The Road to War

CHA3U

Election of 1848

• Polk, having achieved objectives in one term and facing declining health, keeps promise not to seek re-election

• Whigs nominate hero of Mexican-American War – Zachary Taylor

• Taylor, who had never voted himself, was courted by both parties

• Whigs only hope of beating the Democrats who had a record of peace, prosperity and had acquired Oregon and the Southwest

Free-Soil Party

• Democrats counter with former Senator and Governor of Michigan – Lewis Cass

• Democrats offer no specific platform position on slavery

• Cass suspected of being pro-slavery• Anti-slavery Democrats walk out of convention

and create the Free-Soil Party• Opposed expansion of slavery into the

territories, but not the abolition of slavery in the south

• Nominate Martin Van Buren

The Election of 1848

Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)

• 12th U.S. President • First to never hold

elected office• Opposed the

Compromise of 1850• Died 16 months into

term• Succeeded by Millard

Fillmore

Compromise of 1850

• Proposed by Henry Clay (Whig)• Passed by Sen. Stephen Douglas (Democrat)

and Sen. Daniel Webster (Whig)• Series of bills aimed at resolving question of

slavery in the territories• Attempt to balance the interests of the Southern

and Northern States• California admitted as a free state• Texas compensated and relinquish claims to the

land west of the Rio Grande – Territory of New Mexico

Compromise of 1850

• New Mexico organized w/out any prohibition of slavery

• Endorsed idea of “Popular Sovereignty”• Fugitive Slave Law (1850) - requiring all U.S.

citizens to assist in return of runaway slaves regardless of the legality of slavery in the specific states

• Compromise b/w Southern slaveholders and Northern Free-Soilers

• Made the institutions of the North responsible for enforcing slavery

Fugitive Slave Law

1851 poster warning African-Americans in Boston that slave catchers are disguising themselves as police officers

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

• Anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Helped fuel abolitionist movement

• 2nd best selling book of century

• “So this is the lady who made this big war.” - Lincoln

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Drafted by Sen. Stephen Douglas • Created the states of Kansas and Nebraska• Repealed the Missouri Compromise (1820)• Allowed settlers in those territories to determine

if they would permit slavery in the name of “popular sovereignty”

• Hoped to ease tensions b/w North and South• Backfires – opponents denounced the law as a

concession to the slave power of the South

The Republican Party

• Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act grows into the Republican Party

• Aimed at stopping the expansion of slavery

• Emerges as the dominant force in the North and Midwest

• Absorbs the Free-Soil Party, ex-Whigs

“Bleeding Kansas”

• Series of violent clashes b/w Free-Staters (anti-slavery) and Border Ruffian (pro-slavery) during 1854-58

• 55 deaths

• Incidents were an attempt to influence whether Kansas would join the U.S. as a free state or a slave state

Tragic Prelude by John Steuart Curry

The Election of 1856

• “Bleeding Kansas” violence peaks on eve of election

• Republicans nominate John C. Freemont

• Democratic candidate James Buchanan sweeps the South

• Freemont received less than 600 votes from slave states

• Buchanan elected the 15th President

The Election of 1856

Dred Scott

• Slave from Missouri• Property of Dr. John

Emerson who served in the U.S. Army

• Travelled in Illinois and Wisconsin where the Northwest Ordinance (1787) prohibited slavery

• After Emerson's death Scott filed a lawsuit to gain his freedom

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

• Scott argued since he had been in both a free state and a free territory he had become legally free

• Therefore, could not have reverted to being a slave

• 7-2 decision by U.S. Supreme Court

• Chief Justice Robert B. Taney delivered majority decison

The Decision

• According to Declaration of Independence, no person descended from black Africans, free or a slave, is a citizen of the U.S.

• The Ordinance of 1787 could not confer freedom or citizenship to blacks in the Northwest Territory

• The Missouri Compromise was voided as a legislative act because it exceeded the powers of Congress to exclude slavery and grant citizenship to blacks in the northern territories

Consequences of the Decision

• Seen by many as a push towards the expansion of slavery

• Taney believed his decision would solve the slavery question once and for all

• Strengthened opposition to slavery in the North

• Divided the Democratic Party along sectional lines

• Strengthened the Republican Party

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

• 7 debates b/w Abraham Lincoln (Rep) and Stephen A. Douglas (Dem) for Illinois Senate seat

• Main issue was a question of slavery

• “House Divided Speech”

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe 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. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.”

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

• Lincoln opposed “popular sovereignty”

• Lincoln argued that ending the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery in Kansas/Nebraska was first step towards nationalization of slavery

• Believed Dred Scott decision was a step towards spreading slavery through territories

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Douglas wins re-election to Senate, but…

• Widespread newspaper coverage and attention elevated Lincoln’s national profile

• Made Lincoln a viable candidate for the presidency

John Brown

• Radical abolitionist • Supported and

practiced armed insurrection as a means to end slavery

• Pottawatomie Massacre (1856)

• “Misguided fanatic”

-Lincoln

Raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia

• Site of Federal Arsenal

• October 16-18 1859

• Brown led 16 whites and 5 blacks in raid

• Plan was to seize arsenal and arm the local slave population

• Seizes the armory, but things quickly go wrong

• First casualty = free black

Raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia

• Slaves did not rise up• Local citizens and militia attack the raiders

trapping Brown and his men in a fire house

• President Buchanan orders in the marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee

• Lee orders his men to storm the fire house and they capture Brown

John Brown’s Fort

John Brown

• December 2 1859• Tried for treason and

hung in Virginia • “John Brown will

make the gallows glorious like the cross.” – Emerson

• Legacy – hero? or terrorist? or martyr?

Influence of Harper’s Ferry

• Fear spread through Southern slave owners who reorganized the archaic militia

• New militias become the Confederate army in 1861

• Polarized politics – Republicans seen as being abolitionists by Southern Democrats

• Civil War – Union soldiers march into battle singing “John Brown’s Body”

• Brown began the war that ended slavery

Election of 1860

• Democratic Party divided over issue of slavery• Splits into Northern and Southern Democratic

Party• North Dem: Stephen Douglas• South Dem: John Breckenridge• Republicans: Abraham Lincoln• Democrats split vote bringing Lincoln to power

w/out winning a single Southern State

The Election of 1860

The Confederate States of America

• December 20, 1860 – South Carolina begins the secession of states

• By February 1st 1861 six more states had left the Union

• Declared themselves the Confederate States of America

• Outgoing President Buchanan and Lincoln declare it illegal

The Confederate States of America

Fort Sumter

• April 12 Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina

• First military action of war • Next days later the Union garrison

surrendered to Confederate forces• Northerners rallied behind Lincoln’s call to

raise troops and send them to take back the Fort

• American’s deadliest war was underway

Fort Sumter