Download The Path to the Civil War

The Path to The
Civil War
The Missouri Compromise
O 1820
O Pushed through Congress
by Henry Clay
O Admitted Missouri as a
slave state, but balanced by
admitting Maine as a free
state
O Also banned slavery in
future states north of
Missouri’s southern border,
but allowed slavery south of
that line
John Tyler
O 1790 – 1862
O 10th President (1841-45)
O Became president after William
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Henry Harrison died in office
Virginian, slave-owner
1st president have impeachment
proceedings against him
Approved annexation of Texas as
he was leaving office
Changed political parties
multiple times – a DemocraticRepublican, then a National
Republican, then a Democrat,
then a Whig, then back to being
a Democrat
Elected to office in the CSA
James K. Polk
O 1795 – 1849
O 11th President (1845-49)
O Democrat, Southerner, slaveO
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owner
Nicknamed both “Young
Hickory” and “Napoleon of the
Stump”
Expanded US through formal
addition of Texas, the Mexican
War, and negotiations with
Britain for control of the Oregon
Territory
Established a national treasury,
lowered tariffs
Opened the USNA and
Smithsonian
Texas & The Mexican War
O 1846 – 1848
O US annexed Texas in
1845, as a slave state
O After defeating Mexico,
US added California
and desert Southwest
– but would they be
free or slave territories?
The Wilmot Proviso & Calhoun
Resolutions
O Wilmot Proviso proposed in
1846 by Rep. David Wilmot of
PA – proposed a complete
ban on slavery in any new
territories US might acquire
from Mexico
O Sen. John C. Calhoun of SC
countered that the states own
US territories in common and
Congress holds no authority to
ban slavery in the territories
O US Senate refused to vote on
Wilmot Proviso
Hardening Attitudes About Slavery
O Calhoun began to argue
that slavery was not a
“necessary evil” but
rather an “positive
good” because white
slave owners provided
care for their slaves
and introduced them to
Christianity, thereby
saving their souls
Popular Sovereignty
O Proposed by Sen. Lewis
Cass of Michigan
O Citizens of each new
territory should be allowed
to decide for themselves on
whether to allow slavery
there
O Idea became popular
because it prevented
Congress from having to
make a decision
Split in the Whig Party
O Slavery divided
northern Whigs into the
“Conscience Whigs”
who opposed slavery
and the “Cotton Whigs”
who supported slavery
because Southern
cotton fed their
northern textile
factories
Rise of the Free Soil Party
O After pro-slavery Zachary
Taylor became the Whig
nominee for president in
1848, Conscience Whigs
quit the Whig Party and
joined themselves with
northern anti-slavery
Democrats
O This new party was called
the Free Soil Party (they
opposed expanding slavery
to the “free soil” of the
West).
Election of 1848
O Democratic candidate
Lewis Cass promoted
popular sovereignty and
promised to veto the
Wilmot Proviso if passed
O Free Soil candidate Martin
Van Buren supported a
complete ban on slavery in
the West
O Whig candidate Zachary
Taylor was a moderate
Zachary Taylor
O 1784 – 1850
O 12th President (1849–50)
O “Old Rough and Ready”
O Slave owner, but believed
slavery wouldn’t work in the
West because of the
climate
O Hero of the Mexican War,
never held an elected office
before president
O Died in office
Millard Fillmore
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1800 – 1874
13th President (1850-53)
Whig (later a Know-Nothing)
Anti-slavery, but believed that it
was necessary to allow it to keep
South happy and the Union
whole
Endorsed the Compromise of
1850 and signed it into law
Sent Perry to open trade with
Japan
Refused to support Southern
efforts to annex Cuba
Not nominated by Whigs in 1852
Compromise of 1850
O 5 separate bills pushed through
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Congress by Clay and Webster over
the opposition of Calhoun:
1) California admitted as a free
state
2) Slave trade (but not slave
ownership) was banned in
Washington D.C.
3) New Mexico Territory and Utah
Territory were created and would
decide slavery issue under popular
sovereignty
4) Texas was paid $10 million in
return for giving up its claims to
lands in the New Mexico Territory
5) The Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Act
O Law enforcement anywhere in the
US were obligated to arrest
runaway slaves and return them to
their owners
O Anyone harboring a fugitive slave
or refusing to help apprehend one
was subject to fine and prison
O Slaves were identified solely by the
word of their owner or their
representative and received no
trial
O As a result, any free black was in
danger – all it took was a claim
that they were a runaway and they
were arrested and turned over!
