SOUTHERN SLAVERY SLAVERY IS OUR KING. SLAVERY IS OUR TRUTH,
SLAVERY IS OUR DIVINE RIGHT. A South Carolina politician in
1860
Slide 4
MANIFEST DESTINY
Slide 5
With the end of the Mexican War, the USA absorbed a half a
million square miles of Mexicos territory 1/3 of that nations total
area. An estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Spanish speaking Mexicans and
over 150,000 Indians inhabited the Mexican Cession.
Slide 6
Slide 7
MANIFEST DESTINY The spirit of Manifest Destiny gave a new
stridency to ideas about racial superiority. 1840s: Territorial
expansion came to be seen as proof of the innate superiority of the
Anglo-Saxon race. To adherents of Manifest Destiny race was the key
to the history of nations and the rise and fall of empires. Race
was an amorphous notion involving color, culture, class and
religion.
Slide 8
WILMOT PROVISO
Slide 9
THE WILMOT PROVISO The acquisition of the Mexican Cession
raised the fatal issue that would disrupt the political system and
plunge the nation into civil war: SHOULD SLAVERY BE ALLOWED TO
EXPAND IN THE WEST?
Slide 10
THE WILMOT PROVISO Events soon confirmed Ralph Waldo Emersons
prediction that if the USA gobbled up part of Mexico, it will be as
the man who swallows arsenic Mexico will poison us.
Slide 11
THE WILMOT PROVISO Before 1846, the status of slavery in all
parts of the US had been settled, either by state law or in the
Missouri Compromise. But the acquisition of new lands reopened the
questions of slaverys expansion not its abolition.
Slide 12
THE WILMOT PROVISO The divisiveness of the issue became clear
when Cong. David Wilmot (PA) proposed a resolution prohibiting
slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico.
Slide 13
THE WILMOT PROVISO The Wilmot Proviso passed the HofR, where
the more populous North possessed a majority, but failed in the
Senate, with its even balance of free and slave states.
Slide 14
THE ELECTION OF 1848
Slide 15
In the Election of 1848, opponents of slaverys expansion not
abolition organized the Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van
Buren for President and Charles Francis Adams as his running mate.
The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass who proposed that the decision
to allow slavery should be left to the settlers in the new
territories popular sovereignty
Slide 16
THE ELECTION OF 1848 Van Burens campaign struck a chord with
Northerners opposed to the expansion of slavery and he polled some
300,000 votes, 14% of the Northern total. But the victory belonged
to Zachary Taylor, the Whig Party nominee, hero of the Mexican War
and a LA sugar planter.
Slide 17
Slide 18
THE FREE SOIL APPEAL
Slide 19
The fact that Van Buren and Adams abandoned their party to run
on a Free Soil platform showed that anti-expanionist sentiment had
spread far beyond abolitionist ranks. Being antislavery became an
acceptable political position. The free soil message found an
audience in the North but it was not an abolitionist position. It
was more like a containment policy. The free soil idea also
appealed to the racism widespread in Northern society.
Slide 20
THE FREE SOIL APPEAL Wilmot insisted that his controversial
Proviso was motivated not by morbid sympathy for slaves but to
advance the cause and rights of free white men, in part by
preventing him to compete with black labor.
Slide 21
THE FREE SOIL APPEAL: THE SOUTHERN REACTION To Southerners, the
idea of barring slavery from the Mexican Cession seemed a violation
of their equal rights as members of the Union. They had fought for
these lands, surely they had a right to share in the fruits of
victory.
Slide 22
THE FREE SOIL APPEAL: THE SOUTHERN REACTION To single out
slavery as the one form of property barred from the West would be
an affront to the Southern way of life. Southern leaders became
convinced that slavery must expand or die.
Slide 23
THE FREE SOIL APPEAL: THE SOUTHERN REACTION Also, the admission
of new free states would overturn the political balance between
sections and make the South a permanent minority. Southern
interests would not be secure in a Union dominated by
non-slaveholding states.
Slide 24
COMPROMISE OF 1850
Slide 25
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 The question of the expansion of slavery
came to California in 1849. Gold was discovered in CA. This led to
an explosion of gold seekers moving into CA. Some came with their
slaves.
