Chapter 14: From Compromise to Secession 1850-1861

1. Chapter 14: From Compromise to Secession 1850-1861

2. Chapter key issues: • Compromise of 1850 • Fugitive Slave Act and reaction • Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Kansas-Nebraska Act • Collapse of the second party system • The Know nothings [American Party] • Bleeding Kansas • John Brown – Kansas • Lecompton Constitution controversy • Sumner-Brooks affair • Election of 1856, rise of the Republican Party • Dred Scott decision • John Brown again [Harper’s Ferry raid] • Collapse of the Union 1860-1861

3. The Compromise of 1850 • Zachary Taylor’s presidency • Clear position on slavery: leave issue to states, refrain from pushing the issue in new territories • Wanted CA and NM to bypass territory status, enter directly as states • Knew both would be free states, please the North • Would establish principle of popular sovereignty • Problems • Essentially created the situation proposed by the Wilmot Proviso[Whigs hated it] • Democrats disagreed with Taylor’s assumption that neither CA or NM would be suitable for slavery.

4. The Senate Debates • Clay proposes compromise [actually a series of modifications to Taylor’s plan] • CA admitted as free state • Remainder of Mexican cession divided into 2 territories, New Mexico and Utah • Texas/NM boundary issues settled in NM’s favor • Federal Govt assume Texas’ public debt • Slavery still allowed in D.C., but selling or buying slaves outlawed • Much stronger fugitive slave law would be passed • Collectively known as the Compromise of 1850 • Calhoun threatens secession • Daniel Webster supported it.[cost him his rep. In Mass.] • “Seventh of March” speech • William H. Seward [Northern Whig] strongly opposed • “higher law” speech

5. In February 1850 President Taylor had held a stormy conference with southern leaders who threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang ... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered. Then events took an unexpected turn. After participating in ceremonies at the Washington Monument on a blistering July 4, Taylor fell ill; within five days he was dead. Zachary Taylor 1784-1850 Twelfth President1849-1850 (Last Whig)

6. “These are disputed topics, and I have no inclination to enter into them. But I will allude to the other complaints of the South, and especially to one which has in my opinion just foundation; and that is, that there has been found at the North, among individuals and among legislators, a disinclination to perform fully their constitutional duties in regard to the return of persons bound to service who have escaped into the free States. In that respect, the South, in my judgment, is right, and the North is wrong!” Daniel Webster 1782-1852 Senator from Mass 1826-1852 America’s greatest lawyer: argued [and won] Dartmouth v Woodward, McCullough v Md, and Gibbons v Ogden 7th of March 1850 speech in support of Fugitive slave law, which killed Webster’s chances of Presidency

7. Seward’s famous “Higher Law” speech made in opposition to the Compromise of 1850, marked him as so staunch an abolitionist, that it probably kept him from the Presidential nomination in 1860, and Lincoln became the nominee of the young Republican Party instead. He then appointed Seward as Secretary of State. It was Seward who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Seward was also a target of Boothe’s co-conspirators the night Lincoln was Assassinated. He was wounded but survived, serving as Sec. Of State until 1869. William H. Seward Sen.[Whig, NY, later Republican] Secretary of State 1861-1869

8. Passage of the Compromise • Clay [ill, frail] yields to Stephen A. Douglas [D, Illinois] to push the compromise in the Senate • Millard Fillmore replaces Taylor [ had to, dead, y’know] • Provisions [again] • California enters as a free state • New Mexico and Utah no restrictions on slavery [popular sovereignty] • Texas-New Mexico border dispute settled in New Mexico’s favor • US Govt to assume Texas’ public debt • Abolition of slave trade in D.C. • Fugitive Slave Law

10. The Fugitive Slave Law • As anti-slave sentiment in North grew, local authorities refused to cooperate with slave hunters • Personal liberty laws • Some states made it crime to use jail to hold slave • Activist lawyers jammed courts to avoid sending slaves south • Fugitive Slave Act (1850) • Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842) • PA 1842 case used as precedent for “slave catching” being kidnapping • ‘Underground railroad” extended to Canada • Federal government pays all cost of enforcement • Accused slave has no rights • No jury trial, or right to testify in own behalf • U.S. marshals required to help catch runaways if asked • Law skewed to favor slave owner

