Problems of Sectional Balance in 1850

Problems of Sectional Balancein 1850ß California statehood.

ß Southern “fire-eaters” threateningsecession.

ß Underground RR & fugitive slave issues: Personal liberty laws

Compromise of 18501. Admission of California as a free state2. Organizing Utah & New Mexico into 2 territories:

a) allowing the settlers in these territories to decide the slavery issue by majority vote in those territories

3. Adjustment of the Texas/New Mexico border in return for the federal gov’t assuming Texas’ public debt of 10 million

4. abolition of slave trade in District of Columbia(permit whites to hold slaves as before)

5. tougher fugitive slave laws.

Compromise of 18501. Its passage was hailed as a solution to the threat of

national division.2. Henry Clay, Daniel Webester & John Calhoun

delivered the last great speeches of their lives3. Northern opposition looked promising until Pres.

Taylor died in 1850 who opposed Clay’s plan4. VP Millard Fillmore supported compromise

Compromise of 1850

HarrietBeecherStowe(1811 – 1896)

So this is the lady who started the Civil War.

-- Abraham Lincoln

Uncle Tom’s Cabin1852

Sold 300,000 copies inthe first year.

2 million in a decade!

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

awakened the passions of the North toward the evils of slavery

About the splitting up of a slave family & the cruel mistreatment of likeable Uncle Tom by a cruel slave master.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

South said Stowe’s portrayal of slavery = wrong & unfair.

Book helped Britain stay out of the Civil War British people sympathized with Uncle Tom,

wouldn’t allow intervention on behalf of the South.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]

ß Nativists.ß Anti-

Catholics.ß Anti-

immigrants.

1849 Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.

1852 Presidential Election

√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

1852Electi

on Resul

ts

The North-South Contest for Kansas

Northerners pour into Kansas, and Southerners = outraged they supported the Compromise of 1850

believing that Kansas would = a slave state. Election day 1855:

hordes of Southerners “border ruffians” from Missouri flooded the polls & elected Kansas tobe a slave state

free-soilers = upset and set up their own government in Topeka.

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

The North-South Contest for Kansas

Kansans had to chose between two governments: one illegal (free government in Topeka) the other fraudulent (slavery government in

Shawnee). 1856, a group of pro-slavery raiders shot up

and burnt part of Lawrence, thus starting violence.

“Bleeding Kansas”

Border “Ruffians”

(pro-slavery

Missourians)

John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?

Mural in the Kansas Capitol building

by John Steuart Curry (20c)

John Brown: led a band of followers to Pottawatomie Creek (May 1856) & hacked to death five presumable pro-slaveryites. This brutal violence surprised even the most ardent abolitionists and brought swift retaliation from pro-slaveryites. “Bleeding Kansas” was earning its name.

The Battle Continues in Kansas By 1857: Kansas had enough people to

apply for statehood Those for slavery devised the Lecompton

Constitution provided that the people were only allowed to

vote for the constitution “withslavery” or “without slavery.”

***even if the constitution was passed “without slavery,” those slaveholders already in the state would still be protected. So, slaves would be in Kansas, despite the vote.

Angry free-soilers boycotted the polls and Kansas approved the constitution with slavery

And continues…. In Washington, Buchanan had succeeds Pierce

but like Pierce, Buchanan was more towards the South, and firmly supported the Lecompton Constitution.

Senator Stephen Douglas, refusing to have this fraudulent vote by saying this wasn’t true popular sovereignty, threw away his Southern support and called for a fair re-vote.

Thus, the Democratic Party was hopelessly divided, ending the last remaining national party for years to come (the Whigs were dead and the Republicans were a sectional party).

“The Crime Against Kansas”

Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA)

Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)“Bleeding Kansas” spills into Congress: Senator Charles Sumner

= vocal anti-slaveryite, & his blistering speeches condemned all slavery supporters. Congressman Preston S. Brooks decided that since Sumner was not a gentleman he couldn’t challenge him to a duel, so Brooks beat Sumner with a cane until it broke; nearby, Senators did nothing but watched, & Brooks was cheered on by the South.

Birth of the Republican Party, 1854ß Northern Whigs.

ß Northern Democrats.ß Free-Soilers.ß Know-Nothings.ß Other miscellaneous

opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

1856 Presidential Election

√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

1856Electi

on Resul

ts

Dred Scott Case The situation:

Dred Scott =slave whose master took him north into free states where he lived for many years his master dies & he sued for his freedom from his

new master claiming that he had been in free territory and was

therefore free. The Missouri Supreme Court agreed, freeing

him, but his new master appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overruled the decision.

Dred Scott Case Outcomes or decisions of the case…

Chief Justice Roger Taney said; no slave could be a citizen of the U.S. in his

justification. The Court said:

a legislature/Congress cannot outlaw slavery, as that would go against the 5th Amendment saying a person’s property cannot be taken without due process of law. This was the bombshell statement.

The Court concludes: the Missouri Compromise had been

unconstitutional all along (because it’d banned slavery north of the 36° 30’ line and doing so was against the second point listed above).