Slide 26
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 With the slavery issue appearing more
and more ominous, established party leaders moved to resolve
differences between the sections. Some disputes were long standing,
but the immediate source of controversy arose from the acquisition
of new lands from Mexico.
Slide 27
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 1850: CA., asked to be admitted as a
free state. Some Southerners opposed the measure, fearing it would
upset the sectional balance in Congress. 1850: The balance was 15
free states and 15 slave states.
Slide 28
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 Sen. Henry Clay (KY) offered a plan with
4 main provisions: CA would be a free state The slave trade would
be abolished in DC A stringent new fugitive slave law would
enacted. Popular sovereignty.
Slide 29
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 In the Senate debate on Clays plan, the
divergent sectional positions received eloquent expression. Sen.
Daniel Webster (MA) announced his willingness to abandon the Wilmot
Proviso and accept a new fugitive slave act if this were the price
of sectional peace.
Slide 30
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 Sen. John C. Calhoun (SC), too ill to
speak. A colleague read his remarks rejecting the compromise.
Slavery, he insisted, must be protected by the federal govt., and
extended into all the new territories.
Slide 31
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 Sen. William Seward (NY), opposed the
compromise. Seward appealed to a higher law than the Const., the
law of morality. He represented the voice of abolitionism in the
Senate.
Slide 32
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 Pres. Zachary Taylor, was a strong
nationalist. He was alarmed over the talk of disunion. He accused
the South of holding CA., hostage to their own legislative aims. He
insisted that Congress that Congress admit CA., as a free
state.
Slide 33
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 Taylor died of an intestinal infection
on July 9, 1850. VP Millard Fillmore succeeded him. Fillmore threw
his support behind Clays plan and helped to break the impasse in
Congress and secure adoption of the Compromise of 1850.
Slide 34
PROVISIONS California admitted as a free state. The slave
trade, but not slavery, would be abolished in Washington, D.C. A
new stringent fugitive slave law would allow southerners to reclaim
runaway slaves. The status of slavery in the remaining territories
left to the decision of the local white inhabitants = popular
sovereignty
Slide 35
FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT
Slide 36
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT The most controversial aspect of the
Compromise of 1850. The law allowed special federal commissioners
to determine the fate of alleged fugitives without the benefit of a
jury trial or even testimony by the accused individual.
Slide 37
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT Southern leaders, usually strong
defenders of states rights and local autonomy, supported a measure
that brought federal agents into Northern communities, armed with
the power to override local law enforcement and judicial procedures
to secure the return of runaway slaves.
Slide 38
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT 1850s: Federal tribunals heard over 300
cases and ordered 157 fugitives returned to the South, many at the
govts expense. But the law further widened sectional
differences.
Slide 39
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT Throughout the North, fugitives, with
the aid of abolitionists, violently resisted capture. In the North,
several thousands fugitives and free blacks fearing capture fled to
Canada. This challenged the familiar image of the US as an asylum
for freedom.
Slide 40
THE STORY OF ANTHONY BURNS The trial and arrest of Anthony
Burns, a fugitive slave, touched off riots and protests by
abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 1854. Burns
plight became a rallying cry for opponents of slavery.
Slide 41
UNCLE TOMS CABIN
Slide 42
1852: Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was the most
influential novel of its time. It was a novel about a slave named
Tom and his struggles against his owner Simon Legree It moved a
generation of Northerners and Europeans to regard all slave owners
as cruel and inhuman. Southerners condemned the untruths in the
novel. They saw the novel as proof of the Norths incurable
prejudice against the South.
Slide 43
THE MEETING
Slide 44
THE ELECTION OF 1852 At least temporarily, the Comp., of 1850
seemed to have restored sectional peace and party unity. In the
Election of 1852 Democrat Franklin Pierce won a sweeping victory
over Whig Winfield Scott. The Democratic Platform recognized the
Comp. of 1850 as a final settlement of the slavery controversy.
Pierce received a broad popular mandate.
Slide 45
THE ELECTION OF 1852
Slide 46
But the Pierce Presidency turned out to be one of the most
disastrous in American history. It witnessed the collapse of the
party system inherited from the Age of Jackson, an increase in
sectional tensions, and the first blood shed of the Civil War.
Again the question of the expansion of slavery into new territories
reared it ugly head.
