The Crisis of the House Divided and
the failure of political leadership and
the coming of the Civil War
The Question……
 Can
you establish and maintain a
nation based on human equality with
slavery still intact?
Another Question….
 Was
the Civil War the result of the
inability of political forces to
compromise?
Nation of Equality?


Establishing a nation based on human
equality with slavery still intact? (Barbara
Fields)
Our failure to compromise? (Shelby Foote)
Specific Causes

State Rights…AKA: Federalism
Specific Causes

Expansion of Slavery

Related to Political Representation NOT
morality*
Territorial Expansion & National
Identity

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Louisiana Purchase—J
Jeffersonian Democracy--?
Impressment—Alec
Battle of New Orleans--?
Monroe Doctrine—Alex
Why are the North South so
different?
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Francis Cabot Lowell—Cooper
The Erie Canal—Michaela
Jacksonian Democracy—Serina
Transcendental movement--?
Life Styles
North
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Industry
Small, versatile farms
Produces much much more;
exports
Population: HUGE
Immigrants
Schools
Labor forces: workers
Better banks
YAY for Tariffs!
South
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Cash Crops
Imports
Labor force: slaves
Few immigrants
Not as educated
Cultural ties with England
Boo! No Tariffs
Significance of Economics…

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“..people vote with their pocketbooks….”
What will the North support?
What will the South support?
Group Presentation Study Questions:
Manifest Destiny?
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What is Manifest Destiny?
Was the War with Mexico & the annexation
of Texas & California justified?
(text: pp. 130-138; Zinn: 121-134)
Group Presentation Study Question:
Events Leading to the Civil War:


Do you think there were any points at which
the Civil War could have been adverted?
Text: p156-165; Zinn: 135-152)
The Missouri Compromise 1820

Missouri wishes to enter as a slave state

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Supported by the South
Counter proposal

No more slaves brought in & children of slaves
freed at age 25
Missouri Compromise….
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Compromise is proposed by Henry Clay
(Speaker of the House)
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Missouri is a slave state
Maine is created

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formerly part of Massachusetts
Remaining part of Louisiana purchase:

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North of 36* 30=Free
South of 36* 30=Slave
Missouri Compromise…..
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Significance:
The balance is preserved!
How does this compromise relate to
Federalism/State Rights?
PRIMARY DOCUMENT---”SLAVE SOIL VS. FREE SOIL”
Nat Turner Revolt
1831, South Hampton VA. (Jaron)

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Most violent in History
Who is it blamed on?
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Black Preachers
N. Abolitionists
Results?

The “Great Reaction”
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Closing of the South!
PRIMARY DOCUMENT: THE NAT TURNER REVOLT
Manifest Destiny

What is Manifest Destiny?

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Worster vs. Georgia--?
Indian Removal—Kyler
Manifest Destiny--Chance
Texas Revolution—Logan
War with Mexico—Quintin
Hellgate Treaty--Quinlin
Territorial Expansion—Manifest
Destiny

Oregon Territory—1846
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Columbia river and Puget Sound
Spanish Territory
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Texas
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Rebellion 1836
Annexation 1845
Mexican troops massacre 342 Texan prisoners of war at Goliad on March
27, 1836. Despite this success in putting down the Texas rebellions,
Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna was forced to surrender
to the Republic of Texas in April 1836. Texas was inducted into the United
States in 1845.
Open note quiz
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What are the long term causes of the Civil War?
About what % of Southern Society owned slaves?
About what % owned 50 or more Slaves?
Why did the Market Revolution transform the North and
not the South?
How did Manifest Destiny make compromise between
slave and free states increasingly difficult?
Who was the Nat Turner revolt blamed on? What did the
revolt result in?
Expansion…..
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California—
June 1846
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Private rebellion
Bear Flag Republic
Annexation July 7, 1846
Two separate nations by 1840s
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In essence after the Mexican War there were
FOUR political parties in the U.S., disguised
as two: northern Whigs, northern Democrats,
southern Whigs and southern Democrats.
Thus, they nominated national candidates
and legislation that appealed to no clear
majority. It isn’t Millard Fillmore’s, Franklin
Pierce’s, or James Buchanan’s collective fault
that they couldn’t solve an insoluble situation
Millard Fillmore
1850-53
Whig
Franklin Pierce
1853-1857
Democrat
James
Buchanan
1857-61
Democrat
Failure of Political Leadership?
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Failure of the two national political parties:
Whig and Democrat to produce leadership
in the 1840s and especially 1850s to
“solve” the problem.
Both parties ended up splitting into
sectional division.
A legacy of failed compromises
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First in 1787 with 3/5 clause and abolition
of external slave trade during the
constitutional convention debates (North
thought it had it contained)
Second, Missouri Compromise in 1821
(North thought it had contained again,
south of 36 30° line)
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The California Gold Rush--Smallz
The Compromise of 1850—?
The Fugitive Slave Law—Linnea
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Third, the Compromise of 1850, as an
attempt to fashion some middle ground in
the wake of new boundaries drawn after
the Mexican War in order somehow to keep
the Mo. Compromise line in place,
incorporate popular sovereignty in the
newly acquired lands, and to bring about a
national consensus on the expansion of
slavery
And our national political conversation
becomes unhinged in the 1850s
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But what, REALLY, is to compromise?
Where is the political middle ground?
Reminds me a great deal of the nature of the
debate on abortion & gay marriage. Those who
favor choice have the law and the Constitution on
their side; those who oppose it, believe they have
morality on theirs. There will be a disconnection
there, always.
This drove the political discussion in the 1850s
The Crisis Unfolds
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The Mexican War
opens the Pandora’s
box
Wilmot Proviso, 1846
Compromise of 1850
brokered by Henry
Clay
Compromise! What is it?

