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Chapter 19
DRIFTING TOWARD DISUNION
MID-19TH CENTURY POLITICAL PARTIES

Know-Nothing Party
 Formed
in opposition to Irish immigration during the
1840s
 Most members were factory workers in the eastern
cities who were losing jobs to the Irish, who would
work for lower wages
 Based on the idea of Nativism
 The
belief that native-born Americans were somehow
superior to immigrants.
19TH CENTURY POLITICAL PARTIES

The Free-Soil Party
 Formed
after the Mexican cession
 The main objective was to stop the spread of
slavery into the western territories.
 (Not
anti-slavery, just against the spread of slavery)
19TH CENTURY POLITICAL PARTY

The Republican Party
 Formed
as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
 Comprised of former freesoilers, northern
democrats and abolitionists.
 Almost all support for the Republicans came from
the North.
 Tried to stop the spread of slavery into the west.
THE GREAT DEBATE: LINCOLN VERSUS DOUGLAS

Lincoln challenged
Douglas to a series of
debates

The "Lincoln-Douglas
debates" were a series
of seven debates
spread across Illinois.

Lincoln proved that he
could stand and argue
toe-to-toe with Douglas.
THE FREEPORT DEBATE

The most noteworthy debate took place at
Freeport, IL.

Lincoln asked, “Mr. Douglas, if the people of a territory
voted slavery down, despite the Supreme Court saying
that they could not do so (point #2 of the Dred Scott
decision), which side would you support, the people or
the Supreme Court?”

Douglas (“Mr. Popular Sovereignty”) replied with his
“Freeport Doctrine.”
 …”since
ultimate power was held by the people, slavery
should be banned if the people indeed voted it down,
regardless of how the Supreme Court ruled.”
DOUGLAS WINS THE BATTLE, BUT LOSES THE
WAR

Douglas won the Illinois Senate race over
Lincoln.
 BUT
the South turned against Douglas because of
his response at the Freeport Debate

The Lincoln-Douglas debates also solidified the
political platforms for the Northern Democrats
and the Republicans leading up to the 1860
election.
JOHN BROWN: MURDERER OR MARTYR?

John Brown re-emerged
in Harper's Ferry,
Virginia

His plan:
1.
2.
3.
to take over the federal
arsenal in Harper's Ferry
pass out weapons to
local slaves
initiate a huge slave
revolt, and thus free the
slaves.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

The Results of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
 He and his men took over a building but were quickly
surrounded and overwhelmed by the U.S. Marines, led by Lt.
Col. Robert E. Lee.

John Brown was captured, tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and
hanged.
BROWN’S LEGEND

Brown's death had a strong
impact on the North and
South.


To the South, justice had been
served to a murderer and
terrorist.
In the North, many influential
abolitionists, such as William
Lloyd Garrison, galvanized
Brown as a martyr and a hero.

True or not, the martyr image
gave strength to the moral
cause of abolition.
THE 1860 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The Republicans nominated
Abraham Lincoln

Support came from






free-soilers (stopping slavery's
expansion)
manufacturers (a higher tariff)
immigrants (civil rights)
westerners (a Northwestern
railroad)
farmers (cheap homesteading
land).
Lincoln was not an abolitionist,
just a free-soiler.

he wanted to stop the spread of
slavery, but allow it where it
currently existed.
THE ELECTORAL UPHEAVAL OF 1860

Lincoln got only 40% of the popular vote, yet he
won the presidency

It was a very sectional election:
the North went to Lincoln
 the South to Breckinridge (Southern Dem)
 the “middle-ground” went to Bell
 Missouri went to Douglas (Northern Dem)

THE SOUTH STANDS STRONG

Despite the presidency no belonging to the
Republicans:
 The
South had a 5-to-4 majority in the Supreme
Court.
 The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress
by a large margin.
THE SECESSIONIST EXODUS

During the campaign
 South
Carolina had pledged to secede from the
union if Lincoln won.
 S.C.
seceded in December of 1860.
 The
"Deep South" (Alabama, Mississippi, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) followed over the next six
weeks
 Four other Southern states would leave the U.S. later.
THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA

The seceded states met
in Montgomery, AL in
February, 1861, and
formed the
"Confederate States of
America".

Jefferson Davis was
elected as the president
of the C.S.A.
THE LAME DUCK BUCHANAN

President Buchanan's actions (or inactions)
during the secession were weak.
He did little or nothing to stop the states from
leaving the U.S.
 He is consistently rated as our worst president

FAREWELL TO UNION

The Southern states seceded because they felt
their slave-based way-of-life was being
threatened
1.
2.
Southerners felt starting a new nation would
enable them to mature economically—to grow
their own industry, banking, shipping, etc.
The South likened their situation to the American
colonies of 1776 who broke away from England.
THE MENACE OF SECESSION

By the time Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861,
seven states had already seceded

Lincoln claimed secession was geographically
impractical because there was no natural
boundary separating North from South.

European powers liked the secession because the
U.S. would be easier to divide and conquer.
SOUTH CAROLINA ASSAILS FT. SUMTER

Ft. Sumter (Charleston S.C.)
A
Union controlled military fort in Confederate
territory
 Needed
 Lincoln
 Send
supplies for the soldiers inside
had to make a decision
supplies and risk war, or let Fort Sumter fall to the
South without any fight.
LINCOLN’S DECISION

April, 1861
 Lincoln
Sumter
decided to send provisions to the men in Ft.
 The
south saw the move by Lincoln as an act of
aggression and attacked the Fort on

The result
1.
2.
The attack on Fort Sumter was the official start of
the Civil War.
Lincoln now had his reason to use force against
the South.
BROTHERS’ BLOOD AND BORDER BLOOD

After the attack on Ft. Sumter
 Virginia,
Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee also
seceded from the Union (bringing the Confederate
states to 11)
 Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland
(and later W.
Virginia) became the “border states”
 The
only pro-slave states to remain in the Union.