Download Election of 1856

Unit Twelve: “A House
Divided”
Secession
The Election of 1856
• The Election of 1856 was between Democrat James
Buchanan, Republican John C. Fremont, and the
American Party candidate Millard Fillmore. (the
Whig party did not field a candidate because by
1856 it no longer existed)
• The main debate of the election was over the issue
of slavery, its expansion, and the problems with
Kansas. (the Republican slogan was "Free speech,
free press, free soil, free men, Frémont and
victory!“)
• James Buchanan won the election because a
majority of Americans either supported slavery, or
believed that as an institution in the South it should
be left alone. Also it was thought that if the
Republicans who were abolitionists won the White
house, then the South would secede and the nation
would fall into civil war.
Election of 1856
Millard
Fillmore
James
Buchanan
John C.
Fremont
• The
Election of 1856 signaled the
great divide between the southern
and northern states over the issue of
slavery and sectionalism. The next
president would only represent a
section of the nation not the whole.
The Dred Scott Case
• The Southern victory of the Presidency courage the
South, but it was to be the decision of the Taney
Supreme Court that would embolden it and unite
Northern sentiment against the institution of slavery
(they called it an obiter dictum). (The
Republicans vowed if they won in 1860
to end the whole thing)
• The supreme court case involved an
enslaved man named Dred Scott who was owned by
U.S. Army Major John Emerson and sued to win his
freed. (Scott vs. Emerson)
• The legal basis of Scott’s case was that since he
had lived in multiple free states, he must be awarded
his freedom. (1848 Missouri State Supreme Court
said no)
The Dred Scott Case
• Dred Scott then sued his new owner John F.A.
Sandford in 1854 in Federal Court. (Scott vs.
Standford)
• In March of 1857 the Roger Taney U.S. Supreme
Court handed down its majority opinion with only
two dissenting (disapproving) opinions the Dred
Scott Case, that
– 1.) slaves were not citizens, so they could not sue in
court.
– 2.) freedom is not based on residence.
– 3.) the Missouri Compromise line was unconstitutional
because it violated the private property rights of
southern slave holders.
The Kansas and Panic
• In 1857 the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution
was sent to Congress for ratification with
Buchanan’s approval, the Senate approved it,
but the House would not until all electors of
Kansas could vote on it calling it the Lecompton
Fraud due to the constitution came about. (It
was defeated, but became a state in 1861 as a
free state)
• The same year the Panic of 1857 hit causing
huge inflation and hurt the industrial North more
than the South, which led Congress to discuss
raising tariffs opening more Western lands for
free states. (It intensified the rivalry between the
North and South)
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• The issue of the Dred Scott Case, Kansas, and
the Panic only pushed the North and South
closer to blows.
• In 1858 the champion of popular
Douglas
sovereignty and center of the issues
of the day Stephen A. Douglas (D)
“Little Giant” was up for re-election.
• In the Senatorial election he had to
VS.
square off with a unknown candidate
Abraham Lincoln (R) “Rail-splitter”.
• This election was important because
it spot lighted all the major issues of
the day and led to the split between
Northern and Southern Democrats.
Lincoln
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• In a series of seven debates known as the
Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln and Douglas
squared off debating the issues of majority rule
& minority rights, popular sovereignty, civil war,
and state’s rights & Federal power.
• When Lincoln accepted the nomination of the
Republican party he gave his famous “House
Divided Speech”, which he said that “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 of the other.”
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• The Lincoln-Douglas debates were carried by
most major newspapers and read by many
Americans (more Northern and Southern)
foreshadowing the Presidential debates of the
election of 1860.
• During the debates Lincoln was able to outwit
Douglas on many occasions forcing him to make
unfavorable political statements.
• The high point of the debates was in Freeport, IL
where Lincoln forced Douglas what was called
the Freeport Doctrine, stating that even if slavery
is deemed lawful, the states could simple not
enforce it or not pass laws to protect it. (Douglas
won his senate seat, but it cost him the
Presidency by splitting the Democratic party)
John Brown’s Raid
• Amongst issues brewing between the North and
the South, one of the radical abolitionist of
Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, devised a plan to
start a slave insurrection (uprising) in Virginia
taking over the state using it to found an
abolitionist republic to use as a spring board to
attack the rest of the South.
• In October of 1859, John Brown with a small
militia attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s
Ferry, Virginia taking it over known as John
Brown’s Raid.
John Brown’s Raid
• Within twenty-four hours a small force of
Marines commanded by Robert E. Lee
surrounded the fort, capturing Brown and killing
eight of his men.
• John Brown was then placed on trial for
treason, found guilty and hanged. (he
refused to plead insanity)
• Brown became a martyr (a person who
dies for a cause) for the abolitionist
movement rallying more northerners to
the cause (most still disapproved it), and
cementing the anger against abolitionism in the
South, due to fear that this type of “domestic
terrorism” could occur again.
The Election of 1860
• The events of the 1850s split the nation
politically with four major political parties
partaking in the election of 1860.
• The Democratic party met in Charleston, SC to
form a national platform and choose a candidate
for all sections, but disputes over the expansion
of slavery and popular sovereignty split the party
into factions.
• The Southern states led by William Lowndes
Yancey called fire-eaters (extreme pro-slavery
wanted secession from the union) left the
convention nominating John C. Breckinridge.
