History CH 15

sectionalism

In addition, the North and the South, with their different economic systems, were competing for new lands in the western territories. At the same time, a growing number of Northerners wanted to restrict or ban slavery. Southerners, even those who disliked slavery, opposed these antislavery efforts. They resented the interference by outsiders in Southerners' affairs. These differences between the North and the South grew into an exaggerated loyalty to a particular region of the country.

arsenal

After the 1858 elections, Southerners began to feel threatened by growing Republican power. In late 1859, an act of violence greatly increased their fears. On October 16 the abolitionist John Brown led 18 men, both whites and African Americans, on a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His target was a storage place for weapons and ammunition. Brown—who had killed five proslavery Kansans in 1856—hoped to start a rebellion against slaveholders by arming enslaved African Americans. His raid had been financed by a group of abolitionists.

March 4, 1861

As Lincoln prepared for his inauguration on _______________, people in both the North and the South wondered what he would say and do. They wondered, too, what would happen in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas. These slave states had chosen to remain in the Union, but the decision was not final. If the United States used force against the Confederate States of America, the remaining slave states also might secede. In his Inaugural Address, the new president mixed toughness and words of peace. He said that secession would not be permitted, vowing to hold federal property in the South and to enforce the laws of the United States. At the same time, Lincoln pleaded with the people of the South for reconciliation.

CH 15 Sec 1

As new states entered the Union, the question of whether to admit them as free states or slave states arose.

popular sovereignty

Because of their location, Kansas and Nebraska seemed likely to become free states. Both lay north of 36°30'N latitude, the line established in the Missouri Compromise as the boundary of slavery. Douglas knew that Southerners would object to having Kansas and Nebraska become free states because it would give the North an advantage in the Senate. As a result Douglas proposed abandoning the Missouri Compromise and letting the settlers in each territory vote on whether to allow slavery. He called this allowing the people to decide.

Confederate States of America

By February 1861, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had joined South Carolina and also seceded. Delegates from these states and South Carolina met in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4 to form a new nation and government. They chose Jefferson Davis, a senator from Mississippi, as their president.

John C. Frémont

Democrats and Republicans met again in the presidential election of 1856. The Whig Party, disintegrating over the slavery issue, did not offer a candidate of its own. The Republicans chose this guy from California as their candidate for president. He had gained fame as an explorer in the West. The party platform called for free territories and its campaign slogan became "Free soil, free speech, and ____________."

congressional election of 1858

Douglas claimed that Lincoln wanted African Americans to be fully equal to whites. Lincoln denied this. Still, Lincoln said, "in the right to eat the bread . . . which his own hand earns, [an African American] is my equal and the equal of [Senator] Douglas, and the equal of every living man." The real issue, Lincoln said, is "between the men who think slavery a wrong and those who do not think it wrong. The Republican Party thinks it wrong." Following the debates, Douglas won a narrow victory in the election. Lincoln lost the election but gained a national reputation.

Texas, New Mexico and California

For the next 25 years, Congress managed to keep the slavery issue in the background. In the 1840s, however, this heated debate moved back into Congress. Once again the cause of the dispute was the issue of slavery in new territories. The territories involved were ______, which had won its independence from Mexico in 1836, and _____ ____________ and ____________, which were still part of Mexico.

Ch 15 Sec 2

Growing tensions led to differences that could not be solved by compromise.

Ch 15 Sec 4

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln's election as president of the United States was followed by Southern states leaving the Union.

A New Compromise

In January 1850, Henry Clay, now a senator, presented a multi-part plan to settle all the issues dividing Congress. First, California would be admitted as a free state. Second, the New Mexico Territory would have no restrictions on slavery. Third, the New Mexico-Texas border dispute would be settled in favor of New Mexico. Fourth, the slave trade, but not slavery itself, would be abolished in the District of Columbia. Finally, Clay pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law.