Slide 47
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
Slide 48
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT 1854: The old political order finally
succumbed to the disruptive pressures of slavery. Sen. Stephen
Douglas (Ill) introduced a bill to provide for govts., for Kansas
and Nebraska within the Louisiana Purchase. Douglas saw himself as
the new leader of the Senate.
Slide 49
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT A strong believer in western
development, Douglas hoped that a transcontinental railroad could
be constructed through Kansas and Nebraska. But he feared that this
could not be accomplished unless formal govts., were established in
the these territories.
Slide 50
THE PROVISIONS The Nebraska Territory would be split into
Nebraska and Kansas. The issue of slavery would be determined
through popular sovereignty to Douglas popular sovereignty embodied
the idea of local self-government and offered a middle ground
between the extremes of the North and South. Due to Douglas
leadership the bill became law in 1854
Slide 51
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT In response to the K-N Act, a group of
anti- slavery Congressmen issued The Appeal of the Independent
Democrats. It proved to be one of the most effective pieces of
political persuasion in American history. It arraigned the Act as a
gross violation of a sacred privilege, part and parcel of an
atrocious plot to convert free territory into a dreary region of
despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves. It helped to convince
Northerners of a slave power conspiracy.
Slide 52
THE IMPACT Effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820
and Compromise of 1850. Split the Democratic Party. Whig Party
unable to develop a unified response to the crisis. Emergence of
the Republican Party (Lincoln) The North: refused to honor the
Fugitive Slave Act and would be unwilling to compromise in the
future. Anti-slavery movement grew significantly.
Slide 53
FREE LABOR v. SLAVE POWER
Slide 54
1856: It became clear that the Republican Party would become
the alternative to the Democratic Party in the North. Republicans
managed to convince most Northerners that the Slave Power posed a
more immediate threat to their liberties and aspirations than
popery and immigration. The Partys appeal rested on the idea of
free labor.
Slide 55
FREE LABOR v. SLAVE POWER In Republican hands, the free labor
versus slave labor debate coalesced into a worldview that glorified
the North as the home of progress, opportunity and freedom. The
defining quality of Northern society was the opportunity for
economic independence essential for freedom. Slavery by contrast
spawned a social order consisting of degraded slaves, poor whites
with no hope of advancement, and idle aristocrats.
Slide 56
FREE LABOR v. SLAVE POWER The struggle over the territories was
a contest about which of the two antagonistic labor systems would
dominate the West, and by implication, the nations future. Slavery
must be kept out of the territories so that free labor could
flourish. To Southern claims that slavery was the foundation of
liberty, Republicans responded with the rallying cry freedom
national meaning not abolition but ending the federal govts.,
support for slavery.
Slide 57
FREE LABOR v. SLAVE POWER Republicans were not abolitionists.
They focused on preventing the spread of slavery, not attacking
where it existed. Yet, many party leaders viewed the nations
division into free and slave societies as an irrepressible
conflict. The two systems were incompatible within a single
nation.
Slide 58
FREE LABOR v. SLAVE POWER William Seward of NY: The United
States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a
slave nation, or entirely a free nation.
Slide 59
BLEEDING KANSAS
Slide 60
Dramatic events in 1855 and 1856 fueled the Republican Partys
growth. When Kansas held elections in 1854 and 1855, hundreds of
proslavery Missourians crossed the border to cast fraudulent
ballots. Pres. Pierce recognized the legitimacy of the resulting
proslavery legislature, and replaced the territorial governor when
he dissented. Settlers from the free states soon established a
rival government and a sporadic civil war broke out, in which 200
persons lost their lives.
Slide 61
BLEEDING KANSAS May 1856: A proslavery mob attacked the
free-soil stronghold of Lawrence, KS, burning public bldgs and
pillaging private homes. Bleeding Kansas seemed to discredit
Stephen Douglas policy of popular sovereignty thus aiding the
Republicans.
Slide 62
Slide 63
BROOKS v. SUMNER The Party also drew strength from an
unprecedented incident in the halls of Congress. Cong. Preston
Brooks (SC) wielding a gold- tipped cane beat antislavery Sen.
Charles Sumner (MA) unconscious after Sumner delivered a
denunciation of Bleeding Kansas.
