The Road to Civil War in the 1850s

Mr. Pagliaro

Seymour High School

Problems of Sectional Balancein 1850

• California statehood.

• Southern “fire-eaters” threateningsecession.

• Underground RR & fugitive slave issues:

• Personal liberty laws• Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)

Compromise of 1850

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)

“So this is the lady who started the Civil War.”Abraham Lincoln

Sold 300,000 copies inthe first year.

2 million in a decade!

Sold 300,000 copies inthe first year.

2 million in a decade!

Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852

1849 Secret Order of the Star-Spangled BannerNYC

1849 Secret Order of the Star-Spangled BannerNYC

The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]

• Nativists.

• Anti-Catholics.

• Anti-immigrants.

√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

1852 Presidential Election

1852Election Results

Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

Border “Ruffians”

(pro-slavery

Missourians)

Border “Ruffians”

(pro-slavery

Missourians)

“Bleeding Kansas”

Bleeding Kansas

• Sack of Lawrence• May 21, 1856

• Pottawatomie Creek Massacre• May 24, 1856

• John Brown_________

• Lecompton Constitution

Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA)

Sen. Charles Sumner(R-MA)

Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)

Congr. Preston Brooks(D-SC)

“The Crime Against Kansas”

Birth of the Republican Party, 1854

• Northern Whigs• Northern Democrats

• Free-Soilers• Abolitionists

• Know-Nothings• Opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

1856 Presidential Election

√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican WhigKansas-less

1856Election Results

1856Election Results

Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

What caused thePanic of 1857??

What caused thePanic of 1857??

What were itsaffects on the

nation?

What were itsaffects on the

nation?

A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

The Lincoln-Douglas (race for Illinois Senator) Debates, 1858

PopularSovereignty

?

PopularSovereignty

?

Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine

John Brown’s Raidon Harper’s Ferry, 1859

A. J. Phelps, the Through Express passenger train conductor, sent a telegram to W. P. Smith, Master of Transportation of the B. & O. R. R., Baltimore:Monocacy, 7.05 A. M., October 17, 1859.Express train bound east, under my charge, was stopped this morning at Harper's Ferry by armed abolitionists. They have possession of the bridge and the arms and armory of the United States. Myself and Baggage Master have been fired at, and Hayward, the colored porter, is wounded very severely, being shot through the body, the ball entering the body below the left shoulder blade and coming out under the left side

The Raid

John Brown’s Trial“ [H]ad I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great…it would have been all right…an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction… I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!"” — Excerpt from a speech given by John Brown in court after his conviction, John Brown's Last Speech, November 2, 1859

Execution

Present: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, John Wilkes Booth

Insane or

Abolitionist Martyr?

Views on John Brown "an American who

gave his life that millions of other

Americans might be

free"

“…[M]ALIGNED AS A DEMENTED DREAMER... (BUT) IN FACT ONE OF THE MOST PERCEPTIVE HUMAN BEINGS OF HIS GENERATION”

"In the late 1850s a new type of political assassin appeared in the United States. He did not murder the mighty--but the obscure. . . . his purposes were the same as those of his classic predecessors: to force the nation into a new political pattern by creating terror."

"fanatic

al, ...

"fanatic

al, ...

monomaniacal, .

..

monomaniacal, .

..

a zealot,

and ...

a zealot,

and ...

psych

ologically

psych

ologically

unbalanced

unbalanced

STUBBORN ... EGOISTICAL,

SELF-RIGHTEOUS, AND

SOMETIMES DECEITFUL;

YET ... AT CERTAIN

TIMES, A GREAT MAN "if John Brown were still alive, we might accept him."

Mural in the Kansas Capitol building

by John Stewart Curry (20c)

Mural in the Kansas Capitol building

by John Stewart Curry (20c)

John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?

1. Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.

2. Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].

3. No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].

4. Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].

5. Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.

6. Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

Republican Party Platform in 1860

1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”

1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!

1860ElectionResults

ElectioElection of n of 18601860

ElectioElection of n of 18601860

√ Abraham Lincoln

Republican

√ Abraham Lincoln

Republican

John BellConstitutiona

l Union

John BellConstitutiona

l Union

Stephen A. DouglasNorthern Democrat

Stephen A. DouglasNorthern Democrat

John C. Breckinridge

Southern Democrat

John C. Breckinridge

Southern Democrat

Senator John J. Crittenden(Constitutional Unionist-

KY)

Senator John J. Crittenden(Constitutional Unionist-

KY)

Crittenden Compromise:A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity

Secession!SC Dec. 20, 1860

Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861

S.S.BALTIC.OFF SANDY HOOK APR.EIGHTEENTH.TEN THIRTY A.M. .VIA NEW YORK. . HON.S.CAMERON. SECY.WAR. WASHN. HAVING DEFENDED FORT SUMTER FOR THIRTY FOUR HOURS UNTIL THE QUARTERS WERE ENTIRELY BURNED THE MAIN GATES DESTROYED BY FIRE.THE GORGE WALLS SERIOUSLY INJURED.THE MAGAZINE SURROUNDED BY FLAMES AND ITS DOOR CLOSED FROM THE EFFECTS OF HEAT .FOUR BARRELLS AND THREE CARTRIDGES OF POWDER ONLY BEING AVAILABLE AND NO PROVISIONS REMAINING BUT PORK.I ACCEPTED TERMS OF EVACUATION OFFERED BY GENERAL BEAUREGARD BEING ON SAME OFFERED BY HIM ON THE ELEVENTH INST. PRIOR TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES AND MARCHED OUT OF THE FORT SUNDAY AFTERNOON THE FOURTEENTH INST.WITH COLORS FLYING AND DRUMS BEATING.BRINGING AWAY COMPANY AND PRIVATE PROPERTY AND SALUTING MY FLAG WITH FIFTY GUNS. ROBERT ANDERSON.MAJOR FIRST ARTILLERY.COMMANDING.