Alex W., Sean C., Jake R

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Written:  Spring, 2006

Introduction

• Lincoln won the presidency with only 39% of the popular vote
• He won all of the free states except New Jersey as he ran a very sectional campaign
• As the election was going on there was a sense of crisis across the country but it was kept quite for the most part
• The main focus of the chapter is the explanation of the peril and dissolution of the Union

Slavery in the Territories

· Migration to the West brought destroyed the safety and culture of the Native Indians and Mexicans.

· Also brought the Yankees and slaveholders on collision course.

· The question of slavery had been delayed for 60 years but could be delayed no further.

Free Soil or Constitutional Protection?

David Wilmot- Pennsylvania congressman who added a short admendment to an appropriations bill for the Mexican-American War outlawing slavery in the new provinces

“Free Soil”- idea that slavery should not be extended

John C. Calhoun- South Carolina senator

· Legislators argued over the Wilmot Proviso.

· They voted as the Northerners or Southerners.

This could spell the collapse of a party system, with people voting by region, not ideology

· Did congress have the right to outlaw slavery?

· Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise suggested they did.

Still, slavery and secession are not mentioned in the Constitution

· For abolitionists, slavery was immoral.

· For northern farmers, the threat of economic competition from slave labor was serious.

· Others feared the growing power of the South.

Slavery was not really a question of ethics, but rather politics and economics.  It is ironic that economics was a factor because cheap, slave labor produced more goods of better quality for lower prices.  How much should the government interfere with the economy?  The country was a haven for laissez-faire economics, where the government did not get involved in the economy.  Yet through tariffs, minimum wage restrictions, and more, the government has increased is hold on the economy.

· John C. Calhoun opposed free-soil propositions.

· Not only was slavery beyond Congress’s constitutional authority, it had a positive duty to protect it.  This view suggests the Missouri Compromise and the Wilmot Proviso are unconstitutional.

If Congress cannot address slavery, the past 60 years of legal wrangling were wasted and they only solution is through war.

Popular Sovereignty and the Election of 1848

Popular Sovereignty- left the decision of slavery to the local government

Lewis Cass- Michigan Senator

Zachary Taylor- Whig Presidential nominee and new President of the U.S.A.

· Americans feared civil war and sought a compromise solution to keep slavery out of politics.

· Lewis Cass promulgated “Popular Sovereignty.”

Popular Sovereignty seems to coincide with Calhoun’s views on Congressional authority over slavery, the South would be content with it, yet the North will still find offense with slavery.  The War of Northern Aggression could be an apt term.

· Cass intentionally left popular sovereignty ambiguous.

It seems the legislators are just leaving issues to the next generation, much like George Bush saying that the next president will have to decide about the Iraq War.  Politicians seem to purposely create controversy.

· The Democrats nominate Cass for president, but he loses to Zachary Taylor of the Whigs.

· The Democrat party splinters as Northern Democrats form the Free-Soil party.

· Taylor wins easily.

The schism of the Democrat party leads directly to Taylor’s win.  The two-party system survives, but with sectional differences.

The Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay- the old compromiser

Stephen Douglas- senator from Illinois

Compromise of 1850- put Clay’s resolutions, tweaked, into law

· California’s entry as a free state would upset the balance of power.

· The longer the Mexican Cession was left unorganized, the more people clamored for the Wilmot Proviso or Calhoun’s doctrine to be implemented.

· It was feared that Texas might split into many slave states.

· Southerners wanted a stronger Fugitive Slave Act.

· Henry Clay proposed an Omnibus bill to try and compromise.

Really, he wanted control of the Whig party.

· Stephen Douglas recognized that the different parts of the bill would pass if voted on individually.

· The Compromise of 1850:

            a. California entered the Union as a free state

            b. The governments of New Mexico and Utah could decide for themselves

            c. Texas denied territorial claims in New Mexico

            d. Texas paid 10 million dollars to pay debts to Mexico

            e. Slave trade abolished in Washington D.C.

            f. The Fugitive Slave Act took effect

I am surprised the South would ever pass this compromise.  If New Mexico and Utah both became free states, the South would be severely weakened.  It’s a big compromise just for a new Fugitive Slave Act, which was already a law.

