the path to the civil war

The Path to The Civil War

The Missouri Compromise

1820 Pushed through

Congress by Henry Clay

Admitted Missouri as a slave state, but balanced by admitting Maine as a free state

Also banned slavery in future states north of Missouri’s southern border, but allowed slavery south of that line

John Tyler 1790 – 1862 10th President (1841-45) Became president after

William Henry Harrison died in office

Virginian, slave-owner 1st president have

impeachment proceedings against him

Approved annexation of Texas as he was leaving office

Changed political parties multiple times – a Democratic-Republican, then a National Republican, then a Democrat, then a Whig, then back to being a Democrat

Elected to office in the CSA

James K. Polk 1795 – 1849 11th President (1845-49) Democrat, Southerner,

slave-owner Nicknamed both “Young

Hickory” and “Napoleon of the Stump”

Expanded US through formal addition of Texas, the Mexican War, and negotiations with Britain for control of the Oregon Territory

Established a national treasury, lowered tariffs

Opened the USNA and Smithsonian

Texas & The Mexican War

1846 – 1848 US annexed Texas

in 1845, as a slave state

After defeating Mexico, US added California and desert Southwest – but would they be free or slave territories?

The Wilmot Proviso & Calhoun Resolutions

Wilmot Proviso proposed in 1846 by Rep. David Wilmot of PA – proposed a complete ban on slavery in any new territories US might acquire from Mexico

Sen. John C. Calhoun of SC countered that the states own US territories in common and Congress holds no authority to ban slavery in the territories

US Senate refused to vote on Wilmot Proviso

Hardening Attitudes About Slavery

Calhoun began to argue that slavery was not a “necessary evil” but rather an “positive good” because white slave owners provided care for their slaves and introduced them to Christianity, thereby saving their souls

Popular Sovereignty

Proposed by Sen. Lewis Cass of Michigan

Citizens of each new territory should be allowed to decide for themselves on whether to allow slavery there

Idea became popular because it prevented Congress from having to make a decision

Split in the Whig Party Slavery divided

northern Whigs into the “Conscience Whigs” who opposed slavery and the “Cotton Whigs” who supported slavery because Southern cotton fed their northern textile factories

Rise of the Free Soil Party

After pro-slavery Zachary Taylor became the Whig nominee for president in 1848, Conscience Whigs quit the Whig Party and joined themselves with northern anti-slavery Democrats

This new party was called the Free Soil Party (they opposed expanding slavery to the “free soil” of the West).

Election of 1848 Democratic candidate

Lewis Cass promoted popular sovereignty and promised to veto the Wilmot Proviso if passed

Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren supported a complete ban on slavery in the West

Whig candidate Zachary Taylor was a moderate

Zachary Taylor 1784 – 1850 12th President (1849–

50) “Old Rough and

Ready” Slave owner, but

believed slavery wouldn’t work in the West because of the climate

Hero of the Mexican War, never held an elected office before president

Died in office

Millard Fillmore 1800 – 1874 13th President (1850-53) Whig (later a Know-

Nothing) Anti-slavery, but believed

that it was necessary to allow it to keep South happy and the Union whole

Endorsed the Compromise of 1850 and signed it into law

Sent Perry to open trade with Japan

Refused to support Southern efforts to annex Cuba

Not nominated by Whigs in 1852

Compromise of 1850 5 separate bills pushed

through Congress by Clay and Webster over the opposition of Calhoun:

1) California admitted as a free state

2) Slave trade (but not slave ownership) was banned in Washington D.C.

3) New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory were created and would decide slavery issue under popular sovereignty

4) Texas was paid $10 million in return for giving up its claims to lands in the New Mexico Territory

5) The Fugitive Slave Act

Fugitive Slave Act Law enforcement anywhere

in the US were obligated to arrest runaway slaves and return them to their owners

Anyone harboring a fugitive slave or refusing to help apprehend one was subject to fine and prison

Slaves were identified solely by the word of their owner or their representative and received no trial

As a result, any free black was in danger – all it took was a claim that they were a runaway and they were arrested and turned over!

