The Causes of the
American Civil War
Manifest Destiny, Slavery, States
Rights, Economics,
The United States Constitution
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A Bundle of
Compromises
Representation in
government
The 3/5’s Compromise
Validation of slavery in
the original Constitution
The concept that “All
men are created equal”
was not universal
The concept of property
Slavery
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Slavery was an old institution and in the ancient world was not
limited to people of any one color or race
Slavery was very profitable for those who dealt in the trade – in
was not profitable to those who were the slaves!
In modern times we associate slavery with race and in the United
States we think of slaves as being African
English settlers first tried to use native Americans as slaves but
these people did not last long as slaves – they were very
susceptible to disease and often died of depression
The English settlers were very good at antagonizing the natives
and frequently there were hostilities between the two – Do you
want to make a slave of someone who was trying to kill you?
The First Africans in the New World
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The first Africans came to the New World with the Spanish and the French as
explorers but not with the English
The English needed help on their farms and Indians were not much help so they
thought of Africans as a source of labor
Africans would be easy to spot in the English colonies and many thought that
since the Africans were pagans they could be given harsh discipline with no
penalty to the owner
The Europeans also saw the Africans as an endless supply of laborers
In 1619 the first Africans arrive in Jamestown as indentured servants – they are
brought in by a Dutch trader who acquired them from a Spanish ship- some
scholars believe that English pirates captured a Portuguese ship and brought
the Africans in to Jamestown
Indentured servants were to work for the master for seven years (usually) and
then they would be set free with a set of clothes and possibly some money or
tools. However, the length of the indenturement could be extended if the servant
did not behave well
The Triangular Trade
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Europeans sailed to Africa
with rum and manufactured
goods
African chiefs captured
African people to be sold as
slaves
British colonials, especially
New Englanders, sailed
directly to Africa, often
carrying cargoes of rum, to
trade for slaves
The Middle Passage, from
Africa to the New World,
became a trip of terror and
horror
The Middle Passage
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Slaves were packed into the
slave ships like sardines!
Slaves were kept in chains
and only let on deck for a
short period each day
Slaves slept spoon-fashion
The Africans who resisted
were beaten or killed
Perhaps as many as half of
the people who left Africa in
chains did not make it to the
New World
Statistics on Slavery
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It is very difficult to give exact numbers on this subject
Between 1783 and 1793 303,737 slaves landed in the
United States
In the 16th century 900,000 slaves landed in the New
World
In the 17th century 2,750,000 slaves landed in the New
world
In the 18th century 7,000,000 slaves landed in the New
World
In the 19th century 4,000,000 slaves landed in the New
world
Slavery in the Colony of Virginia
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The Virginians tried Indian servitude and slavery but it
failed
In 1640 John Paunch, one of three runaway
indentured servants, who also happened to be African,
was sentenced to be a slave for life, while the two
white men received an extra year of servitude
The first laws regarding slavery in Virginia were
passed in 1661
In the last quarter of the 17th century there was a
sharp rise in the number of salves in Virginia
 1708 – 12,000 Africans and 18,000 whites
 1713 – 23,000 Africans and 72,500 whites
 1756 – 120,156 Africans and 173,316 whites
Fear Seemed to Rule!
