The American Pageant

Chapter 19

Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854-

1861

Free State Battery, 1856

The slave state of Missouri opposed the entry of antislavery advocates for years

and, by the 1850s, actively tried to prevent their passage through Missouri on

the way to Kansas. "Free-staters" traveled through Iowa instead, often bringing

arms with them. This small cannon, left over from the Mexican War, helped

create "Bleeding Kansas." (Kansas State Historical Society)

Free State Battery, 1856

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Lincoln

Clean-shaven at the time of his famous

debates with Douglas, Lincoln would

soon grow a beard to give himself a

more distinguished appearance.

(Library of Congress)

Lincoln

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, 1861

When Lincoln became president in

March of 1861, he faced more severe

problems than any predecessor.

Photographer Mathew Brady

captured this image of the solemn

president-elect on February 23, 1861,

a few weeks after the formation of the

Confederacy and shortly before

Lincoln's inauguration. (Library of

Congress)

Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, 1861

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin – About the break-up of

slave families – Extension of the Second

Great Awakening

• Had not even witnessed slavery first hand

• Abraham Lincoln “so you are the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war”

• No other novel in US can compare as a political force

• Novel popular in Britain and France

The Impending Crisis of the South

• The Impending Crisis of the South by Hinton R. Helper – Non-aristocratic white from North Carolina – Disliked slavery and blacks

• Non-slaveholding whites are suffering from slavery

– Book banned in the South – led to book burning parties – Thousands were sold in the North and condensed versions were us

by the Republican Party – South condemned this as “wicked lies” and blamed the North

Bleeding Kansas

• Slavery determined by Popular Sovereignty • New England Emigrant Aid Company

– Small group of migrants financed by antislavery organizations to move to Kansas

– “Beecher’s Bibles” • Abolitionists coming armed to Kansas with Sharps

rifles

Bleeding Kansas

• South hated the abolitions influence • Missourians crossed Kansas border

– “proslavery ruffians” – ”vote early and vote often” – “Won” the vote (fraud)

• Set up government

• Free-soilers set up in Topeka • Proslavery raiders burned part of Lawrence

(called the sack of Lawrence) killing 5

Bleeding Kansas

• John Brown – Pottawatomie Creek

Massacre (slave town) – – killed 5- brutally

• Now civil war in Kansas – Free-soilers in Topeka – will

set-up their own constitution

• Lecompton Constitution – proslavery – Could not hold office unless

supported slavery – Violators of Fugitive Slave

Law – 10 yrs – Death penalty if incite slaves

to riot – Franklin Pierce – backed

Lecompton Constitution

Democrat Party Splits over Kansas

• President Buchanan (replaces Pierce) also supports the Lecompton Constitution

• Senator Douglas – – Introduced legislation that allowed the

Lecompton Constitution to be voted on – South furious – Free-soilers voted against it – Kansas did not become a State until 1861

Brooks-Sumner Affair

• Charles Sumner (Senator, MA) – Gave a “crime against Kansas” speech, May 19, 1856:

• “Hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization” • Also insulted Andrew Pickins Butler (Senator from South Carolina)

• Preston Brooks (Senator, SC) – Wanted to challenge Sumner to a duel… – But Sumner was not his equal

• “He was a Black Republican Abolitionist” – So Brooks beat Sumner with his cane

• On the Senate Floor • It takes Sumner 3 years to recover.

– Brooks is a hero in the South • He resigns and is immediately voted back into office • Many southerners send him new canes (some gold headed) for the one he broke on

Sumner

• Emotion began to replace thought in America

Election of 1856 • Democrats

– Split up over the Kansas-Nebraska Act

– Nominated James Buchanan • Mediocre, irresolute &

confused

– Platform--Popular Sovereignty

• Upstart Republicans – Nominate Captain John

C. Fremont • “Pathfinder of the West”

– Platform against the extension of Slavery into the territories

Election of 1856

• Other parties – Know Nothing Party – “Nativists” nominated

Millard Fillmore • Anti-foreign and Anti-Catholic • Whigs joined with the Know Nothing Party

– Free-soil party join with the Republicans

• James Buchanan wins 174 (Fremont = 114, Fillmore = 8) – The South had threatened to leave the union if a

Republican won.

Dred Scott • Dred Scott v. Sanford

– Background: • Dred Scott had lived in free territory – and should

have been free • Returned to the South but then sues for freedom

• Supreme Court Ruling (Chief Justice Roger Taney): – Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in

Federal Courts; and – A slave is private property which is protected

by the Constitution • Therefore can be taken into free territory and remain

a slave • Slaves had no rights which the white man was bound

to respect…”

• Missouri Compromise unconstitutional as was the Compromise of 1850

Dred Scott Decision

• South • Elated finally a decision

they could live with • There was a majority of

Southerners on the Supreme Court

• Buchanan was pro-southern

• Upset at the North’s reaction..

