Download Chapter 17: Road to Civil War: 1850-1860

CHAPTER 17
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Road to Civil War
1850–1860
SETTING THE SCENE
Focus
Until the mid-1800s the North and South handled their differences
peaceably. The disagreements focused on one main question: What
would be the status of slavery in new western states? A series of
compromises kept an uneasy truce through the 1850s. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, however, the South believed it had
no choice but to leave the Union.
Concepts to Understand
★ How expansion was influenced by geography and the
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★ How conflict and cooperation over slavery led to secession
Read to Discover . . .
★ the major differences between the North and the South.
★ the events that led
seven Southern states
to secede from the
Union.
Chapter Overview
Visit the American History: The Early Years to
1877 Web site at ey.glencoe.com and click on
Chapter 17—Chapter Overviews to preview
chapter information.
1848 Zachary Taylor elected
President
1848 Free-Soil party formed
1846–1849
World
538
HISTORY
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
1850 Compromise of 1850 passed
1850–1853
1852 The South African Republic is
established
1853 The Crimean War begins between
Turkey and Russia
History
AND
ART
View of Harpers Ferry
by Ferdinand Richardt, 1858
John Brown, an abolitionist, targeted the armory at
Harpers Ferry for his attack. Yet Danish painter
Ferdinand Richardt depicts a peaceful view of the town.
LINCOLN CAMPAIGN POSTER
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
1857 Supreme Court makes Dred Scott
decision
1859 John Brown raids Harpers Ferry
1860 Abraham Lincoln elected
President
1860 South Carolina secedes
1854–1857
1857 Indian soldiers revolt against
British rule in the Sepoy Rebellion
1858–1861
1861 Czar Alexander II abolishes
serfdom in Russia
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
539
SECTION 1
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Settling Differences
GUIDE TO READING
Main Idea
As they grew farther apart, Northerners and Southerners sought compromise on the issue of slavery.
Reading Strategy
Organizing Information As you read about
growing sectionalism, use a diagram like
the one shown here to describe the result of
the debate over slavery in the territories.
Debate
over
Slavery
Result
Read to Learn . . .
★ why the Mexican Cession divided the
North and the South.
★ how Northerners and Southerners tried
to settle their differences.
Terms to Know
★
★
★
★
★
sectionalism
popular sovereignty
Free-Soil party
secede
Compromise
of 1850
SLAVE TAGS D
“
aniel Webster fixed his dark gaze
on the other senators as he began his
speech on March 7, 1850:
I wish to speak today, not as
a Massachusetts man, nor as
a Northern man, but as an
American. . . . I speak today
for the preservation of the
Union. . . . [F]or the restoration to the country of that
quiet and that harmony
which make the blessings
of this Union so rich and so
dear to us all. . . .
★ Regions Grow
Further Apart
”
Many of Webster’s listeners shared his
anxiety about the country’s future, but the
Senate was as divided as the rest of the
540
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
nation. What developments had robbed
the country of harmony and threatened
the Union?
While the addition of new territories
gave the country room to grow and
expand, it also raised questions that
brought deep divisions. In the mid-1800s,
the United States gained vast new territories in the West. Eventually, those territories would become states. Would they be
slave or free states? The issue of slavery in
the West would set the North against the
South.
The issue of slavery in new states was
not new. You read in Chapter 12 that the
Missouri Compromise of 1820 kept the
number of slave states and free states
equal. The Missouri Compromise applied
only to those states carved out of the
Louisiana Purchase. The Mexican Cession
in 1848 added a vast stretch of western
lands not covered by the Missouri Compromise. Once again, the question of slavery in the territories became an issue.
Dispute Over Slavery in the West
Even before the war with Mexico had
ended, growing antislavery feelings in the
North led the House of Representatives,
with its Northern majority, to pass the
Wilmot Proviso. An antislavery Democrat,
David Wilmot, introduced this measure. It
would outlaw slavery in all territory
acquired from Mexico. The bill was defeated in the Senate, where the North and
South were equally represented.
The debate over slavery in the territories strengthened feelings of sectionalism.
Sectionalism means that people are more
loyal to their state or region than to the
country as a whole. Southerners united in
their support for slavery and accused the
North of threatening their way of life.
Northern abolitionists believed slavery to
be morally wrong and demanded that the
national government outlaw it.
Some politicians suggested other ways
to settle the question of slavery in the territories. Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan
recommended that the voters who lived
in a territory should decide whether the
states they formed would be slave or free.
This idea supported popular sovereignty,
or the notion that people should have the
right to rule themselves.
new territories. In the election of 1848,
both Northerners and Southerners tried to
play down any discussion of slavery. The
Democrats, although controlled by their
Southern wing, nominated Northern Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan as their presidential candidate. The Whigs, who
enjoyed strong support in the North,
nominated Zachary Taylor, a hero of the
Mexican War who owned a plantation in
Louisiana with more than 100 slaves. His
running mate, Millard Fillmore, was a
moderate New York politician.
The Free-Soil Party
Many Northern Whigs backed Taylor
because he seemed a sure winner, but
“conscience Whigs” rebelled. They
refused to back a slaveholder or risk opening the West to slavery. They broke with
the Whigs and united with Northern
Democrats to form their own party. The
Free-Soil party chose former President
Martin Van Buren as their candidate and
campaigned with the slogan, “Free soil,
free speech, free labor, and free men.”
Although Taylor became President, the
Free-Soil party received an impressive
number of votes. Clearly, the slavery issue
hurt both major parties.
★ The Election of 1848
There seemed to be no way of reconciling the opposing views on slavery in the
ZACHARY TAYLOR
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
541
Admission of California would tip the
balance of power in the Senate in favor of
free states, which already held a majority
in the House. Southern leaders threatened
to leave the Union if it admitted California
as a free state.
★ Threats to the Union
Picturing
H istory
SENATE DEBATE An intense debate raged in
the Senate over the admission of California as
a free state. What bill did Congress pass to
help resolve the problem?
★ The California Question
The California Gold Rush in 1848 intensified questions about slavery in the new
territories. By the end of 1849, an estimated 95,000 forty-niners from all over the
world had settled in California. Along
with this tremendous growth came an
urgent need for government.
President Taylor believed statehood
could become a solution to the issue of
slavery in the territories. As long as lands
remained territories, the federal government decided the issue of slavery. Once the
territories became states, their own governments could settle the slavery question.
At the suggestion of President Taylor, a
convention met in Monterey, California,
in the fall of 1849 and adopted a constitution that prohibited slavery. The newly
created government immediately applied
for admission to the Union as a free state.
California’s application for statehood
touched off a long and bitter debate.
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UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
In January 1849, South Carolina Senator
John C. Calhoun acted against what he
saw as a threat to the Southern way of life.
