From Compromise to Secession

1
Chapter 14

• From Compromise to Secession
• 1850-1861

2
Introduction

• The decade of the 1850s opened with a compromise
  that was supposed to settle sectional
  differences but it quickly came undone
• Instead the 1850s, lurched from one sectional
  crisis to the next
• The most devastating of those occurred on October
  16, 1859
• WV John Brown article
• PBS.org

3
Introduction (cont.)

• John Brown and 18 followers seized the federal
  arsenal and armory at Harpers Ferry
• They intended to arm southern white and black
  dissidents in a holy war against slavery
• Browns failed raid convinced southerners that
  they had barely survived a northern plot to get
  them all murdered in a slave insurrection
• Northerners, while initially disavowing Brown,
  came, during his trial, to sympathize with him
• The whole incident set the stage for civil war

4
Introduction (cont.)

• 1.) How did the Fugitive Slave Act lead to the
  undoing of the Compromise of 1850?
• 2.) Why did the Whig Party collapse after the
  Kansas-Nebraska Act while the Democratic Party
  survived?
• 3.) How did the Republican doctrine of free soil
  unify northerners against the South?
• 4.) Why did southerners conclude that the North
  was bent on extinguishing slavery in the southern
  states?

5
The Compromise of 1850

• Introduction
• When the treaty ending the Mexican War was signed
  in 1848, a delicate balance existed between free
  and slave states
• 15 of each
• All the proposed solutions for handling slavery
  in the Mexican cession were controversial
• Whether to prohibit it
• Open the whole area to slaveholders
• Extend the Missouri Compromise line to the
  Pacific
• Or apply popular sovereignty
• Other issues also divided the North and South
• CA and UT asked Congress for admission to the
  Union as free states

6
Zachary Taylor at the Helm

• President Taylor had encouraged CA to make the
  request for statehood as a free state.
• Believing that the majority of its residents
  opposed slavery, he urged Congress to welcome it
  into the Union as a free state.
• Southerners were horrified at the prospect of
  losing the balance of power in the Senate by
  admitting CA and perhaps next NM as free states
• In protest, 9 southern states sent delegates to a
  southern convention at Nashville

7
Henry Clay Proposes a Compromise

• Senator Clay proposed a compromise to settle the
  territorial problem and other sectional
  controversies
• 1.) Admit CA as a free state
• 2.) Divide the rest of the Mexican cession into
  NM and UT territories, with the future of slavery
  in each left up to its residents
• 3.) Settle the border dispute between TX and NM
  in NMs favor
• 4.) Compensate TX by having the federal govt. pay
  off the states past public debt

8
Henry Clay Proposes a Compromise (cont.)

• 5.) Allow slavery to continue in Washington D.C.
  but ban slave trading there
• 6.) Pass and enforce a tough new fugitive slave
  law
• After heated debate and much maneuvering, the
  compromise passed

9
Assessing the Compromise

• The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the
  underlying differences between the sections
• The one clear advantage that the South gained,
  the passage of the stringent Fugitive Slave Act,
  backfired

10
Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act

• The law was blatantly stacked against black
  people and sent federal marshals all over the
  country looking for runaways
• This aroused widespread opposition in the North
• Northern mobs attacked marshals to rescue
  arrested fugitives
• Vigilance committees helped runaways escape to
  Canada
• 9 states passed personal liberty laws designed to
  interfere with enforcement of the Act
• Whereas the Act embittered northerners against
  the South, southerners resented the Norths
  refusal to live up to the terms of the Compromise

11
Uncle Toms Cabin

• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• By 1853, 1.2 million copies had been sold
• Aroused many antisouthern feelings and sympathy
  for slaves

12
The election of 1852

• The WhigsGeneral Winfield Scott
• War hero
• DemocratsFranklin Pierce
• The Democrats rallied behind the Compromise of
  1850 and popular sovereignty in the territories
• Whigs were torn apart into northern Whigs and
  southern Whigs over the sectional controversy

