15: The Coming
Crisis, the 1850s
“The majority rules and law rests on numbers, not
on intellect or virtue. . . while theoretically
holding that no vote of the majority can
authorize injustice, we practically consider public
opinion the real test of what is true and false;
and hence, as a result, the fact which
Tocqueville has noticed, that practically our
institutions protect, not the interest of the whole
community but the interests of the majority.”
Abolitionist Wendell Phillips
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day
that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross
injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your
celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your
national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are
empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted
impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery;
your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all
your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast,
fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up
crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a
nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody,
than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. Go
where you may, search where you will, roam through all the
monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South
America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the
last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this
nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and
shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852 Rochester, NY
Henry Clay addressing Senate, 1850 -- the CA gold rush pushed the Wilmot Proviso into
the spotlight when CA applied for statehood in September of 1849
CA as a free
state
Territorial
governments
for Utah and
NM
Slave trade in
D.C. was
abolished
Strict fugitive
slave law
Texas land
claims settled
MA Senator Daniel Webster 1782-1852 who worked with Clay for 8 months on the
Compromise of 1850
Millard Fillmore 18001874
US President when
Zachary Taylor died in
July 1850
Taylor had opposed
1850 Compromise
while Fillmore
supported it
A slave coffle in Washington, D.C.
Boston handbill, 1851, warning “colored people” of slave catchers
San Francisco celebrates first “Admission Day”
San Francisco’s Vigilance Committee hangs two men in 1856 – 6,000 vigilantes marched
through the city
Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory [present day Arizona]
1852 Cuban sugar estate – many Americans invested in Cuban sugar plantations
President Franklin Pierce elected in 1852, supported 1853 $130 million effort to
purchase Cuba – “Ostend Manifesto” threatened US seizure of Cuba
Commodore Matthew Perry 1794-1858 -- brother of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry,
sent to open Japan in 1852
Japanese admiring technological gifts, Tokyo in July 1853
1854 Honolulu -- President Pierce’s foreign policy he called “Young America” attempted
unsuccessfully to annex Hawaii
NY city torchlight meeting of “Know-Nothings” or American Party, Nov. 1855
A “Know-Nothing” cartoon – they elected governors in NY and MD
“The Hurly-Burly Pot” cartoon – issues that threatened US in 1850s
Stephen A. Douglas 1813-1861 -- “Little Giant” proposed popular sovereignty for both
Kansas and Nebraska
Chicago 1865
“Bull’s Head stockyards in Chicago, opened in 1848
An illustration from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896 -- daughter of Lyman Beecher and sister of Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher
Harriet Tubman 1821-1913 -- helped John Brown organize armed raids against slavery
from her farm in Canada
Walt Whitman 1819-1892, Leaves of Grass in 1855, anti-slavery
Salmon P. Chase 1808-1873, early leader of Republican Party after “Bleeding Kansas”
caused Whigs to leave their party
Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse where Republican Party held first meetings
SC Senator Andrew Butler 1796-1857, After Sen. Charles Sumner of MA accused him of
a conspiracy of Kansas slaveholders, Sumner was attacked on May 21, 1856
Congressman Preston Brooks of SC 1819-1857, hitting Sumner with cane – Sumner
didn’t recover for nearly 3 years
General John C. Fremont
1813-1890
First Republican candidate
for president in 1856
An antislavery Southerner
who married daughter of
Sen. Thomas Hart Benton,
Missouri
James Buchanan 1791-1868, Elected 15th US President in 1856, was Polk’s Secretary
of State during Mexican War
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney 1777-1864, Maryland slaveowner who manumitted own
slaves, 1857 Dred Scott decision
Dred Scott with wife Harriet. She sued Dred’s former owner who brought him into the
Wisconsin Territory where they met. [Both brought back as slaves]
Governor’s mansion in LeCompton, Kansas Territory in 1857 – They held proslavery
constitutional convention boycotted by Free Soilers. Douglas broke with Buchanan when
asked to admit Kansas as slave state
Bleeding Kansas in 1858 [Pottawatomie Creek massacre by John Brown, May of 1856]
5th Lincoln – Douglas debate at Knox College in Illinois -- October 7, 1858
Lincoln and William Herndon had law office on this street in Springfield, Illinois
Lincoln’s home for 17 years in Springfield, Illinois
Lincoln’s Springfield kitchen
Campaign cartoon accusing “Honest Abe” of being two-faced about own ambitions -Lincoln was chosen over frontrunner William H. Seward of MA
Harper’s Ferry in [West] Virginia ca. 1856
John Brown
1800-1859
daguerreotype
from 1856 or
1857
John Brown and 17 others seized the federal arsenal, armory, and a rifle works on
October 16, 1859 but he surrendered from this fire station two days later.
Col. Robert E. Lee, led US Marines that captured Brown – 10 of Brown’s men were killed
Chronology
1820
1832
1848
1850
1851
1852
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
Missouri Compromise
Nullification Crisis
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; Zachary Taylor; "free-soilers"
Compromise of 1850; American "know nothing" movement; Millard
Fillmore president
Northern reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law; Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Franklin Pierce elected president
Ostend Manifesto; Kansas-Nebraska Act; treaty renegotiations;
Republican Party begins
William Walker’s "filibuster" in Nicaragua
Looting of Lawrence, Kansas; John Brown’s Pottawatomie massacre;
Buchanan president
Dred Scott decision; Buchanan accepts proslavery Lecompton
constitution; Panic
Congress rejects Lecompton constitution; Lincoln-Douglas Debates
John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry
4 parties run candidates for president; Lincoln’s election; S. Carolina
secedes
6 additional "deep South" states secede; Confederate States formed;
Lincoln takes office
Bibliography
Davis, William C. An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the
Confederate Government. [2001
Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in
American Law and Politics. (1978)
Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the
Republican Party before the Civil War. (1970)
Franklin, John Hope. A Southern Odyssey: Travelers ih the Ante-bellum
North. (1976)
Oates, Stephen. To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of John
Brown. (1970) and With Malice toward None: A life of Abraham
Lincoln. (1977)
Potter, David. The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861. (1976)
Stampp, Kenneth. America in 1857. (1990) and The Causes of the Civil
War. (1974)
Takaki, Ronald. A Proslavery Crusade: The Agitation to Reopen the
African Slave Trade. (1971)
Woodward, C. Vann. American Counterpoint: Slavery and Racism in
the North-South Dialogue. (1971)
Chapter Focus Questions