• North • Dismayed that the

decision “of just 9 men” violated all compromises

• Revitalized the Republican Party

Panic of 1857

• Causes: • California Gold • Grain overproduction • Land & Railroad

speculation

• Effects • Widespread

unemployment • North: hardest hit • South: good cotton

market cotton is King

Abraham Lincoln

• Springfield, Illinois Lawyer • Born in a Kentucky log cabin – had

little schooling • Married into the well-to-do Todd

family • “Honest Abe” – would refuse cases

against his beliefs • Had been a Whig – now a

Republican

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

• Lincoln and Douglas both running to be Senator from Illinois in 1858

• Debate in Freeport, Ill. – Covered by the press because of Douglas’

popularity; Lincoln had been unknown – Lincoln challenges Douglas’ platform of

popular sovereignty after the Dred Scott decision.

– Douglas: trapped by question • His answer is known as the “Freeport

Doctrine” – When public opinion does not support the

federal government, the law is impossible to enforce

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

• Consequences: – Lincoln lost the election, but…

• He became a national figure

– Douglas won the election, but… • Lost future chance at presidency by alienating the

South because of his: – opposition to the Lecompton Constitution – defiance of the Supreme Court at Freeport –

John Brown • Harpers Ferry Raid (federal

arsenal), October 1859 – Plan: Arm the slaves and

establish a free black state – Forgot to tell the slaves – In chaos, killed 7 innocent

people, one of them a free black • His public trial became a symbol

– Radical abolitionists admired him (he was a martyr to the cause)

– Southerners believed every Northerner was like John Brown

– Northern moderates hated Brown’s actions

Election of 1860

Democrats: split over the issue of slavery – Northern Democrats

nominate Douglas – Southern Democrats

nominate John C. Breckinridge

Constitutional Union Party: John Bell

Republicans: Lincoln 1.non-extension of

slavery 2. Protective tariff 3. Pacific railroad 4. Internal improvements 5. Free homesteads from

public lands

1860 Election

Lincoln wins • Minority president • Not on the ballot in 10

Southern States • “Fire eaters” of South had

threatened to secede if a “black Republican” is elected

• Gives South Carolina an excuse to secede

South better off that they felt 1. 5 to 4 majority in

Supreme Court 2. Republicans did not

control the legislature 3. South had 15 states in the

Union – nearly 1/2 4. Federal government could

not stop slavery without an Amendment

Secession

• South Carolina: – 4 days after Lincoln’s election voted for a

special session and by December voted unanimously to secede

• In 6 weeks they are followed by 6 states • 4 more would join = 11 Confederate

States • The original 7 met in Montgomery,

Alabama (the original capital) • Jefferson Davis is chosen President

Secession (Cont’d)

• President Buchanan – Surrounded by pro-southern advisors

– Felt that the South could not leave the Union • But could not find power in the Constitution to force

them to stay

– Army small and in the west anyway

• Lincoln could not take office until March 4, 1861 – Meanwhile the Confederacy (then 7 states) begins

to form

Crittenden (attempted) Compromise

• James Henry Crittenden of Kentucky proposes a Compromise – Known as the Crittenden Compromise

1. Slavery in the territories prohibited north of 36degrees 30minutes (Missouri Compromise line)

2. Future states south of that could be slave (even if territory was acquired later)

3. Future states could enter the union by popular sovereignty

4. Lincoln will reject the Compromise as he had been elected on a platform that was to stop the extension of slavery in the territories

Farewell to the Union

• South tired of free-soil criticism, abolitionist nagging, and northern interference = Underground Rail Road (now to Canada) and John Brown’s raid

• Felt their leaving would be unopposed

• Could repudiate the Southern debt ($ to North)

• Could lower the tariff and trade directly with Europe

• Justified by the Declaration of Independence (much like the American Revolution)

Varying Viewpoints

• Other names for Civil War: “War Between the States” “War for Southern Independence”

• Late 19th C.=Slavery the cause

• Charles & Mary Beard = Economic Struggle (economic independence) • Post WWI = breakdown of political institutions ineptitude of leaders • Post WWII = war caused by slavery, a moral wrong • 1970 = “free labor ideology” fear of free laborers

• Recent:" Ethno-cultural school” because of a loss of a national party

system and the emergence of regional parties, i.e.. Republicans opponents threatened ones way of life & the life of the Republic itself