Slide 64
Slide 65
THE ELECTION OF 1856
Slide 66
The Republicans nominated John C. Fremont and drafted a
platform that strongly opposed the further expansion of slavery.
The Democrats nominated James Buchanan. Their platform endorsed
popular sovereignty as the only viable solution to the slavery
controversy. The Know-Nothing Party nominated ex- president Millard
Fillmore.
Slide 67
THE ELECTION OF 1856 Fremont outpolled Buchanan in the North,
carrying 11 of the 16 states. A remarkable achievement for an
organization that had existed for only 2 years.
Slide 68
THE ELECTION OF 1856 Fillmore carried only MD. But he ran well
among former Whig voters of the Upper South and more conservative
areas of the North, who were reluctant to join the Democrats but
feared a Republican victory might threaten the Union.
Slide 69
THE ELECTION OF 1856 Buchanan won the entire South and the key
Northern states of Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania. This was
enough to ensure his victory making him the 15 th President of the
USA.
Slide 70
Slide 71
DRED SCOTT
Slide 72
Even before his inauguration, Buchanan became aware of a
pending Supreme Court decision that held out the hope of settling
the slavery controversy once and for all. This was the Dred Scott
v. Sanford case (1857)
Slide 73
DRED SCOTT 1830s: Scott had accompanied his owner to Illinois,
where slavery had been prohibited by the Northwest Ordinance of
1787 and by state law. He also traveled to the Wisconsin territory,
where slavery has been barred by the Missouri Compromise
(1820)
Slide 74
DRED SCOTT After returning to Missouri, Scott sued for his
freedom, claiming that residence on free soil made him free. March
1857: The Court returned its ruling 2 days after Buchanans
inauguration.
Slide 75
THE CASE The Dred Scott case is one of the most famous or
infamous rulings in Supreme Court history. The Justices addressed
three questions: Could a black person be a citizen and sue in
federal court? Did residence in a free state make Scott free? Did
Congress possess the power to prohibit slavery in a territory?
Slide 76
THE DECISION 6-3 decision. Court ruled that only white persons
could be citizens of the United States. Chief Justice Taney
insisted that the nations founders believed that blacks had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect. Descended from
different ancestors and lacking a history of freedom, blacks, he
continued could never be part of the nations political family.
Scott remained a slave. Congress had no power under the
Constitution to bar slavery from a territory.
Slide 77
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCOTT The Court was declaring that any
measure interfering with southerners right to bring slaves into the
western territories was unconstitutional. In effect the Court ruled
unconstitutional the Republicans platform of restricting slaverys
expansion. It undermined Douglas doctrine of popular sovereignty
for if Congress lacked the power to prohibit slavery in a
territory, how could a territorial legislature created by Congress
do so? President Buchanan announced that, henceforth, slavery
existed in the territories by virtue of the Constitution.
Slide 78
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCOTT Perhaps the persons most directly
affected by the Courts decision was Scott and his wife Harriet. A
new master immediately freed them. Both died on the eve of the
Civil War, having enjoyed their freedom for only a few years.
Slide 79
Slide 80
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCOTT Among the decisions casualties was
the reputation of the Court itself, which in the North, sank to the
lowest level in all of American history. Rather than abandoning
their opposition to the expansion of slavery, the Republicans now
viewed the Court as controlled by the Slave Power.
Slide 81
Lecompton Constitution
Slide 82
LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 1858: The Buchanan Admin., tried to
admit Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. It
had been drafted by a pro-southern convention and never submitted
to a popular vote. Outraged by this violation of popular
sovereignty, Stephen Douglas formed an unlikely alliance with
Congressional Republicans to block the attempt. Kansas remained a
territory; it would join the Union as a free state on the eve of
the Civil War.
Slide 83
LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION The Lecompton battle convinced Southern
Democrats that they could not trust their party most popular
northern leader. This would hurt Douglas presidential election bid
in 1860.
Slide 84
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY
Slide 85
The depths of Americas divisions over slavery were brought into
sharp focus in 1858 in one of the most storied elections in the
nations history. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (Ill) was up for
reelection. He encountered an unexpectedly strong challenge from
Abraham Lincoln.
