4

Chapter 15Road to Civil

War1820-1861

The back of a Louisiana slave named Gordon, photographed in 1863 after he escaped to the Union forces. Whipping was the most common form of punishment on plantations, and slaveowners and overseers whipped slaves with frightening regularity. Slaves could be whipped for almost any pretext: for “not picking cotton,” “or not picking as well as he can,” for picking “very trashy cotton,” and so forth. One overseer gave twelve lashes to eight women for “hoeing bad corn.” While punishments were often work related, whipping was also used to humiliate slaves and instill deference, obedience, and servility. Slaves could be whipped for answering back to overseers or appearing in any way “insolent.”

5

It’s not a coincidence that six of the seven presidents who served from 1841-61 made the list of the… (as defined by a poll conducted by Newsweek 3-2-09)

10. Zachary Taylor A political novice, the war hero is

entirely forgettable as president.

9. (tie) Herbert Hoover (1929-33)He was known as a poor communicator who fueled trade wars and exacerbated the Depression.

9. (tie) Richard Nixon (1969-74)Though politically gifted, he will forever be associated with the Watergate scandal and his resignation.Read the Full Story

8. William Harrison (1841)He was president for all of 30 days after contracting pneumonia during his interminable inaugural.

7. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-77)Serving right after Andrew Johnson, he presided over an outbreak of graft and corruption, but had good intentions.Read the Full Story

6. John Tyler (1841-45)He was a stalwart defender of slavery who abandoned his party's platform once he was president.Read the Full Story

5. Millard Fillmore (1850-53)He backed the Compromise of 1850 that delayed the Southern secession by allowing slavery to spread.Read the Full Story

4. Franklin Pierce (1853-57)His fervor for expanding the borders—thereby adding several slave states—helped set the stage for the Civil War.Read the Full Story

3. Andrew Johnson (1865-69He survived impeachment after opposing Reconstruction initiatives including the 14th amendment.Read the Full Story

2. Warren G. Harding 1921-23He was an ineffectual and indecisive leader who played poker while his friends plundered the U.S. treasury.Read the Full Story

1. James Buchanan (1857-61)

He refused to challenge either the spread of slavery or the growing bloc of states that became the Confederacy.Read the Full Story

The fifteenth President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the eighteenth century. To date he is the only president from the state of Pennsylvania and the only president to remain a bachelor

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(Underlying Causes: Slavery, state’s rights diff. societies and economic systems)

The Downhill Slide to War (Immediate Causes)

1. Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 3. Kansas Nebraska Act 1854 4. Formation of Republican Party 1856 5. Dred Scott Decision 1857 6. John Brown’s Raid of Harper’s Ferry Oct. 16,

1859. 7. Election of Abraham Lincoln 1860 8. Attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861.

A political cartoon from 1861 shows Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana as men riding donkeys, following South Carolina's lead toward a cliff. The man from South Carolina is saying “We go the whole hog…Old Hickory is dead and we’ll have at it…

Florida, immediately behind South Carolina, cries, "Go it Carolina! We are the boys to "wreck" the Union." “WE go it blind-”Cotton is King”!

Down with the Union! Miss. Repudiates her bonds. Go it boys! We’ll soon taste the sweets of secession.

“We have some doubts about the end of that road and think it expedient to deviate a little.”

CREDIT: "THE 'SECESSION MOVEMENT'." Currier & Ives 1861. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

7

Did You Know? Every so often the Vice-President becomes important.

Throughout its history the United States Senate has sometimes been evenly divided between the political parties. When that happens, it is the vice president who breaks any tie votes. This has happened more than 230 times. Since the 1870s, however, no vice president has cast more than 10 tie-breaking votes.

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The Missouri Compromise (Pages 436-437)

Missouri applied for statehood in 1819. At the time the Senate was balanced, with 11 free states and 11 slave states.

The North and the South, with very different economic systems, were also competing for new lands in the West..

Representative Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, proposed a solution to the Missouri problem. Maine, which had been a part of Massachusetts, had also applied for admission to the Union as a new state. Clay suggested admitting Missouri as a slave state and admitting Maine as a free state at the same time.

Clay proposed prohibiting slavery in all territories and states carved from the Louisiana Purchase north of the latitude line of 36°30"N. interactive map The one exception would be Missouri.

