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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

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The 1850s:

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  1. The 1850s: Road to Secession

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Problems of Sectional Balancein 1850 • California statehood. • Southern “fire-eaters” threateningsecession. • Underground RR & fugitive slave issues: • Personal liberty laws • Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)

  6. Compromise of 1850

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. HarrietBeecherStowe(1811 – 1896) So this is the lady who started the Civil War. -- Abraham Lincoln

  10. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 • Sold 300,000 copies inthe first year. • 2 million in a decade!

  11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

  12. 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

  13. 1852 Presidential Election √Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

  14. 1852Election Results

  15. Birth of the Republican Party, 1854 • Northern Whigs. • Northern Democrats. • Free-Soilers. • Know-Nothings. • Other miscellaneous opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

  16. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

  17. 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

  18. “Bleeding Kansas” Border “Ruffians”(pro-slavery Missourians)

  19. “The Crime Against Kansas” Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA) Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)

  20. The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party] • Nativists. • Anti-Catholics. • Anti-immigrants. 1849  Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.

  21. 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

  22. 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

  23. 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

  24. 1856 Presidential Election √James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

  25. 1856Election Results

  26. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

  27. 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

  28. The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858 A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

  29. 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

  30. Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine PopularSovereignty?

  31. John Brown’s Raidon Harper’s Ferry, 1859

  32. John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr? Mural in the Kansas Capitol buildingby John Steuart Curry (20c)

  33. 1860PresidentialElection √Abraham LincolnRepublican John BellConstitutional Union Stephen A. DouglasNorthern Democrat John C. BreckinridgeSouthern Democrat

  34. 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].

  35. 1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”

  36. 1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!

  37. 1860 Election Results

  38. Crittenden Compromise:A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity Senator John J. Crittenden(Know-Nothing-KY)

  39. Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860

  40. Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861

  41. OverView

  42. 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.

  43. 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

  44. 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).

  45. 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

  46. 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

  47. 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)

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