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Political Divisions

Political Divisions. New Divisions. The Impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act Whigs, some Democrats, Free-Soilers, and abolitionists joined together to form the Republican Party, which opposed the spread of slavery.

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Political Divisions

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  1. Political Divisions

  2. New Divisions • The Impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act • Whigs, some Democrats, Free-Soilers, and abolitionists joined together to form the Republican Party, which opposed the spread of slavery. • Only seven of the northern Democrats who had voted for the Kansas- Nebraska Act had been re-elected to the House of Representatives. • The act also split the Whig Party, with northern Whigs opposing the act and southern Whigs favoring it.

  3. New Divisions • The Election of 1856 • Know-Nothing party split into northern and southern groups. • Democrats nominated Pennsylvanian James Buchanan, who had not been involved with the controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. • Republicans nominated John C. Fremont, who had little political experience. • Election Returns • James Buchanan won, taking 14 out of 15 slave states and 5 free states. • Fremont won the remaining free states. • The Know- Nothing candidate won Maryland.

  4. The Dred Scott Decision • The Case • Dred Scott, the Missouri slave of an army surgeon, had accompanied the surgeon on military tours to Illinois and the northern Louisiana Territory. • Scott sued for his freedom when he returned to Missouri. • Argued that he had become free because he lived in free territory. • The case went to the Supremem Court in 1856.

  5. The Dred Scott Decision • Questions for the US Supreme Court • Was Scott a US citizen, who had the right to sue in federal court? • Did Scott become free by living on free soil? • Was the ban on slavery in parts of the Louisiana Territory constitutional?

  6. The Dred Scott decision • The Dred Scott Decision • Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who came from a slaveholding family, wrote the majority decision in the case in 1857. • Concluded that African Americans, including Scott had not become free while living on free soil. • Determine that Scott had not become free by living on free soil. • Declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment.

  7. The dredscott decision • Reactions • The ruling pleased most white southerners • Many northerners, especially Republicans such as Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln opposed the ruling.

  8. The lincoln-douglas debates • In 1858 Abraham Lincoln challenged Democrat Stephan Douglas for the Illinois seat in the US Senate; Douglas had held the seat since 1847. • Lincoln and Douglas held seven debates, known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. • Lincoln argued that slavery should not be allowed to spread but did not ask for a political or social equality for African Americans.

  9. The lincoln-douglas debates • Douglas announced the Freeport Doctrine- the idea that American citizens have the power to ban slavery in an area, even in Congress does not have this power. • Douglas won the election, but Lincoln had gained prestige in the Republican Party.

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