3. Missouri Compromise (1820)

8. Kansas and Nebraska
Kansas and Nebraska were part of the territory in the Louisiana Purchase that was to be incorporated into the Union as particular states.
The New England Emigrant Aid Company sent 2,000 well-armed people to Kansas in an attempt to use popular sovereignty to their advantage; they would guarantee that Kansas would be a free state. Southerners responded in kind by helping well-armed slave-owners emigrate to Kansas.
In 1855 proslavery “border ruffians” poured into Kansas to influence the election of the territorial legislature.

9. Compromise of 1850

11. Kansas Nebraska Act (1856)

12. John Brown
John Brown was a zealous abolitionist whose family responded to a pro-slavery attack on Lawrence by going to Pottawatomie Creek and hacking up five supposedly pro-slavery men.
This helped to trigger a small civil war in Kansas.
By 1857, Kansas was going to apply for statehood on the basis of popular sovereignty. Proslavery forces devised the Lecompton Constitution: it was rigged to guarantee slavery in Kansas.

15. The Presidential Election of 1856
The Democrats met in Cincinnati for the Democratic National Convention and selected Pennsylvania lawyer and foreign minister James Buchanan (aka “Old Buck”). He supported popular sovereignty. The new Republican party met in Philadelphia and selected Captain John. C. Frémont (aka “the Pathfinder”). He opposed extension of slavery to the territories. (Lincoln was emerging as a powerful political figure, since he received 110 votes for the vice-presidential nomination.) Nativists who were opposed to immigration formed the American Party, also called the “Know-Nothing” party, and nominated ex-president Millard Fillmore (president from after Zachary Taylor died in office). Whigs backed him.

16. Election Results Candidate Popular Vote Percentage of Popular Vote
Electoral Vote
Buchanan (Democrat)
1,832,955
45.3%
174 (59%)
Frémont (Republican)
1,339,932
33.1%
114 (38%)
Filmore (American)
871,731
21.6%
8 (3%)
Why did Fremont lose?
There were grave doubts as to his abilities
Southerners were making threats about secession if the “Black Republican” won

17. The Third Party System (1854-1890s)
Historians and political scientists refer to s as the period of the Third Party System, replacing the Second Party System which had dominated from (Democratic Party vs. Whig Party). The Third Party System pitted the new Republican Party against the old Democratic Party.

18. The Dred Scott Decision of 1857
On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Roger Taney, handed down its decision in the Dred Scott v. Stanford case.
Scott was a black slave who had lived with his master for five years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. Abolitionists helped him sue for freedom since he had lived on free soil.
The Court ruled that he was a non-citizen and thus did not have legal standing to sue in federal courts.
The Court ruled that slaves were property and thus protected by the 5th Amendment, even if in free states or territories.
The Court ruled the Missouri Compromise (1820) to have always been unconstitutional.

19. The Lincoln-Douglass Debates
Abraham Lincoln was a member
of the Whig Party who served
in the Illinois state legislature. Next he
served in Congress in the House of
Representatives ( ),
representing Illinois.
Lincoln, running as a
Republican, challenged Stephen
Douglass ( “the Little Giant”) to a series of
joint debates. Douglass was an experienced
and formidable debater. They met for a
series of seven debates from August to October 1858.

20. A Moral Victory
Lincoln’s best argument was utilized in Freeport, Illinois. Douglass was faced with a dilemma: if the people of a territory voted no to slavery, would they prevail, or would the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision?
No matter which “horn” of the dilemma Douglass picked, he would run into a problem. Douglass chose the first “horn” and inaugurated the Freeport Doctrine.
Freeport Doctrine: since slavery could not exist without laws to protect it, territorial legislatures, not the Supreme Court, would have the final say on the slavery question.
Long story short, the Supreme Court could just be ignored!
Douglass won the election, but Lincoln acquired political capital. Douglass hurt his chances of winning the 1860 presidential election.
In other words…

21. Because Douglass gave a more moderate answer to Lincoln’s Freeport Question, he alienated the more hardcore pro-slavery faction of the Democratic Party.

