13.

The Road to Civil War

1846-1860

The controversy over Mexican land

 The Constitution gave the federal government the right to abolish internal slave trade but no
authority to regulate or abolish slavery where it already existed.
 The Constitution did not address slavery in future states. Congress did have the power to admit new
states under any conditions they imposed (the Missouri Compromise of 1820-36°30’ line).
 During the 1840s, new territories included Texas, Oregon, and lands gained from the Mexican War.
o The North wanted Congress to prohibit slavery in these new territories.
 The Wilmot Proviso
o In August of 1846 (3 months after the start of the Mexican War), Pennsylvania Congressman
David Wilmot proposed an amendment to a military appropriations bill that would have
banned slavery in any territory that may be acquired from Mexico.
 Wilmot spoke for the Northern Democrats who felt betrayed when Polk was selected
over Van Buren in 1844.
 They also felt cheated when Polk went back on his promise of obtaining all of
Oregon. He was accused of assisting the South more than the North.
 These angry northern Democrats then created the Free-Soil Party – “Free soil, free
speech, free labor, and free men.”
 Free-Soilers were not only opposed to slavery in the newly-acquired lands, but they also wanted to
prohibit free blacks from migrating there as well (they were racists and anti-slavery).
 The Whigs supported the Wilmot Proviso.
o The Whig position was for no territorial expansion at all, but if it did occur then slavery
should be outlawed in those lands (to prevent the growth of the slave states’ power).
 After passing the House, the Senate defeated the appropriations bill with the Wilmot amendment.
 The Wilmot Proviso provided evidence that since the Mexican War, political parties were on the
demise and being replaced with intense sectionalism.
o This new sectionalism set the stage for the election of 1848.
 Some lawmakers proposed extending the 36°30’ line all the way to the Pacific, but this was opposed
by Northerners because most of the newly acquired land from Mexico lay south of this line.
 A new approach was devised to placate the Democrats.
o Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan proposed what he called “squatter sovereignty” or popular
sovereignty.
 Citizens of a territory could vote to become a slave state or a free state.
 “Joint and Common Property” Doctrine – John C. Calhoun (1847) argued that slavery could not
be outlawed in territories. "That the territories of the United States belong to the several states
composing the union, and are held by them as their joint and common property; that congress, as the
joint agent and representative of the states of the union, has no right to make any law or do any act
whatever that shall, directly or by its effects, make any discrimination between the states of this
union by which any of them shall be deprived of its full and equal right in any territory of the United
States acquired or to be acquired."
The Election of 1848
 Democrats – Lewis Cass whose platform was based on popular sovereignty.
 Whigs – Zachary Taylor was without a specific platform. Taylor refused to take a position on
slavery – he was from Louisiana and owned a slave plantation in Mississippi.
 Free-Soil – Martin Van Buren whose platform was based on preventing slavery in new territories.
o Most Free-Soilers were Northern Whigs upset that their party nominated a southern
slaveholder.
o Some were Conscience Whigs who opposed slavery.
o Van Buren became a Free-Soiler not because he was so opposed to slavery but because of
his anger of being rejected as the Democratic candidate in 1844.
o Barnburners were antislavery Democrats.
 Results: Taylor (163), Cass (127), and Van Buren (0)
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California Statehood
 Gold was discovered in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill, CA.
o Prospectors were known as "forty-eighters."
o The umbers were relatively small compared to following year when the “forty-niners” came.
o Most did not make a profit and many returned home.
o Those who provided services made money off the miners - taverns, stores, etc.
o Large speculators made huge profits as they used heavy machinery and cheap labor to mine.
 Gold essentially paved the way for the rapid economic growth in California.
o San Francisco sprouted up in just several months.
o Northern California became the state’s main population center.
 By 1850, California’s population had grown from 14,000 to over 100,000.
 California drafted a Constitution in 1849 that excluded slavery and asked Congress for admission as
a state.
 The thought of all new lands from Mexico becoming Free States inspired serious talk of secession.