Passage of the Act

Many Northerners protested strongly. Douglas's plan to repeal the Missouri Compromise would allow slavery into areas that had been free for more than 30 years. Opponents of the bill demanded that Congress vote down the bill. Southerners in Congress, however, provided solid support for the bill. They expected that Kansas would be settled in large part by slaveholders from Missouri who would vote to keep slavery legal. With some support from Northern Democrats and the backing of President Pierce, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854. Northern Democrats in the House split almost evenly on the vote, revealing deep divisions in the party. Many Northerners became convinced that compromise with the South was no longer possible. Sam Houston, senator from Texas, predicted that the bill "will convulse [upset] the country from Maine to the Rio Grande."

James Polk

Many Southerners hoped to see Texas, where slavery already existed, join the Union. As a result, the annexation of Texas became the main issue in the presidential election of 1844. This Democrat of Tennessee won the election and pressed forward on acquiring Texas, and Texas became a state in 1845. At the same time, support for taking over New Mexico and California also grew in the South. The federal government's actions on these lands led to war with Mexico.

civil war

More violence followed as armed bands roamed the territory. Newspapers began referring to "Bleeding Kansas" and "the Civil War in Kansas." Not until October of 1856 did John Geary, the newly appointed territorial governor, stop the bloodshed in Kansas. He suppressed guerrilla forces and used 1,300 federal troops.

Freeport Doctrine

Not as well known as Douglas, Lincoln challenged the senator to a series of debates. Douglas reluctantly agreed. The two met seven times in August, September, and October of 1858 in cities and villages throughout Illinois. Thousands came to these debates. The main topic, of course, was slavery. During the debate at Freeport, Lincoln pressed Douglas about his views on popular sovereignty. Could the people of a territory legally exclude slavery before achieving statehood? Douglas replied that the people could exclude slavery by refusing to pass laws protecting slaveholders' rights.

Dred Scott

President Buchanan took office on March 4, 1857. Two days later the Supreme Court announced a decision about slavery and the territories that shook the nation. This man was an enslaved African American bought by an army doctor in Missouri, a slave state. In the 1830s the doctor moved his household to Illinois, a free state, and then to the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was banned by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Later the family returned to Missouri, where the doctor died. In 1846, with the help of antislavery lawyers, he sued for his freedom. He claimed he should be free because he had once lived on free soil. Eleven years later, in the midst of growing anger over the slavery issue, the case reached the Supreme Court. The case attracted enormous attention. While the immediate issue was this man's status, the Court also had the opportunity to rule on the question of slavery in territories. Many Americans hoped that the Court would resolve the issue for good.

abstain

President Fillmore persuaded several Whig representatives to not cast votes on measures they opposed. Congress finally passed a series of five separate bills in August and September of 1850. Taken together these laws, known as the Compromise of 1850, contained the five main points of Clay's original plan. Fillmore called the compromise a "final settlement" of the conflict between North and South. The president would soon be proved wrong.

Ch 15 Sec 3

Social, economic, and political differences divided the North and South.

The Know Nothings

The American Party had grown quickly between 1853 and 1856 by attacking immigrants. They nominated former president Millard Fillmore. The presidential vote divided along rigid sectional lines. Buchanan won the election, winning all of the Southern states except Maryland and received 174 electoral votes compared to 114 for Frémont and 8 for Fillmore. Frémont did not receive a single electoral vote south of the Mason-Dixon line, but he carried 11 of the 16 free states.

Roger B. Taney

The Court's decision electrified the nation. Chief Justice said that Dred Scott was still a slave. As a slave, Scott was not a citizen and had no right to bring a lawsuit. He could have stopped there, but he decided to address the broader issues. He wrote that Scott's residence on free soil did not make him free. An enslaved person was property, and the Fifth Amendment prohibits Congress from taking away property without "due process of law." Finally, He wrote that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in any territory. The Missouri Compromise—which had banned slavery north of 36°30'N latitude—was unconstitutional. For that matter, so was popular sovereignty. Not even the voters in a territory could prohibit slavery because that would amount to taking away a person's property. In effect, the decision meant that the Constitution protected slavery.

