Sectional Conflicts and National Politics

A RISING TIDE OF PROTEST
AND VIOLENCE
T HE CONTI N UE D DE SCE N T TO WAR
November 7, 1837—Elijah P. Lovejoy
September 9, 1850-- Compromise of 1850
signed by Millard Fillmore
March 20, 1852—Uncle Tom’s Cabin
published
October 15, 1854—Ostend Manifesto
ELECTION OF 1852
Democratic Nomination
• Democrats, unable to agree (Lewis Cass, James
Buchanan, Stephen Douglas)
• No 2/3 majority
• 49th ballot--nominate dark horse Franklin Pierce
• sympathetic to Southern views
• Fugitive Slave Act
• acceptable to the slavery wing of the party
Platform
• In favor of the Compromise of 1850
• Opposed any further "agitation" over
the issue of slavery
“We Polked ‘em in ’44; we’ll Pierce them
in ’52”
ELECTION OF 1852
Whig Nomination
• “Old Fuss and Feathers” Winfield Scott
• Party fatally split
Platform
• In favor of the Compromise of 1850-eventually
• Protective tariff, national bank
• Internal improvements
• Strict interpretation of Constitution
Pierce is the hero of “many a wellfought bottle”
ELECTION OF 1852
Free-Soil Nomination
• John P. Hale
• Slavery issue settled by the Compromise of
1850
George Washington Julian
Platform
• Opposed the Compromise of 1850
• Abolition of slavery
• Homestead Act
• Strict interpretation of Constitution
and limited government
• Federally funded internal
improvements
Democratic
Franklin Pierce (NH)
William King (AL)
PV=1,609,038
EV=254
Whig
Winfield Scott (NJ)
William A. Graham (NC)
PV=1,386,629
EV=42
Free Soil
John Hale (NH)
George W. Julian (IN)
PV=156,297
EV=0
THE TRANSCONTINENTAL
RAILROAD
Stephen Douglas
Chicago not New Orleans
Connect East and West
and tie nation together
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA
ACT
 Douglas Proposed repealing the Missouri Compromise
and making Nebraska Free and Kansas a slave state.
 Douglas first proposed that the Nebraska territory
would be allowed to exercise popular sovereignty on
slavery. Southern leaders didn’t bite.
 Next, Douglas proposed that the region should be
divided into two territories. Nebraska would be on the
north, next to the free state of Iowa, and Kansas would
be on the south, west of the slave state of Missouri
 Popular Sovereignty
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA
ACT
 The act passed in 1854 and caused civil war in Kansas
threfore “Bleeding Kansas”
 Thousands of “border ruffians” from Missouri crossed
into Kansas and voted illegally for slavery. Later, the
ruffians attacked the town of Lawrence, a stronghold of
antislavery settlers
 By the middle of May 1856, Kansas would have two
governments.
 By the end of 1856 there were over 200 people dead
 Kansas became the first battle ground between those
favoring the extension of slavery and those opposing it.
REACTIONS
 Northerners shocked: saw Compromise of 1820 as a
sacred pact
 Northern reaction
Refused to honor Fugitive Slave Law
The antislavery movement grew significantly
North unwilling to compromise on future issues
 Southern reaction
Angry that northern free-soilers tried to control
Kansas (which the South presumed would eventually
be a slave state)
Democratic party was shattered
T HE CONTI N UE D DE SCE N T TO WAR
November 7, 1837—Elijah P. Lovejoy
September 9, 1850-- Compromise of 1850
signed by Millard Fillmore
March 20, 1852—Uncle Tom’s Cabin
published
May 30, 1854—the Kansas-Nebraska Act
passed and signed by Franklin Pierce
October 15, 1854—Ostend Manifesto
THE CANING OF CHARLES
SUMNER
Preston Brooks
Charles Sumner
New York, Tribune, 23 May 1856 [Republican]
The particulars show that Mr. Sumner was struck unawares over the
head by a loaded cane and stunned, and then the ruffianly attack was
continued with many blows, the Hon. Mr. Keitt of South Carolina
keeping any of those around, who might be so disposed, from
attempting a rescue. No meaner exhibition of Southern cowardice -generally miscalled Southern chivalry -- was ever witnessed.
We are either to have Liberty or Slavery. Failing to silence the North
by threats, notwithstanding the doughfaced creatures who so long
misrepresented the spirit of the Republic and of the age, the South now
resorts to actual violence. It is reduced to a question whether there is to
be any more liberty of speech south of Mason and Dixon's line, even in
the ten miles square of the District of Columbia. South of that, liberty
has long since departed; but whether the common ground where the
national representatives meet is to be turned into a slave plantation
where Northern members act under the lash, the bowie-knife and the
pistol, is a question to be settled.
Columbia, South Carolina, South Carolinian, 27 May 1856 [Democratic]
"Public Approval of Mr. Brooks"
We were not mistaken in asserting, on Saturday last, that the Hon. Preston
S. Brooks had not only the approval, but the hearty congratulations of the
people of South Carolina for his summary chastisement of the abolitionist
Sumner.
Immediately upon the reception of the news on Saturday last, a most
enthusiastic meeting was convened in the town of Newberry, at which Gen.
Williams, the Intendant, presided. Complimentary resolutions were
introduced by Gen. A. C. Garlington, and ardent speeches made by him,
Col. S. Fair, Maj. Henry Sumner, and others. The meeting voted him a
handsome gold-headed cane, which we saw yesterday, on its way to
Washington, entrusted to the care of Hon. B. Simpson. At Anderson, the
same evening, a meeting was called, and complimentary resolutions adopted.