Why did the Whigs and Democrats fail to find a
lasting political compromise on the issue of
slavery?
What caused the end of the Second American
Party System and the rise of the Republican
Party?
Why did the secession of the southern states
follow the Republican Party victory in the
election of 1860?
A: American
Communities
Illinois Communities Debate
Slavery




Illinois voters gathered in 1858 to hear Stephen A.
Douglas and Abraham Lincoln debate slavery and the
future of the Union.
Douglas accused Lincoln of favoring social equality of
whites and blacks.
Lincoln denied this and accused Douglas of supporting
the spread of slavery. Although Douglas won the
senatorial election, the debates established both
Lincoln and the Republican Party as contenders for
national power.
The debates demonstrated that the slavery question
had divided American communities, but that Americans
strongly valued their democratic institutions.
B: America in
1850
Expansion and Growth


America had grown rapidly in the first
half of the nineteenth century.
The nation had experienced great growth
of wealth, industry, and urbanization.
Equally important, southern economic
influence was waning.
Cultural Life and Social Issues

An American Renaissance produced writers
who focused on social criticism, including:



Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson who
experimented with poetic form
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville who
wrote about the darker side of human nature
Frederick Douglas’ autobiography and Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin condemned
slavery
Political Parties and Slavery



Prior to the 1840s, compromises had eased the
divisions of American on slavery. The national
party system had forced Whigs and Democrats
to forge inter-sectional coalitions.
By 1848 sectional interests were eroding these
coalitions.
Sectional divisions in religious and other
organizations had begun to divide the country.
States’ Rights and Slavery

John C. Calhoun had laid out the states’
rights defense by claiming that:



the territories were the common property of
each of the states
Congress could not discriminate against
slave owners.
Northerners grew increasingly concerned
over what they saw as a Southern
conspiracy to control the government: the
"slave power."
Two Communities, Two
Perspectives




Both North and South:
 were committed to expansion, but each viewed
manifest destiny in its own terms
 shared a commitment to basic rights and liberties
but saw the other as infringing on them.
Two communities with two perspectives had emerged.
Northerners viewed their region as a dynamic society
that offered opportunity to the common man, in
contrast to the stagnant slave owning aristocracy of the
South. Southerners viewed their section as promoting
equality for whites by keeping blacks in a perpetual
state of bondage.
The chances for national reconciliation were slim.
Conflicts of 1850


The California gold rush forced the issue
of the status of slavery in the new
territories. Other conflicts had been
developing as well.
The three aging regional leaders - Daniel
Webster of the North, Henry Clay of the
West, and John C. Calhoun of the South attempted to resolve the issues of 1850.
The Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 was actually five
separate bills


California came in as a free state
other southwest territories were to be settled by
popular sovereignty

a stronger fugitive slave law was enacted

the slave trade was outlawed in Washington, D.C.

