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The Road to War
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Election of 1848
• Polk, having achieved objectives in one term
and facing declining health, keeps promise not
to seek re-election
• Whigs nominate hero of Mexican-American War
– Zachary Taylor
• Taylor, who had never voted himself, was
courted by both parties
• Whigs only hope of beating the Democrats who
had a record of peace, prosperity and had
acquired Oregon and the Southwest
Free-Soil Party
• Democrats counter with former Senator and
Governor of Michigan – Lewis Cass
• Democrats offer no specific platform position on
slavery
• Cass suspected of being pro-slavery
• Anti-slavery Democrats walk out of convention
and create the Free-Soil Party
• Opposed expansion of slavery into the
territories, but not the abolition of slavery in the
south
• Nominate Martin Van Buren
The Election of 1848
Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
• 12th U.S. President
• First to never hold
elected office
• Opposed the
Compromise of 1850
• Died 16 months into
term
• Succeeded by Millard
Fillmore
Compromise of 1850
• Proposed by Henry Clay (Whig)
• Passed by Sen. Stephen Douglas (Democrat)
and Sen. Daniel Webster (Whig)
• Series of bills aimed at resolving question of
slavery in the territories
• Attempt to balance the interests of the Southern
and Northern States
• California admitted as a free state
• Texas compensated and relinquish claims to the
land west of the Rio Grande – Territory of New
Mexico
Compromise of 1850
• New Mexico organized w/out any prohibition of
slavery
• Endorsed idea of “Popular Sovereignty”
• Fugitive Slave Law (1850) - requiring all U.S.
citizens to assist in return of runaway slaves
regardless of the legality of slavery in the
specific states
• Compromise b/w Southern slaveholders and
Northern Free-Soilers
• Made the institutions of the North responsible for
enforcing slavery
Fugitive Slave Law
1851 poster warning
African-Americans in
Boston that slave
catchers are
disguising themselves
as police officers
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
• Anti-slavery novel by
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
• Helped fuel
abolitionist movement
• 2nd best selling book
of century
• “So this is the lady
who made this big
war.” - Lincoln
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
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•
•
•
Drafted by Sen. Stephen Douglas
Created the states of Kansas and Nebraska
Repealed the Missouri Compromise (1820)
Allowed settlers in those territories to determine
if they would permit slavery in the name of
“popular sovereignty”
• Hoped to ease tensions b/w North and South
• Backfires – opponents denounced the law as a
concession to the slave power of the South
The Republican Party
• Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
grows into the Republican Party
• Aimed at stopping the expansion of
slavery
• Emerges as the dominant force in the
North and Midwest
• Absorbs the Free-Soil Party, ex-Whigs
“Bleeding Kansas”
• Series of violent clashes b/w Free-Staters
(anti-slavery) and Border Ruffian (proslavery) during 1854-58
• 55 deaths
• Incidents were an attempt to influence
whether Kansas would join the U.S. as a
free state or a slave state
Tragic Prelude by John Steuart
Curry
The Election of 1856
• “Bleeding Kansas” violence peaks on eve
of election
• Republicans nominate John C. Freemont
• Democratic candidate James Buchanan
sweeps the South
• Freemont received less than 600 votes
from slave states
• Buchanan elected the 15th President
The Election of 1856
Dred Scott
• Slave from Missouri
• Property of Dr. John
Emerson who served in
the U.S. Army
• Travelled in Illinois and
Wisconsin where the
Northwest Ordinance
(1787) prohibited slavery
• After Emerson's death
Scott filed a lawsuit to
gain his freedom
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
• Scott argued since he had been in both a
free state and a free territory he had
become legally free
• Therefore, could not have reverted to
being a slave
• 7-2 decision by U.S. Supreme Court
• Chief Justice Robert B. Taney delivered
majority decison
The Decision
• According to Declaration of Independence, no
person descended from black Africans, free or a
slave, is a citizen of the U.S.
• The Ordinance of 1787 could not confer freedom
or citizenship to blacks in the Northwest Territory
• The Missouri Compromise was voided as a
legislative act because it exceeded the powers
of Congress to exclude slavery and grant
citizenship to blacks in the northern territories
Consequences of the Decision
• Seen by many as a push towards the
expansion of slavery
• Taney believed his decision would solve
the slavery question once and for all
• Strengthened opposition to slavery in the
North
• Divided the Democratic Party along
sectional lines
• Strengthened the Republican Party
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
• 7 debates b/w
Abraham Lincoln
(Rep) and Stephen A.
Douglas (Dem) for
Illinois Senate seat
• Main issue was a
question of slavery
• “House Divided
Speech”
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
"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. It will become all one thing or all
the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate
extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall
become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new
— North as well as South.”
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
• Lincoln opposed “popular sovereignty”
• Lincoln argued that ending the Missouri
Compromise ban on slavery in
Kansas/Nebraska was first step towards
nationalization of slavery
• Believed Dred Scott decision was a step
towards spreading slavery through
territories
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Douglas wins reelection to Senate,
but…
• Widespread
newspaper coverage
and attention elevated
Lincoln’s national
profile
• Made Lincoln a viable
candidate for the
presidency
John Brown
• Radical abolitionist
• Supported and
practiced armed
insurrection as a
means to end slavery
• Pottawatomie
Massacre (1856)
• “Misguided fanatic”
-Lincoln
Raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
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•
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Site of Federal Arsenal
October 16-18 1859
Brown led 16 whites and 5 blacks in raid
Plan was to seize arsenal and arm the
local slave population
• Seizes the armory, but things quickly go
wrong
• First casualty = free black
Raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
• Slaves did not rise up
• Local citizens and militia attack the raiders
trapping Brown and his men in a fire
house
• President Buchanan orders in the marines
under the command of Colonel Robert E.
Lee
• Lee orders his men to storm the fire house
and they capture Brown
John Brown’s Fort
John Brown
• December 2 1859
• Tried for treason and
hung in Virginia
• “John Brown will
make the gallows
glorious like the
cross.” – Emerson
• Legacy – hero? or
terrorist? or martyr?
Influence of Harper’s Ferry
• Fear spread through Southern slave
owners who reorganized the archaic militia
• New militias become the Confederate
army in 1861
• Polarized politics – Republicans seen as
being abolitionists by Southern Democrats
• Civil War – Union soldiers march into
battle singing “John Brown’s Body”
• Brown began the war that ended slavery
Election of 1860
• Democratic Party divided over issue of slavery
• Splits into Northern and Southern Democratic
Party
• North Dem: Stephen Douglas
• South Dem: John Breckenridge
• Republicans: Abraham Lincoln
• Democrats split vote bringing Lincoln to power
w/out winning a single Southern State
The Election of 1860
The Confederate States of America
• December 20, 1860 – South Carolina
begins the secession of states
• By February 1st 1861 six more states had
left the Union
• Declared themselves the Confederate
States of America
• Outgoing President Buchanan and Lincoln
declare it illegal
The Confederate States of America
Fort Sumter
• April 12 Confederate batteries opened fire
on Fort Sumter, South Carolina
• First military action of war
• Next days later the Union garrison
surrendered to Confederate forces
• Northerners rallied behind Lincoln’s call to
raise troops and send them to take back
the Fort
• American’s deadliest war was underway
Fort Sumter