Transcript Drifting Toward Disunion1

Drifting Toward Disunion
1854 - 1861
Stowe

1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s
Cabin which showed the cruelty of slavery
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Helped start the war
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“So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that
made this great war.” – Lincoln
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South believed it as an “unfair” indictment

Countless readers
Stowe had never witnessed
slavery first hand in the
Deep South
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Hinton R. Helper
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1857 – Wrote The Impending Crisis of the South
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Nonaristocratic white from NC
Attempted to prove that nonslaveholding whites were
the ones who suffered the most from slavery
Book was banned in the South
Distributed by the Republicans in campaign literature
The Contest for Kansas
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Popular sovereignty was not working
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New England Emigrant Aid Company sent 2,000
Free-Soilers into Kansas
Pro-slavery “Border Ruffians” crossed the border
from Missouri
Southerners had agreed with the KansasNebraska Act believing that Kansas would be
slave & Nebraska would be free
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Few slaves were
brought to Kansas
Kansas Election
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1855 – “Border Ruffians” poured in from
Missouri to vote early & often
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Slave supporters triumphed
Set up their gov’t at Shawnee Mission
Free-Soilers set up their gov’t in Topeka
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One gov’t based on fraud, the other on illegality
1856 – Problems begin
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A gang of proslavery raiders shot
& burned part of the free-soil
Lawrence
Prelude to a bloodier tragedy
up
town of
John Brown &
Civil War in Kansas
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John Brown – obsessively dedicated to the
abolitionist movement
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“Old Brown” led a band of his followers to
Pottawatomie Creek – May 1856
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Hacked to pieces 5 surprised men – proslaveryites
Brought retaliation from the proslavery forces
“Bleeding Kansas”
Civil War in Kansas – 1856
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Continued until it merged with
the Civil War 1861-1865
Kansas Applies for Statehood
1857 – Kansas applies for statehood
 Lecompton Constitution
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Vote for or against constitution as a whole, but not
for the constitution either “with slavery” or “with no
slavery”
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Supported by President/ opposed by Douglas
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If they voted against slavery, one of the remaining
provisions would protect the owners of slaves already in
Kansas
Divided the Democratic Party
Many free-soilers boycotted the polls
Slaveryites approved the constitution with slavery
Problems in the US Senate
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Senator Charles Sumner - Massachusetts
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leading abolitionist
Disliked by other senators
Gave a speech,
“The Crime against Kansas,”
condemning slavery
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Referred insultingly to SC &
Senator Andrew Butler from SC
Congressman Preston Brooks–SC
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Resented the insults to his
state & senator
Sumner-Brooks Clash
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May 22, 1856
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House of Rep. could not get enough votes to
expel Brooks
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Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane
until it broke
No one interfered
He resigned
Later reelected
Sumner – reelected
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couldn’t serve
for 3½ years
Results of Sumner-Brooks
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Increased support for Republican Party
 South was angry because Sumner’s speech
was applauded in the North
 Emotion was displacing thought
Election of 1856
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Democrats – James Buchanan
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Republicans – John C. Frémont
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Penn lawyer & former minister to London
Platform - popular sovereignty
Platform – against extension of
slavery into the territories
Know-Nothing Party – Millard Fillmore
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Nativists – antiforeign & anti-Catholic
Electoral Fruits of 1856
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Buchanan won election
 Why were the Republicans defeated?
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Violent threats of southerners that the election of a
sectional “Black Republican” would be a declaration
of war on them, forcing them to secede
Many northerners that depended on the South for
their financial gain, voted for Buchanan
The Dred Scott Bombshell
March 6, 1857 – Supreme Court ruled
 The Case
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Dred Scott, a slave, had lived with his master for 5
years in free territory
Sued for his freedom
Basis – because of his long residence on free soil
The Ruling
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Scott was a slave & not a citizen. Therefore, he
could not sue in federal court
 Chief Justice Taney went further:
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Slaves were property & could be taken to any
territory (5th Amendment)
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Can not deprive people of property without due process
Ruled that Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional
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Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories
Reactions to the Ruling
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Republicans were infuriated
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Ruling was opinion, not a decision
Southerners were inflamed by all of the
defiance by the North
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Applauded by pro-slavery southerners
Financial Crash of 1857
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Causes of the crash:
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CA gold helped to inflate the currency
Too much grain production
Frenzied speculation in land & railroads
Over 5,000 businesses failed within 1 year
Effects of
the Crash
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North was hardest hit
 South was well off - proof that cotton was king
 North demanded free farms of 160 acres from
the public domain
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Land should be given as a reward instead of sold
Opposed by:
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Eastern industrialists – would cause workers to move out
West
South – slavery would not flourish/ free farmers would fill
up the territories
Homestead Act 1860 – vetoed by Buchanan
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Push for higher tariff rates
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Tariff of 1857 – reduced duties by 20%
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Many blamed low tariff for problems
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Lowest point since War of 1812
Push to increase tariff for protection
Gave the Republicans 2 surefire economic
issues for the election of 1860
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Protection for the unprotected
Farms for the farmless
Douglas & Lincoln
Senator Douglas’s term was up & Lincoln
decided to run for his seat
 Lincoln
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Lawyer – “Honest Abe”
Served 1 term in Congress 1847-1849
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
he emerged as one of the
foremost politicians & orators
of the Northwest.
Why is that?
The Great Debate
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Lincoln challenged Douglas to
a series of debates
 Debate in Freeport, Ill
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Most famous
Lincoln asked the following:
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“Suppose the people of a territory should vote down
slavery? The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision
had decreed that they could not. Who would prevail, the
Court or the people?”
(Freeport Question)
What was the response?
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Douglas’s Response
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Freeport Doctrine
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Douglas defeated Lincoln
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“No matter how the Supreme Court ruled,
slavery would stay down if the people
voted it down.”
Territorial legislatures could keep slavery
out despite Supreme Court’s decision.
Senators were chosen by state legislatures at this
time.
Lincoln emerges as a possible presidential
candidate
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Douglas’s opposition to the Lecompton Constitution
& defiance of the Supreme Court at Freeport, hurt
his chances of being president
Review – what is LeCompton Const?
John Brown
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Involved in “Bleeding
Kansas”
His scheme:
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Invade the South secretly
with a handful of
followers
Call on slaves to rise up
Furnish slaves with
weapons
Establish a black state as
a sanctuary
Raid at
Harper’s Ferry
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October 1859
 John Brown & his followers seized the federal
arsenal in Virginia
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Killed 7 innocent people and injured several others
Slaves did not rise up. Why?
John Brown & his followers were captured by the
Marines under the command of Robert E. Lee
Brown was convicted of murder & treason
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Was put to death
Effects of Harpers Ferry
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In the South:
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Viewed as a murder & an
apostle of treason
How could the South
remain in the Union while
a “murderous gang of
abolitionists” were
financing armed bands to
“Brown” them.
Believed that the
abolitionists views were
shared by all Northerners
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In the North:
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Many openly deplored
the raid
Abolitionists & other freesoilers were upset about
Brown’s execution
John Brown:
Murder or Martyr?
Crazy or Sane?
Democratic National
Convention
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Met in Charleston, SC
 Stephen Douglas was the leading candidate
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Regarded by southerners as a traitor because of his
stand on the Lecompton Constitution & Freeport
Doctrine
Delegates from the cotton states walked out
 Remaining delegates could not decide and
convention fell apart
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Democrats try again in Baltimore
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Northerners were still set on Douglas
Cotton states walked out
Remaining democrats select Douglas
Platform:
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Popular sovereignty
Against obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law
Southern Democrats
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Southerners organized a rival convention in
Baltimore
 Selected John C. Breckinridge
 Platform:
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Extension of slavery into the territories
Annexation of slave-populated Cuba
Where else will they want to annex?
Minor Party
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Constitutional Union Party
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“Do Nothing” / “Old Gentlemen’s Party”
Made up of former Whigs & Know-Nothings
Nominated John Bell from Tennessee
Compromise candidate to prevent breakup of the
union at any cost
Republican Party
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Gathered in Chicago
William H. Seward was the best candidate
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Abraham Lincoln was selected
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Too many enemies
Fewer enemies
Platform:
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Nonextension of slavery – (Free-soilers)
Protective tariff – (Industrialists)
No abridgement of rights – (immigrants)
Pacific Railroad – (Northwest)
Internal improvements at federal expense – (West)
Free homesteads from the public domain – (farmers)
Who are they leaving out?
Election of 1860
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Lincoln’s victory- Result of:
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Split in the Democratic Party
Formation of a third party
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Divided the southern vote & gave
Lincoln 40% of the vote

