Bleeding Kansas

1. Bleeding Kansas The 1850s

2. Election of 1852 • Whigs: Winfield Scott (“Old Fuss and Feathers”) but defeat meant the end of the party • Compromise of 1850 permanently divided the party N and S • Democrats: Franklin Pierce • Had supported Fugitive Slave Law • Southern Whigs • Northern Dems • Some Dem Free-Soilers • Dems the only national party in early 1850s

3. End of Whigs • Southern “Cotton Whigs” were put off by Northern “Conscience Whigs’” antislavery stance. Southern Whigs moved to Southern Democrats • Northern Whigs divided and fought each other: • Antislavery “Conscience Whigs” vs. • Whigs unbothered by slavery issue

4. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) • Democrats controlled White House and Congress • With decline of Whigs, Congress was controlled by proslavery southern Democrats • This upset northern Democrats and Whigs

5. Polk, Pierce, and Expansion • Gadsden Purchase 1853 • Cuba and Ostend Manifesto • Nicaragua

6. Young America movement • 1848 mostly young men in Democratic Party • Leaders included Stephen A. Douglas • Franklin Pierce did not support this wing of party • Two goals: • New ideals of civic duty • Expand democratic ideals abroad • Annex Ireland and Sicily • Support Hungarian revolt in 1848

7. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (D-Ill) • “Little Giant” key figure in Compromise of 1850 • New era of leadership, Young Democrats • Senate leader after Clay retired • Wanted last of Unorganized Territory (Louisiana Purchase) organized • Then railroad could be laid from Chicago • He a speculator in Western lands, Chicago real estate, and served as Illinois Central Line (railroad) director • This required a central route through unorganized territory

8. Unorganized Territory • Minnesota Territory opened • Rising wheat prices made prairies more desirable to settle: .93/bushel 1851 to 2.50 1855 • Train lines expanded dramatically, allowing farmers to sell grain and cattle more easily • Four more rail lines proposed to link central states to west coast, but Congress would only fund one • Mechanical inventions aid farming

9. The Route • Jefferson Davis (Secretary of War) advocated Gadsden Purchase to run line from South (New Orleans or Charleston) to California • Douglas introduced bill Jan. 1854 to organize Unorganized Territory as Nebraska Territory (could not build railroad until it was organized) • Earlier, similar proposals had been defeated by Southern Senators

10. 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act • To gain Southern support, Douglas proposed Pop Sov for Nebraska Territory • residents could decide when they had territorial legislature • Could also be used to rally voters for Democratic presidential campaign in 1856 • But: Nebraska Territory above Missouri Compromise line 36’ 30”. Was this a problem?

11. The Bargain • Kansas-Nebraska bill would end Missouri Compromise of 1820 implicitly • Bargain: • Pop Sov • Actual repeal of 36’ 30” requested by South • Divided into Kansas and Nebraska • Kansas could be for Missourians (slave) • Nebraska could be for Iowans (free)

12. Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854 Map includes two of the proposed railroad lines

13. Bleeding Kansas 1854-1855 • Pro- and Antislavery forces try to get there first • Missourians crossed river to stake claims • New England settlers moved to Lawrence (New England Emigrant Aid Co. 1855) • First election (1854) won by proslavery Missourians crossing river to vote in Kansas

14. Bleeding Kansas

15. Kansas elections 1855 • Border ruffians established proslavery legislature in LeCompton (estimated 2905 legal voters but 6307 votes cast) • LeCompton legislature created slave code, no abolitionists allowed • Antislavery forces created legislature in Topeka, so one illegal and one extralegal government in 1856

16. “Bleeding Kansas” May1856 • Pierce did not recognize free-soil Topeka government • 1856 proslavery forces attacked free-soil Lawrence, Kansas • John Brown and sons retaliated by killing five proslavery at Pottawatomie Creek • 200 killed in subsequent fighting; Brown escaped • “Bleeding Kansas” Republican propaganda