Calling a caucus, or private meeting, of
the Southern members of Congress, he
denounced the Ordinance of 1787 and the
Missouri Compromise of 1820 as attacks
on the South.
Calhoun claimed that any more similar
Northern-sponsored measures would
bring an end to slavery, start a race war,
and lead to rule by African Americans.
Calhoun warned that the South would
secede, or leave the United States.
Calhoun’s views seemed too extreme
for many people. Even slaveholding senators, including Sam Houston of Texas
and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri,
opposed him. Many Southern newspapers also declared their loyalty to the
Union. Some Southern members of Congress, however, agreed with Calhoun. In
the Southern states, some state legislatures, local conventions, and newspaper
editors adopted his ideas.
In Congress debate over California’s
statehood dragged on for a year. When
Calhoun first talked of seceding, Representative Robert Toombs of Georgia loudly opposed any such move. Before 1849
ended, however, Toombs stood in the
House and declared, “I am for disunion.”
★ Compromise of 1850
To resolve the crisis, Congress turned to
Senator Henry Clay. Clay had earned the
nickname the “Great Compromiser” for
working out the details of the Missouri
Compromise of 1820. Now, 30 years later,
the 73-year-old Clay used all his charm
and eloquence to persuade Congress to
compromise one more time.
Clay’s Proposal
In January 1850 Clay presented a bill in
Congress with the following provisions:
(1) admission of California as a free state;
(2) organization of New Mexico and Utah
as territories with popular sovereignty; (3)
payment to Texas for giving up some territory in New Mexico; (4) an end to the
slave trade, but not slavery, in the District
of Columbia; and (5) passage of a strict
federal law enforcing the return of runaway, or fugitive, slaves. Clay designed
the proposals to give both sides some of
their demands. Eventually the proposals
would become the Compromise of 1850.
Opposition and Support
Senator Calhoun—so ill that he had to
sit grimly in his seat while another senator
read his speech for him—rejected any
compromise as unfair to the South. His
speech stated that some of “the cords
which bind these states together in one
common Union” had already been broken
or weakened by the North’s hostility. He
warned that continued unrest over slavery “will snap every cord” so that “nothing will be left to hold the states together
except force.”
Three days later, Senator Daniel Webster delivered a speech in favor of the
compromise. Although he had been
Clay’s rival for decades, Webster supported Clay’s attempt to save the Union. Like
many Northerners he disagreed with the
institution of slavery. Breaking up the
Union, however, seemed even worse.
Linking Past and Present
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Paper Bags
The world seemed a different place without the common paper bag. It was once a
challenge to carry home groceries, and people could not
“brown-bag” lunches, either.
Then
Baskets and Boxes
In 1852 shoppers in West
Dennis, on Massachusetts’s
Cape Cod,
SHOPPING IN
THE
1800S
smiled in delight as they made
their rounds of the shops.
Instead of carrying a clumsy
shopping basket or juggling
many small parcels, they added
purchase after purchase to the
same brown paper bag. Inventor Luther C. Crowell had come
up with a bag of stiff brown
paper folded and sealed at one
end. It could be made in many
handy sizes.
Now
SHOPPING IN THE 1990S
Not Just Brown
Anymore
Shoppers today use billions of
paper bags, not only brown but
many different colors—sometimes prettier than the items they
hold! Many bags are printed with
store symbols. No matter what
hue, however, each is still folded
and sealed at one end, much like
Crowell’s original design.
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CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
543
August Clay realized his five proposals
would have a better chance of passing separately. At this point Stephen A. Douglas,
a young senator from Illinois, hammered
five bills out of Clay’s proposal. Douglas
guided each bill through and won Senate
approval for all of them.
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise Is Passed
ed
Utah
Terr.
iz
an
org err.
T
Calif.
1850
Iowa Wisc.
1846 1848 Mich.
1837
Minn.
Terr.
Un
Oreg.
Terr.
N. Mex.
Terr.
In September 1850 Congress passed the
bills. Together, they closely resembled
Clay’s original compromise proposals.
President Taylor—who might have
vetoed them—had died in July. His successor, Millard Fillmore, signed the bills
into law.
Webster wrote a friend shortly after
passage of the bills:
Texas
1845
MEXICO
Free states
Slave states
Territory closed
to slaveholding
Territory open to slaveholding
Indian Territory
0
0
350 miles
350 kilometers
“
Place In 1850 members of Congress
agreed on where slaveholding would be
allowed or not allowed in the western
territories. Which territories were
closed to slaveholding?
Webster was willing to compromise and
support the South’s demand that fugitive
slaves be returned if doing so would save
the Union.
The angry debates continued. Even
with Webster’s support, Clay had to plead
for his compromise again and again. By
I can now sleep of nights.
We have gone through the
most important crisis that
has occurred since the
founding of the government, and whatever party
may prevail, hereafter the
Union stands firm.
”
For a time, the compromise patched up
the North-South quarrel. Yet basic differences persisted. Many Southerners agreed
with Calhoun’s charges that the North
had wronged the South. They also
remembered his remedy—secession.
Assessment★
★ Section
SECTION1 1★ASSESSMENT
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Checking for Understanding
1. Define sectionalism, popular sovereignty,
Free-Soil party, secede, Compromise of 1850.
2. Why did Northern Whigs form the Free-Soil
party?
Critical Thinking
3. Drawing Conclusions Do you think the
Compromise of 1850 was fair to both sides?
Why or why not?
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UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
4. Summarizing Re-create the chart shown
here, and describe what the North and South
each gained from the Compromise of 1850.
Compromise of 1850
Southern Gains
Northern Gains
INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITY
5. Citizenship Create a campaign poster for
one of the candidates in the 1848 election.
Include slogans or symbols to gain support.
SECTION 2
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Moving Closer to Conflict
GUIDE TO READING
Read to Learn . . .
Main Idea
The slavery issue continued to drive
the North and South further apart
during the 1850s.
Reading Strategy
Organizing Information As you read
about how the North and South moved
toward conflict, use a diagram such as the
one shown here to trace the steps
that led to bloodshed in Kansas.
step
step
★ how Northerners reacted to the
Fugitive Slave Act.
★ why the Kansas-Nebraska Act caused
bloodshed.
★ how the Dred Scott decision affected
slavery in the territories.
Terms to Know
★ Fugitive Slave Act
★ Kansas-Nebraska Act
step
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE’S
UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
T
he crowd in Syracuse, New York, fell
silent as Reverend J. W. Loguen stood to
speak. Years before, Loguen had escaped
to freedom on his master’s horse. He had
gone to college and become a minister.
