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Chapter 14
From Compromise to Secession
1850-1861
Introduction
• The decade of the 1850’s
opened with a compromise
that was supposed to settle
sectional differences; but it
quickly came undone
• Instead the 1850’s, lurched
from one sectional crisis to
the next
– The most devastating of those
occurred on October 16, 1859
– WV John Brown article
– PBS.org
Introduction (cont.)
• John Brown and 18 followers seized the federal
arsenal and armory at Harpers Ferry
• They intended to arm southern white and black
dissidents in a holy war against slavery
• Brown’s failed raid convinced southerners that they
had barely survived a northern plot to get them all
murdered in a slave insurrection
• Northerners, while initially disavowing Brown, came,
during his trial, to sympathize with him
• The whole incident set the stage for civil war
Introduction (cont.)
• 1.) How did the Fugitive Slave Act lead to the
undoing of the Compromise of 1850?
• 2.) Why did the Whig Party collapse after the KansasNebraska Act while the Democratic Party survived?
• 3.) How did the Republican doctrine of free soil unify
northerners against the South?
• 4.) Why did southerners conclude that the North was
bent on extinguishing slavery in the southern states?
The Compromise of 1850
• Introduction
– When the treaty ending the Mexican War was signed in
1848, a delicate balance existed between free and slave
states
• 15 of each
– All the proposed solutions for handling slavery in the
Mexican cession were controversial
•
•
•
•
Whether to prohibit it
Open the whole area to slaveholders
Extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
Or apply popular sovereignty
– Other issues also divided the North and South
– CA and UT asked Congress for admission to the Union as
free states
Zachary Taylor at the Helm
• President Taylor had encouraged CA to make the
request for statehood as a free state.
• Believing that the majority of its residents opposed
slavery, he urged Congress to welcome it into the
Union as a free state.
• Southerners were horrified at the prospect of losing
the balance of power in the Senate by admitting CA
and perhaps next NM as free states
• In protest, 9 southern states sent delegates to a
southern convention at Nashville
Henry Clay Proposes a Compromise
• Senator Clay proposed a compromise to settle the
territorial problem and other sectional controversies
– 1.) Admit CA as a free state
– 2.) Divide the rest of the Mexican cession into NM and UT
territories, with the future of slavery in each left up to its
residents
– 3.) Settle the border dispute between TX and NM in NM’s
favor
– 4.) Compensate TX by having the federal govt. pay off the
state’s past public debt
Henry Clay Proposes a Compromise
(cont.)
– 5.) Allow slavery to continue in Washington D.C.
but ban slave trading there
– 6.) Pass and enforce a tough new fugitive slave law
• After heated debate and much maneuvering,
the compromise passed
Assessing the Compromise
• The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the
underlying differences between the sections
• The one clear advantage that the South
gained, the passage of the stringent Fugitive
Slave Act, backfired
Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave
Act
• The law was blatantly stacked against black people
and sent federal marshals all over the country
looking for runaways
• This aroused widespread opposition in the North
– Northern mobs attacked marshals to rescue arrested
fugitives
– Vigilance committees helped runaways escape to Canada
– 9 states passed personal liberty laws designed to interfere
with enforcement of the Act
• Whereas the Act embittered northerners against the
South, southerners resented the North’s refusal to
live up to the terms of the Compromise
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• By 1853, 1.2 million copies had been sold
• Aroused many antisouthern feelings and
sympathy for slaves
The election of 1852
• The Whigs=General Winfield
Scott
– War hero
• Democrats=Franklin Pierce
• The Democrats rallied behind
the Compromise of 1850 and
popular sovereignty in the
territories
• Whigs were torn apart into
northern Whigs and southern
Whigs over the sectional
controversy
The election of 1852 (cont.)
The Collapse of the Second Party
System, 1853-1856
• Introduction
– During Pierce’s administration the 2nd party system (Whigs
vs. Democrats) collapsed
– In the 1850’s, the issues (banking, internal improvements,
tariffs, and temperance) that had been the main focus of
partisan politics were pushed from center stage
• New debate was over slavery’s extension
– The Whig Party was internally divided over the issue
• Disintegrated when Stephan A. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska bill
threw the future of slavery in the territories wide open
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Passage of this act in 1854 dealt a shattering
blow to the second party system
• It also renewed the sectional strife that Clay’s
compromise had aimed to quiet
• Stephen A. Douglas was eager to advance the
settlement of Kansas and Nebraska and to
promote the building of a transcontinental
railroad through the area
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)
• To accomplish these goals, he needed to
organize a territorial govt. for the region
• But he was running into southern opposition
because the area was north of the Missouri
Compromise line and would therefore be free
• To gain southern support, Douglas introduced
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)
• It repealed the Missouri Compromise
• Organized the 2 territories
• Left the question of slavery in both KS and NE
up to popular sovereignty
• That gave the South a chance to gain at least
KS for the “peculiar institution
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (cont.)