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The Whites feared a slave revolt
The first slave revolt was in 1687 but it failed
Slave Codes were set up by 1700
 No slave could leave the plantation without a pass or permit
 Slaves who were guilty or murder or rape could be hanged by the
master on the spot and compensated by the colony
 For stealing, a slave could get 60 lashes from the sheriff, put in
the pillory with his ears nailed to a post for one half hour, and
then his ears would be cut from his head
 Slaves would be shipped, maimed or branded for petty offenses
 Before the end of the colonial period Virginia was an armed camp
Slavery in the Northern Colonies and
Early States
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Slavery – via the slave trade- was a big part of the economy of New
England
Boston had a big auction center for slave auctions
Northern farms, especially in New England, did not lend themselves to
the use of large numbers of slaves so there were not large numbers of
slaves in the North
Northern states began to outlaw slavery during the American
Revolution – Pennsylvania 1780, Massachusetts 1783, Connecticut and
Rhode island 1784, New York 1785, New Jersey 1786
In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance was passed by the Articles of
Confederation government and it outlawed slavery in the new territory
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This was the high point of the anti-slavery movement in the 18th century
The northwest Territory included the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, and part of Wisconsin
Slave Revolts
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The British encouraged slaves to rise up against their rebel masters during the American
Revolution
Gabriel’s Plot in 1800 – Gabriel Prosser and 1,000 slaves march on Richmond but are
dispersed by the militia with Prosser and 35 others hanged
Denmark Vesey Insurrection in 1822 – Vesey was a freed African and he plotted for a long
time but was betrayed and 47 Africans were hanged and 4 white men were arrested, fined,
and imprisoned
Nat Turner’s Rebellion – August, 1831- Turner attacks and his men kill 60 whites in 24
hours but the Virginia militia will counterattack and kill over 100 slaves. Turner and many
others are hanged
Results of the Slave Revolts
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Southern whites fear for their lives and the South becomes an
armed camp to ensure that the slaves do not revolt
Strict slave codes or laws are passed and the freeing or
emancipating of slaves is strongly discouraged
Fugitive Slave Laws are passed to help capture runaway slaves
The Underground Railroad was organized by anti-slavery people
in the North and South
 At least 3,000 conductors helped runaways to escape
 Harriet Tubman is one of the most famous conductors
 Many escape to Canada, and in the states the largest number of
runaways went to Ohio
 The Underground Railroad was an illegal activity
Manifest Destiny and Expansion Lead to Political and
Legal Troubles
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Manifest Destiny was “our God-given right to expand to our
natural boundaries.”
English settlers had been moving westward since they landed at
Jamestown in 1607
In1819 the territory of Missouri applied for statehood and the
North and South divided over this
Representative James Tallmadge, of New York, added an
amendment to the Missouri statehood bill saying that “the further
introduction of slavery was prohibited into Missouri and that all
children born of slaves would be free at age 25.”
The Tallmadge Amendment passes the House of
Representatives but is defeated in the United States Senate
The Louisiana Purchase
The Missouri Compromise
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Henry Clay helps to work a compromise
Missouri will enter the Union as a slave state
Slavery will be prohibited in the Louisiana Territory above the
36o30. latitude line, except for Missouri (this line is the southern
boundary of Missouri)
Maine, which had been a part of Massachusetts, becomes a free
state
Now there are 12 slave states and 12 free states and the balance
of power is maintained in the Senate
 The North fears the extension of slavery into the North and the
South feels that it can take its property anywhere that it wants to
 The Missouri Compromise puts the question of the extension of
slavery to rest for a generation
The War For Texas Independence
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American Southerners began to
move into Texas in the 1820s in
large numbers and before long they
were agitating for Texas to break
away from Mexico
In 1835 the Texans revolt against
Mexico and this leads to the Alamo,
Goliad, and San Jacinto
Texan leaders are William Travis,
Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, and Sam
Houston – The Mexicans are led by
Santa Anna
Texas wins its independence in
1836 and becomes an independent
country for 9 years
The War With Mexico
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In 1846 the United States annexes Texas to the union and the
Mexicans protest
The southern boundary of Texas had been in dispute for 9 years
Fighting breaks out between Mexican and United States forces and
the United States declares war on Mexico
Abraham Lincoln – “Show me the spot!”
David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, amended a money bill to say
“neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part
of the territory acquired from Mexico.” This bill passed the House but
was defeated in the Senate.
American forces defeat overwhelming numbers of Mexicans in
Texas and northern Mexico
The United States Invades
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U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott attack at Vera Cruz
The city falls after a siege and then Scott marches inland to
capture Mexico City
The American forces are greatly outnumbered but are extremely
well lead and often lucky!
