Chapter 19: Drifting Towards Disunion (1854-1861)

Stowe and Helper: Uncle Toms Cabin: 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Toms Cabin because wanted to show the Literary North the injustice of slavery after the Fugitive Slave Law Incendiaries Stowe was influenced by the Second Great Awakening The book was wildly successful in the North and had an unparalleled political influence, but was banned and burned in the South Was also popular in Europe, esp. Britain and France, so when the Civil War broke out, Britain and France did not support the South because would be unpopular The Impending Crisis of the South: 1857 Hinton R. Helper published The Impending Crisis of the South that used statistics to show that slavery hurt non-slaveholding whites Was banned and burned in the South, but distributed by the Republicans in the North These antislavery writings increased Southern desire to secede The North-South Northern settlers of Kansas were mostly pioneers seeking richer lands, but some were Contest for Kansas financed by abolitionists or free-soilers, ex. The New England Emigrant Aid Company Beechers Bibles were new breech-loading Sharps rifles invented by Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe The South was angry at the abolitionist financing, because had the unspoken understanding that Kansas would become a slaveholding state So some Southerners helped slaveowners settle in Kansas, but the situation in Kansas was too unstable for slavery The 1855 election of the first Kansas territorial legislature: Proslavery border ruffians rushed in from Missouri to vote and succeeded in setting up a puppet government at Shawnee Mission So the free-soilers illegally set up their own government at Topeka 1856 proslavery raiders shot up and burned free-soil town Lawrence Kansas in Convulsion May 1856 John Brown, originally from OH, hacked apart five presumed pro-slaveryites at Pottawatomie Creek So civil war in Kansas started 1856 and would later merge with the Civil War By 1857, Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood by popular sovereignty The Lecompton Compromise: So 1857 the proslavery government had the people vote either with slavery or with no slavery on the Lecompton Constitution, but the document with no slavery still protected slaveowners already in Kansas President James Buchanan supported it, but Senator Douglas opposed it because it was not true popular sovereignty, losing strong Southern support in the process A compromise was reached that submitted the entire Lecompton Constitution to a popular vote; free-soilers successfully voted against it, and Kansas would remain a territory until 1861 Buchanan's support of the Lecompton Constitution split the Democratic party, the last national party, across the middle

Bully Brooks May 22, 1856 Preston S. Brooks of SC beat Senator Charles Sumner of MA in the Senate and His Bludgeon chamber with his cane because Sumner in his The Crime Against Kansas speech had

attacked proslaveryites, SC, and its senator and Brooks' cousin Andrew Butler Effects: Brooks resigned but was reelected, and some Southerners sent him new canes Sumner was reelected, despite being unable to serve due to his injuries The North was outraged against uncouth and cowardly Bully Brooks, and sold many copies of Sumner's speech The South did not unanimously support Brooks, but was angered by Sumner's speech and its support in the North Civilized men were using foul language and violence; emotion was displacing thought The Democrats: Old Buck Versus Nominated lawyer James Old Buck Buchanan for their 1856 presidential candidate The Pathfinder because was not affiliated with the Kansas-Nebraska fiasco Platform was popular sovereignty Buchanan was attacked for his bachelorhood The Republicans: Nominated politically inexperienced explorer-soldier-surveyor Captain John C. Pathfinder of the West Fremont because was not affiliated with the Kansas-Nebraska fiasco Platform was anti-slavery in the territories, with religious overtones Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Fre-mont! Fremont was attacked for his illegitimate birth in the South and his alleged Catholicism The Know-Nothing Party: Called such because of its secrecy Formed by old-stock Protestant nativists alarmed by the influx of Irish and German immigrants Nominated Fillmore for their presidential candidate Americans Must Rule America The Electoral Fruits of 1856 Buchanan won the election, despite coming second in the popular vote The Republicans lost partly because of doubts about Fremont's ability to preside, but mostly because the South threatened secession if the sectional Republican was to be elected But the Republican party, only two years old, had already given the more established Democratic party a run March 1857 in the Supreme Court, black slave Dred Scott with the support of abolitionists sued for freedom because had lived with his master for an extended period of time of free soil The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Taney, ruled that: Scott was not a citizen because he was a black slave, so he could not sue in court Because a slave was private property, it could be taken to any territory and be legally enslaved there, since the Fifth Amendment forbade the government from unlawfully taking people's property The 1820 Missouri Compromise, already repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was unconstitutional all along

The Dred Scott Bombshell

 Effects: Further split the Democratic party between the North and South Republicans argued that the ruling was only an opinion and not a binding decision, and thought that trying to use politics to stop the spread of slavery had been counterproductive Southerners were inflamed by and considering secession because of the North's defiance of the Supreme Court The Financial Crash of 1857 Late 1857, a financial panic broke out that despite being less severe economically than the Panic of 1837, was the worst psychologically in the 1800s Causes: Inflation because of the influx of CA gold Increased growth of grain because of the demands of the Crimean War Overspeculation in land and railroads Effects: Failing businesses, unemployment, hunger The North, with its grain growers, was hardest hit The South was relatively unaffected because of high cotton prices in foreign markets, so it falsely appeared that the cotton economy was stronger than the industrial economy Increased agitation for the government to give public land to pioneers for free instead of selling it for revenue: Opposed by: Eastern industrialists, because feared that the underpaid workers would leave for the West The South, because the plots of free land would be too small to support slavery 1860 a homestead act passed that made public lands available for only 25 per acre, but was vetoed by Buchanan Increased agitation for higher protective tariffs after the Tariff of 1857, enacted before the financial panic because of an embarrassing surplus in the Treasury, lowered them to 20%, the lowest since the War of 1812 For the election of 1860, the Republicans would promise higher protective tariffs and free Western land In the IL senatorial election of 1858, Senator Douglas went up against Republican lawyer Abraham Lincoln Lincoln was born to impoverished parents in a log cabin and became a respected trial lawyer in IL, and was called Honest Abe because would refuse to defend cases on moral grounds Until 1854, Lincoln's personal, professional, and political lives were uneventful and not noteworthy, but the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act inspired him to become one of the foremost politicians and orators in the Northwest

