Transcript Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15
A Divided Nation…
Trouble in Kansas
SECTION 15.2
ELECTION OF 1852
• 1852 - four candidates for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
• Many turned to Franklin Pierce, a little-known
politician from New Hampshire.
• He promised to honor the Compromise of 1850
and the Fugitive Slave Act.
• Southerners trusted Pierce because of this.
• The opposing Whigs also held their convention in 1852.
• Choosing war heroes as their delegates had been successful
in the past (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor).
• The Whigs passed over current president Millard Fillmore
because they believed his strict enforcement of the Fugitive
Slave Act would cost (lose) votes.
• Instead, they chose Winfield Scott, a Mexican War Hero, as
their candidate. But, he was not trusted by Southerners
because he did NOT fully support the Compromise of 1850.
• In the end, Pierce won the election of 1852 by a large
margin.
• This is seen as a major defeat for the Whigs.
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
• A proposal to build a railroad to the West coast helped revive the
slavery controversy and opened a new period of sectional
conflict.
• Because of this new act, the question of slavery is to be decided
by popular sovereignty – by the people who vote in the elections
there.
• This sparked violent conflict between pro-slavery and
antislavery groups.
DOUGLAS AND THE RAILROAD
• Stephen Douglas wanted to build a railroad that ran to the
Pacific Ocean from Chicago, Ill.
• He knew a territory needed to be created out of the
Louisiana Purchase.
• The Missouri Compromise required that land to be made
of free territory.
• Douglas needed southern support to build the line.
• The only way he could get support was if the new
territory west of the state of Missouri was opened to
slavery.
TWO NEW TERRITORIES
• This plan would divide the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase
into two territories - Kansas and Nebraska - and would allow the
people in each territory to decide on the question of slavery.
• Many in the north were against the idea. The act would eliminate
the Missouri Compromise’s restriction on slavery north of the 36’
30’ line!
• Eventually, the measure passed both houses of Congress and was
signed into law.
• Lost amid all the controversy was Douglas’s proposed railroad to
the Pacific Ocean.
• Congress would not approve the construction of such a railroad
until 1862.
KANSAS DIVIDED
• Anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups rushed their supporters to
Kansas. This can’t be happening!
• More than 5,000 pro-slavery voters crossed the border to vote
and then returned home.
• As a result the state turned to pro-slavery.
• Strict laws would be passed that made it a crime to question
slaveholder’s rights and said that hose who helped fugitive
slaves could be put to death.
• An anti-slavery legislature would be created 25 miles away.
• Despite opposition, President Pierce only recognized the
pro-slavery legislature.
BLEEDING KANSAS
• Many moved to Kansas to homestead in peace but now
were affected by the dispute. In April 1856, a
congressional committee arrived in Kansas to decide
which government was legitimate .
• Although the committee members deemed the election
unfair, the federal government did not agree.
ATTACK ON LAWRENCE
• In May 1856 a pro-slavery jury charged anti-slavery
leaders with treason. About 800 men rode to Lawrence to
arrest the anti-slavery leaders, but they had fled.
• Instead they took their anger out on the town by
setting fires, looting buildings, and destroying presses
used to print anti-slavery newspapers.
JOHN BROWN’S RESPONSE
• On the night of May 24, 1856 John Brown and his
men killed five pro-slavery men in Kansas in what
became known as Pottawatomie Massacre.
Brown dragged pro-slavery men out of their cabins
and killed them with swords. He declared his
actions were ordered by God.
Kansas collapsed into civil war.
About 200 were killed.
The events in “Bleeding Kansas” became national
front-page stores.
BROOKS ATTACKS SUMNER
• Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts criticized pro-slavery
people in Kansas and personally insulted a fellow senator who
favored slavery from South Carolina.
• In retaliation, Representative Preston Brooks, a relative of that
senator, used a walking cane to beat Sumner unconscious in the
Senate chambers.
• Many southerners will send Brooks canes through mail! (An
example of fan-mail?)
• He was given a fine of $300.
• Northerners will give him the nickname of “Bully Brooks”.
• It took Sumner three years before he was well enough to return to
the senate.
Political Divisions
CHAPTER 15.3
POLITICAL PARTIES UNDERGO CHANGE…
• Stephen Douglas predicted the Kansas-Nebraska Act
would “raise a storm” and it did as it brought the slavery
issue back into the national spotlight.
• People from four groups, Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers,
and abolitionists joined together in 1854 to form the
Republican party, a party united against the spread of
slavery in the West.
• Some Whigs and Democrats joined together and formed a
new party called the American Party, or the “KnowNothing” Party.
DELEGATES CHOSEN…
• The Democrats nominated James Buchanan for President
in 1856.
• The Republicans chose John C. Fremont as their nominee
for President in 1856.
• On election day, Buchanan won 14 of 15 slave states;
Fremont won 11 of 16 free states and Fillmore won only
one state: Maryland.
• The winner of the 1856 election was Buchanan.
