Chapter 18

A Divided Nation

(1848-1860)

Chapter 18 A Divided Nation

(1848-1860)

Section 1

The Debate over Slavery

The Expansion of Slavery• Mexican cession (addition of territory) renewed

the debate over slavery• President Polk wanted to run the line set by the

Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean dividing the Mexican cession into free and slave territory

• Wilmot Proviso – proposed prohibiting slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession

• Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan pushed for popular sovereignty – allowing voters in the territories to decide whether they wanted to allow or ban slavery

The Expansion of Slavery (continued)

• Debate over slavery dominated the presidential campaign of 1848– Neither Whigs nor Democrats

took a clear position on slavery in the West

• Free-Soil Party – formed by thousands of anti-slavery northerners

• Zachary Taylor (Whig) was able to win election

The Expansion of Slavery (continued)

• California Gold Rush caused a population boom that allowed California to skip the territorial stage

• When California applied for statehood, the majority of its residents wanted California to enter the Union as a free state

The Compromise of 1850• Henry Clay (“The Great Compromiser”)

helped settle the Missouri crisis and the nullification crisis

• The questions of whether California would be admitted to the Union as a free state or a slave state led Henry Clay to offer a series of proposals to address all of the current issues of sectional disagreement

• Senator William Seward (NY) demanded admission of California without conditions or compromises

The Compromise of 1850 (continued)

• Senator John C. Calhoun (SC) asked Congress to allow the slave states to peacefully leave the Union if California was admitted as a free state in 1850

• Senator Daniel Webster (MA) favored Clay’s plan – during a stirring speech to Congress, he criticized abolitionists and scolded southerners who spoke for disunion

The Compromise of 1850 (continued)

• Conditions of the Compromise of 1850– California entered as free state– Mexican Cession divided into two

territories – Utah and New Mexico – status decided by popular sovereignty

– Texas agreed to give up claims in New Mexico, federal government gave TX financial assistance it needed

– Outlawed slave trade in D.C. and produced new fugitive slave law

The Fugitive Slave Act

• Part of the Compromise of 1850

• Made it a federal crime to help runaway slaves

• Alarmed by the number of accused fugitive slaves who were returned to the South after 1850, thousands of African Americans in the North fled to Canada to avoid capture

Antislavery Literature• Slave narratives used to help

the abolitionist cause

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin – written by Harriet Beecher Stowe – powerful antislavery novel– Wrote UTC after the passage of

the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to show northerners what slavery was really like

– Sparked outrage in South, gained praise in the North

– Book’s popularity caused some to remark that Stowe had created “two million abolitionists”

Chapter 18 A Divided Nation

(1848-1860)Section 2

Trouble in Kansas

The Election of 1852• Democrats chose Franklin Pierce

– Although he was from New England, southerners trusted him because he promised to honor the Compromise of 1850 and enforce the Fugitive Slave Act

• Whigs chose Winfield Scott (Mexican War hero)– Although he was a southerner, he lost

support in the South because he failed to completely support the Compromise of 1850

• Pierce (Democrats) won election by large margin

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Stephen Douglas wanted to build a railroad from Chicago to the Pacific

• The rest of the Louisiana Purchase had to become a federal territory for this to happen

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Southerner’s did not support Douglas’s plan – wanted their own railroad running across already organized territory in the south to the Pacific

• Douglas convinced some southerners to support his plan in exchange for opening the territory west of Missouri to slavery

• Stephen Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill when southern senators agreed to abandon their plan for a southern railroad route if the new territory west of Missouri was opened to slavery

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (continued)

• In 1854 Douglas introduced a bill (Kansas Nebraska Act) in Congress that would organize the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase into two territories, each to determine the slavery question by popular sovereignty

• Douglas and President Pierce pressured other Democrats to vote for it

“Bleeding Kansas”• Antislavery and proslavery groups rushed to

populate Kansas• Elections for the Kansas territorial legislature

were held in March 1855• To ensure a proslavery victory thousands of

men crossed the border from Missouri, voted, then went home

• The new territorial legislature located at Lecompton had a huge proslavery majority

• Antislavery Kansans formed their own legislature in Topeka

“Bleeding Kansas” (continued)

• The “Sack of Lawrence” referred to the attack on Lawrence by pro-slavery forces

• Many antislavery activists in Kansas wanted to get shipments of weapons from abolitionists in the East

• Abolitionist John Brown decided to punish proslavery forces for the “Sack of Lawrence”– He led a group of 7 men

along the Pottawatomie Creek killing 5 proslavery men in what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre

“Bleeding Kansas” (continued)

• Kansas collapsed into civil war – became known as “Bleeding Kansas”

