Transcript Civil War Decision Tree

CIVIL WAR DECISION TREE
(insert your hidden agenda here)
Compromise of 1850
1852 Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a instant
runaway best-seller
1853 Completion of Ohio-New York Railway
connection
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act (Stephen Douglas’s
concept of “popular sovereignty)
May, 1856 Sen. Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts caned by Sen. Preston Brooks
in the Senate chamber
1856 New Republican Party launches first
Presidential candidate, John C. Fremont with
the slogan: Free Soil, Free Speech and
Fremont
1857 Supreme Court hands down Dred Scott
decision
1857 Kansas applies for admission to the union
with the Lecompton Constitution protecting
slavery
Panic of 1857 hits northern businesses and
banks especially hard
Feb. 1859 Oregon admitted to the union with a
state constitution banning slavery
October 1859 John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry in
Virginia
November 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected as the
first Republican president
December 1861 South Carolina secedes from
the Union and takes all federal military
installations in the state except Fort Sumter in
Charleston Harbor
December, 1860 – February 1861
Six more states secede from the union listing
grievances and their right to dissolve the
compact of government of 1789
December 1860-March 1861
President Buchanan decides to continue the
delivery of mail and not to contest seizure of
military installations in seceded states. Only
Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida and Fort
Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina
remained in federal hands. Buchanan
authorizes federal ships to bring supplies only.
February 1861 Virginia convenes a Peace
Congress in Washington DC
February 1861 Congress votes down the Peace
Congress’s suggestions for compromise.
February 1861 Seceded states write a
constitution and form the Confederate States
of America
March 1861 Lincoln sworn in as President. In his
inaugural address he refuses to recognize or
allow the dissolution of the Union unless by all
parties to the Constitution.
March-April 1861 Lincoln confers with Cabinet
and military leaders, decides to defend Fort
Sumter and Fort Pickens; his officers inform
President Jefferson Davis of Union intentions
10 April 1861 Jefferson Davis authorizes
Confederate army to fire on Fort Sumter and
then to take it.