13
The election of 1852 (cont.)
14
The Collapse of the Second Party System, 1853-1856

• Introduction
• During Pierces administration the 2nd party
  system (Whigs vs. Democrats) collapsed
• In the 1850s, the issues (banking, internal
  improvements, tariffs, and temperance) that had
  been the main focus of partisan politics were
  pushed from center stage
• New debate was over slaverys extension
• The Whig Party was internally divided over the
  issue
• Disintegrated when Stephan A. Douglass
  Kansas-Nebraska bill threw the future of slavery
  in the territories wide open

15
The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Passage of this act in 1854 dealt a shattering
  blow to the second party system
• It also renewed the sectional strife that Clays
  compromise had aimed to quiet
• Stephen A. Douglas was eager to advance the
  settlement of Kansas and Nebraska and to promote
  the building of a transcontinental railroad
  through the area

16
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)

• To accomplish these goals, he needed to organize
  a territorial govt. for the region
• But he was running into southern opposition
  because the area was north of the Missouri
  Compromise line and would therefore be free
• To gain southern support, Douglas introduced the
  Kansas-Nebraska Bill

17
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)

• It repealed the Missouri Compromise
• Organized the 2 territories
• Left the question of slavery in both KS and NE up
  to popular sovereignty
• That gave the South a chance to gain at least KS
  for the peculiar institution

18
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)

• History Place.com
• U.S. News--actual document

19
The Surge of Free-Soil

• Douglas was surprised at the angry reaction in
  the North
• Many regarded the law as part of an atrocious
  southern plot to spread slavery into KS, the rest
  of the LA Territory, and even into the North
• Free-soil sentiment had grown tremendously in the
  North
• Not primarily because of sympathy for black
  slaves
• Many free-soilers were racists
• But because northerners wanted the territories to
  be the place where upwardly mobile, enterprising,
  poor Americans could become independent,
  self-employed farmers and businessmen

20
The Surge of Free-Soil (cont.)

• If slavery invaded the territories, it would
  discourage and drive out free labor

21
The Ebbing of Manifest Destiny

• Enthusiasm for expansion waned in the free states
• northerners saw in each southern move to acquire
  territory a plot to gain additional slave states
• This northern attitude became so pronounced that
  Pres. Pierce had to repudiated southern-backed
  plans to buy or seize Cuba

22
The Whigs Disintegrate1854-1855

• Southern Whigs had joined Democrats in voting for
  the KS-NE Act
• Northern conscience Whigs, led by Senator
  William Seward, and free-soil Democrats reacted
  angrily against both of the major parties
• In the elections of 1854 and 1855, many of the
  disaffected Whigs turned first to the
  Know-Nothing (American) Party
• Later they voted increasingly to the new
  Republican Party
• As a result of these moves, the Whig Party fell
  apart

23
The Rise and Fall of the Know-Nothings, 1853-1856

• Know-Nothings was also called the American Party
• It evolved out of a secret nativist society
  called the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner
• In the North, the party combined hatred of
  Catholics, immigrants, and slavery-extension
• It took a conspiratorial view of the world in
  which the Pope and Slave Power were both plotting
  to extinguish the American democratic republic
• In 1854 and 1855, the Know-Nothings scored major
  victories in northern states such as MA

24
The Rise and Fall of the Know-Nothings, 1853-1856
(cont.)

• However, the Party declined rapidly after 1855
• It was pulled apart by the slavery-expansion
  issue
• Its southern adherents supported the KS-NE Act
• a position unacceptable to northern nativists,
  who deserted to the emerging Republicans

25
The Republican Party and the Crisis in Kansas,
1855-1856

• The Republican Party first appeared in several
  northern states in protest against the KS-NE Act
• As the Know-Nothings waned by 1856, the
  Republicans became the main opposition party to
  the Democrats
• The Republicans were basically a coalition of
  former northern Whigs and Democrats who wanted to
  restore the MO Compromise, Liberty Party
  abolitionists, and free-soilers

