Transcript File - UNITED STATES HISTORY

POLITICAL REALIGNMENT
DEEPENS THE CRISIS
10.3
OBJECTIVES
Analyze how deepening sectional distrust
affected the nation’s politics.
 Compare the positions of Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen Douglas on the issue of slavery
 Explain the effect of John Brown’s raid on the
slavery debate.

KEY PARTS
The Shifting Political Scene
 Sectional Divisions Intensify
 The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 John Brown’s Raid

INTRODUCTION
Read Section 10.3
 Answer questions 4-6 on page 345

THE SHIFTING POLITICAL SCENE
During the 1852 presidential election the Whigs
searched unsuccessfully for a candidate and a
platform to unite their members.
 With their two visionaries dead the party fell
back on Winfield Scott.
 The Whigs lost to the Democrats because of being
deeply divided over issues of slave and free
states.

CONT.
By the mid-1800s a growing immigrant
population was changing the country.
 Many of the “nativists” of the United States
didn’t like the immigrants because they were
largely Catholic opposed to Protestants.
 This fueled the growth of an anti-immigrant
movement that stemmed a new political party
call the “know-nothings”

CONT..
As the old parties broke up, antislavery zeal gave
rise to the new Republican Party in 1854.
 Opposition to slavery was the center of the
Republican philosophy.
 The Republican Party grew rapidly in the North.
 By 1856 it was ready to challenge the older,
established parties.

SECTIONAL DIVISIONS INTENSIFY
For many years the North and South tried to
ignore or patch over their differences.
 For the election of 1856 the abolitionist John C.
Fremont was the nominated by the Republicans.
 He lost to James Buchanan who promised that as
President he would stop the agitation of the
slavery issue.

CONT.
The Dred Scott court case decision further caused
separation between the north and the south.
 The court ruled against the suing slave, Dred
Scott. Dred Scott sued for his freedom on the
premise that his master had moved to the free
state of Illinois where slavery was illegal and
kept him as a slave.
 This alarmed the north and many northerners
began to speak of sucession.

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES
In 1858 Stephen Douglas and Abraham
Lincolnheld a series of seven debates while
competing for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
 Thousands of Americans attended the LincolnDouglas debates as the two candidates presented
opposing views of slavery and its role in America.
 Douglas was pro popular sovereignty, and said it
was the implied intent of the Constitution.

CONT.
He also promoted the expansion of slavery in his
support of the Kansas Nebraska Act.
 Lincoln on the other hand spoke of the eternal
struggle of right and wrong and referred to the
Dred Scott decision as wrong.
 He also spoke of popular sovereignty as being
wrong and condemned slavery as a system
whereby one person does the work and toil to
earn bread and someone else does the eating.

COT..
These debates lasted for weeks.
 When they were over Douglas won the election by
a slim margin.
 Lincoln had not really lost; as a result of the
debates he won a large following that would
serve him well the next time he ran for national
office.

JOHN BROWN’S RAID
John Brown viewed himself as an angel of God
avenging the evil of slavery.
 He had concluded that violence was the best way
to reach his goal.
 He rallied 21 men and had an unsuccessful
mission that ended in their arrest and hanging.
 This event further divided the nation.
