Download Lesson 17

THE CIVIL WAR TESTS THE
CONSTITUTION
Lesson 17
LESSON OBJECTIVES
• Describe several important Constitutional issues raised by President
Lincoln’s actions – suspension of the writ of habeas corpus—
Emancipation Proclamation.
• Explain the similarities and differences between the United States and
the Constitution of the Confederate States of America
• How the Civil War led to the creation of the 13th, 14th and 15th
amendments.
• Take, defend and evaluate positions on the conditions under which
the write of habeas corpus might be suspended and the
constitutionality of secession.
THE CONSTITUTION AND SLAVERY
• Constitution avoids the issue of slavery except:
• Article I Section I: 3/5 Compromise
• Article IV, Section 3: provided that enslaved people who fled from
one state to another must be returned to their owners.
• Article I, Section 9: prohibited Congress from banning the
importation of slaves until 1808.
• When that ban expired Jefferson signed a law ending the importation of
slaves into the United States.
THE CONSTITUTION AND SLAVERY
• Before 1800 it was argued whether the Constitution was pro-slavery or
anti slavery.
• Did the Framers intended to allow slavery to continue regulate by
votes.
• Many opponents were called Abolitionists.
• Many of the opponents said that slavery was not mentioned in the
constitutions
THE CONSTITUTION AND NEW TERRITORIES
• Slavery was not banned in the states, but did ban it in the Northwest
Territory.
• Each time new territory was added to the United States the questions
arose.
• 1820 – Missouri Compromise: Deal with the Louisiana Purchase (1803)
• Missouri slave state
• Other states in the purchase would be slave states only if they lay south
of Missouri’s border.
• North of that line would be “free” territory
• For 60 years states would be entered in pairs free in slave to address
balance in the House and Senate.
THE CONSTITUTION AND NEW TERRITORIES
1845 – Annexation of Texas; Mexican American War –1846-48
disrupted that balance.
As the US acquired Utah, Nevada and parts of Colorado and California
the balance is disrupted.
• Southerners worried it would be impossible to keep the balance.
• Northerners believed that slavery should not be expanded into the new
territories.
• Compromise: California would be free; south would get a stronger fugitive
slave law.
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act: Allowed the people of the territory to decide if
their state would be slave or free. “Free Soil” vs. slavery
Each based on the D of I: human liberty in one case and majority rule in
the other.
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
• Earlier Slave Act of 1793 attempted to enforce a section of the US
Constitution that required the return of runaway slaves – rarely
enforced.
• New Act of 1850 was stronger and outrage many Northerners
• Anyone could be forced to help capture African Americans who were
claimed to be runaway slaves.
• This included those who opposed slavery
• Northern States passes personal liberty laws.
DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD (1857)
Dred Scott was a slave whose master had taken him to the free state of Illinois
and the free Wisconsin Territory and then back to Missouri.
Scott sued saying that he had achieved freedom by living in a free territory.
Missouri State Supreme Court ruled against him.
Scott then sued in the Federal Circuit Court in Missouri; court ruled against him
Scott’s attorney appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Chief Justice Taney wrote the majority opinion:
• African Americans whether enslaved or free could not be citizens of the
United States
• Argued they were not defined as citizens under the Constitution
• US did not have the right to exclude slavery from territories – property
• Due process clause of the 5th Amendment protected property rights –
Could own slaves anywhere in the US.
• Taney hoped for a peaceful resolution – opposite effect – Court viewed as
a court on the slaveholder’s side.
SECESSION
1860 Lincoln becomes President
• Belonged to the newly formed Republican Party
• Committed to “free soil” principles
Faced with a new administration committed to abolish slavery: 11 Southern states
seceded.
• Voting to leave 1860-1861
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South Carolina
Mississippi
Florida
Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Texas
Virginia
Arkansas
North Carolina
Tennesee
SECESSION
• Formed a new union called the Confederate State of America
• Adopted a Constitution in March 1861 – pop. 9 million/ 3.6 million
slaves.
• Southern Arguments:
• Union was a compact of sovereign states
• No state gave up it’s sovereignty when it ratified the Constitution
• “We the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its
sovereign and independent character”
• Ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the American
Revolution – gave them the right of revolution if fundamental rights
were being infringed upon.
• Right to own property
• Believed it was a second American Revolution
SECESSION
• Northern Arguments
• No state had the right to secede
• Created a perpetual union
• Lincoln, “No government proper ever had a provision in
its organic law for its own termination.”
• Lincoln argued that the southern states seceded not
because of rights violations, but because they feared
they would lose the right to own slaves.
• Lincoln viewed this as rebellion
SECESSION
• Southern Organization
• Three branches of government
• Bicameral legislature
• Enumeration of congressional powers
• Provisions of the Bill of Rights
• Confederate President – single six year term
• No law could be passed to bar owning or “impairing the right of
property in negro slaves shall be passed.”
• Could take slaves anywhere in the confederacy.
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES OF THE CIVIL WAR
• Lincoln defied the order
• 13,000 civilians were held under military arrest without judicial hearings
• Most were from rebellious states and border states (even though they
remained with the union).
• People were arrested for “treasonable language” and publications that
appeared to threaten the union cause
• Emancipation Proclamation
Illustrates president’s power as commander in chief
Saw proclamation as a military necessity
Would under cut the South’s main labor source and ability to make war
January 1, 1863 – “shall be then, henceforward, and forever free”
Some saw it as an empty gesture because it left slavery alone in Union
controlled areas.
• Created a foundational liberty – profound political and symbolic
significance
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RESOLUTION OF ISSUES FRAMERS LEFT UNANSWERED
• Resolved the issue of slavery
• 13th Amendment abolished slavery in US and any place subject to their
jurisdiction
• Ended the idea of secession as a constitutional right.
• Presented the idea of national government supremacy
• Union victory led to definition of national citizenship
• Black codes began to surface – appeared to protect the rights of
African Americans, but limited their right to own property, travel and
work for pay on acceptable terms.
• Became clear the 13th amendment was not enough
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 – over the veto of Andrew Johnson
• Little changed
RESOLUTION OF ISSUES FRAMERS LEFT UNANSWERED
• Passed the 14th and 15th Amendments
• 14th declared all persons born or naturalized within the US are citizens
• Nullified the Dred Scott ruling
• Prohibited states from making or enforcing laws that abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens or denying due process or equal protection under the law.
• 15th Amendment prohibited both national and state governments from denying
citizens the right to vote because of their race, color or status as former slaves.
• African Americans were able to begin voting
• Large numbers voted from 1860-1890
• All three amendments gave Congress the power to enforce them using
“appropriate legislation”
• Eventually public support for protecting African American rights weakened
• 14th and 15th became ineffectual
• Southern states began passing laws requiring poll taxes, literacy tests and
grandfather clauses.