Jump StartList in order, starting with the event that occurred first,

the following events:

‘Bleeding’ Kansas

Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ Speech

Missouri Compromise

‘Caning’ of Charles Sumner

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Compromise of 1850

Dred Scott vs. Sandford

March, 1857

Slavery Challenged, wins another important victory

The Issue

Could a slave have a claim to freedom while living in a free state when his master dies?

• Dred Scott went with master to Ill & WI, free states, from MO a slave state in the mid-1840s.

• In 1846, Master dies & Scott sues for freedom in Missouri courts & in 1850 Circuit Court grants it.

Decision Made & Appealed

• Missouri law favors Scott & he’s declared free.

• Sandford’s brother-in-law claims inheritance of Scott and appeals to State Supreme Court.

• Court decides for Sandford, making Scott once again a slave, so Scott appeals to the Federal Supreme Court .

Heavily Divided Decision

• Slavery Issue once again divides a government; Supreme Court cannot issue a single ruling.

• Majority ruled Scott still a slave.

• Judge Roger B. Taney’s opinion was that Scott had no ‘standing to sue’ – not a citizen.

Why would the court’s decision be ‘heavily divided’?

1) Constructionist vs. Literal interpretation of the Constitution.

2) Judges could interpret the “intent” written into the constitution by the founding fathers differently.

3) Judges may have believed they had the right to create new law for changing times, based on the

concept of “Judicial Review”

Victory for Ideology of Slavery

• No claim to citizenship means no rights at all

• Slaves were property - Cannot be taken w/o “due process” under the 5th Amendment.

• Congress has no authority to pass laws depriving anyone of property, so Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional all along!!!

How is the ideology of slavery strengthened by this decision?

Lincoln & Douglas Debate

• Occurred during IL Senate race in Oct. 1858

• The issue was over slavery and whether it should exist at all, simply be maintained, or be abolished altogether.

• Douglas won the Senate seat, but Lincoln emerged as a leader of the Republican party.

racerace

Lincoln’s and Douglas’ Positions

Douglas

“I care not whether slavery be voted down or up …”

“…our government can endure forever, divided into free and

slave states as our fathers made it, - each state having the

right to prohibit, abolish, or sustain slavery just as it pleases…

the various states were not allowed to complain of, much less

interfere with, the policy of their neighbors.”

Lincoln’s and Douglas’ Positions

Lincoln

“…I hate it [slavery] because of the monstrous injustice of

slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican

example of its just influence in the world – enables the

enemies of free institutions…to taunt us as hypocrites…”

“I do not believe this government can endure permanently

half slave and half free.”

Lincoln’s Cooper Union Speech

• Challenges Douglas’ and Southerners’ beliefs that slavery cannot be managed by the Federal Government.

• Says 23 members of government who were “Founding Fathers” voted in one way or another to prevent, stop or limit it in Federal Territories.

• Challenges South’s contention that it’s legal to bring slaves into free states.

Election of 1860

• One of the most significant in American History

• Final piece in the decision of South to secede from the Union

• Democrats deeply divided over slavery

• Three Candidates Republican – LincolnDemocrat - Stephen DouglasConstitutional Union(Ex-Whigs) - John Breckenridge

• Lincoln wins – most electoral votes, but only 40% of the popular vote.

The South Decides on Secession

• Lincoln’s position on slavery was well known by now – immoral, not the intention of our founding fathers and divisive to the nation, and hypocritical (Constitution).

• Southerners believe his position is an attack on their way of life and they can no longer remain part of the United States, now that he is President.

• “States Rights” became more important than national union to the South, and they believed they could no longer co-exist peacefully with the North.

South Carolina Secedes First

• “Fire-eaters” stir up Southern Nationalism

• Special Convention held – SC votes to secede unanimously only 6 weeks after Lincoln is elected.

• By March – Lincoln’s Inauguration Day - 7 states had seceded and formed the Confederate States of America.

• They immediately seized forts, arsenals and other federal property within their states, but not two offshore forts – Ft. Pickens, FL and Ft. Sumter, SC.