1848-1860Chapter 8

SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES: LEAD-UP TO THE CIVIL WAR

What to do with the Mexican Cessation?•Wilmot Proviso• Proposed law in 1846 that all territory taken from Mexico would be

free of slavery• Passed by the House, never in the Senate—never became a law• Symbolic—represented conflict over extending slavery to the

territories• Slavery in the Territories• Northern Option—have Congress ban slavery in the territories• Southern Option—have Congress protect right to own slaves in the

territories• Third Option—Popular Sovereignty• Popular Sovereignty• First devised by Lewis Cass during the 1848 election• Congress makes no law concerning slavery, people who move to the

territories vote on whether or not there will be slavery• Problems?

Election of 1848• Polk (D) stepped down voluntarily• Democrats—Lewis Cass•Whigs—Zachary Taylor (war hero/general)• Both major candidates were pro-slavery (or appeared that way)• Third Party—Free-Soil Party—Martin Van Buren• Northern Party, anti-slavery• Those morally opposed to slavery• Those who were opposed to slavery for selfish reasons• Industrialists (higher tariffs)• Small farmers (free homesteads)• Foreshadowed the creation of Republican party in 1854• Taylor won 1848

Compromise of 1850•What to do with the Mexican territories• Most thought that these issues could be put off for a while, but California Gold Rush of 1848-1849 changed that• California ready to become a state (free state) by 1850• This would upset the balance of free vs slave states• Other Issues • What would happen to the rest of the Mexican territories in

regards to slavery?• Runaway slaves and the underground railroad—South wanted

to stop both• Slavery in Washington DC—becoming a problem for most

Northerners• Borders for Texas—Texas wanted very large borders,

opponents of slavery wanted small borders (less slave territory in US)

Compromise of 1850North Got South Got

California as Free State New Fugitive Slave Law

Smaller Borders for Texas Texas State Debt assumed by Federal Govt

Slave Trade (but not slavery) banned in Washington DC

Slavery still allowed in DC New Mexico and Utah territories open to slavery through popular sovereignty

Compromise of 1850 (Cont.)• Passed as a series of laws not as one big law• Wouldn’t have passed any other way, shows how contentious

the issues had become• Almost didn’t pass—Taylor died last minute, new President signed off on it• Last major piece of legislation of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun• Effects• Free-slave balance in the Senate?• Reaction• North very upset over the fugitive slave law• South upset that the North was upset

The Demise of Manifest Destiny• After 1850 many identified Manifest Destiny with Southerners who wanted to add more slave territory to the US, enough northern opposition to halt US expansion in North America • Gadsden Purchase 1853—US bought a small piece of land from

Mexico in order to build a rail road, last addition of territory to the continental US

Renewal of the Slavery Question: Kansas Nebraska Act 1854• Background• Stephen A. Douglas—From Chicago, wanted a transcontinental

railroad to run from Chicago to the west coast• Needed to organize the unorganized territory (old part of the

Louisiana Purchase) closed to slavery from Missouri Compromise• Kansas-Nebraska Act would organize that territory into the

Kansas and Nebraska territories• Needed Southern votes—offered to open both territories to

slavery via popular sovereignty (in effect repealing the Missouri Compromise)• Act passed

Effects of Kansas Nebraska Act• Further divided the North and South • Led to the death of the Whig party• Split over the issue of slavery• Left only one truly “national” political party—Democrats• Led to the Creation of the (modern) Republican Party in 1854• Northern-only political party—only represented one half of the country• Old free-soil party + Old northern Whigs• Republican Coalition• Abolitionists (Liberty Party)• Opposed to slavery for economic reasons (Free Soilers, anti-slavery Democrats)• Northern business interests (old Whigs)• Eventually anti-immigrant groups (old Know Nothings)

• Led to “Bleeding Kansas”• Pro and Anti slavery forces fighting in the Kansas Territory

Republican Policies/Positions• Slavery• NOT technically abolitionists—wanted to stop the spread of

slavery, were okay with allowing slavery to remain were it already existed• Get rid of popular sovereignty everywhere that it currently

existed (including and especially the Kansas-Nebraska Act)• Internal Improvements• Federally financed transcontinental railroad and other railroads• Free farms for small farmers—homesteads• Tariffs• Advocated high protective tariffs for US industry• Government/Constitution• Advocated a broad interpretation of the Constitution • Lots of power for the federal govt, less for the states

Bleeding Kansas• 1855 Territorial Elections• Pro-slavery voters from neighboring Missouri flooded the polls

(illegal)• Pro-slavery government illegitimately elected • Anti-slavery Free Soilers established their own government • Two governments passed contradictory laws, competed with one

another• 1856 Violence• Early 1856—Proslavery forces raid and burn down part of the

Free Soil Town, Lawrence• May 1856—John Brown (vehement abolitionist) attacked/killed

