(1820-1861)

Sec. 3Republicans Challenge Slavery

Ch. 14 - Rumblings of Civil War

Why was slavery such a difficult issue on which to

reach a compromise?

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

PRO-SLAVERY

FIND OUT QUESTIONS

• Which new political party began to take shape in the mid-1850s and why?

• What was Abraham Lincoln’s view of slavery? Stephen Douglas’s view?

• Who led the raid on Harpers Ferry and how did it deepen the anger between the North and South?

The Republican Party• Mid-1850’s: Whigs vs. Democrats– Free Soil Party + N. Democrats +

Antislavery Whigs = • Republican Party, 1854 (MI)–MAIN GOAL = keep slavery out of the west– In general, to stop the spread of slavery

• In 1856, it was ready to compete…– But who would represent this NEW

Republican party? Who?

John C. Fremont

• That dude from California.

• But don’t worry…4 years later, in 1860, good ol’ Abe Lincoln will pop up again.– He ain’t done yet!!!

Year Democratic Republican

1856 James Buchanan

John C. Fremont

-----Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858-----

1860 Stephen A. Douglas

Abraham Lincoln

• The debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were held during the 1858 campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois. The debates were held at 7 sites throughout Illinois.

• Douglas, a Democrat, was the incumbent Senator, having been elected in 1847. He had helped enact the Compromise of 1850, was a proponent of Popular Sovereignty, and was responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The legislation led to the violence in Kansas, hence the name "Bleeding Kansas"

• Lincoln was a relative unknown at the beginning of the debates. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as ½ slave and ½ free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew the attention of the entire nation.

• Although Lincoln would lose the Senate race in 1858, could these debates help him beat out Douglass 2 years later in the race for the US Presidency.

• The Lincoln-Douglas debates were re-enacted in the Fall of 1994.

Excerpt from Lincoln’s speech• “As a nation, we began by declaring "all men are created equal."

There was no mention of any exception to that rule in the Declaration of Independence. But we now practically read it "all men are created equal except Negroes." If we are to accept this doctrine of race or class discrimination, what is to stop us in future from decreeing "all men are created equal except for Negroes, foreigners, Catholics, Jews," or just "poor people"? That is the conclusion towards which the advocates of slavery are driving us."Let each State mind its own business," says Judge Douglas. "Why stir up trouble?" This is the complacent policy of indifference to evil, and that policy I cannot but hate. …”

Excerpt from Lincoln’s speech

• “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our Republic of its just influence in the world, enables the enemies of free institutions everywhere to taunt us as hypocrites, causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamentals of civil liberty: denying the good faith of the Declaration of Independence and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self interest. …”

Excerpt from Lincoln’s speech

• “But we shall provide no such encouragement unless we can establish our ability as a nation to live and grow, and we shall surely do neither if these States fail to remain united. There can be no distinction in the definition of liberty as between one section and another, one class and another, one race and another. A house divided against itself cannot stand. This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”

- Abraham Lincoln, 1858

Excerpt from Douglas’s speech• “My fellow citizens: My good friend Mr. Lincoln harps constantly on

this subject of equality. He repeats over and over the argument used by Lovejoy and other abolitionists to it -- that the Declaration of Independence having declared all men free and equal by divine law. Thus, Negro equality is an inalienable right. Contrary to this stands the verdict of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott. Mr. Lincoln is a lawyer and I presume therefore that he knows that when he seeks to destroy public confidence in the integrity, the inviolability of the Supreme Court he is preaching revolution. He asks me to state my opinion of the Dred Scott decision, and I answer him unequivocally by saying I take the decisions of the Supreme Court to be the law of the land, and I intend to obey them as such; nor will I be swayed from that position by all the ranting of all the fanatics who preach racial equality -- who would ask us to vote, eat, sleep, and marry with negroes. …”

Excerpt from Douglas’s speech

• “And I say further, let each State mind its own business and leave its neighbors alone. If we’ll stand on that principle then Mr. Lincoln will find that this great Republic can exist forever divided into free and slave States and we can go on, as we have done, increasing in wealth, in population, in power, until we shall become the admiration and the terror of the world.”

- Stephen Douglas, 1858

The Debates• Who…………...?• What………..…?• Where……..….?• When………....?• Why…………....?• How…………....?

The Raid (p.331)

• Who…………...?• What………..…?• Where……..….?• When………....?• Why…………....?• How…………....?

WE FOUND OUT• A new political party began to take shape

in the mid-1850s? Why did they emerge?

• Abraham Lincoln’s view of slavery might be a surprise to most of you. What was it at first? In the end?

• The raid on Harpers Ferry deepened the anger between the North and South. How so?