We heard one of Carolina's truest and most honored matrons from Mr.
Brooks' district send a message to him by Maj. Simpson, saying "that the
ladies of the South would send him hickory sticks, with which to chastise
Abolitionists and Red Republicans whenever he wanted them."
“ I do not see how a barbarous
community and a civilized community
can constitute one state. I think we
must get rid of slavery, or we must get
rid of freedom.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states.
Since there is no escaping your challenge, we
accept it in the name of freedom. We will engage
in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and
God give the victory to the side which is stronger
in numbers, as it is in right.“
Senator William Seward, on the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, May 1854“
T HE CONTI N UE D DE SCE N T TO WAR
November 7, 1837—Elijah P. Lovejoy
September 9, 1850-- Compromise of 1850
signed by Millard Fillmore
March 20, 1852—Uncle Tom’s Cabin
published
May 30, 1854—the Kansas-Nebraska Act
passed and signed by Franklin Pierce
October 15, 1854—Ostend Manifesto
May 22, 1856—The Caning of Charles
Sumner
NORTH AND SOUTH VIE
FOR KANSAS
New England Emigrant Aid Company
("Beecher’s Bibles")
Just under 400 emigrants left for Kansas under the
auspices of the Society in March of 1855
Southerners furious the North betrayed spirit
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
John Greenleaf Whittier, "Song of the Kansas Emigrant"
We cross the prairie as of old
The fathers crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free.
We go to rear a wall of men
On Freedom's southern line,
And plant beside the Cotton tree
The rugged northern pine.
We're flowing from our native hills
As our free rivers flow,
The blessing of our mother land
Is on us as we go.
We go to plant the common school
On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths of the wilds
The music of her bells.
Upbearing, like the ark of God.
The Bible in our van.
We go to test the truth of God
Against the fraud of man.
P I E R C E A D M I N I S TRATIO N
“ B L E E D IN G K A N S A S ”
1855 election held in Kansas for first territorial
legislature
• Proslavery "border ruffians" from Missouri poured into Kansas: "vote early
and vote often!“
• Southerners won the election and created puppet government
• Free-soilers ignored the bogus election and created own government in
Topeka
1856, a proslavery gang attacked and burned part of
free-soil Lawrence, Kansas
PIERCE ADMINISTRATION
“BLEEDING KANSAS”
John Brown
Pottawatomie Massacre , May 25,
1856
Brown an extreme abolitionist; saw
himself as doing God's work
A mini-civil war began in Kansas
1856 that continued through the Civil
War
BU C H A NA N A D M I N IS T RATI O N
L E C OM P TO N C O N S T I T UT ION
 Kansas applied for statehood based on popular
sovereignty
 Southerners in control drafted a pro-slavery
constitution
 People voted for the constitution with or
without slavery
 If people voted no on slavery, rights of
slaveholders currently in Kansas would be
protected
BUCHANAN ADMINISTRATION
LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION
• Free-soilers again refused to vote for a southerndominated constitution
• Slave supporters approved the constitution with
slavery late in 1857
• President Buchanan supported the Lecompton
Constitution
• Senator Douglas led the opposition to Kansas'
constitution
• Compromise: Lecompton Constitution sent back to
Kansas for another vote but pro-slavery Kansas
rejected the proposal
• Result: Free-soilers victorious but Kansas denied
statehood until 1861 after the South seceded.
DRED-SCOTT DECISION
Attempt by the Supreme
Court to end the
controversy over slave or
free states
From Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs
Dred Scott and his wife sued for
their freedom because they had
lived for 9 years in free territory.
The decision had more to do with
property rights than whether they
deserved their freedom.
DRED-SCOTT
• Was a slave whose master
had taken him into free
territory
• With the help of Northern
abolitionists, Scott sued
his master for his freedom
claiming “once free,
always free.”
THREE MAIN QUESTIONS
BEFORE THE COURT
As a black man, was Scott a citizen with a right to
sue in federal court?
Had prolonged residence (two years in each
place) in a free state and a free territory made
Scott free?
Was Fort Snelling actually free territory—that is,
did Congress in 1820 have the right to ban
slavery in the Louisiana Purchase north of 36º
30’?
DRED-SCOTT
DECISION
• The Supreme Court decided that African
Americans…
 Were not citizens of the United States
 Had no right to sue the US
 Had no rights at all
 Were property and property could not be
taken away from the government
DRED-SCOTT DECISION
• The court also said that the Missouri
Compromise was unconstitutional because
you could not limit where owners took their
property.
• This did not end the controversy of slavery.
It also worried Northerners because they
feared the court would outlaw slavery in
their states and would end popular
sovereignty limiting democracy
W H AT D I D C H I E F J U S T I C E R O G E R B .
TA N E Y R U L E I N 1 8 5 7 O N T H E D R E D
SCOTT CASE?
Scott was not a citizen and could not
sue in U.S. courts
Scott was bound by Missouri’s slave
code because he lived in Missouri and
his time in free territory did not
matter
He said Congress could not ban slaves
in any territory since they were
property and protected under rights
of property owners in Constitution
T HE CONTI N UE D DE SCE N T TO WAR
November 7, 1837—Elijah P. Lovejoy
September 9, 1850-- Compromise of 1850 signed by
Millard Fillmore
March 20, 1852—Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
May 30, 1854—the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
and signed by Franklin Pierce
October 15, 1854—Ostend Manifesto
May 22, 1856—The Caning of Charles Sumner
March 6, 1857--Supreme Court Rules in Dred Scott
case