Download The Civil War - The West as U.S.

Beyond North and South
 How did the West provoke a struggle between North
and South that would transform a Union of states, a
coalition of sections into the modern American
nation?
 What impact would this struggle and transformation
have on the trans-Mississippi West?
 “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere
with slavery in the States where it exists.”
 I. Context: The Slavery Debate Evolves
 II. The Wilmot Proviso
 III. California and the 1850 Compromise
 IV. Railroads, Indian Territory, and Kansas-Nebraska
 V. Bleeding Kansas
 VI. The West and the War
 Constitution compromises on slavery
 Congress could not ban slave trade until 20 years later
 fugitives
 3/5
 Madison: "It seems now to be pretty well understood
that the real difference of interests lies not between
the large and small but between the northern and
southern states. The institution of slavery and its
consequences form the line of discrimination."
 Late 1700s: Many southerners, including Jefferson, expected
slavery to die out
 Cotton gin, factory system, upland strain revive institution;
Purchase of Florida, Louisiana and removal of “Five Civilized
Tribes” spurs expansion
 Yet North outpaced South by 1850—population growth 20%
higher in ‘40s, 3x more moved from S to N than vice versa, 7/8
of foreign immigrants to N, 74% of RR miles—and northern
capital controlled staple-crop economy
 Northern states ban slavery in Northwest Ordinance,
eliminate slavery in ensuing decades; other forms of unfree
labor increasingly replaced by wage labor
 Second Great Awakening provokes upsurge of abolitionism
in North
 Development of Victorian family ideal sharpened critique
of slavery’s sins
 Anti-slavery positions often explicitly or implicitly racist
 In 1810s-1840s, many moderates favored “diffusionist
position”—expansion would dilute slave system and
prevent it from adopting pernicious dimensions
 Other white Americans considered emigration the best
solution—preferably back to Africa
 Compromises repeatedly saved Union—especially
Missouri Compromise of 1820
 From “necessary evil” to “positive good”— by 1830
southerners argued that peculiar institution “a
great moral, social, and political blessing” to slave
and master alike
 Mexican War upset delicate balance
• Land “naturally” ill-suited to slavery
• Land “naturally” ill-suited to slavery BUT
• Both sections viewed West as crucial to growth, preservation
• South had supplied majority of troops for war
• Cotton already being grown in NM
• Spanish had introduced slavery to work gold and silver mines
of New World—thus no contradiction
• Making Southwest slave territory would “secure to the South
the balance of power in the Confederacy, and, for all coming
time . . . give to her the control in the operations of the
government.”—Milledgeville Federal Union, Nov. 10, 1846
• If free, North would gain Senate majority and abolish slavery
• Bans against slavery offended southern honor—implied that
core institution of southern life was immoral, un-American—
”a degrading inequality”
• Van Buren Democrats opposed extension of slavery,
upset with Polk and Southern Dems. over veto of
internal improvements, resolution of Oregon dispute,
and tariff reductions
• Wilmot places amendment banning slavery in all
territories acquired in war on appropriation bill for
peace negotiations
• Wilmot in debate: “I have no squeamish
sensitiveness upon the subject of slavery, nor
morbid sympathy for the slave. I plead the cause of
white freemen. I would preserve for free white labor
a fair country, a rich inheritance, where the sons of
toil, of my own race and own color, can live without
disgrace which association with slavery brings
upon free labor.”
• Wilmot in debate: “I have no squeamish sensitiveness upon the subject
of slavery, nor morbid sympathy for the slave. I plead the cause of white
freemen. I would preserve for free white labor a fair country, a rich
inheritance, where the sons of toil, of my own race and own color, can
live without disgrace which association with slavery brings upon free
labor.”
• Passes in House; Senate defeats bill, introduces
defanged substitute; together with Polk, pushes
this through House
 Calhoun and allies introduce “common-property
doctrine”—new territories owned by states, not federal
government; feds couldn’t discriminate against citizens of
any state; citizens of slaveholding states could enter
territories on equal terms with northerners—thus slavery
followed the flag
 Free soil doctrine (McPherson, 55):
 Free labor more efficient
 Slavery suppressed economic diversification,
undermined dignity of manual work, degraded white
labor, increased ignorance of poor whites, led to
feudalism and despotism
 Slave agriculture
stagnant in Chesapeake
 Hoped to make
California slave territory
 Predicted slaves worth
$1,000 would fetch $35,000 in California
 Upwards of 600 slaves participated
in California Gold Rush
 Free “white” miners resented
presence of non-whites—witness
widespread race wars
 Yuba River district votes “that no
slave or negro should own claims
or even work in the mines”
 Statehood debate: free blacks “a
species of population that this
country should be particularly
guarded against.”
