Download Ch 19 Drifting Towards Disunion

Chapter 19
Drifting Toward
Disunion, 1854–1861
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary
Incendiaries
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin—Harriet Beecher Stowe
– She was determined to awaken the North to the
wickedness of slavery
• By laying bare its terrible inhumanity, especially the
splitting of families
• Relied on powerful imagery and touching pathos
• Wrote later about how her deeper sources of her
anti-slavery sentiments lay in the evangelical religious
crusades of the Second Great Awakening.
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary
Incendiaries (cont.)
• The success of the novel at home and abroad was
sensational
• It was also on the stage in “Tom shows” for lengthy
runs
• No other novel in American history can be compared
with it as a political force
• To many it made slavery appear almost as evil as it
really was
– She was introduced to President in 1862; he remarked, “So
you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this
great war.”
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary
Incendiaries (cont.)
– Mrs. Stowe never witnessed slavery in the Deep
South:
• She had seen it briefly during a visit to Kentucky
• And she lived in Ohio, center of Underground
Railroad activity
– Uncle Tom:
• Left an endearing and enduring impression on the
North
• Many swore they would not have anything to do with
the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary
Incendiaries (cont.)
• It was devoured by millions of impressionable youth
• It was immensely popular abroad, especially Britain
and France.
– The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) by
Hinton R. Helper:
• Hating slavery, he attempted to prove by an array of
statistics that, indirectly, the nonslaveholding whites
were the ones who suffered most from the millstone
of slavery
• He finally found a publisher in the North
I. Stowe and Helper: Literary
Incendiaries (cont.)
– South’s planter elite took note of Helper’s
audacity, which fueled their fears:
– That the nonslaveholding majority might abandon them
– It was banned in the South
– In the North thousands were distributed as
campaign literature by Republicans
– Southerners were embittered when they learned
that their northern brethren were spreading
these wicked “lies.”
p397
p397
p398
II. The North-South Contest for
Kansas
• Popular sovereignty:
– New England Emigrant Aid Company:
• Famous antislavery organization
• Sent 2000 people to the troubled area to forestall the
South and to make a profit
• Many carried their breech-loading Sharps rifles,
nicknamed “Beecher’s Bibles” after Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher (Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother) who had
helped raise money to pay for them
• Southern spokesmen raised cries of betrayal
II. The North-South Contest for
Kansas (cont.)
• The northern “Nebrascals,” were now out to
“abolitionize” both Kansas and Nebraska
• Some southern hotheads attempted to “assist” small
groups of well-armed slave-owners to Kansas
• Planting blacks on Kansas soil was a losing game
– Slaves were valuable and volatile property
– Foolish for owners to take them where bullets were flying
– The soil might be voted free under popular sovereignty
• Census of 1860 only found 2 slaves among 107,000
souls in Kansas and only 15 in Nebraska.
II. The North-South Contest for
Kansas (cont.)
• Crisis conditions in Kansas rapidly worsened
(see Map 19.1):
– In 1855 election day for the first territorial
legislature:
• Saw proslavery “border ruffians” pour in from
Missouri to vote early and often
• The slavery supporters triumphed and then set up
their own puppet government at Shawnee, MO.
• The free-soilers established an extralegal regime of
their own in Topeka
II. The North-South Contest for
Kansas (cont.)
– Confused Kansans had their choice of two
governments:
• One based on fraud
• One based on illegality
– Tensions mounted as settlers feuded over
conflicting land claims
• Breaking point (1856) when a gang of proslavery
raiders, alleging provocation, shot up and burned part
of the free-soil town of Lawrence
• This outrage was but the prelude to bloodier tragedy.
III. Kansas in Convulsion
• John Brown now stalked upon the Kansas
battlefield
– Obsessively dedicated to the abolitionist cause:
• Brooding over the attack on Lawrence, led a band to
Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856
• There they literally hacked to pieces 5 surprised men,
presumed to be proslaveryites
• This terrorist butchery besmirched the free-soil cause
• It also brought vicious retaliation from proslavery
forces
III. Kansas in Convulsion
(cont.)
– Civil war erupted in Kansas in 1856:
•
•
•
•
Destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of property
Paralyzed agriculture in certain areas
Cost scores of lives
Continued until it merged with the Civil War of 18611865.
– Kansas applied for statehood on a popular
sovereignty basis
III. Kansas in Convulsion
(cont.)
