THE COMING OF THE CIVIL
WAR
• The Slave Power Comes North
– new fugitive slave law encouraged
southerners to recover escaped slaves,
which caused panic among black
communities in northern cities
– many blacks, not all of them former slaves,
fled to Canada
– many northerners refused to cooperate
with the law, and abolitionists often
interfered with its enforcement; in some
• “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin (1852), became an immediate
best-seller, added to sectional tensions,
and brought home the evils of slavery to
many northerners
– southerners accused it of distorting
plantation life
• Diversions Abroad: The “Young
America” Movement
– spurred by a belief in manifest destiny, a
search for new markets, a desire to spread
democracy to the rest of the world, and a
need for a distraction from sectional
tensions, America embarked on an
aggressive foreign policy known as the
Young America movement
– this expansionist sentiment encouraged
William Walker to attempt to gain control of
Nicaragua and George Bickley to attempt
the conquest of Mexico
– in 1850, Secretary of State John Clayton
and the British minister to the United
States, Henry Lytton Bulwer, negotiated a
treaty providing for demilitarization and
joint Anglo-American control of any canal
across the Central American isthmus
– America had long been interested in Cuba,
and that interest increased because of its
strategic importance
– American ministers in Europe produced the
Ostend Manifesto in 1854, which proposed
that America should buy Cuba or take it by
force if Spain refused to sell
– news of the manifesto outraged
northerners, who saw it as a “slaveholders’
plot,” and the government was forced to
disavow the manifesto along with any
plans for acquiring Cuba
– Commodore Perry’s expedition to open
Japan (1852) was another manifestation of
the expansionist mood
• Douglas: The Little Giant
– the most prominent spokesman for the
Young America movement was Stephen A.
Douglas
– Douglas based his politics on expansion
and popular sovereignty
– although he opposed the expansion of
slavery to the territories, he refused to
acknowledge that any moral issue was
involved
– he believed that natural conditions would
prevent slavery from expanding westward
– Douglas wanted the Democratic
nomination for president in 1852, but the
party chose Franklin Pierce, who easily
defeated General Winfield Scott, the
Whig’s nominee
– the Whig party was rapidly disintegrating
– “Cotton Whigs” of the South, alienated by
the antislavery opinions of northern Whigs,
flocked to the Democrats
– southern Democrats controlled Congress,
which disturbed both Democrats and
Whigs in the North
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act
– Douglas wanted the Nebraska Territory
organized to open the region for a
transcontinental railroad; southerners
opposed Douglas’s plans
– they wanted a southern route; moreover,
Nebraska lay north of the Missouri
Compromise line and would presumably
become a free state
– in an effort to gain southern support,
Douglas agreed to divide the Nebraska
Territory into Kansas and Nebraska and to
repeal the Missouri Compromise’s
prohibition of slavery north of 36 degrees,
30 minutes
– popular sovereignty would decide the
status of slavery in the territories
– in spite of strong opposition in the North,
Douglas mustered enough support to pass
the bill
– the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the single
greatest step toward secession and civil
war
• Know-Nothings and Republicans
– two new parties emerged from the demise
of the Whigs: the American, or “KnowNothing,” party and the Republican party
– the Know-Nothings espoused a nativist
platform
– Nativist issues cut across sectional lines,
and the American party had support in all
sections
– although most Know-Nothings disliked
blacks, the party tended to adopt the view
of slavery predominant in whichever
section they were located
– former Free Soilers, “Conscience” Whigs,
and “Anti-Nebraska” Democrats banded
together in the Republican party
– support for the Republicans came almost
exclusively from the North
– Republicans were not abolitionists; rather,
they wanted to keep slavery out of the
territories, primarily to maintain exclusive
access to the West for free white labor
• “Bleeding Kansas”
– the status of slavery in Kansas became a
national issue, as abolitionists and
defenders of slavery attempted to control
the territory
– Proslavery “border ruffians” from Missouri
crossed into Kansas and helped to elect a
proslavery territorial legislature in 1855
– antislavery settlers elected a legislature of
their own
– President Pierce’s denunciation of the freestate government at Topeka encouraged
the proslavery forces to take the offensive
– they sacked the antislavery town of
Lawrence; in retaliation, John Brown, an
antislavery extremist, and his followers
murdered five proslavery men at
Pottawatomie Creek
• Senator Sumner Becomes a Martyr
– Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts
attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Act and
demanded that Kansas be admitted as a
free state
– he savagely berated Douglas and Senator
Andrew Butler of South Carolina
– Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston
Brooks, took it on himself to defend his
uncle’s honor by beating Sumner with a
cane on the floor of the Senate
– Brooks became a southern hero;
northerners regarded the incident as
evidence of the brutalizing effect of slavery
and considered Sumner a martyr
• Buchanan Tries His Hand
– Republicans nominated John C. Frémont
as their candidate in 1856
– Democrats chose James Buchanan
– American party nominated ex-president
Fillmore
– Democrats won by denouncing
Republicans as sectional party that
threatened to destroy Union
– while Republicans believed that Buchanan
lacked the character to stand up to
southern extremists, many hoped that he
could promote reconciliation
• The Dred Scott Decision
– Dred Scott was a slave who accompanied
his owner from Missouri to Illinois and
Wisconsin Territory before returning to
Missouri
– in 1846, Scott brought suit in Missouri for
his freedom, claiming that his residence in
Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was
