Chapter 14

1. Chapter 14 The Gathering Tempest, 1853-1860 Web

2. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 • Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois • Land west of the Missouri to be organized into two territories • Kansas west of Missouri; Nebraska west of Iowa and Minnesota • Territorial legislatures would decide on slavery • Missouri Compromise explicitly repealed • Caused firestorm of opposition in North

3. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 (cont.) • Many opposed any expansion of slavery into the territories • One vocal opponent was Abraham Lincoln of Illinois • Completed destruction of Whigs as national party • Damage began with divisive election of 21852 • All northern Whigs voted against Kansas-Nebraska bill • Party completely lost its southern support • Emergence of new Republican Party • Hodgepodge of former Whigs, Free-Soilers, antislavery Democrats

4. Immigration after 1840s • Significant increase in immigration after 1845 • 3 million in decade after 1845 • Most Roman Catholics • Political power of immigrants also increased • Coalesced around issues of temperance and schools • Emergence of the American Party (Know-Nothings)

5. Immigration after 1840s (cont.) • Supported multifaceted anti-immigrant/nativist agenda • Appealed to northern Whigs who had not already become Republicans • Scored big gains in elections in 1854 • Redirected by Republicans in 1855 toward cause ofd antislavery • Split along sectional lines over slavery after 1855-56 • Decreasing immigration meant decline in nativism

6. ©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license. Immigration to the United States

7. Bleeding Kansas • Struggle for control of Kansas became intense after 1854 • Missourians crossed border to vote illegally for slave government • Majority favored free-soil and opposed slavery • Kansas thereafter became the leading issue in national politics • Two competing legislatures by 1856 • Dispute led to caning of Senator Charles Sumner in May 1856 • All out violence broke out in spring of 1856 • John Brown’s raid on Pottawatomie • Virtual civil war in Kansas territory

8. Election of 1856 • Republicans first truly sectional party in American history • Anti-slavery and old Whig support for internal improvements • Ran John C. Frémont • Democrats endorsed popular sovereignty • Nominated James Buchanan • American Party nominated ex-Whig Millard Fillmore • Buchanan elected • Allowed South to go on offensive over slavery

9. ©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license. Counties Carried by Candidates in the 1856 Presidential Election

10. Dred Scott Case, 1857 • Involved question of whether residence in an anti-slave territory made a slave free • Supreme Court heard case • Majority of justices from south • Declared Missouri Compromise ban oin slavery in the Territories unconstitutional • Hinged on defense/protection of private property • Created intense partisan feelings throughout country • Intensified, rather than settled, slave controversy

11. Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, 1857 • Effort to legitimize pro-slavery government and prepare Kansas for entry into Union as a slave state • Maneuvering to keep anti-slave settlers from voting in order to guarantee acceptance of a constitution that included slavery • Buchanan administration recognized pro-slavery constitution and recommended statehood for Kansas • Generated controversy in Congress, which eventually defeated statehood measure • Issue split Democratic Party and discredited Stephen Douglas with party • Almost guaranteed election of a Republican president in 1860

12. The U.S.Economy in the 1850s • North becoming industrial • More than a decade of unprecedented growth after 1845 • Role of slavery in creating distinct “North” and “South” • U.S,. Second-leading industrial producer in the worlds by later 1850s • U.S. pioneered in mass production of interchangeable parts • Helped by high level of U.S. education • South relied increasingly on slavery • Region had what some called “colonial” economy • “King Cotton” defined region’s economy • Defended slave system as better than the free market • Writings of George Fitzhugh

13. Panic of 1857 • Both Domestic and International causes • Massive unemployment and widespread hardship • Prosperity had returned by 1858 • Economic crisis intensified sectional hostility • South fared better than rest of country • North blamed South for blocking tariffs that could have protected northern industry • Even simple issues thereafter became occasions for sectional dispute • Homestead proposal to grant land to those who worked it • Transcontinental railroads • Construction of agricultural and mechanical colleges

14. Northern Ideology of Free Labor • All work in a free society was honorable • Slavery degraded manual labor by equating it with bondage • Central component was social mobility • Incompatible with slavery • Became key feature of Republican Party’s platform • Buttressed by8 Hinton Rowan Helper’s The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) • Called on non-slaveholding whites to overthrow the slave system • Virtually banned in the South • Huge impact in North • Republican Party even used as campaign propaganda

15. Lincoln-Douglas Debates • Over election to U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858 • Lincoln argument that nation could not remain forever half-slave and half-free • Douglas professed no interest in slavery per se and defended its existence in the South • Lincoln elevated to national prominence • Douglas won senate seat but lost favor in South because he failed to vigorously defend the expansion of slavery into the territories

16. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry, 1858 • Attempt to seize federal arsenal and foment a slave uprising • Raid subdued quickly • Generated fears of slave insurrection in South • Northerners saw Brown as martyr to anti-slavery cause • Helped to contribute to unraveling of Union Web