• History Place.com
• U.S. News--actual
document
The Surge of Free-Soil
• Douglas was surprised at the angry reaction in the
North
– Many regarded the law as part of an atrocious southern
plot to spread slavery into KS, the rest of the LA Territory,
and even into the North
• Free-soil sentiment had grown tremendously in the
North
– Not primarily because of sympathy for black slaves
• Many free-soilers were racists
– But because northerners wanted the territories to be the
place where upwardly mobile, enterprising, poor
Americans could become independent, self-employed
farmers and businessmen
The Surge of Free-Soil (cont.)
• If slavery invaded the territories, it would
discourage and drive out free labor
The Ebbing of Manifest Destiny
• Enthusiasm for expansion waned in the free
states
– northerners saw in each southern move to acquire
territory a plot to gain additional slave states
• This northern attitude became so pronounced
that Pres. Pierce had to repudiated southernbacked plans to buy or seize Cuba
The Whigs Disintegrate
1854-1855
• Southern Whigs had joined Democrats in voting for
the KS-NE Act
• Northern “conscience” Whigs, led by Senator William
Seward, and free-soil Democrats reacted angrily
against both of the major parties
• In the elections of 1854 and 1855, many of the
disaffected Whigs turned first to the Know-Nothing
(American) Party
– Later they voted increasingly to the new Republican Party
• As a result of these moves, the Whig Party fell apart
The Rise and Fall of the KnowNothings, 1853-1856
• Know-Nothings was also called the American Party
• It evolved out of a secret nativist society called the
Order of the Star-Spangled Banner
• In the North, the party combined hatred of Catholics,
immigrants, and slavery-extension
• It took a conspiratorial view of the world in which the
Pope and Slave Power were both plotting to
extinguish the American democratic republic
• In 1854 and 1855, the Know-Nothings scored major
victories in northern states such as MA
The Rise and Fall of the KnowNothings, 1853-1856 (cont.)
• However, the Party declined rapidly after 1855
• It was pulled apart by the slavery-expansion
issue
• Its southern adherents supported the KS-NE
Act
– a position unacceptable to northern nativists, who
deserted to the emerging Republicans
The Republican Party and the Crisis
in Kansas, 1855-1856
• The Republican Party first appeared in several
northern states in protest against the KS-NE Act
• As the Know-Nothings waned by 1856, the
Republicans became the main opposition party to
the Democrats
• The Republicans were basically a coalition of former
northern Whigs and Democrats who wanted to
restore the MO Compromise, Liberty Party
abolitionists, and free-soilers
The Republican Party and the Crisis
in KS, 1855-1856 (cont.)
• Little united them at first except their
opposition to the KS-NE Act
• However, the subsequent fighting in KS
between proslavery and antislavery forces
greatly strengthened the party and its free-soil
stand
The Republican Party and the Crisis
in KS, 1855-1856 (cont.)
• Both proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed to KS
• In 1855, when the first election for a territorial
legislature took place, thousands of proslavery
Missourians invaded KS for the day and voted
illegally
• This fraud produced a rabidly proslavery legislature
– Which from its capital in Lecompton, KS, passed repressive
laws aimed at squelching the free-soilers
The Republican Party and the Crisis
in KS, 1855-1856 (cont.)
• The free-soilers, considering the Lecompton
legislature a shame
– They organized a rival govt. in Topeka
• After the sack of Lawrence and John Brown’s
Pottawatomie massacre
– A civil war broke out in KS
– Between the 2 govts. and their followers
• Popular sovereignty had not worked
The Republican Party and the Crisis
in KS, 1855-1856 (cont.)
• Popular sovereignty caused angry debate
between Pierce and Northern Democrats and
Republicans
– Pierce and Northern Democrats=recognized the
fraudulent Lecompton govt.
– Republicans=decried the outcome as a shame
• It also spread violence to Congress with
Preston Brook’s attack on Senator Charles
Sumner
The Election of 1856
• Republicans nominated John C. Fremont
– Platform called on Congress to exclude slavery from all
remaining territories
• Democrats nominated James Buchanan
– Backed popular sovereignty
• Know-Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore
• Buchanan won but the Republicans did remarkably
well in the North
– Had Fremont carried PA and either IL or IN, he would have
been elected
• Despite receiving almost no southern votes
The Election of 1856 (cont.)
The Crisis of the Union
1857-1860
• The Dred Scott Case, 1857
– Decision was made 2 days after Buchanan’s inauguration
– the Supreme Court entered the controversy over slavery in
the territories
– The Supreme Court was composed mostly of southerners
– Ruled that blacks (slave or free) were not citizens of the
United States
– Also ruled that the Missouri Compromise had always been
unconstitutional because Congress had no right to exclude
slavery from any territory
• To do so violated the 5th Amendment protection of property and
property holders
The Crisis of the Union
1857-1860 (cont.)
• The Republicans denounced the decision and
prepared to ignore it
• PBS link
• National Archives--audio link
The Lecompton Constitution
1857
• In KS, the proslavery legislature proposed a
state constitution that protected slaveholders
and gave the settlers the right to vote only on
whether to allow more slaves into KS
• President Buchanan backed the Lecompton
constitution and called on Congress to grant
KS statehood under it
The Lecompton Constitution
1857 (cont.)