Now his audience waited to hear what he
had to say about the Fugitive Slave Act:
“
The time has come to change
the tones of submission into
tones of defiance—and to
tell Mr. Fillmore and Mr.
Webster, if they propose to
execute this measure upon
us, to send on their bloodhounds. . . . I don’t respect
this law—I don’t fear it—
I won’t obey it! It outlaws
me, and I outlaw it.
”
Although the Compromise of 1850 kept
peace for a few years, the provisions of the
Fugitive Slave Act aroused deep anger in
the North. It aroused new calls for an end
to slavery.
★ Growing Support
for Abolition
A Fugitive Slave Act had been in effect
since 1793, making it a crime to help runaway enslaved persons. The new Fugitive
Slave Act, passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, however, set up harsher
punishments. Now anyone caught aiding
fugitive slaves could be fined $1,000 and
be jailed for six months.
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
545
With the new law, slaveholders hunted
fiercely for runaways, whom they
thought of as valuable lost property.
They sent agents, offered rewards, or
traveled north themselves to hunt down
those who had run away. Agents even
caught free African Americans and
claimed they were fugitives. Free or
enslaved African Americans could not
testify in their own defense to prove that
they were not fugitives.
Abolitionist Protests
Watching fugitives being brutally
seized and driven back into slavery convinced more people of the evils of slavery.
Despite the penalties, many Northerners
openly assisted runaways.
Former slaves and free-born African
Americans worked harder than ever to
help their people. Harriet Tubman, one of
the best-known conductors on the Underground Railroad, began guiding runaway
slaves all the way to Canada. In Ohio Elijah Anderson led more than 1,000
enslaved African Americans to freedom
between 1850 and 1855.
To win support for the abolitionist
movement, Frederick Douglass and others who had gained freedom spoke at
meetings and church services. Some wrote
their life stories, known as “slave narratives.” One of these books, Narrative of
Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, was published in 1850 by the well-known abolitionist editor William Lloyd Garrison. The
book depicted the effects of slavery in the
North.
Biography ★★★★
Sojourner Truth, Striving for Truth
“I was born a slave in Ulster County,
New York,” Isabella Baumfree began
when she told her story to audiences.
Called “Belle,” she lived in the cellar of
her master’s mansion house. Born around
1797 Belle’s life changed drastically when
she became free in 1828 under a New York
law that banned slavery.
In 1843 Belle chose a new name.
“Sojourner Truth is my name,” she said,
“because from this day I will walk in the
light of [God’s] truth.” She began to work
in the movements both
for abolition and for
women’s rights.
Sojourner Truth had
never been taught to
read or write, but she
spoke with wit and
wisdom. In 1852
at a gathering
SOJOURNER TRUTH
Footnotes to History
Freedom Packages
Many Northerners defied the Fugitive Slave Act and
helped slaves escape. Henry Brown, a slave in Richmond, Virginia, had a friend
build a box to send through the mail. Brown poked three breathing holes in it and
placed himself inside. The trip to freedom was rough. At one point the box was
thrown so hard that Brown’s neck was almost broken. Brown reached Philadelphia, though, and when his Northern friends opened the box, the former slave
stood up and fainted.
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UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
of Ohioans, a rowdy farmer challenged her:
The Constitution did not oppose slavery.
Was she against the Constitution?
In answer, Sojourner used an example
the farmer could understand. She knew
that insects called weevils had eaten that
year’s wheat crop in Ohio. So she
described walking near a wheat field and
touching the tall, healthy-looking stalks
but finding no grain there. “I says, ‘God,
what’s the matter with this wheat?’ And
he says to me, ‘Sojourner, there’s a little
weevil in it.’”
The farmer started to interrupt but she
went on: “I hears talk about the Constitution and rights of man. I come up and I
takes hold of this Constitution. It looks
mighty big. And I feels for my rights. But
they not there. Then I says, ‘God, what ails
this Constitution?’ And you know what
he says to me? . . . ‘Sojourner, there’s a little weevil in it.’”
★★★
A New Picture of Slavery
Many of the people who read slave narratives and listened to the stories told by
freed African Americans already believed
in abolition. A new novel published in
1852, though, brought the cruel story of
slavery to a wider audience, moving them
to tears and anger.
Harriet Beecher Stowe came from a
family of well-known educators and clergy. After moving from Connecticut to
Ohio, she heard stories about slavery from
those escaping by the Underground Railroad. She also visited plantations in nearby Kentucky. After the passage of the
Fugitive Slave Act, Stowe used her experiences to write the novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin—portraying a kindly plantation
family, the brutal overseer Simon Legree,
and a saintly enslaved man, Uncle Tom.
First printed as a series in an abolitionist newspaper, Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out
as a book in 1852. In the first week, it sold
10,000 copies. Later it was reprinted in 37
languages, sold more than 1 million
WARNING TO AFRICAN AMERICANS
copies in the British Empire, and became a
hit play. While Stowe portrayed some
Southerners sympathetically, her descriptions of a suffering slave and heartless
slaveholder swayed more Northerners
than ever against slavery.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin also turned Southerners against the North. In South Carolina,
Mary Chesnut spoke for many slaveholders when she complained in her diary
about Stowe and other Northern abolitionists. She believed that they did not
know what they were talking about. Their
antislavery opinions, she said, were an
“obsession with other decent people’s
customs” and a “self-serving” way to
make money.
★ Kansas-Nebraska Act
In 1854 the political truce over slavery
ended with the passage of the KansasNebraska Act. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois proposed the act to set up
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
547
territorial governments in the Nebraska
Territory and to encourage rapid settlement of the region. Douglas and other
Northern leaders also hoped to build a
transcontinental railroad through their
states rather than through the Southern
part of the country.
The Nebraska Territory stretched from
Texas to Canada and from Missouri west
to the Rocky Mountains. Douglas knew
that the South did not want to add another free state to the Union. He, therefore,
proposed dividing the region into two territories, Nebraska and Kansas. In each territory settlers would decide the issue of
slavery by popular sovereignty.
Leaders throughout the South supported the proposal. They believed slaveholders in Missouri would move across the
border into Kansas. Eventually, Kansas
would become a slave state. President
Franklin Pierce, a Democrat elected in
1852, also supported Douglas’s proposal.
With the President’s help, Douglas
pushed the bill through Congress.
Northerners became outraged. They
felt betrayed. Popular sovereignty in
Kansas and Nebraska, in effect, canceled
the Missouri Compromise. The KansasNebraska Act opened the possibility of
new slave states in the West—an area that
had been free for more than 30 years.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the Nebraska
Territory into separate territories, and repealed
the prohibition of slavery north of the Missouri
Compromise line. The citizens of each territory
would be able to determine by vote whether
their state would be slave or free.
