The Coming Crisis: The 1850’s

1. The Coming Crisis: The 1850’s AP U.S. History

2. Growth 1800-1850 • Territory: 890,000 to 3M sq. mi. • Population: 5.3M to 23M (includes 4M slaves, & 2M new immigrants). • States: 16 to 31. • Per Capita Income: doubled. • Economy: Interdependency between cotton & factories. • More reliance on Midwestern crops than on cotton. • Cottons diminishing political power. • Manufacturing: 2nd in world.

3. U.S. Population and Settlement, 1850

4. Culture: The American Renaissance • Newspapers & magazines create a national audience for writers. • Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Douglass fiction & non-fiction classics. • Most notable for their experiments with writing and social criticism. • Hawthorne writes of colonial past but looks forward to moral choices and social desires (The Scarlet Letter, 1850, & The House of Seven Gables, 1851). • Melville writes of the struggle between good and evil (Moby Dick, 1851). • Best seller Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851), by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a response to the Fugitive Slave Law.

5. Tensions Rise • Compromise for slavery is over with south. • John C. Calhoun leads fight. • Anything less than full access to slavery in the new territories was unconstitutional. • Northerners fear “slave power.” • The white southern establishments control over southern politics stretches to Washington DC. • North & South use basic rights and liberties in their debate.

6. Compromise of 1850 • Compromise created by Henry Clay, John Calhoun & Daniel Webster. • 1849: CA & UT apply for statehood. • 1850: Pres. Taylor dies in office. • VP Fillmore edges compromise in southern favor. • Three separate compromises in the bill: • CA is admitted as a free state. Remainder of Mexican Territory would be decided by popular sovereignty. • UT is not accepted because of issues of polygamy until 1896. • Balance: 15 slave and 16 free states. • TX was required to cede land to NM (status undecided). • Slave trade ends in Washington DC, but a harsher Fugitive Slave law was enacted. • The issue of slavery was not solved, but conflict was avoided.

7. The Compromise of 1850

8. Fugitive Slaves • Slaves are slaves anywhere in the U.S. • Slave catchers could easily take a free African American. • There is no means of defense, even for the free. • 9 states pass personal liberty laws stating they will not cooperate with slave catchers (1842-1850). • Two kinds of rights: Southern property rights & Northern personal freedom rights.

9. Fugitive Slave Law-1850 • Federal government fully supports slave owners. • Retrieval of slaves from free states is fully authorized & reinforced. • African Americans cannot testify on their own behalf but are guaranteed a hearing. • Federal penalties for citizens harboring slaves.

10. Northern Response • MA: Slave is kidnapped from federal marshals and sent to Canada. • Government sends 300 soldiers to prevent a rescue in 1851. • 1851: 322 fugitives sent down south. Only 11 declared free. • Abolitionists become radicalized, but begin to win popular opinion.

11. Northern Response (Cont.) • African Americans write and lecture on evils of slavery. • F. Douglass(1853): “The only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter, is to make a half a dozen or more dead kidnappers.” • His freedom was purchased in 1847. • Harriet Jacobs wrote, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Her freedom was purchased in NY. • Northerners angry by slavery being brought to their states.

12. Election of 1852 & Sectionalism • Whigs and Democrats cannot unify parties. • Whigs nominate General Winifield Scott. • Last campaign the Whigs will have a presidential candidate. • Democrat Franklin Pierce does well with immigrants, free soilers & southerners. • Pierce wins 254 to 42 with 70% voter turnout.

13. Expansionism-Young America • Democratic party members using manifest destiny to conquest Central America and Cuba. • President Pierce supports movement. • Filibustero’s invade countries with intention of expanding slavery. • Temporarily rule over Nicaragua (1855-1857).

14. Expansionism-Cuba • Ostend Manifesto • 1854: Try to force Spain to sell for $130M. • Manifesto: identified Cubans and Southerners as having one destiny. • Ultimately threatens to take Cuba from Spain. • Made public and embarrassed administration.

15. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 • All Indian Territory except OK is open to settlement. • Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas needs democratic support for KS statehood and presidential nomination. • Wants the transcontinental RR to end in Chicago, not St. Louis. • Proposes KS & NB be left up to popular sovereignty. • Privately thinks the land is wrong for slavery. • Ultimately the bill repeals the MO Compromise of 1820 & the 36, 30’ line.

16. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

17. KS-NB Act: Dissolves National Parties • Parties split based upon regional preferences. • North opposes & south supports. • Because of split, Whigs are unable to field a presidential candidate in 1856. • Northern Democrats lose 66 of 91 congressional seats in 1854. • Gives southern Democrats control of party and congress. • Wealthy merchants, bankers & manufacturers (“Cotton Whigs”) fear the bill will further polarize the northern attitude.