prohibited, made him free
– in 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that
blacks were not citizens and therefore
could not sue in federal court
– not satisfied with that ruling, the Court went
further and declared the Missouri
Compromise unconstitutional because it
denied individuals the right to enjoy their
property without due process of law
– the Dred Scott decision threatened
Douglas’s principle of popular sovereignty;
if Congress could not exclude slaves from
a territory, surely a mere territorial
legislature could not
– the decision convinced many in the North
that the South was engaged in an
aggressive attempt to extend slavery
• The Lecompton Constitution
– Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker as
territorial governor of Kansas
– although a southerner, Walker opposed the
introduction of slavery into the territory
against the will of its inhabitants
– proslavery leaders in Kansas convened a
constitutional convention in Lecompton, in
which the Free Soilers refused to
participate
– the rump convention drafted a proslavery
constitution and refused to submit it to a
vote of all settlers
– Walker denounced the constitution, but
Buchanan recommended that Congress
admit Kansas to the Union with the
Lecompton Constitution as its frame of
government
– this decision brought Buchanan into
conflict with Douglas and split the
Democratic party
– in a referendum held in 1858, voters in
Kansas overwhelmingly rejected the
Lecompton Constitution
• The Emergence of Lincoln
– many northerners regarded Douglas as the
best hope of preserving the Union, so his
bid for reelection to the Senate attracted
considerable attention
– his Republican opponent was Abraham
Lincoln, a lawyer who had previously
served in the Illinois legislature and in
Congress
– Lincoln”s personality was complex
– possessed of a wonderful sense of humor,
he was subject to fits of melancholy
– while not an abolitionist, Lincoln opposed
the expansion of slavery into the territories
– the revival of the slavery controversy in
1854 led Lincoln to a more explicit moral
opposition to slavery
– still, he attacked the institution rather than
the slave owners
– his position won support from many who
attempted to reconcile their opposition to
slavery with a desire to preserve the Union
• The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– Public attention focused on a series of
seven debates between Lincoln and
Douglas
– in reality, the two men differed little on the
subject of slavery
– neither wanted slavery extended into the
territories; neither believed that it would
flourish in the West; and neither favored
forced abolition. In the debates, however,
they tended to exaggerate their differences
– Douglas characterized Lincoln as
abolitionist, and Lincoln portrayed Douglas
as proslavery and as a defender of the
Dred Scott decision
– in the Freeport debate, Lincoln pressed
Douglas into admitting that the Dred Scott
decision could not prohibit settlers from
excluding slavery from a territory, because
settlers could refuse to enact the local laws
necessary to protect slavery
– the so-called Freeport Doctrine helped
Douglas win reelection, but it cost him
dearly in the presidential campaign of 1860
• John Brown’s Raid
– in October 1859, John Brown and a small
group of followers attacked the federal
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
– they hoped to incite slaves to rebel and to
use the weapons to arm the slaves
– no slaves joined them, and Brown was
captured, convicted of treason, and
hanged
– northerners regarded him as a martyr,
while white southerners viewed him as a
typical radical abolitionist
• The Election of 1860
– by 1860, Southern paranoia resulted in
aggressive policies designed to defend
slavery and in talk of secession
– at the Democratic convention in
Charleston, southern delegates refused to
support Douglas, who represented the best
hope for preventing a rupture between
North and South, and the convention
adjourned without selecting a candidate
– a second convention failed to produce
agreement, and the two wings met
separately
– northern Democrats nominated Douglas,
and southern Democrats chose John C.
Breckinridge of Kentucky
– Republicans drafted a platform attractive to
all classes and all sections of the northern
and western states
– they advocated a high tariff, a homestead
law, internal improvements, and the
exclusion of slavery in the territories
– Republicans chose Lincoln as their
candidate because of his moderate views,
his political personality, and his residence
in a crucial state
– the Constitutional Unionist party, composed
of the remnants of the Whig and American
parties, nominated John Bell of Tennessee
– Lincoln received a plurality, although
nowhere near a majority, of the popular
vote; however, he won a decisive victory in
the electoral college
• The Secession Crisis
– in late 1860 and early 1861, South
Carolina and six states of the Lower South
seceded from the Union and established a
provisional government for the
Confederate States of America
– other southern states announced that they
would secede if the North used force
against the Confederacy
– South seceded because it feared northern
economic and political domination
– some believed that independence would
produce a more balanced economy in the
South
– years of sectional conflict and growing
northern criticism of slavery had
undermined patriotic feelings of
southerners
– States’ rights and a strict constructionist
interpretation of the Constitution provided
the South with justification for its action
– like many northerners, President-elect
Lincoln believed that secession was only a
bluff designed to win concessions from the
North, and southerners believed that the
– President Buchanan recognized the
seriousness of the situation but claimed to
be without legal power to prevent
secession
– moderates proposed the Crittenden
Compromise, an amendment that would
have recognized slavery south of 36
degrees, 30 minutes, but Lincoln opposed
any extension of slavery into the territories
– with the failure of the Crittenden
Compromise, the Confederacy made
preparations for independence, while
Buchanan bumbled helplessly in
Washington