Slide 86
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY Although Lincoln had began running for
office at the age of 23, until the mid 1850s his career hardly
seemed destined for greatness. He served 4 terms as a Whig in the
Ill state legislature and one in Congress from 1847- 1849. While in
Congress, his criticism of the Mexican War was so unpopular that he
did not seek reelection. (Spot Resolution = Spotty Lincoln)
Slide 87
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY Lincoln was swept into politics by the
Kansas- Nebraska Act. He once said that he hated slavery as much as
any abolitionist. Unlike abolitionists, he was willing to
compromise with the South to preserve the Union. He once said: I
hate to see the poor creatures hunted down but I bite my lip and
keep silent. But on one question he was inflexible stopping the
expansion of slavery.
Slide 88
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY He crafted a critique of slavery and its
expansion that gave voice to the central values of the emerging
Republican Party and the millions of Northerners whose loyalty it
commanded. He speeches combined the moral fervor of the
abolitionists with a strong respect for order and the
Constitution.
Slide 89
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY If slavery were allowed to expand, he
warned, the love of liberty would be extinguished and with it
Americas special mission to be a symbol of democracy for the entire
world.
Slide 90
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY Lincolns America was the world of the small
producer. In a sense, his own life personified the free labor
ideology and the opportunities Northern society offered to laboring
men.
Slide 91
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY He was fascinated and disturbed by the
writings of proslavery ideologues and he rose to the defense of
Northern society: I want every man to have a chance and I believe a
black man is entitled to it, in which he can better his
condition.
Slide 92
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY For Lincoln, blacks might not be the equal
of whites in all respects, but in their natural right to the fruits
of their labor, they were my equal and the equal of all
others.
Slide 93
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATAES
Slide 94
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES The campaign against Douglas created
Lincolns national reputation. These debates remain classics of
American history. In total 7 debates were held. The debates were
attended by tens of thousands of listeners.
Slide 95
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES Clashing definitions of freedom lay at
the heart of the debates. To Lincoln, freedom meant opposition to
slavery. The nation needed to rekindle the spirit of the Founding
Fathers, who, he claimed, had tried to place slavery on the path to
ultimate extinction. Douglas argued that the essence of freedom lay
in local self-government and individual self- determination. A
large and diverse nation could only survive by respecting the right
of each locality to determine its own institutions.
Slide 96
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE In the Freeport debate, responding to
questions from Lincoln, Douglas insisted that popular sovereignty
was not incompatible with the Dred Scott decision.
Slide 97
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES Although territorial governments could
no longer exclude slavery directly, Douglas insisted, if the people
wished to keep slaveholders out all they needed to do was refrain
from giving the institution legal protection.
Slide 98
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES Douglas insisted that politicians had
no right to impose their own moral standards on society as a whole.
When he talked of the people, he meant white people only.
Slide 99
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES Douglas spent most of the time in the
debates trying to portray Lincoln as a dangerous radical whose
positions threatened to degrade white Americans by reducing them to
equality with blacks. In the end, Douglas won the election. But
Lincoln had positioned himself as a leading contender for the
Republican nomination for president in 1860.
Slide 100
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY
Slide 101
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY An armed assault by the fanatical
abolitionist John Brown on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry,
VA, further heightened sectional tensions. Brown had a long career
in antislavery activities. 1830s-1840s: He befriended fugitive
slaves, and although chronically in debt, helped finance
antislavery publications. He was a deeply religious man. But his
God was not a forgiving God.
Slide 102
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY May 1856: After the attack on
Lawrence, KS, Brown traveled to the territory. There he and a few
followers murdered 5 proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek. For
the next two years, he traveled through the North and Canada
raising funds and enlisting followers for a war against
slavery.
Slide 103
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY Oct. 16, 1859: With 21 men, 7 of
them black, Brown seized Harpers Ferry. Militarily the plan made no
sense. The hoped for slave uprising did not materialize.
Slide 104
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY Brown and his men were soon
surrounded by US troops led by Robert E. Lee. Brown was placed on
trial for treason against the state of VA.
Slide 105
JOHN BROWN AND HARPERS FERRY At the trial, Brown conducted
himself with dignity and courage, winning the admiration from
millions of northerners who disapproved of his violent deeds. When
Gov. Henry A. Wise (VA) spurned pleas for clemency and ordered
Brown executed, he turned Brown into a martyr to much of the North.