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Novel by Harriet

Beecher Stowe Published in 1852,

written in direct response to the Fugitive Slave Act

Sold 300,000 copies in first year

Brought the suffering of slaves to life for many readers and helped swell the abolitionist ranks

Underground Railroad Organized network

of individuals who helped hide and move runaway slaves north

Moved thousands of slaves to freedom in Canada

These people risked imprisonment to help slaves escape

Harriet Tubman 1820 – 1913 Escaped slave who

risked herself by returning to the South over and over to guide runaways along the Underground Railroad, despite being an epileptic

Later worked as a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War and as a women’s rights activist

A Changing of the Guard: Calhoun, Clay, & Webster

Die

1850 Summer 1852 Fall 1852

Franklin Pierce 1804 – 1869 14th President (1853-

1857) Democrat Supported acquisition of

Cuba from Spain, but his ministers sent to broker a deal created a scandal when they threatened Spain with force if they refused to sell Cuba (the Ostend Manifesto)

Was not nominated for a second term by his party in 1856

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 Created two new

territories out of the Great Plains – Kansas and Nebraska

Repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed the 2 new territories to exercise popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery

Stephen A. Douglas 1813 – 1861 Senator from Illinois

nicknamed the “Little Giant”

Helped draft the Compromise of 1850 and was the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Strong believer that true democracy obeyed the will of the people – so he supported the idea of popular sovereignty

“Bleeding Kansas”

Settlers moving into Kansas from Missouri brought their slaves

New England Emigrant Aid Company began organizing and equipping northern settlers to move to Kansas and oppose slavery

Both sides were armed and willing to fight and periods of violence followed

Andrew P. Butler 1796 – 1857 Senator from SC Co-author of the

Kansas-Nebraska Act Strong, outspoken

supporter of slavery Verbally trashed in the

Senate in 1856 by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts for his support of slavery

Charles Sumner 1811 – 1874 Senator from MA Opposed the Fugitive

Slave and Kansas-Nebraska Acts

Delivered his 3-hour “Crime Against Kansas” speech in May 1856, which made personal attacks against Sen. Butler including making fun of his speech problems (Butler’s speech had been impaired from a stroke)

Preston Brooks 1819 – 1857 Rep. from SC Nephew of Andrew

Butler Decided to act to

defend the honor of his disabled uncle and that of SC

First considered challenging Sumner to a duel but decided that was too much of an honor for Sumner

Sumner-Brooks Incident May 22, 1856 Brooks attacked

Sumner with a cane on the floor of the Senate, savagely beating him until the cane broke

Sumner took 3 years to recover from his injuries

Dozens of proud Southerners sent Brooks new canes in support

The Republican Party

Founded in 1854 by a mixture of former Whigs, Free Soilers, and anti-slavery Democrats

Direct response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Number one goal became to contain the spread of slavery to the South and not allow it to spread to new states or territories

Know-Nothings The American Party

(informally called the “Know-Nothings”)

Nativist party that opposed immigration and was fiercely anti-Catholic

Initially successful, but short-lived since its members were divided over slavery

Election of 1856 Republicans

nominated explorer John C. Fremont

Democrats nominated career politician and moderate James Buchanan

Know-Nothings nominated former president Millard Fillmore

James Buchanan 1791 – 1868 15th President (1857-

61) Only unmarried

President Believed that South

could only be kept in the Union through concessions and compromise, but this infuriated Northern supporters

Failed to successfully deal with increasingly violent sectionalism

Dred Scott 1799 – 1858 Slave who sued for

freedom on the grounds that his master had carried him into states and territories where slavery was illegal

Given freedom by his owner in 1857 after Dred Scott lost his case in the Supreme Court