1.
2.
3.
4.
Compromise contained four parts:
California admitted as a free state, other areas
left up to popular sovereignty
Texas ceded land to U.S. (to New Mexico really)
to pay off debts incurred prior to statehood
Slave trade (but not slavery) abolished in D.C.
Fugitive Slave Law passed by Congress and
signed into law

Sparked outrage in
the North and led to
belief that the U.S.
was more and more
dominated by a
“slaveocracy” and
galvanized the
abolitionist
movement in the
North
Has Slavery perverted America?
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Dred Scott Decision—Minno
Underground Railroad—Isaac
Uncle Tom’s Cabin--Alexis
Led to publication of
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s,
wildly popular
Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
1852
"For many years of her life, the author avoided all reading upon or
allusion to the subject of slavery, considering it as too painful to be
inquired into, and one which advancing light and civilization would
certainly live down. But, since the legislative act of 1850, when she
heard, with perfect surprise and consternation, Christian and humane
people actually recommending the remanding escaped fugitives into
slavery, as a duty binding on good citizens,--when she heard, on all
hands, from kind, compassionate and estimable people, in the free
states of the North, deliberations and discussions as to what Christian
duty could be on this head,--she could only think, These men and
Christians cannot know what slavery is; if they did, such a question
could never be open for discussion. And from this arose a desire to
exhibit it in a living dramatic reality."
Harriet Beecher Stowe—Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Overall Causes of the Civil War

Overall Causes

State rights—federalism

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Division of power between the National and State
Governments
Expansion of Slavery

Political Representation in a growing Nation.
Fugitive Slave Act
Also led to several notable
“test” cases in the North,
principally the Anthony Burns case
in Boston, 1854.
Nine sates had personal liberty
laws.
Burns fled Virginia – from
Owner Charles Suttle. Suttle
Went to Boston to claim his
Property.
Court case-riot-Burns was to
return to Suttle – in shackles
And chains.
A black church raised 1300 to
Eventually free him!
Stephen Douglas,
Senator, Illinois,
Democrat
The Little Giant!
Great man –
wrong time
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
led to the creation of the
Republican Party in 1854 and
attracted people like
Abraham Lincoln
Bleeding Kansas, 1855-56

Kansas-Nebraska Act
of 1854 allowed the
concept of “popular
sovereignty” to be
applied to Kansas and
presumably other
western territories
north of 36 30 line.
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It also led to one heck
of a mess!
Lecompton fiasco, 1855
Kansas constitutionChoose slavery or notViolation of Missouri
Compromise? People
could vote-Missouri
Flooded polls.
Border Warfare, 1856
Lecompton Constitution 1857
In Kansas pro-slavery forces held a constitutional convention and drew up
the Lecompton Constitution in 1857. The constitution allowed Kansas to be
admitted into the union as a slave state.
The legislators held a citizen’s vote in December and anti-slavery forces,
believing that the voting was rigged, refused to participate. The voting
resulted in:
6,226 for slavery and the Lecompton Constitution
569 against slavery and the Lecompton Constitution
Did you know...
The fiasco in Kansas over the Lecompton Constitution revealed the
inherent weakness of the idea of Popular Sovereignty and spelled it death
as a potential method for deciding the slavery issue.
The Crime Against Kansas


Charles Sumner,
Republican Senator from
Massachusetts, May
1856;
Directed primarily at a
colleague, Senator David
Butler, South Carolina in
which he accused him, of
choosing the “harlot of
slavery”
Dred Scott vs. Sanford, 1857

“Negroes have no
rights which a white
man is bound to
respect”
The End of the Line: John
Brown’s Raid, October, 1859
This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I
see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the
New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would
that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me,
further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I
endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to
understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have
interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done
in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is
deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the
ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my
children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights
are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so
let it be done!
John Brown, 1859
The Spark: The Election of 1860
Lincoln and the
crisis of
secession
March 4, 1861
Crisis at Fort Sumter
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Lincoln’s options at Ft. Sumter
What would you do if you were President of
the United States at this point?
Because of his election in November,
seven states seceded, others are
threatening to, federal property has been
seized, and a federal fort is besieged with
violence threatened. What do you do?
To Secede!
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Seven states secede between December
1860 and March, 1861
Border states dilemma for Lincoln
Inauguration, March 4, 1861
The growing crisis caused by Ft. Sumter
Specific Economic reasons
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The South “Cotton is
King”
Plantation economic
system
Slavery
Cash Crops
Not much industry.
Low value on Public
Education
Few Rails and Canals
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The North “Diversity is
King”
Agricultural diversity.
Industry-manufacturing
Roads, Rails, Canals
Banks
Large Cities
Immigrant labor
Education
Test Review:
Pre-Civil War test review:
Identify the Significance: Identify Who, what, when, where
and why significant. Provide one great paragraph per item.
1. “Cotton is King” see slide 14 “Lifestyles North and South”
& 68.
2. Manifest Destiny
3. Federalism
4. Fugitive Slave Law
5. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
6. Dred Scott Decision
7. Election of 1860
8. Primary Documents/Images: slide 11, 24, 46, 59, 65