An Illinois RailSplitter Emerges

The Great Debate: August to October 1858, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates The most famous debate was at Freeport, IL: Lincoln Versus Lincoln asked Douglas what would happen if the people of a territory were to vote down Douglas slavery while the Dred Scott decision said that they could not Douglas replied that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would be down if the people voted it down, and laws to protect slavery must be passed by territorial legislatures,

but since slavery did not have popular approval, slavery would soon disappear (the Freeport Doctrine) Effects: Douglas won the IL Senatorial election, through Lincoln won the popular vote Lincoln emerged as a potential Republican presidential candidate Douglas hurt his chances of winning the presidency and further split the Democratic party, because Southern Democrats would rather split the party than support him John Brown: Murderer or Martyr? John Brown, of the Pottawatomie Creek slayings, was back, and his new plan was to invade the South with a few followers, get the slaves to revolt, arm them (with the financial help of some Northern abolitionists), and establish a black free state October 1859 at Harper's Ferry, VA, Brown and a score of followers seized an arsenal, but the slaves did not rise, several innocent people were killed, and the remnants of the band were captured by Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee Brown's friends and relatives plead insanity with good reason, but Brown knew that he would become a martyr if convicted and hanged, so allowed himself to be convicted of murder and treason After Brown was hanged, he did indeed become a martyr because of his perceived good conduct and devotion to freedom Effects: The South saw Brown as a murderer and treasoner, and questioned how they could remain in a Union with the abolitionists who financed him However, moderate Northerners, incl. Republican leaders, clearly did not support Brown Abolitionists and other free-soilers, many unaware of Brown's violent past and purposes, were outraged by the execution of such an earnest and righteous reformer At the Democratic National Convention for the presidential election of 1860, the Southern Democrats regarded Douglas a traitor for his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution and his support of the Freeport Doctrine, so walked out, so the entire convention failed because could not get a 2/3 vote for Douglas So the Democrats held another convention and managed to nominate Douglas for presidential candidate despite the Southerners having walked out again Northern Democrats' platform supported popular sovereignty and, to try to make amends with the South, opposed obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law Angry Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge for presidential candidate Platform supported the expansion of slavery into the territories and the annexation of Cuba Former Whigs and Know-Nothings hastily organized the Constitutional Union party (AKA the Do Nothing or Old Gentleman's party) because feared that the Union would dissolve, and nominated compromise candidate John Bell of Tennessee The Republicans nominated Lincoln and not Seward for presidential candidate because Seward was too radical The Republican platform appealed to pretty much everyone except the South; nonextension of slavery for free-soilers, protective tariff for Northern manufacturers, no abridgment of rights for immigrants, a Pacific railroad for the Northwest, and free public domain

The Disruption of the Democrats

A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union

homesteads for the West Southern secessionists believed that the election Lincoln would split the Union, but actually Lincoln was not an outright abolitionist and did not say much about slavery to avoid conflict The Electoral Lincoln won the election despite winning only 40% of the popular vote and not being listed Upheaval of 1860 on the ballot in 10 Southern states Douglas had a wide base of support, and the Douglas Democrats and the Breckinridge Democrats combined had more popular votes than Lincoln, but a united Democratic party still would have lost the electoral vote But the outcome of the election did not indicate a strong desire for secession: Breckenridge was not a disunionist and furthermore did not have majority support in the South The South was not politically devastated: Still had a majority in the Supreme Court, House, and Senate The only way the federal government could abolish slavery in already-slaveholding states was by constitutional amendment, which would need a 3/4 vote to pass There were 15 slave states, almost half the total The Secessionist Exodus SC threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected, so December 1860 a special convention of the state legislature at Charleston unanimously voted to secede In the next six weeks, AL, Mississippi, FL, GA, Louisiana, and Texas would also secede, though with less unanimity; four more would later secede, making a total of 11 February 1861 the seven seceded states met at Montgomery, AL and created a government called the Confederate States of America with president Jefferson Davis ^ occurred during the uncertain four-month lame duck period between Lincolns election in November and his inauguration in March President Buchanan did not act to maintain the Union because: Believed that secession was illegal, but could not find justification in the Constitution for him to force the seceding states to stay The tiny, scattered standing army was needed to control Indians in the West The North was opposed to forcing the seceding states to stay with arms Senator James Henry Crittenden of KY proposed the Crittenden Compromise: Slavery in the existing territories would be prohibited above the 3630 Slavery would be protected in existing or to be acquired territories (ex. Cuba) Future states, regardless of latitude, would choose whether they were slave or free But Lincoln rejected the Crittenden Compromise because his platform opposed the extension of slavery If Buchanan tried to prevent the Civil War by starting a civil war with SC in December 1860, the North would have seemed like an aggressor, so the border states would probably side with the South

The Collapse of Compromise

Farewell to Union The North was growing more and more populous (reasons for The victory of the Northern Republican party seemed to threaten the Souths rights as a secession) slaveholding minority Wanted to be left alone about slavery Thought that the North would not fight because Northern manufacturers and bankers had too

much at stake in Southern cotton and markets If war came, then could repudiate the large debt owed to the North Could develop its own banking, trade directly with Europe, and avoid the potentially high protective tariff of the North Influenced by nationalistic impulses in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere The principles of self-determination and of the Declaration of the Independence supported their voluntary entering then withdrawing from the Union