1. the Crisis of the Union 1850-1860

2. ushc 3.1
Evaluate the relative importance of political events and issues that divided the nation and led to civil war, including the compromises reached to maintain the balance of free and slave states, the abolitionist movement, the Dred Scott case, conflicting views on states’ rights and federal authority, the emergence of the Republican Party, and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

3. BACK
to the
Compromise of 1850

4. The Compromise of 1850 Admit California as a Free State
For the North:
For the South:
The New Mexico Territory:
Slavery in Washington, DC:
Admit California as a Free State
STRONGER Fugitive Slave Law
Popular Sovereignty in Mexican Cession
Texas sells land / Federal Gov. assumes debt
Abolish Slave Trade in Washington, D.C.

5. Crisis Averted…
1850
1860
…for now.

6. The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to be the final compromise between the sections…
and it was – just for different reasons than Clay had intended.

7. De facto Nullification
Personal Liberty Laws
Passed by Wisconsin and other Northern states
Guaranteed jury trials for accused slaves
De facto Nullification

8. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestselling anti-slavery novel (1852)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestselling anti-slavery novel (1852)
Original Illustrations:

10. Some books make us Re-Think

11. 1852 Presidential Election
1856
1860

12. Franklin Pierce (D-NH) Fourteenth President of the U.S. 1853-1857
“Handsome Frank”
Mexican War Veteran
Kansas-Nebraska Act
“Doughface” (Pro-Southern)
NOT RENOMINATED
“There's nothing left to do but get drunk."

14. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
POPULAR
SOVEREIGNTY
In Kansas and Nebraska Territories on the issue of slavery
MISSOURI COMPROMISE
ANIMATED MAP:

15. “Bleeding Kansas” “Race to Kansas” 1855-1859 56 Dead
Proslavery vs. Antislavery
“Border Ruffians” (from MO)
N.E. Immigrant Aid Society
Beecher’s Bibles
ANIMATED MAP:

16. Bibles “Beecher’s Bibles” New England Emigrant Aid Society
"He (Henry W. Beecher) believed that the Sharps Rifle was a truly moral agency, and that there was more moral power in one of those instruments, so far as the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hundred Bibles. You might just as well. . . read the Bible to Buffaloes as to [pro-slavery settlers]; but they have a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifle.”
New York Tribune, 2/8/1856
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
(H.B. Stowe’s relative)

17. “Bleeding Kansas” 1855-1859 56 Dead
Lawrence, KS, after the “Sack of Lawrence” by proslavery settlers

18. John Brown
Bibles
Abolitionist
Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

19. John Steuart Curry, “Tragic Prelude,” 1937-1941

20. Conflicting Constitutions
Topeka
Antislavery
Lecompton
Proslavery

21. FAIL Republican Party Whig Party Republican Party Free Soil
( )
Republican Party
(1854-Present)
No longer viable after 1852 election
SPLIT: Northern Whigs and Southern Whigs
Free Soil
NOT abolitionist
(although abolitionists supported the Republican Party)
New England and “Northwest” power base
Northern Whigs +
Northern Free Soil Democrats

22. “The Crime Against Kansas”
Document 6.5
“The Crime Against Kansas”
CHIVALRY
Charles Sumner
US Senator (Mass.)
DON QUIXOTE
Don Quixote

23. Chivalry

24. Brooks/Sumner Incident
(1856)
vs.
Rep. Preston Brooks (SC)
Sen. Charles Sumner (MA)

25. SLAP!
READ Sumner’s Speech
READ Brooks’ Defense

26. Nativism

27. Nativism = Anti-Immigration

29. Philadelphia Nativist Riots
(1844)
Anti-Catholic violence
For Further Reading:
St. Augustine’s Church on Fire

30. The American Party “Know Nothings”
NATIVISM
CATHOLICS
IMMIGRANTS
NOTE: Antebellum immigrants were mostly from Germany and Ireland.
“I know nothing…”

31. “Citizen Know Nothing”
A Mascot for the Movement
Ted Nugent: A Real American
Click for Article

32. 1856 Presidential Election
1852
1856
1860

33. Ah! Fremont, your sectional Gun has exploded just as I predicted, but my American rifle will bring down that Old Buck.
Oh! Brother Beecher! Our Kansas Gun has bursted and upset our gunner. I’m afraid we put in too big a load.
Confound the Gun! if I can only get out of this muss I’ll stick to preaching and let fire-arms alone.
Abolition Bog

34. James Buchanan (D-PA) Fifteenth President of the U.S. 1857-1861
Pierce’s Minister to Great Britain – abroad during Kan/Neb Act controversy
Sectional Turmoil Escalated
Indecisive concerning secession
Only bachelor to occupy the White House

35. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) FACTS OF THE CASE:
Dred Scott, a slave, lived with his master in free territory for two years.
Scott claimed this made him a free man.

36. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) THE DECISION: Judicial Activism
People of African descent (incl. Scott) could not be U.S. citizens.
Congress can’t forbid slavery in federal territories (violation of property rights)
Ergo, the Missouri Compromise is Unconstitutional
Judicial Activism

37. When Judges Write the Law
Judicial Activism
When Judges Write the Law
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
JUDICIAL BRANCH
President
Congress
Supreme Court
____________ Laws
_____________ Laws

38. “Slave Power” Conspiracy?

39. Lincoln-Douglas Debates
(1857)
Illinois Senate Race
Stephen Douglas
(Democratic Incumbent)
Abraham Lincoln
(Republican Challenger)
FOCUS: Free Soil
Significance:
Douglas wins, but loses popularity in the South.
Lincoln becomes a national figure.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate Memorial

40. “House Divided” Speech Abraham Lincoln
1858

41. John Brown’s Raid (1859) OBJECTIVE: TREASON Seize a federal arsenal
Harpers Ferry, VA
TREASON
Tried, Convicted, Executed
Different reactions in North and South

43. Paranoia NORTH: “Slave Power” Conspiracy
The South wants to spread slavery throughout the nation
Mason-Dixon Line
SOUTH: North plans to destroy Southern slavery by igniting slave revolts.

44. 1860 Presidential Election
1852
1856
1860

45. Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) Sixteenth President of the U.S. 1861-1865
Democratic Party split
Election prompted secession of states in the Deep South

46. Secession