Stowe & Helper
•Harriet Beecher Stowe-Uncle Tom’s Cabin-Impact?
•Hinton Helper-Impending Crisis of the South-Nonslaveholding
whites were the ones suffering from slavery
Kansas
•Popular Sovereignty-newcomers to Kansas?
•Most looking for land yet some sent in by Free Soilers
•South began to protest-thought deal was for Kansas to be slave
•South began sponsoring proslavery bands into Kansas
•Putting slaves in Kansas was dangerous-Violence
•1855-Process of electing to Legislature-border ruffians poured in
for voting-Antislavery set up their own government-1856
proslavery raiders destroyed part of Lawrence
John Brown
• Obsessively Abolitionist-May of 1856-Pottawatomie Creekhacked 5 proslavery men to death
• 1857 Kansas had enough people for statehood• Lecompton Constitution-vote for Constitution as slave or free &
if free current slaveholders could stay-Free Soilers stayed away
poll & proslaveryites passed the Constitution
• New president James Buchanan supported the Lecompton
Constitution
• Stephen A. Douglas would not accept-new vote on Lecompton
and Free Soilers won-territory until 1861
• Buchanan-Douglas split the Democratic Party-Repubs already
sectional
Sumner-Brooks
• Senator Charles Sumner of Mass. Gave a nasty speech about
Kansas & proslaveryites. Insulted S. Carolina Senator Andrew
Butler
• Preston Brooks of S. Carolina-took vengeance and beat
Sumner
• Brooks resigned yet reelected-Sumner-a long recovery
• Bleeding Kansas-Bully Brooks-first blows of Civil War
1856 Election
• Dems. chose James Buchanan
• Reps. chose John C. Fremont-no extension of slavery
• Know Nothings-Millard Fillmore-”Americans must rule!”Xenophobes!!
• Mudslinging-Buchanan-single/Fremont-born illigitimate-Catholic
• Buchanan won 174 -114-not a majority in popular vote
• Election of Fremont may have been a declaration for war
• No secession was good-Fremont was no Lincoln & North not
really willing to fight-Republicans happy with showing
Dred Scott
• Supreme Court decision: March 6, 1857-Opening Blast of the
Civil War
• Scott, a slave who lived w/ master in free areas for 5 years,
backed by abolitionists, sued for his freedom
• Supreme Court ruled: Scott was a slave and no citizen,
therefore he could not sue in federal court-Roger B. Taney the
Chief Justice should have stopped there. Slave was private
property and could be taken into any territory & legally held
there in slavery-5th Amendment
• Congress had no power to ban slavery in territories regardless
of what territories wanted-Missouri Compromise?
• North and South reactions?
• Further questions of Union arose
Crash of 1857
• Psychologically the worst panic of 19th
• Gold from California inflated currency, Crimean War over
stimulated grain growth, speculation of land and RR-over 5,000
businesses closed within year
• North & grain growers hardest hit-South and cotton flourished
• North wanted free farms & no selling of land govmnt for
revenue
• Gifts of homesteads opposed: Eastern merchants fearful work
would leave, South argued slavery could not exist on 160 acres
& Free Soilers would tip scales towards North
• 1860 Homestead Act passed-25 cents peracre-vetoed by
Buchanan
• Tariffs had been lowered in 1857 yet panic hit & surplus melted
away
• Republicans of 1860---Protection and Farms
Lincoln
• The Man?
• Elected to state legislature in 1834, then House, ran for Senate
in 1858-Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 spurred Lincoln
Lincoln-Douglas
• Challenged Douglas to a series of debates-7 meetings from
August--October-1858
• Lincoln at first appeared overmatched
• Freeport: Lincoln asked-people of a territory vote slavery downSupreme Court in the Dred Scott case said they could not-Who
gets their way?
• Douglas answered: No matter how the Supreme Court ruled,
slavery would stay down if people voted it down
• Douglas won-Popular Sovereignty still popular
• Lincoln playing for larger stakes
• Douglas was done w/presidency
John Brown
• Invade South w/followers, call upon slaves to rise & revolt,
furnish w/ arms
• $ came from Abolitionists for firearms
• Seized federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, VA-Oct. 1859
• Slaves knew nothing of the plan-crushed by federal troops
under Rbt E. Lee
• Convicted of murder & treason yet maybe should have ended in
asylum-crazy relatives
• Brown’s conduct at the trial was dignified-died unflinching
• South feared more problems-many Northerners condemned
actions
• Many were furious w/ the execution
Democrats
• 1860 Presidential Election: Douglas considered front runner for
Northern Dems.-South walked out-first secession was done by
Southern Dems.
• Dems. Tried again in Baltimore and nominated Douglas
• S. Dems. Organized in Baltimore too & nominated J.
Breckinridge of Kentucky
• Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee
• Repubs nominated Lincoln(Seward was too radical)
• Repub. Platform: nonextension of slavery, protective tariff,
Pacific RR, immigrant friendly, federal help w/ infrastructure,
free homesteads
• Lincoln feared by South-kept quiet about slavery
1860 Election
• Lincoln was a minority and sectional president-60% chose
someone else
• Two elections-one in North and one is South
• Douglas had an impressive showing-Democratic showing?
Could they have beaten Lincoln?
• Breckinridge-favored extension-polled fewer votes than
Douglas and Bell
• South still had 5-4 in Supreme Court, Repubs. did not control
the House or Senate, Congress could not pass a constitutional
amendment to ban slavery, 15 slave states
Secessionist Exodus
• 4 days after Lincoln elected/S. Carolina voted to call special
convention & in December voted to secede-next six weeks six
more followed-AL, MS, FL, GA, LA, TX-eventually four more
• 7 states on Feb. 1861 formed Confederate States of America
• Jefferson Davis as president
• Lame Duck problem! Buchanan did not act-surrounded by
proslave advisors. Believed South could not legally secede yet
found nothing to justify stopping with guns
• Buchanan only had 15,000 standing army-mostly used to
control natives in West-public opinion in North did not favor
military action
• Weakness lay in Union?
No Compromise
• Attempts to compromise: James Crittenden of KentuckyAppease the South, reestablish the 36 30’-slavery prohibited
North of line, future states N/S could come in with or without
slavery, federal protection for areas South
• Lincoln rejected plan-Blame?
• Buchanan didn’t act yet this was good-if North moved in-Border
states would have seceded
Farewell to Union
• Secession caused by many factors: Slavery, political balance,
Census, Republican victory, desired to be left alone
• Many supported but felt they would be unopposed
• Thought Northern banks would not cut throats-war would mean
debt repudiated
• Perfect to rid themselves of North-control trade-set low tariffs
• Declaration of Independence & self determination applied to
them
• Felt they were not guilty-voluntarily joined-could voluntarily
leave