Transcript 1850s: A Decade of Crisis

1850s: A Decade of Crisis
Chapter 18-19
Objective #1
• Assess the extent to which the idea of
Manifest Destiny affected politics within
the United States as illustrated by the
Compromise of 1850
Objective #2
• Trace the increasing sectional hostility
of the 1850s as a result of
– Slavery
– The Fugitive Slave Act
– Kansas-Nebraska Act
– “Bleeding Kansas”
– Dred Scott v. Sanford
– John Brown’s Raid
Objective #3
• Trace the increasing sectional hostility
of the 1850s, as a result of slavery, and
the rise of the Republican Party and the
election of 1860.
North-South Avoids/Compromises
Showdown on Slavery
• 1787: 3/5 and slave trade compromises
• 1820: Missouri Compromise
• 1833: Nullification
• After war with Mexico: what do we do
with the new territory?
The Mexican Cession
Wilmot Proviso
• “Neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude
shall ever exist” in the
new territories.
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– Attached to an
appropriations bill for
funding the war with
Mexico
• Passed House, Failed
in Senate
• Debate by section, not
party line
Did Congress Have the Right
to Dictate Slavery in States?
• Precedent said yes
– Northwest Ordinance
– Missouri Compromise
John C. Calhoun’s Argument
• Unconstitutional to
prohibit slavery
• Act of Congress
cannot keep
slaveholders from
taking their property
into territories (5th
Amendment)
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Election of 1848
• Dems: Lewis Cass
– Dems official stance on
slavery: silence
– Cass: Popular
Sovereignty
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• Whigs: Zachary Taylor
– Taylor had never voted in
an election
– But was popular war hero
– Silent on slavery (owned
slaves)
• Free-Soil: Martin Van
Buren
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Who were the Free-Soilers?
•
•
•
•
Northerners
Did not trust Cass or Taylor
Supported Wilmot Proviso
Abolitionists
– Keep western land free of blacks (slave and free) so that
whites would not have to compete with them
– “Free soil, free labor, and free men”
• Nationalists who wanted federal money for internal
improvements
• Advocated free homesteads for farmers
• Industrialists against Polk’s reduced tariff
• A few Northern Whigs and Antislavery Democrats
Results of Election of 1848
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Issues Taylor has to Solve
• 1. California: Free or slave?
• 2. Land from Mexico: Free or slave?
• 3. Existence of slave trade in
Washington D.C.
• 4. Lack of enforcement of Fugitive Slave
Act of 1793
– Southern states meet in Oct., 1849 to
discuss secession.
Compromise of 1850
• Written by Henry Clay
• 1. California admitted as free state.
• 2. New Mexico and Utah territories: popular
sovereignty
• 3. Texas given $10 million to pay off debts to
Mexico.
• 4. Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
• 5. Slave trade ended in D.C. (but not slavery)
Taylor Threatens Veto
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• But, Taylor dies
unexpectedly in
1850.
• VP Millard Fillmore
becomes President
• Signed into law
• Political parties
continue to split
sectionally
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
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• Required federal marshals
to help slaveholders seize
runaway slaves
• Abolitionists: it
encouraged kidnapping
• Blacks could not testify on
own behalf
• Federal commissioners in
charge of cases were paid
more if they ruled person
was a slave.
• Many Northern states
passed laws forbidding
local officials from aiding
Compromise of 1850
Harriet
Beecher
Stowe
(1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady who started
the Civil War.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
1852
 Sold 300,000 copies in
the first year.
 2 million in a decade!
1852 Presidential Election
Franklin Pierce
Democrat
Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale
Whig
Free Soil
Major Party Candidates
• Democrats (Pierce):
– Pro-slavery Northerner (accepted by South)
– Pro-territorial expansion (like Polk)
– Endorsed the Compromise of 1850
• Whigs (Scott):
– War hero (of course)
– Pro-Compromise of 1850
• Problem for Whigs: More disorganized
– Northerners did not like him for endorsing Fugitive
Slave Act
– Southerners did not like the Northerner.
1852
Election
Results
Federal Government in 1853
• Executive Branch:
• Pro-slavery Northern President (Democrat)
• Majority of cabinet was from South (Democrat)
• Veto Power
• Legislative Branch:
• North controls House (Democratic controlled)
• North controls Senate (Democratic controlled)
• Judicial Branch:
• Majority of the justices were Southerners
Democrats in Control
• Mandate for Manifest
Destiny
• 1853: Gadsden
Purchase for southern
railroad link to west
coast for $10 million
• South also interested in
extending further south
into Latin American
lands
Ostend Manifesto (1854)
• Pierce approved a
secret meeting of
American diplomats in
Ostend, Belgium
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– Discussed buying Cuba
for $120 million
– South could potentially
pass North in size and
power
• Northern free-soilers
outraged
– At same time Uncle
Tom’s Cabin peaking
– Pierce was forced to drop
issue
Commodore Matthew Perry
Opens Up Japan: 1853
•Followed Cushing’s
treaty with China in
1844
• First formal
agreement between
US and China
•Perry arrives in Japan
with warships
• Gives Japanese gifts
and asks for free
trade
• Returned in 1854 and
received positive
response
Stephen Douglas
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• Congressman from
Illinois
• Pro expansion
• Pro popular
sovereignty
• Invested in railroads
• Wanted to capture
leadership of
Democratic party
Nebraska Question
• Had to keep southern Democrats happy
over slavery
• Nebraska territory requests statehood
• It is totally above 36 30 line
• South wants Nebraska to be a slave
state
• He risks alienating South and ruining his
chance to one day be President.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• Split Nebraska into two territories
(Kansas and Nebraska)
• Both could decide by popular
sovereignty
• Assumption: One would be free, one
would be slave
• Endorsed by President Pierce
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
Results of Kansas-Nebraska
Act
• Re-opened question of slavery in territories
• Split parties further
– Killed Whig Party (sectional differences within
party)
• Split the Union
– Most Northerners were against the destruction of
Missouri Compromise
– Will resist all future southern demands for slave
territory
– Refused to enforce Fugitive Slave Law
• Bleeding Kansas (and later contributed to
Civil War)
Growing Cities
• Increased nativism: job competition, language
differences, religion, lowering wages
• Immigrants usually supported Democratic
Party
• Growing belief that immigrants were
corrupting politics
• American (Know-Nothing) saw little success
as third party.