 White miners also feared that slave owners could
secure additional claims in slaves’ name and
otherwise outcompete them
 Slavery banned by 1849 constitution—Congress
deadlocked on admission
 Pres. Taylor advocated popular sovereignty, but
statehood convention forced issue: "neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for
punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in
this State.“
• 1849-1850 session wracked with sectional conflict
• Neither party had majority b/c of 13 Free Soilers
• Took three weeks, 68 ballots to elect a Speaker
• Robert Toombs, Ga.
“I do not . . . hesitate to avow before this house and the
country, and in the presence of the living God, that if by
your legislation you seek to drive us from the territories of
California and New Mexico, purchased by the common
blood and treasure of the whole people, and to abolish
slavery in this District, thereby attempting to fix a national
degradation upon half the States of this Confederacy, I am
for disunion.”
 Clay the architect
 8 provisions, 4 for each section
 Fierce debate, 7 months of
negotiation ensue
 J. Davis—split California
 Seward: “Higher Law”
 Calhoun from deathbed said
compromise “worse than the
Wilmot Proviso,” leaving South
w/ but 2 choices: “submission or
resistance”
 Calls for amendment
guaranteeing equilibrium—dual
executive, each with veto power
 Taylor’s sudden death and Stephen A. Douglas’s
maneuvers finally enable compromise to pass
 California admitted as free state, Utah and NM as
territories w/ question of slavery still open, feds. to
forgive Texas debt in exchange for TX claims in NM
 Status of Missouri Compromise line unclear
 Fillmore: “a final settlement”; McPherson: “Only
postponed the trauma”
• Southern response:
Columbus (Ga.) Sentinel:
“We have all along contended that the
admission of California would fill to
overflowing the poisoned cup of
degradation which the North has for
years been preparing for the South. …
We are for secession, open unqualified
secession. Henceforth we are for war
upon the government; it has existed
but for our ruin and to the extent of
our ability to destroy it, it shall exist
no longer.”
• Mississippi Governor Quitman: “only
effectual remedy” to wrong done was
“peaceable secession of the aggrieved
states”
• Some call for annexation of Cuba to
restore balance
 California strongly Democratic
 Senator William Gwin controlled patronage
networks, secured election for a fellow slavery
supporter
 Solid backers of South throughout 1850s
 CA supreme court declared in 1852 that
freedom clause was “inert and inoperative."
 Free or not, blacks not allowed to testify in civil
or criminal courts, even in own defense
 California also passed strict fugitive slave act,
1852
 Southern sympathies increase w/ decline of
mining, rise of farming in late 1850s
 Intrigues to divide state in two, with slavery in
south, fixture of 1850s politics
 Lincoln won state in 1860 with just 32.3% of
votes
 1853-’55: 4 Pacific railroad
surveys sent out by Davis;
favored 32nd parallel route, but
surveyors showed that 35th and
41st parallel routes also feasible
 Proposals for construction
funds and grants failed
 Gadsden Purchase, 1854—$10
million purchase of Mesilla
Valley; part of plan by slavery
supporter to build southern
transcontinental, introduce
slavery to So. Cal.
 favored transcontinental from
Chicago to San Francisco,
opposed southern plan
 Indian Territory (present-day OK,
KS, and NE) unorganized b/c of
southern resentment at Missouri
Compromise; obstacle to railroad
funding
 Douglas on removal: “This policy
evidently contemplated the
creation of a perpetual and savage
barrier to the progress of
emigration, settlement and
civilization in that direction.”
 Needed 6 votes
 Repealed Missouri Compromise
 Created Kansas and Nebraska
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Territories
Opened both to slavery by
popular sovereignty
Prompted staunch opposition—
sacred compact had been violated
President Pierce made crucial
difference—provided patronage
as rewards
Finished off Whig Party
Gave birth to G.O.P.
Douglas’s move failed to pave way
for railroad bill
 Lincoln: “Is not Nebraska,
while a territory, a part of
us? Do we not own the
country? And if we
surrender the control of it,
do we not surrender the
right of self-government? .