• Lecompton Constitution: proslavery forces document
– the people were not allowed to vote for or against the
constitution as a whole
– But for the constitution either “with slavery” or “with no
slavery”
– Whatever the outcome there would still be black bondage
– Free-soilers boycotted the polls
– The proslaveryites approved the constitution with slavery
late in 1857
• The scene shifted to Washington:
– President Pierce had been succeeded by James Buchanan,
who was strongly under southern influence
III. Kansas Convulsion
(cont.)
– Buchanan supported the Lecompton Constitution
– Senator Douglas threw his support behind popular
sovereignty
– A compromise was arrived at that submitted the entire
Lecompton Constitution to the people
– The free-soil votes thronged to the polls and snowed it
under
– Kansas remained a territory until 1861, when the southern
secessionists left Congress.
– Buchanan’s action divided the Democratic Party.
Map 19-1 p399
p400
IV. “Bully” Brooks and His
Bludgeon
• Bleeding Kansas:
– Also spattered blood on the Senate floor 1856:
• Senator Charles Sumner of Mass. was a leading
abolitionist
• Made himself one of the most disliked men in Senate
• Delivered the speech “The Crime Against Kansas”
– He condemned the proslavery men
– Referred insultingly to South Carolina and to its whitehaired senator Andrew Butler
IV. “Bully” Brooks and His
Bludgeon (cont.)
– Preston S. Brooks:
• Congressman from South Carolina took vengeance
into his own hands
• He resented the insults to his state and to its senator
• His code of conduct called for a duel
• To Brooks, the only alternative was to chastise the
senator
• On May 22, 1856, he approached Sumner and
pounded the orator with an 11-ounce cane until it
broke
IV. “Bully” Brooks and His
Bludgeon (cont.)
• The House could not muster enough votes to expel
Brooks
• He resigned but was triumphantly reelected
• Sumner had to leave due to his injuries, go to Europe
for treatment
• Mass. For 3 ½ years keep his seat open until he could
return
– Bleeding Sumner was thus joined with bleeding
Kansas as a political issue
II. “Bully” Brooks and His
Bludgeon (cont.)
– The free-soil North was mightily aroused against
Brooks:
• Copies of Sumner’s speech were sold by the
thousands
• Every blow to the Senator doubtless made thousands
of Republicans
• The South not unanimous in approving Brooks
– Were angered by Sumner’s speech and because it was so
extravagantly applauded in the North
– The Sumner-Brooks clash and the ensuing reactions
revealed how dangerously inflamed passion were
– The blows rained on Sumner were among the first blows of
the Civil War
p401
V. “Old Buck” Versus “The Pathfinder”
• The Democrats met in Cincinnati to elect
their presidential standard-bearer of 1856
– The delegates chose James Buchanan:
• He was serving in London during the Kansas-Nebraska
uproar—therefore “Kansas-less”
• In a crisis that called for giants, he was mediocre,
irresolute, and confused
• Republicans met in Philadelphia:
– “Higher Law” Steward was the conspicuous
leader
V. “Old Buck” versus “The
Pathfinder” (cont.)
– However, the final choice was John C. Frémont:
• The so-called “Pathfinder of the West”
• Was virtually without political experience, but was
not tarred with the Kansas brush
• The Republicans came out strongly against the
extension of slavery
• While the Democrats declared no less emphatically
for popular sovereignty
V. “Old Buck” versus “The
Pathfinder (cont.)
– An ugly dose of antiforeignism was injected into
the campaign:
• Recent influx of immigrants from Ireland and
Germany alarmed “nativists”—name of old-stock
Protestants
– They organized the Know-Nothing party because of its
secretiveness
– In 1856 nominated ex-president Millard Fillmore
– Anti-foreign, anti-Catholic
– Threatened, with some Whig supporter for Fillmore, to cut
into the Republican strength
– Mudslinging bespattered both candidates
p402
VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856
• The election returns:
– Buchanan
• Polled less than a majority of the popular vote
• Won handily (see Map 19.2)
• Electoral College count was 174 to 114 for Frémont
and 8 for Fillmore
• The popular vote was 1,832,955 for Buchanan;
1,339,932 for Frémont; 871,731 for Fillmore.
VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856
(cont.)
• Why the Republican defeat:
• Frémont’s lack of honesty, capacity, and sound
judgment
• Violent threat that the election of a sectional “Black
Republican” would be a declaration of war, forcing
the South to secede
• Many northerners were intimidated to vote for
Buchanan
• Innate conservatism triumphed, assisted by so-called
southern bullying
VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856
(cont.)