Senate Speeches

Daniel Webster- famous Massachussetts Senator

William Seward- New York senator, Secretary of State

· Speeches were attractions with crowds flocking to hear the giants debate.

· Speech transcripts were sold and distributed.

· Clay, Calhoun, and Daniel Webster all died and passed the torch to William Seward and Stephen Douglas.

Americans must have been more politically tuned in to flock to the Capitol when a great speech would occur.  Today, with television, newspapers, and Internet, Americans can sit at home and hear speeches.

Consequences of Compromise

Secessionism, “higher law”, disunion- terms thrown about by Southerners to defend slavery

Thomas Sims and Anthony Burns- slaves whose failed rescue attempts were angry mobs like the Tea Party

Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth- Free blacks that escaped slavery and talked about their experiences

Harriet Beecher Stowe- wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a provocative book

· The Compromise only delayed more serious sectional conflict.

· Parties might realign by region.

· Daniel Webster is denounced for supporting the Fugitive Slave Act.

Webster sealed his political fate by supporting the act.  Any aspirations he had, vanished.

· The new act caused more support for the Underground Railroad.

· Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth spoke on the hardships of slavery.

· Other groups’ rights, such as women, also came into the picture.

· Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel is praised in the North, hated in South.

Controversial books always become best sellers.  Look at the Da Vinci Code for one example.  If you want to make money, write a book that someone will love, and someone will hate.  The publicity will be enormous and so will your wallet!

Political Disintegration

The Apathetic Election of 1852

Franklin Pierce- Compromise Democratic nominee, won easily

Apathy- lack of interest

· The blurring of the differences in economic and moral policies between parties undermined party loyal.

· Several states rewrote their constitutions and remodeled their laws.

· Indiana passed a law forbidding blacks from settling.

Such severe discrimination should be expected from a Southern state not a Northern one.

· Franklin Pierce, a compromise candidate, won the lackluster election of 1852 with the Democrat party buying votes for him.

Surprise! Americans were caring less and less about politics, perhaps paving the way for 30% voter turnouts in the contemporary period.  Also, corruption is starting to be seen in the government.

 

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

· In 1854, the Whig party disintegrates.

· Stephen Douglas proposes a bill for organizing the Nebraska Territory.

· He believed that using popular sovereignty, the people will choose to be a free state, and also that Chicago would be picked as a transportation hub.

· Whigs attacked him for betraying their ideology.

· What began as a railroad measure became another slavery question.

· The two parties split into four with the new parties being the Republican and Know-Nothings.

Douglas’s miscalculation contributes to irreconcilable differences and eventually “Bleeding Kansas” and civil war.

Expansionist “Young America”

“Young America”- People who supported the spread of slavery as a means to strengthen America

Filibuster- Raids in California and Texas into Mexico to try to obtain new land for the country

William Walker- An adventurer, weighing in at 100 pounds, that traveled west and wanted to expand the country

• Since governments were changing all around the world especially in Europe, Americans were feeling inspired that their form of government would succeed.
• Because the government had won territories such as Texas, they decided that they needed to continue to expand the republic.

At the time this may have seemed to be a good idea, however these actions could eventually lead to feuding between countries.

• Since most of the land around America was taken and held strong the best option appeared to be South America,
• America could not obtain land legally from Mexico, so they took other courses of action, these were of course illegal actions
• The new piece of land that Pierce went after was Cuba, which at the time was owned by Spain

This was a very tough deal to make as Spain was looking for a lot of money that would be tough for the US to spend at the time

• A plan was formed after unsuccessfully taking Cuba to raise 1 million dollars and 50,000 troops to invade Cuba.

Though Pierce did not want to take Cuba illegally he did really want Cuba. So in this situation he just simply looked the other way.

• The Ostend Manifesto was a very shocking document that put extreme pressure on Spain to sell Cuba to America
• The Ostend Manifesto was rejected quickly by America

Nativism, know-nothings, and republicanism

• Because of an increase in immigration of Irish and German there was a large growth in the Catholic church
• Most of the Catholics supported the democrats because they made less religious mandates than the Whigs
• When people that were against the Irish Catholics formed their secretive party, they said they knew nothing about it when they were asked, thusly they were known as the know nothings

This name was actually unfitting because these people really knew a lot about government and politics

• The know-nothings became very popular in the middle and lower classes
• After 1856 the know-nothings did die out after a long time fighting for what they believed in

The time they spent as a political power was one of a lot of turmoil and controversy

 

Competing for Kansas

Abolitionist- people who supported the removal of slavery

Julia Louisa Lovejoy- Migrant from Vermont, who supported the abolition of slaves and saw the southwest as a bunch of drunken, unclean slaveholders.

