Transcript AP steps to CW

Steps to the Civil War
New Issues in the Slavery Controversy
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Arkansas and Michigan added as states
TX admitted 1845, could be divided into 4 states
Congress extends 36’30 line west through TX
Arguments emerge over land won from Mexican
War - who has the right to regulate slavery?
– Polk’s proposal
– Popular sovereignty
– Wilmot Proviso
Steven Felzenberg on
James K. Polk
“James K. Polk was the first president to take
office determined to wage a war of
choice…When it comes to extending the full
freedoms of Jacksonian Democracy to
aspiring slaveholders and other white males
and restricting them to non-whites, Polk
proved himself worthy of being considered
Jackson’s heir.”
- Do you agree with Felzenberg’s statement?
Wait there’s more..
Felzenberg continues
“Polk, an advocate of manifest destiny, drew a
line on his territorial designs for the U.S.
when he oppossed annexing all of Mexico, a
move several congressional leaders
advocated…Polk did this not because of
concern for the Mexican people, but because
he did not want to extend citzenship to a large
number of Roman Catholics, who shared their
church’s opposition to slavery.”
The Zinger (if you will…)
Felzenberg’s final sentence
“Polk’s vision for his country proved harmful
over time, igniting the fuse that would set off
civil war. Regrettably, he possessed the
administrative skills necessary to impose it.”
Why is Polk rated so highly in the C-Span
poll?
10.1 Notes
Slavery Divides the Nation
• What were some sectional differences
between the North and South
• How had slavery numbers chanted in the
North by 1860?
• What were some arguments for and against
slavery in the North?
• What arguments supported slavery in the
South?
The Election of 1848
• What was the main goal of the Free Soil
Party?
“free soil, free speech, free labor, free men”
• Zachary Taylor, what was his stance on
slavery?
The 1848 Candidates……
Lewis Cass, secretary
of war under Jackson,
ambassador to France,
senator from Michigan
Martin Van Buren,
only person besides
Jefferson to be
president, vice
president and
secretary of state
Zachary Taylor, “Old
Rough and Ready” had
40-year military career
before becoming
president, from LA
1848 Election
• Before election, no decision on CA or NM, Southerners
in Congress block territory bill for OR
– Both major parties avoid the slavery issue
• Democrats nominate Lewis Cass, popular sovereignty
• Whigs nominate Zachary Taylor, no real platform
• Anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats form Free Soil Party
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Want prohibition of slavery in territories
Support free western homesteads, higher tariff
Want federal funding for internal improvements
Van Buren gets 291,000 votes out of 2.9 million
Free Soil candidates win several seats in the House
1848 Election
Great Debate in the Senate
Promotes compromise at all
cost, no banning slavery in
territories
Supports new FSL
Leaves Senate to become
secretary of state, dies 1852
Oversees six months of
debate, wants all
measures passed
together
Leaves when proposal
fails, dies in 1852
Calhoun is near death, says
North must admit that South
had equal rights in territories
Wants dual presidency, each
with veto power
Dies March 1850
Historian David M. Potter on the
death of Zachary Taylor
Potter describes this event as “one of those
extraneous events which…alter the course of
history.”
Is this hyperbole? Why was Zachary Taylor’s
death so significant?
Problems leading up to 1850
• When Congress meets in Dec. 1849, House votes 62
times before selecting a speaker
• CA has 100,000 residents by end of 1849, applies for
statehood, constitution bans slavery
• Taylor supports CA statehood and wants NM to apply as
well, based on popular sovereignty
– Hopes to have many territories become states, so federal
government won’t be responsibly for dealing with slavery
– Addition of CA and NM would further tip balance towards
free states, Oregon and Utah also possibilities
• Anti-slavery supporters want to end slave trade in DC
• Pro-slavery supporters want stronger FSL
Creation of the Compromise
• New leaders: Seward (PA) opposes compromise, wants
to focus on elimination of slavery, Davis (MS) wants to
focus on economic self-interest for South, Douglass (IL)
focuses on sectional gain, personal promotion
• Taylor threatens to veto any measure that doesn’t deal
with CA and NM first
• July 9, 1850 - Taylor dies, Fillmore supports Douglass’
plan to break up compromise into five parts
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CA admitted as a free state
Slave trade abolished in DC
TX paid $10 million to give up claim for NM
NM Territory split into NM and UT, popular sovereignty
determines slavery
– Tougher fugitive slave law
Felzenberg on Zachary Taylor
“Taylor took these stands in full knowledge
that admitting new free states would
permanently alter the politcal balance in
Congress and in the Electoral College and
that, in time, Congress and the states could
pass a constitutional amendment abolishing
slavery where it already existed.”