 Southern leaders planned a convention in Nashville in June of 1850.
 The Nashville Convention included delegates from nine slaveholding states.
o Moderates overruled secessionists (“fire eaters”) and they agreed to fight for the extension
of the 36°30’ line to the Pacific Coast.
The Compromise of 1850
 Henry Clay attempted to restore harmony between the regions by offering a series of resolutions
that would please both.
 Clay proposed his compromise in February of 1850 and Congress debated it for several months.
 There were main two obstacles:
o President Taylor was opposed – he didn’t want to make concessions to the South.
o Congressmen did not want to vote for it as an “omnibus bill” – all the bills in a single
package (few were in agreement of all items and did not wish to officially vote for a
concession for their opponent).
 The debate was broken by two key events:
o Zachary Taylor’s death in July 1850 (he was succeeded by Millard Fillmore who supported
the compromise).
o The separation of the omnibus bill into separate bills (remember the Missouri Compromise).
 Final draft of the Compromise of 1850:
1) California was added as a free state.
2) Slave trade was outlawed in Wash D.C.
3) Popular Sovereignty was added to New Mexico and Utah territorial bills.
4) A new stricter fugitive slave law (suspected fugitives were now denied a jury trial, the right to
testify in their own behalf and other constitutional rights – including no civil rights for even free
blacks who may be kidnapped.
5) The boundary dispute between New Mexico and Texas was settled (Texas received $10 million).
 All bills of the Compromise of 1850 did pass along sectional lines creating a temporary peace.
 The Fugitive Slave Law required Northerners to return runaway slaves (this proved to be the most
divisive issue between the North and South).
o Some Northern states countered with personal liberty laws which unofficially nullified the
Fugitive Slave Law (ex.-denied local jail use to federal officers enforcing fugitive slave law).
o In Boston in 1854, an antislavery mob tried to free the fugitive slave Anthony Burns from
the courthouse where his extradition was being held.
 One guard was killed.
 Burns was escorted by the U.S. Army to a ship through a crowd of 20,000 angry
protesters.
The Election of 1852
 Following the Compromise of 1850, the election of 1852 was absent of major issues.
 Whigs tried to revive nationalism (protective tariffs, national bank, and internal improvements), but
the economic boom of the 1850s favored more of the laissez-faire policies of the Democrats.

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  Whigs also tried to make immigration an issue.
o The large influx of new Irish Catholics voted overwhelmingly Democratic while Whigs were
typically Protestant.
o Should the Whigs try to compete for these new voters or should they try to restrict
immigration? That was their dilemma.
 Whigs – Winfield Scott of Virginia (but the Whig party was fatally divided).
o Scott opposed nativism and wanted to broaden the party which angered many Whigs.
o Scott further hurt his chances in the South when he aligned himself with Northern
abolitionists.
 Democrats – Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire
o Pierce was sympathetic to Southern views and was acceptable to the slavery wing of the
party.
 Free-Soil – John Hale of New Hampshire
 Pierce defeated Scott and Hale in a landslide (254-42-0).
 This election showed that the Whigs were nearly dead.
 The Democrats also had reason to be concerned because voter apathy was high.
Expansionism under President Pierce
 Asia
o California and Oregon gave the US access to the Pacific.
o US signed trade agreements with China.
o In 1853, Pierce sent Commodore Matthew Perry (brother of 1812 war hero) to force Japan
to open trade with the US.
 Cuba
o The South was eager to create new states out of Cuba – some had invested in sugar
plantations in Cuba.
o In 1854, the US secretly demanded that Spain sell Cuba for $120 million
o If they refused, the US would take Cuba by force (known as the Ostend Manifesto).
o The Plan backfired when angry northern free-soilers blocked it and claimed it was a
slaveholders’ plot.
 The Walker Expedition (1853)
o William Walker tried unsuccessfully to take Baja California from Mexico.
o In 1855, he took over Nicaragua and gained temporary recognition from the US
o He planned to create a slave-owning empire in Central America
o Central American countries defeated him and he was executed by Honduran authorities.