• Fortunate for the Union that secession and
the Civil War did not come in 1856:
– Frémont was ill-balanced and second rate figure
– In 1856 the North was more willing to let the
South depart in peace than in 1860
– Dramatic events (1856-1860) aroused stillapathetic northerners to a fighting pitch
• The election of 1856 cast a long shadow forward, and
politicians, North and South, peered anxiously toward
1860
Map 19-2 p403
VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell
• The Dred Scott v. Stanford decision by the
Supreme Court on March 6, 1857:
– Pronouncement was one of the opening papergun blasts of the Civil War
• Basically the case was simple
• The Supreme Court turned it in a complex political
issue:
– It ruled that Dred Scott was a black slave and not a citizen,
and hence could not sue in federal courts
– The tribunal could then have thrown out the case on these
technical grounds alone
VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell
(cont.)
– A majority decided to go further, under the
leadership of emaciated Chief Justice Roger B.
Taney (from slave state-Maryland)
• A majority decreed that because a slave was private
property, he or she could be taken into any territory
and legally held there in slavery
• Reasons—the Fifth Amendment—forbade Congress
to deprive people of their property without due
process of law
• The Court went further:
VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell
(cont.)
• They ruled that the Compromise of 1820 had been
unconstitutional all along:
– Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories,
regardless of what the territorial legislatures themselves
might want
• Southerners were delighted with this victory
• Champions of popular sovereignty were aghast
• Another lethal wedge was driven between the
northern and southern wings of the once united
Democratic party.
VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell
(cont.)
– Foes of slavery extension were infuriated by the
Dred Scott setback:
• They insisted the ruling was an opinion, not a decision
• Therefore not binding
• Republicans were defiant of the Court because:
– Its members were southerners
– And by their convictions debased themselves
• Southerners were inflamed by all this defiance; how
long could they be joined to a section that refused to
honor the Supreme Court?
p404
VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857
• Panic of 1857: why the crash?
• Inpouring California gold helped to inflate the
currency
• The demands of the Crimean War (Russia, 1853-1856)
overstimulated the growing of grain
• Frenzied speculation in land and railroads
– Over 5000 businesses failed
• North and its grain growers hardest hit
• South enjoyed favorable cotton prices abroad
VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857
(cont.)
– Panic conditions further proof that cotton was
king:
• This false delusion helped drive the overconfidence of
southerners closer to a shooting showdown
– Financial distress in the North, especially
agriculture, gave a new vigor for free farms of
160 acres from the public domain
VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857
(cont.)
– Scheme to make outright gifts of homesteads:
• Eastern industrialists opposed free land giveaways
• South opposed because they didn’t think gang-labor
slavery could flourish on a mere 160 acres
• Congress (1860) passed a homestead act
– Public land available for 25 cent an acre
– It was killed by President Buchanan’s veto
– The panic of 1857 created a clamor for higher
tariff rates:
• There was a large Treasury surplus
VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857
(cont.)
• The Tariff of 1857:
– Responding to pressure from the South, reduced duties to
about 20 percent on dutiable goods—the lowest point since
1812
– As the surplus melted away in the Treasury,
» Industrials in the North pointed to the need for higher
duties
» They were concerned about the need of increased
protection
– The panic of 1857 gave Republicans two surefire economic
issues for the election of 1860:
» Protection for the unprotected
» Farms for the farmless
p405
IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
• The Illinois senatorial election of 1858 claimed the
national spotlight:
– Senator Stephen A. Douglas’s term was to expire
– Republicans ran a Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln:
» Not well educated, but an avid reader
» He married “above himself” into the influential Todd
family of Kentucky—helped to school him in patience
and forbearance
» Emerged as a trial lawyer in Illinois
» Widely referred to as “Honest Abe”
» He served an undistinguished term in Congress, 18471849
IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
(cont.)
– The Kansas-Nebraska Act lighted within him unexpected fire
» He emerged as one of the foremost politicians and
orators in the Northwest
– At the Philadelphia convention 1856:
» John C. Frémont was nominated
» Lincoln received 100 votes for the vice-presidential
nomination
p406
X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus
Douglas
– Lincoln-Douglas debates:
• Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of joint debates
• Douglas accepted; they were arranged from August to
October 1858
• The most famous debate came at Freeport, Illinois:
– Lincoln presented a question based on the Supreme Court
ruling in the Dred Scott decision
– Douglas had already publicly answered the Freeport
question
– The “Little Giant” did not hesitate to meet the issue headon, honestly and consistently
X. The Great Debate: Lincoln
Versus Douglas
– Freeport Doctrine:
• No matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery
would stay down if the people voted it down
• Laws to protect slavery would have to be passed by
the territorial legislatures
– In the absence of popular approval, black bondage would
soon disappear
• Where public opinion does not support the federal
government, as in the case of Jefferson’s embargo
(see pp. 216-218), the law is impossible to enforced.