Washington
Territory
Minnesota
Oregon
Nebraska Territory
Territory
Territory
Utah
Territory
Kansas
Territory
New Mexico
Territory
Free states
Slave states
Territory closed to slavery
Territory open to slavery
Indian territory
Region The Compromise of 1850 had closed the area of
Kansas and Nebraska territories to slaveholding. How did
the Kansas-Nebraska Act affect the agreement
reached in the Compromise of 1850?
548
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
KANSAS
FREE-SOIL
POSTER
Bleeding Kansas
The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act started a race to win Kansas for one
side or the other. Backers of slavery from
Missouri and other slave states moved to
the territory. Under popular sovereignty,
they could vote for Kansas to enter the
Union as a slave state.
To counter the proslavery groups, the
New England Emigrant Aid Society
helped Free-Soilers, members of the FreeSoil party, to migrate to Kansas and “vote
to make it free.” The settlers built the
town of Lawrence, Kansas, which became
a Free-Soil stronghold. Other emigrant aid
societies in Free-Soil states also sent settlers and weapons.
Antislavery settlers soon outnumbered
proslavery ones. In 1855 Kansas held elections to choose its lawmakers. Hundreds
of drifters known as border ruffians
crossed the border from Missouri. They
harassed antislavery settlers in Kansas
and voted illegally for a proslavery government.
As a result, Kansas elected a proslavery
legislature. Its members passed what the
Free-Soilers called “black laws.” One law
punished antislavery talk with 5 years in
prison. Another law gave 10 years in jail
to anyone caught helping escaped slaves.
Antislavery forces refused to obey the
new government in Kansas. They drafted
a free-state constitution and elected their
own representative to Congress.
Violence increased. Shootings and
barn-burnings became common. On April
23, 1856, a proslavery sheriff was shot outside the town of Lawrence. Proslavery
newspapers blamed the town’s Free-Soilers and cried for war. In May an army of
border ruffians and proslavery Kansans
looted and burned Lawrence, killing five
abolitionists in the process.
John Brown, a fanatical abolitionist
from the Northeast, had come to Kansas
with his 5 sons to join the antislavery
forces. When Brown heard of the murders
at Lawrence, he decided he had to avenge
the crime. On the night of May 24, Brown
and some followers murdered 5 proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek. More
fighting and killing followed. By late 1856,
more than 200 people had been killed.
Americans began to call the territory
Bleeding Kansas.
★ Violence in the Senate
The violence extended to the nation’s
capital, where anger over the issue of slavery exploded in the Senate. Senator
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts made a
long speech viciously denouncing Southern slaveholders and Senator Andrew
Butler of South Carolina as supporters of
the crime of slavery in Kansas. The speech
enraged Butler’s nephew, South Carolina
representative Preston Brooks.
Two days later—the day after the burning of Lawrence, Kansas—Brooks approached Sumner at his desk on the
Senate floor and beat him with a heavy
cane, splintering the wood. Bleeding and
half-conscious, Sumner was helped out of
the Senate. Shocked Northerners viewed
Sumner as a martyr and held protest
meetings against the violence. For some
Southerners, however, Brooks became a
hero. Admirers sent him more canes. One
cane bore the inscription “Hit him again.”
Meanwhile in Kansas the struggle over
slavery continued. Antislavery settlers
eventually won the fight because of their
great numbers. In 1861 Kansas entered the
Union as a free state.
★ The Dred Scott Decision
During the 1850s Southerners often
criticized the federal government for
treating them unfairly. In 1857, however,
the Supreme Court took their side on the
question of slavery and pushed the North
and South further apart.
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
549
DRED SCOTT The Supreme
Court ruled that as an African
American, Dred Scott could not
sue for his freedom because he
was not a citizen. What did the Supreme Court
rule unconstitutional in the Dred Scott case?
Picturing
H istory
In the 1830s an army doctor in Missouri
bought an enslaved man, Dred Scott. The
doctor then moved with his household to
Illinois, a free state, and next to Wisconsin
Territory, where slavery was banned by
the Missouri Compromise. Later the family returned to Missouri, where the doctor
died. In 1846 Dred Scott decided to sue for
freedom for himself and his family. He
claimed that living in free territory had
made him a free person.
With the help of antislavery lawyers,
Scott’s case eventually reached the
Supreme Court. Many of the justices,
however, favored slavery. The Court voted
7 to 2 against him. On March 6, 1857, Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney (TAW•nee) delivered an opinion that upheld the Southern
view that Scott had no right to sue in a
federal court. The Court ruled against
Scott because the founders of the United
States did not intend for African Americans to be citizens. In addition, Scott’s
travels to free territory had not affected his
status as a slave. Slaves were property,
said Taney, and the Fifth Amendment prohibited Congress from taking property
without “due process of law.” He also said
that the Missouri Compromise ban on
slavery north of the 36°30´ line was unconstitutional because Congress had no right
to prohibit slavery in the territories. In
effect, the decision meant that the Constitution protected slavery. Abolishing slavery would require a constitutional
amendment.
Rather than settling the issue, the Dred
Scott decision aroused bitterness among
the abolitionists and increased tensions
between the North and South. Many
Southerners now happily considered all
territories open to slavery. Stunned
Northerners vowed to fight the decision.
Assessment★
★ Section
SECTION1 2★ASSESSMENT
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Checking for Understanding
1. Define Fugitive Slave Act, Kansas-Nebraska
Act.
2. How did the Fugitive Slave Act affect the
abolitionist movement?
Critical Thinking
3. Making Comparisons Uncle Tom’s Cabin
sparked high tensions between the North
and South. How was it similar to Thomas
Paine’s Common Sense?
550
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
4. Analyzing Issues Re-create the diagram
shown here, and list the reasons the Dred Scott
decision outraged Northern abolitionists.
Dred Scott Decision
INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITY
5. The Arts Find a slave narrative at the
library and choose one incident in it.
Turn the incident into a brief first-person
monologue that you can present in class.
History
AND
MATH
THE ARTS
GEOGRAPHY
ECONOMICS
SCIENCE
King Cotton
COTTON PICKERS, BY ETHEL MAGAFAN, 1940
How did cotton become the “king” crop in
the southern United States? Europeans and
Americans of the 1700s and 1800s called cotton a miracle fiber. It was light, cool, soft,
durable, and easy to dye, sew, and care for.
Cotton had been one of the first products
brought from India by British explorers and
merchants in the late 1600s. Employees of the
British East India Company, suffering in
India’s hot climate, thankfully exchanged
their heavy woolen clothes for light cotton
clothing. They also began sending supplies of
the wondrous fabric back to England. The
material quickly became immensely popular.
Planters in the southern American colonies
found that cotton would thrive in the hot,
humid climate, though it took the hard work
of many people. The South’s growing season
was long enough for a cotton crop to ripen
each year.