 The Gadsden Purchase (1853)
o A proposal to construct a transcontinental railroad spurred on a debate – should the route go
through the North or South?
o This railroad would provide huge financial benefits to the regions receiving it.
o The best route appeared to be just south of the Mexican border.
o This led the US to purchased land in Southern New Mexico and Arizona for $10 million.
o The North then rushed to organize Nebraska as a territory for an alternate route for the
railroad.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) was the most important short-term cause of Civil War.
 Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas proposed a bill in 1854 that organized the Nebraska territory
into two new states: Kansas and Nebraska.
o This territory was off limits to slavery since the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
o Douglas was concerned about the objection of Southern states of creating more free states.
o To keep the Democratic Party united, Douglas sought to remove the 36°30’ line and utilize
popular sovereignty for the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
 Douglas also desired this new territory to be home of a new railroad (Chicago to the
Pacific) and a long debate over slavery in the territories would slow down this plan.
 He attempted to revive his party’s belief in Manifest Destiny
 The assumption of the act was that Kansas would be slave and Nebraska would be free.
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  The Kansas-Nebraska Act passed but divided the Democrats along sections.
o Northerners were angry that the bill allowed the potential of slavery where it had been
previously outlawed (and they received no concession).
 The act also killed the already weak Whig party – it split along sectional lines.
 In the congressional elections of 1854, northern Democrats were swept out of office, but in the South
the Democrats did far better.
 The Ostend Manifesto became public during the midst of the Kansas-Nebraska controversy.
o Northerners interpreted the Ostend Manifesto as the administration’s goal of extending
slavery to the Caribbean.
 This protest caused the Pierce administration to drop the plans for acquiring Cuba.
The Know-Nothing Episode
 A dramatic increase in immigration (Irish and German) led to a rise in ethnic tensions.
o The increase of ethnic neighborhoods fostered a feeling of distrust and suspicion.
o The result was anti-Catholic riots, church burnings, and propaganda (“immigrants were sent
by Rome to overthrow the American republic”).
 In 1849, a secret anti-immigrant society was formed in New York called the Order of the Star-
Spangled Banner.
o When members were asked about the organization they were instructed to answer, “I know
nothing.”
 By 1854, the organization grew to a national party with membership of over 1 million.
 The Know-Nothing Party was officially the American Party.
o Some new members joined not as an opposition to immigrants but as to an opposition to
Democrats.
 By 1855, the Know-Nothing party showed signs that it would displace the Whigs as the second party
in America.
 But its demise struck quickly in 1856 and it remains as one of the great mysteries in American
political history.
o When the party attempted to hold a national convention in 1856, northern and southern
delegates split on the question of slavery in the territories.
o The Know-Nothings were an apolitical grass roots movement without experienced
politicians and this hastened its collapse.
 The biggest reason for its collapse is the growth of the Free-Soil Republicans.
o The slavery issue held a wider appeal across America compared to immigration.
The Republican Party
 The Republican Party was a reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.
 It began in the Midwest where the Know-Nothing cause of immigration was not a concern.
 Republicans were led by seasoned politicians (as opposed to the novice Know-Nothings).
 Republicans were pro-expansion and free soil.
o “If slavery expanded, the rights of free labor would be denied.”
o It also was based on racial prejudice – free soil was a way to keep blacks out of new
territories.
 The Republican Party included Whigs, Northern Democrats, Free-Soilers, and Know-Nothings.
Bleeding Kansas
 When Kansas was organized as a territory in 1854, fight for control of the territorial government
broke out.
 Bleeding Kansas was coined by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune and one of the founders
of the Republican Party.
 The New England Emigrant Aid Society sent over 2000 men into Kansas to stop it from becoming
a slave state.
o Many came armed with Beecher’s Bibles – rifles named after abolitionist preacher Henry
Beecher (son of Lyman Beecher and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe).