Clay's two proposals, which became known as the Missouri Compromise, were passed by Congress in 1820.

9

Summarize what the following map shows. Then discuss how this map relates to the spread of slavery in the South.

All reasonable answers will be accepted.

The map shows how cotton production spread throughout the South( largely as a result of the cotton gin) between 1820 and 1860. Growing cotton required much manual labor. At the time, slaves were the main source of cheap labor for cotton plantations. As cotton production spread to other areas of the country, slavery spread with it.

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. New Western Lands (Pages 437-438)

The issue of slavery in new Western lands stayed in the background between 1820 (the year of the Missouri Compromise) and the 1840s.

After winning independence from Mexico, Texas asked for admission to the Union. This again brought out the question of whether free or slave states would control the Senate. As a result Texas's statehood became the main issue in the 1844 election.

Democratic candidate James K. Polk won the election and pressed to add Texas. Texas became a state in 1845.

Disputes between the United States and Mexico over boundaries in Texas and the desire of the United States for New Mexico and California led to the Mexican American War.

Wilmot's proposal, called the Wilmot Provisio, said that slavery should be prohibited in any lands that might be acquired from Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War.

The debate over slavery and the refusal of either the Democratic or Whig candidate for president in 1848 to take a stand on slavery in the territories led to the formation of the Free Soil Party, which supported the Wilmot Proviso.

Once in office, President Taylor Dr. Zebra encouraged the territories of New Mexico and California, which had been obtained from Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War, to apply for statehood.

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Further Complicating Things: The “Know-

Nothings” [The American Party]

Further Complicating Things: The “Know-

Nothings” [The American Party]ß Nativists.

ß Anti-Catholics.

ß Anti-immigrants.

ß Nativists.

ß Anti-Catholics.

ß Anti-immigrants.1849 Secret Order of the Star-

Spangled Banner, created in NYC and spreads becoming a national party-American Party-in 1855

1849 Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, created in NYC and spreads becoming a national party-American Party-in 1855

13

In your own words, summarize the main idea and key points presented in the following passage.

All reasonable answers will be accepted.

In the period before the Civil War, the economy of the North was changing rapidly while the South was holding onto its old ways. In the North, cities were growing, factories were springing up, and machines were doing much of the work. At the same time, the South was not changing much. It was holding onto its country lifestyle and farming economy, which required much human labor instead of machine labor.

14

Why would the proposals by David Wilmot and John C. Calhoun regarding slavery in the Western lands have been received differently in the North and South?

Wilmot’s proposal would have prohibited slavery in many new Western territories, which would not have been acceptable to the South; Calhoun’s proposal would have allowed slavery in all new Western lands, which the North would have opposed.

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III. A New Compromise (Pages 438-439)

In January 1850 Senator Henry Clay presented a new multi-part plan to settle a number of issues dividing Congress, including the possible spread of slavery into Western lands.

According to Clay's plan, the following things would happen: 1. California would be admitted as a free state. 2. The New Mexico Territory would have no slavery restrictions. 3. A New Mexico-Texas border dispute would be decided in favor of New

Mexico. 4. The slave trade-though not slavery-would be abolished in Washington,

D.C. 5. There would be a stronger fugitive slave law. A bitter debate in Congress over the provisions of Clay's proposal raged

for seven months. Clay's plan could not pass as a package, and President Taylor opposed it. Then in July 1820, Taylor suddenly died-Fillmore pres.

The new president, Millard Fillmore, proposed a compromise. Senator Stephen Douglas split Clay's proposal into five different bills to allow members of Congress to vote on them separately. That way, members could vote for measures they agreed with and vote against parts they did not support without rejecting the whole plan.

Congress passed the series of five separate bills in August and September 1850. Together they became known as the Compromise of 1850. Many Americans, including President Fillmore, thought this compromise would settle the question of slavery once and for all. But this was not the case.

If you who represent the stronger portion, can not agree to settle them on the broad principle of justice and duty, say so; and let the States we both represent agree to separate and part in peace.