With the invention of the cotton gin in the
1790s, cotton production and exports increased
astoundingly. By 1840 the United States produced more than 60 percent of the world’s
cotton. By 1860
Southern plantations produced more
COTTON CARDING
than 1 billion pounds
PADDLES
(454,000,000 kg) yearly.
The greatest amount was still being shipped to
England. At the same time, however, new
American textile factories began to increase the
demand for cotton.
Making the Geography Connection
1. How did cotton growing become a part
of the British and American way of life?
2. What geographic factors made it possible for Southern states to base their
economy on cotton?
ACTIVITY
3. Using an encyclopedia, make a list of
products using cotton or cottonseed (for
example, clothing, towels, oils). Make a
list of ways you use cotton, in as many
different categories as possible.
551
SECTION 3
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A New Political Party
GUIDE TO READING
Read to Learn . . .
Main Idea
A new political party that sought to
stop the spread of slavery arose.
★ how the Republican party formed.
★ the issues and results of the LincolnDouglas debates.
Reading Strategy
Terms to Know
Organizing Information As you read
about the formation of the Republican
party, use the diagram shown here to list
what groups formed the party and what its
main views were.
★ Republicans
★ debate
★ Freeport Doctrine
Republican Party
Groups
Views
JOHN C. FRÉMONT
D
isagreement over the KansasNebraska Act split the old Whig party and
brought about new political alliances. The
Whigs had refused to take a stand on slavery in the territories. As a result, proslavery Whigs drifted into the Democratic
party. Meanwhile Whigs and Democrats
opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
joined Free-Soilers in loosely organized
anti-Nebraska groups.
Gradually, the anti-Nebraska groups
united. They organized first on the state
level. In Wisconsin they met in the town
of Ripon on February 24, 1854. The chairman suggested that they call themselves
Republicans. Eventually the Republicans
became a new national party.
The first national convention of the
Republican party took place in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, in February 1856. It
552
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
brought together fragmented groups of
state-level Republicans, abolitionists,
Free-Soilers, and anti-Nebraska Whigs
and Democrats. Members of the new
party accused Southerners of forcing slavery on the territories. Some thought that
the institution of slavery kept wages low
for white workers. Others considered
slavery immoral. All Republicans agreed
that Congress should keep slavery out of
the western territories. Most Republicans
did not expect to eliminate slavery in the
South.
★ The Election of 1856
Members of the new Republican party
met in June in Philadelphia to nominate a
presidential candidate. They chose John
C. Frémont, a western explorer and leader
of the California uprising against Mexico
in 1846. Republicans rallied around their
candidate with the cry “Free Men, Free
Soil, Frémont.”
By 1856 the Democratic party was
made up mostly of Southerners. Meeting
in Cincinnati, Ohio, they nominated
James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, an
experienced diplomat and former member of Congress. They endorsed the notion
of popular sovereignty.
The American party, or Know-Nothing
party, had grown quickly between 1853
and 1856 by attacking immigrants and
promoting temperance. The Know-Nothings nominated former President Millard
Fillmore. This new party lost support
quickly because it ignored the issue of
slavery in the territories.
Due to large support in the South,
Buchanan won the election. With only a
minority of the popular vote, he won all
of the Southern states except Maryland
and received 174 electoral votes against
114 for Frémont and 8 for Fillmore. Frémont carried 11 of the 16 free states. The
election of 1856 made it quite clear that
sectionalism now played a critical role in
American politics.
★ Abraham Lincoln
Becomes a National
Figure
As a young man Abraham Lincoln
moved to New Salem, Illinois, where he
purchased a country store. He entered
JAMES BUCHANAN James
Buchanan defeated John C.
Frémont and Millard Fillmore in
the election of 1856. What
helped Buchanan win the election?
Picturing
H istory
politics in 1832, losing the race for state
legislator. In 1834 he again ran for the legislature and won. During this time he
began studying law and received his
attorney license in 1836.
Lincoln had belonged to the Whig
party for more than 20 years. From 1834
to 1841 he served in the Illinois state legislature and in 1846 voters elected him to
the House of Representatives. Republicans and not Whigs, though, addressed
the spread of slavery—one of Lincoln’s
Footnotes to History
A Humble Start
Two Presidents, Millard Fillmore and Andrew Johnson, were
once indentured servants. An indentured servant, unlike a slave, was under a
contract to a master for a certain length of time. Like slaves, though, indentured
servants did not have many rights.
Andrew Johnson ran away from his master. Fillmore served his master for several years and then bought his freedom for $30.
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
553
AD FOR LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES
★ The Lincoln-Douglas
Campaign
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
concerns. After the Whig party collapsed,
he joined the Republicans. Lincoln campaigned vigorously for Frémont. As Illinois voters listened to him speak, they
enjoyed the way he made complex arguments easy to understand.
People admired Lincoln’s honesty, wit,
and soft-spoken manner. He served one
term in the United States House of Representatives. Ten years later, in 1858, he
decided to challenge Senator Stephen A.
Douglas for his seat in the Senate. When
accepting the nomination, Lincoln delivered a stirring speech to a cheering crowd
at the Illinois Republican convention. As
he began to speak, he seemed afraid and
stiff, but soon he energetically swung his
long arms and rose up on his toes to stress
each point:
“
554
A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I believe
this government cannot
endure permanently half
slave and half free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the
house to fall—but I do
expect it will cease to be
divided. . . .
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
”
The next month, Douglas kicked off his
campaign in Chicago. He exclaimed to a
throng of excited Democrats that Lincoln’s “house divided” speech called for
war between the North and South. Douglas attacked the idea of African American equality. The American government,
Douglas claimed, “was made by the white
man, for the benefit of the white man, to
be administered by white men.”
Speaking the following night, Lincoln
denied Douglas’s charge of wanting war.
Whereas Douglas thought of slavery as a
political concern, Lincoln raised the
moral question of slavery. Lincoln considered slavery an evil that must be limited so that it would die out. “Let us
discard all this quibbling about . . . this
race and that race and the other race
being inferior.” He urged his listeners to
“once more stand up declaring that all
men are created equal.”
Lincoln knew he could not attract the
large crowds that Douglas did. Therefore,
he followed Douglas across the state,
often traveling on the same train. Douglas
relaxed in a private car while Lincoln rode
in a public coach.
The Great Debates
In late July Lincoln challenged Douglas
to a series of debates, or public discussions, on slavery. After some hesitation,
Douglas accepted the challenge. During
the campaign, the men debated seven
times. The debates centered on the extension of slavery into the free territories.