Felzenberg (cont’d)
“Such a course, had the nation followed it, would
have spared the lives of 620,000 Americans who
died in the Civil War, the maiming of hundreds of
thousands of others, and a century’s legacy of
sectional bitterness and racial injustice…Had he
failed and a civil war erupted in 1850 rather than
1860, a slaveholding commander in chief might have
held more states in the Union than would the
Republican president from Illinois who was elected a
decade later.”
Compromise of 1850
Election of 1852
Young America and the Ostend Manifesto
• Pierce states at his inauguration: “The policy of my
administration will not be controlled by any timid
forebodings of evil from expansion.”
– Thinks expansion of democracy will divert attention away from
slavery, inspired by 1848 European revolutions
– Appoints expansionists to diplomatic posts throughout Europe,
sends Pierre Soulé, proponent of Cuban annexation, to Spain
• Filibusters failed to overthrow Spanish gvt despite
considerable support among Cubans for independence
• Oct. 1854 - Soulé, James Buchanan (Polk’s secretary of
state), and US minister to France meet in Ostend Belgium
– Produce document stating that: “Cuba is as necessary to the
North American republic as any of its present members, and that
it belongs naturally to that great family of states of which the
Union is the Providential Nursery.”
Filibuster William Walker
• October 15, 1853 - Walker
conquers the Mexican territories of
Baja California and Sonora
– Declared the capital of a new Republic
of Lower California
• 1855 - During Nicaraguan war,
Liberal party wants Walker’s help
– Walker defeats Legitimist army,
elected president, re-instates slavery
• Dec. 1856 - Central American
coalition defeats Walker’s army
• 1860 - After attempt to help support
the British in Honduras, killed by
Honduran gvt
Expansion of the Sectional Conflict
• By 1850s, line of white settlement moved beyond
Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and into the Great Plains
– Americans realize the land has great potential for farming
– Americans in Old Northwest urge government to open up
the territories for settlement, remove Native Americans in
the region
• Broad support emerges for a trans-continental
railroad, but argument occurs over where it will be
– Also debate over the eastern terminus that will connect
western railroad to eastern railroad network
– Northerners want Chicago, Southerners want St. Louis,
Memphis or New Orleans
Stephen Douglas and the KS-NB Act
• Douglas is the leader of the northwestern Democrats,
wants terminus of the railroad in his own city and
section of the nation
– Realizes argument against route – it would run through a
region with a large Indian population not settled by whites
• Jan. 1854 – introduces bill to organize (open to white
settlement) a territory west of Iowa and Missouri
– Status of slavery would be determined by territorial
legislature according to popular sovereignty
– Agrees to an additional clause repealing the MO
Compromise, agrees to divide the area into two territories
– Pierce supports the bill, becomes law in May with
unanimous support of the South, partial support from
Northern Democrats
1854 - Kansas Nebraska Act
Impact of the KS-NB Act
• Divides and destroys Whig party, hurts Northern Dems
– Many former Southern Whigs become Democrats, increasing
Southern influence in Democratic party
– Divides Northern Democrats, many oppose repeal of the MO
Comp, and drive many out of the party
• Members of both parties who oppose the act call
themselves Anti-Nebraska Whigs, Anti-Nebraska Dems
– Soon form new organization, named the Republican party
• In 1854 Congressional elections, Republicans combine
with Know-Nothings to with a majority in the House, win
control of most Northern gvts
Bleeding Kansas 1855-56
• Spring of 1855 - Pro and antislavery forces clash over
legislative elections
– 5,000 Missouri residents enter
KS, elect pro-slavery legislature
– Only 1,500 legal voters, over
6,000 votes cast
• Anti-slavery supporters create
Free State party
– Elect own legislature and
governor, adopt a constitution
outlawing slavery
• Pierce supports pro-slavery
forces, calls Free party traitors
John Brown
Opposition to Pro-Slavery Forces
May 1856 - Violence in Congress
Free Soil Ideology vs. Slavery Argument
• Develop in 1854 when anti-slavery Whigs and
Democrats join Free Soil Party
• In 1856, remaining Whigs join with pro-slavery KnowNothings to created the American party
– Nominate Fillmore for president
• Democrats drop Pierce, nominate Buchanan of PA
– Promote popular sovereignty
• Republicans nominate western explorer James Fremont
– “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont and Victory!”