James Buchanan

The Democratic Party nominated this man of Pennsylvania, an experienced diplomat and former member of Congress. The party endorsed the idea of popular sovereignty.

Lincoln Nominated

The Republicans nominated This man. Their platform, designed to attract voters from many quarters, was that slavery should be left undisturbed where it existed, but that it should be excluded from the territories. Many Southerners feared, however, that a Republican victory would encourage slave revolts.

secede

The greatest obstacle to Taylor's plan was concern over the balance of power in the Senate. In 1849 the nation included 15 slave states and 15 free states. If California entered as a free state—and New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah followed as free states, which seemed likely—the South would be hopelessly outvoted in the Senate. As tension grew, some Southerners began talking about having their states leave the United States.

Missouri

The request by slaveholding _________ to join the Union in 1819 caused an angry debate that worried former president Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Jefferson called the dispute "a fire-bell in the night" that "awakened and filled me with terror." Adams accurately predicted that the bitter debate was "a mere preamble—a title-page to a great tragic volume." Many _________ settlers had brought enslaved African Americans into the territory with them. By 1819 the Territory included about 50,000 whites and 10,000 slaves. When the territory applied to Congress for admission as a state, its constitution allowed slavery. In 1819, 11 states permitted slavery and 11 did not. The Senate—with two members from each state—was therefore evenly balanced between slave and free states. The admission of a new state would upset that balance.

states' rights

The states, they argued, had voluntarily chosen to enter the Union. They defined the Constitution as a contract among the independent states. Now because the national government had violated that contract—by refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and by denying the Southern states equal rights in the territories—the states were justified in leaving the Union.

Preston Brooks

Two days after the speech, Butler's distant cousin, a Representative, walked into the Senate chamber. He hit Sumner again and again over the head and shoulders with a cane. Sumner fell to the floor, unconscious and bleeding. He suffered injuries so severe that he did not return to the Senate for several years. The ___________-Sumner incident and the fighting in "Bleeding Kansas" revealed the rising level of hostility between North and South.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

required all citizens to help catch runaways. Anyone who aided a fugitive could be fined or imprisoned. People in the South believed the law would force Northerners to recognize the rights of Southerners. Instead, enforcement of the law led to mounting anger in the North, convincing more people of the evils of slavery. After passage of this law, slaveholders stepped up their efforts to catch runaway slaves. They even tried to capture runaways who had lived in freedom in the North for years. Sometimes they seized African Americans who were not escaped slaves and forced them into slavery.

Abraham Lincoln

Born in the poor backcountry of Kentucky, This man moved to Indiana as a child, and later to Illinois. Like Douglas, he was intelligent, ambitious, and a successful lawyer. He had little formal education—but excellent political instincts. Although he saw slavery as morally wrong, he admitted there was no easy way to eliminate slavery where it already existed. He was certain, though, that slavery should not be allowed to spread.

martyr

Brown and his men were quickly defeated by local citizens and federal troops. Brown was convicted of treason and murder and was sentenced to hang. His execution caused an uproar in the North. Some antislavery Northerners, including Republican leaders, denounced Brown's use of violence. Others viewed Brown as a hero. Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson called Brown a person who dies for a great cause. John Brown's death became a rallying point for abolitionists. When Southerners learned of Brown's connection to abolitionists, their fears of a great Northern conspiracy against them seemed to be confirmed. The nation was on the brink of disaster.

Compromise of 1850

Clay's plan could not pass as a complete package. Too many members of Congress objected to one part of it or another. President Taylor also opposed the plan and threatened to use force against the South if states tried to secede. Then in July President Taylor suddenly died. The new president, Millard Fillmore, supported some form of compromise. At the same time, Stephen A. Douglas, a young senator from Illinois, took charge of efforts to resolve the crisis. Douglas divided Clay's plan into a series measures that Congress could vote on separately. In this way members of Congress would not have to support proposals they opposed. Congress finally passed a series of five separate bills in August and September of 1850. Taken together these laws contained the five main points of Clay's original plan. Fillmore called the compromise a "final settlement" of the conflict between North and South. The president would soon be proved wrong.

