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The Road to the Civil War Politics over the 1830s: Whigs (Old Federalist ideas) Democrats (old Jeffersonian ideas) Both parties were pro-slavery in the south, due to lack of easy communication Election of 1840 • Whigs run William Henry Harrison “war hero” from War of 1812, battles with American Indians, with John Tyler as his VP (had recently moved from Dem. to Whig party) • Harrison portrayed as a “common man” backcountry frontier, self-mad man (even though he wasn’t) • Democrats run President Martin Van Buren. Whigs portrayed him as an elitist wealthy snob (even though he was more of the self-made man) Election of 1840 • 80% of the electorate voted, Harrison won a small majority of the popular vote, but a large majority of the electoral vote. • Harrison died shortly after inauguration, and Tyler became the first VP to become President. • More of a Dem. than a Whig, but not really in either party. • First pro-slavery administration. • Both parties were trying to avoid the issue of slavery. • Tyler jumped on annexation of Texas as his issue (huge impact on slavery issue, coming of the Civil War) Manifest Destiny and Expansionism • Concept of manifest destiny • U.S. has the “god-given” right to spread from “sea to shining sea” • Belief the Nation favored by god, supposed to “clear out” savages and uncivilized (Native Americans and Mexicans) off the good land. Republic of Texas, an • independent country at that time, included parts of modern OK, KS, WY, NM and CO • Previously part of Mexico, which had declared its independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico wanted to encourage settlement in Texas, w/large land grants at low prices, if settlers agreed to become Catholic and Mexican citizens (subject to Mexican law) • By 1830, 35,000 Americans in Texas. Mexican gov’t having problems with them, won’t observe Mexican laws, issues over slavery (illegal in Mexico, w/exception for Texas) • General Santa Anna’s efforts to exert more control in Texas lead to rebellion. • 1836-Texas declares its independence, constitution allowing slavery. • Alamo: 200 Texans held off 3,000 Mexican soldiers for two weeks. • Mexican victory there united Americans sentiment against Mexico, “remember the Alamo” battle cry •Mythology of the Alamo, often leaves out the part where what they were fighting for was slavery •U.S. defeat Mexican Army, capture Santa Anna at Battle of San Jacinto. •Santa Anna forced to sign peace treaty recognizing Texas’ independence. Texas and the U.S. • Issue of Texas joining the Union, as it would come in as a slave state • Britain in favor of an independent TX, for cotton, market for British goods, keep the U.S. from expanding, against slavery. • Sent a treaty offer to Texas, but slavery was the sticking point. • When the secret treaty offer became public, Southerners saw it as part of a conspiracy to destroy slavery and their way of life. • People against annexation said the support was part of the “Slave Power Conspiracy” • Efforts to tie annexation of Texas w/annexation of Oregon, which was popular at the time Election of 1844 • Whigs ran Henry Clay, Dems tried to re-nominate Van Buren, but his opposition to Tx annexation was taken as anti-slavery and cost him the nomination, which went to James K. Polk, current Speaker of the House and the first “dark horse” presidential candidate. • Polk, an ardent expansionist, ran on ticket of “reannexation of Tx” and “reoccupation of Oregon”language to make it seem like they had both previously been part of the U.S., rightfully belonged to U.S. • Clay backed down on annexation issue, saying he’d favor it IF the people in Tx wanted it, and it could be done peacefully (w/out War w/Mexico) • Liberty Party; small third party, but helped promote idea of a “Slave Power Conspiracy” • Liberty party drew some votes away from Clay, Polk wins. Impact of 1844 Election • Tyler takes Polk’s election as a “mandate from the people” and pushes for immediate annexation of Tx, which is done by a joint resolution of Congress, requiring a simple majority vote, instead of the 2/3rds vote required for Treaty, the normal way of adding territory. • Signed three days before Tyler left office, Mexico severed diplomatic relations, Texas joins Union as a slave state in Dec. 1845. • Polk was all for annexing Tx, but backed down on the whole Oregon territory, because he didn’t want war w/Britain, so he made a deal w/Britain to establish the 49th parallel as the border. The Mexican-American War • Mexican government angry at the U.S. for annexing TX, still disputing Texas/Mexico border • U.S. claimed Rio Grande, Mexico claimed Nueces, original border when part of