Transcript Chapter 11 Sectional Conflict Increases

Chapter 11
Sectional Conflict Increases
An Uneasy Balance
The Debate Reopens
• Tensions were mounting over the issue of
slavery
• Missouri Compromise of 1820 did not end
the debate
– Congressional debates often ended in
violence (Representatives sometimes took
bowie knives to the House chamber)
The Annexation of Texas
• The admission of Texas, which permitted
slavery, would tip the balance of power in
the Senate towards slave states
• Issue was settled in 1845
– Texas admitted as a slave state but said
Texas could divide into 5 states if they desired
– Congress extended the line that was set with
the Missouri Compromise (36 30’)
Popular Sovereignty
• Annexation of Texas did not end the debate
• Prospect of victory in Mexican War revived
the debate about whether slavery would be
allowed in any territory acquired
• President Polk suggested we extend the
Missouri Compromise line to Pacific Ocean
• Lewis Case (Michigan) and Stephen
Douglas (Illinois) suggested any new
territory rely on popular sovereignty
– Allows citizens of each new territory to
vote on whether to allow slavery or not
• Neither proposal satisfied those opposed
to slavery
• Proposed Amendment – Wilmot Proviso
– Banned slavery in any land acquired for
Mexico
– All but one northern state ratified amendment
– Southern states threatened to secede if it
became law
– Wilmot Proviso was cut from the final bill
1848 Election
• By the 1848 election, Congress still had not
decided on the issue of slavery in Mexican
Cession
• Democrats – Lewis Case, Whigs – Zachary
Taylor
• Taylor campaigned as “Independent” or “No
Party” – symbolized he was above parties
• Democrats formed the Free-Soil Party
– Demanded Congress prohibit the expansion of
slavery into new territories
• Zachary Taylor wins by a slim margin
Slavery Issue in Congress
• Congress still divided over slavery in the
Mexican Cession
• President Taylor urged Congress to admit
California as a free state
– Southern members of Congress opposed
• Debates over New Mexico and Texas also
plagued members of Congress
Clay’s Proposal
• Urged southerners and northerners to
compromise
• Presented a plan that satisfied south and north
– Clay proposed admitting California as free state and
abolishing the slave trade (not slavery) in D.C
– Advocated paying Texas 10 million to abandon its
claim to part of New Mexico
– To convince southerners – NM to be divided into 2
territories – NM and Utah – on basis of popular
sovereignty
– Pass a tougher fugitive slave law
• Clay closed by suggesting that sectional
interests be put aside to preserve Union
– Northerners who supported the breakup were
abolitionists
– Southerners who supported the breakup were
fire-eaters (strong proponents of slavery)
Great Debate
• Congress debated Clay’s proposal for
months
• John C. Calhoun fiercely fought the
proposal – huge fire-eater from SC
– House of Rep./Secretary of war/state,
Senator, VP throughout his career
– Debates over slavery convinced him the best
option was a dual presidency (North and
South)
• Calhoun played key role in the debates of 1850
and was a powerful supported of south until his
death that year
• Daniel Webster of Mass. Gave s speech
supporting Clay’s proposal
– Most northerners objected because you cannot
compromise over slavery
• President Taylor was against Clay’s proposal –
however he died making Millard Fillmore
President
• Fillmore supported Clay
• September 1850 Congress passed Clay’s
measures
Compromise of 1850
Compromise Comes to an End
• Compromise of 1850 did not completely
settle the slavery issue
• Election of 1852
– Democrats – Franklin Pierce (supporter of
Compromise of 1850
– Whigs turned to Mexican War hero General
Winfield Scott
– Pierce won the election by a landslide
• “Northern man with southern principles” Abolitionists
Fugitive Slave Act
• Compromise of 1850 began to fall apart before
1852 election thanks to the inclusion of the
Fugitive Slave Act
• Fugitive Slave Act
– Made it a federal crime to assist runaway slaves
– Authorized the arrest of escaped slaves even in
states where slavery was illegal (angered the North)
• Supporters of Compromise of 1850 were
shocked by the government’s new law
Anti-Slavery Literature
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Reactions to the book
– The book depicted slavery in many forms – harsh
sugar plantations to the homes of slaveholders to
runaway slaves
– Showed how slavery tore apart families
– Justified northern feelings about the ills and wrongs of
slavery
– 300,000 copies sold in 9 months
– Southern audiences hated it – banned in many parts
of the south
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Slavery debate revived again in 1854
• Stephen Douglas of Illinois was huge supporter
of western expansion
• Construction of the railroad meant Congress had
to organize western lands – which reopened
slavery debate
• Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act
– Organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska on
basis of popular sovereignty
• Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the
Missouri Compromise
• Passage of the act renewed southern
hopes of extending slavery
• Not everyone hated the act solely on