 Many proslavery settlers from the slave state of Missouri also crossed the border into Kansas to vote
illegally for territorial elections (these “border ruffians” announced “vote early and vote often!”).
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 o The result was that pro-slave candidates were elected to the legislature (ironically, only two
slaves lived in Kansas at this time).
o The legislature subsequently passed laws that made slavery legal and criminalized speaking
or acting against it.
 Antislavery forces in Kansas then took up arms to defend themselves and their cause.
o They then established a rival territorial government in Topeka and outlawed slavery.
o The Pierce administration refused to recognize this free soil government.
 A small civil war then ensued when proslavery factions raided the free-state capital of Lawrence.
 It was called the Sack of Lawrence (there was substantial property damage).
 John Brown and his sons led a counterattack upon the pro-slave forces at Pottawattamie.
 Five proslavery settlers were killed with swords.
o Brown encouraged violent action in response to the slave states.
o He said of abolitionists, "These men are all talk. What we need is action - action!"
 Attacks from both sides followed until a truce was negotiated by the territorial governor in 1856.
Brooks’ Assault of Sumner (May 22, 1856)
 Preston Brooks, a representative from Edgefield, South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner
(Massachusetts) with his gold-headed cane on the Senate floor.
 Sumner had recently given a speech condemning the extension of slavery in the Kansas territory and
made insulting remarks about Andrew Butler of South Carolina (Butler was the uncle of Brooks).
 Brooks hit Sumner while Sumner was seated at his desk, and then after he tripped and fell, Brooks
continued to beat Sumner even as he lay unconscious on the floor of the Senate until his cane broke.
 Sumner was injured so badly that he did not return to the Senate for three years (MA did reelect
Sumner the next year and kept his seat vacant).
 Brooks resigned his seat but was easily reelected the following year (South Carolinians sent dozens
of canes to his office as gifts; another sent him a gold-handled cowhide whip to use on other
antislavery leaders).
The Election of 1856
 The Republicans used Kansas and Preston Brooks assault as campaign slogans in 1856.
o “Bleeding Kansas” and “Bleeding Sumner”
 The Republican platform included:
o Liberation of Kansas
o Prohibition of slavery in all territories
 John C. Freemont (CA) – “Pathfinder of the West” won the Republican nomination.
o “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, and Fremont.”
 The Democratic platform included:
o Popular sovereignty
 James Buchanan (PA) won the Democratic nomination.
 The American Party (Know-Nothing remnant) – mainly anti-Democratic conservatives in the Border
States nominated Millard Fillmore (NY).
 James Buchanan was victorious (174, Freemont-114, and Fillmore-8).
 The Republicans did very well for a one-year-old party.
 The South had threatened secession if Freemont had won.
Cultural Sectionalism
 Churches split along sectional lines – Methodists and Baptist (due to slavery).
 American literature became sectionalized.
o Southern proslavery: William Gilmore Simms and Edgar Allan Poe produced “plantation
romances” that glamorized the southern planter lifestyle.
o Northern antislavery: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville wrote
of antislavery sentiments.
o Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin which sold more than 300,000 copies in
1852 alone and helped to create the stereotypical image of the southern slaveholder.
o She portrayed the evils of slavery by focusing on splitting up of slave families and the
physical abuse of slaves.
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  The book had more social impact than any other novel in US history.
 When Lincoln was introduced to her in 1862, he said, “So you’re the little woman
who wrote the book that made this great war.”
o George Fitzhugh wrote Sociology for the South in 1854 which was the boldest and best
known proslavery books. He questioned the principle of equal rights for “unequal men” and
attacked the capitalist wage system as worse than slavery.
 Education
o Northern textbooks were banished from southern schools.
 Economic
o The South tried to encourage the growth of southern industry to reduce the influence upon
the North.
The Dred Scott Case – Scott v. Sanford (March 6, 1857)
 John Emerson, a military surgeon, moved from Missouri to Illinois (new commission) with his slave,
Dred Scott.