• A Congressman (Brooks) resorted to violence in the Senate chamber in 1856 after a northern senator (Sumner) insulted a senator from South Carolina (Butler) – Brooks beat Sumner

unconscious with his cane; afterwards, many southerners sent Brooks new canes

Chapter 18 A Divided Nation

(1848-1860)Section 3

Political Divisions

New Divisions

• Republican Party formed by Whigs, some Democrats, Free-Soilers and abolitionist in 1854 – united to oppose spread of slavery west

• After nearly 60 northern Democrats voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, only seven of them retained their House seats in the next election

• The Whig Party was most damaged by passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

New Divisions

• Know-Nothings chose Millard Fillmore

• Pennsylvanian James Buchanan was nominated for president by the Democrats in 1856 because he had avoided the Kansas-Nebraska Act controversy

• At its first presidential nominating convention, the Republican Party chose as it candidate John C. Frémont

• Buchanan won – 14/15 slave states, 5 free

The Dred Scott Decision

• Dred Scott sued (1846) for his freedom, saying that he had become free when he lived in free territory (traveled with owner)

• Case reached supreme court in 1856 – 3 key issues– Was Scott a citizen of the U.S.? (to determine

if he was eligible to sue in federal court)

– Did the time he spent living on free soil make him free?

– Was the ban on slavery in parts of the Louisiana Purchase constitutional? (would affect the Missouri Compromise)

The Dred Scott Decision (continued)

• Roger Taney – Chief Justice (from slaveholding family in Maryland) wrote majority of Dred Scott decision in March 1857

• The majority of Supreme Court justices who heard the Dred Scott case were from the South

The Dred Scott Decision (continued)

• Dred Scott decision - – As a noncitizen, Scott did not

have the right to sue in federal court

– His status, as free or slave, depended on the laws of Missouri, where his owner lived

– Ruled that Congress could not prohibit someone from taking slaves into a federal territory because slaves were considered property

• Missouri Compromise restriction on slavery north of 36°30’ = unconstitutional

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• In 1858, Lincoln was nominated for U.S. Senate seat vs. Democrat Stephen Douglas (Illinois)

• Douglas well-known for Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Lincoln challenged Douglas to series of debates in Illinois to take advantage of his opponent’s fame to gain recognition

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Lincoln stressed the central issue in the campaign involved slavery and its future in the west

• Douglas criticized Lincoln for saying country could not remain half free, half slave– Said Republicans

would want to make every state free

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine, Stephen Douglas upheld popular sovereignty over the power of the Supreme Court

• As a result of the debates, Lincoln became one of the most important leaders of the new Republican Party

Chapter 18 A Divided Nation

(1848-1860)Section 4

Secession

The Raid on Harpers Ferry

• John Brown worked to start a slave uprising

• Wanted to attack the federal arsenal in Virginia and seize weapons stored there

• John Brown’s raid began on night of October 16, 1859

• After John Brown seized the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, he hoped slaves in the region would join him, but none did

Judging John Brown

• Brown charged and convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy to stir up slave rebellion – executed December 2, 1859

• Many in the North mourned his death, but not everyone who opposed slavery supported his actions

• Lincoln reacted to the hanging of John Brown by refusing to excuse Brown’s violent tactics

The Election of 1860

• The Democratic Party split in two in 1860 because northern and southern members could not agree on a candidate– North nominated Stephen

Douglas– South nominated VP John

C. Breckinridge • Presidential candidate John

C. Breckinridge was a slaveholder who did not believe a Republican victory in the election justified secession

The Election of 1860

• Constitutional Union Party, formed by Northerners and Southerners (many former Whigs), focused exclusively on respecting the Constitution, preserving the Union, and enforcing the nation’s laws – Nominated John Bell (TN)

• Republicans chose Lincoln

The Election of 1860 (continued)

• Lincoln gained less than 40% of the popular vote, but won 180 of the 183 electoral votes in the free states

• Lincoln’s election to the presidency angered many southerners because he did not carry a single southern state

• Strong reminder of how south was losing its political power on the national level

Breaking with the Union

• Many southerners believed that Lincoln, if elected, would move to abolish slavery

• Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery but promised not to support abolishing it where it already existed

Breaking with the Union

• 4 days after Lincoln’s election, South Carolina’s legislature called for a special convention to consider the question of secession

• The first state to formally withdraw from the Union was South Carolina (December 20, 1860)

• The Constitution does not directly address the issue of secession

Breaking with the Union (continued)

• While the South Carolina secession convention was under way, a plan to save the Union was introduced in Congress by John J. Crittenden

• The last minute effort to prevent southern states from seceding was called the Crittenden Compromise

The Confederate States of America

• The Confederate States of America was a new nation with its own constitution and own officials

The Confederate States of America

• By February 1, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded

• February 4th – delegates met in Montgomery, Alabama (first capital of CSA)

• Jefferson Davis of Mississippi elected president