Young officers, graduates of West Point, such as Robert E. Lee,
Pierre Beauregard, Thomas Jackson, George McClellan, George
Thomas, James Longstreet, George Pickett, and many others,
lead the way
Mexico City falls and the Mexican government surrenders
The Treaty of Guadeloupe- Hidalgo
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The United States gains Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Colorado
and Oklahoma
The southern boundary of Texas is recognized as
the Rio Grande
The U.S. gave the Mexicans $15,000,000 as
compensation for the war
The U.S. forgave the Mexicans any debts that they
had to U.S. citizens
Manifest Destiny was validated
Gold in California
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James Marshall found gold at Sutter’s
Mill in January, 1848
The U.S. gains California as part of the
treaty of Guadeloupe – Hidalgo
Thousands of people came to California,
starting in 1849, to find gold – they came
from the Eastern United States, from
Europe, from South America, from
Australia, from China
By 1850 there were enough people in
California to apply for statehood
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What problems would California face
in its desire to become a state in the
union?
The Fateful Decade
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The Compromise of 1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The Kansas – Nebraska Act
0f 1854
Bleeding Kansas
The Rise of the Republican
Party
The Dred Scott Case
The Lincoln-Douglas
Debates
John Brown’s Raid
The Great Debate of 1850
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All of this was a direct result of the war with Mexico
The North wanted California to enter the Union as a
free state, wanted the Wilmot Proviso to be
implemented, wanted to reduce the size of Texas,
wanted to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C., and
jury trials for fugitive slaves
The south wanted slavery to be permitted in
California and New Mexico, Texas to have the
boundaries that it originally claimed, slavery to
continue in Washington, and a new fugitive slave
law that would force officials to return slaves to their
masters immediately and with no trials
Henry Clay – “The Great Compromiser”
comes forth for his last great fight
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Clay had been the author of the
Missouri Compromise in 1820
Clay proposed an “Omnibus Bill”
which included: California to enter
as a free state, all other land gained
from Mexico to be divided into two
territories – Utah and New Mexico,
“Squatter’s Sovereignty would
decide the issue of slavery in these
territories, Texas would be reduced
from 379,000 square miles to
264,000 square miles and the
chopped off land went to New
Mexico, Texas would get
$10,000,000 to help pay her debts,
slavery would continue in
Washington but the slave trade
would be outlawed in that city, and a
new stricter fugitive slave law would
be passed.
The fight for passage of the bill
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Henry Clay and Daniel
Webster spoke in favor of
this compromise
John C. Calhoun, of South
Carolina, was against the
bill but he was dying from
TB and so had to have his
speech read for on the floor
of the Senate
Senator William H. Seward
was against it since it
allowed the possible
extension of slavery
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 passed
Congress
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President Zachery Taylor was
an anti-slavery Whig and he
refused to sign the bill
Congress did not have enough
votes to over-ride Taylor’s veto
On July 5, 1850 Taylor
suddenly gets sick and dies 4
days later
Millard Fillmore becomes
president and he signs the bill
The South benefited the most
from this bill because it did
allow the extension of slavery
and had a strong fugitive slave
law
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – one of the most
important books in American history!
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Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
who was a very strong abolitionist
(as was her entire family)
The book was passionate but not
totally accurate
Stowe condemns slavery, not the
South, and also condemns the
North – “The people of the free
states have defended,
encouraged, and participated in
the slave trade, and are more
guilty before God than the South
in that they have not the apology
of education or custom.”
Reaction to Uncle Tom’s Cabin
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This book was written as a reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law that was part
of the Compromise of 1850
The book was published as a serial in the newspapers of the country – so
this story was read across the nation by very large numbers of people
Mrs. Stowe avoided the problem of racial adjustment by having her
successful fugitives migrate first to Europe for education and then to Liberia
as residents
Uncle Tom was the hero and Simon Legree was one of the villains
The book had very graphic descriptions of slave conditions and harrowing
escapes of fugitives
Southerners said that Mrs. Stowe did not know what she was talking about
and that slavery was not that bad
Uncle Tom becomes a Christ-like figure in the North and is the first African
hero created by an American author
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet B. Stowe in 1862 he said, “So you’re
the little lady who started all of this.”
