missouri gained creedence.

.Nevertheless, security around the city was usually
lax, and on August 21 the populace was jarred awake
by the sounds of Quantrill's men invading the town.
After a swift and bloody assault, the Ruffians had the
town secured. Once their military objective was out
of the way, they eagerly proceeded to loot and burn
as many houses as they could. They cleaned out all
the banks, and the taverns were drained of whiskey.
While they killed no women or children, they shot
every man they saw. The death toll numbered 150
men, whose burned and mangled corpses littered the
streets of Lawrence when Quantrill's men rode away,
just a few hours after they had came.

Although the raid was indeed a crushing blow to the
Free State community in Kansas, it failed in one of its
goals of executing prominent Lawerence residents
such as Charles Robinson and the hated Jim Lane.
The Bushwhackers destroyed a great deal of
property, but did not take much with them to
Missouri. The Federal troops in the area, who
blatantly allowed Quantrill take over 400 men into
the heart of Kansas, further demonstrated their
incompetence by failing to make an organized
pursuit of them as they left.

The Reverend H.D. Fisher was one of the men who
narrowly escaped the murderous attack, and his
account of the slaughter in Gun and the Gospel
reflects the justifiable outrage of a witness and
survivor. Quantrill's raid stands out in history as
being not only one of the more gruesome events of
the Civil War, but also the climax of the border
conflict between Missouri and Kansas.

The administration of President Franklin Pierce
refused to step in to resolve the election dispute
resulting from the "border ruffians." In the spring of
1856, Judge Samuel Lecompte demanded that
members of the anti-slavery government in Kansas,
called the Free-Soil government, be indicted for
treason. Many leaders in this government lived in
Lawrence. On May 21, 1856, the pro-slavery forces
sprung into action. A posse of over 800 men from
Kansas and Missouri rode to Lawrence to arrest
members of the free state government.

The citizens of Lawrence decided against resistance.
However, the mob was not satisfied. They proceeded
to destroy two newspaper offices as they threw the
printing presses from the Free-Soil newspaper into
the nearby river. They burned and looted homes and
shops. As a final message to Abolitionists, they
aimed their cannons at the Free State Hotel and
smashed it into oblivion.

The attack inflamed almost everyone. Republicans
introduced bills to bring Kansas into the Union
under the free state government, while Democrats
introduced bills to bring in Kansas as a slave state.
Neither party alone could get the votes necessary to
win. To increase readership, Republican newspapers
exploited the situation in Kansas. Their attack
galvanized the northern states like nothing before. It
went beyond passing pro-slavery laws. The sack of
Lawrence was a direct act of violent aggression by
slave-owning southern "fire eaters."

The Free State
Hotel was left
in ruins after
the raid on
Lawrence,
Kansas in 1856.

At
Pottawatomie
Creek, five
men were
dragged from
their cabins
and massacred
by John Brown
and his sons.

devout reader of the Bible, he found human bondage
immoral and unthinkable. The father of 20 children,
he and his wife Mary settled in Kansas to wage a war
on the forces of slavery. A few days after the sack of
Lawrence, Brown sought revenge. He was furious
that the people of Lawrence had chosen not to fight.
He told his followers that they must "fight fire with
fire," and they must "strike terror in the hearts of the
pro-slavery people." In his eyes, the only just fate for
those responsible for the border ruffian laws was
death. A great believer in "an eye for an eye," John
Brown sought to avenge the sack of Lawrence.

Vengeance would come on the night of May 24, three
days after the Lawrence affair. Setting out after dark
with 7 others and calling himself the Army of the
North, Brown entered the pro-slavery town of
Pottawatomie Creek. Armed with rifles, knives, and
broadswords, Brown and his band stormed the
houses of his enemies. One by one, Brown's group
dragged out helpless victims and hacked at their
heads with the broadswords. In one encounter, they
even killed two sons of an individual they sought.
Before the night was through, five victims lay
brutally slain by the hands of John Brown.

It was the South's turn to be outraged. Destroying
property was one thing, but no one had been killed
at Lawrence. Brown had raised the stakes. He and his
followers were doggedly hunted well into the
summer. Federal troops arrested two of Brown's sons
who had not been with him. Border ruffians burned
the Brown homesteads to the ground. But John
Brown lived to fight another day. Now a fugitive, he
traveled north where he was received by
Abolitionists like a cult hero.