• Birth of Republican Party
Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
ß
Northern Whigs.
ß
Northern Democrats.
ß
Free-Soilers.
ß
Know-Nothings.
ß
Other miscellaneous opponents
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Republican Platform
• Would not interfere with slavery where it
already existed
• Did not support equal rights for blacks
• Anti-Catholic
• Pro-temperance
• Pro-public school
• End fugitive slave laws
• Support middle class, small business,
laborers, Northern farmers
• Anti-Kansas Nebraska Act
Problems with Kansas
• New England Emigrant Aid Society sent freesoilers to Kansas to vote
• Missouri sent citizens to Kansas to vote in the
election (more of them)
• Election results: twice as many people voted
than number of registered voters
• Pro-slavery government was elected
(Shawnee Mission)
• Free-Soilers set up government in Topeka
• Federal government did nothing to solve
problem.
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border “Ruffians”
(pro-slavery
Missourians)
Violence in Kansas (1856)
• Pro-slavery supporters
march on free-soil
supported Lawrence
(Sack of Lawrence)
• John Brown and group
of abolitionists hack five
pro-slavery men in
revenge two days later
(Massacre of
Pottawatomie Creek)
“The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks
(D-SC)
1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont
Democrat
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Know-Nothing
1856
Election Results
1857: Call for New Election in
Kansas
• LeCompton Constitution offered by the
pro-slavery government as a
“compromise”
• Only allowed people to vote on existing
constitution with or without slavery
• Constitution protected slavery where it
already existed
1857 Election results
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•
•
•
•
Only 2000 of 24,000 voters participated
Proslavery government elected
Free blacks barred from state
President James Buchanan endorsed it
Stephen Douglas opposed it: not true popular
sovereignty
– Persuaded Senate to reject constitution
– Hurt his support in the South
• Kept Kansas from becoming a state until 1861
– Would become a free state when secessionists left
Congress
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857
Dred Scott Case (1857)
• Slaves are property and cannot be
taken without due process (5th
Amendment)
– Compromise of 1820 had been
unconstitutional all along
– Congress did not have power to ban
slavery in the territories
• Could not sue because he is not a
citizen
Panic of 1857
• Caused by:
– Over-speculation of land
– Flood of gold from California caused inflation
– Problems in grain market
• North hit worst
• North favored higher tariff (industrialists) and
cheaper land (farmers)
– Homestead Act (1860): public land given to
farmers for $.25 an acre (vetoed by Buchanan)
– Republican party planks in 1860
• King Cotton not impacted
– South saw this as proof of economic superiority of
cotton production
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)
Debates, 1858
A House divided against
itself, cannot stand.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
(1858)
• S. Douglas (D)
– Dodged slavery
issue
– Popular sovereignty
• Believed to be the
front-runner for
presidential
nomination in 1860.
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Abraham Lincoln
(Re)
– Anti-slavery but proUnion first
– Believed in political
equality of blacks
• Challenged Douglas
to a series of
debates
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Freeport Doctrine
• Douglas stated that people in a territory
could vote slavery down despite the
Dred Scott decision
• Upset South
• Further splits Democratic party
• Douglas wins election but damages his
chances for being President
John Brown’s Raid
on Harper’s Ferry, 1859
John Brown’s Raid (1859)
• Brown and 22 men raid the federal
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
• Hoped to provoke slave uprising
• Arrested and executed for treason
• Madman or martyr?
• Gap between North and South grows
√ Abraham Lincoln
Republican
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
1860
Presidential
Election
John Bell
Constitutional Union
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
Election of 1860
• Democrats cannot decide on a candidate
– North supports S. Douglas
– South supports John Breckenridge (upset with
Douglas over Freeport Doctrine)
• Democrats split into Northern and Southern
Democrats with two candidates
• Constitutional Union Party: fourth party made
up of some Democrats, Know-Northings and
former Whigs
– John Bell was their nominee
Election of 1860
• Republicans want to take advantage of
the split
• Run “moderate” Abraham Lincoln
• Reduced attacks on slavery (except to
come out against extension of slavery),
avoided expansion and equal rights
Republican Party Platform in 1860
ß
Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
ß
Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
ß
No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “KnowNothings”].
ß
Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].
ß
Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.
ß
Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].
1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!
1860
Election
Results
Note: Lincoln did not appear
on the ballot in 10 southern
states
Crittenden Compromise
• Amendment to
Constitution trying to
save Union
– Slavery prohibited North
of 36 30 line
– Future states could come
into the Union with or
without slavery
• Not enough to save the
Union
Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Confederate States of
America
• Created in February, 1861
• Jefferson Davis was elected President
– President Buchanan did nothing
• Needed his military (15,000 troops) to patrol
Native Americans out west
• Believed an attack would ruin any chance of
reconciliation
• Border states stay in the Union
Ft. Sumter: April, 1861
• Symbol of Union power in CSA
• U.S. Major Robert Anderson requested
supplies
– Lincoln wants to avoid war--that means no troops
or weapons
– Lincoln also afraid borders states would leave
• Lincoln sends supplies
• CSA, led by PGT Beauregard attacks
• USA surrenders at battle of Ft. Sumter
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861