1. CH: 10 -1850’s: The Union in Peril
Prelude to the Civil War

2. The Debate over California
California Gold Rush ( ) brings over 80,000 white Americans to California
Organized free state government, backed by Taylor
Clay offered compromise Omnibus Bill
Omnibus = “for everything”

3. The Debate over California
William Seward denounced compromise & spoke of obeying “higher law”
Calhoun warned South would leave union if right to own slaves not guaranteed
Taylor died in July 1850, making Millard Fillmore president
Stephen Douglas broke up Omnibus Bill & engineered Compromise of 1850

4. John C. Calhoun was too ill to deliver his speech on Clay’s Compromise himself, so it was read by another senator with Calhoun present in the Senate Chamber.
Calhoun, so ill he had to be helped out of the Chamber after the speech by two of his friends, died on March 31, 1850.
Calhoun warns the Senate that it must take measures to ensure the Southerners can remain in the union "with their honor and their safety" intact.

5. Webster viewed slavery as a matter of historical reality rather than moral principle.
He argued that the issue of its existence in the territories had been settled long ago when Congress prohibited slavery in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and divided regions into slave and free in the 1820 Missouri Compromise.
He believed that slavery where it existed could not be eradicated but also that it could not take root in the newly acquired agriculturally barren lands of the southwest.

6. To resolve the issue, Clay created a series of resolutions he wished to be adopted by Congress.
After seven months of debate in the Senate, his legislative package was voted down.

7. The Compromise of 1850 1.) California admitted as a free state
2.) New Mexico and Utah territory organized on basis of popular sovereignty
3.) Texas-New Mexico border resolved. Texas cedes land to NM in exchange for $10 million
4.) Fugitive Slave Act made federal government responsible for catching & returning escaped slaves
5.) Slave trade (but not slavery) abolished in the District of Columbia

10. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851)

11. The End of the Missouri Compromise
Gadsden Purchase (1853) meant to secure southern route for transcontinental railroad
Arranged by James Gadsden & Secretary of War Jefferson Davis
U.S. paid $10 million to Mexico for over 45,000 acres south of the Gila River
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) meant to secure northern route of transcontinental railroad
Stephen Douglas wrote bill organizing remaining Louisiana Purchase territory into 2 territories: Nebraska and Kansas; Slave state or free state to be determined on basis of popular sovereignty
Explicitly repealed Missouri Compromise (36-30)

12. Rounding Out the Lower 48

13. The Kansas-Nebraska Act

14. Bleeding Kansas
Abolitionist & proslavery forces race to populate Kansas & write state constitution
Both sides stage attacks
Massachusetts State Kansas Committee
“Border Ruffians” pro-slavery men from Missouri – *the sack of Lawrence.
Anti-Slavery faction is led by John Brown responsible for Pottawatomie Massacre
Congressman Preston Brooks (SC) savagely beat Senator Charles Sumner (MA) in the Senate (May 22, 1856)

17. “The Sumner Affair”

18. The Election of 1856 Democrats nominate Ambassador James Buchanan (PA)
Southern Whigs & Know-Nothings form American Party – nominate Fillmore
Conscience Whigs, Antislavery Democrats & Free Soilers form new Republican Party – nominate Fremont
James Buchanan
John C. Fremont

19. Free Soil Party Established: 1848 Major Platform:
Anti-extension of slavery
Not abolitionists
Pro-labor
“Free soil, free labor, free men”
Martin Van Buren nominated in 1848, wins 10% of popular vote.
Forerunner of the Republican Party

20. Know-Nothing Party Established: 1854 (American Party) “I know nothing”
Comprised of middle class Protestants
Major Platform:
Nativism
Anti-Catholic
Anti-immigrant

21. Whig Party Established: 1834 Party of personalities: Major Platform
Opposition to “King Andrew I”
Party of personalities:
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster
Major Platform
Pro-business
Divided on slavery
Sectional rift exposed by the Compromise of 1850
Conscience Whigs (anti-slavery) leave following Taylor’s nomination

22. Republican Party Established: 1854
Founder: Horace Greeley / New York Tribune
Major Platform:
Opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories
Opposed KA-NEB Act
Consolidated the anti-slavery vote
Free Soilers, Conscience Whigs, Democrats, etc.
1856 – Fremont nominated
1860 – Lincoln nominated

23. Democratic Party Established: 1840 Major Platform:
Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans
Jackson’s Democrats
Major Platform:
States’ rights
Limited gvt.
Divided over slavery
Party Splits in 1860
Northern Democrats
Southern Democrats

24. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Dred Scott was slave of Army doctor
had lived in free state & territory
sued for freedom
Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled:
Scott had no standing to bring suit
African Americans are not citizens & have no rights
Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
Any attempt to limit slavery in territories (even by territorial legislature) unconstitutional
Dred Scott
Roger Taney

25. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Buchanan backed fraudulent pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution (1858)
Douglas opposed – declared “Freeport Doctrine” in debates with Lincoln
Dred Scott ruling must be respected
Territories could still bar slavery by failing to pass necessary laws
Lincoln pointed out inherent contradiction

26. John Brown’s Body Brown was Connecticut native with apocalyptic vision
Led raid on federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, VA to start slave rebellion
Convicted of treason against Commonwealth of Virginia & executed
Became martyr to abolitionists
The arraignment of John Brown
Brown’s Last Moments, by Thomas Hovdenden (1884)

27. Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln (Ill) wins Republican nomination over William Henry Seward (NY)
Democrats split:
Northern Democrats nominate Stephen Douglas
Southern Democrats nominate John Breckinridge
Constitutional Union Party platform ignores the issue of slavery

28. The Confederate States of America
Southerners are hostile to President-elect Lincoln
South Carolina is the first to secede (12/20/1860)
The Confederate States of America are formed (2/4/1861)
SC, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX (Deep South)
CSA Elects officials and drafts a constitution devoted to states’ rights
Jefferson Davis (MI) – President
Alexander Stephens (GA) – Vice President

29. Jefferson Davis Alexander Stephens