11. The Nashville Convention • Convened Nashville TN, June 1850 by nine southern states [pro-slavery Whigs and some Southern Democrats] • Dominated by “States’ righters” • Attendees nicknamed “fire eaters”, due to extreme pro-slavery positions • Some debate very much secessionist • Situation compounded when Taylor dies, July 13, leaving Millard Fillmore President

12. Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. He made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, he intimated to him that if there should be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of it. Thus the sudden accession of Fillmore to the Presidency in July 1850 brought an abrupt political shift in the administration. Taylor's Cabinet resigned and President Fillmore at once appointed Daniel Webster to be Secretary of State, thus proclaiming his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise Millard Fillmore 13th President 1850-1853

13. Abolitionist poster “KIDNAPPING AGAIN!!”

15. Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act • Riot in Boston, 50,000 help free captured slave about to be sent South • Daniel Webster becomes a villain in his home state of Mass. For support of Fugitive Slave Law • Fillmore orders 5 platoons of troops to Boston to restore order and enforce the Law • Many northerners nationwide oppose enforcement both actively and passively

16. Advertisement for runaway slave

17. This handbill appeared following passage of the Fugitive Slave Law

18. Simon Legree and Uncle Tom: A scene from Uncle Tom's Cabin, history's most famous abolitionist novel.

19. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe [sister of Catharine, of “women’s sphere” fame] • Experience in Cincinnati acquainted her with plight of escaped slaves • Book is reaction against Fugitive Slave Law • Central theme: breakup of slave families • Shapes Northern perceptions of slavery for a generation – puts a human face on what had been, for many, an abstract concept • Published 1852 • 300,000 copies first year, 1.2 million by 1853 • Dramatized, read on stage by black actors in North • “undeliverable” by mail in South

20. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) "If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, tomorrow morning,--if you had seen the man, and heard that the papers were signed and delivered, and you had only from twelve o'clock till morning to make good your escape,--how fast could you walk? How many miles could you make in those few brief hours, with the darling at your bosom,--the little sleepy head on your shoulder,--the small, soft arms trustingly holding on to your neck?" Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

21. Election of 1852 • Whigs torn [north/south] over Fugitive Slave Act • Nominate Mexican War hero Winfield Scott • Dems nominate Franklin Pierce, relative unknown nationally • Pierce wins slim victory, signals the beginning of the end of the Whig Party and the collapse of the second two party system. Scott, perhaps America’s greatest military hero after George Washington, was the candidate of a Whig Party torn by deep division over slavery. He would serve Lincoln as General in Chief at the beginning of the Civil War, a career spanning 50 years in the Army. Winfield Scott 1786 - 1866

22. Served in the Mexican War • was proposed by New Hampshire friends for the Presidential nomination in 1852. • At the Democratic convention delegates agreed upon platform supporting Compromise of 1850 • Also pledged hostility to any efforts to “agitate the slavery question.” • Delegates balloted 48 times and eliminated all the well-known candidates beforenominating Pierce, a true "dark horse." Franklin Pierce 1804-1869 14th President Troubles in Kansas and the Kansas-Nebraska issue, kept Pierce far from the calm Presidency he had wanted

23. Kansas and the Rise of the Republican Party • Settlers and railroads want to expand West of Missouri • Want territories west of Missouri and Iowa organized • Want Indian claims “extinguished”, national Govt. provided • Stephen A. Douglas [the “Little Giant”] • Senator from Illinois [Dem] • Has friends who want RR to head west from Chicago vice farther south • Has Presidential aspirations as well • Proposes a package of proposals collectively called the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

24. DOUGLAS, Stephen Arnold, (1813 - 1861) • Stephen A. Douglas • U.S. Senator 1847-1861 • Unsuccessful Dem. Candidate for President 1860 • Author of Kansas-Nebraska Act • Opposed Lincoln in 1858 Senate race • their debates framed the national debate over Slavery and were carried in newspapers nationwide • Lincoln was elevated to national fame largely due to the speeches he made in a losing effort in the 1858 Senate race The “Little Giant” Stephen A. Douglas emerged as a leading Democrat during the 1850s

25. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 • The Problems: • Some [Southerners] wanted transcontinental RR to start west from New Orleans or Memphis • Nebraska was within LA Purchase and north of MO Compromise line [36º 30’], therefore, closed to slavery • Southerners would oppose adding a new territory that was closed to slavery

26. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (continued) • The Proposal: • Create 2 new territories, Nebraska west of Iowa, and Kansas, west of Missouri • Allow voters to decide whether or not to allow slavery in each new territory [Popular Sovereignty] • The Assumption: • Nebraska might choose to bar slavery, Kansas would probably choose to allow it

27. Reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act • Anti-slavery Whigs and “free-soil” Democrats said it was just a plan to extend slavery above the MO Compromise line [Where KS, in fact, was!] • Southerners outraged at this reaction, felt slavery could/should be allowed anywhere [remember, Calhoun had labeled MO Compromise as unconstitutional for years!] • Bill passes without one Northern Whig vote in support • Hurt Douglas politically with extremists in both North and South,

28. The Free Soil Movement • “Free Soil” – land where slavery was not allowed • Some who fought about everything else, agreed slavery should be contained where it was • Some opposed it on moral grounds • Some, racist, opposed any blacks into new territories, slave or free • All felt slavery impeded progress of whites • Unfair competition with white workers • Free soilers saw KS-NB Act as last straw, an attempt to spread slavery • Southerners saw it as opportunity

29. Decline in “Manifest Destiny Mania” • Sectional rivalries cool expansion interests [sort of] • 1853: Gadsden Purchase adds some new area in Southwest,Seen as ripe for slavery expansion • Cuba • Long seen by some Southerners as potentially a new slave territory for the US [it was still Spanish!] • 1854: former MS governor John Quitman actually plans military expedition to seize Cuba! [these foreign adventures were called “filibusters”, but are unrelated to the practice in the Senate of “talking a bill to death” to kill it, which is also known as a filibuster] • Possibly actually endorsed by Pres. Pierce, but Northerners made it public knowledge, and it was scrapped

30. In 1849 Quitman was elected governor of Mississippi and from the beginning of his term favored secession as a means of guaranteeing the continuation of slavery. An advocate of Cuban liberation from Spain, Quitman entertained revolutionary leader Narciso López in Jackson, but declined his offer of command of the revolutionary army in Cuba. He was indicted by a federal court, however, for violating United States neutrality laws in favor of the insurrectionists, and resigned as governor. John A. Quitman 1798 - 1858

31. The Ostend Manifesto • 1854: Ambassadors to Great Britain, France and Spain meet at Ostend, Belgium • Issue a confidential memorandum [“the Ostend Manifesto”] to President Pierce stating US should “acquire” Cuba by any means necessary • Uproar over Quitman’s aborted filibuster [to do just that!] was so great that Pierce rejected the proposal

32. More Cuba issues and general mischief • William Walker • Led several filibustering expeditions into Central America 1853-1860 • Executed by firing squad in Honduras, 1860 • Cuba • Southern planters split on issue • LA sugar barons feared competition from cheaper Cuban sugar if Cuba were annexed • Many in North simply feared acquisition of a large, almost entirely black population, who might or might not be slaves, but who would become the responsibility of the U.S. Government

33. William Walker: Doctor, Lawyer, adventurer • Greatest of American filibusterers • 1853: Aim was to obtain the independence of Sonora and Baja California for ultimate annexation by U. S. to extend slave territory and maintain the balance of power for the South. • Failed, arrested, tried [in US] acquitted • 1855: landed Nicaragua, declared himself president • Revoked anti-slavery laws, revoked Vanderbilt steamship monopoly on trans Nicaragua RR./ship passage • Forced to surrender, leave in 1857

34. Vanderbilt, studied maps of Central American for many hours,. thought he had a better solution. The San Juan River runs along the border with Costa Rica for 119 miles and then empties into Lake Nicaragua. One Hundred miles long and 50 miles wide, the western shore of Lake Nicaragua is only 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Why not shorten the route to California by using Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River? After some political machinations involving some crooked subordinates and the American adventurer William Walker, Vanderbilt lost control of his Accessory Transit Company

35. Later 1857: tried again in Nicaragua • arrested by US Navy, tried, acquitted of violating Neutrality Act • 1860: tried filibuster in Honduras • Arrested by British Navy • Turned over to Honduran authorities • Shot by firing squad Note name misspelled on tombstone in Honduras

36. Death of the Whig Party • Kansas-Nebraska Act destroys Whig party • Winfield Scott • Republican Party • Free-Soilers • antislavery Democrats • Democrats and 1854 elections • Democrats lose control of Congress • Become more Southern dominated • Nativism and the Know-Nothings (American party)