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
O Novel by Harriet Beecher
Stowe
O Published in 1852, written
in direct response to the
Fugitive Slave Act
O Sold 300,000 copies in
first year
O Brought the suffering of
slaves to life for many
readers and helped swell
the abolitionist ranks
Underground Railroad
O Organized network of
individuals who helped
hide and move runaway
slaves north
O Moved thousands of
slaves to freedom in
Canada
O These people risked
imprisonment to help
slaves escape
Harriet Tubman
O 1820 – 1913
O Escaped slave who risked
herself by returning to the
South over and over to
guide runaways along the
Underground Railroad,
despite being an epileptic
O Later worked as a spy for
the Union Army during the
Civil War and as a women’s
rights activist
A Changing of the Guard: Calhoun,
Clay, & Webster Die
1850
Summer 1852
Fall 1852
Franklin Pierce
O 1804 – 1869
O 14th President (1853-1857)
O Democrat
O Supported acquisition of Cuba
from Spain, but his ministers
sent to broker a deal created
a scandal when they
threatened Spain with force if
they refused to sell Cuba (the
Ostend Manifesto)
O Was not nominated for a
second term by his party in
1856
Kansas-Nebraska Act
O 1854
O Created two new territories
out of the Great Plains –
Kansas and Nebraska
O Repealed the Missouri
Compromise and allowed
the 2 new territories to
exercise popular
sovereignty on the issue of
slavery
Stephen A. Douglas
O 1813 – 1861
O Senator from Illinois
nicknamed the “Little
Giant”
O Helped draft the
Compromise of 1850 and
was the author of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act
O Strong believer that true
democracy obeyed the will
of the people – so he
supported the idea of
popular sovereignty
“Bleeding Kansas”
O Settlers moving into
Kansas from Missouri
brought their slaves
O New England Emigrant Aid
Company began organizing
and equipping northern
settlers to move to Kansas
and oppose slavery
O Both sides were armed and
willing to fight and periods
of violence followed
Andrew P. Butler
O 1796 – 1857
O Senator from SC
O Co-author of the Kansas-
Nebraska Act
O Strong, outspoken
supporter of slavery
O Verbally trashed in the
Senate in 1856 by Senator
Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts for his
support of slavery
Charles Sumner
O 1811 – 1874
O Senator from MA
O Opposed the Fugitive Slave
and Kansas-Nebraska Acts
O Delivered his 3-hour “Crime
Against Kansas” speech in
May 1856, which made
personal attacks against
Sen. Butler including making
fun of his speech problems
(Butler’s speech had been
impaired from a stroke)
Preston Brooks
O 1819 – 1857
O Rep. from SC
O Nephew of Andrew Butler
O Decided to act to defend
the honor of his disabled
uncle and that of SC
O First considered
challenging Sumner to a
duel but decided that was
too much of an honor for
Sumner
Sumner-Brooks Incident
O May 22, 1856
O Brooks attacked Sumner
with a cane on the floor of
the Senate, savagely
beating him until the cane
broke
O Sumner took 3 years to
recover from his injuries
O Dozens of proud
Southerners sent Brooks
new canes in support
The Republican Party
O Founded in 1854 by a
mixture of former Whigs,
Free Soilers, and antislavery Democrats
O Direct response to the
Kansas-Nebraska Act
O Number one goal became
to contain the spread of
slavery to the South and
not allow it to spread to
new states or territories
Know-Nothings
O The American Party
(informally called the
“Know-Nothings”)
O Nativist party that
opposed immigration
and was fiercely antiCatholic
O Initially successful, but
short-lived since its
members were divided
over slavery
Election of 1856
O Republicans nominated
explorer John C.