 Illinois was a free state but Scott continued to serve Emerson.
 Emerson was then transferred to the Wisconsin territory.
o Wisconsin was above the 36°30’line where slavery was forbidden.
 When John Emerson died in 1843, the Scott family returned to Emerson’s wife in Missouri where
Scott attempted to purchase their freedom but Mrs. Emerson refused.
 The Scotts sued Mrs. Emerson for their freedom since they had lived in free territories.
o Lawsuits such as this were common at the time.
o Most slaves were actually freed by Missouri courts when they were transported to free
territories but the political climate in the 1850s had changed and Scott lost the case.
 Scott’s appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court was rejected.
 Scott dropped the case and re-filed as Scott v. Sandford (Mrs. Emerson transferred ownership to her
brother, John Sanford – Sandford was a typo in court docket).
 President-elect James Buchanan encouraged the Supreme Court to settle the issue of slavery once
and for all.
 Chief Justice Roger Taney led the court with a 7-2 decision. He said:
o Scott, nor any black person could be a citizen, therefore could not sue (Taney overlooked the
fact that four New England states already granted citizenship to blacks).
o Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in territories, declaring the Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional (as well as the key piece of the Republican platform).
 Northerners was furious and labeled the decision a conspiracy.
o Five of the judges who voted with the majority were proslavery Southerners.
 Taney’s decision served as the greatest recruitment tool for the Republican Party.
The Panic of 1857
 It was less severe than Panic of 1837, but perhaps it was the century's worst psychologically.
 Causes:
o There was an influx of California gold into the economy which caused inflation.
o There was overproduction of agricultural crops.
o There was too much speculation on land and railroads.
 Results:
o The industrial North was hardest hit with widespread unemployment.
o The South’s cotton crop was not significantly affected.
o Westerners demanded free farms of 160 acres from public domain land.
o In 1860, Congress passed a homestead act that made public lands available for 25 cents an
acre but it was vetoed by Buchanan (who sympathized with southern leaders).
o There was a demand for higher tariff rates.
The Lecompton Controversy
 In 1857, the proslavery leaders in Kansas decided to write a constitution and apply for statehood as a
slave state.
o The majority of citizens in Kansas held Free State views.
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 o To combat this, the pro-slave leaders planned a rigged, gerrymandered election for
convention delegates.
o When the free-staters found this out, they boycotted the convention.
o Despite the boycott, the pro-slavers drew up a constitution at Lecompton, Kansas.
o When free-staters regained control of the legislature, they called for a second referendum on
the constitution as a whole.
 Now the proslavery party boycotted the election and the Lecompton constitution was
overwhelmingly rejected.
 Stephen Douglas, an advocate of popular sovereignty, even spoke out against the Lecompton
constitution.
 Despite this, the Buchanan administration tried to push it through Congress in early 1858 despite
evidence that the majority of citizens in Kansas wanted a free state.
o The debate in Congress was bitter and fistfights even broke out.
o The Senate voted to accept the Lecompton constitution and admit Kansas as a slave state.
o The bill was then defeated in the House.
 A compromise was then reached - allow the voters of Kansas another vote on the Lecompton
constitution.
o They did and they rejected it 6:1 and Kansas became a free state.
 The results of the Lecompton controversy: Stephen Douglas and the concept of popular sovereignty
were damaged.
o Douglas’ presidential hopes were hurt when the South turned on him because of his
opposition to the Lecompton constitution.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
 Seven debates took place for the Senate seat from Illinois.
 Stephen Douglas – Democrat
o Douglas was running for reelection for the Senate seat.
o Platform: Popular sovereignty
 Abraham Lincoln – Republican (former Whig)
o Lincoln’s only experience was one two-year term in the House from 1846 to 1848.
o Platform: stop the spread of slavery
o “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot endure,
permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not
expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one
thing, or all the other."
o “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”
 Lincoln denied that he was an abolitionist – he was opposed to its spread.
o Lincoln said that even the founding fathers favored restricting slavery.
