Download Lead up to Civil War

Leading to a Civil War
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– Sucession
"to withdraw formally from a
union or alliance”
Southern individual states nullified their
ratification of the U.S. constitution
The Process of Secession
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– Political Sectionalism
• Missouri Compromise 1820
– Missouri - slave state
– Maine - free state
– Entry of states into the Union have to be
balanced - one free/one slave
• Gag Rule of 1836
• Compromise of 1850
– California a free state
– Slavery allowed in the other
territories acquired from Mexico
Slave and Free Territories Under the Compromise of 1850
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
• organized 2 new federal territories
• repealed section of Missouri Compromise
• prohibiting slavery in states/territories
north of 36º 30’ latitude
• people decide (popular sovereignty)
“Bleeding Kansas”
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– Change in 2 party system
• Democrats & Whigs
– Democrats (dough faces)
• needed northern candidate to win because
of the number of southerners
• F. Pierce 1852, J. Buchanan 1856, Douglas ?
– Whigs
• Kansas & Nebraska Act killed party
divided sectionally
• North & South too far apart on slavery
issue to hold party together
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– Change in 2 party system
• Democrats & Whigs
• Whigs & Free Soilers = Republicans
• * only a northern party
– tolerate slavery in south
– unwilling to accept it's expansion
– demand that the Kansas & Nebraska Act
be repealed
– central railroad (rather than northern
as Douglas proposed)
– Homestead Act - western lands to
families to settle 160 acres
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– Dred Scott Decision 1857
– Southern dominated court
• Slaves were property
• "congress could not ban slavery
from territories”
• Chief Justice Roger Taney
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– The Election of 1860
• Aggressive movements of pro slave movement
– frightened north
– Hardened resistance in North
– intensified southern insecurity
• South demands - congressional slave codes
Leading to a Civil War

Events leading to the Secession of the South
– The Election of 1860
• Freeport Doctrine
– legislation to protect slave property in north
– Lead to a division of the Democratic Party
• Northern Democrats - Stephen Douglas
– appealed to North & South but ambiguous
• Southern Democrats - John Breckenridge
– Appealed to south - popular sovereignty
• Republicans - Abraham Lincoln
• Constitutional Union Party - John Bell
The Election of 1860
LEADING TO A CIVIL WAR

Events Leading to the Secession of the South
– Political Sectionalism
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Missouri Compromise
Gag Rule
Compromise of 1850
Wilmot Proviso
– Kansas Nebraska Act 1854
– Dred Scot Decision 1857
– Election of 1860
The Confederate States of America
Leading to a Civil War

The Confederate States of America
– Constitution 1787 (1789 9 states ratified - 4 didn't)
• established government
• Constitution states that states can't coin money
and can’t maintain an army but can they secede?
– Southern Position held that the Constitution did not
automatically bind states
– Individual States first . . . then United
STATES UNITED
Leading to a Civil War

The Confederate States of America
– Individual States first . . . then United
STATES UNITED
– 11 southern states seceded and formed
their own country
– North says no you can't leave = 4 long years
of fighting
– CIVIL (internal) War - settle question
about whether a state can succeed
• Pre Civil War The United States are
• Post Civil War The United States is
Leading to a Civil War

The Confederate States of America
– Radicals - fire eaters
• South Carolinians since Nullification Controversy
– South Carolina state convention Dec 20, 1860
• repeal ratification of federal constitution
– 6 weeks later MI, Fl, GA, Al, LA, TX succeed
– Delegates to Montgomery Alabama
• organized themselves as the C.S. of A.
• Jefferson Davis - President ( Mississippi)
Leading to a Civil War
• ". . . it presents the question whether discontented
individuals too few in numbers to control administration
according to organic law in any case, can always upon the
pretenses made in this case, or on any other pretense,
break up their government, and thus practically put an end
to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: Is
there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness?
Must a government, of necessity be too strong for the
liberties of its own people or too weak to maintain its own
existence?"
Lincoln - July 4, 1861
following Ft. Sumter