26
The Republican Party and the Crisis in KS,
1855-1856 (cont.)

• Little united them at first except their
  opposition to the KS-NE Act
• However, the subsequent fighting in KS between
  proslavery and antislavery forces greatly
  strengthened the party and its free-soil stand

27
The Republican Party and the Crisis in KS,
1855-1856 (cont.)

• Both proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed
  to KS
• In 1855, when the first election for a
  territorial legislature took place, thousands of
  proslavery Missourians invaded KS for the day and
  voted illegally
• This fraud produced a rabidly proslavery
  legislature
• Which from its capital in Lecompton, KS, passed
  repressive laws aimed at squelching the
  free-soilers

28
The Republican Party and the Crisis in KS,
1855-1856 (cont.)

• The free-soilers, considering the Lecompton
  legislature a shame
• They organized a rival govt. in Topeka
• After the sack of Lawrence and John Browns
  Pottawatomie massacre
• A civil war broke out in KS
• Between the 2 govts. and their followers
• Popular sovereignty had not worked

29
The Republican Party and the Crisis in KS,
1855-1856 (cont.)

• Popular sovereignty caused angry debate between
  Pierce and Northern Democrats and Republicans
• Pierce and Northern Democratsrecognized the
  fraudulent Lecompton govt.
• Republicansdecried the outcome as a shame
• It also spread violence to Congress with Preston
  Brooks attack on Senator Charles Sumner

30
The Election of 1856

• Republicans nominated John C. Fremont
• Platform called on Congress to exclude slavery
  from all remaining territories
• Democrats nominated James Buchanan
• Backed popular sovereignty
• Know-Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore
• Buchanan won but the Republicans did remarkably
  well in the North
• Had Fremont carried PA and either IL or IN, he
  would have been elected
• Despite receiving almost no southern votes

31
The Election of 1856 (cont.)
32
The Crisis of the Union1857-1860

• The Dred Scott Case, 1857
• Decision was made 2 days after Buchanans
  inauguration
• the Supreme Court entered the controversy over
  slavery in the territories
• The Supreme Court was composed mostly of
  southerners
• Ruled that blacks (slave or free) were not
  citizens of the United States
• Also ruled that the Missouri Compromise had
  always been unconstitutional because Congress had
  no right to exclude slavery from any territory
• To do so violated the 5th Amendment protection of
  property and property holders

33
The Crisis of the Union1857-1860 (cont.)

• The Republicans denounced the decision and
  prepared to ignore it
• PBS link
• National Archives--audio link

34
The Lecompton Constitution1857

• In KS, the proslavery legislature proposed a
  state constitution that protected slaveholders
  and gave the settlers the right to vote only on
  whether to allow more slaves into KS
• President Buchanan backed the Lecompton
  constitution and called on Congress to grant KS
  statehood under it

35
The Lecompton Constitution1857 (cont.)

• Stephen Douglas (author of the KS-NE Act) broke
  with Buchanan and denounced the actions of the
  Lecompton legislature
• Claimed it undermined the original intent of
  popular sovereignty
• Northern Democrats and Republicans applauded
  Douglas
• Southern Democrats applauded Buchanan

36
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• In 1858, Douglas ran for reelection to the Senate
• Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee
• Not well-know or political successful at the time
• Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates

37
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont.)

• In the debates, Lincoln attacked slavery as
  morally evil but denied that Congress had the
  right to abolish it in the South or that he
  favored equality for blacks
• Rather, he stuck to his position that barring
  slavery from the territories
• Lincoln also forced Douglas into making his
  Freeport Doctrine statement
• Which pleased northern Democrats but made Douglas
  and his views unacceptable to the South

38
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (cont.)

