Drifting Toward Disunion The 1850’s

1. Drifting Toward DisunionThe 1850’s Chapter 19

2. I. Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries • Hope for compromise and keeping Union together fell apart in the last half of the 1850’s • Kansas erupted into violence, the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision validated feeling of a “Southern conspiracy” • Attitudes on both sides hardened • 1852Uncle Tom’s Cabin published, novel had great political force- no Northerner wanted to support “peculiar institution”; also popular across Europe • 1857Impending Crisis of the South by Hinton Helper tried to prove that non-slave holders in South suffered the most from slavery (poor whites could not get ahead) • Planter elite feel attacked from all sides

3. II. The North-South Contest for Kansas • Kansas issue on popular sovereignty came to a head • Various groups came to Kansas- regular pioneers, groups financed by northern abolitionists (some armed by New England Emigrant Aid Company) • Southern spokesmen under the impression Kansas would be slave, Nebraska free and began to sponsor slave owning families to move to Kansas (risky to take slaves to region) • 1855- crisis in Kansas blows up (Bleeding Kansas) • Elections for first territorial legislature, many came over border from slave state Missouri to vote (early and often) • Slavery forces won election, free soilers see this as an illegal conspiracy and set up own government • State home to two separate governments • Tension increased when proslavery raiders attacked free town of Lawrence

4. III. Kansas in Convulsion • 1856- John Brown, insanely dedicated abolitionist, moved to Kansas • Led a band of abolitionist to a pro slavery settlement on Pottawatomie Creek and hacked to death a group of five proslaveryites and brought swift retaliation from proslavery forces • Civil war erupted in Kansas after this attack • 1857 Kansas applies for admission to US with proslavery constitution (Lecompton Constitution) approved in 1857 • Constitution supported by President Buchanan, many saw this a popular fraudulency • Issue divided Democratic party along north-south lines and broke last strands that kept Union together

5. IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon • 1856- US Senator Charles Sumner (MA) and Congressman Preston Brooks (SC) demonstrated how inflamed the political passions had become • Sumner gave a two day long speech on slavery and the Kansas issue • During the speech he insulted a relative of Brooks and he attacked and beat Sumner with a cane on the Senate floor • Brooks resigned and was reelected, Sumner had to leave office because of his injuries and his Senate seat remained empty

6. V. Old Buck Versus The Pathfinder • 1856 presidential election Democrats nominate James Buchanan a Pennsylvania lawyer not tainted by Kansas controversy • Republicans nominate John Fremont who had little political experience, also not part of Kansas dispute • Republican platform against extension of slavery under any circumstances • Democrats supported popular sovereignty • Know Nothings and their stand against foreigners also nominated Millard Fillmore, party cut into Republican strength

7. VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856 • Buchanan won easily • Democrats won because of threats of secession if anybody else elected • Many northerners wanted to preserve Union and keep business connections with South • Events had not gotten bad enough to see no chance for reconciliation (KS trouble had yet to explode) • Democrats were losing strength as evidenced by election of 1854

8. VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell • Dred Scott lived with master in Illinois and free territory of Wisconsin, master died and he sued for his freedom on basis of his residency on free soil • Dred Scott vs. Sanford (1857) • Pro southern Supreme Court said he could not sue in federal court because he was a black slave and not a citizen • Said slaves were private property and they could be taken to any territory (free or slave) and they were still slaves • Basis was the 5th Amendment, it protected private property from the government • Southerners happy with decision, further drove a wedge between north and south • Used as a rallying cry for anti slavery forces, refused to follow decision • South wondered how they could exist with a group willing to defy the Supreme Court

9. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857 • 1857 economic panic • CA gold had artificially inflated currency • Over production of grain to feed Europeans (Crimean War over and it was no longer needed), grain prices dropped • Over-speculation in land and railroads • Hit north harder than south, Southerners saw this as proof cotton was king

10. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857 • Northerners called for free land to help out (provide employment), met opposition from industrialists because it would drain away people needed for factories • Opposed in the South because plantation agriculture could not flourish on small homesteads and if territories filled up it would further tip sectional balance • 1860- Congress does pass Homestead Act, public lands available for 25 cents an acre • Panic caused clamor for higher tariff rates, surplus funds caused Treasury to lower tariff rates and panic wiped out surplus • North wanted higher tariffs, Southern politicians blocked tariff increases • Events gave Republicans two issues to focus on in election of 1860 that were not slavery, tariff protections and farms for farmless

11. IX. An Illinois Rail-splitter Emerges • 1858 Senatorial election takes national spotlight • Abraham Lincoln (R) and Stephen Douglas (D) running for Senate seat in Illinois • Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates, Douglas was known a great debater and Lincoln was expected to fall • Freeport, IL major debate • Lincoln questioned how could popular sovereignty survive with Dread Scott decision • Douglas’ reply became known a Freeport Doctrine, where public opinion does not support law it is almost impossible to enforce (slavery would stay down if it was voted down) • Douglas defeats Lincoln but Lincoln becomes a national figure • Douglas and his support for popular sovereignty splinters Democrats- How could they vote for him if he supported what they opposed?

12. X. John Brown: Murderer or Martyr? • John Brown hatches scheme to invade south, cause slave rebellion and arm them • 1859- Invaded a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA and failed • Quickly captured and hanged • South viewed him as a murderer and guilty of treason, , moderate northerners agreed • Abolitionists were upset by his execution and viewed him as a martyr for their cause • “ How can a barbarous community and a civilized community constitute one state. We must either get rid of slavery, or get rid of freedom” Ralph Waldo Emerson

13. XI. Disruption for the Democrats • Election of 1860 hung on issue of peace or war • Democrats divided could not choose presidential nominee • Southern states would not support Douglas and they nominated their own candidate John C. Breckinridge • Middle of the road group wanted compromise candidate to keep country together nominated John Bell from Tennessee • Northern Democrats platform for popular sovereignty, and supported Fugitive Slave Law • Southern Democrat platform foe extension of slavery into territories and annexation of Cuba

15. XII. Rail-Splitter Splits Union • Republican choice between William Seward and Lincoln • Seward seen as too radical, Lincoln had fewer enemies • Republican platform for non-extension of slavery, higher tariffs, free homesteads and internal improvements at federal expense • Southern secessionists said if Lincoln elected they would leave Union, thought federal government would get rid of slavery • Lincoln elected as a minority president, was not even on the ballot in 10 states • Election of 1860 essentially two elections- North and South

16. XIII. The Secessionist Exodus • Chain of secession began to erupt • Dec. 1860 SC calls special convention and unanimously votes to secede from Union • Over the next 6 weeks six other states follow • Feb. 1861 meet in Montgomery, AL to establish government and choose former Senator Jefferson Davis from MS as president • Buchanan, did nothing • He was surrounded by pro-southern advisers and he could find no authority in Constitution to keep states in Union • Public opinion in North not for fighting to keep Union together, so there was still hope for reconciliation • Ideas proposed by James Crittenden (KY) • Crittenden Compromise proposed Constitutional Amendments designed to appease South • Slavery permitted south of Missouri Compromise line and open to popular sovereignty in all other territory • Lincoln rejected plan and hope of compromise evaporated

17. XIV. Farewell to Union • South left for a variety of reasons • Slavery, loosing sectional balance that was a threat to slaveholding minority • They though departure would be unopposed • Northern economic interests would not put up a fight to maintain business relations • South had a different culture and they could form a country that fit their ideas • Develop own economic relations with Europe, keep tariffs low • Felt it was their destiny and they were not doing anything immoral or wrong