Chapter 19
Kansas- slavery and anti-slavery groups send people to control the popular sovereignty vote
Kansas was one of the worst possible workings of popular sovereignty. Most of the newcomers were pioneers, but some were Northern Abolitionists or Free-Soilers.
The Lecompton Constitution
Lecompton Constitution supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders. It was rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state.
The LIncoln-Douglass debates; How can it be said that both won?
Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates that were arranged from August to October 1858 (Lincoln-Douglas debates). The most famous debate happened in Freeport, Illinois. Lincoln asked Douglas, "What if the people of a territory should vote down slavery?" The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision had said that the people could not do this. Douglas's reply to him became known as the "Freeport Doctrine." Douglas argued that 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 voted on by the territorial legislatures. Douglas won the senatorial election, but Lincoln won the popular vote
John Brown / martyr? Murder? Harper's Ferry Raid - The trial and impact
Abolitionist John Brown developed a plan to secretly invade the South, call upon the slaves to rise, give the slaves weapons, and establish a black free state. In October 1859, he seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Because many of his supporters failed to show up, he was caught and sent to death by hanging. When Brown died, he lived on as a martyr to the abolitionist cause
The Collapse of Compromise / The Crittenden Compromise
Crittenden amendments to the Constitution were designed to appease the South. The amendments prohibited slavery in territories north of 360 30', but it permitted slavery in the territories south of this line. Future states (north and south of this line) would get to vote on the issue of slavery. President Lincoln rejected the amendments
The idea of the "homestead" - why do people support it / oppose it ?
Homestead Act of 1860 Congress would make public lands available at 25 cents an acre, but Buchanan vetoed it
The "Know-Nothing - Party"/ Nativism , Anti- Immigration
The American Party, also called the Know-Nothing Party, was formed by Protestants who were alarmed by the increasing number of immigrants coming from Ireland and Germany. They chose former president Millard Fillmore as their candidate for the election of 1856. The Know Nothing Party Anti-immigrant party headed by former President Fillmore competed with the Republicans and Democrats in the election of 1856, but lost.
The Republican Party grows
The Republican Party is fromed in 1854 by anti-slavery Whigs. First time Republican Party runs a candidate for president called John C. Fremont.
The Fugitive Slave Law is supported by the Supreme Court decisions
The northerners resisted against the law and brought morality arguments to the slave debate, causing them to expose the horrors of slavery.
The Constituional Union Party -what do they support ?
The southern Democrats met in Baltimore to choose their own Democratic presidential candidate. They chose vice-president John C. Breckenridge. The platform favored the extension of slavery into the territories and the annexation of slave-populated Cuba.. The Constitutional Union Party was formed by former Whigs and Know-Nothings. They nominated John Bell as their presidential candidate
Who is this guy Abraham Lincoln ( during the 1840s-1850s) ?
In Illinois's senatorial election of 1858, the Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln to run against Democrat Stephen Douglas. Lincoln served in the Illinois legislature as a Whig politician and he served one term in Congress.
The Lawrence , Kansas incident / John Brown and the Pottawatomie Massacre / "Bleeding Kansas"
Bleeding Kansas was a sequence of violent events involving abolitionists and pro-Slavery elements that took place in Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The dispute further strained the relations of the North and South, making civil war imminent. The Pottawatomie massacre occurred May 24 and May 25, 1856. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers killed five settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas.
The Democrat Party Splits
By opposing the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, Senator Stephen A. Douglas was able to divide the Democratic party. James Buchanan, a Democrat, succeeded Pierce as the President of the United States in the election of 1856. He had a strong southern influence and approved of the Lecompton Constitution. Senator Stephen Douglas was strongly opposed to the document and he campaigned against it. Eventually, a compromise was reached that enabled the people of Kansas to vote on the Lecompton Constitution, itself. It was revoked by the abolitionists voters, but Kansas ended up remaining a territory until 1861, when the southern states seceded from the Union. President Buchanan divided the powerful Democratic Party by enraging some Democrats of the North. He divided the only remaining national party and with it, the Union.
