1. Problems of Sectional Balance in 1850
California statehood.
Southern “fire-eaters” threatening secession.
Underground RR & fugitive slave issues:
Personal liberty laws

2. Compromise of 1850 Admission of California as a free state
Organizing Utah & New Mexico into 2 territories:
allowing the settlers in these territories to decide the slavery issue by majority vote in those territories
Adjustment of the Texas/New Mexico border in return for the federal gov’t assuming Texas’ public debt of 10 million
abolition of slave trade in District of Columbia(permit whites to hold slaves as before)
tougher fugitive slave laws.

3. Compromise of 1850
Its passage was hailed as a solution to the threat of national division.
Henry Clay, Daniel Webester & John Calhoun delivered the last great speeches of their lives
Northern opposition looked promising until Pres. Taylor died in 1850 who opposed Clay’s plan
VP Millard Fillmore supported compromise

4. Compromise of 1850

5. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady who started the Civil War Abraham Lincoln

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 Sold 300,000 copies in the first year.
2 million in a decade!

7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
awakened the passions of the North toward the evils of slavery
About the splitting up of a slave family & the cruel mistreatment of likeable Uncle Tom by a cruel slave master.

8. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
South said Stowe’s portrayal of slavery = wrong & unfair.
Book helped Britain stay out of the Civil War
British people sympathized with Uncle Tom, wouldn’t allow intervention on behalf of the South.

9. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

10. The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
Nativists.
Anti-Catholics.
Anti-immigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.

11. 1852 Presidential Election
√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

12. 1852 Election Results

13. The North-South Contest for Kansas
Northerners pour into Kansas, and Southerners = outraged
they supported the Compromise of 1850 believing that Kansas would = a slave state.
Election day 1855:
hordes of Southerners “border ruffians” from Missouri flooded the polls & elected Kansas to be a slave state
free-soilers = upset and set up their own government in Topeka.

14. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

15. The North-South Contest for Kansas
Kansans had to chose between two governments:
one illegal (free government in Topeka)
the other fraudulent (slavery government in Shawnee).
1856, a group of pro-slavery raiders shot up and burnt part of Lawrence, thus starting violence.

16. Border “Ruffians” (pro-slavery Missourians)
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border “Ruffians” (pro-slavery Missourians)

17. John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
John Brown: led a band of followers to Pottawatomie Creek (May 1856) & hacked to death five presumable pro-slaveryites. This brutal violence surprised even the most ardent abolitionists and brought swift retaliation from pro-slaveryites. “Bleeding Kansas” was earning its name.
Mural in the Kansas Capitol building by John Steuart Curry (20c)

18. The Battle Continues in Kansas
By 1857: Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood
Those for slavery devised the Lecompton Constitution
provided that the people were only allowed to vote for the constitution “with slavery” or “without slavery.”
***even if the constitution was passed “without slavery,” those slaveholders already in the state would still be protected. So, slaves would be in Kansas, despite the vote.
Angry free-soilers boycotted the polls and Kansas approved the constitution with slavery

19. And continues…. In Washington, Buchanan had succeeds Pierce
but like Pierce, Buchanan was more towards the South, and firmly supported the Lecompton Constitution.
Senator Stephen Douglas, refusing to have this fraudulent vote by saying this wasn’t true popular sovereignty, threw away his Southern support and called for a fair re-vote.
Thus, the Democratic Party was hopelessly divided, ending the last remaining national party for years to come (the Whigs were dead and the Republicans were a sectional party).

20. “The Crime Against Kansas”
Congr. Preston Brooks (D-SC)
Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA)
“Bleeding Kansas” spills into Congress: Senator Charles Sumner = vocal anti-slaveryite, & his blistering speeches condemned all slavery supporters. Congressman Preston S. Brooks decided that since Sumner was not a gentleman he couldn’t challenge him to a duel, so Brooks beat Sumner with a cane until it broke; nearby, Senators did nothing but watched, & Brooks was cheered on by the South.

21. Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
Northern Whigs.
Northern Democrats.
Free-Soilers.
Know-Nothings.
Other miscellaneous opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

22. 1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

23. 1856 Election Results

24. Dred Scott Case The situation:
Dred Scott =slave whose master took him north into free states where he lived for many years
his master dies & he sued for his freedom from his new master
claiming that he had been in free territory and was therefore free.
The Missouri Supreme Court agreed, freeing him, but his new master appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overruled the decision.

25. Dred Scott Case Outcomes or decisions of the case…
Chief Justice Roger Taney said;
no slave could be a citizen of the U.S. in his justification.
The Court said:
a legislature/Congress cannot outlaw slavery, as that would go against the 5th Amendment saying a person’s property cannot be taken without due process of law. This was the bombshell statement.
The Court concludes:
the Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional all along (because it’d banned slavery north of the 36° 30’ line and doing so was against the second point listed above).