The Kansas Nebraska Bill of 1854
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Stephen Douglas was
appointed by President
Franklin Pierce to head a
committee to find “a solution”
to the unorganized territories
At first Douglas thought that
the land could be one territory
and he wrote the Nebraska Bill
which left the question of
slavery up to the people in the
territory – this was called
“popular sovereignty” – This
violated the Missouri
Compromise and the South
was against it
Douglas writes a new bill – The
Kansas-Nebraska Act
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The first thing that this bill did was to repeal
the Missouri Compromise
The unorganized territory was divided into 2
new territories – Nebraska and Kansas – they
were separated at the 40o North Latitude –
Nebraska to the north and Kansas to the
south
The question of slavery was to be settled by
popular sovereignty in each territory
Reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
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The North was upset because it feared that
both territories could vote for slavery – and
for 34 years slavery had been outlawed in
this land
The South was not sure that it wanted the
Missouri Compromise to be repealed
Stephen Douglas was able to convince
Congress to pass the bill – he was a fiery and
passionate speaker and considered to be one
of the best of his time
The Focus Goes to Kansas
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Both North and South thought that Nebraska
would be a free state since the land and
climate did not lend itself to slavery
Both sides thought that they needed to gain
control of Kansas – since the issue of slavery
was to be settled by popular sovereignty – by
sending in people committed to “their” beliefs
Northerners created the “Emigrant Aid
Society” to send abolitionists to Kansas –
these people were also called “Free Soilers”
Bleeding Kansas –a civil war
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The Northerners established Lawrence as a town
and their “headquarters”
Southerners came into Kansas from Missouri and
were called “Border Ruffians” by the Northern press
A Southern sheriff comes to Lawrence to capture a
runaway slave and is killed
In May, 1856, 800 Southerners attack Lawrence in
retaliation and burn the newspaper offices, the hotel
and the home of the governor (who was a FreeSoiler)
This really sets off a war in Kansas!
Murder in Kansas
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There are a lot of
murders and
bushwhacking
Over 200 men are killed
in this fighting
Both sides organize
militias to fight
John Brown at Pottawatomie Creek
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John Brown was an
extreme abolitionist
who had been furious
ever since the Fugitive
Slave Law of 1850 had
been passed
Brown was sure that
God had called him to
punish the sinners –
those who believed in
slavery
The Wrath of God –
according to John Brown
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Brown and his followers
capture 5 Southern men
who had nothing to do with
any murders
Brown said that these men
were guilty of “murder” and
he uses a broadsword to kill
them
This was done in retaliation
for the attack on Lawrence
and to show that Free
Soilers had “rights”
Is it murder?
The Government in Kansas is in total
Chaos
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Governors come and go
Elections are fraudulent – in one district 584 ballots out of 604 cast
were not legitimate!
Two rival governments are set up – one is pro-northern and one is
pro-southern – and each ask Washington for recognition as the
legitimate government
Southerners write the LeCompton Constitution for the state which
will allow slavery but also has a clause that says no matter what the
vote on the state constitution will be that the slaves already in
Kansas can stay – this would mean that Kansas would be a slave
state!
Northerners had stayed away from LeCompton since they feared
that they would be killed
This constitution was decisively defeated and more chaos follows
Northerners had their own constitution, written at Topeka, and it
outlawed slavery in the state
The Fighting in Kansas spills over into
Washington, D.C.
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Senator Charles Sumner –
an ardent abolitionist – gave
a very passionate speech
entitled “The Crime Against
Kansas” that lasted two
days on the floor of the
Senate
He said, “Murderous
robbers from Missouri,
hirelings picked from the
drunken spew and vomit of
an uneasy civilization have
committed a rape of a virgin
territory, compelling it to
embrace slavery.”
Sumner goes on with his speech!
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Sumner then attacked Senator Andrew Butler of
South Carolina by saying that South Carolina with
“its shameful imbecility from slavery” had sent to the
Senate in his person (meaning Butler) a “Don
Quixote who had chosen a mistress to whom he has
made his vows, and who… though polluted in the
sight of the world, is chaste in his sight – I mean the
harlot, Slavery.”
Sumner said that he had made the “most thorough
and complete speech of my life”
Democrats and Southerners were appalled and
even Republicans felt that Sumner had gone too far
First Bleeding Kansas, now Bleeding
Sumner!