Dred Scott Decision

1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Southerner-dominated

Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that since persons of African ancestry were not citizens of the US but were instead private property, they were not protected by US laws and could not sue in US courts

Court also overturned the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional – ruled that Congress could not pass laws that denied citizens their right to private property (slaves) without “due process” (5th Amendment)

Kansas & the Lecompton Constitution

Buchanan encouraged Kansas to apply for statehood to decide the slavery issue there and end the violence

Constitutional Convention was called in the territory’s capital of Lecompton, but was boycotted by abolition supporters as “rigged”

Result was a state constitution that allowed slavery in Kansas

Congress refused to admit Kansas under the Lecompton constitution in 1858 – Kansas not a state until 1861

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Republicans ran Abraham

Lincoln against Democrat Stephen Douglas for Senate in Illinois

The 2 men participated in a series of public debates centered on slavery

Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery, Douglas promoted popular sovereignty

Douglas argued the Freeport Doctrine – that the Dred Scott decision was correct, but that states wanting to keep slavery out had only to refuse to pass laws needed to enforce slavery

Douglas won re-election, but Lincoln won national attention for himself & the Republicans

John Brown 1800 – 1859 Businessman who

experienced bankruptcy, the death of his wife and a number of his children before becoming an ardent abolitionist

Moved to Kansas in 1856 and participated in the murder of 5 pro-slavery settlers (The Pottawatomie Massacre) and the more organized fighting between abolitionist and pro-slavery forces

When fighting died down in Kansas, Brown returned east

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry

Oct. 16-18, 1859 Brown mounted an

attack on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, VA in an effort to seize weapons with which to arm slaves and start a rebellion

Brown took the armory, but slaves did not rebel and no support came

Brown’s forces were defeated by US Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee and Brown was captured, tried and hung for treason

South turns against Republicans

After John Brown’s Raid, Southerners became convinced that abolitionists were determined to destroy the Southern way of life

Republican Party was closely tied to the abolitionist cause

Southern leaders vowed that they would rather dissolve the Union than tolerate a Republican-led government

Election of 1860 Democratic Party Split Northern Democrats who

favored popular sovereignty nominated Stephen Douglas

Southern Democrats who demanded federal protection of slavery nominated John Breckinridge

Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln

Former Whigs created the Constitutional Party which argued that the Union could still be preserved through upholding the Constitution

South Carolina Secedes

Dec. 20, 1860 President Buchanan

(Lincoln had been elected but not inaugurated) declared secession to be illegal but refused to use military force to stop it

US forces in SC retreated to Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor

SC was followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas

Abraham Lincoln 1809 – 1865 16th President (1861-

65) Republican His election would

prompt the South to secede; Lincoln would have to decide whether to let them leave the US or to fight to force them to stay – chose to fight

The fight would be The Civil War

Assassinated in 1865

Crittenden’s Compromise Sen. John

Crittenden of Kentucky proposed amending the US Constitution to forever guarantee slavery where it already existed, and reinstating the Missouri Compromise line

Republicans refused

Jefferson Davis Feb. 1861:

Secessionist states declared themselves to be an independent nation, the Confederate States of America

Wrote a new constitution and elected former Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis as President

Ft. Sumter April 1861: Lincoln

announces that he intends to reinforce Ft. Sumter

South demanded that Ft. Sumter surrender; when the fort refused, it was bombarded with cannon-fire for 33 hours (official start of Civil War)

April 13, 1861: Ft. Sumter surrendered to South

Upper South Secedes Lincoln began to

build an army to fight the South

This prompted states of the “Upper South” to secede in support of the Confederacy

Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, & Tennessee leave the Union

The Border States Must Decide

Lincoln needed the remaining 4 slave states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri) to stay in the Union

Delaware committed to the North

Lincoln imposed martial law in Maryland

Kentucky sided with North after Confederate forces invaded the state

Missouri voted to stay with North

The Confederate States of America

NOT THIS -----

-----THIS

North vs. South