X. The Great Debate: Lincoln
Versus Douglas (cont.)
– Douglas defeated Lincoln for the Senate seat
• The “Little Giant’s” loyalty to popular sovereignty was
the decisive point
• Senators were chosen by the state legislatures
• “Honest Abe” won a clear moral victory
• Lincoln began to emerge as a potential Republican
nominee for president
• Douglas, in winning Illinois, lost his chances of
winning the presidency
• Lincoln-Douglas debate platform proved to be one of
the preliminary battlefields of the Civil War
p407
XI. John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
– John Brown studied the tactics of the black
rebels Toussaint L’Ouverture (see p. 211) and Nat
Turner (see p. 348)
–
–
–
–
Hatched a scheme to invade the South secretly
Called upon the slaves to rise
Furnished them with arms
Established a kind of black free state as a sanctuary
• Harpers Ferry:
– he seized the federal arsenal in October 1859
– Incidentally killing seven innocent people, killing a free black
and injuring ten or more
– Slaves ignored Brown’s strike, failed to rise, and wounded
Brown
XI. John Brown: Murderer or
Martyr? (cont.)
– Brown and his remnants were captured by U.S.
Marines under Robert E. Lee
• Convicted of murder and treason
• Presumed insanity, supported by 17 friends and
relatives
– He marched up the scaffold steps without flinching
– His conduct exemplary
– His devotion to freedom so inflexible that he took on an
exalted character
– The effects of Harper Ferry were inflammatory:
• To the South, Brown was a wholesale murderer
• An apostle of treason
XI. John Brown: Murderer or
Martyr? (cont.)
• Abolitionists and ardent free-soilers were infuriated
by Brown’s execution
• Free-soil centers in the North tolled bells
– Fired guns, lowered flags, and held rallies
• The ghost of the martyred Brown would not be laid to
rest
XII. The Disruption of the Democrats
– The presidential election of 1860 was the most
fateful in American history:
• Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina
– Douglas the leading candidate for the northern wing
– Southern wing regarded him a traitor
» Because of the Lecompton Constitution and the
Freeport Doctrine
– Cotton state delegates walked out
– Remaining could not scrape enough of the 2/3 necessary;
disbanded
• The first tragic secession was the secession of southerners from the National Convention
• Departure became habit-forming
XII. The Disruption of the
Democrats (cont.)
– The Democrats tried again in Baltimore:
• Douglas was firmly in the saddle
• Many cotton-state delegates took a walk
• The rest of the delegates enthusiastically nominated
their hero
• Platform came out squarely:
– For popular sovereignty
– Against obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law by the states
– John C. Breckinridge was chosen vicepresidential candidate
XII. The Disruption of the
Democrats (cont.)
• The platform favored the extension of slavery into the
territories and the annexation of slave-populated
Cuba
– Constitutional Union party:
• The middle-of-the-road group
• Sneered as the “Do Nothing” or “Old Gentleman’s”
party
• Desperately wanted a compromise candidate, met in
Baltimore and nominated for the presidency John Bell
of Tennessee.
p409
XIII. A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
– Republicans met in Chicago:
• William H. Seward was the best candidate:
– Radical utterances, his “irrepressible conflict” speech at
Rochester 1858 had ruined his prospects
– Enemies’ slogan, “Success Rather Than Steward.”
• Lincoln, the favorite son of Illinois:
– A “Second Best,” but a stronger candidate because he made
fewer enemies
– Overtook Seward on the third ballot, was nominated.
• Republican party had an appeal for everybody:
– For the free-soilers, nonextension of slavery
– For the northern manufacturers, a protective tariff
– For the immigrants, no abridgment of rights
XIII. A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
(cont.)
– For the Northwest, a Pacific railroad
– For the West, internal improvements at federal expense
– For the farmers, free homesteads from the public domain
• Southern secessionists called Lincoln the “baboon,”
the “abolitionist” rail-splitter who would split the
Union
– “Honest Abe,” though hating slavery, was no outright
abolitionist
– Lincoln enthusiasts staged roaring rallies and parades
– Douglas waged a vigorous speaking campaign
– The returns, breathlessly awaited, proclaimed a
sweeping victory for Lincoln (see Table 19.1).
p410
XIV. The Electoral Upheaval of
1860
• Lincoln was a minority president:
– 60% of the voters would have preferred someone else
– A sectional president—in ten southern states, not being on
the ballot
– The election of 1860 was virtually two elections: one for the
North and one for the South (see Map 19.3)
– South Carolina rejoiced over Lincoln’s victory; they now had
their excuse to secede.