Sectional implications of Dred Scott

The North—South scoreboard now favored the South undeniably.The South had (1) the Supreme Court, (2) the president, and (3) theConstitution on its side. The North had only Congress (which was nowbanned from outlawing slavery).

Reasons the Constitution favored the South… the Supreme Court just said so with the Dred Scott decision and it is the

Supreme Court that interprets the Constitution the 5th Amendment said Congress could not take away property, in this

case, slaves it could be argued that slavery is in the Constitution by way of the Three-

Fifths Compromise it could be argued slavery is not in the Constitution since the word

“slavery” is not present, but using this argument, the 10th Amendment said anything not in the Constitution is left up to the states, and the Southern states would vote for slavery.

Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

What caused thePanic of 1857??

What were itsaffects on the

nation?

Panic of 1857 Psychologically, the Panic of 1857 = the worst of the 19C

it really wasn’t as bad as the Panic of 1837. It’s causes:

California gold causing inflation over-growth of grain over-speculation in land and railroads.

North = especially hard hit South rode it out proving that cotton was indeed king & raising

Southern egos. Also, in 1860, Congress passed a Homestead Act

Provide 160 acres of land at a cheap price for those who were less-fortunate, (vetoed by Buchanan)

Homestead Act = disliked by Northeast Long unfriendly to extension of land & feared that it would drain its population

Panic brought calls for a higher tariff rate had been lowered to about 20% only months before.

Lincoln's Battle for the Senate

1858, Senator Stephen Douglas’ term was about to expire against him = Republican Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of 7 debates most famous debate = Freeport, Illinois,

Lincoln essentially asked, “Mr. Douglas, if the people of a territory voted slavery down, despite the Supreme Court saying that they could not do so (point #2 of the Dred Scott decision), which side would you support, the people or the Supreme Court?”

“Mr. Popular Sovereignty,” Douglas replied with his “Freeport Doctrine,” which said that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down; since power was held by the people.

The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858

A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

Stephen Douglas

& the

Freeport DoctrinePopular

Sovereignty?

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA

plan = invade the South, seize its arms, call upon the slaves to rise up and revolt, and take over the South and free it of slaves

slaves didn’t revolt captured by the U.S. Marines under the command of

Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee & convicted of treason, sentenced to death, and hanged.

Brown portrayed himself as a martyr against slavery, and when he was hanged, he instantly became a martyr for abolitionists

northerners rallied around his memory Abolitionists were infuriated by his execution (as they’d

conveniently forgotten his violent past). South = happy & saw justice. They also felt his actions were

typical of the radical North

John Brown’s Raidon Harper’s Ferry, 1859

Election of 1860 After failing to nominate a candidate in Charleston,

South Carolina, the Democrats split into Northern and Southern factions at Baltimore, the Northern Democrats nominated

Stephen Douglas for president Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge.

Meanwhile, the “Know-Nothings” chose John Bell ofTennessee and called themselves the Constitutional Union party. They tried to mend fences and offered as their platform, simply, the Constitution.

1860PresidentialElection

√ Abraham Lincoln

Republican

John BellConstitutional

Union

Stephen A. DouglasNorthern Democrat

John C. Breckinridge

Southern Democrat

Republican Party Platform in 1860ß Non-extension of slavery [for the

Free-Soilers.ß Protective tariff [for the No.

Industrialists].ß No abridgment of rights for

immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].

ß Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].

ß Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.

ß Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

1860Electio

nResult

s

The Electoral Upheaval of 1860

Abe Lincoln won the election despite not even being on the ballot in the South.

Lincoln won with only 40% of the popular vote had the Democratic Party been more organized and

energetic, they might have won. It was a very sectional race:

the North went to Lincoln, the South to Breckinridge the “middle-ground” to the middle-of-the-road candidate in Bell popular-sovereignty-land went to Douglas.

Republicans did not control the House or the Senate, and the South still had a five-to-four majority in the Supreme Court, but the South still decided to secede.

The Secessionist Exodus South Carolina threatened to secede if Lincoln was

elected president SC seceded in December of 1860. Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas

(the Deep South) followed in next 6 weeks, before Abe was inaugurated.

Secession states met in Montgomery, Alabama in February of 1861 created the Confederate States of America chose Jefferson Davis as president.

President Buchanan? did nothing to force the confederacy back into the Union, Why?

Union troops were needed in the West North was still apathetic toward secession left the issue for Lincoln to handle when he got sworn in.

Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860

Crittenden Compromise:

A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity

Senator John J. Crittenden

(Know-Nothing-KY)

The Collapse of Compromise

James Henry Crittenden proposed the Crittenden Compromise ban slavery north of the 36°30’ line extended to the

Pacific would leave the issue in territories south of the line

up to thepeople

existing slavery south of the line would be protected. Lincoln opposed the compromise

his party had preached against the extension of slavery, & he had to stick to principle.

Farewell to Union Why secession?

feared that their rights as a slaveholding minority were being threatened

alarmed at the growing power of the Republicans they believed that they would be unopposed

despite what the Northerners claimed South hoped to develop its own banking and

shipping, and to prosper. In 1776, the 13 colonies had seceded from

Britain and had won; now the South could do the same thing.