Material—January 30 - Chapter 18 - pgs 398 – 406Chapters 18 and 19 - pgs 406-417

•the Election of 1852 •the Ostend Manifesto •the Gadsden Purchase•the Kansas-Nebraska Act•Charles Sumner•John Brown•Bleeding Kansas•Election of 1856

Topic: Chapter 18—Renewing the Sectional Struggle (1848 – 1854)Chapter 19—Drifting Toward Disunion (1854-1861)Aim: Identify and explain how the challenges of the Kansas Territory encapsulated all the problems of the 1850s and were the “Civil War in miniature”

the Fugitive Slave Law increased anti-slavery movement:•Mass. made it a penal offense for any state official to enforce the new federal statute•Other states passed “personal liberty laws”•non-committal Whigs pressed by conscience Whigs•Free Soilers saw “Slave Power” conspiracy•Northern Democrats under pressure

Candidate Party/State

Winfield Scott Whig/Virginia

Millard Fillmore Whig/New York

Franklin Pierce Democrat/New Hampshire

William King Democrat/Alabama

John P. Hale Free Soil/New Hampshire

Daniel Webster Union Party/Massachusetts

Election of 1852

Results:1. devastating defeat of Whigs2. increased internal tension in Whig party between pro-slavery Southerners and anti-slavery Northerners,

the Whig Party quickly fell apart 3. some Southern Whigs would join the Democratic Party4. many Northern Whigs would help to form the new Republican Party in 1854. 5. Some Whigs in both sections would support the so-called “”Know Nothing”party in the 1856 presidential

election.

Southern “slavocrats” looked southward—the spread of the “Slave Power” conspiracy:Option #1: Nicaragua—attractive because of possible canal

• William Walker grabbed control and installed himself president in July 1856 and promptly legalized slavery—”filibustering”

Option #2: Cuba—attractive because of existing slave population, large territory, sugar•Ostend Manifesto described the rationale for the US purchase Cuba from Spain (Polk had offered $100 million) while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused

problem: transportation California and Oregon were 3000 miles west of the nation’s capital, sea routes were too long, covered wagon travel was slow and dangerous

solution: a transcontinental railroad—and the South wanted the route (Secretary of War-Jefferson Davis (Virginia), James Gadsden (South Carolina)—Ambassador to Mexico)

controversy: Gadsden Purchase (1853) cost $10 million, intensified “Slave Power” Conspiracy and territorial issues—popular sovereignty

Chapter 18—Key Themes

Theme: The sectional conflict over the expansion of slavery that erupted after the Mexican War was temporarily quieted by the Compromise of 1850, but Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 exploded it again.

Theme: In the 1850s, American expansionism in the West and the Caribbean was extremely controversial because it was tied to the slavery question.

Theme: Commercial interests guided American foreign policy in Asia and contributed to sectional tension within the United States, as regions tried to secure the terminus to a transcontinental railroad.

Uncle Tom ‘s Cabin vs. The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) by Hinton R. Helper:

Hating slavery, he attempted to prove by an array of statistics that, indirectly, the nonslaveholding whites were the ones who suffered most from the millstone of slavery

• The proposed Territory of Nebraska would be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska (see Map 18.7)

– Slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty– Kansas, west of slaveholding Missouri, presumably would choose to become a slave state– Nebraska, west of free-soil Iowa, presumably would become a free state.– Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska scheme flatly contradicted the Missouri Compromise of 1820

In 1855 election day for the first territorial legislature:

•Saw proslavery “border ruffians” pour in from Missouri to vote early and often•The slavery supporters triumphed and then set up their own puppet government at Shawnee, MO.•The free-soilers established an extralegal regime of their own in Topeka

Confused Kansans had their choice of two governments:

• One based on fraud• One based on illegalityTensions

mounted as settlers feuded over conflicting land claims

• Breaking point (1856) when a gang of proslavery raiders, alleging provocation, shot up and burned part of the free-soil town of Lawrence

• This outrage was but the prelude to bloodier tragedy.

John Brown’s Raids:

•Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856

•There they literally hacked to pieces 5 surprised men, presumed to be proslaveryites

•This terrorist butchery besmirched the free-soil cause•It also brought vicious retaliation from proslavery forces

•Open fighting and civil war broke out in Kansas later in 1856

Kansas Applied for Statehood with Lecompton Constitution: proslavery forces document

•the people were not allowed to vote for or against the constitution as a whole•But for the constitution either “with slavery” or a constitution “with no slavery”•Whatever the outcome there would still be black bondage•Free-soilers boycotted the polls•The proslaveryites approved the constitution with slavery late in 1857

•the Election of 1856•the Panic of 1857•the Dred Scott case•the Election of 1860•the Crittenden Amendment•Fort Sumter

Material—February 1 - Chapter 19 - pgs 417-433 and Chapter 20 - pgs 434 -452

Topic: Chapter 18—Renewing the Sectional Struggle (1848 – 1854)Chapter 19—Drifting Toward Disunion (1854-1861)Aim: To what extent was the Civil War inevitable by 1858?What economic and political factors made holding the Union together difficult?