 The Freeport Doctrine was issued at the Freeport Illinois debate.
o Lincoln questioned how Douglas could reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott
decision (Congress cannot prohibit slavery in territories).
o Douglas then issued his Freeport Doctrine.
 He said that slavery could not exist without supportive legislation to sustain it.
 The legislature could refuse to pass a slave code if they wanted to keep it out.
o This further alienated southern support for Douglas and killed his presidential aspirations.
 Douglas’ strongest point was that Lincoln’s opposition to slavery implied a belief in racial equality.
 Lincoln’s position seemed contradictory:
o He favored giving blacks their freedom but would deny them citizenship.
 Douglas won reelection but Lincoln’s reputation in the Republican Party was elevated.
John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry (Oct 1859)
 John Brown:
o He had twenty children (7 with first wife, 13 with second).
o Early in his life, he wanted to raise a black boy to show that race was inconsequential.
o He wanted to open a school for blacks.
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 o He helped on the Underground Railroad.
o He wanted to establish a southern black state via the Harpers Ferry raid.
 John Brown saw himself as God’s instrument to end slavery.
 Brown, his four sons, and some former slaves, attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA
(eventual WV). 18 men in all participated (he unsuccessfully tried to get Frederick Douglass to help).
o His plan was to use the guns to arm a slave revolt in Virginia.
 Local militia drove them out of the arsenal and into a fire engine house - federal marines under
General Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his followers after a two day siege.
o Ten of Brown’s men were killed in the shootout.
 Brown and six of his followers were tried and convicted of treason and were hanged.
 Most northerners condemned Brown as a radical and not representative of abolitionism.
o He was seen as a martyr to the radical abolitionists.
o “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! His soul is marching on.”
 Henry David Thoreau said of John Brown, "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted
them as he was bid. . . .No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the
dignity of human nature…"
Threats to the Slaveholding South
 In 1859, Southerners opposed the Republican candidate for Speaker of the House – John Sherman of
Ohio.
o Sherman had endorsed the North Carolinian Hinton R. Helper’s book Impending Crisis of
the South (1857).
o Helper’s book called on lower-class whites to resist planter dominance and abolish slavery in
their own interest. He said that slavery was destroying the yeoman farmer.
o Southerners hated and feared this book and the concept of “Helperism.”
 Southern congressmen threatened secession if Sherman won (he didn’t).
o Some representatives began to carry weapons to the floor of the House.
 During the 1850s, the number of families owning slaves began to shrink.
o The price of slaves had risen.
o Planters pushed for reopening Atlantic slave trade again – to help lower the price of slaves.
The Election of 1860
 Republican – Abraham Lincoln (IL)
o His platform included: stop the spread of slavery (for free-soilers); high protective tariffs (for
industrialists), Pacific railroad, free homesteads (for farmers).
 Democratic Southern – John C. Breckinridge (KY) – VP under Buchanan
o Southern democrats walked out of the Charleston convention. They were angry with
Douglas for his position on Lecompton and the Freeport Doctrine.
o The protesting delegates then nominated Breckinridge on the platform of a federal protection
of slavery in the territories (not a secessionist).
 Democratic Northern – Stephen Douglas (IL)
o A second Democratic convention took place in Baltimore and an even larger walkout
occurred.
o The remaining delegates nominated Douglas and were committed to popular sovereignty.
 Constitutional Union – John Bell (TN)
o He took no specific stand on slavery; he only wanted to preserve the Union.
 Lincoln was not even on the ballot in the 10 southern states.
 Lincoln chose not to campaign - he let his record speak for himself.
 The outcome: Lincoln (180), Breckinridge (72), Bell, (39), and Douglas (12)
 The South still had control of both houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court.
 Lincoln’s victory was the final straw that launched the Southern secessionist movement.
 Some fire-eaters were pleased that Lincoln won; they had been waiting for some big event to shock
their fellow southerners into action.
 South Carolina immediately began the planning stages of secession from the Union.