The Missouri Compromise (1820)
Problems of Sectional Balance
in 1850
- California statehood.
- Southern “fire-eaters
threatening secession.
- Underground RR & fugitive
slave issues:
Compromise of
1850
The Compromise of 1850
1) Popular Sovereignty – Stephen Douglas
2) Slave state vs. free state
3) Fugitive Slave Act
a) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
b) Ableman v. Booth (1857)
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
(1811 –
1896)
So this is the lady
who started the
Civil War.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle
Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Sold 300,000
copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a
decade!
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
The “Know-Nothings” [The
American Party]
ß Nativists.
ß AntiCatholics.
ß Antiimmigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the StarSpangled Banner created in NYC.
1852 Presidential Election
√ Franklin Pierce
Democrat
Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale
Whig
Free Soil
1852
Election
Results
Pierce & Expansionism
• Mexican Territory South of the Rio Grande
• Gadsden Purchase (1854)
• $10 million
• Caribbean Central America Expansion
• Cuba - War with Spain??
• Ostend Manifesto
• Slave Power Returns???
Kansas-Nebraska Act,
1854
Kansas – Nebraska Act
• Causes & Motivation
• Stephen Douglas
• Transcontinental Railroad & opening of farmland
• Initial Bill & Southern Opposition
• Had the impact of repealing the Missouri Compromise
• Impact
• American Politics (Destruction & Rebirth)
• Republican Party – New Platform
Bleeding Kansas
“If we win we carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean, if we fail we lose…all the
territories” (pro-slavery)
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What Kansas meant for the nation
Pro-slavery & free-soilers were fighting for control of Kansas.
•
Popular sovereignty is tested:
– Voters would elect territorial leg. Who would create a constitution and
pass laws on the subject
– The Constitution would either permit or ban slavery
– Voters would approve or reject the constitution
– If approved they could apply for statehood
•
First election was held in Nov. 1854
– 1700 armed Missourians flooded in and threatened violence if denied
voting access
– Pro-slavery delegates were elected (voter fraud)
– Free-soilers refused to accept this new leg and elected an anti-slavery
leg & governor
– Both gov. claimed legitimacy in Kansas
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border
“Ruffians”
(pro-slavery
Missourians)
Incidents in Kansas: Escalation
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Sack of Lawrence
by 1855 Lawrence, KS was the
center of anti-slavery activity
Decision needed to be made on
Kansas
Jan 1856 Pres. Pierce condemned
the free-soil gov. as rebels,
supporting pro-slavery and
charging free-soilers with treason
May 21, 1856 pros-slavery sheriff
& 800 men rode in to arrest the
“rebels
Destroyed offices, newspapers,
businesses, etc..
Anti-slavery newspapers labeled
this the “sack of Lawrence to paint
a barbaric picture of pro-slavery
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The Pottawatomie Massacre
56 yr. old John Brown was an
abolitionist
Moved to Kansas for land and
promote the territory as a free state
Sought revenge from the “sack of
Lawrence”
May 24, 1856 dragged 5 pro-slavery
settlers out of their beds in
Pottawatomie Creek and executed
them
This ignited a civil war in Kansas and
guerilla war broke out in Kansas
“The Crime Against
Kansas”
Sen. Charles
Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston
Brooks
(D-SC)
Birth of the Republican
Party, 1854
- Northern Whigs.
- Northern Democrats.
- Free-Soilers.
- Know-Nothings.
- Other miscellaneous opponents
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan
Democrat
John C. Frémont
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Whig
“The fate of the republic hinged on the ability of President Buchanan to
diffuse the passions of the past decade and devise a way of protecting
free soil in the West & slavery in the South”
1856
Election
Results
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
• Background & Const. Issue
• Court’s Decision (7 out of 9)
& Differing Legal Opinions
• Taney’s Decision & Impact
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1) Scott’s Rights
2) Fifth Amendment
3) Northwest Ord./Missouri Comp.
4) Congressional Authority
5) Republican Platform
• Buchanan, Slave Power, & Kansas
What caused the
Panic of 1857??
What were its
effects on the
nation?
• Causes
Causes & Effects
– declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic
economy
• Effects
• southern economy suffered little whereas the northern
economy took a significant hit
• encouraged those in the South who believed the idea that the
north needed the south to keep a stabilized economy and
southern threats of secession were temporarily quelled.
• Southerners believed the north was now "more amenable to
southern demands" and would help to keep slavery alive in
the United States.
The Lecompton Constitution
•
1857 an election took place giving pro-slavery forces control over the writing
of a state constitution – Lecompton Constitution
•
Knowing anti-slavery supporters would never accept it, it was never
submitted
•
Instead they proposed voters decide on slavery alone:
• If approved slavery would be allowed in Kansas
• If rejected importation of slaves would be banned, but currents laves could remain as
slaves
•
Northerners were outraged & in 1858 Free-Soilers rejected the provision and
the constitution
•
Southerners threatened secession
•
Fearing secession & bowing to pressure Buchanan submitted the Lecompton
Constitution (pro-slave) to Congress calling for Kansas admission as a slave
state
When put to the people the Lecompton Constitution was overwhelmingly
rejected and the Kansas issue was put to rest.. For now
•
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)
Debates, 1858
A House divided
against itself,
cannot stand.
Lincoln Douglas Debates
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U.S. Senate election of 1858
Douglas (D) vs. Lincoln (R)
Series of 7 debates
Hot Topic: Slavery & the Territories
Lincoln
• “a house divided against
itself cannot stand”
• Equal economic opportunity
for all free blacks.
• Against Dred Scott
Douglas
“This government was made
by our fathers, by white
men for the benefit of white
men and their posterity
forever”
Freeport Doctrine
John Brown’s Raid
“Talk! Talk! Talk! That will never free the slaves. What is needed
is action – action”
• Action came in the form of freeing slaves
• Decided to raid a US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
• Brown planned to use these guns to arm a local slave revolt with hopes of
inspiring others to follow
• On October 16 Brown & 5 African Americans easily captured the arsenal,
then sent out word hoping to inspire other slave revolts.
• Unfortunately for Brown, no slaves followed and on Oct. 18th Marines
recaptured the arsenal
• Brown was captured, tried, and sentenced to hang
• Died committed to abolitionism on Dec. 2, 1859
John Brown: Madman, Hero
or Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol
building
by John Steuart Curry (20c)
John Brown’s Raid
on Harper’s Ferry, 1859
The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln
Childhood & Family Background
Early Political Career
Position/Stance on Slavery
√ Abraham Lincoln
Republican
1860
John Bell
Constitutional Union
Presidential
Election
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
Republican Party Platform in
1860
- Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
- Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
- No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a
disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].
- Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the
Northwest].
- Internal improvements [for the West] at federal
expense.
- Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].
1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”
1860 Election: A Nation Coming
Apart?!
1860
Election
Results
Crittenden Compromise:
A Last Ditch Appeal to
Sanity
Senator John J.
Crittenden
(Know-NothingKY)
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861
Building Towards War
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The Missouri Compromise (1820)
The Compromise of 1850
Election of 1852
Pierce & Expansionism
Kansas & Nebraska Act (1854)
Bleeding Kansas (1854)
Election of 1856
Dred-Scott Decision (1857)
Election of 1860 – Abraham Lincoln becomes POTUS
Names for the Civil War
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The War between the States
The War for Southern Independence
The War for Southern Rights
The Second War for Independence
The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance
The War Against Slavery
The War Against Northern Aggression
The Yankee Invasion
The War for Abolition