If you are unwilling we should part in peace, tell us so; and we shall know what to do when you reduce the question to submission or resistance. If you remain silent, you will compel us to infer by your acts what you intend. In that case California will become the test question. If you admit her under all the difficulties that oppose her admission, you compel us to infer that you intend to exclude us from the whole of the acquired Territories, with the intention of destroying irretrievably the equilibrium between the two sections. We should be blind not to perceive in that case that your real objects are power and aggrandizement, and infatuated, not to act accordingly. March 4th 1850

John C. Calhoun Too ill to deliver it himself, so it was read by another senator with Calhoun present in the Senate Chamber. Calhoun, so ill he had to be helped out of the Chamber after the speech by two of his friends, died on March 31, 1850.

Daniel Webster Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast country without convulsion! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish, I beg every body's pardon, as to expect to see any such thing?

http://adage.com/brightcove/single.php?title=1415621128

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How did the Compromise of 1850 satisfyboth free states and slave states?

California would be admitted to the Union as a free state, and the slave trade would be abolished in Washington, D.C., which satisfied the North. The New Mexico Territory would be open to slavery, and there would be a stronger fugitive slave law, which pleased the South.

17

Notes Chapter 15, Section 2

Did You Know? The success of the

Underground Railroad was due to many people, including those they called the conductors, who escorted or guided freedom seekers between stations or safe houses, and the stationmasters, who provided shelter or a hiding place to freedom seekers. The efforts of the Underground Railroad further divided the nation

18

I. The Fugitive Slave Act (Pages 441-442)

In 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act.

After passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Southerners stepped up efforts to catch runaways.

Many Northerners who opposed slavery refused to cooperate with the Fugitive Slave Act and continued to aid runaway enslaved African Americans. They created the Underground Railroad to help runaways.

Although the Fugitive Slave Act was the law of the land, Northern juries often refused to convict people accused of breaking this.

Personal Liberty Laws

In Ohio ,( and other northern states) the chief objective was less a desire to expand black rights than to ensure that outright kidnapping was not condoned. (Ohio did not repeal its virulently discriminatory Black Code until 1849.) Southerners objected strenuously to personal liberty laws as a violation of sectional equity and reciprocal trust; but the 1850 act, seen in the North as punitive and tyrannical, only aroused greater sectional animosities. Northern opposition was most dramatically

illustrated when an abolitionist Boston mob tried to rescue Anthony Burns, a fugitive from Virginia, in May 1854. The mission failed. Commissioner Edward Loring had Burns remanded to slavery, and U.S. troops escorted him through sullen crowds to a waiting ship. The effort cost the federal government more than $100,000.

The legal conflict that pitted northern personal liberty statutes against federal fugitive slave measures reflected the concepts of double sovereignty that citizens of the federated Union then entertained. Southerners insisted on the sovereignty of the states, but in this controversy northerners "nullified" unwelcome federal laws. Although the constitutionality of the fugitive slave laws was unquestioned, only the force of arms could finally define the nature of the Union, its source of authority, and the boundaries of liberty.

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Harriet Beecher Stow 1811-1898

“My son Charles claimed that President Lincoln looked down at me with his coal nugget eyes and said, "so this is the lady who started the great war!". I don't recall the incident, but Charles was with me the day I met Mr. Lincoln. If it was said, it is a terrible accusation to put on anyone. True, my book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", did stir up the hornet's nest, but the seeds of unrest were planted and a divided nation had been the harvest before it had been written.” Harriet Beecher Stowe

Sold 300,000 copies in the first yearSold two million in a decade

"I Am Going There, or the Death of Little Eva" (1852) Written and inscribed to the readers of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" [by Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896]by John Stowell Adams (18??-1893) Adapted to a favorite Melody.

"Uncle Tom," said Eva, "I am going there." "Where, Miss Eva?" The child rose and pointed her little hand to the sky;the glow of evening lit her golder hair and flush'd her cheekwiith a kind of unearthly radiance, and her eyes were bentearnestly on the skies.

1. “I am going there, I am going there,” She said in a voice so gently sweet, That Uncle Tom smooth’d her golden hair, And mused like a child at Eva’s feet.

2. Then he thought that her hands had thinner grown, Her skin more clear, her breath more short, That he, poor Tom, would be left alone With the lessons fair Eva to him had taught.

3. And weaker she grew as the months flew past.And calling her father she sweetly said:—“O father, my strength it is failing fast,Do let me speak ere it all hath fled!”

