Day 64: Renewing the Sectional StruggleBaltimore Polytechnic Institute

December 4, 2015A/A.P. U.S. History

Mr. Green

Objectives: The students will be able to analyze the

factors that led to the American Civil War by evaluating the actions of individuals, tribunals, and governments during the 1850s

AP FocusThe Kansas-Nebraska Act,

orchestrated by Senator Stephen A. Douglas for political as well as personal reasons, further polarizes the nation. Northerners conclude that, with popular sovereignty, there will be no limitations placed on the expansion of slavery.

Renewing the Sectional Struggle

In their attempt to take the White House, the Republicans are defeated when John Frémont loses to Democrat James Buchanan. Nativists, concerned by German and Irish immigration, organize the American, or Know-Nothing, Party, which probably takes votes from the Republicans.

In March 1857, the Supreme Court rules that Dred Scott is not a citizen because of his race. The decision goes even further, stating that Congress has no authority to exclude slavery from any part of the nation or its territories. The Missouri Compromise is therefore ruled unconstitutional.

The financial crash of 1857 primarily affects the North and West. The South is essentially unaffected because of high cotton prices. Southerners cite this as an example of the superiority of their economic system over the North’s, which exploits the “wage-slaves.”

Cont’d

CHAPTER THEMESA series of major North-South

crises in the late 1850s culminated in the election of the antislavery Republican Lincoln to the presidency in 1860. His election caused seven southern states to secede from the union and form the Confederate States of America.

Chapter Focus

Election Charts 1836, 1840,1844, 1848 are due this week

Distribute Election Chart 1852, 1856, 1860, and 1864

Announcements

Read the 1 page summary of the Dred Scott case.What arguments did Chief Justice Roger Taney make in denying citizenship to Dred Scott?

Warm-up

Kansas and Nebraska, 1854

Stephen Douglass envisioned a line of settlements across the continent

He also owned Chicago real estate and railroad stock.

Proposed the Nebraska Territory be sliced into 2-Kansas and Nebraska

Utilized popular sovereignty to decide slaveryFlew in face of Missouri CompromiseWhat laws did the Kansas-Nebraska Act

repeal?

Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)-Harriet Beecher Stowenever witnessed slavery firsthandNorth would not enforce the Fugitive Slave Lawpopular abroad

The Impending Crisis of the South (1857)-Hinton R. Helper

prove that non-slaveholding whites were the ones who suffered most from slavery

Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries

Small part of pioneers to Kansas were financed by northern abolitionists

New England Emigrant Aid Company-sent 2,000 people to the area to forestall the South

Kansas was the unspoken slave state from the Kansas-Nebraska Act, while Nebraska was to be free

1855 State elections in Kansas turned into a fiasco-border ruffians from MO voted early and often in Kansas

2 governments set up in Kansas-Shawnee Mission and Topeka

The North-South contest for Kansas

May 1856 John Brown and followers hacked 5 surprised men to death-caused a vicious retaliation from pro-slavery forces

1857 Kansas had enough population to apply for statehood on a popular-sovereignty basis

Lecompton Constitution-vote for the constitution either “with slavery” or “with no slavery”

a vote against slavery still offered protections to owners of slaves ALREADY in Kansas

Late 1857 Kansas becomes a slave state

Kansas in Convulsion

Charles Sumner of MA-leading abolitionist gave a speech that attacked the South

Preston S. Brooks of SC took the attacks on SC personally and attacked Sumner on May 22, 1856

Brooks resigned and was re-electedRevealed the inflamed passions between the

North and the South

“Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon

DemocratJames BuchananWell to do PA lawyerAnti-foreignism Slavery174 Electoral Votes1,832,955

RepublicanJohn C. FremontPathfinder of the WestAnti-foreignismSlavery114 Electoral Votes1,339,932American Party/Know-Nothing

PartyMillard Fillmore8 electoral votesAmericans Must Rule AmericaImmigrants from

Ireland/Germany871,731

Election of 1856

Dred Scott v. Stanford (1857) March 6, 1857Scott lived with his master for 5 years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory Backed by abolitionists

Taney ruled that he was a slave and not a citizen and could not sue in federal court

Taney took it one step furtherSince a slave was private property, he or she could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery

used the 5th amendment to protect people of their property without due process of lawNullified the Compromise of 1820: Congress has no power to ban slavery from the territories, regardless of what the territories decide

The Dred Scott Bombshell

Causes:inpouring California gold-inflated currencyCrimean War in Russia-commoditiesSpeculation in land/railroadsTariff of 1857??? Not so fast my friend

reduced duties to 20%/placed on books just before the crashEffects:

5,000 business failed in the year“Bread or Dead”Northern grain growers hurtKing Cotton no impacted

Next Steps:free land or homesteadstake away workersMore free-soilersBuchanan vetoed it in 1860

Financial Crash of 1857