26. Sectional implications of Dred Scott
The North—South scoreboard now favored the South undeniably. The South had (1) the Supreme Court, (2) the president, and (3) the Constitution on its side. The North had only Congress (which was now banned from outlawing slavery).
Reasons the Constitution favored the South…
the Supreme Court just said so with the Dred Scott decision and it is the Supreme Court that interprets the Constitution
the 5th Amendment said Congress could not take away property, in this case, slaves
it could be argued that slavery is in the Constitution by way of the Three- Fifths Compromise
it could be argued slavery is not in the Constitution since the word “slavery” is not present, but using this argument, the 10th Amendment said anything not in the Constitution is left up to the states, and the Southern states would vote for slavery.

27. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

28. What caused the Panic of 1857?? What were its affects on the nation?

29. Panic of 1857
Psychologically, the Panic of 1857 = the worst of the 19C
it really wasn’t as bad as the Panic of 1837.
It’s causes:
California gold causing inflation
over-growth of grain
over-speculation in land and railroads.
North = especially hard hit
South rode it out proving that cotton was indeed king & raising Southern egos.
Also, in 1860, Congress passed a Homestead Act
Provide 160 acres of land at a cheap price for those who were less-fortunate, (vetoed by Buchanan)
Homestead Act = disliked by Northeast
Long unfriendly to extension of land & feared that it would drain its population
Panic brought calls for a higher tariff rate
had been lowered to about 20% only months before.

30. Lincoln's Battle for the Senate
1858, Senator Stephen Douglas’ term was about to expire
against him = Republican Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of 7 debates
most famous debate = Freeport, Illinois,
Lincoln essentially asked, “Mr. Douglas, if the people of a territory voted slavery down, despite the Supreme Court saying that they could not do so (point #2 of the Dred Scott decision), which side would you support, the people or the Supreme Court?”
“Mr. Popular Sovereignty,” Douglas replied with his “Freeport Doctrine,” which said that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down; since power was held by the people.

31. The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858
A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

32. Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine
Popular Sovereignty?

33. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA
plan = invade the South, seize its arms, call upon the slaves to rise up and revolt, and take over the South and free it of slaves
slaves didn’t revolt
captured by the U.S. Marines under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee & convicted of treason, sentenced to death, and hanged.
Brown portrayed himself as a martyr against slavery, and when he was hanged, he instantly became a martyr for abolitionists
northerners rallied around his memory
Abolitionists were infuriated by his execution (as they’d conveniently forgotten his violent past).
South = happy & saw justice. They also felt his actions were typical of the radical North

34. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, 1859

35. Election of 1860
After failing to nominate a candidate in Charleston, South Carolina, the Democrats split into Northern and Southern factions
at Baltimore, the Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas for president
Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge.
Meanwhile, the “Know-Nothings” chose John Bell of Tennessee and called themselves the Constitutional Union party. They tried to mend fences and offered as their platform, simply, the Constitution.

36. 1860 Presidential Election
√ Abraham Lincoln Republican
John Bell Constitutional Union
1860 Presidential Election
Stephen A. Douglas Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge Southern Democrat

37. Republican Party Platform in 1860
Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].
Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].
Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.
Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

38. 1860
Election
Results

39. The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
Abe Lincoln won the election despite not even being on the ballot in the South.
Lincoln won with only 40% of the popular vote
had the Democratic Party been more organized and energetic, they might have won.
It was a very sectional race:
the North went to Lincoln,
the South to Breckinridge
the “middle-ground” to the middle-of-the-road candidate in Bell
popular-sovereignty-land went to Douglas.
Republicans did not control the House or the Senate, and the South still had a five-to-four majority in the Supreme Court, but the South still decided to secede.

40. The Secessionist Exodus
South Carolina threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected president
SC seceded in December of 1860.
Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas (the Deep South) followed in next 6 weeks, before Abe was inaugurated.
Secession states met in Montgomery, Alabama in February of 1861
created the Confederate States of America
chose Jefferson Davis as president.
President Buchanan?
did nothing to force the confederacy back into the Union, Why?
Union troops were needed in the West
North was still apathetic toward secession
left the issue for Lincoln to handle when he got sworn in.

41. Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860

42. Crittenden Compromise: A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J. Crittenden (Know-Nothing-KY)

43. The Collapse of Compromise
James Henry Crittenden proposed the Crittenden Compromise
ban slavery north of the 36°30’ line extended to the Pacific
would leave the issue in territories south of the line up to the people
existing slavery south of the line would be protected.
Lincoln opposed the compromise
his party had preached against the extension of slavery, & he had to stick to principle.

44. Farewell to Union Why secession?
feared that their rights as a slaveholding minority were being threatened
alarmed at the growing power of the Republicans
they believed that they would be unopposed despite what the Northerners claimed
South hoped to develop its own banking and shipping, and to prosper.
In 1776, the 13 colonies had seceded from Britain and had won; now the South could do the same thing.