Graphic Essay

1. Graphic Essay

2. Thesis • By 1861, compromise was no longer possible between the North and the South. The irrepressible conflict was impacting the country politically, economically, and socially. The different sectional attitudes towards slavery, and slavery’s expansion, were the main reasons why compromise was no longer possible.

3. Political Reasons • Mexican – American War (1846~1848): • The cause of the war was Texas claiming all land north of the Rio Grande River. • Real cause was Manifest Destiny • Texas populated by Southern farmers who brought slavery and cotton to coastal and upland Texas. • Northerners saw War as a Southern plot to expand slavery. • Southerners supported the War. Wanted to expand to Cuba because Slave system had to grow or wither. • Conflict increased as Lincoln accused President Polk of misleading Congress and getting the country into an unnecessary War. • Compromise of 1850: • Political effort to resolve conflict but votes split on sectional lines and avoided the issue of slavery in the territories. • Impacted the conflict because of Fugitive Slave Law. • Southerners approved of Fugitive Slave Law but antislavery forces hated the Fugitive Slave Law.

4. Political Reasons • Birth of Republican Party (1854): • Created when American Party split over slavery. • Party believed in expansionism, strong national government, and free soil. • Free soil: Believed that slavery threatened Northern expansion. • Increased conflict because Southerners saw Party as a threat to Southern interests and National Unity. • Southerners viewed Republican Party threat as reality when Lincoln elected in 1860. • Kansas Nebraska Act (1854): • Opened central and more than plains to settlement and allowed slavery. • Basically repealed Missouri Compromise which banned slavery north of latitude 36° 30’. • Increased conflict because Act convinced slavery opponents that Act was part of a Southern plot to extend and continue slavery. • Cotton Whigs against the Act. Feared increase of Northern anti-slavery feeling. • Cotton Whigs: Northern wealthy merchants, bankers, and manufacturers with Southern business interests. • Result: Increasing conflict because territories were opened to pro and anti slavery forces.

5. Political Reasons • Election of 1860: • Election campaign split on sectional lines • Increased conflict in South because of fear of slave revolts. • Southern slavery position became stronger and more extreme • Republican Party candidate Lincoln won the election. • Increased conflict because Southerners believed Republican victory threatened their way of life and made them unequal partners in the federal government. • South’s decision to secede (1860): • Following election of 1860, Southern states quickly convened and voted to secede. Believed they had right to secede. • Southerners believed that they no longer had a choice, that slavery was a states’ rights issue, and thought they could leave the Union peaceful. • Increased conflict because President Lincoln would not compromise on slavery and refused to approve secession. Lincoln’s only choice was forced against the South.

6. Economic Reasons • Texas’ Independence from Mexico (1836): • Texas was important economically for the South’s expanded cotton production. • Texas’ independence furthered Southern expansionist goals which increased Northern sectional hostility. • Texas incurred 10 million dollars in debt because of the Mexican- American War. U.S debt reached 97 million, which increased the country’s economic conflict especially amongst Northern slavery foes. • Wilmot Proviso (August, 1846): • Proposed banned slavery in all territories gained from Mexico. • Threatened Southern expansionism which affected the South economically. • Congressional voting was along regional lines. • Increased conflict by increasing sectional division. • Northern Free Soil Party resulted. • Free-soilers believed Southern slavery expansion would have economic disadvantages for Northern farmers moving west. • Wilmot Proviso and free soil beliefs established the connection between expansion and sectional interests.

7. Economic Reasons • Compromise of 1850: • Increased economic conflict because the federal government assumed 10 million dollars in Texas debt in exchange for Texas giving up land to New Mexico Territory. • Increased Southern economic strength in slave property rights through the Fugitive Slave Law, but this law increased the conflict socially and politically. • South saw growth and export of cotton as the foundation for the national economy which benefitted the North. • The Compromise result of 15 slave states and 16 free states resulted in regionally determined economic growth.

8. Social Reasons • Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851): • Applauded by the North and condemned by the South. • President Lincoln told author Harriet Beecher Stowe “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.” • This slave story of the gentle, meek Tom suffering from Southern cruelty became a call for action against the evils of slavery. • Increased the conflict between pro and antislavery forces. • Bleeding Kansas (1854): • Slavery permitted because of Kansas-Nebraska Act. Settled by pro-slavery Missourians and New England abolitionists. • The two groups constantly clashed. • The Kansas conflict mirrored the growing national profit of the slavery. • Increased social conflict between the North and the South as the injury and death counts increased.

9. Social Reasons • Dred Scott Decision (March 6, 1857): • Facts: Dred Scott went with his owner to Illinois and Wisconsin, both free states. Married and had a baby in Wisconsin. He then went to Missouri, a slave state. There, he sued for freedom for himself and his family, claiming residence in a free state. • The Supreme Court’s decision: Missouri Compromise held unconstitutional. Held that federal government could not interfere with property movement between territories. Held that only citizens could file lawsuits and that blacks, whether slaves or free, were not citizens. • Supreme Court Justices were regionally divided. • Decision increased tension because the North lost confidence in the Supreme Court. Furthered social conflict because blacks were now officially non-citizens. • Both Lincoln and the Republican Party accused President Buchanan of conspiring with the court to wait on releasing the decision until after the 1856 election

10. Social Reasons • Harper’s Ferry (Oct 16, 1859): • John Brown’s disorganized and unsuccessful raid on the federal arsenal. • The intention was to start a slave uprising in Virginia. • Greatly increased social conflict because this raid aroused the greatest Southern fears of slave revolt. • Increased calls from Southerners to secede

11. Irrepressible Conflict: War inevitable • The North and the South both supported Manifest Destiny but for different reasons. Expanding Southern economic growth required slave labor for cotton production. Northern economic expansion, requiring paid labor, was threatened by Southern slave labor. • Slavery opposition increased with the Mexican American War, Texas’ independence and status as a slave state, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law. The publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Dred Scott decision furthered opposition to slavery. • Southern pro-slavery and state’s rights beliefs were furthered by the Wilmot Proviso’s proposal to ban slavery in territories gained from Mexico, outrage over Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the conflict in “Bleeding Kansas,” fears because of Harper’s Ferry, and the election of 1860. These events increased Southern tension and impacted the South’s decision to secede. • Slavery, and its expansion affected the country politically, economically, and socially. Ultimately the conflicts were too great and the country was too divided for compromised. The result was the CIVIL WAR.