The Crisis of the 1850s (US History)

Evaluate the relative importance of political events and

issues that divided the nation and led to civil war,

including the compromises reached to maintain the

balance of free and slave states, the abolitionist

movement, the Dred Scott case, conflicting views on

states’ rights and federal authority, the emergence of

the Republican Party, and the formation of the

Confederate States of America.

For the North:

1.For the South:

2.The New Mexico Territory:

3.

4.

Slavery in Washington, DC:

5.

Fugitive Slave Law

Abolish in Washington, D.C.

in Mexican Cession

sells land / Federal Gov. assumes debt

Admit as a

1850 1860

The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to be the final compromise between the sections…

and it was – just for different reasons than Clay had intended.

Passed by Wisconsin and other Northern states

– Guaranteed jury trials for accused slaves

De facto Nullification

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestselling anti-slavery novel (1852)

Original Illustrations: http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/uncletom/illustra/53illf.html

Stowe

1852 Presidential Election

1852 18601856

Franklin Pierce(D-NH)Fourteenth President of the U.S.1853-1857

“Handsome Frank”

Mexican War Veteran

Kansas-Nebraska Act

“Doughface” (Pro-Southern)

NOT RENOMINATED“There's nothing left to do but get drunk."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fp14.html

POPULAR

SOVEREIGNTY

In Kansas and Nebraska Territories on the issue of slavery

ANIMATED MAP:http://teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/lesson3/

MISSOURI COMPROMISE

“Bleeding Kansas”

“Race to Kansas”

– Proslavery vs. Antislavery

– “Border Ruffians” (from MO)

– N.E. Immigrant Aid Society

• Beecher’s Bibles

ANIMATED MAP:http://teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/lesson3/

1855-185956 Dead

“Beecher’s Bibles”

New England Emigrant Aid Society

"He (Henry W. Beecher) believed that the Sharps Rifle was a truly moral agency, and that there was more moral power in one of those instruments, so far as the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hundred Bibles. You might just as well. . . read the Bible to Buffaloes as to [pro-slavery settlers]; but they have a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifle.”

New York Tribune, 2/8/1856 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (H.B. Stowe’s relative)

Lawrence, KS, after the “Sack of Lawrence” by proslavery settlers

“Bleeding Kansas”1855-1859

56 Dead

– Abolitionist

– Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

John Steuart Curry, “Tragic Prelude,” 1937-1941

LecomptonProslavery

TopekaAntislavery

Republican PartyWhig Party(1832-1854)

• No longer viable after 1852 election

• SPLIT: Northern Whigs and Southern Whigs

Republican Party (1854-Present)

• Free Soil

– NOT abolitionist• (although abolitionists supported

the Republican Party)

• New England and “Northwest” power base

Northern Whigs + Northern Free Soil Democrats

FAIL

“The Crime Against Kansas”

Charles SumnerUS Senator (Mass.)

Document 6.5

CHIVALRY

DON QUIXOTE

Chivalry

Brooks/Sumner Incident

Sen. Charles Sumner (MA)Rep. Preston Brooks (SC)

READ Sumner’s Speech READ Brooks’ Defense

Nativism = Anti-Immigration

Anti-Catholic violence

St. Augustine’s Church on Fire

The American Party“Know Nothings”

CATHOLICS

IMMIGRANTSNOTE: Antebellum immigrants were mostly from Germany and Ireland.

“I know nothing…”

NATIVISM

“Citizen Know Nothing”

Ted Nugent: A Real AmericanClick for Article

A Mascot for the Movement

1856 Presidential Election

1852 18601856

Oh! Brother Beecher! Our Kansas Gun has bursted and upset our gunner. I’m afraid we put in too big a load.

Ah! Fremont, your sectional Gun has exploded just as I predicted, but my American rifle will bring down that Old Buck.

Confound the Gun! if I can only get out of this muss I’ll stick to preaching and let fire-arms alone.

Abolition Bog

James Buchanan(D-PA)Fifteenth President of the U.S.1857-1861

Pierce’s Minister to Great Britain –abroad during Kan/Neb Act controversy

Sectional Turmoil Escalated

Indecisive concerning secession

Only bachelor to occupy the White House

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jb15.html

FACTS OF THE CASE:

Dred Scott, a slave, lived with his master in free territory for two years.

Scott claimed this made him a free man.

THE DECISION:1. People of African

descent (incl. Scott) could not be U.S. citizens.

2. Congress can’t forbid slavery in federal territories (violation of property rights)– Ergo, the Missouri

Compromise is Unconstitutional

Judicial Activism

Judicial Activism

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

LEGISLATIVEBRANCH

JUDICIAL BRANCH

President Congress Supreme Court

____________ Laws _____________ Laws ____________ Laws

When Judges Write the Law

“Slave Power” Conspiracy?

• Illinois Senate Race– Stephen Douglas

• (Democratic Incumbent)

– Abraham Lincoln • (Republican Challenger)

• FOCUS: Free Soil

• Significance:– Douglas wins, but loses

popularity in the South.– Lincoln becomes a

national figure.Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Memorial

OBJECTIVE:

– Seize a federal arsenal

• Harpers Ferry, VA

TREASON

– Tried, Convicted, Executed

– Different reactions in North and South

NORTH: “Slave Power” ConspiracyThe South wants to spread slavery throughout the nation

SOUTH: North plans to destroy Southern slavery by igniting slave revolts.

Mason-Dixon Line

1860 Presidential Election

1852 18601856

Abraham Lincoln(R-IL)Sixteenth President of the U.S.1861-1865

Democratic Party split

Election promptedsecession of states in the Deep South

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html