CHAPTER 14, PART SEVEN
War Approaches
VIOLENCE IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH

Before, during, and after the debate over the KansasNebraska Act, there were clear signs that the bonds that
tied the nation together were rapidly coming apart.

In Boston during 1854, an angry crowd attacked Federal
Marshalls and slave catchers who were escorting an
escaped slave named Anthony Burns who had lived in
Boston for many years. One Marshall was fatally
stabbed and the U.S. Army was called in to restore order.
THE BROOKS-SUMNER INCIDENT

In May of 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks
attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with his cane
until he was unconscious and severely injured.

While the beating took place, two fellow Southerners prevented
anyone from helping Sumner. One of them held a pistol on
other senators and shouted for them to “Let them be” while the
attack was taking place.

The reason for the attack was that Sumner had criticized his
relative (Senator Andrew Butler) in an anti-slave speech.
Sumner was unable to return to work for over three years due
to the injuries he received in the attack.
BROOKS-SUMNER INCIDENT EFFECTS

Brooks was a hero in the South. Many sent him a new cane
to replace the one that he had broken over Sumner’s head.
The common Southern view was that he had taught the
“cowardly Yankee’s” a well-deserved lesson.

The North was deeply shocked and angered by the incident.
Northern anger increased when it was discovered that no
charges were to be pressed against Brooks (to avoid raising
North-South tensions). The entire incident proved to
Northerners that compromise with the South was impossible
and that slavery only led to violence.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

Frustration over the unwillingness of the Whigs and Democrats to
face the issue of slavery and its spread to the west, men committed
to stopping the spread of slavery formed the Republican Party in
Michigan during 1854.

The party was not an abolitionist party. The Republicans did not
wish to destroy slavery, they only wished to stop its spread.

Southerners, however, were convinced that the Republicans were
radical abolitionists who were dedicated to destroying the South.

The party was too new to challenge the Democrats, but one
member from Illinois attracted national attention with a powerful
speech.
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY IN 1854

“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.”
THE ELECTION OF 1856

The Republicans chose Mexican War hero and
frontiersman John C. Fremont to run for President, a
man with little political experience.

Millard Fillmore ran for what was left of the dying Free
Soil Party.

The Democrats selected a career politician and
Northerner, James Buchanan, to run for President. He
was known to be sympathetic to the South and its views.
John Fremont
Millard Fillmore
James Buchanon
EFFECTS OF THE ELECTION OF 1852

Buchanan won enough support from the North and South to win
the election.

The Republicans, however, won 33% of the national vote without
winning a single Southern State.

The South quickly realized what this meant – their power to
influence national politics was nearly gone. Many Southerners
began to talk of seceding if a Republican candidate ever became
President.

With their power in Congress slipping away, Southerners knew
that the only real influence that they would have in the Federal
Government would be through the office of the Presidency.
THE 1858 LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (1)

A new Republican candidate was selected to run against
Democrat Stephen Douglas in the 1858 Illinois Senate
Race – Abraham Lincoln. He challenged Douglas to
several debates, which became the center of attention
throughout the United States.

During the debates, Douglas claimed that Lincoln was a
radical abolitionist who wanted to free slaves
everywhere, destroy relations between the North and
South, push the nation into a civil war, and flood the
North with free blacks that would take away white jobs.
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (2)

Douglas argued that a vote for a “Black Republican”
such as Lincoln was a vote for war. Douglas also
supported the idea of popular sovereignty in the
territories – slavery was acceptable to him if the people
of a territory wanted it.

Lincoln took the more difficult position in the debates.
He claimed that slavery was an evil that could no longer
be ignored or allowed to spread any further. He warned
his audiences that the nation would have to deal with the
slave issue or that it would destroy the nation. Lincoln
opposed popular sovereignty and the spread of slavery.
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (3)

Lincoln also argued that freed slaves should be given all
of the rights granted to whites in the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution. While not willing to
accept slaves as fully equal to whites, Lincoln did
believe that slaves should have equal rights – especially
the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Lincoln lost the election, but won fame all over America.
In the North, this election helped to bring him to the
attention of Republican Party leaders and eventually led
to his nomination in 1860 as the Republican candidate
for president.