Republican Party and 1856 election
• Develop in 1854 when anti-slavery Whigs and
Democrats join Free Soil Party
• In 1856, remaining Whigs join with pro-slavery KnowNothings to created the American party
– Nominate Fillmore for president
• Democrats drop Pierce, nominate Buchanan of PA
– Promote popular sovereignty
• Republicans nominate western explorer James Fremont
– “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont and Victory!”
Election of 1856
Impact of the Dred Scott Case
• Taney rules that Scott not a citizen, cannot initiate a law
suit in US courts
• Even if Scott had right to sue in court, claim to freedom
had no merit
– Missouri Compromise violated 5th Amendment, which forbade
Congress to deny people their right to property without due
process of the law
– Slaves classified as property, unconstitutional to ban slavery
north of 36’30
• Seem like now way to stop slavery from spreading after
passage of the KS-NB Act
Lecompton Constitution
• 1857 - Kansas holds elections to choose delegates for a
constitutional convention
– Anti-slavery supporters boycott election completely
– Pro-slavery convention writes constitution protecting rights of
slaveholders in Kansas
• In election for a new legislature, anti-slavery supporters
win a majority of the legislature
– New legislature rejects Lecompton Constitution
• Buchanan still urges KS to be admitted as a slave state
– Senate agrees, Douglas and western Dems in House opposed
• Eventually, KS admitted as a free state in 1861
Rise of Lincoln
• 1834 - begins public career in
Illinois legislature as a Whig
• 1846 - Elected to House of
Representatives, publicly opposes
the Mexican War
• Returns to Illinois in 1848 to
practice law
• Re-enters politics after KS-NB,
speaks out against slavery’s spread
• 1858 - Joins Republican Party,
selected as Republican candidate
for Stephen Douglas’ Senate seat
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• To get state-wide exposure for 1858 Senate race,
Lincoln challenged Douglas to seven debates
• Lincoln attacks Dred Scott decision, says he would
tolerate slavery in South, but opposed its expansion
– At Freeport, asks Douglas how popular sovereignty would
work in light of Dred Scott
• Douglas said people of a territory could refuse to pass
laws that would protect rights of slave owners
– Slavery can’t exist without police forces, territorial laws
recognizing rights of slave holders
– Statement helps Douglas win election, but hurts his standing
with the South
John Brown’s Raid
• Aided by New England
abolitionists, Brown and 18
men seize federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry
– Under Robert E. Lee, federal
troops kill half, take rest prisoner
• Brown convicted of murder,
criminal conspiracy, treason
– Hung on Dec. 2, 1859
– Abolitionists see him as a hero
– Secessionists think he helps their
cause
“LAST
MOMENTS OF
JOHN
BROWN”
A reproduction
of Thomas
Hovenden’s
painting (1887)
"Tragic Prelude" (1938-40) by John Steuart Curry
1860 Election Candidates
• Southern moderates (Whigs/Know-Nothings) form
Constitutional Union party - Bell of TN
– Support restoration of the Union at all costs
• Democrats nominate Douglas at second convention
• Southern Dems have own convention, nominate John
Breckenridge - wants to protect slavery in territories
• Republicans select Lincoln
– Platform opposes slavery in territories, wants free
homesteads for farmers, federal aid for internal
improvements, tariff to protect industry
– Support liberal immigration policy to help factory owners
Outcome of the 1860 Election
Secession Begins!
• Within days of Lincoln’s victory, South
Carolina’s legislature votes to secede
– MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX pass similar acts
• Early 1861, Confederate States of America
created
• Constitution like US Constitution, except it
guaranteed right to own slaves, stressed that
each was sovereign and independent
• Support for secession far from unanimous, but
dissenters give in to public pressure
Secession of the South
Crittenden Compromise
• SC, MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX seceded by
Inauguration Day
• Sen. Crittenden proposes to re-draw Missouri
Compromise line through remaining territories
– North of the line slavery prohibited, slavery allowed
south of the line
• Lincoln refuses - halting slavery’s spread was
part of the Republican platform
– Does support protecting slavery where it exists to
retain as many Southern states as possible
After Fort Sumter
North vs. South
• North’s population - 22 million
• South’s population - 9 million (3.5 million slaves)
• North has 85% of industry, almost all railroads and
railroad equipment, superior navy
• South has to fight a defensive war, North must conquer
huge area of land
• Has better military leaders, population more ready to
fight
Building Armies
• End of 1861 - Union has 527,000 soldiers, Confederacy
has 258,000
• Draft begins in April 1862 for South, March 1863 for
North
• South - anyone with 20 or more slaves exempt from
fighting
• North - wealthy can hire substitutes or pay government
for an exemptions
• Overall - North has 2,670,000, South has 750,000