Movement toward war

1
Movement toward war
2
Influences

• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Uncle Toms Cabin
• Written as a response to the Fugitive Slave Law.
• Energized Northern sympathies for the plight of
  the slaves.
• Huge influence on the outcome of the war.

3

• Hinton R. Helper
• The Impending Crisis of the South
• Viewed slavery as hurting nonslaveholding whites.
• Added fuel to the fire.
• John Brown
• Fanatical abolitionist

4

• Sumner-Brooks Fight
• Senators. Sumner-Mass. Brooks-SC.
• Sumner was an abolitionist who made disparaging
  remarks about Senator Butler of South Carolina.
• Brooks responds by beating him with a cane in the
  middle of the Senate.

5
Election of 1856

• Democrat James Buchanan v.
• Republican John C. Fremont
• Buchanan wins relatively easily 174-114
• Last Democrat to be pres. until 1884
• Only president never to be
• married

6
Bleeding Kansas

• Failure of popular sovereignty.
• Groups vied for control of the state.
• New England Emigrant Aid Company. Sent
  abolitionists to Kansas to thwart the
  Southerners.
• First territorial legislature. border ruffians
  from Missouri. Bloodshed, separate govts, etc.

7
Lecompton Constitution

• Attempt by Southern sympathizers to permanently
  establish slavery in Kansas.
• Supported by President Buchanan.
• Opposed by Stephen Douglas. Fought for true
  popular sovereignty.
• This episode resulting into the split of the
  democratic party.

8
Dred Scott

• Supreme Court decision. March 1857.
• Did residency in a free state give Scott the
  right to his freedom?
• Slaves had no rights under the Constitution.
• Slaves were property and could be taken into any
  territory.
• Congress had no power to ban slavery in the
  territories.

9
Things add up

• Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
• Territorial legislatures were themselves
  powerless to ban slavery. Rights of personal
  property guaranteed by the 5th Amendment take
  precedence.