Mexico. • New Military Regime in Mexico, promise to “reclaim stolen territory” • Polk, looking for excuse to go to war, sends Gen Zachary Taylor to occupy area between Rio Grande and Nueces, hoping the Mexican government would attack and he’d have an excuse for war. • Minor scuffle gives him the excuse. Reactions • Abolitionists and antislavery Whigs see this an a flimsy excuse and part of the “slave power conspiracy.” • Anti-war faction emerges in Congress, but the war is popular w/the people and the military is very successful. • Several successful battle, then captured Mexico City. • Generals Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott. • First West Point graduate generals, more later in Civil War • Impressed European powers with American military progress (they’ll come watch the Civil War) Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildalgo • Ends Mexican-American War, set border at Rio Grande, U.S. gets California and New Mexico (Mexican Cession), pays Mexican debts to Americans, pays Mexico $15 million • War supporters generally southern supporters of slavery, expect to get several slave states out of the new territory. • Almost the same deal offered BEFORE the war. Polk and supporters furious. • 13,000 U.S. dead, 11,000 from disease, 50,000 Mexican dead • Increased sectional tension, as many Northerners saw the war as an excuse to expand slavery. The Wilmot Proviso • Proposed in Congress at the beginning of the Mexican-American War. • Would have made slavery illegal in any territory won from Mexico. • Scared pro-slavery southerners because Wilmot was a Northern Democrat who wanted free territory (from the Mexican Cession) because of the “disgrace slavery brings to free labor.” • Party lines broke down in Congress as people voted based on sectionalism (North v. South). Election of 1848 • Polk doesn’t run again, Democratic Party ran Lewis Cass, comes up with “popular sovereignty” to deal w/ slavery in new territories. Deliberately vague about what this meant. • Whigs nominate Zachary Taylor (war hero, common man image), never before political, had never voted, only declared he was a Whig that year. Popular with voters. • Whigs who were unhappy that Taylor owned slaves, split and formed the Free Soil Party with Northern Dems who were in favor of the Wilmot Proviso and the Liberty Party. • Free-Soilers campaigned on a ban on slavery in the territories. • Made the other candidates address slavery, so they each took a pro-slavery stance in the South and an anti-slavery stance in the North (No Modern Communication Networks) The Gold Rush • Brought large numbers of people west, moved western territories closer to statehood. • Oregon enacted laws to ban slavery and free blacks. California pop growing very fast, people nervous about issue of slavery there. Southerners want to extend Missouri Compromise line, Northerners say no. • Taylor addresses it directly, putting Union before sectional interests, says proslavery extremists are “intolerant and revolutionary,” should avoid promotion of sectional interests, promised not to veto the Wilmot Proviso if it passed Congress. • Proslavery southerners believe they’ve been deceived. • Taylor wanted to avoid the slavery issue by admitting California and New Mexico as states, rather than territories, and since slavery had been illegal in those areas when Mexico owned them, they’d be free states. • Southerners see this as a conspiracy against them, as New Mexico would include areas claimed by Texas (slave state) The Compromise of 1850 • Massive disagreement within Congress, different compromises proposed • Threats of civil war between Tx and New Mexico, Taylor threatened to lead army out himself, then died suddenly of typhus when he drank bad water at a July 4th picnic. • Millard Fillmore becomes president, supports a compromise. • Tenor of politics getting uglier, more northern politicians coming out in favor of emancipation, southerners getting more vehement and violent in their responses. Charles Sumner caned by Preston Brooks Compromise of 1850 • Finally Stephen Douglas brokers a compromise by putting each piece of the compromise through as a separate bill. • California entered as a free state • Fugitive Slave Law made much more stringent • Settled Tx/New Mexico border • Divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into New Mexico and Utah and left issue of slavery deliberately vague – popular sovereignty language still interpreted different in N and S. • Took care of the immediate issue, but most people were still very angry and dissatisfied w/the agreement. The Fugitive Slave Law • Hot button issue/turning point in the coming of the Civil War. • Southerners angry at