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Congressman Preston Brooks, a
cousin of Butler, wants revenge
for the insults – he knows that
Sumner is not a gentleman and
therefore should not be treated as
one
Brooks goes into the Senate,
walks up to Sumner, and attacks
him with his cane – hitting Sumner
at least 30 times on his head,
face, and shoulders
Brooks is a hero to the South and
a villain in the North – Sumner
becomes a hero to all of the North
but will suffer from his injuries for
the rest of his life
Most reasonable people could see
that things were out of hand
Federal troops are sent to Kansas
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Even though United States soldiers had been
in Kansas for several years they had not
taken an active role in keeping the peace
U.S. cavalrymen are ordered to stop the
violence and that is the only way some peace
comes to Kansas
The Election of 1856
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The Federal government and the Federal
leadership was very weak at this point –
Franklin Pierce was just not a strong leader
The Democratic Party, which had been a
national party, begins to split along sectional
lines
Stephen Douglas was the most famous
Democratic leader and he had made his
position on the extension of slavery clear with
his popular sovereignty doctrine
A New Party Emerges in 1856
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The Republican Party is created and grows
very quickly
The name “Republican” appealed to many
groups and had a historical connection to
Thomas Jefferson and Henry Clay
The most important plank of the party was
that it was opposed to the extension of
slavery – so the common ground for this
party in 1856 was what is was against, not
necessarily what it was for!
The Republicans hold their Convention in
Chicago
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David Wilmot is the Chair of
the party
The party plank in 1856
includes: Opposition to the
extension of slavery, reenactment of the Missouri
Compromise, admitting
Kansas to the Union as a free
state, and building a railroad
across the continent to the
Pacific
Their candidate for president
was John C. Fremont – The
Pathfinder
Abraham Lincoln was second
in the balloting for vice
president
The Democrats hold their convention in
Cincinnati
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This was an unusual place
to hold their convention but
they wanted to appeal to
the people of the West
The Democrats had to
stand on Douglas’ popular
sovereignty doctrine but did
not try to flaunt it
They picked James
Buchanan of Pennsylvania
as their candidate for
president
A third party – The American Party or the
“Know Nothings” were also running
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The Know Nothings were antiimmigrant and anti-Catholic
They got their nickname by
saying “I know nothing” when
asked about the party
They picked Millard Fillmore to
be their candidate- but Fillmore
was not a member of the party!
– and he did not endorse their
ideas!
Fillmore stressed the need for
all sections of the country to
get along and he was worried
that sectional conflict was in
the near future – he saw the
Republicans as a sectional
party
The Election of 1856 boils down to
Buchanan versus Fremont
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Most of the South votes for Buchanan as the Democratic candidate
The Democratic lost a lot of its strength in the North to the Republicans
The states of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois go for Buchanan – due
to better party organization and money – Douglas alone contributed
$100,000 in Illinois
James Buchanan wins the election
The south sees the Republican Party as a real threat and open talk of
secession is common
If the votes for Fillmore and Fremont are added together it is clear that
the electorate did not endorse the Kansas Nebraska Act
Politicians see that if a candidate can hold the Upper North and then
carry Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois that candidate would win the
presidential election in 1860
The Dred Scott Case
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Dred Scott had been a slave of
an army doctor who took him
to many states, some slave
and some free (Missouri,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri)
and both his owner and Scott
ignored this
Ten years after the master dies
Scott sues for his freedom
claiming that residence in
areas made free by the
Missouri Compromise had
made him a free man
A lower court in Missouri
upholds Scott’s plea but the
Missouri State Supreme Court
reversed that decision in 1852
Dred Scott
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Scott is sold to John Stanford of New York who is an abolitionist
and the case is appealed to the United States Supreme court as
Scott vs. Sanford
The Court’s initial reaction was to rule that Scott had “no right to
bring suit, since he was a Negro and Negroes were not citizens
nor entitled to use the judicial process”
This decision was not accepted by many and President James
Buchanan wanted to use the case to settle sectional differences
 Buchanan wanted the Court to decide the issue of slavery in the
territories
 Buchanan persuaded Judge Robert C. Grier of Pennsylvania to
side with the Southern judges and said that the “Mason-Dixon
Line should not decide justice”
 In his inaugural speech Buchanan had said the he would
“cheerfully submit” to the court’s decision on Dred Scott and that
every American should do likewise
Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B.