17. “Bleeding Kansas” (2) • Civil war in Kansas • Northern “Jayhawkers” vs. • “Kickapoo Rangers” or border ruffians • Groups were armed • Roving bands terrorized farmers

18. Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA) • A party leader, anti-slavery wing • Free-Soil Party founder 1848 • May 1856 “The Crime Against Kansas” speech • Scathing oratory against Sen. Andrew Butler (D-SC) (not present that day) and Douglas

19. Sumner-Brooks Affair • Representative Preston Brooks (D-SC) entered Senate chamber days later to avenge insult against his uncle (Butler) • Stated later that he struck Sumner 30 times with gold-handled cane. Sumner could not get out of desk (bolted to the floor) • Brooks hero of the South, people sent canes • Sumner hero of North; Northerners shocked

20. New Political Parties for1856 Elections • Republicans • American Party or Know-Nothings

21. Republican Party (1854-2007) • Formed in Wisconsin in response to Kansas-Nebraska Act • Against expansion of slavery (Wilmot P.) in territories, but not end of slavery in South (moderates) • Based in North and West and it attracted: • Northern Whigs or Conscience Whigs • Anti-Nebraska Democrats • Free-Soilers • Northern Know-Nothings (anti-Catholic, pro-Protestant Europeans without national party)

22. Republican Party (2) • 1854-1860 quickly grew to second-largest party in nation • But always a sectional party, so it was seen as a threat to the South • Successful: 1860 to 1932 Republicans won every presidential election except four; 1968-2004 all except three

23. Know-Nothings • Reflect native-born Protestant vs. Irish/Catholic and German immigrant tensions in the cities • Drew votes away from Whigs in 1852 by winning 20% of popular vote • Never a national party • Republicans could work with Know-Nothings, to be antislavery did not mean pro-immigrant. Know-Nothings adopted the slavery stance of their respective regions

24. James Buchanan (1857-1861) • 1856 election: • Democrat: James Buchanan • Republican: Fremont; “Black Republicans” antislavery with “Free soil, Free speech, and Fremont” • Know-Nothing: Millard Fillmore • Buchanan (Dem) carried almost all slave states and Penn, Ill., and Indiana for 174-114 electoral votes across sections • Fremont (Rep) won 11 of 16 free states, few votes from slave states • Split was avoided, but Republicans appeared strong enough to win Presidency without Southern votes

25. Dred Scott vs. Stanford • Buchanan’s first test in March 1857 • Did living in free state make a man free? • Scott was then taken to Illinois where slavery had been banned under Northwest Ordinance • Scott had been taken to Wisconsin Territory where slavery was banned under Missouri Compromise • Returned to Missouri, where the suit was filed when the owner died.

26. Supreme Court decision: • Slaves and freedmen not citizens, so could not sue in court • Living in a free state did not make a person free when returned to slave territory or state • Living in Wisconsin Terr did not make Scott free because Missouri Compromise unconstitutional: • Fifth Amendment: people cannot be deprived of…property without due process of law President Buchanan probably pressured some judges

27. Buchanan and Kansas 1857 • President Buchanan had to choose to support or reject LeCompton (proslavery) constitution for Kansas. • Buchanan accepted Kansas as slave state • Senate and House rejected, so not a state yet

28. Bibliography • Carnes, Mark C., and John A. Garraty. The American Nation. New York: Pearson Longman. • Henretta, James A., et al. America’s History. New York: Worth. • Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Oxford History of the American People: 1789 through Reconstruction. New York: Penguin. • Newman, John M. and John M. Schmalbach. United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement examination. Amsco • Williams, T. Harry, and Hazel C. Wolf. Our American Nation. Columbus: Charles E. Merrill.

29. Illustrations • file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Faculty1/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/4F0EQQ10/ppt14%5B1%5D.ppt#256,2,Map 14.1: The Compromise of 1850 • http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/000000aa.htm