Brief History of States Rights

1. Brief History of States Rights Prelude to confrontation

2. WAS A CONFLICT BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH INEVITABLE? DOES THE CIVIL WAR REPRESENT A CLASH OF IDEOLOGIES? WHAT IS YOUR OWN POSITION ON THE ISSUE TODAY – STATE INDEPENDENCE, FEDERAL DOMINATION – OR COMBINATION

3. Articles of Confederation 1781 • All but powerless Federal Government • Can not regulate trade • Can not create an Army & Navy • Daniel Shays Rebellion

4. 1787 Philadelphia Convention • New Document Written • New Government Created • Constitution of the United States • Ratified 1789

5. Northwest Ordinance 1787 • NO STATE northwest of the Ohio River could be a slave state • Not to benefit blacks but to prevent a shift in the balance of power in the Congress from northern dominance to southern dominance

6. Conflicting IdeologiesFederalists v. Anti-Federalists • Federalists – Alexander Hamilton – Government by the elite • Anti-Federalists aka Jeffersonian Republicans – government by the little people – the common man

7. Federal Action:Alien & Sedition Acts1798 • Longer period for immigrants to attain citizenship • President has power to imprison or deport foreigners • Illegal to publish “false or malicious” writings about the United States

8. Reaction: Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions1798 • State laws – states have the right to decide if Federal Laws exceed agreement between state and Federal government • Claimed that if states decided that the Federal Govt. had exceeded its authority the state could ignore the law

9. Virginia & KentuckyResolutions • These 2 Resolutions become the basis upon which the “STATES RIGHTS” movement rests.

10. Missouri Compromise1820 • To preserve balance of power between north and south in the Senate: Maine is admitted as a free state and Missouri is admitted as a slave state. • Created the line between north and south of 36’ 30” permanently dividing the Louisiana purchase territory between “free soil” north of the line and “slave soil” south of it.

11. Tariff of Abominations1828 • High tariff proposed to protect Northern Industrialists and Western interests. • Non-industrial South heavily reliant on European manufactures is opposed. • Debate continues for 2 years

12. “Nullification Crisis”1832 • John C. Calhoun – tariff will be declared void in South Carolina • President Andrew Jackson – asks for “Force Bill” – would allow him to use military against state of South Carolina • Represents clash – President = Federal Power vs. State sovereignty

13. Great Statesmen

14. Wilmot Proviso - 1848 • As the Mexican War came to an end, the debate over whether or not slavery should be permitted in the Mexican Cession heated up.  David Wilmot, a congressmen from Pennsylvania suggested that  slavery be forever banned in the newly won territories.  He claimed that the 36' 30" line which was part of the Missouri Compromise only applied to the Louisiana purchase.  Many northerners had objected to the Mexican War.  They like Wilmot felt that the south was looking for new lands to expand slavery.  Southerners such as John C. Calhoun of South Carolina were horrified by Wilmot's proposal.  They wanted the institution of slavery to be extended west across the Rockies.  Wilmot's bill that would have banned slavery in the west passed in the House of Representatives where northerners held the advantage.  However the Bill was defeated in the Senate by southerners such as Calhoun.  The debate over whether slavery should or should not be allowed in the new territories would continue in the years to come.  

15. David Wilmot – Senator from Pennsylvania

16. Millard Fillmore of East Aurora was President California admitted as a free state Territory of New Mexico and Utah can decide the issue themselves Selling of slaves is banned in Washington D.C. Fugitive Slave Act is passed In return for admitting the free state of California to the Union it put in place the Fugitive Slave Law . The Rigorous requirement to return escaped slaves made citizens of every state personally responsible for treating human beings as property. Compromise of 1850

17. 1852 Election of Franklin Pierce • Defeated General Winfield Scott hero of the Mexican War • Claimed he favored the “Compromise of 1850 to get votes BUT • Most interested in Manifest Destiny Pierce focused largely on foreign policy.   He pledged to continue America's Manifest Destiny into Latin America.  Pierce aggressively pursued the annexation of Cuba and the isthmus of Central America.  In light of several revolutions in Europe at the time, Pierce held America up as a model of freedom for the rest of the world.  Pierce also sent Matthew Perry and the American Navy to open Japan up to trade with the United States though the use of gunboat diplomacy.

18. Kansas / Nebraska Act 1854 • Douglas.  Douglas was a Democrat with presidential ambitions.  At the time, a debate arose over where to build the new Transcontinental Railroad. • A bill creating the states of Kansas and Nebraska and allowing popular sovereignty in the territory. Passed on May 30, 1854, it was proposed by Illinois Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas in an attempt to gain support from southern senators for his organization of the territory. It annulled the prohibition against slavery north of 36°-30′ that was passed in the Missouri Compromise • Lead to “Bleeding Kansas” • Balance in the Senate is again in question

19. Abraham Lincoln

20. Lincoln’s Prediction January 27, 1838 • At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth in their military chests; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in the trial of a thousand years.   At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.  

21. A. Lincoln - August 24, 1855 • Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." Soon it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, andforeigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty--to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

22. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. June 16, 1858 • As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is not democracy. August 1, 1858

23. First Inaugural Address • In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect and defend" it. March 4, 1861