• Stephen Douglas (author of the KS-NE Act)
broke with Buchanan and denounced the
actions of the Lecompton legislature
– Claimed it undermined the original intent of
popular sovereignty
• Northern Democrats and Republicans
applauded Douglas
• Southern Democrats applauded Buchanan
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• In 1858, Douglas ran for reelection to the
Senate
• Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee
– Not well-know or political successful at the time
• Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of
debates
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
(cont.)
• In the debates, Lincoln attacked slavery as morally
evil but denied that Congress had the right to abolish
it in the South or that he favored equality for blacks
– Rather, he stuck to his position that barring slavery from
the territories
• Lincoln also forced Douglas into making his Freeport
Doctrine statement
• Which pleased northern Democrats but made
Douglas and his views unacceptable to the South
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
(cont.)
• Although Douglas won the IL Senate seat, the
election further split the Democratic Party
• It also made Lincoln “famous in the North and
infamous in the South”
• Debate summaries
The Legacy of Harpers Ferry
• John Brown’s raid touched off a wave of fear
and hysteria in the South
• Southerners believed Brown had the backing
of abolitionists and Republicans who were
plotting to incite more slave rebellions
• These fears played into the hands of southern
extremists
The South Contemplates Secession
• Southerners began to speak of secession as the only
way to protect themselves
• They regarded northern opposition to the Fugitive
Slave Act and to slavery in KS as unconstitutional
• They also saw it as an offense to the South
– Which wounded southern pride
• Some argued that separation from the Union would
also permit the South to seize more territory in the
Caribbean and the West for slavery
The Collapse of the Union
1860-1861
• The Election of 1860
– The Republicans broadened their appeal in the
free states in 1860 by supporting a protective
tariff, federal aid for internal improvements, and a
homestead act
• Lincoln was there nominee for President
– The northern and southern Democrats were
unable to agree on a platform so they split
The Election of 1860 (cont.)
• Northern Democrats=Douglas
– Still advocated popular sovereignty
• Southern Democrats=John C. Breckenridge
– Insisted that Congress must pass laws protecting slavery in
all territories
• Constitutional Union Party=John Bell
– Appealed mostly in the border states and Upper South
• Lincoln won
– His name did not appear on southern ballots
– Won a majority of electoral college
– Only 39% of popular vote
The Election of 1860
The Movement for Secession
• Believing that a Republican president would
unleash more John Browns on them
• The states of the Deep South began to secede
even before Lincoln took office
– SC led the way on Dec. 1860
– AL, MS, FL, GA, LA, TX
• On Feb. 4, 1861, delegates from those 7 states
met in Montgomery, AL to form the
Confederate States of America
The Search for Compromise
• KY senator John Crittenden proposed a compromise
to bring the Deep South back into the Union
• It included constitutional amendments that
guaranteed the federal govt. would never interfere
with slavery in the South
• That drew the MO Compromise line across the
remaining territories
– with slavery permitted south of the line in all present and
future U.S. territory
The Search for Compromise (cont.)
• Lincoln rejected the Crittenden plan because he
would not abandon the free-soil promise on which
he had been elected
– He regarded the plan as an invitation to the South to seize
territory in the Caribbean for slavery
• He also felt that he had won an honest election
– That giving in to a losing minority would damage the
American tradition of majority rule
The Coming of War
• The Confederacy began to take over federal forts
within it region
• Soon after Lincoln’s inauguration, the Confederacy
bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston’s harbor
– thus firing the 1st shot in the rebellion that became the
Civil War
• Lincoln responded by proclaiming that a rebellion
existed in the Lower South
– Called for 75,000 militia volunteers from the loyal states to
subdue it
The Coming of War (cont.)
• Rather than send their troops to fight against
sister southern states, VA, NC, AR, and TN
seceded and joined the Confederacy
• The North was now aroused and ready to fight
to save the Union
– though not yet ready to abolish slavery
Conclusion
• At no time prior to the Civil War, did the majority of
Americans call for the end of slavery in the South
• Rather, in the 1850’s, the gulf between the North and
South widened over the spread of slavery into the
territories
• Northerners believed their freedom to pursue
economic opportunity would be denied if they had
to compete against slave labor in the West
Conclusion (cont.)
• Southerners claimed that to curtail slavery in the
territories violated their constitutional right to use
their property (slaves) as they saw fit
• Attempts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, the KS-NE
Act’s repeal of the MO Compromise, the subsequent
fighting in KS, the Dred Scott decision, and John
Brown’s raid all further embittered intersectional
conflict
Conclusion (cont.)
• National political parties collapsed under the
strain:
– the Whigs disintegrated
– The Democrats divided into northern and
southern wings
– A new strictly northern party, the Republicans,
emerged
Conclusion (cont.)
• By the end of the 1850’s, northerners were
convinced the South meant to impose slavery
throughout the nation
• Southern states were ready for secession as
the only way to protect their “peculiar
institution” from a North that they saw as
intent on destroying slavery even in the South