Transcript Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Compare the images you see
German
Immigrants
Irish
Immigrants
North
Relied on
industry
South
Industry
Very little (10%
of all
manufactured
items)
Extensive
network carried
supplies east
and west
Railroads
Very few – relied
on rivers to
transport goods
Settled in cities
and worked in
factories
Immigrants
Very few – relied
on slave labor
 The
Majority of immigrants DID
NOT SUPPORT SLAVERY because
slavery took away possible jobs
 Free
labor v paid labor

1.
That was a quick review of
sectionalism…now let’s look at
a quick lesson on Congress and then
2. see what was going on out west in the late
1840’s and early 1850’s

Remember SC succeeds from the union
in 1860
Quick Lesson on Congress

Two Houses:
 House of Representatives and Senate
* House of Representatives
○ The number of people a state gets is determined
by their population
* Senate
•
two representatives per state
What
is the connection to
membership in congress
and voting power in
congress?

The more members you have in the
House of Representatives the more
votes(power) you have.
How
might adding new
states have an important
impact on the voting power
in congress?
How
is westward
expansion driving
sectionalist feelings?
On August 12,1846 David Wilmot
proposes…
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(this is an image)
Wilmot Proviso

On August 12,1846 David Wilmot proposes…
Provided, That, as an express and fundamental
condition to the acquisition (to acquire or get) of
any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the
United States, by virtue of any treaty which may
be negotiated between them, and to the use by
the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated
(money given for a specific purpose), neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist
in any part of said territory, except for crime,
whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.
Wilmot Proviso
 In
1846 David Wilmot proposes
adding language to a bill in
Congress proposing that “neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude
shall ever exist” in any territory the
US might get in a war with Mexico
That
means NO SLAVERY
in California, Utah and New
Mexico

Support splits along sectional lines:
The NORTH supporting the provision
– because of the economic
opportunities it would give workers
• The SOUTH opposing

- on Constitutional grounds about the
rights people had with their property
(slaves) and
- the power it would give to the North in
congress

The proviso failed to be passed but the
crisis is not over

In 1849 California applies for statehood as
a FREE state

South felt California should be admitted as
a slave state because most of it was
below the Missouri Compromise line

President Zachary Taylor (a southerner)
supported CA’s admission as a free state
and felt that whether a state was free or
slave should be up to them (popular
sovereignty – the people should decide)
Congress begins to debate
Issues:
a) California statehood – slave or free
b) Border dispute between Texas (slave) and
New Mexico (undecided)
Other Concerns:
c) North demands slavery be abolished in
DC
d) South Accuses North of not enforcing the
Fugitive Slave Act
 Compromise
proposed by
Henry Clay
“The Great Compromiser”
Path to Compromise
Initial plan rejected by the Senate
 Clay (73 at the time – dies 1852) leaves
Washington and Stephen Douglas takes
up the fight

Path to Compromise

Douglass introduces each piece of the bill
one at a time

President Taylor dies and is replaced by
Millard Fillmore who supports the
compromise

John Calhoun dies and southern leaders
support the compromise

Compromise is voted into law in
September 1850
Compromise of 1850
Who is happy?
North
Provision
CA admitted as free
Stricter enforcement of
Fugitive Slave Law
Utah and New Mexico
decide for themselves
slave or free
TX was paid $10 million
to settle land dispute with
New Mexico
Slave trade banned in
DC – slavery not
South
Compromise of 1850

Let’s look more closely at one of the
provisions of the compromise…

The Fugitive Slave Acts

Fugitive Slave Acts DBQ and video

Video Fugitive Slave Acts
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Stephen Douglas wants western lands in
the union and thinks popular sovereignty
is the most fair way to go

Letting the people of a territory vote slave
or free
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

1854 Douglas introduces a bill that would
repeal the Missouri Compromise…
ie: would make territory above the
Missouri line open to slavery
…and create two territories – Nebraska in
the north and Kansas in the south
Remember where the line was?

The bill was signed into law in 1854
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Thousands went to Kansas. Supporters of
both a slave and free territory.

Pro-slavery supporters set up a
government in Lecompton

Abolitionist supporters set up a
government in Topeka
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

VIOLENCE ERUPTS!!

Pro-slavery supporters burn anti-slavery
town of Lawrence “Sack of Lawrence”

Anti-slavery group (led by John Brown)
kills 5 slavery supporters “The
Pottawatomie Massacre”
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border “Ruffians”
(pro-slavery
Missourians)
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Charles Sumner speaks for two days in
the Senate against actions in Kansas

(in his speech he makes fun of Andrew
Butler of SC)
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Two days later…Preston Brooks, Butler’s
nephew, walks up to Sumner and hits him
on the head 5-6 times with a cane

Sumner suffers brain damage and does
not return for three years
“The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles Sumner
(R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks
(D-SC)
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

South applauds Brooks and North
denounces him

The gulf between north and south widens

Kansas-Nebraska Act
John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol building
by John Steuart Curry (20c)
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!
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
ß Nativists.
ß Anti-Catholics.
ß Anti-immigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner
created in NYC.
1852 Presidential Election
Franklin Pierce
Democrat
Whig
Gen. Winfield Scott
Free Soil
John Parker Hale
1852
Election
Results
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.
1856 Presidential Election
James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore
Democrat
Republican
Whig
1856
Election Results
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858
A House divided against itself,
cannot stand.
Stephen Douglas &
the Freeport
Doctrine
Popular
Sovereignty?
John Brown’s Raid
on Harper’s Ferry, 1859
1860
Presidential
Election
Abraham Lincoln
Republican
John Bell
Constitutional Union
Ignored slavery
Stephen A. Douglas
Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
Popular sovereignty
Supported Dred Scott
Republican Party Platform in 1860
- Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
- Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
- No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment
for the “Know-Nothings”].
- Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].
- Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.
- Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].
1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”
1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?
1860
Election
Results
Crittenden Compromise:
A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J.
Crittenden
(Know-Nothing-KY)
Secession: SC Dec. 20, 1860
Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861