David Atchison- Senator of Missouri who encouraged state residents to fight and kill for their right to own slaves.

 

The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the way for proslavery and antislavery forces to meet and compete over whether Kansas would become a free or slave state.  New Englanders flooded in, if only to run across the Kansas-Missouri border to steal slaves from Missouri farmers.  Missouri senator, David Atchison, encouraged the Missouri people to fight and kill for their right to own slaves.  Thousands of Missourians came into Kansas to illegally vote in the first election.  A second election was held to determine the border of Kansas and the same illegal voting continued.  When the problem reached Washington, Congress sent an investigating committee to Kansas, which further enraged residents.

*In the first election, to show the amount of illegal voting, in one area only 20 of over 600 voters were legal residents.

*People came from as far as New England and states in the southeast to ensure that Kansas would become the state that voters wanted.

“Bleeding Kansas”

Walt Whitman- Famous poet who herald democracy in his poem Leaves of Grass.  He predicted the Civil War here.

Charles Sumner- Senator who spoke out against proslavery Senate leaders before getting caned.

John Brown- New Englander who led a small group into a proslavery camp and killed 5 men.

Civil War threatened Kansas as mobs and acts of aggression began to occur.  First a mob supported by a prosouthern federal marshal went to Lawrence, Kansas and smashed newspaper presses, while firing cannonballs in the street.  John Brown retaliated with a small band of New Englanders, who went to a proslavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek and kidnapped five men and hacked them to death with swords.  These events set off a minor Civil War that is now called “Bleeding Kansas”. Local farmers could not find peace as crops were burned, homes destroyed, and fights broke out in every bar and saloon. 

*The gap between the North and the South continued to widen as hostilities increased.

*Congress was also involved in these issues as Charles Sumner attacked proslavery Senate leaders, before being beaten senseless at his desk in retaliation.

Northern Views and Visions

Nationhood- A group of people organized under a single independent government

 

Northern people were self-made free men who believed in individualism and democracy.  Northern cities offered opportunity and upward mobility.  They valued republican government that guaranteed the rights of free men.  It was believed that a strong Union could achieve national or even international greatness by supporting foreign trade, development of railroads, and increase the sense of nationhood.  They saw the South as the antithesis of everything that they saw as good.

*Northerners believed that the worst sin was the loss of one’s freedom because only free men could achieve economic progress and moral society.

*Northerners relied on their cities, but also revered the value of small towns from New England to the Upper Midwest.

The Southern Perspective

Sovereignty- ability to rule

Southerners cherished social value the most.  They saw the northerners as coarse, ill-mannered, and aggressive.  One in every three people was black so racial distinction was important to maintaining order and white supremacy.  They believed in a democratic government and the principle of self-governing. 

*Southerners also cherished the Union but preferred the loose confederacy of the Jeffersonian past and the nationalism of Seward.

*Isn’t it ironic that the southerner’s view of the northerners was the northerner’s view of the southerners?

The Dred Scott Case

Dred Scott- Black man who filed law suit for his freedom

The case was based on the slave family of Dred Scott when they filed suit in Missouri for their freedom.  They argued that since their master had taken them to Minnesota and other states outside the Missouri Compromise they should be free.  The first ruling said that Dred Scott was not a citizen so he could not sure in federal court.  Then the court ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and finally the Scotts being taken out of state did not affect their slave status.  The ruling caused an outrage among blacks, who wondered how few rights they still had. 

*The ruling was obviously biased as the white judges did not want to see their authority compromised by a black man and his family (Blacks had no rights in the judge’s mind).

Douglas and the Democrats

Northerners feared that the south was trying to impose slavery everywhere after the Dred Scott ruling.  Kansas held another election and elected a proslavery state of delegates for a convention meeting at Lecompton as a preparation for statehood.  Buchanan endorsed the meeting to maintain the support of southern Democrats.  When the Lecompton constitution went back to Kansas it was defeated, keeping Kansas as a free territory rather than a slave state. 

