Download Chapter 17 Causes of Civil War Frontloaded Notes

Causes of Civil War
Chapter 17
US History - Antebellum Tensions – Causes of Civil
War Chapter 17
Controversy
Over Slavery
California applied to be admitted as Free State, which would tip the
balance of power in Congress. Similar problem when Missouri applied to
be a slave state in 1820. Missouri Compromise – Missouri entered the
Union as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state. This Compromise
also stated that north of the 36_30’ line, all states that entered the Union
would be Free States.
Compromise of 1850 was written by Henry Clay who also wrote Missouri
Compromise in 1820. In this compromise the North got California as a free state
and the slave trade abolished in Washington D.C.
The South was promised no new laws on slavery would be passed for rest of
new territories and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed.
Daniel Webster supported the compromise to keep Union together.
Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois senator encouraged members Congress to
approve the Compromise. Compromise of 1850 – California admitted as
a free state; slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.; stronger slave laws
would be passed to help slaveholders recapture runaway slaves.
KansasNebraska Act
Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas drafted a bill to organize the Nebraska
Territory. He wanted split into Nebraska and Kansas.
Douglas wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act using the constitutional principle of
popular sovereignty, giving the people the ability to decide between slave and
Free State. The law was passed in 1854 which got rid of the Missouri
Compromise.
Pro-slavery and anti-slavery people rushed into Kansas to impact the vote
illegally. Political authority came into dispute, both sides armed.
“The Sack of Lawrence” occurred when proslavery mob attacked Lawrence,
Kansas.
John Brown, abolitionist extremist with a group of 7 men, murdered
5 proslavery settlers in revenge. These violent events are known as “Bleeding
Kansas”
Kansas-Nebraska Act – allowed for Kansas and Nebraska to organize on
the basis of popular sovereignty (they would vote themselves to decide if
they would be Free or Slave states)
Politics and the Supreme Court
Republican
Party Forms
Republican Party formed by Free-Soilers, Northern
Whigs, and Northern Democrats to oppose slavery. John Fremont was
Republican Party candidate in 1856. Fremont loses the election to James
Buchanan, who won all the slave states except Maryland
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. He was temporarily taken to live with his
owner in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin.
He later returned to Missouri and his owner died, Scott sued for freedom
because he had lived in areas where slavery was banned.
Roger Taney was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the Dred
Scott v. Sandford case
Court ruled 7 to 2 against him Scott stating that:
1. Slaves not citizens
2. property (slaves) could not be taken from owners
3. Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
Dred Scott v. Sanford decision – it denied citizenship of slaves; slaves
were property; made the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional because
it limited areas allowed for slavery. The South favored the decision, but
the North did not, causing further tension between the North and South.
Raid on Harpers
Ferry, VA
John Brown attempted to start a slave rebellion in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia by capturing a weapons arsenal. He captured the arsenal,
but no slaves would join him. Brown found guilty of murder and treason then
hanged.
Election
Of 1860
Northern and Southern Democrats disagreed about
slavery and split cause party to have two candidates -North: Stephen A.
Douglas - South: John Breckinridge
Abraham Lincoln was the only Republican candidate. Lincoln won the
North, Breckinridge won the South.
North had more electoral college votes so Lincoln won. The main goal of
Lincoln’s presidency was to, “Preserve the Union”
The South
Secedes
Lincoln promised not to abolish slavery in South, but white Southerners
didn’t trust him. Several southern states feared Republicans would abolish
slavery so they seceded. South Carolina seceded first in December of
1860; their argument was based on states’ rights.
The Confederate States of America was then formed with Jefferson Davis
as their President.
Inaugural
Addresses
Lincoln’s Inaugural Address is mostly directed towards the Southern States
trying to encourage them not to secede.
Jefferson Davis’ speech is a justification of the southern secession based on states’
rights and the apparent tyranny of the northern states. Said they had a righto
rebel against an unjust gov’t.
 Sectionalism – tendency to be more concerned with the interests of
your particular group or region than with the problems and interests of
the larger group, country, etc. Sectionalism is a term that describes a
situation in which the needs or desires of individual parts become
more important than the well-being of the greater whole. Such was the
situation between the Northern and Southern states leading up to the
Civil War. The two regions were marked by various differences, and
the war was ultimately the result of both sides staunchly refusing to
concede to the other on specific issues.
• States’ rights – the political position advocating strict interpretation of
the Constitution with regard to the limitation of federal powers and the
extension of the autonomy of the individual state to the greatest
possible degree. As the South recognized that control of the
government was slipping away, it turned to a states' rights argument to
protect slavery. Southerners claimed that the federal government was
prohibited by the 10th Amendment from impinging upon the right of
slaveholders to take their "property" into a new territory. They also
stated that the federal government was not permitted to interfere with
slavery in those states where it already existed.
• Slavery – slavery in the United States first began in Virginia during the
Colonial era. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Southern
politicians sought to defend slavery by retaining control of the federal
government. The widening of the gap between slave and free states
was symbolic of the changes occurring in each region. While the South
was devoted to an agrarian plantation economy with a slow growth in
population, the North had embraced industrialization, large urban
areas, infrastructure growth, as well as was experiencing high birth
rates and a large influx of European immigrants. This boost in
population doomed Southern efforts to maintain balance in the
government as it meant the future addition of more free states and the
election of a Northern, potentially anti-slavery, president. The political
issue regarding slavery was addressed in the Missouri Compromise in
1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.
Lincoln’s first inaugural address:
• Equality – promised he had no intent to abolish slavery
• The Union – argued for the preservation of the Union
• The Government – stated it was against the law to secede from the
Union
Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address:
• Jefferson Davis became the President of the Confederate States of
America in February, 1861. His inaugural address states that the secession
of the Southern states was similar to the colonists’ revolution against the
British; justifies the South’s “need” to secede, and discussed a tentative
plan for the seceding states’ future. He claimed that secession was “a
necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation,
and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own
affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed.”
• Liberty – contrasting Lincoln’s discussion of liberty for individual people,
Davis explains liberty and equality through the lens of freedom from the
North’s oppression of the South.
“…They (the Confederate States) formed a new alliance, but
within each State its government has remained; so that the rights of
person and property have not been disturbed.”
“Through many years of controversy with our late associates of the
Northern States, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquility and
obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled.”
“It is joyous in the midst of perilous times to look around upon a
people united in heart, where one purpose of high resolve animates and
actuates the whole; where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed
in the balance against honor and right and liberty and equality.”
• The Union – Davis explains that breaking from the Union was “a
necessity, not a choice” and that “…a reunion with the States from which
we have separated is neither practicable nor desirable.”
• The Government – the Confederacy had a goal of establishing a
government system similar to the United States’ Constitution. -
“American idea that governments rest on the consent of the
governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish
them at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for
which they were established.”
“As a consequence of our new condition and relations, and with a vicar
to meet anticipated wants, it will be necessary to provide for the speedy
and efficient organization of branches of the Executive department having
special charge of foreign intercourse, finance, military affairs, and the
postal service.”