4. Then she spake to her friends— “forever loveAll that is holy, and good, and fair;”And to Uncle Tom— “we shall meet above—Above— with the holy angels there.”

5. “Sweet Eva, my darling,“ the father said,“Do you know me dear Eva, say, oh say!“Then the child sprang up from its dying bed,But fell again, for its strength gave way.

6. In a breathless silence her friends came round;While her large clear eyes so fix’d and fair,Look’d up to heaven— and a whispering soundSaid gently and sweetly— “I’m going there.”

7. A glorious smile o’er her features played,Seldom seen in a changing world like this,Then the gentlest of earth— sweet Eva strayedForth to a world of endless bliss.

8. Good bye to thee Eva, the tomb hath notA treasure more dear in its close embrace.Good bye, but thou never shalt be forgot,Thy mem’ry in many a heart hath place.

John Stowell AdamsClick to play music

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1852 Presidential Election1852 Presidential Election

√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

21

1852Electio

n Results

1852Electio

n Results

22

Why do you think many people refused to obey the Fugitive Slave Act?

Those who did not support slavery felt they were being forced to do something morally wrong and could not go against their consciences. Can you think of any current public policies or laws that people might object to on moral grounds?

23

II. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (Pages 442-443)

Hoping to encourage settlement of the West and open the way for a transcontinental railroad, Senator Stephen Douglas proposed organizing the region west of Missouri and Iowa as the territories of Kansas and Nebraska

Because both Kansas and Nebraska lay north of 36°30"N-the area that was established as free of slavery in the Compromise of 1820-it was expected that Kansas and Nebraska would become free states.

Southerners were disturbed by the possibility of Kansas and Nebraska entering the Union as free states, so Senator Douglas proposed abandoning the Missouri Compromise and letting settlers in each territory decide whether to allow slavery. This was called "popular sovereignty."

There was bitter debate over the issue in Congress. In 1854 Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Thomas Hart Benton Voted against Compromise of 1850

as a senator.Lost reelection. Voted against the Kansas Nebraska Act as a House of Representatives member from Missouri–lost reelection again as a result.

"What is the excuse for all this turmoil and mischief? We are told it is to keep the question of slavery out of Congress! Great God! It was out of Congress, completely, entirely, and forever out of Congress, unless Congress dragged it in by breaking down the sacred laws which settled it!“ (Compromise of 1820)Senator Charles Sumner on Douglas "Alas! too often those principles

which give consistency, individuality, and form to the Northern character, which render it staunch, strong, and seaworthy, which bind it together as with iron, are drawn out, one by one, like the bolts of the ill-fitted vessel, and from the miserable, loosened fragments is formed that human anomaly -- a Northern man with Southern principles. Sir, no such man can speak for the North."

Douglas on the Kansas Nebraska Bill "The great principle of self government is at stake, and surely the people of this country are never going to decide that the principle upon which our whole republican system rests is vicious and wrong."

President Franklin Pierce comes out in favor of the Kansas Nebraska Act costing him his party’s nomination in 1856 as his Northern support vanished.

24

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

25

Run Time: [05:21] The Compromise of 1850 did not solve North/South disputes over new states and the location of the Transcontinental Railroad. Trace the consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Uncover events in what came to be called Bleeding Kansas

26

Why could the North have considered the Kansas-Nebraska Act a betrayal?

The Kansas Nebraska Act Opened the door to slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. It overturned a previous agreement, the Compromise of 1820, which said that areas north of 36,30”N, which included Kansas and Nebraska, would be free of slavery.

27

III. Conflict in Kansas (Pages 443-444)

After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, proslavery and antislavery groups rushed supporters into Kansas to influence voting over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state.

In the spring of 1855, in an election thought by antislavery supporters to be unfair, Kansas voters elected a proslavery legislature.

Soon after the election, the new Kansas legislature passed a series of laws supporting slavery, such as the requirement that candidates for political office be proslavery. Antislavery forces, refusing to accept these laws, armed themselves, held their own elections, and adopted a constitution prohibiting slavery.

By January 1856, rival governments-one proslavery and one antislavery-existed in Kansas. Both of them applied for statehood on behalf of Kansas and asked Congress for recognition.

