Origins of the Civil War

1
Origins of the Civil War

• Part 3 The Rise of the Republican Party

2
Rise of the Republican Party

• Overall summary
• From 1830s-1850s the two party system had
  largely drawn on national not sectional support.
  In the early 1850s the Second Party system
  collapsed (the Whig Party disintegrated) and the
  Republican party of the North emerged.

3
Summary

• Collapse of the Second Party System\The Kansas
  situation in 1854-56
• The emergence of the republicans
• 1856 Presidential Election
• James Buchanans Presidency
• 1858 Congressional Elections
• John Browns Raid

4
Collapse of the Second Party System

• Whig collapse caused by Kansas Nebraska Act. Main
  issues were not slavery question but
  anti-immigration and anti-Catholicism.
• Catholic Immigrationmassive increase (Potato
  Famine), effects wages, jobs, papal plot? Growing
  political power of Catholics
• Whig Failuredid not respond to nativism,
  estbalishment of Know Nothings and American
  Party-captures Whig strongholds

5
The Republican party

• Pure republicans opposed nativism and wwere
  anti-slavery, others were racists who wanted to
  keep all blacks out of the north.

6
The situation in Kansas

• Settlers move into Kansas, concern of water and
  land rights. Southerners feared another free
  state would be the nail in the coffin of slavery.
  
• Mass Emigrant Aid Company sponsors settlement.
  Voters sent from Platt County in Missouri.
  Lecompton legislature meets to tighten pro
  slavery laws.
• Topeka Government set up by free soilers, who
  did not want any blacks in Kansas

7
The situation in Kansas (cont)

• Bleeding Kansas Lawrence Raid sparks serious
  violence- John Brown murders pro-slavery
  settlers, Northern newspapers suppress the facts
• Tensions, killings, Pierce appoints John Geary
  who re-establishes order
• Northerners perceive Slave Power to be at work

8
American Party Problems

• 1855 height of power, anti-slavery and nativist
  issues. In the south this did not fly.
• Also party suffers from the decline in
  immigration, failure of leadership to deliver on
  policies, secretive elements were not universally
  popular, similarities with republican Party
  Platform

9
Republican policies

• Not easy to say what they favored, but easy to
  say what they were against. Anti-slave power
  (article of faith), did not support immediate
  abolition.
• Charles Beard thought the Rep Party represented
  the forces of emerging capitalism and that its
  main concern was the promotion of
  industrialization (high tariffs, central banking
  system etc) But weak thesis.

10
Bleeding Sumner

• Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner
  representation of brute force enraged
  Northerners.

11
1856 Elections

• American party select Fillmore (pro-southern
  sympathies)
• Republicans Fremont (Free, Free Labor, Fremont)
  ran on the twin relics of barbarism polygamy and
  slavery
• Democrats, Run off between Douglas and Buchanan.
  Pennsylvania was the battleground state Democrats
  believed in 1850 Compromise and Popular
  Sovereignty. Buchanan runs against Fremont in the
  north and Fillmore in the south. Democrats claim
  to be the party of stability , peace and union.
  Win election, but massive support for the
  republican party.

12
1856 Elections (cont)

• Outcome American party destroyed, slavery
  emerges as the main issue not anti-catholicism

13
James Buchanans presidency

• Wants to solve KansasBuchanan does poorly
• Democrats dominate Congress and Supreme Court
• Historian Kenneth Stampp says that by 1857 the
  north and south had reached the political point
  of no return
• Dred Scott CaseNegative impact on Buchanan,
  collusion with Taney
• Panic of 1857-Buchanan does nothing

14
Buchanans Presidency

• Corruption and division in Kansas
• Fraudulent elections and the Lecompton
  Convention. Buchanan believes that anti slavery
  forces were to blame in Kansas, supports
  Lecompton-huge blunder. Proof of Slave Power,
  splits North and South further. Lecompton
  defeated in congress. 1861, Kansas joins union as
  a free state.

15
1858 Congressional Elections

• Split between Douglas and Buchanan
• Enter Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln-Douglas debates
• Lincoln as a racist
• Douglas pro-slavery?

16
John Browns raid

• October 16 1859 John Brown and 18 men rode to
  arsenal at Harper Ferry. Seize weapons and start
  slave revolt.
• Brown had financial backing
• Captures arsenal
• Random shots at train, state militia called
  inRobert E. Lee. Seige

17
John Brown (cont)

• Tried fro treason- executed. North saw John Brown
  as a hero, south as a villain
• Sectional tension at fever pitch, slave patrols,
  republican s push free homesteads
• Buchanans failed presidency as a major origin of
  the Civil War.