Daniel Webster

Clay's proposal launched an emotional debate in Congress that raged for seven months. Opening that debate were Clay and two other distinguished senators—John C. Calhoun of South Carolina and ________________ of Massachusetts. Calhoun opposed Clay's plan. He believed that the only way to save the Union was to protect slavery. If Congress admitted California as a free state, Calhoun warned, the Southern states had to leave the Union. Three days later This man gave an eloquent speech in support of Clay's plan. He argued that antislavery forces lost little in agreeing to the compromise: "I would rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, war, pestilence, and famine, than to hear gentlemen talk of secession." He reasoned that geography would prevent slavery from taking root in the new territories, since most of the land was not suited for plantations. What was most important was to preserve the Union.

secession

Even after South Carolina's action, many people still wished to preserve the Union. The question was how. As other Southern states debated withdrawal from the Union, leaders in Washington, D.C., worked frantically to fashion a last-minute compromise. On December 18, 1860, Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a series of amendments to the Constitution. Central to Crittenden's plan was a provision to protect slavery south of 36°30'N latitude—the line set by the Missouri Compromise—in all territories "now held or hereafter acquired." Republicans considered this unacceptable. They had just won an election on the principle that slavery would not be extended in any territories. "Now we are told," Lincoln said, Leaders in the South also rejected the plan. "We spit upon every plan to compromise," exclaimed one Southern leader. "No human power can save the Union," wrote another.

Republican Party

Even before Brown's raid, other events had driven the North and South further apart. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Democratic Party began to divide along sectional lines, with Northern Democrats leaving the party. Differing views over the slavery issue destroyed the Whig Party. In 1854 antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined forces with Free-Soilers to form the _____________. The new group was determined to rally "for the establishment of liberty and the overthrow of the Slave Power." They challenged the proslavery Whigs and Democrats, choosing candidates to run in the state and congressional elections of 1854. Their main message was that the government should ban slavery from new territories. They quickly showed its strength in the North. In the election, they won control of the House of Representatives and of several state governments. In the South they had almost no support. Northern Democrats suffered a beating. Almost three-fourths of the Democratic candidates from free states lost in 1854. The party was increasingly becoming a Southern party.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Franklin Pierce, a New Hampshire Democrat who supported the Fugitive Slave Act, became president in 1853. Pierce intended to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, and his actions hardened the opposition. In 1854 the dispute over slavery erupted in Congress again. The cause was a bill introduced by Stephen A. Douglas, the Illinois senator who had forged the Compromise of 1850. Hoping to encourage settlement of the West and open the way for a transcontinental railroad, Douglas proposed organizing the region west of Missouri and Iowa as the territories of _________ and _______________. Douglas was trying to work out a plan for the nation to expand that both the North and the South would accept. Instead his bill reopened the conflict about slavery in the territories.

Resistance to the Law

In spite of the penalties, many Northerners refused to cooperate with the law's enforcement. The Underground Railroad, a network of free African Americans and whites, helped runaways make their way to freedom. Antislavery groups tried to rescue African Americans who were being pursued or to free those who were captured. In Boston, members of one such group followed federal agents shouting, "Slave hunters—there go the slave hunters." People contributed funds to buy the freedom of African Americans. Northern juries refused to convict those accused of breaking the Fugitive Slave Law.

Stephen A. Douglas

In the congressional election of 1858, the Senate race in Illinois was the center of national attention. The contest pitted the current senator against a Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln People considered this man a likely candidate for president in 1860. The other was nearly an unknown. This man, a successful lawyer, had joined the Democratic Party and won election to the House in 1842 and to the Senate in 1846. Short, stocky, and powerful, he was called "the Little Giant." He disliked slavery but thought that the controversy over it would interfere with the nation's growth. He believed the issue could be resolved through popular sovereignty.