The opposing forces, both armed, clashed in Kansas.. Newspapers began to refer to the area as "Bleeding Kansas.“ Becomes the first territory to shed blood in a civil war over slavery

“Imagine a man standing in a pair of long boots... the handle of a large bowie-knife projecting from one or both boot-tops; a leather belt buckled around his waist, on each side of which is fastened a large revolver... Imagine such a picture of humanity, who can swear any given number of oaths in any specified time, drink any quantity of bad whiskey without getting drunk, and boast of having stolen a half dozen horses and killed one or more abolitionists -- and you will have a pretty fair conception of a Border Ruffian, as he appears in Missouri and in Kansas.”John H. Gihon

August 25th, 1856We are in the midst of war -- war of the most bloody kind -- a war of extermination. Freedom and slavery are interlocked in deadly embrace, and death is certain for one or the other party... A crisis is just before us... and only God knoweth where it will end. Julia Louisa Lovejoy

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Run Time: [08:05] The Compromise of 1850 put off the question about slavery in territories for a few years, but the lure of the west was irresistible.

29

“The Crime Against Kansas” May 19-20 1856

“The Crime Against Kansas” May 19-20 1856

Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA)

Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA)

Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)

Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)

Sumner on Douglas: “ …a noisome, squat, and nameless animal…not a proper model for an American senator.”

Sumner on Butler: … “has taken a mistress who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; Though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean, the harlot, Slavery.”

Two days later Preston Brooks to Sumner: “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine!”

Argument Versus Clubs, a lithograph that shows Northern outrage over Preston Brooks's attack on Sumner. (1856)

The Richmond Enquirer crowed:

"We consider the act good in conception, better in execution, and best of all in consequences. These vulgar abolitionists in the Senate must be lashed into submission."

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OAT QUESTION

35. Before the American Civil War, Congress passed laws that were intended to solve problems caused by the expansion of slavery. What happened as a result of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

A. slave rebellion in the border statesB. extension of the Missouri CompromiseC. violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlersD. announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation

31

Why did people who opposed slavery mistrust the results of the 1855 election for the Kansas legislature?

In an election that chose a proslavery legislature, there were more votes cast than there were voters in Kansas. (1,500 actual voters but there were more than 6,000 votes counted)

32

Notes

Chapter 15, Section 3

Did You Know? Before his election

as president, the only political offices Abraham Lincoln held were as a four-term Illinois state legislator and one-term United States member of Congress.

As one of Abraham Lincoln ‘s earliest published speeches, this address has been much scrutinized and debated by

historians, who see broad implications for his later public policies. Lincoln was 28 years old at the time he gave this speech and had recently moved from a rough pioneer village to Springfield, Illinois.

“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” --January 27, 1838

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I. A New Political Party (Pages 445-446)

In 1854 antislavery Whigs and antislavery Democrats joined with Free Soilers to create the Republican Party.

Republican candidates began to challenge proslavery Whigs and Democrats in state and congressional elections of 1854.

Democrat James Buchanan won the presidential election of 1856, with the strong support of Southerners.

"What is right and what is practicable are two different things."(Only President from Pennsylvania)—James Buchanan

Other great moments in the fence sitting, tight rope walking, life of James Buchanan

"I believe [slavery] to be a great political and great moral evil. I thank God, my lot has been cast in a State where it does not exist. But, while I entertain these opinions, I know it is an evil at present without a remedy...one of those moral evils, from which it is impossible for us to escape, without the introduction of evils infinitely greater. There are portions of this Union, in which, if you emancipate our slaves, they will become masters. There can be no middle course."

The Buchanan treasury of quotations, such as it is, is marked by an on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand evenhandedness that left him with sores from straddling the fence: "It is better to bear the ills we have than to fly to others we know not of."

"What is right and what is practicable are two different things."

"Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world."

"All that is necessary to [abolish slavery], and all for which the slave States have ever contended, is to be let alone and permitted to manage their domestic institutions in their own way."

"Whatever the result may be," he said, "I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country."

John C. Freemont--Republican Millard Fillmore—American Party/Know Nothing Party-Nativist.

Inauguration of James Buchanan, March 4, 1857, from a photograph by John Wood. Buchanan's Inauguration was the first one to be recorded in photographs.

34

Run Time: [26:41] The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 spawned the secession of seven southern states. Trace the early events and issues of the Civil War, including the attack on Fort Sumter, the mobilization of troops, and the influence of border states.