• Although Douglas won the IL Senate seat, the
  election further split the Democratic Party
• It also made Lincoln famous in the North and
  infamous in the South
• Debate summaries

39
The Legacy of Harpers Ferry

• John Browns raid touched off a wave of fear and
  hysteria in the South
• Southerners believed Brown had the backing of
  abolitionists and Republicans who were plotting
  to incite more slave rebellions
• These fears played into the hands of southern
  extremists

40
The South Contemplates Secession

• Southerners began to speak of secession as the
  only way to protect themselves
• They regarded northern opposition to the Fugitive
  Slave Act and to slavery in KS as
  unconstitutional
• They also saw it as an offense to the South
• Which wounded southern pride
• Some argued that separation from the Union would
  also permit the South to seize more territory in
  the Caribbean and the West for slavery

41
The Collapse of the Union1860-1861

• The Election of 1860
• The Republicans broadened their appeal in the
  free states in 1860 by supporting a protective
  tariff, federal aid for internal improvements,
  and a homestead act
• Lincoln was there nominee for President
• The northern and southern Democrats were unable
  to agree on a platform so they split

42
The Election of 1860 (cont.)

• Northern DemocratsDouglas
• Still advocated popular sovereignty
• Southern DemocratsJohn C. Breckenridge
• Insisted that Congress must pass laws protecting
  slavery in all territories
• Constitutional Union PartyJohn Bell
• Appealed mostly in the border states and Upper
  South
• Lincoln won
• His name did not appear on southern ballots
• Won a majority of electoral college
• Only 39 of popular vote

43
The Election of 1860
44
The Movement for Secession

• Believing that a Republican president would
  unleash more John Browns on them
• The states of the Deep South began to secede even
  before Lincoln took office
• SC led the way on Dec. 1860
• AL, MS, FL, GA, LA, TX
• On Feb. 4, 1861, delegates from those 7 states
  met in Montgomery, AL to form the Confederate
  States of America

45
The Search for Compromise

• KY senator John Crittenden proposed a compromise
  to bring the Deep South back into the Union
• It included constitutional amendments that
  guaranteed the federal govt. would never
  interfere with slavery in the South
• That drew the MO Compromise line across the
  remaining territories
• with slavery permitted south of the line in all
  present and future U.S. territory

46
The Search for Compromise (cont.)

• Lincoln rejected the Crittenden plan because he
  would not abandon the free-soil promise on which
  he had been elected
• He regarded the plan as an invitation to the
  South to seize territory in the Caribbean for
  slavery
• He also felt that he had won an honest election
• That giving in to a losing minority would damage
  the American tradition of majority rule

47
The Coming of War

• The Confederacy began to take over federal forts
  within it region
• Soon after Lincolns inauguration, the
  Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in Charlestons
  harbor
• thus firing the 1st shot in the rebellion that
  became the Civil War
• Lincoln responded by proclaiming that a rebellion
  existed in the Lower South
• Called for 75,000 militia volunteers from the
  loyal states to subdue it

48
The Coming of War (cont.)

• Rather than send their troops to fight against
  sister southern states, VA, NC, AR, and TN
  seceded and joined the Confederacy
• The North was now aroused and ready to fight to
  save the Union
• though not yet ready to abolish slavery

49
(No Transcript)
50
Conclusion

• At no time prior to the Civil War, did the
  majority of Americans call for the end of slavery
  in the South
• Rather, in the 1850s, the gulf between the North
  and South widened over the spread of slavery into
  the territories
• Northerners believed their freedom to pursue
  economic opportunity would be denied if they had
  to compete against slave labor in the West

51
Conclusion (cont.)

• Southerners claimed that to curtail slavery in
  the territories violated their constitutional
  right to use their property (slaves) as they saw
  fit
• Attempts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, the
  KS-NE Acts repeal of the MO Compromise, the
  subsequent fighting in KS, the Dred Scott
  decision, and John Browns raid all further
  embittered intersectional conflict

52
Conclusion (cont.)

• National political parties collapsed under the
  strain
• the Whigs disintegrated
• The Democrats divided into northern and southern
  wings
• A new strictly northern party, the Republicans,
  emerged

53
Conclusion (cont.)

• By the end of the 1850s, northerners were
  convinced the South meant to impose slavery
  throughout the nation
• Southern states were ready for secession as the
  only way to protect their peculiar institution
  from a North that they saw as intent on
  destroying slavery even in the South