Lincoln and Douglas held their first
debate in Ottawa, Illinois, before a crowd
of 10,000 people. The two rivals sat side
by side on the speakers’ platform. Douglas—short but powerfully built, with a
large head—looked the part of his nickname, “Little Giant.” He dressed smartly,
sometimes wearing a ruffled shirt and
broad-brimmed plantation hat. Tall, thin
Lincoln, on the other hand, wore a baggy
suit and kept his carpetbag of notes beside
him.
Douglas spoke in a deep voice and gestured with clenched fists. Knowing that
many voters disliked abolitionists, he
labeled Lincoln and his party “Black
Republicans.” In a shrill but forceful
voice, Lincoln accused Douglas of having
a “don’t care” attitude toward the spread
of slavery into the territories. Douglas
often ridiculed Lincoln for declaring
African Americans equal to whites.
As the debates continued, Lincoln
devised a way to discredit Douglas within his own party. During the debate at
Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln asked Douglas
if the people of a territory could exclude
slavery prior to the formation of a state
constitution. In other words, was popular
sovereignty still workable despite the
Dred Scott decision?
Lincoln had trapped Douglas. If he
answered “yes,” Douglas would appear
to support popular sovereignty, thereby
opposing the Dred Scott decision. Such an
answer would improve his chances for
reelection as a senator but cost him Southern support for the presidential race in
1860. A “no” answer would make it seem
as if he had abandoned popular sovereignty, on which he had based his political
career. This answer would be welcomed
in the South, but it might cost him the senatorial election.
To solve the dilemma, Douglas stated
that the decision did not necessarily void
popular sovereignty in the territories. Yes,
he admitted that the Supreme Court had
said that neither Congress nor the governments of the territories could prohibit
slavery by law. On the other hand, in
places where Free-Soilers made up the
majority, they could destroy slavery simply by refusing to pass laws that protected
it. Douglas’s explanation later became
known as the Freeport Doctrine.
Lincoln continued to stress this fundamental difference between himself and
Douglas. Douglas ignored the moral
question of slavery, while Lincoln regarded it as morally, socially, and politically
evil.
An End . . . and a Beginning
Douglas won the 1858 election by a narrow margin and kept his place in the Senate. Still, he lost the support of many
Democrats outside Illinois. Lincoln won
an impressive popular vote in the state,
and the election debates made him a
national figure. At the time, however, a
disappointed Lincoln predicted that he
would “now sink out of view.”
Assessment★
★ Section
SECTION1 3★ASSESSMENT
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Checking for Understanding
1. Define Republicans, debate, Freeport
Doctrine.
2. How did Abraham Lincoln become a national figure in politics?
4. Analyzing Issues Re-create the chart shown
here, and describe the position taken by
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in
their debates.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln’s Position
Douglas’s Position
Critical Thinking
3. Interpreting Primary Sources Why did
Douglas and other Democrats charge that
Lincoln’s “house divided” speech was a call
for war between the North and South?
INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITY
5. Citizenship Choose an idea from one of
Lincoln’s speeches and design a bulletin
board display around it.
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
555
SECTION 4
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Election of 1860 and Secession
GUIDE TO READING
Read to Learn . . .
Main Idea
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln captured
the presidency, which prompted
Southern states to begin seceding
from the union.
★ why John Brown invaded
Harpers Ferry.
★ how Southern states tried to form
a separate nation.
Reading Strategy
Terms to Know
Sequencing Information As you read
about how the nation broke apart, create a
time line of events that led to the secession
of Southern states. Use the dates provided
as a guide.
★ homestead act
★ armory
★ Crittenden Plan
November 1860
October 1859
February 1861
December 1860
LINCOLN-HAMLIN
T
CAMPAIGN FLAG
he people of Springfield, Illinois,
began to jump in the streets, singing and
shouting. Some threw their hats in the air.
Still others climbed to their rooftops to
cheer. In the statehouse, dignified politicians rolled on the carpet. Everywhere,
people sang:
“
Ain’t I glad I joined the
Republicans,
Joined the Republicans,
Joined the Republicans,
Ain’t I glad I joined the
Republicans,
Down in Illinois.
”
The wild election-night celebration of
Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the 1860
presidential election echoed in other
556
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
places in the North. In the South, however, the news brought confusion, anger,
and despair.
★ An Uneasy Decade
The United States had little to celebrate
during the 1850s. Year after year, relations
between the North and South grew
worse. A serious depression, or economic
downturn, hit the North in 1857. To help
businesses and poor farmers, Northerners pressed for higher tariffs and free
land. Southerners in Congress would not
act to raise tariffs, however. Congress
passed a homestead act offering free land
to settlers, but President Buchanan
vetoed it.
Violence over slavery continued to rage
in Kansas. Then in October 1859, abolitionist John Brown brought his war
against slavery into Virginia, not far from
the nation’s capital.
John Brown’s Raid
Now almost 60 years old, with a long
white beard, Brown thought of himself as
an avenging angel doing God’s will by
destroying slavery, even if it meant killing
people. Brown had formed a small army
of 18 followers. On the night of October
16, 1859, Brown and his men invaded
Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). They occupied a federal armory, or
storehouse for weapons. Then they seized
a nearby rifle factory and took several
hostages. They hoped to use captured
guns and rifles to arm all the enslaved
persons in the area and ignite a slave
revolt that would end in freedom for all
enslaved African Americans.
By morning, local farmers and militia
had rushed to town in a panic, fearing a
slave rebellion. Brown and his followers
probably could have escaped, but Brown
refused. No others tried to escape until it
was too late. By the time Brown tried to
negotiate with the militia, they had
trapped him.
Rumors spread in Washington of a
huge slave rebellion. President Buchanan
sent in army troops and a company of
United States Marines, commanded by
Colonel Robert E. Lee. On the second
morning, the marines—plus a huge
crowd—surrounded Brown. When Brown
refused to surrender, the soldiers battered
down the door and attacked with bayonets. One of the officers wounded and
captured Brown.
John Brown’s raid on the arsenal had
lasted 36 hours. No local people had
joined his cause. Ten of Brown’s men,
including two of his sons, had been killed.
Brown’s raiders had killed 4 civilians, 1
marine, and 2 slaves.
Reactions in the North
and South
Northerners had mixed
reactions to the raid. Was
John Brown a courageous
martyr to the cause of freedom or a madman? At his
trial, Brown testified in a
moving and dignified
manner. Northern
abolitionists especially admired his
hatred for slavery,
and many believed
that his execution
would give their cause
JOHN BROWN
a martyr and hero.
In the South people’s reactions to the
raid consisted of fear, anger, and hatred.
Southerners became convinced that they
could not live safely in the Union. Northern
support for Brown horrified Southerners as
much as the raid itself. Many Southerners
feared the possibility of a slave rebellion,
and they became convinced that the North
hoped to produce one.
