The Union in Peril

1. The Union in Peril 1848-1860

2. Four Main Causes of the Civil War • Slavery • Constitutional Disputes: States’ Rights vs. Federal Rights • Economic Differences: Industrialized North vs. the Agricultural South • Political Blunders and Extremism

3. Conflict over Territorial Status • Northern Democrats and the Whigs supported the Wilmot Proviso • Were they abolitionists? • They supported the exclusion of ALL blacks from the Mexican Cession.

4. The Free-Soilers • They did not demand the end of slavery, just the extension of it. • They wanted to keep the West for whites only so there would be no competition with slaves OR free blacks. • Party slogan: “free soil, free labor, and free men” • Advocated free homesteads and internal improvements

5. Southern Position • Disliked abolitionists and Free-Soilers. • Moderates: wanted an extension of the Missouri Compromise line westward

6. Popular Sovereignty • Proposed by Lewis Cass (MO-D) • Slavery should be determined by popular vote.

7. The Election of 1848 • Lewis Cass (Democrat): platform was popular sovereignty • Zachary Taylor (Whig): took no position on slavery in the new territories • Martin Van Buren (Free-Soil): Consisted of “conscience” Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats • Taylor defeated Cass because the Free-Soil party took away many Democrats’ votes

8. The Compromise of 1850 • 1849: CA Constitution banned slavery • President Taylor supported the free admission of CA and NM • Taylor’s actions sparked talk of secession • Henry Clay proposed the following: • Admit CA as a free state • Divide rest of Mexican Cession in UT and NM: allow popular sovereignty to decide the issue • Disputed land in TX and NM to be given to the new territories in exchange for the assumption of TX $10 million debt • Ban slave trade in DC but still allow whites to hold slaves • Adopt and enforce a new Fugitive Slave Law

9. Compromise Debate • Henry Clay (KY): for compromise • Daniel Webster (MA): argued for compromise to save the Union and alienated his abolitionist supporters • John C. Calhoun (SC): argued against compromise and for states’ rights • William H. Seward (NY): against the compromise and argued that there was a higher law than the Constitution • Stephen A. Douglas (IL): prepared the components of the compromise for separate passage • President Fillmore, succeeding Taylor, signed the compromises into law.

10. Fugitive Slave Law • Northerners were obligated to return escaped slaves to the South • Fugitive slave cases were placed under the jurisdiction of the federal government • They were denied the right of trial by jury

11. Underground Railroad • Not dominated by white abolitionists • Northern free blacks and ex-slaves were the main “conductors” • Harriet Tubman: 19 trips and helped 300 slaves escape • Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth also took an active role

12. Literature • Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe; promoted abolitionism in both the North and in Europe • Lincoln: “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.” • Impending Crisis of the South (1857) by Hinton Helper showed that slavery hurt the Southern economy • Southerners argued that slavery was sanctioned by the Bible. • George Fitzhugh argued that the northern capitalist wage system was worse than slavery.

13. Election of 1852 • General Winfield Scott (Whig): ignored the issue of slavery and concentrated on internal improvements. • Franklin Pierce (Democrat-NH): acceptable to the South because he supported the Fugitive Slave Law • The Democrats won all but 4 states.

14. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • Democrat Stephen Douglas wanted to win support to build a transcontinental railroad. • He obtained southern approval by introducing this bill. • Two states would be formed and popular sovereignty would decide the issue. • Both territories were located North of the Missouri Compromise line. • Renewed the sectional controversy. • A new antislavery party was born: the Republicans.

15. New Parties • Know-Nothing Party: opposition to Catholics and immigrants • Republican Party • Founded in 1854 in Racine, WI • Direct reaction to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act • Coalition of free-soilers, antislavery Whigs and Democrats made up the party • Asked for a repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law • Abolitionists would join later

16. Election of 1856 • Republican: John C. Fremont (CA) • Know-Nothings: former President Millard Fillmore • Democrats: James Buchanan • Democrats won, but Fremont carried 11/16 free states

17. Bleeding Kansas • Settled by antislavery farmers from the Midwest • Slaveholders from MO set up homesteads • New England Emigrant Aid Society: paid for the transportation of antislavery settlers • Proslavery Missourians created a proslavery legislature in Lecompton, KS • Antislavery settlers created own legislature • 1856: proslavery forces attacked the town of Lawrence, killing 2 • John Brown and his sons killed 5 on an attack on a proslavery settlement • Democrats became even more divided between the North and South

18. The Caning • Senator Charles Sumner attacked the administration about its handling of “Bleeding Kansas” • Included personal attacks on SC Senator Andrew Butler • Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks beat Sumner over the head with a cane • Northerners were angry and voted for censure, but Southerners sent Brooks numerous canes to replace his broken one