Fremont
O Democrats nominated
career politician and
moderate James
Buchanan
O Know-Nothings
nominated former
president Millard
Fillmore
James Buchanan
O 1791 – 1868
O 15th President (1857-61)
O Only unmarried President
O Believed that South could
only be kept in the Union
through concessions and
compromise, but this
infuriated Northern
supporters
O Failed to successfully deal
with increasingly violent
sectionalism
Dred Scott
O 1799 – 1858
O Slave who sued for freedom
on the grounds that his
master had carried him into
states and territories where
slavery was illegal
O Given freedom by his owner
in 1857 after Dred Scott
lost his case in the
Supreme Court
Dred Scott Decision
O 1857
O Dred Scott v. Sandford
O Southerner-dominated Supreme
Court under Chief Justice Roger
Taney ruled that since persons of
African ancestry were not
citizens of the US but were
instead private property, they
were not protected by US laws
and could not sue in US courts
O Court also overturned the
Missouri Compromise as
unconstitutional – ruled that
Congress could not pass laws
that denied citizens their right to
private property (slaves) without
“due process” (5th Amendment)
Kansas & the Lecompton
Constitution
O Buchanan encouraged Kansas to
apply for statehood to decide the
slavery issue there and end the
violence
O Constitutional Convention was
called in the territory’s capital of
Lecompton, but was boycotted by
abolition supporters as “rigged”
O Result was a state constitution
that allowed slavery in Kansas
O Congress refused to admit
Kansas under the Lecompton
constitution in 1858 – Kansas
not a state until 1861
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
O 1858
O Republicans ran Abraham Lincoln
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against Democrat Stephen Douglas
for Senate in Illinois
The 2 men participated in a series of
public debates centered on slavery
Lincoln opposed the spread of
slavery, Douglas promoted popular
sovereignty
Douglas argued the Freeport
Doctrine – that the Dred Scott
decision was correct, but that states
wanting to keep slavery out had only
to refuse to pass laws needed to
enforce slavery
Douglas won re-election, but Lincoln
won national attention for himself &
the Republicans
John Brown
O 1800 – 1859
O Businessman who experienced
bankruptcy, the death of his wife
and a number of his children
before becoming an ardent
abolitionist
O Moved to Kansas in 1856 and
participated in the murder of 5
pro-slavery settlers (The
Pottawatomie Massacre) and
the more organized fighting
between abolitionist and proslavery forces
O When fighting died down in
Kansas, Brown returned east
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s
Ferry
O Oct. 16-18, 1859
O Brown mounted an attack on
the federal armory at Harper’s
Ferry, VA in an effort to seize
weapons with which to arm
slaves and start a rebellion
O Brown took the armory, but
slaves did not rebel and no
support came
O Brown’s forces were defeated
by US Marines led by Col.
Robert E. Lee and Brown was
captured, tried and hung for
treason
South turns against Republicans
O After John Brown’s Raid,
Southerners became
convinced that abolitionists
were determined to destroy
the Southern way of life
O Republican Party was
closely tied to the
abolitionist cause
O Southern leaders vowed
that they would rather
dissolve the Union than
tolerate a Republican-led
government
Election of 1860
O Democratic Party Split
O Northern Democrats who favored
popular sovereignty nominated
Stephen Douglas
O Southern Democrats who
demanded federal protection of
slavery nominated John
Breckinridge
O Republicans nominated Abraham
Lincoln
O Former Whigs created the
Constitutional Party which argued
that the Union could still be
preserved through upholding the
Constitution
South Carolina Secedes
O Dec. 20, 1860
O President Buchanan (Lincoln
had been elected but not
inaugurated) declared
secession to be illegal but
refused to use military force
to stop it
O US forces in SC retreated to
Ft. Sumter in Charleston
Harbor
O SC was followed by
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and
Texas
Abraham Lincoln
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1809 – 1865
16th President (1861-65)
Republican
His election would
prompt the South to
secede; Lincoln would
have to decide whether
to let them leave the US
or to fight to force them
to stay – chose to fight
Jefferson Davis
O Feb. 1861: Secessionist
states declared
themselves to be an
independent nation, the
Confederate States of
America
O Wrote a new
constitution and elected
former Mississippi
senator Jefferson Davis
as President
Ft. Sumter
O April 1861: Lincoln
announces that he
intends to reinforce Ft.
Sumter
O South demanded that Ft.
Sumter surrender; when
the fort refused, it was
bombarded with cannonfire for 33 hours (official
start of Civil War)
O April 13, 1861: Ft.
Sumter surrendered to
South
Upper South Secedes
O Lincoln began to build
an army to fight the
South
O This prompted states of
the “Upper South” to
secede in support of
the Confederacy
O Virginia, Arkansas,
North Carolina, &
Tennessee leave the
Union
The Border States Must Decide
O Lincoln needed the
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remaining 4 slave states
(Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, and Missouri)
to stay in the Union
Delaware committed to
the North
Lincoln imposed martial
law in Maryland
Kentucky sided with
North after Confederate
forces invaded the state
Missouri voted to stay
with North
The Confederate States of
America
O
NOT THIS -----
-----THIS
North vs. South