all in the north
Electoral Upheaval of 1860
 Lincoln
 He
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 The
was a minority president
was a sectional president
Not allowed on the ballot in 10 southern states
election was virtually 2 elections
 One
in the North & one in the South
 Gave
SC a reason to secede
 Douglas campaigned for himself
 very
unusual
Election of 1860
 Was
the South really that bad off after
the election? Politically? Economically?
The South & Secession
 South
still had political advantages
 5-4
Supreme Court majority
 Democratic control of Congress

15 slave states could block any constitutional
amendment to abolish slavery (requires 2/3
vote)
1860 – SC seceded from the
union, followed by 10 other southern
states over the next 6 months
 December
The Confederate
States of America
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First capital
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Montgomery,
Alabama
President
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Jefferson Davis from
Mississippi
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South Carolina
 Alabama
 Mississippi
 Florida
 Georgia
 Louisiana
 Texas
 Virginia
 Tennessee
 Arkansas
 North Carolina
The Crisis
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Deepened by the “lame duck” interlude
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Period between Lincoln’s election & when he took
office
Pres. Buchanan believed that the southern states
could not legally secede but he could find no
authority in the Constitution for stopping them with
guns
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Wanted to hold on to any hope of reconciliation
The Collapse of Compromise
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Senator James Henry Crittenden of KY
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Proposed the Crittenden Amendments
(Designed to appease the South)
 Slavery in the territories - prohibited north of 36°30’
 South of the line – slavery would be protected
 Future states – north or south of the line, could come into
the union with or without slavery, as they should choose
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Slavery would be protected in southern territories
regardless of popular sovereignty
Rejected by Lincoln – would result in war against
every people, tribe, & state owning land
Reasons for Secession

Lack of political balance
 Upset with the success of the Republican
Party
 Weary of free-soil criticism, abolitionist
nagging, & northern interference
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Underground Railroad & Harpers Ferry
********* All reasons related to slavery*********
Farewell to Union
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Most southerners supported secession
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Believed that the Yankees would not fight
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View as a way to end their vassalage to the
North
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Why?
Could now establish their own banks & shipping/
trade industry with Europe
Impulse of nationalism
Principles of self-determination
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Few if any southerners believed they were
doing anything wrong
The states voluntarily entered the Union & they
could voluntarily leave the Union. Do you think they
were right?