presidents, choices, and the civil war 1 presidents…choices, and the civil war the men who came...

Presidents, Choices, and the Civil War

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Presidents…Choices, and the Civil War

The Men Who Came

Before Lincoln

Presidents, Choices, and the Civil War

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Presidents

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Presidents

• Millard Fillmore– 1850-1853– Whig party member– “Unlucky” number 13– Picked merely to balance the ticket

geographically and politically.– Believed in compromise.– Signs the Compromise of 1850 believing that

it would preserve the status quo.

Presidents, Choices, and the Civil War

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Presidents

• The Compromise of 1850– Remember: a “compromise” tries to please as

many people as possible and, generally speaking, ends up pleasing no one.

– The “Compromise” did nothing to settle the rapidly escalating disputes between and among Americans vis a vis slavery.

– Essentially postpones the issue.

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Presidents

• The Compromise provides for a “free” California, resolves issues surrounding Texas-New Mexico Territory, and enacts the Fugitive Slave Laws—an effort to help catch and punish slaves fleeing their bondage.

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Presidents

• Fillmore supported slavery…mostly because he didn’t want to see the death of an economy—an economy based on agriculture.

• Quite possibly one of the most forgettable presidents in history.

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Presidents

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Presidents

• Franklin Pierce– 1853-1857– Democrat with strong ties to the South.– Would leave office a hated man.– Pierce folds in the face of congressional

pressure and signs the KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT.

• Designed to repeal the Missouri Compromise and, in so doing, permits new states to choose in terms of slavery. BLATANTLY PRO-SLAVERY.

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Presidents

• In Kansas Territory people are actually fighting it out.

• Pierce never acknowledges his role in the disintegration of the Union.

• One of the people horrified by Pierce’s decision: Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is so appalled that he returns to politics.

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Presidents

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Presidents

• James Buchanan– 1857-1861– Democrat– His actions hasten the outbreak of the Civil

War.– Openly pro-South.

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Presidents

• He endorses the constitution written by the pro-slavery settlers in Kansas despite the fact that most of the people in the area are ABOLITIONISTS.

• In the end, Buchanan does not preserve and defend the Union. History has accused him of treason.

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Presidents

• The issue of slavery becomes tied up with the issue of states’ rights v. federal government.

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Presidents

• Abraham Lincoln– 1861-1865– Republican– A presidency completely defines by the War.– Lincoln’s original intention had been to stop

the expansion of slavery. Like fire, Lincoln believed that if you contained slavery, it would extinguish itself.

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Presidents

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Political Cartoon: The Caning of Sumner

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Presidents, Choices, and the Civil War

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