The sack of Lawrence and the massacre at
Pottawatomie set off a brutal guerrilla war in Kansas.
By the end of 1856, over 200 people would be
gunned down in cold blood. Property damage
reached millions of dollars. Federal troops were sent
in to put down the fighting, but they were too few to
have much effect. Kansas served as a small scale
prelude to the bloody catastrophe that engulfed the
entire nation only 5 years later.

From the 1780s, the question of whether slavery
would be permitted in new territories had threatened
the Union. Over the decades, many compromises
had been made to avoid disunion. But what did the
Constitution say on this subject? This question was
raised in 1857 before the Supreme Court in case of
Dred Scott vs. Sandford. Dred Scott was a slave of an
army surgeon, John Emerson. Scott had been taken
from Missouri to posts in Illinois and what is now
Minnesota for several years in the 1830s, before
returning to Missouri.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had declared the
area including Minnesota free. In 1846, Scott sued for
his freedom on the grounds that he had lived in a
free state and a free territory for a prolonged period
of time. Finally, after eleven years, his case reached
the Supreme Court. At stake were answers to critical
questions, including slavery in the territories and
citizenship of African-Americans. The verdict was a
bombshell.


The Court ruled that Scott's "sojourn" of two years to
Illinois and the Northwest Territory did not make
him free once he returned to Missouri.
The Court further ruled that as a black man Scott was
excluded from United States citizenship and could
not, therefore, bring suit. According to the opinion of
the Court, African-Americans had not been part of
the "sovereign people" who made the Constitution.


The Court also ruled that Congress never had the
right to prohibit slavery in any territory. Any ban on
slavery was a violation of the Fifth Amendment,
which prohibited denying property rights without
due process of law.
The Missouri Compromise was therefore
unconstitutional.

The Chief Justice of the United States was Roger B.
Taney, a former slave owner, as were four other
southern justices on the Court. The two dissenting
justices of the nine-member Court were the only
Republicans. The north refused to accept a decision
by a Court they felt was dominated by "Southern
fire-eaters." Many Northerners, including Abraham
Lincoln, felt that the next step would be for the
Supreme Court to decide that no state could exclude
slavery under the Constitution, regardless of their
wishes or their laws.

Two of the three branches of government, the
Congress and the President, had failed to resolve the
issue. Now the Supreme Court rendered a decision
that was only accepted in the southern half of the
country. Was the American experiment collapsing?
The only remaining national political institution with
both northern and southern strength was the
Democratic Party, and it was now splitting at the
seams. The fate of the Union looked hopeless.

The 7th and final debate
between Senatorial
candidates Abraham
Lincoln and Stephen
Douglas was held on
October 15, 1858, in
Alton, Illinois. Today
bronze statues of
Douglas and Lincoln
stand to commemorate
the event at Lincoln
Douglas Square in
Alton.

In 1858, as the country moved ever closer to
disunion, two politicians from Illinois attracted the
attention of a nation. From August 21 until October
15, Stephen Douglas battled Abraham Lincoln in face
to face debates around the state. The prize they
sought was a seat in the Senate. Lincoln challenged
Douglas to a war of ideas. Douglas took the
challenge. The debates were to be held at 7 locations
throughout Illinois. The fight was on and the nation
was watching.

The spectators came from all over Illinois and nearby
states by train, by canal-boat, by wagon, by buggy,
and on horseback. They briefly swelled the
populations of the towns that hosted the debates. The
audiences participated by shouting questions,
cheering the participants as if they were
prizefighters, applauding and laughing. The debates
attracted tens of thousands of voters and newspaper
reporters from across the nation.

During the debates, Douglas still advocated "popular
sovereignty," which maintained the right of the
citizens of a territory to permit or prohibit slavery. It
was, he said, a sacred right of self-government.
Lincoln pointed out that Douglas's position directly
challenged the Dred Scott decision, which decreed
that the citizens of a territory had no such power.

In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine,
Douglas replied that whatever the Supreme Court
decided was not as important as the actions of the
citizens. If a territory refused to have slavery, no
laws, no Supreme Court ruling, would force them to
permit it. This sentiment would be taken as betrayal
to many southern Democrats and would come back
to haunt Douglas in his bid to become President in
the election of 1860.