the Texas-New Mexico border dispute was settled
The Great Sectional
Compromises in Perspective

The Compromise of 1850 threatened the
framework of settling the slavery issue
established by the Compromise of 1820.
The Fugitive Slave Act




The issue of runaway slaves further divided the nation.
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 put the full force of the
federal government behind slave catchers.
States had previously passed acts against aiding slave
catchers.
Mobs of northerners unsuccessfully tried to prevent the
law from being carried out. Black fugitives described
their experiences as slaves, helping to raise
Northerners’ consciousness.
The Election of 1852 and
the Politics of Expansion



The growing polarization of opinion
strained the party system.
The Democrats won in the election of
1852 by avoiding sectional issues.
The new President Franklin Pierce
supported independent efforts to seize
territory by "filibusters" like William
Walker and endorsed efforts to buy Cuba.
C: The Crisis of
the National Party
System
The Kansas-Nebraska Act


In 1854, Stephen Douglas pushed
through a bill to open Kansas territory.
To win southern support Douglas’s bill
declared that the territory would be
organized on the principle of popular
sovereignty, even though slavery in that
territory had been banned under the
Missouri Compromise.
The Impact of the KansasNebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act



destroyed the Whig Party
nearly destroyed the northern wing of the
Democratic Party
negated treaties with Indians removed to
Kansas in the 1830s.
"Bleeding Kansas"




The territory became a battleground of
sectional politics.
On election day, pro-slavery Missourians
crossed over the border and took control
of the territorial legislature.
Northerners quickly responded by
founding free-soil communities.
By the summer of 1856 open warfare
erupted.
The Politics of Nativism



Concurrent with sectional pressures
came an outburst of anti-immigrant
feeling. Reformers were appalled by the
influx of Irish into American cities.
Former Whigs formed the "Know
Nothing" or American Party to prevent
what they saw as a takeover by the
immigrants.
But the Know-Nothings succumbed to
sectional divisions.
The Republican Party and the
Election of 1856

The Republican Party linked northern nativists and former Whigs.

In 1856, Democrats nominated James Buchanan as a compromise
candidate.

Southern Know-Nothings ran Millard Fillmore.

Northern Republicans ran John C. Fremont who defeated
Buchanan in the North. Buchanan carried nearly the entire South
and won.

The election signaled the rise of the Republican Party and showed
northerners were more concerned about slavery than immigration.
D: The
Differences
Deepen
The Dred Scott Decision


The Dred Scott decision worsened
sectional divisions.
The Supreme Court ruled that Congress
could not ban slavery in the territories
and that Dred Scott’s long-term residence
in free territory did not make him free.
While southerners applauded the
decision, northerners denounced it.
The Lecompton Constitution

Conflict continued in Kansas as free-soilers:






organized their own territorial government
boycotted the proslavery government’s elections for a
constitutional convention
The proslavery "Lecompton constitution" was
submitted to Congress.
Stephen Douglas fought against it, alienating his
southern supporters.
Kansans rejected the constitution and came into
the Union as a free state.
The defeat of Lecompton came as Congress
continued to divide along sectional lines.
The Panic of 1857



Adding to the conflict was a financial
panic and sharp depression in 1857-58.
The Panic affected northern more than
southern exports.
Southerners believed the Panic showed
the superiority of their system.
John Brown's Raid


Sectional tensions intensified when John
Brown raided the federal arsenal at
Harper's Ferry in an unsuccessful effort to
instigate a slave revolt.
Brown was hanged but Southern opinion
was shocked, by northerner's attempts to
make Brown a martyr and northern
support for slave revolts.
E: The South
Secedes
The Election of 1860








In the election of 1860, four candidates ran for
president.
The Democrats split over a proposed slave code for the
territories.
Stephen Douglas won the nomination but Southerners
nominated John C. Breckinridge.
Southern and border state Whigs created the
Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell.
Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, a moderate.
Breckinridge and Lincoln represented the extreme
positions on slavery in the territories.
Douglas and Bell tried to find a middle ground.
Lincoln won the election with 38 percent of the vote by
virtually sweeping the North.
The South Secedes


Southerners responded to the election of
1860 by initiating secession movements.
The Lower South seceded, but the Upper
South remained in the Union.
The North’s Political Options



Various Northerners unsuccessfully tried
to find some compromise that would
satisfy all sides.
Some Northerners were willing to allow
the South to go in peace.
Lincoln believed that the idea of free
government would be threatened if the
South were permitted to leave.
Establishment of the
Confederacy




Southerners established the Confederate
States of America.
Jefferson Davis, a moderate, was chosen
as its president.
Davis tried to portray secession as a
legal, peaceful step.
Lincoln resolved to keep the nation
together.