DRED SCOTT DECISION
• The Dred Scott Decision is considered one of the most
important in the history of the Supreme Court
• Dred Scott was a slave belonging to an army surgeon
named Dr. John Emerson.
• Scott was taken to free territories and when he returned
to Missouri the doctor died making him the property of
Emerson’s widow.
• In 1846 Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri state
court saying that he had become free when he lived in
free territory.
SUPREME COURT DECISION
• In 1857 Scott’s case reached the Supreme Court.
The justices, many from the south, had three
issues to decide on.
1. The Court had to rule on whether Scott was a
citizen. (Only citizens could sue in federal court.)
2. The Court had to decide if his time living on free
soil made him free.
3. The Court had to determine the constitutionality of
prohibiting slavery in parts of the Louisiana
Purchase.
SUPREME COURT’S RULING
• On the first issue to be decided, Chief Justice Roger
B. Taney decided that the nation’s founders did not
intend to give African Americans the same rights as
whites meaning that all African Americans, whether
slave or free, were not citizens under the U.S.
Constitution.
• If Dred Scott did not have rights under the constitution,
then he did not have the right to file suit in federal court.
• On the second issue Justice Taney said then because
Scott returned to Missouri, “his status as free or
slave, depended on the law of Missouri.”
• The third issue said that the Missouri Compromise
was unconstitutional as the Fifth amendment said
that nobody could be deprived of LIFE, LIBERTY, or
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS without due process
of law.
• Because slaves were property of people could not be
prohibited from taking them into a federal territory.
Under this ruling, Congress had no right to ban slavery
in any federal territory.
• The Dred Scott decision favored those in the South but
deeply upset those in the North.
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES
• In 1858, there was an important election that took
place in the U.S. Senate.
• Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln.
• His opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas, who
had served in the senate for 11 years.
• These two men squared off in what became known
as the Lincoln – Douglas Debates.
LINCOLN’S ARGUMENTS
• Lincoln stressed that the spread of slavery in the
West was the central issue of the campaign.
• He talked often about the Dred Scott Decision.
• Lincoln: African Americans were entitled to all
rights listed in the Declaration of Independence.
• Despite believing that, he didn’t necessarily
believe that African Americans were the social or
political equals of whites.
DOUGLAS’ ARGUMENTS
• Douglas argued that Lincoln “thinks that the Negro is
his brother…”
• Criticized Lincoln for the idea that the U.S. could not
remain “half slave and half free.”
• When pressed by Lincoln about the problems with
supporting popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott
decision, Douglas responded by saying that it did not
matter what the Supreme Court decided about slavery.
• He argued that it is up to the people to make the
decision as slavery could not exist anywhere, unless it is
supported by local police regulations.
• Freeport Doctrine put the question of slavery
back into the hands of American citizens.
• In the end, Douglas ended up winning the Senate
seat but Lincoln ended up becoming a strong and
important leader of the Republican Party.
The Nation Divides
SECTION 15.4
RAID ON HARPER’S FERRY
• John Brown – an abolitionist from the North who wanted to start an
uprising by arming local slaves
• John Brown’s Raid - a night when Brown and his men took over a
federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, VA in hopes of starting a slave
rebellion.
• Fearing he would be outnumbered, Brown sent several of his men to
the countryside to get slaves to join the cause. None showed up.
• After fleeing to a fire house, federal troops arrived and stormed the
house and captured John Brown.
• END RESULT: John Brown was convicted of treason, murder, and
conspiracy and was sentenced to death.
• Brown’s raid caused many southerners to use the attack as an
excuse to get out of the union.
ELECTION OF 1860
• The Election of 1860 saw four parties and their
candidates run for president:
• Northern Democrats: Stephen Douglas
• Southern Democrats: John Breckenridge
• Constitutional Union: John Bell
• Republicans: Abraham Lincoln
ELECTION OF 1860
• Lincoln was against the spread of slavery but
promised not to abolish it where it existed.
• RESULT: Lincoln won 180/183 electoral votes in
free states (enough to win the election) but took
no southern states which upset the South.
• The South realized it was losing power.
SOUTHERNER’S REACTIONS
• Within weeks of Lincoln’s election, South
Carolina’s legislature called for a special
session to consider the question of secession.
• In an attempt to solve the problem, Sen. John
Crittenden proposed a series of amendments
to protect slavery.
• Lincoln and the Republicans opposed the
amendments and they were defeated.
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
• December 20, 1860 – South Carolina
officially broke from the union leading to
the creation of the Confederate States of
America.
• They were followed by: Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Texas.
• New President: Jefferson Davis
LINCOLN TAKES OFFICE
• March 4, 1861 – Lincoln was inaugurated.
• In his address, Lincoln understood the south’s
need to secede but disagreed with it.
• He hoped to bring the south back on its own,
without a war.
THE SECESSION OF SOUTHERN STATES HINTED AT
THE VIOLENCE TO COME…