Time and time again, Lincoln made that point that "a
house divided could not stand." Douglas refuted this
by noting that the founders, "left each state perfectly
free to do as it pleased on the subject." Lincoln felt
that blacks were entitled to the rights enumerated in
the Declaration of Independence, which include "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Douglas
argued that the founders intended no such inclusion
for blacks.

Neither Abraham Lincoln nor Stephen Douglas won
a popular election that fall. Under rules governing
Senate elections, voters cast their ballots for local
legislators, who then choose a Senator. The
Democrats won a majority of district contests and
returned Douglas to Washington. But the nation saw
a rising star in the defeated Lincoln. The entire
drama that unfolded in Illinois would be played on
the national stage only two years later with the
highest of all possible stakes.

If we could first know where we are and whither we
are tending, we could better judge what to do and
how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since
a policy was initiated with the avowed object and
confident promise of putting an end to slavery
agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that
agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly
augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a
crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house
divided against itself cannot stand."


I believe this government cannot endure,
permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect
the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house
to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It
will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the
opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of
it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or
its advocates will push it forward till it shall become
alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new,
North as well as South.
Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's speech, "A House
Divided"

The next question propounded to me by Mr. Lincoln is,
can the people of a Territory in any lawful way, against
the wishes of any citizen of the United States, exclude
slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State
Constitution? I answer emphatically, as Mr. Lincoln has
heard me answer a hundred times from every stump in
Illinois, that in my opinion the people of a Territory can,
by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior
to the formation of a State Constitution. Mr. Lincoln
knew that I had answered that question over and over
again. He heard me argue the Nebraska bill on that
principle all over the State in 1854, in 1855, and in 1856,
and he has no excuse for pretending to be in doubt as to
my position on that question.

It matters not what way the Supreme Court may
hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether
slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the
Constitution, the people have the lawful means to
introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the
reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour
anywhere, unless it is supported by local police
regulations. Those police regulations can only be
established by the local legislature, and if the people
are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives
to that body who will by unfriendly legislation
effectually prevent the introduction of it into their
midst.


If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the
decision of the Supreme Court may be on that
abstract question, still the right of the people to make
a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
complete under the Nebraska bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln
deems my answer satisfactory on that point.
Excerpt from Stephen Douglas's Freeport Doctrine
speech at Freeport, Illinois.

Harper's Ferry before John Brown's raid on
October 16, 1859.

On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a small army of
18 men into the small town of Harper's Ferry,
Virginia. His plan was to instigate a major slave
rebellion in the South. He would seize the arms and
ammunition in the federal arsenal, arm slaves in the
area and move south along the Appalachian
Mountains, attracting slaves to his cause. He had no
rations. He had no escape route. His plan was
doomed from the very beginning. But it did succeed
to deepen the divide between the North and South.

John Brown and his cohorts marched into an
unsuspecting Harper's Ferry and seized the federal
complex with little resistance. It consisted of an
armory, arsenal, and engine house. He then sent a
patrol out into the country to contact slaves, collected
several hostages, including the great grandnephew
of George Washington, and sat down to wait. The
slaves did not rise to his support, but local citizens
and militia surrounded him, exchanging gunfire,
killing two townspeople and eight of Brown's
company.

Troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Robert E. Lee arrived from Washington to arrest
Brown. They stormed the engine house, where
Brown had withdrawn, captured him and members
of his group, and turned them over to Virginia
authorities to be tried for treason. He was quickly
tried and sentenced to hang on December 2.

Brown's strange effort to start a rebellion was over
less than 36 hours after it started; however, the
consequences of his raid would last far longer. In the
North, his raid was greeted by many with
widespread admiration. While they recognized the
raid itself was the act of a madman, some
northerners admired his zeal and courage. Church
bells pealed on the day of his execution and songs
and paintings were created in his honor.



















John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah! his soul's marching on!
He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord! (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back! (3X)
His soul's marching on!
(Chorus)
His pet lambs will meet him on the way; (3X)
They go marching on!
(Chorus)
They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree! (3X)
As they march along!
(Chorus)
Now, three rousing cheers for the Union; (3X)
As we are marching on!

Brown was turned into an instant martyr. Ralph
Waldo Emerson predicted that Brown would make
"the gallows as glorious as the cross." The majority of
northern newspapers did, however, denounce the
raid. The Republican Party adopted a specific plank
condemning John Brown and his ill-fated plan. But
that was not what the south saw.