35

1856Election Results

1856Election Results

36

Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

37

II. The Dred Scott Decision (Pages 446-448)

Two days after President Buchanan took office, the Supreme Court announced the Dred Scott decision.

In the Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Taney said that Scott was a slave, not a citizen, and therefore had no right to bring a lawsuit. He added that Scott's residence on free soil did not make him free, because he was property. As property, he could not be taken away from his owner without "due process of law." (5th Amendment) Chief Justice Roger B. Taney

The Dred Scott decision outraged antislavery advocates in the North, but pleased Southerners, dividing the country more than ever.

In 1858 the Senate race in Illinois attracted national attention. It pitted Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas against a little-known Republican challenger named Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates leading up to the election. The seven debates took place between August and October 1858. Slavery was the main topic.

During the debates Douglas put forth his idea known as the Freeport Doctrine, after the Illinois town where Douglas made the statement. This point of view gained Douglas support among those that were against slavery but lost Douglas support among the proslavery population.

Frederick Douglass…”You will readily ask me how I am affected by this devilish decision--this judicial incarnation of wolfishness? My answer is, and no thanks to the slaveholding wing of the Supreme Court, my hopes were never brighter than now.

I have no fear that the National Conscience will be put to sleep by such an open, glaring, and scandalous tissue of lies as that decision is, and has been, over and over, shown to be.

The Supreme Court of the United States is not the only power in this world…”

“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. [1]”

5th Amendment to the United States Constitution

In his famous debates with Lincoln, Douglas opposed African American citizenship in any form and attacked as "monstrous heresy" Lincoln's insistence that "the Negro and the white man are made equal by the Declaration of Independence and by Divine Providence." Douglas held that African Americans "belong to an inferior race and must always occupy an inferior position." Lincoln denounced Douglas's popular-sovereignty idea as "a mere deceitful pretense for the benefit of slavery" and emphasized the callousness of Douglas's statement: "When the struggle is between the white man and the Negro, I am for the white man; when it is between the Negro and the crocodile, I am for the Negro."

38

Run Time: [05:46] In 1857, the Supreme Court was a decidedly partisan institution. Their desire to secure the rights of slave holders would cause them to make the most infamous judicial decision in American History. The man who started it all was Dred Scott.

39

II. Continued

Douglas claimed that Lincoln wanted African Americans to be equal to whites. Lincoln denied this. He said that he and the Republican Party merely felt that slavery was wrong.

Douglas narrowly won the election, but during the debates, Lincoln earned a national reputation.

After the election of 1858, Southerners felt increasingly threatened by the growing power of the antislavery Republican Party.

A raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, further fed Southern fears. On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown led a small group of whites and free African Americans in a raid on an arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The aim was to arm enslaved African Americans and spark a slave uprising.

The plan failed and local citizens and federal troops captured Brown and some of his followers. John Brown was tried, found guilty of murder and treason, and hanged.

John Brown's death became a rallying point for abolitionists in the North. He became a martyr for a just cause

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood."

—John Brown's last words, written on a note handed to a guard just before his hanging

Henry David Thoreau gave not one but two public speeches praising him as an avenging angel.

Nathaniel Hawthorne declared, "Nobody was ever more justly hanged."

40

NotesChapter 15, Section 4

Did You Know?

Although Mary Todd Lincoln was the First Lady of the United States during the Civil War, the South considered Varina Howell Davis, Jefferson Davis's wife, First Lady of the Confederate States during the same time. After her husband's death in 1889, she wrote her memoirs and moved to New York City to support herself by writing magazine articles. She died in 1905.

41

I. The Election of 1860 (Pages 449-450)

In the months leading up to the election of 1860, the issue of slavery split the Democratic Party along sectional lines.

The Republican Party nominated Abraham http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxWwDgOj0oE&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

Lincoln. (Campaign song) The Republican Party said that slavery should be left alone where it existed, but should not be allowed to spread into the territories.

With the Democratic Party split, Lincoln narrowly won the election even though he did not appear on the ballot in most Southern states.

Stephen Douglas—Northern Democrat

John C. Breckenridge Southern Democrat

John Bell Constitutional Union Party

Republican Party Platform in 1860

Republican Party Platform in 1860

ß Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.]