Taney Decides The Issue
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Taney had been appointed to his position by Andrew Jackson so
that Jackson could use the Court to validate the removal of the
Cherokees
Taney had all nine justices of the Supreme Court write an opinion
on the Dred Scott case but Taney wrote the “Opinion of the
Court” which is the official one and the majority of the justices
agreed with Taney although for different reasons
Justice John McLean of Ohio and Justice Benjamin R. Curtis of
Massachusetts both said that Scott should be free and that the
Missouri Compromise was a legal action
Taney said:
 Scott had no right to bring suit
 That the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
Taney’s Rationale
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Taney used Maryland and
Massachusetts colonial law to prove
that the Americans intended to erect
“a perpetual and impassible barrier”
between the races
Taney said that “Negroes are simply
property, not people”
He said that Congress could not rule
on territory not owned in 1789 in
regard to slavery
Taney said that Congress could not
deprive a person of his property
when he moved from state to state
or state to territory since the
Constitution guaranteed the right of
property
This is a very strict interpretation of
the Constitution
Public Reaction to the Dred Scott
Decision
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Remember James Buchanan had said that “all good citizens” would
“cheerfully submit” to the decision of the Court – This was ridiculous!
The North exploded in opposition, especially the Republican Party
Northern legislatures and the Northern press condemned the Court and
it’s ruling
There were many demonstrations in the streets and violent speeches
Many people who had not been too concerned about the slavery
question now join the Republican Party
In the South people thought that the Court had made a good decision
John Sanford quietly set Dred Scott free and Scott died two years later
from TB
So – a person could take a slave anywhere and Congress could not
make laws concerning slaves since slaves were property and the right
to own property was guaranteed in the Constitution
The Great Debate – Lincoln vs. Douglas
The Race For A Senate Seat
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In 1858 Stephen A. Douglas’ seat in the United
States Senate was up for re-election and Abraham
Lincoln challenged Douglas
The actual election then took place in the state
legislature – it was not a popular vote like today
Douglas was very well known, a great orator, a
statesman, sophisticated, and one of the top men in
the Democratic Party
Lincoln appeared to be unkempt, crude, and
inexperienced next to Douglas – but Lincoln was a
very good public speaker
The Issues
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Douglas had to defend his national positions on Dred Scott,
popular sovereignty, the extension of slavery and the future of
slavery in the United States
Lincoln made slavery the central issue of the challenge and this
put Douglas on the defensive
James Buchanan was against Douglas since Douglas had
opposed the LeCompton Constitution in Kansas
Lincoln challenges Douglas to debate and Douglas agrees to
“debate” in areas where he had not already spoken, and the
format would be one in which each speaker presented for a given
period of time – this would not be a heated discussion going back
and forth
There would be seven debates, covering different congressional
districts in Illinois
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Debate Sites
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. The debates took place at the following places in Illinois:
Ottawa, August 21, 1858, 12,000 people attend. Debate last 3 hours
Freeport, 15,000 people attend. Debate lasted 3 hours. Freeport
Doctrine.
Jonesboro, 1,400 people attend. A strong slave holding area.
Charleston, 12,000 people attend. The “Tall Sucker” vs. the “Little
Giant”.
Galesburg, October 7, 1858, 20,000 people attend. Cold, windy, damp
day. Lasted 3 hours.
Quincy, October 13, 1858. 12,000 people. Debate lasted 3 hours.
Alton, October 15, 1858, 6,000 people attend.
There were a total of 78,400 people who attended these debates.
This was the largest audience in U.S. A. history up to that point. In
addition, millions of Americans read the speeches in the newspapers. A
new dictation-type of machine had recently been invented which
allowed reporters to get every word.
Lincoln’s House Divided Speech
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June 16, 1858 Lincoln gives a speech to the Illinois House of Representatives.
“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we
could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth
year, since a slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation
has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will
not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. A house divided
against itself cannot stand. I believe that 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.
Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and
place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of
ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike
lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South…..Put that
and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere
long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the
Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude slavery from
its limits… Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all
the States.”