18. Bleeding Kansas • Treaties are made with local tribes. • Pro & anti-slavery settlers stream into state. • MO settlers arrive first (slave state) swamp elections. • 1855: 6,307 ballots cast with 3,000 eligible voters. • Votes come from border ruffians. • Free Soilers recruited from NE settle in territory. • Mostly nondrinking, religious reformers.

19. Bleeding Kansas (Cont.) • KS becomes bloody battleground. • All settlers are heavily armed. • 1856 warfare begins. • Proslavery forces burn “anti” town of Lawrence. • John Brown leads his sons to kill 5 unarmed men. • Each side intends slaughter of the other.

20. Nativism & The Know-Nothings • Whigs resentment towards immigrants because of their ability to sway election in favor of democrats. • Immigrants are proslavery because they compete for jobs with freed slaves. • New American Party or “Know-Nothings” is born. • Native-born Protestants who pledge never to vote for a Catholic. • Mostly workers, small farmers who are threatened by cheap labor or unfamiliar culture. • Victorious in 1854 in North. 40% in PA and control of legislature in MA. • Split on issue of slavery after 1855. • Become the new Republicans.

21. Election of 1856 • Democrats: “Slavery, rum & Romanism.” • James Buchanan is untainted by the KS-NB Act. • Republicans: “Freedom, temperance & Protestantism.” • Explorer John C. Fremont. • Happy to have garnered so much of the vote though they are a sectional party they can win in 1860. • American (Know-Nothing) Party • Millard Fillmore.

22. The Election of 1856

23. Tension Turns to Violence, 1856 • Senator Charles Sumner, MA, gives berating speech of the “Crime against Kansas” • Senator Preston Brooks, SC, beats Sumner over the head until bleeding on the senate floor for offending southerners and his uncle. • Each section finds the behavior of their representative acceptable.

25. Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) • Southern dominated Supreme Court attempts to solve slavery issue. • Rules MO Compromise unconstitutional. • Government has no right to interfere in the movement of property. • Dismissed case on the grounds that only citizens had the right to sue in federal courts and slave or free, black people were not citizens.

26. John Brown’s Raid • 1859 proposes a slave uprising by providing the “spark.” • To gain a cache of weapons, & begin uprising, Brown’s group (22 men) raids Harpers Ferry federal arsenal. • Did not notify slaves in VA. • Did not plan escape route. • Brown is tried and executed by VA for treason, murder & fomenting insurrection. • Martyr for slavery. Extreme mourning in the North. • Emerson said Brown would, “Make the gallows as glorious as the cross.”

27. Southern Reaction • Shocked by raid and support for Brown. • Confirmed fears that wealthy northerners were financially supporting the rebellion. • Known as the “secret six”. • South threatens that they will not let the government pass into the hands of the Black Republican party in 1860. • Most southerners are against secession but events change attitudes. • Political passion over Lecompton, Fugitive Slave Law and John Brown provides foundation for secession.

28. Election of 1860 • Democrats split over sectional strain and cannot unify to nominate a candidate. • Breckenridge favors extension of slavery. • Republicans know support has grown since the 1856 “victorious defeat”. • Lincoln wins nomination on 3rd ballot for being impressive, from IL, & moderate. • Stands for exclusion of slavery. • Douglas & Bell stand for popular sovereignty.

29. The Election of 1860

30. Election of 1860 (Cont.) • 2nd highest voter turnout: 81.2%. • Voting based upon sectionalism. • Lincoln’s victory means the southern fears have been recognized. • They will be a minority voice in the government. • Becomes a life or death situation. • Republican’s do not see an immediate end to slavery, but no more extensions.

31. Secession • SC, MS & AL governors immediately call state conventions. • Call to form militias and vigilance committees. • Southerners are told they do not have a choice. • “Cooperationists” are intimidated or ignored. • Fire-eaters maintain control of conventions. • SC votes unanimously on 12/20/60 to secede. • The rest of the south, less DE, MD, KY & MO follow.

32. The South Secedes

33. Northern Response • Buchanan is lame duck president until 3/61. • Does nothing to remedy situation. • Lincoln refuses to entertain notion of extending slavery. • Hopes that moderate attitude will allow pro-Union southerners to sway southern states. • Overestimates pro-Union sentiment in South. • H. Greeley writes in NY Tribune to let 1st seven states “go in peace.” • Lincoln: The minority do not have the power to break up the government when they please. • Lincoln will not strike the first blow. • Maintains control over federal forts and land in seceded territory.

34. Confederate States of America • Identical constitution to U.S. with 2 exceptions: • Abolition of slavery is impossible. • States have more power than federal government (Articles of Confederation). • Bound to slavery because of the economic dependency. • Military defense requires a strong central government.

35. C.S.A. Government • President: Jefferson Davis, MS • Vice President: Alexander Stephens, GA • Chose moderates to illustrate that secession is a natural and responsible course of action. • The idea that the right to be governed rests with the people (Locke & Jefferson).

36. Lincoln's Inauguration • Speech printed on 15-4.