The 1850s:
The 1850s:. Road to Secession. SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES. Westward movement turned out to be not only dangerous for the people Americans encountered but for the safety of the American union itself
The 1850s:
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The 1850s: Road to Secession
SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES • Westward movement turned out to be not only dangerous for the people Americans encountered but for the safety of the American union itself • North and South had mainly contained their differences over slavery through compromise that raised the level of emotional conflict • Party loyalties served as an antidote to sectional allegiance until the late 1840s
FREE SOIL OR CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION? • Wilmot Proviso: declared neither slavery nor involuntary servitude was to exist in any territory gained from Mexico in the Mexican-American War • Resulted in purely sectional debate • “Free Soil” wanted to prevent the spread of slavery based on the precedents of the Northwest Ordinance and the Missouri Compromise • Some supporters had moral reasons; many were concerned about competition with cheap slave labor; and others worried about the growing political power of the South • Opponents, led by John C. Calhoun, argued that Congress had no right to exclude slavery from the territories and, in fact, had a duty to protect it • This position saw the Wilmot Proviso, Missouri Compromise and other acts restricting slavery as unconstitutional
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY AND THE ELECTION OF 1848 • Many Americans looked for a way to keep slavery out of politics • James Buchanan recommended simply extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific • Lewis Cass suggested “popular sovereignty” which would allow territorial legislatures to make the final decision • In 1848, the Democrats nominated Lewis Cass, who mainly avoided the issue of slavery, while the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, who was billed as a “no party” man • Calhoun tried to create a unified southern party without much luck. • Some northern Democrats left the party and supported Martin Van Buren • New England Conscience Whigs also explored a third party alternative • Taylor won handily
Problems of Sectional Balancein 1850 • California statehood. • Southern “fire-eaters” threateningsecession. • Underground RR & fugitive slave issues: • Personal liberty laws • Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 • Four issues confronted Taylor at his inauguration: • Rush of gold miners gave California enough people to apply for statehood but their entry as a free state would upset the balance. • Unresolved status of Mexican cession in the Southwest and dispute over Texas-New Mexico boundary • Existence of slavery and slave market in Washington, D.C. • Southern resentment of lax federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 • Issues were resolved in the Compromise of 1850, which was passed not as the omnibus bill originally proposed by Henry Clay, but as a series of resolutions • California entered the Union as a free state • Territorial governments were organized in New Mexico and Utah to apply the principle of popular sovereignty • The slave trade, but not slavery, was abolished in the District of Columbia • A new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
CONSEQUENCES OF COMPROMISE • Political alignment along sectional lines grew stronger • Previously unheard, Americans were now discussing ideals of higher law than the Constitution, secession and disunion • Many Northerners were angered by the fugitive slave law • Abolitionists stepped up work on the Underground Railroad and several states passed “personal liberty laws” that prohibited elected officials and organizations from participation in slave hunting • Abolitionists escalated their rhetoric, fueling emotions over slavery • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe thrilled northerners and angered southerners • Became one of the all-time bestsellers in American history, selling more than 300,000 copies in the first year • Was eventually published in 20 languages
HarrietBeecherStowe(1811 – 1896) So this is the lady who started the Civil War. -- Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 • Sold 300,000 copies inthe first year. • 2 million in a decade!
WEAKENED PARTY POLITICS IN THE EARLY 1850S • Between 1850 and 1854 the moral and economic differences between the parties were blurred, thereby undermining party loyalty • Rewriting of state constitutions undercut patronage and undermined the importance of parties in citizens’ lives • Increasingly political battles were fought over social rather than economic issues and locally rather than at the national level • 1852 election the Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott and the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce who won easily
1852 Presidential Election √Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil
Birth of the Republican Party, 1854 • Northern Whigs. • Northern Democrats. • Free-Soilers. • Know-Nothings. • Other miscellaneous opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT • The Whig party disintegrated after southern Whigs chose to support Stephen Douglas’ Nebraska bill organizing the Nebraska Territory (which included Kansas) • Douglas was interested in the continuing development of the West and needed the territory organized for a transcontinental railroad that began in Chicago • Also wanted to recapture the party leadership and possibly the presidency and he needed southern support for that • Southerners opposed the organization of the territory unless slavery was permitted • Douglas suggested the application of popular sovereignty to the issue as the entire territory fell north of the Missouri Compromise line but such a proposal cancelled the Missouri Compromise • Northern Democrats, Whigs and abolitionists attacked Douglas, who defended his bill and ended up destroying the Whig party, planting divisions within the Democrats and creating the Know-Nothings and the Republicans
“Bleeding Kansas” Border “Ruffians”(pro-slavery Missourians)
“The Crime Against Kansas” Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA) Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)
The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party] • Nativists. • Anti-Catholics. • Anti-immigrants. 1849 Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.