Southern towns organized militias and
declared martial law. Rumors of plots and
revolts spread like wildfire. Planters
enforced harsh discipline, threatening to
whip or hang any enslaved persons who
acted at all rebellious.
Government authorities convicted John
Brown of treason and murder and sentenced him to hang on December 2, 1859.
★ The Election of 1860
John Brown’s raid became a major theme
in the presidential election campaigns of
HISTORY
Student Web Activity
Visit the American History: The Early Years to 1877 Web
site at ey.glencoe.com and click on Chapter 17—Student Web Activities for an activity on John Brown’s raid.
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
557
Election of 1860
Vt.
Oreg.
Minn.
Wis.
Nonvoting
Territories
Calif.
Texas
N.H.
Maine
Mass.
Mich.
Iowa
N.Y.
Pa.
Ohio
Ill. Ind.
Mo.
Va.
Ky.
N.C.
Ark. Tenn. S.C.
Miss. Ga.
Ala.
La.
Fla.
R.I.
Conn.
N.J.
Del.
Md.
Popular vote: Electoral vote:
4,689,568
303
180
Lincoln 1,865,593
Republican
Breckinridge
848,356
72
Southern Democrat
Bell
Douglas
592,906
39
Constitutional Union
1,382,713
12
Northern Democrat
Location Lincoln found support in the
Northern and Western states. Which
states supported Douglas?
1860. Democrats grabbed the chance to hurt
Republicans. They branded the raid a
“Black Republican” plot and accused party
leaders of plotting with Brown.
The issue distressed Republicans. Many
admired Brown’s ideals but not his
actions, which they saw as crimes. “John
Brown was no Republican,” Lincoln
protested. Still, Southerners remained
suspicious of Republicans and anyone
who refused to support slavery.
Parties and Their Candidates
The issue that splintered the nation
also broke apart parties. In 1860 Stephen
A. Douglas tried to hold onto his leadership in the Democratic party. However,
he insisted that as President he would
not annul laws that discouraged slavery
in the territories.
558
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
This stand lost Douglas the support of
Southern delegates at the Democratic convention in Charleston, South Carolina. It
split the Democratic party. Northern
Democrats nominated Douglas for President and supported popular sovereignty.
Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, supporting the
ideals of the Dred Scott decision.
Alarmed by sectional divisions, a group
of former Whigs put together the Constitutional Union party. They nominated
Senator John Bell of Tennessee and championed the Union and the Constitution,
attempting to avoid the slavery issue.
Before John Brown’s raid, Republicans
considered William H. Seward their first
choice for President. Many voters, however, considered Seward’s views against
slavery too extreme. Democrats blamed
him for inspiring the raid on Harpers
Ferry. Abraham Lincoln, who had fewer
enemies and remained popular outside
the Northeast, seemed a safer choice.
Although he opposed extending slavery
into the territories, he conceded Southerners’ right to have slavery in the South.
Republican Platform
The Republican platform also called for
a homestead act, a transcontinental railroad, and a protective tariff. These goals
appealed to farmers, Westerners, and
manufacturers. Southerners, however,
detested the Republicans’ platform and
their candidate. Many Southerners
thought of Lincoln as an abolitionist and
believed the Republicans wanted to make
war upon the South. They feared that if
Lincoln became President, they would
lose their voice in the national government. Lincoln’s name did not even appear
on the ballot in 10 Southern states. A
newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, insisted
that the South “would never submit to . . .
the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.” It
predicted the South would secede rather
than accept Lincoln as President.
Election Results
On November 6, 1860—Election Day—
telegraph wires flashed the results from
the nation’s polls to Springfield, Illinois.
Lincoln and his friends celebrated victories in New England, the Northwest, and
Pennsylvania. Then the news came that
New York voted Republican. Those votes
won Lincoln the presidency.
The final tally showed Lincoln carried
every free state except New Jersey. This
gave him a majority of the electoral votes.
Yet, because of the three-way race, he
received only 40 percent—less than a
majority—of the popular vote.
★ Moving Toward
Secession
Southerners reacted differently to Lincoln’s election. In Charleston, South Carolina, people set off fireworks and fired
cannons to salute the South Carolina flag.
Southerners were certain that a new
nation would be born in South Carolina.
A Charleston newspaper editorial proclaimed, “The tea has been thrown overboard, the revolution of 1860 has been
initiated.” A few days later, the United
States senators from South Carolina
resigned from Congress, and the state
Seceding States, 1860–1861
130° W
110° W
120° W
100° W
90° W
80° W
70° W
Wash.
Territory
N.H.
40° N
Wis.
Nevada
Territory
Calif.
PACIFIC
OCEAN
Minn.
Dakota
Territory
Oregon
Vt.
Nebraska Territory
Utah
Colorado
Terr.
Territory
New Mexico
Territory
30° N
60° W
Maine
Mass.
N.Y.
Mich.
Pa.
Iowa
Ohio
Ill. Ind.
W.
Va.* Va.
Kansas Mo.
Ky.
N.C.
Indian
Tenn.
Terr. Ark.
S.C.
Miss.
Ala. Ga.
Texas
La.
R.I.
Conn.
N.J.
Del.
Md.
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Fla.
*West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1861 and was admitted to the Union in 1863.
20° N
Union free state
Union slave state
Slave state seceding
before Ft. Sumter, April 1861
Slave state seceding
after Ft. Sumter, April 1861
Confederate states
0
0
200
200
400 miles
400 kilometers
Region After the attack on Fort Sumter, four more Southern states joined the
seven that had already seceded from the Union. Which slave states
remained in the Union?
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
559
legislature called a convention to decide
what steps to take. For South Carolina,
the time to secede had come.
no meat—the principle all sucked out.”
Republicans voted down the plan.
Secession!
Dissenting Southerners
Not all Southerners seemed as eager to
leave the Union as the people in
Charleston. Alexander H. Stephens
implored the Georgia legislature not to act
unless the federal government moved
against the South. He thought the South
could defend its rights better within the
Union. Stephens said, however, that if
Georgians decided to secede, he would
support his state: “Their cause is my
cause, and their destiny is my destiny.”
Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky
also tried to save the Union by proposing
his Crittenden Plan, which involved several amendments to the Constitution. One
would guarantee the existence of slavery
in the states where it already existed.
Another would bring back the old Missouri Compromise line prohibiting slavery in the territories but allowing a
popular vote at the time of statehood.