Lincoln and Douglas – back and forth
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Stephen Douglas said of Lincoln not long after the House Divided Speech:
Mr. Lincoln advocates boldly and clearly a war of sections, a war of the
North against the South, of the free States against the slave States- a war of
extermination- to be continued relentlessly until one or the other shall be
subdued, and all the States shall either become free or become slave.
Douglas also said, at the Quincy debate:
Let each State mind its own business and let its neighbors alone!... If we
will stand by that principle, then Mr. Lincoln will find that this republic can exist
forever divided into free and slave States… Stand by that great principle and we
can go on as we have done, increasing in wealth, in population, in power, and in
all the elements of greatness, until we shall be the admiration and terror of the
world,… until we make this continent one ocean-bound republic.
Lincoln responded:
You say slavery is wrong; but don’t you constantly…argue that this is not
the right place to oppose it? You say it must not be opposed in the free States,
because slavery is not here: it must not be opposed in the slave States because
it is there; it must not be opposed in politics, because that will make a fuss; it
must not be opposed in the pulpit, because it is not religion. Then where is the
place to oppose it? There is no suitable place to oppose it.
Douglas proclaims his Freeport Doctrine
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At Freeport, Illinois Lincoln tricks Douglas into reconciling the
Dred Scott decision with popular sovereignty – The Dred Scott
decision contradicted the concept of popular sovereignty since it
said that people could take their property anywhere they wanted
to and government could not interfere with that
Douglas responds to Lincoln by saying, “It matters not what way
the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract
question whether slavery may or may not go into a territory…In
either event the people have the lawful means to introduce it or
exclude it as they please, for…slavery can not exist a day or an
hour anywhere, unless it is protected by local police regulations.”
So Douglas says that slavery can not exist without local
enforcement – does this not contradict all that he has said in the
past?
Results of the Lincoln Douglas Debates
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Douglas won the Senatorial
seat
The Democrats lost most of
the races in 1858
Lincoln got tremendous
national exposure and
gained tremendous
credibility
The question of slavery
became even more of an
issue in American society
John Brown’s Raid On Harper’s Ferry
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John Brown had been
active in Kansas, had no
faith in the political system,
and firmly believed that
slavery was a sin which the
country had to pay for in
blood
Brown openly helped slaves
escape to Canada
Brown moved to Maryland
in 1859 and rented a farm
He collected an army of 21
men
October 16, 1859
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Brown and his men raid the Federal arsenal
at Harper’s Ferry
He intends to liberate the slaves of the South
The slaves do not rise up in revolt
Brown fortifies himself in the fire house in
Harper’s Ferry and waits – he should have
fled to the hills
Federal troops – Marines- arrive under the
command of Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart
The Storming of the Engine House
Brown is Captured and Tried
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The Marines rush the firehouse
and kill or capture all of those
inside
Brown was wounded, several
of his sons were killed
A trail was held in Charles
Town, Virginia and Brown was
found guilty on October 31,
1859 of treason against the
state of Virginia, murder, and
inciting a slave rebellion
Brown was still suffering from
his wounds and was carried
into the court on a stretcher
Brown spoke in his own
defense and frequently quoted
the Bible
John Brown Is Hanged
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Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859 in Charles Town
Over 5,000 militia come to Charles Town to maintain security
and/or to watch
Professor Thomas J. Jackson led the corps of cadets from
Virginia Military Institute to the hanging
John Wilkes Booth joined the Richmond Militia in order to come
to this hanging
Brown spoke before he was hanged and said that the United
States would pay in blood for its sin of slavery
John Brown becomes the Martyr of Abolition
Six of Brown’s men are hanged after him ( at a later date)
“John Brown’s Body” became one of the most famous songs of
the era
Generalizations of the Fateful Fifties
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The different sections solidified and there was no
hope of reconciliation between the sections
Radical leadership took control in each section
Blood was spilled in several states and it is easier to
do that the second or third time
Abolition became a Holy Crusade and the Cotton
Kingdom a way of life
Militia units were forming all over the country and
before long they would need something to do
There was no strong leadership in Washington