ability of slaves to escape to the North, Underground Railroad, heightened awareness as some became famous (Frederick Douglass, Tubman) • Northern laws prevented states from participating in catching and re-enslaving runaways. • Southerners wanted a federal law, Fugitive slave law. (Ironic, because of strong southern states’ rights stand) Fugitive Slave Law • • • • • • • • • • Federal commissioners-issue warrants for arrest and return Owner only has to show affidavit claiming ownership. Fugitive had no right to trial, testify. Slave commissioner got $10 bucks for siding with owners, $5 for siding with fugitives. Commissioner could force bystanders to help round up fugitives, heavy fines for refusing. Southerners thought this would make Northerners supportive through involvement. Did the opposite. Invoke idea of moral duty to disobey an unjust law. This made slavery real for many Northerners and drew more of them into the abolitionist camp. Anthony Burns: cost $100,000 ($2 million today) to reenslave this one man. About 300 returned to slavery, about as many as Harriet Tubman freed by herself. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • written by Harriet Beecher Stowe as a response to the Fugitive Slave Law. • Still portrays blacks unrealistically, but humanly. • People could identify and sympathize with slaves as people. • First published as a serial, then a book, then a play. Huge emotional impact. • Pro-slavery advocates become much more extreme in its defense, not just paternalistic, but a superior labor system. Election of 1852 • Whigs ran Winfield Scott, another Mex-Am war hero • Dems nominated less well-known “Mexican war hero” Franklin Pierce, a Proslavery northerner. • Focus on personality over politics, people dissatisfied and disgusted. • Popular vote close, but Pierce won electoral vote, as Southern Whigs jumped ship. • Whig party only really in the North after this. Splintering Party Politics • General disgust at politics, corruption. Strong anti-immigrant, especially anti-Catholic, sentiment. • 3mil immigrants between 1845-1855 • Protestants distrustful of Catholic allegiance to the Pope. • Formation of secret Nativist party, The American Party, becomes known as : • The “Know-Nothing” Party The “Know Nothing” Party • As write in candidates, won local and state elections in 1855 in Massachusetts, New England and were the main opposition to the Dems in the Middle states, California, the “border states” and the upper south. • Final straw for Whig party, as they pulled away traditional Whig voting base. • Some anti-slavery Whigs against them, saw the hypocrisy of being anti-slavery and antiimmigrant. • Absorbed into new Republican party by 1856. Kansas-Nebraska Act • Douglas put forth the act to try to get an intercontinental railroad going, as he was an investor. • Area was North of the 36”30’, worried Southerners will object to more free territories. • Act set up two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, under vague popular sovereignty language. • Also claimed Missouri compromise “null and void” • Douglas wasn’t concerned with the ramifications of that, because he though the arid climate would keep slavery from spreading there anyway. Impact of Kansas-Nebraska Act • Used by Northern anti-slavery forces as example that Slave Power Conspiracy existed and was breaking their agreement, Douglas vilified for it. • Dems from the North who voted for the act generally lost their seats in the next election, making the Democratic party largely (not completely) a southern party. • Formation of Republican party in the North, from Anti Kansas-Nebraska Act Whigs, Dems, Free-Soilers, absorption of most of the Know-Nothing party. • Republicans against slavery in territories and against new slave states. Wanted to let slavery wither in the South. • Ran John C. Fremont in 1856, lost to Dems’ James Buchanan. American party pulled a few electoral votes away from Reps, so Buchanan won, North/South split. The Caning of Sumner • May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks (D-SC) beat Senator Charles Sumner (FS-MA) with his walking cane in the Senate chamber because of a speech Sumner had given criticizing President Franklin Pierce and Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas. • Brooks claimed Sumner’s speech was “a libel on South Carolinians” “Bleeding” Kansas • Election w/illegal votes from Missouri, early pro-slavery legislature, free-soilers draw up their own constitution, violence ensues. • John Brown and his sons, others go to Kansas to fight a minicivil war (after Brooks caned Sumner). John Brown and his followers committed several atrocities in Kansas, including hacking five pro-slavery