The Union in Peril

1
The Union in Peril

• 1848-1860

2
Conflict in the Territories

• The defeat of the Wilmot Proviso left deep a
  sectional schism
• It also left the Union without a solution to the
  issue of slavery in the territories
• This left three competing ideas on resolution
• The Free-Soilers
• The Southern View
• Popular Sovereignty

3
The Three Positions

• Free Soil Movement
• Northern Democrats and Whigs support Wilmot
• This would have NO BLACKS, free or slave in the
  Mexican Cession
• Favored this approach because they didnt want to
  compete for jobs
• They also advocated free homesteads and internal
  improvements
• The Southern View
• Most southerners felt any restriction of slavery
  was a violation of their Constitutional rights
• Moderate Southerners saw the Missouri Compromise
  line as acceptable
• Popular Sovereignty
• This was the idea that the residents of a
  particular territory would vote on whether
  slavery was allowed

4
The Compromise of 1850

• The 1849 Gold Rush created the desperate need for
  law and order in the West generally, and
  California specifically
• To admit California would upset the slave/free
  balance
• The Compromise of 1850 solved this issue
• Proposed by Henry Clay, it was another band-aid
  on the simmering slavery issue

• Admit California as a free state
• Divide the remaining Mexican Cession lands into
  the New Mexico and Utah Territories and allow
  popular sovereignty
• Disputed land is given to the new territories in
  return for 10 million to Texas
• Slave trade is banned in D.C.
• A new, and stringent fugitive slave law

5
Slavery and the Rise of Tension

• Fugitive Slave Law
• The new law called for vigorous enforcement which
  enflamed Northern sentiments
• Underground Railroad
• This helped escaped slaves to the North guided by
  the North star
• Literature
• Uncle Toms Cabin was the most influential novel
  of its day and aroused the North
• The Impending Crisis of the South was another
  anti-slavery book that was banned in the South

6
The Crisis Deepens

• The Election of 1852
• The Whigs attempted to ignore the slavery issue
  and were defeated by Franklin Pierce, a Northern
  Democrat who supported the Fugitive Slave Law
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Stephen Douglas introduced this as a way to
  resolve the slave issue in the Kansas and
  Nebraska Territories
• In effect if repealed the Compromise of 1820
• New Political Parties
• The Know-Nothings (Nativists)
• The birth of the Republicans

7
Extremists and Violence

• Bleeding Kansas
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act set the stage for a
  violent showdown in the new territories
• Settlers form Missouri and Free-Soilers
  sponsoring the New England Emigrant Aid Society
  fueled tension and violence
• John Brown led his sons on a raid on a
  pro-slavery farm settlement and killed 5
• The Caning of Sumner
• Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was beaten by
  Preston Brooks after inflammatory remarks about
  the South and a personal attack on SC Senator
  Andrew Butler

8
Constitutional Issues

• The Lecompton Constitution
• The proslavery legislature at Lecompton, Kansas
  submitted a proslavery Constitution that would
  admit Kansas as a slave state
• James Buchanen asked Congress to accept the
  Lecompton Constitution, but Congress rejected it.
• The document was defeated the next year in 1858
  by the voters of Kansas
• Dred Scott v Sandford (1857)
• This decision made the free state/slave state
  debate moot
• Congress did not have the power to deprive people
  of property without due process

9
The Road to Secession

• John Browns Raid Harpers Ferry
• The assuredly crazy John Brown led a raid on a
  Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
• The idea was to steal the weapons and lead an
  armed uprising of slaves
• Southerners felt this exemplified the feelings of
  Northerners in general, although most condemned
  the assuredly crazy John Brown
• Brown was captured and hanged for his crimes, but
  was hailed as a martyr by some in the North

10
The Election of 1860

• This was the final straw in the division of the
  Union
• Lincoln won the election without a single
  electoral vote from a Southern state
• They knew that they would never have a chance to
  pass favorable legislation in a system so
  dominated by the North
• South Carolina was the first to secede in 1860
• Seven other states followed in 1861

11
The Election of 1860
12
A last-ditch effort

• The Crittenden Compromise
• This called for a Constitutional amendment to be
  passed re-establishing the 3630 line from the
  Compromise of 1820
• This would put slavery outside the reach of the
  Supreme Courts Dred Scott ruling
• Lincoln did not accept the Crittenden Compromise
  as he felt it violated the Republican principal
  of anti-slvaery.
• This effort failed as many Southerners also
  thought they were invoking the rights outlined in
  the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions