CHAPTER 19 – DRIFTING TOWARD DISUNION - 1854-1861
“A house divided against itself cannot stand...” –Abraham Lincoln, 1858
Overview: As emotions rose and violence broke out in the Kansas Territory in 1855, a political solution to the slavery issues became less and less likely. The Supreme Court ruled against the slave Dred Scott and went even further, saying the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had been unconstitutional. A financial panic hurt the North in 1857 and gave the South confidence in its economic strength. Lincoln opposed Douglas for the Illinois senate and engaged in the Great Debate of 1858. John Brown attacked Harper’s Ferry in 1859 and was executed, outraging abolitionists. When the Republicans Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the expansion of slavery, won the Election of 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed quickly by other states. Attempts at compromise led by Sen. Crittendon failed, and the no-longer-United States drifted toward civil war between North and South.
I. 1850s: Public opinion in the North turned strongly against slavery, while Southerners became less and less willing to remain in the Union.
A. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) ignited a firestorm of anti-slavery opinion in the North and around the world.
1. Many Northerners vowed not to obey the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
2. The novel’s strong effect on public opinion against slavery in Britain and France deterred those nations from assisting the South.
B. 1857: Southerner Hinton R. Helper’s anti-black and anti-slavery book, The Impending Crisis of the South, argued that non-slaveholding whites suffered the most from slavery. It aroused outrage in the South but was used as campaign literature by the Republicans.
II. Election of 1856:
A. Candidates:
1. James Buchanan (PA, Democrat)
2. Capt. John Fremont (fought in California – Republican)
3. Millard Fillmore for 3rd-party “Know-Nothings” (nativist, anti-immigrant)
B. Issues: Democrats for popular sovereignty; Republicans against slavery in the territories; Know-Nothings against foreigners and Catholics
C. Buchanan won, but Republicans made a strong showing
III. Violence and civil war in Kansas Territory; “Bleeding Kansas”
A. Settlers moved to Kansas and fight over land and slave issue
1. ca. 2000 were armed abolitionist settlers assisted by the New England Emigrant Aid Society, which hoped to use popular sovereignty to make Kansas a free territory
2. Southerners were angered, having assumed the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) meant Kansas would be slave and Nebraska free; tried to send their own pro-slavery settlers
3. 1855: thousands of proslavery Missouri residents crossed into Kansas to vote fraudulently in elections for the territory’s legislature
4. Proslavery supporters and Free-soilers set up competing governments in Kansas; sporadic violence over land claims
5. 1856: pro-slavery raiders burn free-soil Lawrence, KS
B. 1856: John Brown retaliated for burning of Lawrence with bloody massacre of supposed pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek
C. Civil war in Kansas continued until it merged with the national Civil War of 1861-1865
D. Lecompton Constitution (1857) drawn up by proslavery forces, forced population to vote on state constitution “with slavery” or “without slavery” but either way would permit existing slave ownership in Kansas
1. Passed with slavery 1857
2. Buchanan administration supported, Sen. Stephen Douglas opposed, and entire Lecompton Constitution was submitted to vote and defeated
3. Democratic party split between North and South; no national parties remained
IV. Violence on the Senate floor leads to further divisions
A. 1856 Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts insulted pro-slavery proponents and SC Senator Andrew Butler on senate floor
B. SC Senator Preston “Bully” Brooks beat and seriously injured Sumner in retaliation
C. North and South driven even further apart
V. Dred Scott Decision (1857)
A. Dred Scott, a slave, sued for freedom on the grounds that he had lived for many years in free state IL and free territory WI
B. Supreme Court ruling against Scott stated
1. Slaves were not citizens and could not sue in Federal Court
2. Slaves were property and could be taken into any territory, slave or free, and must remain slaves
3. Missouri Compromise of 1820, banning slavery north of 36°30', and repealed by Compromise of 1850, had been unconstitutional all along; congress had no power to ban slavery in territories even if free.
C. Northern Democrats and Republicans disagreed, defied Supreme Court
VI. Financial Crash of 1857
A. Causes were inflation from California gold, land and railroads speculation, low prices for grain, and the lower Tariff of 1857
B. North (grain-growing, manufacturing) hit harder than South (cotton), contributing to southern overconfidence
C. Republicans sought higher, protective tariff and free homesteads, both of which would benefit the North.
VII. Illinois Senatorial Race of 1858: Lincoln v. Douglas
A. 1858 Douglas and Lincoln held 7 debates together called the Great Debate
1. Lincoln asked, if the people voted against slavery in a territory and the Supreme Court said they could not, who would prevail?
2. Douglas’s answered in his Freeport Doctrine that no matter how the Court ruled, if the people voted slavery down it would stay down.
B. Lincoln won the Illinois Senate seat
VIII. John Brown attacks Harper’s Ferry, Oct. 1859
A. Brown plotted to incite a black rebellion in the South, arm the slaves, and create a black free state.
B. Attacked arsenal, killing several, and was captured by Lt.Col. Robert E. Lee, tried, and executed
C. Many abolitionists considered Brown a martyr, unaware he had been a murderer in Kansas and was possibly deranged.
IX. Election of 1860
A. Democrats divide; N and S cannot agree on candidate
1. Northern Democrats choose Douglas (IL)
2. Southern Dems choose John Breckinridge (KY)
B. Constitutional Union party (former Whigs and Know-Nothings) choose John Bell (TN)
C. Republicans choose Lincoln (IL)
1. platform: no slavery in territories; protective tariff; rights for immigrants; Pacific railroad; internal improvements at federal expense; free homesteads
2. Southerners deeply opposed to Lincoln (who up until then had advocated compensation for slave owners)
D. Lincoln won, and extremist Southerners vowed to secede from the Union
X. Southern States Secede from the Union
A. December 1860 – South Carolina secedes from the Union even before Lincoln takes office
B. 1861: Within 6 weeks Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the union.
C. Spring 1861: Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee secede (see p. 437)
D. Why Southerners supported secession in 1860-61 (Led by Jefferson Davis)
1. Believed they were wealthy enough to not need Northern bankers and shippers, and could trade directly with Europe for manufactured goods
2. thought Northern economic interests with south would prevent North from attacking
3. Believed they were emulating the 13 colonies when they rebelled against England
XI. Crittendon’s Compromise fails
A. Crittendon proposed amendments to Constitution to appease the South
1. Slavery prohibited north of 36°30' but protected for all territories existing south of that, and all future territories
2. Future states north or south of the line could enter as slave or free by popular sovereignty
3. Lincoln rejects compromise, believing U.S. would constantly war against countries to its south to obtain new slave territories
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