To the South, the failure of Browns raid seemed less significant
than the adulation he seemed to arouse in the North.
Slide 106
Slide 107
BROWN: MARTYR OR TERRORIST?
Slide 108
THE ELECTION OF 1860
Slide 109
With his reelection in 1858, Douglas seemed prime to become the
next president. But when the Democratic convention met in 4/1860,
Douglas commanded a majority but not the 2/3 required for the
nomination.
Slide 110
THE ELECTION OF 1860 Because of his fight against the LeCompton
Constitution and his refusal to support congressional laws imposing
slavery on all territories, Douglas had become unacceptable to
political leaders of the Deep South.
Slide 111
THE ELECTION OF 1860 The leaders of the Deep South were
determined to bring Kansas into the Union as a slave state. When
the party platform adopted a plank reaffirming popular sovereignty,
delegates from 7 slave states of the Lower South walked out and the
convention recessed in confusion.
Slide 112
THE ELECTION OF 1860 6 weeks later, the convention reconvened,
replaced the bolters with Douglas supporters and nominated him for
president. In response, Southern Democrats placed their own ticket
in the field and nominated John C. Breckinridge of KY. He insisted
that slavery be allowed in the territories.
Slide 113
THE ELECTION OF 1860 The hastily organized Constitutional Union
Party nominated John Bell of TN. Its platform consisted of a single
phrase to preserve the Constitution as it is and the Union as it
was.
Slide 114
THE ELECTION OF 1860 The Republicans gathered in Chicago and
nominated Lincoln. Lincolns devotion to the Union appealed to
moderate Republicans.
Slide 115
THE ELECTION OF 1860 Lincolns emphasis on the moral dimension
of the sectional controversy made him acceptable to Republicans
from abolitionist backgrounds. Coming from Ill, he could carry the
pivotal doubtful states essential for a Republican victory.
Slide 116
THE ELECTION OF 1860 The Republican platform: Denied the
validity of the Dred Scott decision Reaffirmed the Partys
opposition to the expansion of slavery Free homesteads in the West
A protective tariff Government aid in building a transcontinental
railroad.
Slide 117
Slide 118
THE ELECTION OF 1860 The most striking thing about the election
returns was their sectional character. Lincoln carried the entire
North, receiving 54% of the regions vote, 40% of the national vote
and 180 electoral votes. Breckinridge carried most of the slave
states, although Bell carried 3 Upper South states, and about 40%
of the Southern vote as a whole.
Slide 119
THE ELECTION OF 1860 Douglas was the only candidate with
significant support in all parts of the country, a vindication, in
a sense, of his long effort to transcend sectional divisions. But
his failure to carry either section suggested that a traditional
political career based on devotion to the Union was no longer
possible.
Slide 120
THE ELECTION OF 1860 Lincoln failed to secure a majority of the
popular vote. But because of the Norths superiority in population,
he would have still carried the electoral college and thus been
elected even if the vote of his 3 opponents had all been cast for a
single candidate.
Slide 121
THE SECESSION CRISIS
Slide 122
In the eyes of many Southern whites, Lincolns victory placed
their future at the mercy of a party avowedly hostile to their
regions values and interest. They feared Republican efforts to
extend their party into the South by appealing to nonslaveholders.
They boldly struck for their regions independence. At stake was an
entire way of life.
Slide 123
THE SECESSION CRISIS In the months that followed Lincolns
election, 7 states seceded from the Union. These were states of the
Cotton Kingdom, where slaves represented a larger part of the total
population than in the Upper South.
Slide 124
THE SECESSION CRISIS The first state to secede was SC.
12/20/1860: The SC legislature unanimously voted to leave the
Union. Its Declaration of the Immediate Causes of Secession placed
the issue of slavery squarely at the center of the crisis. The
North had assumed the right of deciding upon the property of our
domestic institutions.
Slide 125
THE SECESSION CRISIS They also argued that Lincoln was a man
whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. Experience had
proved that slaveholding states cannot be safe in subjection to
nonslaveholding states. Secessionists equated their movement with
the struggle for American independence.
Slide 126
THE SECESSION CRISIS Proslavery ideologue George Fitzhugh,
however, later claimed that the Southern secession was even more
significant than the commonplace affair of 1776. The South rebelled
not merely against a particular govt., but against the erroneous
modern idea of freedom based on human equality and natural
liberty.
Slide 127
THE SECESSION CRISIS As the Union unraveled, President Buchanan
seemed paralyzed. He denied that a state could secede, but he also
insisted that the fed govt had no right to use force against it.
There was one last attempt to resolve the crisis.
Slide 128
CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE
Slide 129
Sen. John J. Crittenden (KY) offered the most widely supported
compromise plan of the secession winter. The Crittenden Compromise
would have guaranteed the future of slavery in the states where it
existed, and extended the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
Ocean, dividing between slavery and free soil all territories now
held, or hereafter acquired.
Slide 130
CRITTEDNDEN COMPROMISE The seceding states rejected the
compromise as too little, too late. But many in the Upper South and
North saw it as a way to settle sectional differences and prevent
civil war.
Slide 131
CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE The plan foundered in the opposition of
Lincoln. Willing to conciliate the South on issues like the return
of fugitive slaves, he took an unyielding stand against the
extension of slavery.
Slide 132
CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE Lincoln feared that Crittendens reference
to land hereafter acquired offered the South the thinly veiled
invitation to demand the acquisition of Cuba, Mexico, and other
territory suited to slavery.
Slide 133
THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
Slide 134
Before Lincoln assumed office on March 4, 1861, the 7 seceding
states formed the Confederate States of America. They adopted a
constitution. The CSA Constitution was modeled on the USA
Constitution but it explicitly guaranteed slave property both in
the states and any territories the new nation acquired.
Slide 135
THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA The CSA chose as their
president Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.
Slide 136
The CSA chose as their VP, Alexander H. Stephens of GA. He once
said: The cornerstone of the Confederacy was the great truth that
the negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery,
subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal
condition. THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
Slide 137
LINCOLNS INAUGURAL
Slide 138
Even after rejecting the Crittenden Compromise, Lincoln did not
believe war was inevitable. When he became president, 8 slave
states of the Upper South remained in the Union. In these states,
slaves and slaveholders made up a considerably lower proportion of
the population. Large parts of the white population did not believe
Lincolns election justified dissolving the Union.
Slide 139
LINCOLNS INAUGURAL Even within the CSA, whites had divided over
secession, with considerable numbers of nonslaveholding farmers in
opposition. In time, Lincoln believed, secession might collapse
from within.
Slide 140
LINCOLNS INAUGURAL In his inaugural address, Lincoln tried to
be conciliatory. He rejected the right of secession but denied any
intention of interfering with slavery in the states.
Slide 141
LINCOLNS INAUGURAL He said nothing of retaking the forts,
arsenals, and customs houses the CSA had seized, although he did
promise to hold remaining federal property in the seceding
states.
Slide 142
LINCOLNS INAUGURAL Lincoln also issued a veiled warning: In
your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war.
Slide 143
THE ROAD TO WAR In his first months as president, Lincoln
walked a tightrope. He avoided any action that might drive more
states from the Union. He encouraged Southern Unionists to assert
themselves in the CSA. He sought to quiet a growing clamor in the
North for forceful action against secession.
Slide 144
THE ROAD TO WAR Knowing that the risk of war existed, Lincoln
strove to ensure that if hostilities did break out, the South, not
the Union, would fire the first shot. And that is precisely what
happened.
Slide 145
FORT SUMTER
Slide 146
THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER
Slide 147
Fort Sumter was an enclave on Union control in the harbor of
Charleston, SC. Lincoln had notified the SC governor that he
intended to replenish the garrisons dwindling food supplies.
Slide 148
Slide 149
THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER Viewing Fort Sumters presence as an
affront to southern nationhood, and perhaps hoping to force the
wavering Upper South to join the CSA, Jefferson Davis ordered
batteries to fire on Fort Sumter.
Slide 150
THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER On April 14 th, Fort Sumter
surrendered. April 15 th : Lincoln proclaimed that an insurrection
existed in the South and called for 75,000 troops to suppress it.
The Civil War had begun. Within weeks, VA, NC, TN, and AK joined
the CSA.
Slide 151
AND THE WAR CAME Lincoln: Both sides deprecated war, but one of
them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the
other would rather accept war rather than let it perish. And the
war came.