abolitionist grounds – economics issue
– Force out “white” workers
– Critics said they would slave labor instead of
hiring workers
“Bleeding Kansas”
• Kansas-Nebraska Act pitted anti-slavery
and pro-slavery forces against one
another for control of new territories
• Elections in Kansas
– Pro-Slavery forces took action in March 1855
– As Kansas prepared to elect first legislature,
5000 pro-slavery residents moved in the area
– Illegal voters from Missouri helped elect proslavery legislature
• Anti-slavery residents refused to recognize
the legitimacy of the new government
– Formed the Free State Party and elected their
own legislature
• Conflict became inevitable
– Pro-slavery raiders from Missouri attacked
anti-slavery Kansas settlers
– Anti-slavery supporters responded under
John Brown and attacked town of
Pottawatomie
• Pottawatomie Massacre – dragged 5 men from
their beds and brutally murdered them
The Republican Party
• In 1854, a group of antislavery Whigs and
Democrats came together with some FreeSoilers, organized a party that opposed
slavery
– Republican Party
• Elections of 1854 and 1856
(Congressional)
– Republicans – John Fremont / Democrats –
James Buchanan
• James Buchanan (D) won Presidency in
1856
– Election ends the Whig Party
• Lecompton Constitution
– Gave voters of Kansas only the right to decide
whether more slaves could enter the territory,
not whether slavery should indeed exist
On the Brink of War
Dred Scott and the Supreme Court
• Dred Scott – slave held by John Emerson
(army surgeon)
• After Emerson died, Scott sued for his
freedom
• 1856 – case reached the Supreme Court
– Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
• Taney declared that Scott was not a
citizen and could not bring suits in US
courts
• Taney – founders saw African Americans
as “beings of an inferior order having no
rights which the white man was bound to
respect”
• Taney also said the federal government
had no authority to limit expansion of
slavery
• Dred Scott Decision outraged abolitionists
• After passage of Kansas-Nebraska Act
and Dred Scott decision, seemed to be no
way to stop expansion of slavery
Lincoln and Douglas
• After the Dred Scott decision and KansasNebraska Act – Abraham Lincoln (R) ran
for Senate in Illinois against inccumbent
Stephen Douglas
– Lincoln – opposed to ideas and expansion of
slavery
• Stephen Douglas
– Supported popular sovereignty
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Lincoln challenged Douglas in a series of 7
debates between August and October 1858
– Lincoln attacked the Dred Scott decision, spoke out
against slavery
• “I do not believe it is a constitutional right to hold slaves in a
territory of the US”
– In Freeport, Illinois – Lincoln challenged Douglas on
how popular sovereignty was still workable
– Douglas replied that people can still keep slavery out
by refusing to pass local laws
• “People have the lawful means introduce or exclude it as
they please
– Douglas edges Lincoln
John Brown’s Raid
• Year after Lincoln-Douglas debates – John
Brown (leader of Pottawatomie Massacre),
headed east
• Attack on Harpers Ferry
– Oct. 16, 1859 Brown and his small force seized the
federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA
– Planned to give guns to slaves – hoped slaves and
freed blacks would come to his aid
– No slaves came to help him
– Mid-October – Brown captured by forces under
General Robert E. Lee
– Convicted of murder and was hanged
Reactions to Brown
• Hailed by many well-known abolitionists as
a hero
• Seen a blood-thirsty fanatic who deserved
his punishment by many southerners
Election of 1860
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By 1860 the US was deeply divided
Democrats – John Breckinridge
Republicans – Abraham Lincoln
Election results mirrored the nation’s sectional
divisions
• Breckinridge carried every southern lower state
(VA – KY – TN voted for Bell)
• Lincoln carried most northern states – only won
40 percent of popular vote but won a landslide in
electoral votes
– Lincoln – 180; Breckinridge – 72; Bell – 39; Douglas 12
Secession
• Many southerners view Lincoln’s election
as a victory for abolition
• Within days of his election, South Carolina
called a convention and unanimously
voted to leave the nation
– Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Texas soon follow
– 1861 – delegates of the seceding states
drafted a constitution – Confederate States
of America
• Confederate Constitution mirrored the US
Constitution with several key differences
– Guaranteed the right to own slaves
– Stressed each state was “sovereign and
independent” – States rights
• Elect Jefferson Davis as President
• James Buchanan left office leaving the
problem for Abraham Lincoln to deal with
• Southern secessionists justified their
position with the doctrine of states rights
– Freely joined and could freely leave
• Northerners stated that by ratifying the
Constitution they agreed to make it
supreme law of the land
• Issue went beyond states rights –
southerners determined to protect slavery
• Northern Republicans asserted that
majority rule represented a fundamental
principle of republican government
• Lincoln said the south must accept the
election results
WAR