The Turbulent 1850’s

1. The Turbulent 1850’s The events of this one decade successively removed any prospect of avoiding a Civil War.

2. I. Successful Suppression of the Slave Issue Before the Mexican War • The 2-party system was still functioning and keeping slavery out of the political discussion • Partisan views on territorial expansion • Abolitionist frustration with the political status quo • Missouri Compromise line worked well until U.S. victory in the Mexican War

3. II. Wilmot Proviso • Northern Democratic frustration with Polk • “Free Soil” position • Defeat of Proviso • Slavery politicized for good • “Free Soil” position threatened existence of political parties

4. III. The Presidency of Zachary Taylor • The Election of 1848 -- Lewis Cass: “Popular Sovereignty” -- “Free Soil” Party • Taylor’s approach to the crisis of slavery in the territories won from Mexico • The Compromise of 1850

5. IV. The Election of 1852: Seeds of the Crisis • Avoidance of slavery as an issue by major parties • Scott versus Pierce • Whig nativism made a difference in this election • Voter apathy

6. V. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • Popular Sovereignty for Kansas and Nebraska • Repeal of Missouri Compromise Line • Congressional Reaction • Douglas’ motives for proposing the Act • Consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

7. VI. Formation of the Third U.S. Political Party System • Rise and fall of the “Know-Nothings” • Roots of the Republican Party • Centrality of the “Free Soil” Position • Experienced, Professional Politicians

8. VII. The Stormy Road to the Inevitable Crisis (1856-1860) • “Bleeding Kansas” --Lecompton vs. Topeka • “Bleeding Sumner” • The Election of 1856 • Fremont vs. Buchanan • Buchanan’s political debt to the south

9. VII. The Stormy Road (cont.) • Religious Sectionalism • Sectional Vacation spots • Men attend universities in their own region • Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

10. VII. The Stormy Road (cont.) • The Dred Scott Case (March, 1857) • Buchanan’s call for the Supreme Court to decide the issue of slavery in the territories • Chief Justice Roger Taney’s decision

11. VII. The Stormy Road (cont.) • The Lecompton Constitution controversy (1858) • Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) --Lincoln accused of abolitionism --Douglas’ “Freeport Doctrine”

12. VIII. The South’s “Crisis of Fear” • Kansas enters as free state in 1858 • No trust in Republican rhetoric • John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (October, 1859) • Fight over Speakership of House of Representatives in the fall of 1859 --Hinton Helper’s Impending Crisis of the South

13. IX. The Election of 1860 • Republicans nominate Lincoln in Chicago • Split in the Democratic Party --North: Douglas --South: Breckenridge • Constitutional Union Party nominated Bell • Results of the election

14. X. Why a Crisis in 1850 and not in 1820? • 30 years of cultural divergence escalated by the Second Great Awakening and the profitability of southern cotton • Southern suspicion of northern attitudes and mutual misconceptions • Vehemence of a minority of irritating abolitionists to be heard • Advent of party politics taking up the issue and not resolving it peacefully