NATIVISM, KNOW-NOTHINGS, AND REPUBLICANS • Increasing immigration worried Americans who saw the newcomers as unfamiliar and threatening and who worried about the spread of Catholicism, especially after several notable conversions • Many Protestants charged the Catholics (who were predominantly Democrats) with corrupting American politics • Mostly former Whigs founded the American Party in 1854 to oppose the new immigrants • Wanted a longer period of naturalization and pledged never to vote for Irish Catholics • If asked about their affiliation with the group, members were told to respond, “I Know Nothing” • Appealed to middle and lower classes
NORTHERN VIEWS AND VISIONS • North saw itself as a prosperous land of bustling commerce and expanding, independent agriculture • “Free labor system” offered equality of opportunity and upward mobility • Northern values included respect for the rights of the people, tempered by the rule of law; individual enterprise, balanced by a concern for one’s neighbors; and a fierce morality rooted in Protestantism • Supported government action to promote free labor, industrial growth, immigration, foreign trade and the extension of railroads and free farm homesteads • Worst sin was the loss of freedom
THE SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVE • Southerners admired the English gentry and saw themselves as courteous, refined, hospitable and chivalrous • Racial distinctions and paternalistic relationships were crucial to maintaining order and white supremacy • Southerners educated the few for character • Southerners believed that self-government was best preserved in local political units such as the states • Saw Northerners as either stingy, hypocritical, moralizing Puritans or grubby, slum-dwelling Catholic immigrants
1856 Presidential Election √James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig
THE DRED SCOTT CASE • Dred and Harriet Scott sued for their freedom in 1846 claiming their master had taken them into free territory • In 1857 the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision with three parts: • Blacks were inferior and therefore were not citizens and could not sue in federal court • Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories • Taking the Scotts into a free state did not affect their status • The implications of this decision concerned many people and increased sectional hostilities
The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858 A House divided against itself, cannot stand.
LINCOLN AND THE ILLINOIS DEBATES • By 1858, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was challenging William Seward for leadership of the Republican party • The Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois provided people with a preview of the 1860 presidential election • Lincoln’s persuasive debates regarding slavery drew away a substantial chunk of the Democratic party • While Lincoln’s vision of the extinction of slavery was ahead of his time, his views of blacks as inferior were very much of the time • Lincoln clearly hated slavery while Douglas seemed indifferent
Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine PopularSovereignty?
John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr? Mural in the Kansas Capitol buildingby John Steuart Curry (20c)
1860PresidentialElection √Abraham LincolnRepublican John BellConstitutional Union Stephen A. DouglasNorthern Democrat John C. BreckinridgeSouthern Democrat
Republican Party Platform in 1860 • Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers. • Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists]. • No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”]. • Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest]. • Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense. • Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].
1860 Election Results
Crittenden Compromise:A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity Senator John J. Crittenden(Know-Nothing-KY)
Economic Prosperity of 1850s • A. Railroad building expanded tremendously • 1. Mileage increased from 9000 to 36,600 miles in 1860 • 2. Most expansion concentrated in Northeast section of nation • 3. First federal land grants (6 sections of land for each mile of track) set pattern of government assistance • 4. By 1860 Northeast and Northwest sections linked by lines. Southern railroads formed a distinct unit with few links to northern rail lines.
B. Northern industrial growth • 1. Market expansion for northeast manufacturers • a) Railroads for domestic markets • b) Clipper ships and steamships opened European markets. Faster and cheaper than sailing vessels • 2. California gold rush added capital ($50 million in gold shipped east yearly) • 3. Expansion of labor supply • a) Northeastern farmers unable to compete with western goods sent more workers to cities • b) Immigrants from Ireland and Germany as a result of famines and unrest in Europe
C. Spread of Southern plantation system. Slavery seen as indispensable for South's prosperity. • 1. Expansion of cotton production • a) Price rose from 6 cents/lb. in 1845 to 14 cents/lb. in 1857 • b) U.S. produced 7/8 of world cotton supply by 1860 • 2. Expansion of tobacco market (200 million lbs. in 1850 to 430 million lbs. in 1860).
D. Western agriculture expanded as a result of railroad growth and opening of European markets. Results: • 1. Westerners became aware of world hostility to slavery • 2. Westerners became convinced of importance of Northeast to their prosperity rather than the South which purchased a much smaller share of their produce
Compromise of 1850 angered extremists on both sides • 1. Admission of California as a free state • 2. Remaining western territories organized with no restriction on slavery • 3. End of all slave trade in the District of Columbia • 4. Strict federal fugitive slave law • 5. Assumption of Texas' debt by the national government
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) • A. Stephen Douglas proposed that • 1) Kansas and Nebraska territories be divided into two sections • 2) Missouri Compromise be repealed, with settlers in each territory choosing whether or not they wanted slavery (popular sovereignty)