*The largest political effect of the struggle was to split the Democractic party almost beyond repair.

Lincoln and the Illinois Debates

Abe Lincoln- Republican from Illinois whose strong anti-slavery stance sparked support from many northerners.

Stephan Douglas- Democrat representative fought for slavery.  

Abe Lincoln emerged in 1958 to challenge William Seward for the leadership of the Republican Party for the senator of Illinois.  Lincoln delivered speeches on how he believed that a divided nation could not survive, and it would eventually come together one way or the other.  Despite his stand against slavery, Lincoln thought whites were superior to blacks and opposed specific equal rights to free blacks.  He stated the only difference between Democrats and Republicans was their stance on slavery.  Douglas continually believed that whites should be able to create whatever society they want. 

*The ideological glue of the Republican Party was the slave power idea.

*Lincoln used his opposition of the Dred Scott case to fuel his arguments.

*Lincoln views were almost contradictory because he thought whites superior to blacks but believed in black freedom without being equal.

*Lincoln lost this election but won the presidential election two years later.

John Brown’s Raid

Robert Toombs- Georgia senator who insisted that the north was plotting the south’s ruin. 

John Brown continued to act decisively against slavery.  On October 16, 1859, he took a group of 22 men and attacked a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.  Eventually he was overrun when half his men were killed, he was hung for treason.  Southerners were convinced of a “Black Republican” plot against the slaveholders. 

*Gap between north and south continued to widen after these acts (this even began the separation of the south from the north).

*Brown and other freedom fighters symbolized the north’s stand on slavery.

The Election of 1860

Subsidized- to assist or support

John C. Breckinridge- Buchannan’s vice president and representative for the proslavery south part of the democrats.

When the nominating convention met in Charlestown, South Carolina it went a record ten days without being able to name a presidential candidate.  They met again in Baltimore after 6 weeks and the Democrats chose two candidates in separate conventions.  Douglas, northern democrats and John C. Breckinridge represented the proslavery south.  The Republicans addressed their major concerns: tariff protection, subsidized internal improvements, free labor, and a homestead bill.  Lincoln won the election even though he had less than 40 percent of the popular vote.

*The Democrats acknowledged their irreparable division by selecting the two candidates.

*Being from the north was a huge advantage for Lincoln because northern states held the most electoral votes (NY 35, PA 27, and OH 23) which allowed him to be elected.

Secession and Uncertainty

Jefferson Davis- Provisional president of the Confederate states.

Provisional- provided only for the time being   

Secession- to withdraw as a member from an organization

 

On December 20, 1860 South Carolina seceded from the Union claiming that a government that put people of different pursuits together was a failure.  By February Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded.  Delegates met in Montgomery, Alabama and created the Confederate States of America, electing Mississippi senator, Jefferson Davis, its provisional president.  Buchannan was pro-southern and determined not to start a Civil War so he did not act of the secession.  In November, voters in New York defeated a referendum for black suffrages.  Fredrick Douglass began exploring possibilities for emigration and colonization in Haiti for blacks.

*If Buchannan had acted immediately instead of allowing Abe Lincoln to act on the problems with the south would the outcome have been different?

*The government was afraid of angering the Confederacy and starting a Civil War.

*Fredrick Douglass was opposed to the idea of migration to Haiti, but he was beginning to believe that there was no hope for freedom in the US for blacks.

Lincoln and Fort Sumter

General P. G. T. Beauregard- attacked Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.

Major Anderson- requested aid from Sumter leading up to attack.

Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4^th, 1861.  He believed it was his constitutional responsibility to uphold the laws of the land, and he was against secession.  Major John Anderson called for more supplies at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.  Lincoln sent only provisions.  Jefferson Davis commanded General P. G. T. Beauregard to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter (he was instructed to attack the fort in Anderson refused to surrender).  On April 12^th, the supplies arrived, Beauregard attack the fort, and the Civil War began.  Two days later Sumter fell and with it America was divided. 

*The south seemed to be pushing for a Civil War, while the north was avoiding it as long as they could.