• Douglas scraped only 12 electoral votes:
– He campaigned energetically for himself
– Douglas and Breckinridge together amassed 365,476 more
votes than did Lincoln
XIV. The Electoral Upheaval of
1860 (cont.)
• The ballot box did not indicate a strong sentiment for
secession (see Map 19.4)
• Breckinridge polled fewer votes in the slave states
than the combined strength of his opponents Douglas
and Bell
– He failed to carry his own state of Kentucky.
• Even though the Republicans had elected Lincoln:
– They controlled neither the Senate nor the House.
– The federal government could not touch slavery, except by a
constitutional amendment.
XIV. The Electoral Upheaval of
1860 (cont.)
– Confederate States of America:
• Formed by seven seceding states in Montgomery,
Alabama in February 1861:
– They chose as their president Jefferson Davis
• Crisis was deepened by the “lame duck” interlude:
– Lincoln, elected in November 1860, could not take office
until March 4, 1861
– During this time seven of the eleven deserting states left
– President Buchanan was blamed for not holding the nation
together; he did not believe that the southern states could
secede
– Yet he could find no authority in the Constitution for
stopping them with guns
XV. The Secessionist Exodus
(cont.)
– One reason he did not resort to force:
» The tiny standing army of 15,000 troops was urgently
needed to control the Indians in the West
– North not interested in fight at this time
– The weakness not such much in Buchanan, but in the
constitution and in the Union itself
– Ironically, when Lincoln became president in March, he
essentially continued Buchanan’s wait-and-see policy
Table 19-1 p410
Map 19-3 p411
XV. The Secessionist Exodus
– A tragic chain reaction of secession now began
to erupt:
• South Carolina had threatened to go out if the
“sectional” Lincoln won:
– 4 days later they voted to call a special convention
– Meeting in Charleston, December 1860, the convention
voted unanimously to secede
– During the next six weeks other southern states voted to
secede
– Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas
– Four more would join late, bringing the total to eleven
Map 19-4 p412
p413
XVI. The Collapse of Compromise
– Crittenden amendments:
• Sponsored by Senator John Jordan Crittenden,
Kentucky
• Designed to appease the South
• Slavery in the territories was to be prohibited north of
the 36-30 latitude, but south of that line it was to be
given federal protection in all territories existing or
“hereafter to be acquired”
• Future states north of this line could come into the
Union with or without slavery, as they should choose
• Slavery supporters were to be guaranteed full rights
in the southern territories regardless of popular
sovereignty
XVI. The Collapse of Compromise
(cont.)
• Lincoln flatly rejected the Crittenden scheme
• He was elected on a platform that opposed the
extension and felt he must support this, even if
slavery was only to be temporary
• Buchanan: how could he have prevented the Civil War
by starting a civil war?
– No one has yet come up with a satisfactory answer
XVII. Farewell to Union
– Secessionists left for a number of reasons:
• Most related to the issue of slavery
• Southerners were dismayed by the triumph of the
new Republican party
• They were weary of free-soil criticism:
– Abolitionist nagging
– Northern interference ranging from the Underground
Railroad to John Brown’s raid
• Supported secession because they felt sure that their
departure would be unopposed
• Southerners saw it as a golden opportunity to cast
aside their generations of “vassalage” to the North
XVII. Farewell to Union
(cont.)
– An independent Dixieland could develop its own banking
and shipping and trade directly with Europe
– Who could tell when the “greedy” Republicans would drive
through their own oppressive protective tariff?
– Pitted between the North and South:
» The North with its manufacturing plants
» The South with its agricultural exports
• Worldwide impulses of nationalism were fermenting
in the South
• The principles of self-determination—of the
Declaration of Independence—seemed to many
southerners to apply perfectly to them
XVIII. Farewell to Union
(cont.)
– Few southern states felt that they were doing anything
wrong or immoral
• Historical parallel ran even deeper:
– 1776 thirteen American colonies, led by the rebel George
Washington, seceded from the British empire by throwing
off the yoke of King George III
– 1860-1861 eleven American states, led by the rebel
Jefferson Davis, were seceding from the Union by throwing
off the yoke of “King” Abraham Lincoln
– With that burden gone, the South was confident that it
could work its own peculiar destiny more quietly, happily,
and prosperously
p414
p417