Literary Incendiaries of the North-South Divide

1. Chapter 20 Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854–1861

2. I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries • Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Harriet Beecher Stowe • She was determined to awaken the North to the wickedness of slavery • By laying bare its terrible inhumanity, especially the splitting of families • Relied on powerful imagery and touching pathos • Wrote later about how her deeper sources of her anti-slavery sentiments lay in the evangelical religious crusades of the Second Great Awakening.

3. I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries (cont.) • The success of the novel at home and abroad was sensational • It was also on the stage in “Tom shows” for lengthy runs • No other novel in American history can be compared with it as a political force • To many it made slavery appear almost as evil as it really was • She was introduced to President in 1862; he remarked, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”

4. I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries (cont.) • Mrs. Stowe never witnessed slavery in the Deep South: • She had seen it briefly during a visit to Kentucky • And she lived in Ohio, center of Underground Railroad activity • Uncle Tom: • Left an endearing and enduring impression on the North • Many swore they would not have anything to do with the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law

5. I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries (cont.) • It was devoured by millions of impressionable youth • It was immensely popular abroad, especially Britain and France. • The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) by Hinton R. Helper: • Hating slavery, he attempted to prove by an array of statistics that, indirectly, the nonslaveholding whites were the ones who suffered most from the millstone of slavery • He finally found a publisher in the North

6. I. Stowe and Helper: LiteraryIncendiaries (cont.) • South’s planter elite took note of Helper’s audacity, which fueled their fears: • That the nonslaveholding majority might abandon them • It was banned in the South • In the North thousands were distributed as campaign literature by Republicans • Southerners were embittered when they learned that their northern brethren were spreading these wicked “lies.”

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10. II. The North-South Contest for Kansas • Popular sovereignty: • New England Emigrant Aid Company: • Famous antislavery organization • Sent 2000 people to the troubled area to forestall the South and to make a profit • Many carried their breech-loading Sharps rifles, nicknamed “Beecher’s Bibles” after Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother) who had helped raise money to pay for them • Southern spokesmen raised cries of betrayal

11. II. The North-South Contest forKansas (cont.) • The northern “Nebrascals,” were now out to “abolitionize” both Kansas and Nebraska • Some southern hotheads attempted to “assist” small groups of well-armed slave-owners to Kansas • Planting blacks on Kansas soil was a losing game • Slaves were valuable and volatile property • Foolish for owners to take them where bullets were flying • The soil might be voted free under popular sovereignty • Census of 1860 only found 2 slaves among 107,000 souls in Kansas and only 15 in Nebraska.

12. II. The North-South Contest for Kansas (cont.) • Crisis conditions in Kansas rapidly worsened (see Map 19.1): • In 1855 election day for the first territorial legislature: • Saw proslavery “border ruffians” pour in from Missouri to vote early and often • The slavery supporters triumphed and then set up their own puppet government at Shawnee, MO. • The free-soilers established an extralegal regime of their own in Topeka

13. II. The North-South Contest for Kansas (cont.) • Confused Kansans had their choice of two governments: • One based on fraud • One based on illegality • Tensions mounted as settlers feuded over conflicting land claims • Breaking point (1856) when a gang of proslavery raiders, alleging provocation, shot up and burned part of the free-soil town of Lawrence • This outrage was but the prelude to bloodier tragedy.

14. III. Kansas in Convulsion • John Brown now stalked upon the Kansas battlefield • Obsessively dedicated to the abolitionist cause: • Brooding over the attack on Lawrence, led a band to Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856 • There they literally hacked to pieces 5 surprised men, presumed to be proslaveryites • This terrorist butchery besmirched the free-soil cause • It also brought vicious retaliation from proslavery forces

15. III. Kansas in Convulsion(cont.) • Civil war erupted in Kansas in 1856: • Destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of property • Paralyzed agriculture in certain areas • Cost scores of lives • Continued until it merged with the Civil War of 1861-1865. • Kansas applied for statehood on a popular sovereignty basis

16. III. Kansas in Convulsion(cont.) • Lecompton Constitution: proslavery forces document • the people were not allowed to vote for or against the constitution as a whole • But for the constitution either “with slavery” or “with no slavery” • Whatever the outcome there would still be black bondage • Free-soilers boycotted the polls • The proslaveryites approved the constitution with slavery late in 1857 • The scene shifted to Washington: • President Pierce had been succeeded by James Buchanan, who was strongly under southern influence

17. III. Kansas Convulsion(cont.) • Buchanan supported the Lecompton Constitution • Senator Douglas threw his support behind popular sovereignty • A compromise was arrived at that submitted the entire Lecompton Constitution to the people • The free-soil votes thronged to the polls and snowed it under • Kansas remained a territory until 1861, when the southern secessionists left Congress. • Buchanan’s action divided the Democratic Party.