Missourians to death with broadswords. “Bleeding” Kansas • Pierce, then Buchanan recognized the proslavery govt. • Douglas believed this violated true popular sovereignty, splits in the Dem party, more violence in Congress. • A compromise resulted in a vote in Kansas, where free-soilers won. Split the Dem party The Dred Scott Decision • further enflamed sectional differences. • Dred Scott was the Missouri slave of an army surgeon, taken to free state of Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. Sued that he was free on those grounds. • Issues in front of the Supreme Court: • -Did living for a long time in a free state or territory make a slave free? • -Was Scott, a slave and a black man, an American citizen who could sue in federal court? • -Could Congress constitutionally, through the Missouri Compromise or other pieces of legislation, prohibit slavery in the territories? The Dred Scott Decision • The lower court had ruled that Scott was a “sojourner” in the free areas, not a resident, and therefore still a slave. • SC could have just upheld the lower courts decision, but went further. • Very pro-south, pro-slavery court, Chief Justice Roger Taney (from Jackson’s era) said Scott, as a slave and a black man, could not be a citizen and could not sue in federal court. • Also ruled that slavery, as a form of property, could not be excluded from territories (if you can take your cows, you can take your slaves), making the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, as well as popular sovereignty. • Dissenting opinion by Benjamin Curtis pointed to blacks as state citizens in 1787, therefore entitled to rights as U.S. citizens. • More weight to “slave power conspiracy” , further divided Northern and Southern wings of Dem party. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates • Lincoln and Douglas both up for a Senate seat from Illinois. • Series of seven face to face debates, 3 or 4 hours at a time. • Douglas charged that Lincoln wanted to destroy the balance, was into race mixing. • Lincoln was against slavery as an institution, wanted it confined to the south so it would eventually wither away (Repub. Position) • Douglas won, but by a very narrow margin the debates made Lincoln’s reputation. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, Oct 1859 • Arsenal in (now West) Virginia. • Got backing to seize ammunition and distribute it to slaves who would join him in revolt. • Very unsuccessful as a military operation, but VERY successful as a symbol and martyr. • Took full moral responsibility for his actions, rejected attempts at rescue, pleas of insanity. • Said it was God’s will that he die for human freedom. John Brown’s Execution • Seen as a martyr in the North • Seen as evidence of a northern conspiracy to destroy slavery by the south • Leads to much stricter slave codes, violence against blacks, and whites who didn’t seem to be committed enough to slavery. • Atrocities just fueled Northern abolitionist movement. • Beyond compromise. • General belief slavery would only survive if allowed to grow under gov’t protection, Southerners saw it as protected property, Repubs want it banned in all territories. • Sectional difference dominated the election. • Lincoln won 40% of the popular vote, but a majority of the electoral vote, including all free states but New Jersey, which was split. • Bell and Breckinridge (only candidate promoting disunion) split the south • Douglas – MO and part of NJ. Secession • Republicans didn’t take threats of secession seriously, but in December of 1860, South Carolina legislature voted to leave the union • followed by Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas within 6 weeks by narrow votes. • Little support in back country areas, but large scale voter apathy also prevalent. • Set up govt of Confederacy by Feb 1861, with Jefferson Davis as president. • Eight upper south states hadn’t seceded. • Nothing done during the lame duck period. • Lincoln and Republicans rejected compromises that would have allowed slavery to expand, hoped the southern states would voluntarily re-join the union. Fort Sumter • Ft. Sumter, in Charleston, South Carolina, running out of supplies. • Lincoln told the governor that he was sending in supplies only, so not to attack. • SC demanded the surrender of Ft. Sumter, when the troops refused, SC attacked. • After nearly 3 days of continuous bombardment, the U.S. troops in Ft. Sumter surrendered. • Lincoln called up state militias to put down the “insurrection” in the South, the CSA responded by declaring war on the US. • Within 5 weeks, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina seceded as well. Fall of Ft. Sumter The Union & The Confederacy