5 pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek in retaliation for Lawrence raid• Civil war in Kansas broke out—pro and anti slavery forces

fought each other until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861

The Dred Scott Case 1857• Background• Dred Scott was a slave brought to free territory (Minnesota) by his owner• Brought back into slave territory• Scott argued that the years he spent as a slave in a free territory made him free• Issues• Could a slave (or any African American) sue in US courts? Did they have any legal

standing?• Did living in a free territory make a slave free?• Could Congress pass laws (like the Missouri Compromise) that outlawed slavery in the

territories or anywhere else?• Verdict• Scott (and all African Americans) had no legal standing in US courts• The 5th amendment protects individual’s property from the Federal Govt., and since

slaves are property Congress cannot ban slavery anywhere • The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional (Judicial Review)• Aftermath• Major North-South division over the case• Northerners saw it as the South undemocratically using the court to get their way• South saw it as the North not abiding by a decision that they disagreed with

Other Conflicts over Slavery • Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852• Incredibly popular abolitionist novel • Described how slavery split apart slave families—made many

formerly apathetic Northerners care about slavery and the fugitive slave law• Made the South upset—viewed it as a skewed and inaccurate

view of slavery• Sumner-Brooks Affair 1856• Preston Brooks (Southern Representative) attacked Charles

Sumner (Northern abolitionist Senator) in Congress• Lincoln-Douglas Debates 1858• Debated the extension of slavery into the territories, Dred

Scott, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and popular sovereignty• Made Lincoln a household name as someone opposed to

slavery in both the North and the South

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry 1859• Brown launched a plot to start a slave revolt in the South, free the

South’s slaves by force, and establish a new country somewhere in the South for freed slaves• Received some funding from a small number of extremely radical

abolitionists• Attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry Virginia (West Virginia)

hoping to acquire more weapons for his revolt and to begin rallying slaves to his cause• Problems:• Not many slaves in western Virginia (mountain white territory)• Townspeople surrounded Brown’s followers• Marines sent in, and Brown and his followers captured• Aftermath:• Brown tried and executed for treason by State of Virginia• Becomes a martyr to many abolitionists in the North• South is furious that Brown would be celebrated in the North, also angry

that Northern abolitionists helped to fund his failed rebellion

Politics during the 1850s• 1850-1852 Fillmore (Whig) took over from Taylor• 1852-1856 Franklin Pierce (Democrat) def. Winfield Scott (Whig)• Last presidential election for the Whigs• Election of 1856• James Buchanan (Democrat) vs. John C. Fremont (Republican)

vs. Fillmore (American Party)• First presidential election for the Republican Party• Fremont took most of the Northern States—narrowly lost the

election to Buchanan—even though he got NO southern votes• Swing of a few key states (PA, IL, IN) would give the

Republicans victory in the next election

Election of 1860• Democrats split over the slavery issue:• Northern Democrats—Stephen Douglas• Popular Sovereignty• Southern Democrats—John Breckenridge• Slavery everywhere (Dred Scott Case)• Constitutional Union Party formed to avoid civil war—John Bell• Avoid Civil War—no mention of slavery

• Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln• Slavery okay where it already exists, outlawed in the territories• Other Issues: tariffs, railroad, internal improvements, homesteads• Results• Lincoln swept the Northern States (except part of NJ)—won the election• Breckenridge took the deep South• Bell took the “border states”• Douglas got more votes than Bell or Breckenridge but only won Missouri

and part of NJ—only candidate to receive electoral votes from both free and slave states

Aftermath of the 1860 Election• South Carolina voted to leave the Union (secede) December of 1860• Six other southern states voted to secede by February of 1861• (SC, FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX)• Last chance for compromise: Crittenden Compromise • Named after the Kentucky Senator who proposed it• Series of Constitutional amendments meant to appease the

South• Amendment protecting slavery where it existed• Take the 36-30 line from the Missouri Compromise and extend

it across the continent—anything north of that line would be free, anything south of that line would be slave• Rejected by Lincoln—never enacted• Significance? Country on verge of war, what issue are they

talking about to avoid civil war?

The Beginning of the Civil War: Fort Sumter• 7 states that left formed the Confederate States of America (CSA) in March

of 1861• Still no war• Buchannan still President—until March 1861• Federal Property Crisis and Fort Sumter• Confederate states began to confiscate federal property within their borders (forts,

arsenals, post offices, courthouses, etc)• Most federal property taken without a fight• Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor South Carolina—island, easily defended by Federal

(Union) soldiers• March 1861 Lincoln becomes President—still no fighting• April 1861 Confederates demand that Fort Sumter surrender, commander refuses,

Confederates attack the fort• Federal soldiers surrender, Civil War has begun• 4 more slave states join the Confederacy (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee,

North Carolina)• 4 slave states (later 5) remained in the Union (Border States)—Missouri, Kentucky,

Maryland, Delaware, (West Virginia)

What Caused the Civil War?•Why did the South secede in 1860-1861?