Supreme Court Case ; Dred Scott v. Sanford / Chief Justice Roger Taney/ Facts of the Case
Dread Scott, a slave who had lived with his master for 5 years in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, sued for his freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil. In Dred Scott vs. Stanford, the Supreme Court first ruled that because Scott was a black slave and not a citizen, he could not sue in Federal courts. The Court also ruled that because a slave was private property, he could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery. Dred Scott v. Sanford 1857, Supreme Court case that decided US Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in federal territories and slaves, as private property, could not be taken away without due process - basically slaves would remain slaves in non-slave states and slaves could not sue because they were not citizens
The Election of 1860- The Democrats divide -what do they support ?
For the election of 1860, the Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina to choose their candidate. The northern part of the party wanted to nominate Stephen Douglas, but the southern "fire-eaters" saw him as a traitor for his unpopular opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and his unpopular Freeport Doctrine reply. After the delegates from most of the cotton states walked out, the Democrats met again in Baltimore to elect a candidate. This time, Douglas was elected, despite the fact that the southerners again walked out.
Hinton Helper - The Impending Crisis of the South (1857)
Hinton R. Helper, a non-aristocrat from North Carolina, wrote The Impending Crisis of the South in 1857. He hated both blacks and slavery, and he attempted to use statistics to prove that the non-slaveholding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery.
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
In 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was published by a white author named Harriet Beecher Stowe that demonstrated the horrific reality of what is slavery in the South. Most of the North didn't know what slavery was like and this book illustrated that to them. It was on of the causes that ignited the Civil War in the country.
The Fight in the Senate
In 1856, abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a provoking speech condemning pro-slavery men. During this speech, Sumner also personally insulted Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Two days later on May 22, 1856, Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, beat Sumner with a cane to unconsciousness. The speech made by Sumner was applauded in the North, angering the South. The clash between Sumner and Butler showed how violent and impassioned the Northerners and Southerners were for their cause.
1860- Turning Point -Secession / the confederate states of America
In December 1860, South Carolina's legislature met in Charleston and voted unanimously to secede. 6 other states joined South Carolina: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The 7 seceders met at Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861 and created a government known as the Confederate States of America. The states chose Jefferson Davis, a recent member of the U.S. Senate from Mississippi, as President. During this time of secession, Buchanan was still the "lame duck" president, because Lincoln was not sworn in until 1861. President Buchanan did not hold the seceders in the Union by force because he was surrounded by pro-southern advisors and he could find no authority in the Constitution to stop them with force. Another reason that force was not used was because at the time, the Union's army was needed to control the Indians of the West. The Northerners were not eager to use force against the Southerners because that would have ended the possibility of peaceful negotiations.
Election of 1856 / President Buchanan
In the Election of 1856, Democrats nominated Buchanan, Republicans nominated Fremont, and Know-Nothings chose Fillmore. Buchanan won due to his support of popular sovereignty It was a good thing that the Republican Party did not win the election because some southerners said that if a Republican had won, then they would secede. This election was a small victory for the Republican Party because the party was just 2 years old, yet it put up a fight for the Democrats.
The Republican Party ( select Lincoln instead of Seward) - what do they support ?
The Republican Party met in Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate. The Republican platform appealed to nearly every part of the nation. For the free-soilers, the Republicans supported the non-extension of slavery. For the northern manufacturers, they supported a protective tariff. For the immigrants, the supported no abridgement of rights. For the Northwest, they supported a Pacific railroad. For the West, they supported internal improvements at federal expense. For the farmers, they supported free homesteads (plots of land) from the public domain. The Southerners said that if Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, the Union would split.
The Panic of 1857- North suffers worse than the South
The panic of 1857 was caused by over-speculation in the West and currency inflation due to the inrush of Californian gold. The North was the hardest hit, while the South continued to flourish with its cotton. Northerners came up with the idea of the government giving 160-acre plots of farming land to pioneers for free. Two groups opposed the idea, the Eastern industrialists feared that the free land would drain its supply of workers, and the South feared that the West would fill up with free-soilers who would form anti-slavery states, unbalancing the Senate even more. Congress passed a homestead act in 1860, making public lands available at $0.25/acre, but it was vetoed by President Buchanan.
Why did the South break way and secede? Influences on their thinking and actions
The southern states seceded, fearing that the Republican Party would threaten their rights to own slaves. Many southerners felt that their secession would be unopposed by the North. They assumed that the northern manufacturers and bankers, dependent upon southern cotton and markets, wouldn't dare cut off the South