. . The spirit of seventy-six
and the spirit of Nebraska,
are utter antagonisms.””—
A. Lincoln, Peoria, Oct. 16,
1854
 "Come on, then, gentlemen
of the slave states. Since
there is no escaping your
challenge, we accept it in the
name of freedom. We will
engage in competition for
the virgin soil of Kansas, and
God give the victory to the
side which is stronger in
numbers, as it is in right." -Senator William Seward, on
the passage of the KansasNebraska Act, May 1854
 "Come on, then, gentlemen
of the slave states. Since
there is no escaping your
challenge, we accept it in the
name of freedom. We will
engage in competition for
the virgin soil of Kansas, and
God give the victory to the
side which is stronger in
numbers, as it is in right." -Senator William Seward, on
the passage of the KansasNebraska Act, May 1854
 “We are playing for a
mighty stake. … The game
must be played boldly. … If
we win we carry slavery to
the Pacific Ocean, if we fail
we lose Missouri Arkansas
Texas and all the
territories.”
 “We intend to ‘Mormonize’
the Abolitionists.” --Sen.
David Atchison
 Demonstrated to northerners that slavocracy greater
threat than immigrants—opposition shifts from
Know-Nothing/American Party to Republicans
 Popular sovereignty, once seen as solution to problem,
became cause of heated conflict over Kansas
John Greenleaf Whittier, "Song of the Kansas
Emigrant"
 We cross the prairie as of old
The fathers crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free.
 We go to rear a wall of men
On Freedom's southern line,
And plant beside the Cotton tree
The rugged northern pine.
 We're flowing from our native hills
As our free rivers flow,
The blessing of our mother land
Is on us as we go.
 We go to plant the common school
On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths of the wilds
The music of her bells.
 Upbearing, like the ark of God.
The Bible in our van.
We go to test the truth of God
Against the fraud of man.
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 Dr. Charles Robinson, 1855:
“Every pulsation in Kansas
pulsates to the remotest artery of
the body politic, and I seem to
hear the millions of freemen,
and the millions of bondsmen in
our own land, the patriots and
philanthropists of all countries,
the spirits of the revolutionary
heroes, and the voice of God, all
saying to the people of Kansas,
Do your duty.”
 Heated elections become
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focus of violence on ground
“Border Ruffians” secure early
majority; influx of free staters
shifts balance
Competing legislatures led to
lawlessness
Meanwhile, federal
politicians present competing
statehood bills
Underlying issue: land title,
which Missourians blocked
free-staters from obtaining
 “On the subject of slavery, the North and South . . .
Are not only two Peoples, but they are rival, hostile
Peoples.”
 Neutrality
 Neutrality
 Allegiance to Confederacy
 Neutrality
 Allegiance to Confederacy
 Desertion of many troops following Pea Ridge
 Neutrality
 Allegiance to Confederacy
 Desertion of many troops following Pea Ridge
 Civil War superimposed on older conflicts
dating back to Removal
 Watie and Confederate sympathizers versus “Loyal”
Cherokee led by captured John Ross
 1863 Cowskin Prairie Council: Union Cherokees
denounce Watie, disavow Confederacy, abolish
slavery
 Neutrality
 Allegiance to Confederacy
 Desertion of many troops following Pea Ridge
 Civil War superimposed on older conflicts dating back to
Removal
 Watie and Confederate sympathizers versus “Loyal” Cherokee led
by captured John Ross
 1863 Cowskin Prairie Council: Union Cherokees denounce Watie,
disavow Confederacy, abolish slavery
 Retribution, devastation, and anarchy
 1864-’5: all hell breaks loose, many old scores settled
 Watie, last Confederate general to surrender,
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capitulates on June 23, 1865, more than two months
after Lee
Chickasaws and Caddos did not surrender until July
14, 1865
3,503 Indians from Indian Territory fought for
union; 1,018 died—highest casualty rate of all states
and regions
Out of “Five Civilized Tribes”’s population of
60,000, 5-10,000 dead
Economies in ruins
“To the victors, the spoils”—and what for the
losers?
 1) Western gold
 $46 million in 1864, leading Grant to
declare, “I do not know what we
would do in this great national
emergency were it not for the gold
sent from California.”
 2) Free Soil Policies
 Pacific Railroad Bill, Homestead Act,
Morrill Act all pass
 3) Indian wars—Dakota, Sand Creek