Wilmot Proviso

Just months after the Mexican War began, Representative David __________ of Pennsylvania introduced a proposal in Congress. Called the _________ ______________, it specified that slavery should be prohibited in any lands that might be acquired from Mexico. Southerners protested furiously. They wanted to keep open the possibility of introducing slavery to California and New Mexico. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina countered with another proposal. It stated that neither Congress nor any territorial government had the authority to ban slavery from a territory or regulate it in any way. Neither ___________'s nor Calhoun's proposal passed, but both caused bitter debate. By the time of the 1848 presidential election, the United States had gained the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico but had taken no action on the issue of slavery in those areas.

The South Secedes

Lincoln and the Republicans had promised not to disturb slavery where it already existed. Many people in the South, however, did not trust the party, fearing that the Republican administration would not protect Southern rights. On December 20, 1860, the South's long-standing threat to leave the Union became a reality when South Carolina held a special convention and voted to secede.

December 1860

Lincoln had won the election, but he was not yet president. James Buchanan's term ran until March 4, 1861. In ______________, Buchanan sent a message to Congress saying that the Southern states had no right to secede. Then he added that he had no power to stop them from doing so. As Lincoln prepared for his inauguration on March 4, 1861, people in both the North and the South wondered what he would say and do.

April 14, 1861.

Lincoln responded by sending a message to Governor Francis Pickens of South Carolina that he was sending an unarmed expedition with supplies to Fort Sumter. Lincoln promised that Union forces would not "throw in men, arms, or ammunition" unless they were fired upon. The president thus left the decision to start shooting up to the Confederates. Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his advisers ordered their forces to attack Fort Sumter before the Union supplies could arrive. Confederate guns opened fire on the fort. High seas had prevented Union relief ships from reaching the besieged fort. The Union garrison held out for 33 hours before surrendering on ____________. Thousands of shots were exchanged during the siege, but there was no loss of life on either side. News of the attack galvanized the North. President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 troops to fight to save the Union, and volunteers quickly signed up. Meanwhile, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to join the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun.

Reactions to Secession

Many Southerners welcomed secession. In Charleston, South Carolina, people rang church bells, fired cannons, and celebrated in the streets. A newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, said the South "will never submit" and would defend its liberties no matter what the cost. Virginian Robert E. Lee expressed concern about the future. "I see only that a fearful calamity is upon us," he wrote. In the North some abolitionists preferred to allow the Southern states to leave. If the Union could be kept together only by compromising on slavery, they declared, then let the Union be destroyed. Most Northerners, however, believed that the Union must be preserved. For Lincoln the issue was "whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose."

fugitive

Once in office President Taylor urged leaders in the two territories of California and New Mexico to apply for statehood immediately. Once these lands had become states, he reasoned, their citizens could decide whether to allow slavery. New Mexico did not apply for statehood, but California did in 1850. Taylor's plan ran into trouble when California's statehood became tangled up with other issues before Congress. Antislavery forces wanted to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, the nation's capital. Southerners wanted a strong national law requiring states to return or runaway slaves to their masters. Another dispute involved the New Mexico-Texas border.

John Brown

With pro-slavery and antislavery forces in Kansas arming themselves, the outbreak of violence became inevitable. In May 1856, 800 slavery supporters attacked the town of Lawrence, the antislavery capital. They sacked the town, burned the hotel and the home of the governor, and destroyed two newspaper offices. Soon after, forces opposed to slavery retaliated. A fervent abolitionist believed God had chosen him to end slavery. When he heard of the attack on Lawrence, He went into a rage. He vowed to "strike terror in the hearts of the pro-slavery people." One night He led four of his sons and two other men along Pottawatomie Creek, where they seized and killed five supporters of slavery.

Lincoln Elected

With the Democrats divided, This man won a clear majority of the electoral votes—180 out of 303. He received only 40 percent of the popular vote, but this was more than any other candidate. Douglas was second with 30 percent of the vote. The vote was along purely sectional lines. His name did not even appear on the ballot in most Southern states, but he won every Northern state. Breckinridge swept the South, and Bell took most border states. Douglas won only the state of Missouri and three of New Jersey's seven electoral votes. In effect, the more populous North had outvoted the South. His victory was a short-lived one, however, for the nation he was to lead would soon disintegrate.

