Chapter 15

The Coming Crisis, the 1850’s

America in 1850☺ Expansion and Growth☺ The U.S. had tripled in size since

1800☺ Pop. Increase from 5.3 million (1800)

to 23 million (1850)☺ Per capita income doubled between

1800 and 1850☺ Cotton was still the nation’s principal

export, but its influence on the domestic economy decreased the South’s political importance also decreased

☺ Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851-52). It described the horrors and vivid details of slavery and became the all-time American best-seller of the 19th century

Until the 1840’s, compromises had always solved political differences.

States’ Rights and Slavery John C. Calhoun argued

that Congress didn’t have a Constitutional Right to prohibit slavery in the territories because it discriminated against slave owners as they moved west.

Northern Fears of “The Slave Power”

The term “slave power” was used by James Birney to describe a group of aristocratic slave owners who dominated the political and social life of the South and desired to control the federal government

♫ The major arguments between the North and the South were based on common beliefs about expansion

♫ Southerners believed that abolitionists lied about slave owners and they flooded the South with unwanted literature, abused the right of petition to Congress, inspired slave rebellions, and helped slaves to escape

♫ The South believed that its export of cotton stimulated national economic growth and the North benefited from that

♫ To the North, the South was dominated by small slave owners that lived off of forced labor and deprived poor rights of their democratic rights

Compromise of 1850 A younger political generation got the Compromise to Congress

California was admitted as a free state; remaining former Mexican possessions would be decided by popular sovereignty

Texas would cede land to New Mexico Territory; the federal government assumed $10 million of Texas’ debts from before it was a state

The slave trade, not slavery was ended in the District of Columbia and the fugitive slave law was enacted

To some, the compromise didn’t settle slavery, it avoided the issue

Antislavery northern Whigs and proslavery Southern Democrats were least willing to compromise

The Fugitive Slave Act

Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who helped almost 300 slaves to freedom

Solomon Northup wrote Twelve Years a Slave about how he was kidnapped as a free man and shipped South into slavery

There were federal penalties on citizens who protected or helped fugitives. This made slavery national. Anthony Burns was an escaped slave; his friends were helping him rescue, but the plan failed. Bostonians raised money for his freedom, but his case was lost and he was sold into slavery.

This incident radicalized many Northerners

☺ The Election of 1852☺ General Winfield Scott (Whig) was nominated for the election☺ Many Whigs didn’t vote or voted for a Democratic candidate☺ Franklin Pierce easily won the election

☺ William Walker led three invasions of Nicaragua and became its ruler—he was later unseated by a revolt

☺ Ostend Manifesto- the minister to Spain, Pierre Soule tried to get the Spanish to sell Cuba for $130 million

The Crisis of the National Party System

Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act - 1854, which would apply the idea of popular sovereignty to the Kansas and Nebraska territories

Nullified the Missouri Compromise

“Bleeding Kansas”

Fraudulent elections were blamed on “border ruffians” who were proslavery and were not qualified to vote in Kansas, but did anyway

Kansas became home to burnings, killings and other violence as a result of the decision of popular sovereignty

♫ The Politics of Nativism♫ Nativism (anti-immigrant feeling) was

partly due to the support of Catholic, foreign voters for the Democratic Party and the breakup of the Whig Party

♫ Many Whigs turned to the new American Party which held nativist feelings

♫ They became known as the Know-Nothings because when they were questioned about their beliefs, they said “I know nothing”

♫ Most were workers and small farmers♫ This party split into northern and

southern parts in 1855♫ The Republican Party, founded in 1854,

had characteristics of the Whigs and believed in expansion and the free-soil policy

The Republican Party and the Election of 1856

“slavery, rum and Romanism” were associated with the Democratic Party

“Freedom, temperance and Protestantism” were associated with the Republican Party

Republicans included former northern Whigs, Free-soil supporters, northern reformers and merchants and industrialists

Buchanan, John C. Fremont (Republican) and Millard Fillmore (American) ran in the 1856 election

Although Buchanan won, the Republicans claimed “victorious defeat”

The Republican Party was a sectional party with almost all northern support

Dred Scott v. Sandford—Dred Scott was a slave all his life; his master took him to Illinois and Wisconsin Territory (free land); when he returned to Missouri (slave state) he sued for the freedom of his wife, his daughter and himself because he claimed that his residence in the free territories made them freeChief Justice Taney ruled that the federal government had no right to interfere with the movement of property and that only citizens had the right to sue, meaning that black people were not citizensThe Lecompton Constitutionfree-soilers desired to form their own proslavery government in Lecompton and a free-soil government in TopekaSupporters of slavery wrote the Lecompton constitutionThe people of Kansas rejected this and Kansas was admitted as a free state in 1861

☺ The Panic of 1857☺ Primarily caused by a

temporary decline in agricultural exports to Britain

☺ Congress proposed to raise tariffs but they were outvoted

☺ The panic was less harmful to the South than to the North

☺ John Brown’s Raid☺ John Brown had slaughtered

unarmed proslavery men and desired to start a slave uprising by raiding the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia—it failed and he was hanged

☺ Free African Americans did not support him

☺ This caused fear of slave rebellion in the south

The Election of 1860

The Democratic Party held their nominating convention in Charleston, South Carolina

Southerners, in return for their support for Douglas, insisted that he support a federal slave code—a guarantee that slavery would be protected in the territories

The leading Republican contenders were William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln

Seward was very radical, but Lincoln was more moderate and won the nomination and the electionLincoln

(Republican)

Breckinridge(Democrat)

Bell(ConstitutionalUnion)

Douglas(Democrat)

♫ Establishment of the Confederacy

♫ The seven seceding states created the Confederate States of America—they wrote a constitution supporting states’ rights and slavery

♫ Their defense of slavery was that the slave owner had rights over his slaves, all white men had the right of freedom and states had rights over the federal government

♫ The south’s defense would require a strong central government

Lincoln’s Inauguration Lincoln refused to issue public statements before his inauguration so he didn’t make the current situation worse“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”

Breckinridge supported the expansion of slavery while Lincoln did not—Douglas supported popular sovereignty as well as Bell Republicans had the best chance to win because of their opposition to slavery, which would solve the sectional problem The election was regional—Breckinridge v. Bell in the south and Lincoln v. Douglas in the north The governors of South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi had each vowed to secede if Lincoln was elected, and he was South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas seceded from the Union Buchanan (president until Lincoln’s inauguration) did nothing about this; Lincoln was more active; he believed that immediate action was wrong and he was prepared for the south to strike first