Republican Party

John Fremont: California

William Dayton: New Jersey

Democratic Party

James Buchanan: Pennsylvania

John Breckenridge: Kentucky

“Know Nothing” Party

Millard Fillmore: New York

William Donelson: Ohio

Why the Republican defeat:•Frémont’s lack of honesty, capacity, and sound judgment•Violent threat that the election of a sectional “Black Republican” would be a declaration of war, forcing the South to secede•Many northerners were intimidated to vote for Buchanan•Innate conservatism triumphed, assisted by so-called southern bullying•In 1856 the North was more willing to let the South depart in peace than in 1860

John Fremont: California James Buchanan: Pennsylvania

Roger Taney—Maryland5th Chief Justice of the United States

Dred Scott v. Sanford case was based on the fact that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, he had lived with his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where

slavery was illegal

•parody on the 1860 presidential contest, highlighting the impact of the Dred Scott decision on the race.•controversial decision, handed down in 1857 by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, ruled that neither the federal government nor territorial governments could prohibit slavery in the territories. •future of slavery in the United States was addressed by several of the contenders during the 1860 race.•the four presidential candidates dance with members of their supposed respective constituencies.

Breckenridge and Buchanan Abraham Lincoln

John Bell

Stephen Douglas

7-2 Majority in Court went further: Compromise of 1820 had been unconstitutional all along:•Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories, regardless of what the territorial legislatures themselves might want

Analytic Question!

How did John Brown’s raids entrench sectional divisions?

Panic of 1857: why the crash?•Inpouring California gold helped to inflate the currency•The demands of the Crimean War (Russia, 1853-1856) overstimulated the growing of grain•Frenzied speculation in land and railroads

Over 5000 businesses failed•North and its grain growers hardest hit—reliance on grain exports and investment•South enjoyed favorable cotton prices abroad—even if cotton prices dropped, demand would remain more or less steady

John Brown at Harpers Ferry, Virginia:

•he seized the federal arsenal in October 1859•Incidentally killing seven innocent people, killing a free black and injuring ten or more•Slaves ignored Brown’s strike, failed to rise, and wounded Brown•Abolitionists and ardent free-soilers were infuriated by Brown’s execution•Free-soil centers in the North tolled bells

•Fired guns, lowered flags, and held rallies•The ghost of the martyred Brown would not be laid to rest

Scheme to make outright gifts of homesteads:

•Eastern industrialists opposed free land giveaways

•South opposed because they didn’t think gang-labor slavery could flourish on a mere 160 acres

•Congress (1860) passed a homestead act

•Public land available for 25 cent an acre•It was killed by President Buchanan’s veto before he left office

The panic of 1857 created a clamor for higher tariff rates:

•There was a large Treasury surplus

James Buchanan: Pennsylvania

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Freeport Doctrine:•No matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down•Laws to protect slavery would have to be passed by the territorial legislatures

•In the absence of popular approval, black bondage would soon disappear•Where public opinion does not support the federal government, as in the case of Jefferson’s embargo (see pp. 216-218), the law is impossible to enforced.

•The ballot box did not indicate a strong sentiment for secession•Breckinridge polled fewer votes in the slave states than the combined strength of his opponents Douglas and Bell – He failed to carry his own state of Kentucky.Even though the Republicans had elected Lincoln:•They controlled neither the Senate nor the House.•The federal government could not touch slavery, except by a constitutional amendment.

South Carolina had threatened to go out if the “sectional” Lincoln won:•4 days later they voted to call a special convention•Meeting in Charleston, December 1860, the convention voted unanimously to secede•During the next six weeks other southern states voted to secede•Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas•Four more would join late, bringing the total to eleven

Crittenden amendments:

Sponsored by Senator John Jordan Crittenden, Kentucky•Sponsored by Senator John Jordan Crittenden, Kentucky•December 18, 1860—as convention met in South•Designed to appease the South•Slavery in the territories was to be prohibited north of the 36-30 latitude, but south of that line it was to be given federal protection in all territories existing or “hereafter to be acquired”•Future states north of this line could come into the Union with or without slavery, as they should choose•Slavery supporters were to be guaranteed full rights in the southern territories regardless of popular sovereignty

Senator John Jordan Crittenden, Kentucky

Analytic Question!

To what extent did Southerners support secession?

Why the South left the Union:

•Most related to the issue of slavery•Southerners were dismayed by the triumph of the new Republican party•They were weary of free-soil criticism:

Abolitionist naggingNorthern interference ranging from the Underground Railroad to John Brown’s raid

•Supported secession because they felt sure that their departure would be unopposed•Southerners saw it as a golden opportunity to cast aside their generations of “vassalage” to the North—Few southern states felt that they were doing anything wrong or immoral

Historical parallel ran even deeper:

•1776 thirteen American colonies, led by the rebel George Washington, seceded from the British empire by throwing off the yoke of King George III•1860-1861 eleven American states, led by the rebel Jefferson Davis, were seceding from the Union by throwing off the yoke of “King” Abraham Lincoln•With that burden gone, the South was confident that it could work its own peculiar destiny more quietly, happily, and prosperously