37. The Rise of the “Know-Nothings” • “American Party”: merger of • Order of the Star Spangled Banner • Order of the United Americans • Issues • Temperance • Opposed tax support for church schools • Lengthen naturalization from 5 to 21 years • Know-Nothings devastate Northern Whigs

38. Immigration and Nativism • 1840s: surge in German and Irish immigrants • Many immigrants were Roman Catholics • Ethnic riots between Protestants and Catholics • Nativism: established Americans perceived the recent immigrants as responsible for the rise in crime and poverty in the cities

39. Immigrants in Politics • Increase in political power of immigrants • Rise in foreign-born voters • Many became Democrats • Leaned toward pro-slavery as they competed with Northern blacks for labor • Catholic church anti-Abolitionist • Temperance and Public school debate • Prohibition laws aggravated ethnic conflicts • Public vs. parochial school systems

40. “Know-Nothing” poster showing the “ideal” American male • The American Party [aka the “Know-Nothings”] actually controlled the MASS legislature in 1854 and 56, formerly prime Whig territory • Saw conspiracy everywhere, from the “Slave Power” to the Pope • Held first national political nominating convention in Baltimore, 1854

41. The Decline of Nativism • Turmoil in Kansas • Center for nativism shifted to the South • Southern Know-Nothings were pro-slavery • Northern Know-Nothings were anti-slavery • By 1856, many Northern Know-Nothings had become Republicans • Nativism faded, along with ethnic tensions and cultural issues • Seemed ridiculous to oppose slavery and also oppose white Immigrants and Catholics

42. “Bleeding Kansas” • Kansas battleground for pro and anti slavery forces • 1855: vote to elect territorial legislature [who will write new constitution] • MS “border ruffians” [led by MO Senator!] enter KS, vote illegally in attempt to elect pro-slavery legislators • Stole election, set up pro-slavery territorial legislature in Lecompton, KS • Pass law allowing only pro-slavery legislators • Made possession of abolitionist literature a capital offense! • made harboring fugitive slave a crime

43. “Free Staters” set up rival government in Topeka. KS • Mobs from Lecompton shoot up Lawrence [an anti-slavery enclave] • Burned buildings, destroyed printing presses • Terrorized inhabitants

44. Bleeding Kansas cont’d • John Brown, fanatical PA born abolitionist • Led raid at Pottowatamie Creek [a pro-slavery settlement] • Shot and hacked 5 persons to death, fled • Kansas now in a mini Civil War • Popular sovereignty had only institutionalized the hatred between the two factions • President Pierce initially [and foolishly!] recognized the pro-slavery Lecompton Government as the legitimate one

45. John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist, the first white abolitionist to advocate and to practice guerrilla warfare as a means to the abolition of slavery. Free soiler cartoon, critical of the situation in Kansas

46. Kansas-Nebraska and the Slavery Issue

47. Poster announcing an antislavery meeting in the Kansas Territory

48. The Sumner-Brooks affair • Charles Sumner Whig Senator, MA, delivering a speech “the Crime Against Kansas”, made a derogatory reference to Senator Butler of SC. • Rep. Preston Brooks, nephew of Butler, entered Senate 2 days later, beat Sumner unconscious with metal headed cane • Sumner unable to sit in Senate for 3 years • Brooks a hero to SC, sent over 30 canes to replace one he broke on Sumner

49. In 1856 Brooks caused a sensation when he attacked the anti-slavery campaigner, Charles Sumner, on the floor of the United States Senate. He was beaten unconscious and his injuries stopped him from attending the Senate for the next three years. Faced with attempts by members of the Republican Party to expel him, Brooks resigned from Congress. However, he was re-elected later that year and remained in office until his death in Washington on 27th January, 1857. Preston Brooks 1819-1857

50. 1848 helped to form the free Soil Party. • Became the Senate's leading opponent of slavery. • Beaten unconscious by Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina. Injuries kept him from the Senate for the next three years. • During the secession crisis in 1860-61, Sumner argued against compromise and became one of the leaders of the Radical Republicans in Congress. • Brooks’ beating left him hostile to the South, and reconstruction proved harder on the South because of it. I have a headache Charles Sumner U.S. Senator Massachusetts 1851-1874 Charles Sumner, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, was an outspoken abolitionist