Leading to the Civil War
Events leading to the Secession of
the South

Political Sectionalism
• Missouri Compromise 1820
– Missouri - slave state
– Maine - free state
– Entry of states into the Union have to be balanced
- one free/one slave
• Gag Rule of 1836
• Compromise of 1850-Omnibus Legislation
– California a free state
– Slave Trade outlawed in D.C.
– Stronger Fugitive Slave Law
– Slavery allowed in the other territories acquired from Mexico
Slave and Free Territories Under the Compromise of 1850
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
Political Sectionalism
• Despite territorial gains that emerged from the
Mexican American War, Americans
were more divided than ever
– North denounced war as a southern
project for expanding slavery
• David Wilmot - Wilmot Proviso
– no slavery in Mexican Territory
Many hoping the Compromise of
1850 had finally settled slavery
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
– Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
• organized 2 new federal territories
• repealed section of Missouri Compromise
– prohibiting slavery in states/territories
north of 36º 30’ latitude
• people decide (popular sovereignty)
“Bleeding Kansas”
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
– Change in 2 party system
• Democrats & Whigs
– Democrats
• needed northern candidate to win because
of the number of southerners
• F. Pierce 1852, J. Buchanan 1856, Douglas ?
– Whigs
• Kansas & Nebraska Act killed party
divided sectionally
• North & South too far apart on slavery
issue to hold party together
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
– Change in 2 party system (cont)
• Whigs & Free Soilers = Republicans
• * only a northern party
– tolerate slavery in south
– unwilling to accept it's expansion
– demand that the Kansas & Nebraska Act
be repealed
– central railroad (rather than northern
as Douglas proposed)
– Homestead Act - western lands to families to
• settle 160 acres
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
– Dred Scott Decision 1857
– Southern dominated court
• Slaves were property
• Slaves were not citizens; Only citizens can sue
• "congress could not ban slavery
from territories”
• Chief Justice Roger Taney
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
– The Election of 1860
• Aggressive movements of pro slave movement
– frightened north
– Hardened resistance in North
– intensified southern insecurity
• South demands - congressional slave codes “national”
Events leading to the Secession of
the South
– The Election of 1860
• Freeport Doctrine
– legislation to protect slave property in north
– Lead to a division of the Democratic Party
• Northern Democrats - Stephen Douglas
– appealed to North & South but ambiguous
• Southern Democrats - John Breckenridge
– Appealed to south - popular sovereignty
• Republicans - Abraham Lincoln
• Constitutional Union Party - John Bell
The Election of 1860
Secession of the South
Secession
"to withdraw formally from a
union or alliance”
Southern individual states nullified their
ratification of the U.S. constitution
The Confederate States of
America
– Constitution 1787 (1789 9 states ratified - 4 didn't)
• established government
• Constitution states that states can't coin money
and can’t maintain an army but can they secede?
– Southern Position held that the Constitution did not
automatically bind states
– Individual States first . . . then United
The Confederate States of
America

11 southern states seceded and formed
their own country
– North says no you can't leave = 4 long years
of fighting
– CIVIL (internal) War - settle question
about whether a state can secede
• Pre Civil War The United States are
• Post Civil War The United States is
The Process of Secession
The Confederate States of
America
– Radicals - fire eaters
• South Carolinians since Nullification Controversy
– South Carolina state convention Dec 20, 1860
• repeal ratification of federal constitution
– 6 weeks later MI, Fl, GA, Al, LA, TX secede
– Delegates to Montgomery Alabama
• organized themselves as the C.S. of A.
• Jefferson Davis - President ( Mississippi)
"I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I
could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern
ourselves, and so the war came.“ Jefferson Davis
The Confederate States of America
Causes Leading to the Civil War
1. Conspiracy
President
– North
– South
Lincoln 1860
J. Davis 1861
Country
USA
CSA
• Each side felt the other was conspiring against the other
• Laws & measures that inhibited the south - DAVIS
Congress controlled by north
• North doesn't want to control south - south wants
to expand into the west LINCOLN
• Each side didn't trust in an economic or political sense
Causes Leading to the Civil War
2. Constitutional
UNITED STATES VS. STATES UNITED
• South - separate individual states form the union
– since states formed the union they can opt out
• North - the union created the states by the constitution
– If the union is dissolved there is nothing
– LINCOLN WAS FIGHTING TO SAVE THE UNION
NOT TO FREE THE SLAVES (a political move)
– Lincoln was a constitutionalist
Causes Leading to the Civil War
3. Growth of Slavery
• South had 4 million slaves
– Slave owners 25%
– very few had large plantations
– small minority of controlling whites
controlled southern society
• Labor intensive agricultural society
– slaves imported because can't get enough
whites to do the labor
Causes Leading to the Civil War
3. Slavery
• Davis - Blacks have a better condition under
the superior White race
“docile savages to bodily comforts and religious
instruction”
Calhoun – “Positive Good”
• Lincoln - not in favor of bringing about the social
or economic equality of slaves
“There must be the position of inferior/superior”
Lincoln 1858
Lincoln was a product of his own culture
Freeing of slaves not a matter of equality!!!
Yet he was against the concept of slavery
SAVE THE UNION
Causes Leading to the Civil War

Causes Leading to A Civil War
4. Economic
• Labor
– South - free labor? North - paid labor
• Tariffs
– North wanted to protect their products
artificial inflation of imports
– South faced reciprocal tariffs when they
exported their agricultural products
South Against High Tariffs
North Against Free (Cheaper) Labor
Causes Leading to the Civil War
4. Economic
• North passes laws in congress because of an
imbalance in voting power (ALL OF THOSE
TARIFF ACTS)
– 19 Free States
– 15 Slave States
Causes Leading to the Civil War
5. Nature of a Republic
• What is a Republic?
– Representative Democracy
• Freedom to choose
South chooses to leave under this freedom