• The Northern democrats met again and
nominated Stephan Douglas.
The Election of 1860
• The Republican Party met and nominated
Abraham Lincoln with a moderate platform on
slavery, economic reform, and a Homestead Act
(give people 160 acres of land for anyone to settle
on). (they would not allow to expand, but leave it
alone where it was)
• The fourth candidate was John Bell nominated by
the Constitutional-Union Party with a platform of
compromise to save the Union.
• In the election Lincoln won without a single
Southern vote, showing that the South had no
political power since the Democratic party was split
which angered Southerners that North would
simple pass what every laws they wanted. (i.e. end
slavery)
Election of 1860
Abraham
Lincoln
John Bell
Stephan
Douglas
John
Breckinridge
Election of 1860 Cartoons
South Carolina!!!!!
• During the campaign for the election of 1860
Southerners were stating that if Lincoln
won they would secede from the union
and after the results came in serious
talks about secession were carried on
throughout the South.
• In December of 1860, South Carolina
met in a special state convention and
voted to leave the union (Declaration
of the Immediate Causes Which Induce
and Justify the Secession of South
Carolina from the Federal Union),
becoming the first state to seceded
from the union.
The South Leaves
• During the winter of 1860-1861 the southern
states debated the issue of secession, but by
February 1, 1861 Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas (Deep South
States) seceded from the Union. (the vote was
not unanimous in any of these states for
secession)
• On Feb. 4, 1861 the Deep South States met at
Montgomery, Alabama to establish a unified
separate government and nation called the
Confederate States of America. (Confederacy)
• The Southern states justified their secession
through from the doctrine of state’s rights, but
the reason was due to southern regionalism
(loyalty to the region and to the slave system)
Secession?
The Confederacy
• The Confederate Congress
met and elected Jefferson
Davis President and Alexander
Stephens Vice President.
Davis
• The Confederation Constitution
was modeled after the U.S.
Constitution, but forbade the
new government from interfering
with slavery, no protective tariff,
Stephens
and no money for internal improvements.
Jefferson and the CSA
Confederate White
House
Anthem: Click
each to listen
Alabama
State Capitol
Jefferson
inauguration
God Save the
South
“With God as
our vindicator”
The Bonnie Blue
Flag
Dixie
The Last Ditch Effort
• During the secession winter of 1860-1861 James
Buchannan was a lame duck (a public official who
remains in office between the election to
inauguration) president that did nothing to stop the
states from seceding or taking over federal
property within their states like forts. (he sent a
ship to resupply Fort Sumter but was shot at by
Confederacy and turned away)
• The last effort to keep a civil war from happening
was introduced by John J. Crittenden (KY) called
Crittenden’s Compromise which would reestablish
the Missouri compromise all the way to California,
compensate masters for fugitive slaves, and
protect slavery in slave states and Washington
D.C. (Lincoln advised against its passage so it did
not pass.)
Civil War !!!!!
• A second compromise attempt was tried by all
states except those that had seceded, but it
failed to produce any results.
“I am loath to close. We are
not enemies, but friends. We
• On March 4, 1861 Abraham
must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it
Lincoln was sworn into office
must not break, our bonds of
and in his inaugural address
affection. The mystic chords
memory, stretching from
his denied the right of any state ofevery
battlefield and patriot
grave to every living heart
to leave the Union, that he
hearthstone all over this
would hold Federal property still and
broad land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union when
occupied in the South (Fort
again touched, as surely they
Sumter), and reminded
will be m by the better angels
of our nature.”
Southerners that we were all
---Abraham Lincoln, 1861
still Americans.
Civil War !!!!!
• Lincoln had a big decision to make on what to
do about Fort Sumter in S.C., to resupply it or to
evacuate it.
• Lincoln sent a letter to the Governor of S.C. not
Jefferson Davis that the Fort would be held by
force if necessary. (most of Lincoln’s Cabinet
advised evacuation)
• Davis sent General P.G. T. Beauregard
to take control of Fort Sumter which was
commanded by Major Robert Anderson.
• The Confederacy fired the first shot on
Fort Sumter on April 12,1861 starting the
Civil War, bombarding it for thirty-three
hours forcing its surrender to the South.
Civil War !!!!!
• After the fall of Sumter, Lincoln called for volunteers
to carryout the war effort which led to the secession
of the upper south states of Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. (the capital of
the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, VA)
• The western counties refused to join the
Confederacy, separating forming West Virginia
which was made a state of the union in 1863.
• In Alabama, the residents of Winston County met in
Looney’s Tavern in Houston voting a resolution of
neutrality during the war. (aided the union during
the war)
• Also when the upper southern states left Congress
the only person not to walk out was Senator
Andrew Johnson from TN because he did not agree
with it.
Civil War !!!!!
• The states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and
Delaware called the boarder states were split on
if to seceded or not, even though most were
sympathetic to the South.
• To keep these key states from seceding Lincoln
established martial law (military rule and
authority over civilian authorities).
• At this point the stage was set for a violent
confrontation between the Union (Yankees) and
the Confederacy (Rebels) which would last until
1865 developing the implementation of industrial
modern warfare in the world.
Union
Border states
Border States
Upper South
Deep
South
Confederacy