Southerners were shocked and outraged. How could
anyone be sympathetic to a fanatic who destroyed
their property and threatened their very lives? How
could they live under a government whose citizens
regarded John Brown as a martyr? Southern
newspapers labeled the entire north as John Brown
sympathizers. Southern politicians blamed the
Republican Party and falsely claimed that Abraham
Lincoln supported Brown's intentions.

Moderate voices supporting compromise on both
sides grew silent amid the gathering storm. In this
climate of fear and hostility, the election year of 1860
opened ominously. The election of Abraham Lincoln
became unthinkable to many in the south.

John Brown's
fanaticism affected
many of the people
around him, especially
his family. Two of his
sons were killed at
Harper's Ferry.

The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in
April 1860 to select their candidate for President in
the upcoming election. It was turmoil. Northern
democrats felt that Stephen Douglas had the best
chance to defeat the "Black Republicans."

Although an ardent supporter of slavery, southern
Democrats considered Douglas a traitor because of
his support of popular sovereignty, permitting
territories to choose not to have slavery. Southern
democrats stormed out of the convention, without
choosing a candidate. Six weeks later, the northern
Democrats chose Douglas, while at a separate
convention the Southern Democrats nominated then
Vice-President John C. Breckenridge.

The Republicans met in Chicago that May and
recognized that the Democrat's turmoil actually gave
them a chance to take the election. They needed to
select a candidate who could carry the North and
win a majority of the Electoral College. To do that,
the Republicans needed someone who could carry
New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania —
four important states that remained uncertain.

There were plenty of potential candidates, but in the
end Abraham Lincoln had emerged as the best
choice. Lincoln had become the symbol of the
frontier, hard work, the self-made man and the
American dream. His debates with Douglas had
made him a national figure and the publication of
those debates in early 1860 made him even better
known. After the third ballot, he had the nomination
for President.

A number of aging politicians and
distinguished citizens, calling themselves the
Constitutional Union Party, nominated John
Bell of Tennessee, a wealthy slaveholder as
their candidate for President. These people
were for moderation. They decided that the
best way out of the present difficulties that
faced the nation was to take no stand at all on
the issues that divided the north and the south.

With four candidates in the field, Lincoln
received only 40% of the popular vote and 180
electoral votes — enough to narrowly win the
crowded election. This meant that 60% of the
voters selected someone other than Lincoln.
With the results tallied, the question was,
would the South accept the outcome? A few
weeks after the election, South Carolina
seceded from the Union.

The votes of
the Electoral
College were
split among
four
candidates in
the 1860
presidential
election. The
states that
Lincoln won
are shown in
red,
Breckenridge
in green, Bell
in orange and
Douglas in
brown.

Within three months of Lincoln's election, seven
states had seceded from the Union. Just as
Springfield, Illinois celebrated the election of its
favorite son to the Presidency on November 7, so did
Charleston, South Carolina, which did not cast a
single vote for him. It knew that the election meant
the formation of a new nation. The Charleston
Mercury said, "The tea has been thrown overboard,
the revolution of 1860 has been initiated."

Within a few days, the two United States
Senators from South Carolina submitted their
resignations. On December 20, 1860, by a vote
of 169-0, the South Carolina legislature enacted
an "ordinance" that "the union now subsisting
between South Carolina and other States,
under the name of 'The United States of
America,' is hereby dissolved."

As Grist had hoped, South Carolina's action
resulted in conventions in other southern
states. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas all left the Union by
February 1. On February 4, delegates from all
these states except Texas met in Montgomery,
Alabama, to create and staff a government
called the Confederate States of America. They
elected President Jefferson Davis. The gauntlet
was thrown. How would the North respond?

A last ditch effort was made to end the crisis.
Senator James Henry Crittenden proposed to
amend the Constitution to extend the old 36°30'
line to the Pacific. All territory North of the line
would be forever free, and all territory south of
the line would receive federal protection for
slavery. Republicans refused to support this
measure.

What was the President doing during all this
furor? Abraham Lincoln would not be
inaugurated until March 4. James Buchanan
presided over the exodus from the Union.
Although he thought secession to be illegal, he
found using the army in this case to be
unconstitutional. Both regions awaited the
arrival of President Lincoln and wondered
anxiously what he would do.