1. Chapter 14 THE SECTIONAL CRISIS
America Past and Present
Eighth Edition
Divine  Breen  Fredrickson  Williams  Gross  Brand
Copyright 2007, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman

2. The Caning of Charles Sumner
1856 – Representative Preston Brooks caned Senator Charles Sumner for an antislavery speech Sumner gave.
Caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

3. The Compromise of 1850
North and South conflict violently over slavery’s extension into the territories (Mexican Cession) 2

4. The Problem of Slavery in the Mexican Cession
Slavery traditionally kept out of politics
Congressional power over slavery includes
Setting conditions to make territories states
Forbidding slavery in new states
Mexican Cession of 1848 puts status of slavery in new territory into question 3

5. The Wilmot Proviso Launches the Free-Soil Movement
Mexican War mobilized antislavery groups
Wilmot Proviso
Amendment to Mexican War Appropriations Bill by David Wilmont (D-PA)
Ban all blacks from new territories – Mexican Cession - (free & slave) to prevent job competition from black slaves and free blacks
Proviso passes in House, fails in Senate 4

6. Squatter Sovereignty and the Election of 1848
Democratic presidential candidate Lewis Cass proposes popular sovereignty
Congress allows territorial settlers to decide
Supported by many antislavery forces
A new 3rd party - Free-Soil Party – chose Martin Van Buren who demanded definite limits on slavery
Whig Zachary Taylor takes no position on slavery
Taylor wins election with less than 50% 5

7. The Election of 1848

8. Taylor Takes Charge
Taylor proposes admitting California and New Mexico as states immediately
South reacts angrily
Not enough time for planters to settle
Immediate admission would result in no slavery
Proposed Nashville convention prompts fears of Southern secession 6

9. Forging a Compromise Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 included:
California admitted as a free state
The rest of the Mexican Cession – slavery based on popular sovereignty
Slave trade prohibited in District of Columbia
Strong fugitive slave law that denied slaves any Constitutional rights
New border between New Mexico & Texas
President Taylor opposed, VP Fillmore supported Compromise of 1850
July 1850 Taylor dies; Compromise passed as separate measures, not as an omnibus bill 7

10. The Compromise of 1850

11. The Party System in Crisis Whigs & Democrats
Parties need new issues after 1850; slavery had been decided in the Compromise of 1850 and the economy was prospering under the Democrats’ policy of laissez faire.
The Election of 1852 marked the end of the Whigs. Why? No main issues. Whigs’ antislavery stand destroyed the party and their failure to appeal to voters in the North & in the South.
Democrat Franklin Pierce won in 1852. 9

12. The Election of 1852

13. The Kansas-Nebraska Act Raises a Storm
Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) wanted Kansas and Nebraska open to settlement to facilitate a Transcontinental RR to Chicago
1854: Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska bill
Apply popular sovereignty to Kansas, Nebraska
Repeal Missouri Compromise line – seen as a surrender to the slave power because it permitted slavery in an area where it had previously been prohibited
Act passes on sectional vote
Northerners outraged, Democratic party split 10

14. The Kansas-Nebraska Act Raises a Storm, cont.
KS-NE Act seen as North making concessions to South, but not getting anything in return
Whig indecision causes party to disintegrate
Led to the Caning of Charles Sumner
Led to the rise of the Republican Party
Democrats become sole Southern party
President Pierce’s effort to acquire Cuba (Ostend Manifesto) provoked antislavery firestorm 11

15. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

16. An Appeal to Nativism: The Know-Nothing Episode
Know-Nothings (American Party) appealed to anti-immigrant (Nativism) and to anti-Catholic sentiment
Also called the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner
The collapse of the Whigs led to the rise of another 3rd party – the American Party
By 1856 Know-Nothings collapsed
Probable cause: No response to slavery 12

17. Kansas and the Rise of the Republicans
Republican party unites former Whigs, Know-Nothings, Free-Soilers, Northern Democrats
Position on slavery – no extension of slavery (Mexican Cession)
“Bleeding Kansas” helped Republicans
Struggle among abolitionists, proslavery forces for control of Kansas territory
Republicans use conflict to appeal for voters 13

18. “Bleeding Kansas”

19. Sectional Division in the Election of 1856
Republicans represented a sectional party – the part of the North
Democrat James Buchanan defended the Compromise of 1850 and won the election because he promised to protect slavery where it existed 14

20. The Election of 1856 Candidate Party Popular Vote Electoral Vote
Buchanan Democratic 1,832,
Frémont Republican 1,339,
Fillmore American ,
(Know-Nothing)

21. The House Divided, 1857–1860
Sectional quarrel becomes virtually irreconcilable
Growing sense of deep cultural differences, opposing interests between North and South

22. Cultural Sectionalism
Major Protestant denominations (Baptists & Methodist) divided into Northern and Southern entities over slavery.
Northern preachers denounced slavery as a sin; southern preachers used the Bible to defend slavery.
Southern literature romanticized plantation life.
Southern writers such as Edgar Allen Poe (pro-South); Northern writers such as Emerson & Thoreau (antislavery)
Uncle Tom's Cabin an immense success in North; written by Harriet Beecher Stowe; portrayed slavery as a threat to the family & the cult of domesticity.
Cannibals All! – (George Fitzhugh) Southern response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin; portrayed Northerners as the slave owners and factory workers as the slaves. 15

23. The Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857): Supreme Court can decide on slavery in the territories – President Buchanan encouraged the Court to make this decision.
Chief Justice was Roger Taney
Major arguments
Scott has no right to sue because neither he nor any other black, slave or free, is a citizen.
Congress has no authority to prohibit slavery in territories, thus declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
Ruling supports Republican claim that an aggressive slave power dominated all branches of federal government 16

24. The Lecompton Controversy
1856: Lawrence had been established as the capital of the free-state of Kansas
1857: Proslavery supporters established Lecompton as the capital of the slave-state of Kansas.
1858 – Kansas is a free state
The Lecompton Controversy showed how popular sovereignty could lead to civil war. 17

25. The Lincoln/Douglas Debates
Was not an abolitionist; promised not to interfere with slavery where it existed, but to prevent the spread of slavery
Casts slavery as a moral problem
“House Divided” speech
Freeport Doctrine – Lincoln wanted Douglas to explain how popular sovereignty could still work after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case. 18

26. The South's Crisis of Fear
October, 1859: John Brown’s raid Harper’s Ferry – wanted to start a slave rebellion
Brown executed, many Northerners see him as martyr
Hinton Helper’s Impending Crisis of the South asked poor white Southerners to overthrow planter dominance and abolish slavery
To Southerners, Republicans seen as radical abolitionists
Southerners convinced they must secede on election of Republican president 19

27. The Election of 1860: Republicans
Abraham Lincoln elected without receiving a single Southern vote
Platform to widen party’s appeal
High tariffs for industry
Free homesteads for small farmers
Government aid for internal improvements
No expansion of slavery
SOUTHERN RESPONSE: SC SECEDED! 22