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20. IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon • Bleeding Kansas: • Also spattered blood on the Senate floor 1856: • Senator Charles Sumner of Mass. was a leading abolitionist • Made himself one of the most disliked men in Senate • Delivered the speech “The Crime Against Kansas” • He condemned the proslavery men • Referred insultingly to South Carolina and to its white-haired senator Andrew Butler

21. IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon (cont.) • Preston S. Brooks: • Congressman from South Carolina took vengeance into his own hands • He resented the insults to his state and to its senator • His code of conduct called for a duel • To Brooks, the only alternative was to chastise the senator • On May 22, 1856, he approached Sumner and pounded the orator with an 11-ounce cane until it broke

22. IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon (cont.) • The House could not muster enough votes to expel Brooks • He resigned but was triumphantly reelected • Sumner had to leave due to his injuries, go to Europe for treatment • Mass. For 3 ½ years keep his seat open until he could return • Bleeding Sumner was thus joined with bleeding Kansas as a political issue

23. II. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon (cont.) • The free-soil North was mightily aroused against Brooks: • Copies of Sumner’s speech were sold by the thousands • Every blow to the Senator doubtless made thousands of Republicans • The South not unanimous in approving Brooks • Were angered by Sumner’s speech and because it was so extravagantly applauded in the North • The Sumner-Brooks clash and the ensuing reactions revealed how dangerously inflamed passion were • The blows rained on Sumner were among the first blows of the Civil War

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25. V. “Old Buck” Versus “The Pathfinder” • The Democrats met in Cincinnati to elect their presidential standard-bearer of 1856 • The delegates chose James Buchanan: • He was serving in London during the Kansas-Nebraska uproar—therefore “Kansas-less” • In a crisis that called for giants, he was mediocre, irresolute, and confused • Republicans met in Philadelphia: • “Higher Law” Steward was the conspicuous leader

26. V. “Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder” (cont.) • However, the final choice was John C. Frémont: • The so-called “Pathfinder of the West” • Was virtually without political experience, but was not tarred with the Kansas brush • The Republicans came out strongly against the extension of slavery • While the Democrats declared no less emphatically for popular sovereignty

27. V. “Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder (cont.) • An ugly dose of antiforeignism was injected into the campaign: • Recent influx of immigrants from Ireland and Germany alarmed “nativists”—name of old-stock Protestants • They organized the Know-Nothing party because of its secretiveness • In 1856 nominated ex-president Millard Fillmore • Anti-foreign, anti-Catholic • Threatened, with some Whig supporter for Fillmore, to cut into the Republican strength • Mudslinging bespattered both candidates

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29. VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856 • The election returns: • Buchanan • Polled less than a majority of the popular vote • Won handily (see Map 19.2) • Electoral College count was 174 to 114 for Frémont and 8 for Fillmore • The popular vote was 1,832,955 for Buchanan; 1,339,932 for Frémont; 871,731 for Fillmore.

30. VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856(cont.) • Why the Republican defeat: • Frémont’s lack of honesty, capacity, and sound judgment • Violent threat that the election of a sectional “Black Republican” would be a declaration of war, forcing the South to secede • Many northerners were intimidated to vote for Buchanan • Innate conservatism triumphed, assisted by so-called southern bullying

31. VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856(cont.) • Fortunate for the Union that secession and the Civil War did not come in 1856: • Frémont was ill-balanced and second rate figure • In 1856 the North was more willing to let the South depart in peace than in 1860 • Dramatic events (1856-1860) aroused still-apathetic northerners to a fighting pitch • The election of 1856 cast a long shadow forward, and politicians, North and South, peered anxiously toward 1860

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33. VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell • The Dred Scott v. Stanford decision by the Supreme Court on March 6, 1857: • Pronouncement was one of the opening paper-gun blasts of the Civil War • Basically the case was simple • The Supreme Court turned it in a complex political issue: • It ruled that Dred Scott was a black slave and not a citizen, and hence could not sue in federal courts • The tribunal could then have thrown out the case on these technical grounds alone

34. VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell(cont.) • A majority decided to go further, under the leadership of emaciated Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (from slave state-Maryland) • A majority decreed that because a slave was private property, he or she could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery • Reasons—the Fifth Amendment—forbade Congress to deprive people of their property without due process of law • The Court went further:

35. VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell(cont.) • They ruled that the Compromise of 1820 had been unconstitutional all along: • Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories, regardless of what the territorial legislatures themselves might want • Southerners were delighted with this victory • Champions of popular sovereignty were aghast • Another lethal wedge was driven between the northern and southern wings of the once united Democratic party.

36. VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell(cont.) • Foes of slavery extension were infuriated by the Dred Scott setback: • They insisted the ruling was an opinion, not a decision • Therefore not binding • Republicans were defiant of the Court because: • Its members were southerners • And by their convictions debased themselves • Southerners were inflamed by all this defiance; how long could they be joined to a section that refused to honor the Supreme Court?

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38. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857 • Panic of 1857: why the crash? • Inpouring California gold helped to inflate the currency • The demands of the Crimean War (Russia, 1853-1856) overstimulated the growing of grain • Frenzied speculation in land and railroads • Over 5000 businesses failed • North and its grain growers hardest hit • South enjoyed favorable cotton prices abroad

39. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857(cont.) • Panic conditions further proof that cotton was king: • This false delusion helped drive the overconfidence of southerners closer to a shooting showdown • Financial distress in the North, especially agriculture, gave a new vigor for free farms of 160 acres from the public domain

40. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857(cont.) • Scheme to make outright gifts of homesteads: • Eastern industrialists opposed free land giveaways • South opposed because they didn’t think gang-labor slavery could flourish on a mere 160 acres • Congress (1860) passed a homestead act • Public land available for 25 cent an acre • It was killed by President Buchanan’s veto • The panic of 1857 created a clamor for higher tariff rates: • There was a large Treasury surplus

41. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857(cont.) • The Tariff of 1857: • Responding to pressure from the South, reduced duties to about 20 percent on dutiable goods—the lowest point since 1812 • As the surplus melted away in the Treasury, • Industrials in the North pointed to the need for higher duties • They were concerned about the need of increased protection • The panic of 1857 gave Republicans two surefire economic issues for the election of 1860: • Protection for the unprotected • Farms for the farmless

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43. IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges • The Illinois senatorial election of 1858 claimed the national spotlight: • Senator Stephen A. Douglas’s term was to expire • Republicans ran a Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln: • Not well educated, but an avid reader • He married “above himself” into the influential Todd family of Kentucky—helped to school him in patience and forbearance • Emerged as a trial lawyer in Illinois • Widely referred to as “Honest Abe” • He served an undistinguished term in Congress, 1847-1849

44. IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges(cont.) • The Kansas-Nebraska Act lighted within him unexpected fire • He emerged as one of the foremost politicians and orators in the Northwest • At the Philadelphia convention 1856: • John C. Frémont was nominated • Lincoln received 100 votes for the vice-presidential nomination

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46. X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas • Lincoln-Douglas debates: • Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of joint debates • Douglas accepted; they were arranged from August to October 1858 • The most famous debate came at Freeport, Illinois: • Lincoln presented a question based on the Supreme Court ruling in the Dred Scott decision • Douglas had already publicly answered the Freeport question • The “Little Giant” did not hesitate to meet the issue head-on, honestly and consistently

47. X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas • Freeport Doctrine: • No matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down • Laws to protect slavery would have to be passed by the territorial legislatures • In the absence of popular approval, black bondage would soon disappear • Where public opinion does not support the federal government, as in the case of Jefferson’s embargo (see pp. 216-218), the law is impossible to enforced.

48. X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas (cont.) • Douglas defeated Lincoln for the Senate seat • The “Little Giant’s” loyalty to popular sovereignty was the decisive point • Senators were chosen by the state legislatures • “Honest Abe” won a clear moral victory • Lincoln began to emerge as a potential Republican nominee for president • Douglas, in winning Illinois, lost his chances of winning the presidency • Lincoln-Douglas debate platform proved to be one of the preliminary battlefields of the Civil War

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50. XI. John Brown: Murderer or Martyr? • John Brown studied the tactics of the black rebels Toussaint L’Ouverture (see p. 211) and Nat Turner (see p. 348) • Hatched a scheme to invade the South secretly • Called upon the slaves to rise • Furnished them with arms • Established a kind of black free state as a sanctuary • Harpers Ferry: • he seized the federal arsenal in October 1859 • Incidentally killing seven innocent people, killing a free black and injuring ten or more • Slaves ignored Brown’s strike, failed to rise, and wounded Brown