Transcript Chapter 10

Chapter 10
Sect 3 & 4
In the presidential election of 1856 there
were 5 political parties.
Whig Party
Failed to nominate a candidate
Republican Party
Won one-third of the popular vote and
11 northern states
Know-Nothings
Put up a candidate but dissolved over
the slavery issue
Democrats
Won with James Buchanan promising to stop
the “agitation of the slavery issue”
Free-Soil Party
Absorbed into the Republican Party
Within a year of the election, another event
intensified the divisions in the nation over slavery.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of
Dred Scott, an enslaved man who had lived in a
free state and sued for his freedom.
Chief Justice Roger B.
Taney handed down the
controversial decision in
March, 1857.
The
Dred Scott
decision:
• ruled against Scott.
• said slaves were
property and not
allowed to sue in
court.
• said the Missouri
Compromise was
unconstitutional.
• pleased the South.
• angered the North and
abolitionists.
In 1858, in a race for the Illinois
senate seat,
Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham
Lincoln debated
the issue of slavery.
The seven debates got
national attention.
On the issue of slavery:
Lincoln
Douglas
Spoke with direct and deliberate
tone focusing on how slavery
was a struggle between right
and wrong.
Had an energetic, commanding
voice and spoke of the political
issues.
Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska
Act, popular sovereignty, and the
Scott decision.
Supported the Kansas-Nebraska
Act and popular sovereignty.
Opposed the annexation of
Texas.
Supported the annexation of
Texas.
Both candidates believed the issue of slavery had to be
resolved peacefully, within the framework of laws.
Douglas won the Senate seat by a slim margin.
The debates gave Abraham Lincoln national
recognition that was important in the 1860
presidential election.
John Brown organized
a small party
of men
and attacked
a federal arsenal
at Harper’s Ferry
in Virginia.
His goal was to
inspire local slaves to
join a revolution that
would defeat slavery.
Most abolitionists
(black and white)
refused to join Brown
although a few sent
money for guns.
Brown was arrested,
tried, and executed.
Lincoln and other
Republicans condemned
Brown.
The South was on
alert and many
prepared for war.
John
Brown’s raid
failed but
intensified
national
division.
Near the end of the 1850s,
attempts at compromise over slavery had failed.
The possibility of war between the North and
South loomed.
The election of 1860 had four candidates.
A Democrat, John C. Breckinridge
was from Kentucky.
He believed the federal
government must protect
slavery.
A Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas was
from Illinois.
He believed popular sovereignty
should decide the slavery issue when
territories became states.
A Republican, Abraham Lincoln was from Illinois.
He believed
slavery should not be
allowed in the
territories.
Constitutional Unionist John Bell was
from Tennessee.
He believed the
federal government
should support slavery
and defend the Union.
With no national
candidate
dominating the
campaign,
Lincoln won with
just over half of
the electoral
votes needed
and 40 percent
of the popular
vote.
The vote for Abraham
Lincoln was mostly a
vote for moderation
toward the issue
of slavery and a vote
for the Union.
However, the South felt it
no longer had a voice in
the national government
and did not see how it
could remain in the
Union.
South Carolina was the
first southern state to
leave the Union.
X
At a state convention
held six weeks after
Election Day, legislators
voted
to secede. It was a
unanimous vote.
Outgoing President Buchanan publicly
condemned South Carolina’s action.
However, he did not use force to prevent it.
Within weeks, six other Southern states
followed South Carolina.
The states with the largest enslaved populations seceded.
The constitution of the
Confederate States of America:
•
closely resembled the U.S. Constitution.
•
stressed the independence of each
state.
•
implied that states had the right to
secede.
•
forbid importing new slaves from other
countries.
Jefferson Davis, former
senator from Mississippi,
became president of the
Confederate States of
America.
When Lincoln took office:
• he urged peace between the
Confederacy and the Union.
• he decided to try to hold on to
the Union forts the Confederacy
claimed, such as Fort Sumter.
However, Confederate forces attacked and
captured the fort in defiance of Lincoln.
After
Fort Sumter
fell, Lincoln declared
that insurrection
existed.
Four more southern states
immediately joined the
Confederacy.
A Nation Divided by Civil War
The issue of slavery had long
divided the nation, even at the
Constitutional Convention in 1787.
The economic sectional differences in the mid-1800s also greatly
contributed to the national division.
Predictions were
the Civil War
would be short,
but it lasted for
four terrible years.