The Election of 1860

Would the Union break up? That was the burning question in the months before the presidential election. The issue of slavery was seriously discussed and eventually caused a break in the Democratic Party. As the election approached, a northern wing of the Democratic Party nominated Stephen Douglas for the presidency and sup- ported popular sovereignty. Southern Democrats—vowing to uphold slavery—nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky and supported the Dred Scott decision. Moderates from both the North and South who had formed the Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee. This party took no position on slavery.

Charles Sumner

The violence that erupted in Kansas spilled over to the halls of Congress as well. This abolitionist senator from Massachusetts delivered a speech entitled "The Crime Against Kansas." He lashed out against pro-slavery forces in Kansas. He also criticized pro-slavery senators, repeatedly attacking Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina.

Reaction to the Decision

Rather than settling the issue, the Supreme Court's decision divided the country even more. Many Southerners were elated. The Court had reaffirmed what many in the South had always maintained: Nothing could legally prevent the spread of slavery. Northern Democrats were pleased that the Republicans' main issue—restricting the spread of slavery—had been ruled unconstitutional. Republicans and other antislavery groups were outraged, calling the Dred Scott decision "a wicked and false judgment" and "the greatest crime" ever committed in the nation's courts.

border ruffians,

Right after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-slavery and antislavery groups rushed supporters into Kansas. In the spring of 1855, when elections took place in Kansas, a pro-slavery legislature was elected. Although only about 1,500 voters lived in Kansas at the time, more than 6,000 people cast ballots in the elections. Thousands of pro-slavery supporters from Missouri had crossed the border just to vote in the election. These Missourians traveled in armed groups. Soon after the election, the new Kansas legislature passed laws supporting slavery. One law even restricted political office to proslavery candidates. The antislavery people refused to accept these laws. Instead they armed themselves, held their own elections, and adopted a constitution that banned slavery. By January 1856, rival governments existed in Kansas, one for and one against slavery. Each asked Congress for recognition. To confuse matters further, President Pierce and the Senate favored the proslavery government, while the House backed the forces opposed to slavery.

Free-Soil Party

The Free-Soil Party The debate over slavery led to the formation of a new political party. In 1848 the Whigs chose Zachary Taylor, a Southerner and a hero of the Mexican War, as their presidential candidate. The Democrats selected Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. Neither candidate took a stand on slavery in the territories. This failure to take a position angered voters. Many antislavery Democrats and Whigs left their parties and joined with members of the old Liberty Party to form this group The new party proclaimed "Free _____, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men," and endorsed the Wilmot Proviso. The party nominated former president Martin Van Buren as its presidential candidate. Whig candidate Zachary Taylor won the election by successfully appealing to both slave and free states. Taylor defeated Cass 163 to 127 in electoral votes. Van Buren captured only 14 percent of the popular vote in the North, but several candidates of the Free-Soil Party won seats in Congress.

Henry Clay

The Senate suggested a way to resolve the crisis by allowing Missouri's admittance as a slave state while simultaneously admitting Maine as a free state. Maine, formerly part of Massachusetts, had also applied for admission to the Union. The Senate also sought to settle the issue of slavery in the territories for good. It proposed prohibiting slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30'N latitude. Speaker of the House, from Kentucky, skillfully maneuvered the Senate bill to passage in 1820 by dividing it into three proposals. The Missouri Compromise preserved the balance between slave and free states in the Senate and brought about a lull in the bitter debate in Congress over slavery.

Fort Sumter

The South soon tested President Lincoln's vow to hold federal property. Confederate forces had already seized some United States forts within their states. Although Lincoln did not want to start a war by trying to take the forts back, allowing the Confederates to keep them would amount to admitting their right to secede. On the day after his inauguration, Lincoln received a dispatch from the commander a this place, a United States fort on an island guarding Charleston Harbor. The message warned that the fort was low on supplies and that the Confederates demanded its surrender.