22. The Presidential Election of 1860
The Republican Party met in Chicago, Illinois for the National Convention. They nominated Abraham Lincoln over William H. Seward because he had fewer enemies.
The Democratic Party met for their National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, and did not wish to pick Senator Stephen A. Douglass as their presidential nominee. Why? His stance on the Lecompton Constitution and the Freeport Doctrine. No nominee picked, most delegates walked out.
Democrats tried to have a second National Convention in Baltimore. Douglass nominated.
Some of the Democrats again became angry and walked out, holding a separate National Convention in Baltimore. They nominated Vice-President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky.
The rest of the Democrats advocate a moderate position and formed the Constitutional Union Party, nominating John Bell of Tennessee.
Recap:
Douglass (Democrat) – popular sovereignty and enforcement of Fugitive Slave Law in Free States
Breckinridge (Democrat) – extension of slavery into the territories and annexation of slave-populated Cuba
Bell (Constitutional Union) – compromise for the continuation of the Union

23. 39 (Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee)
Election Results
Candidate
Popular Vote
Percentage of Popular Vote
Electoral Vote
Lincoln
(Republican)
1,865,593
39.79%
180 (every vote of the free states except for 3 of New Jersey’s 7 votes)
Douglass
(Democrat)
1,382, 713
29.40 12
Breckinridge
848, 356
18.20 72
Bell
(Constitutional Union)
592,906
12.61
39 (Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee)
Even if the Democrats hadn’t split the vote, Lincoln still would almost certainly have won, 169 to 134
Lincoln wasn’t even allowed on the ballot in 10 of the southern states

24. Electoral Map 1860

25. John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid
John Brown was an abolitionist who wished to start a slave revolt (like the revolts of Toussaint L’Ouverture and Nat Turner) and create a black free state on the edge of the southern states. He and a small band raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia, but were apprehended.
John Brown was executed, but became a martyr for the anti-slavery cause.
Led to “John Brown’s Body” which later caused the creation of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

26. The Crittenden Compromise
Senator John Jordan Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a compromise involving amendments to the U.S. Constitution:
Slavery in territories prohibited north of 36° 30’ (the Missouri Compromise line)
Federal protection for slavery south of the line, including territory not yet acquired (they had Cuba in mind)
Future states to enter union on basis of popular sovereignty

27. The Road to Secession
South Carolina held a convention of the state legislature on December 17, 1860; it passed the Ordinance of Secession on December 20.
Within six weeks, five other states of the “lower” South seceded afterwards: Alabama (1/11/61), Mississippi (1/9/61), Florida (1/10/61), Georgia (1/19/61), and Louisiana (1/26/61). Texas joined the Confederacy afterwards (2/1/61).
In February of 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, the Southern States formed the Confederate States of America. Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy.
The Confederate president
was Jefferson Davis.

28. Attack on Fort Sumter
Abraham Lincoln took the presidential oath of office on March 4, In his inaugural address he said the North wouldn’t start a conflict unless the South provoked it. Yet he also said that secession was not an option: “physically speaking, we cannot separate.”
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, SC, was running low on supplies. Lincoln told South Carolina he would send provisions to the garrison there, not reinforcements.
On April 12, 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard fired a barrage of canonfire at Fort Sumter. After thirty-four hours, the fort surrendered.

29. Results
Lincoln used the Southern attack as his casus belli and on April 15, 1861, called for a 75,000 man army and a blockade on Southern ports.
Virginia (4/17/61), Arkansas (5/6/61), North Carolina (5/20/61), and Tennessee (6/8/61) all joined the Confederacy in the next two months (March-May 1861), bringing the total up to 11 new states in the Confederate States of America.
Richmond, Virginia, replaced Montgomery, Alabama as the Confederate capital.

30. Territorial Breakdown