ß Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].

ß No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].

ß Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].

ß Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.

ß Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

ß Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.]

ß Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].

ß No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].

ß Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].

ß Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.

ß Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

43

1 8 6 0

Election

R e s u l t s

1 8 6 0

Election

R e s u l t s

44

1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”

1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”

45

II. The South Secedes (Pages 451-452)

Although Lincoln had promised to leave slavery alone where it existed, Southerners did not trust the Republican Party to protect their rights. On November 20, 1860, South Carolina held a special convention and voted to secede from the Union.

Even after South Carolina's secession, leaders in Washington worked to find a compromise that would preserve the Union.

C. Senator John Crittendon of Kentucky proposed a plan to protect slavery in all present and future territories south of the 36°30 line set by the Missouri Compromise. This was unacceptable to both Republicans and Southern leaders.

Crittenden Compromise Amendments to the Constitution

1. Slavery would be prohibited in all territory of the United States "now held, or hereafter acquired," north of latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes line. In territory south of this line, slavery was "hereby recognized" and could not be interfered with by Congress. Furthermore, property in slaves was to be "protected by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance." States would be admitted to the Union from any territory with or without slavery as their constitutions provided.

2. Congress was forbidden to abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction within a slave state such as a military post. 3. Congress could not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it existed in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland and without the consent of the District's inhabitants. Compensation would be given to owners who refused consent to abolition. 4. Congress could not but prohibit or interfere with the interstate slave trade. 5. Congress would provide full compensation to owners of rescued fugitive slaves. Congress was empowered to sue the county in which obstruction to the fugitive slave laws took place to recover payment; the county, in turn, could sue "the wrong doers or rescuers" who prevented the return of the fugitive. 6. No future amendment of the Constitution could change these amendments or authorize or empower Congress to interfere with slavery within any slave state.

Fugitive Slave Laws

1. That fugitive slave laws were constitutional and should be faithfully observed and executed.

2. That all state laws which impeded the operation of fugitive slave laws, the so-called "Personal liberty laws," were unconstitutional and should be repealed. 3. That the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 should be modified [and rendered less objectionable to the North] by equalizing the fee schedule for returning or releasing alleged fugitives and limiting the powers of marshals to summon citizens to aid in their capture. 4. That laws for the suppression of the African slave trade should be effectively and thoroughly executed.

1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart

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II. Continued By February 1861 Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,

Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had joined South Carolina in secession. They chose Jefferson Davis, a Mississippi senator, as their president.

The Southern states felt justified in leaving the Union because, they argued, they had voluntarily entered the Union..

F. While the Southern states were seceding, James Buchanan was still president. Buchanan sent a message to Congress stating that the Southern states had no right to secede. He added that the United States government did not have the power to stop them.

In his inaugural speech in March 1861, Lincoln took on a calming tone. He said secession would not be permitted, but pleaded with the South for reconciliation.

Ordinances of Secession13 Confederate States of America

Abraham Lincoln

Final Portion of First Inaugural AddressMonday, March 4, 1861

“ In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." “ I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

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III. Fort Sumter (Page 453)

Confederate forces had taken over some federal property after secession.

On the day after his inauguration, Lincoln received a message from the commander of Fort Sumter, which was located on an island at the entrance of the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina. The fort was low on supplies, and the Confederates were demanding its surrender.

Lincoln informed the governor of South Carolina that the Union would send supplies to the fort.

The Confederates responded by attacking Fort Sumter on the fort on April 12, 1861. The fort surrendered on April 14, with no loss of life on either side. This was the first attack of the Civil War

News of the attack got the North fired up. Lincoln's call for volunteers to fight the Confederacy was quickly answered.

In the meantime, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas also voted to join the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun.

Flag Raising Ceremony, Fort Sumter: A crowd awaits the raising of the American flag in April, 1865. The Confederate Flag flew over Fort Sumter throughout the Civil War.

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Why do you think the Confederacy decided to fire on Fort Sumter rather than accept Lincoln’s request to peacefully resupply the soldiers there?

The Confederacy wanted to drive home the point that it did not want reconciliation with the Union and intended to fight to maintain itself as a separate nation.

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Pick one of the following questions to answer on tomorrow’s test

How did sectionalism lead to Civil War?

Why was the Dred Scott decision important?