Although not yet in office, Lincoln
wielded power as head of his party. He
advised Republicans in Congress to
oppose the Crittenden Plan. Otherwise,
he said, the Republican party would
become “a mere sucked egg, all shell and
On December 20, 1860, before Lincoln
was sworn in as President, delegates at
the South Carolina convention voted
unanimously to secede from the United
States. By February 1861, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
and Texas had also voted to leave the
Union. These states based their right to
secede on the theory of states’ rights. They
defined the Constitution as a contract
among sovereign states. The Northern
states had broken that contract by refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and
by denying the Southern states their equal
rights in the territories.
On February 4, delegates met in Alabama to form a new nation. They named it
the Confederate States of America, or the
Confederacy. They elected Jefferson
Davis, a former member of Congress and
the cabinet, as president.
Word of the Confederacy spread fast. In
Galena, Illinois, a man ran into a leather
goods store owned by a former army officer Ulysses S. Grant. As he blurted out the
news, Grant turned to him and said,
“Davis and the whole gang of them ought
to be hung!”
Assessment★
★ Section
SECTION1 4★ASSESSMENT
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Checking for Understanding
1. Define homestead act, armory, Crittenden
Plan.
2. What was the goal of John Brown’s raid on
Harpers Ferry?
3. Why were there four parties and candidates
in the presidential election of 1860?
Critical Thinking
4. Making Comparisons Re-create the diagram shown here, and describe how people
560
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
in the North and the South reacted to John
Brown’s raid.
North
John Brown’s Raid
South
INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITY
5. Citizenship Make up a campaign slogan
or song for one of the candidates in the
1860 presidential election.
BUILDING SKILLS
Social Studies Skills
Interpreting an Election Map
The 1848 Presidential Election, Electoral Votes
N.H. 6
Vt.
6
Wis.
4
Mich.
5
Iowa
4
Nonvoting
Territories
Mo.
7
Texas
4
La.
6
Pa.
26
Ohio
23
Ind.
12
Ill.
9
Ark.
3
N.Y.
36
Ky. 12
Tenn. 13
Maine
9
Mass.
12
R.I. 4
Conn. 6
N.J. 7
Del. 3
Va.
17
Md. 8
N.C. 11
S.C.
Ga. 9
10
Miss. Ala.
9
6
Fla.
3
Popular vote: Electoral vote:
163
Zachary Taylor 1,360,967
Whig
Lewis Cass
Martin Van Buren
1,222,342
127
291,263
0
Learning the Skill
An election map shows the support for
candidates in different areas. For example, a
presidential candidate might win many
votes in western states but very few in the
East.
A presidential election has two kinds of
results: the popular vote and the electoral
vote. The candidate with the most popular
votes in a state wins all that state’s electoral
votes. (The number of electors from each
state equals the combined number of its senators and representatives in Congress.)
Democratic
Free-soil
Practicing the Skill
1. What color is the Democratic party?
2. What was the popular vote for Cass?
How many electoral votes did he win?
Glencoe’s Skillbuilder Interactive
Workbook, Level 1 provides instruction and practice in key social
studies skills.
APPLYING THE SKILL
3. In an almanac, newspaper, or other reference work, find the results of a recent
city, state, or national election. Then
create an election map with a key.
561
CHAPTER 17 ★ ASSESSMENT
Conflict and Cooperation
HISTORY
2. What caused the Democratic party to split in
1860?
Self-Check Quiz
Visit the American History: The Early Years to
1877 Web site at ey.glencoe.com and click on
Chapter 17—Self-Check Quizzes to prepare for
the chapter test.
History and Geography
Slave Versus Free States
Study the maps below and answer the questions.
Using Key Vocabulary
1.
Choose the term in each pair that best completes the sentence.
Location After the Compromise of 1850,
what territories were left open to slavery?
2.
Location
Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act
what territories were left open to slavery?
1. The (Wilmot Proviso/Freeport Doctrine)
would have banned slavery in land obtained
from Mexico.
2. The (Compromise of 1850/Kansas-Nebraska
Act) reversed the Missouri Compromise’s ban
on slavery in the lands north of Missouri.
After Compromise
of 1850
Minnesota
Territory
Oregon
Territory
Unorganized
Territory
Utah
Calif. Territory
Reviewing Facts
1. List the proposals that made up the Compromise of 1850.
2. Describe how Northerners reacted to the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
3. Explain how the Kansas-Nebraska Act led to
violence in Kansas.
Understanding Concepts
Geography and the Environment
1. Re-create the diagram shown here, and list
how the Dred Scott decision weakened the
civil rights of African Americans.
Dred Scott decision
African
Americans’ Civil
Rights Weakened
562
Slave and Free States
UNIT 6 Rift and Reunion: 1820 –1877
New Mexico
Territory
36°30'
Missouri Compromise
Line
Territory open to slavery,
decision left to voters
Indian territory
Free states
Slave states
Territory closed to slavery
After Kansas-Nebraska
Act of 1854
Wash.
Territory
Minnesota
Oregon
Territory
Nebraska Terr.
Territory
Utah
Territory
Kansas
Calif.
Territory
New Mexico
Territory
CHAPTER 17 ★ ASSESSMENT
The Presidential Election of 1856
N.H.
5 Maine
Vt. 5
8
Mass. 13
N.Y.
Wis.
Mich.
35
5
6
Iowa
R.I. 4
Pa. 27
Nonvoting
4
Ind. Ohio
Ill.
Conn.
6
Territories
13 23
Calif.
Mo. 11
N.J. 7
Va. 15
4
Ky. 12
9
Del. 3
N.C. 10
Ark. Tenn. 12 S.C.
Md. 8
4 Miss.Ala. Ga. 8
Tex.
La. 7 9 10
4
6
Fla.
Popular vote: Electoral vote:
3
4,053,967
296
James Buchanan,
Democrat
John C. Frémont,
Republican
Millard Fillmore,
Whig
1,838,169
174
1,341,264
114
874,534
8
Practicing Skills
Technology Activity
Interpreting an Election Map
Using a Word Processor
1. Which party won in Illinois?
Use the Internet and other
library resources to compile a list
of current political
parties. Make a
table that briefly
Writing
summarizes
History
each party’s
main views.
30
25
2. Where did Buchanan run strongest?
Critical Thinking
1.
Drawing Conclusions
Do you think popular
sovereignty was the best way to decide the
slavery issue in new territories? Explain.
Cooperative
Learning
Interdisciplinary Activity:
Debate
Form a group and have each person play Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, or William
Seward. Find the speeches these senators gave
about the Compromise of 1850. Use the speeches to
stage a debate for the class.
20
15
10
5
0
ABOUT
Using
Your Jou
rnal
Look
ove
about im r your notes
p
of the 18 ortant people
5
the one 0s and choose
who inte
rests yo
most. W
u
rit
or one-a e a short skit
ct
that per play in which
son is t
he main
charact
er.
CHAPTER 17 Road to Civil War: 1850–1860
563