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05 UNIT: 18 CHAPTER
Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848–1854
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The acquisition of territory from Mexico created acute new dilemmas concerning the expansion of slavery,
especially for the two major political parties, which had long tried to avoid the issue. The antislavery Free Soil
party pushed the issue into the election of 1848. The application of gold-rich California for admission to the
Union forced the controversy into the Senate, which engaged in stormy debates over slavery and the Union.
After the timely death of President Taylor, who had blocked a settlement, Congress resolved the crisis by passing
the delicate Compromise of 1850. The compromise eased sectional tension for the moment, although the Fugitive
Slave Law aroused opposition in the North.
As the Whig Party died, the Democratic Pierce administration became the tool of proslavery expansionists.
Controversies over Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Gadsden Purchase showed that expansionism was closely linked to
the slavery issue.
The desire for a northern railroad route led Stephen Douglas to ram the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress in
1854. By repealing the Missouri Compromise and making new territory subject to popular sovereignty on slavery,
this act aroused the fury of the North, sparked the rise of the Republican Party, and set the stage for the Civil War.
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1.
How did the California gold rush result in inflaming strong sectional disputes?
2.
Who supported and who opposed the Compromise of 1850, what were its main provisions, and how did it
pass?
3.
What section benefited the most from the Compromise of 1850? Why?
4.
What foreign policy agreements were made with regard to Latin America and Asia?
5.
What were the explicit provisions and implicit understandings of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and what were
some of the consequences of its passage?
6.
Was the Compromise of 1850 a wise effort to balance sectional differences or a futile attempt to push the
slavery issue out of sight? Could a better compromise have been met if California had not skipped the
regular territorial phase?
7.
Why did the North so strongly resent the Fugitive Slave Law and why did the South resent northern
resistance to enforcing it?
8.
Is there a significant difference in the leadership of Old Guard senators such as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun
when compared with the Young Guard of Douglas and Seward?
9.
Did the North, South, or West benefit most from the Compromise of 1850? Why?
10. Why was the issue of acquiring Cuba so controversial in the 1850s? Could some of the Caribbean islands or
parts of Central America have become incorporated as slave states with the United States? How would
American designs for expansion into the Caribbean and Central America effect U.S. relations with Latin
America? Did European turmoil in the late 1840s and early 1850s encourage American expansionist
dreams?
11. Would the sectional conflict have been reheated had Douglas not pushed through the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Why or why not?
05 UNIT: 19 CHAPTER
Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854–1861
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The 1850s were punctuated by successive confrontations that deepened sectional hostility, until it broke out in the
Civil War.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin fanned northern antislavery feeling. In Kansas, proslavery and
antislavery forces fought a bloody little preview of the Civil War. Buchanan’s support of the proslavery
Lecompton Constitution alienated moderate northern Democrats such as Douglas. Congressman Brooks’s beating
of Senator Sumner aroused passions in both sections.
The 1856 election signaled the rise of the sectionally based Republican Party. The Dred Scott case delighted the
South, while northern Republicans pledged defiance. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 deepened the national
controversy over slavery. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry made him a heroic martyr in the North but caused
outraged southerners to fear a slave uprising.
The Democratic Party split along sectional lines, allowing Lincoln to win the four-way 1860 election. Seven
southern states quickly seceded and organized the Confederate States of America.
As southerners optimistically cast off their ties to the hated North, lame-duck President Buchanan proved unable
to act. The last-minute Crittenden Compromise effort failed because of Lincoln’s opposition.
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1.
Who authored literature related to slavery that aroused sympathy in the North and ire in the South?
2.
How did events unfold in Kansas after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
3.
What was the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case?
4.
How did John Brown’s actions further entrench sectional differences?
5.
Who were the candidates for president in 1860, where did each get most of his support, and what were the
results of the election?
6.
What happened in the time between the election of 1860 and the inauguration of the new president?
7.
How did each of the major crisis events of the 1850s contribute to the advent of the Civil War?
8.
How could a fanatical and violent man like John Brown come to be regarded as a hero by millions of
northerners?
9.
Why did Douglas’s popular sovereignty approach to the slavery question prove to be unworkable in Kansas
and elsewhere?
10. What did the Supreme Court decide in the Dred Scott case? Did the Court do too much in its ruling or was it
within its traditional constitutional boundaries? What effect did the decision have in the territories, in the
North, and in the South?
11. Why was sectional compromise impossible in 1860, when such compromises had previously worked in
1820 and 1850? Since Lincoln had guaranteed to protect slavery in the states where it existed, why did the
seven southern states secede as soon as he was elected?
05 UNIT: 20 CHAPTER
Girding for War: The North and the South, 1861–1865
CHAPTER SUMMARY
South Carolina’s firing on Fort Sumter aroused the North for war. Lincoln’s call for troops to suppress the
rebellion drove four upper South states into the Confederacy. Lincoln used an effective combination of political
persuasion and force to keep the deeply divided Border States in the Union.
The Confederacy enjoyed initial advantages of upper-class European support, military leadership, and a defensive
position on its own soil. The North enjoyed the advantages of lower-class European support, industrial and
population resources, and political leadership.
The British upper classes sympathized with the South and abetted Confederate naval efforts. But effective
diplomacy and Union military success thwarted those efforts and kept Britain, as well as France, neutral in the
war.
Lincoln’s political leadership proved effective in mobilizing the North for war, despite political opposition and
resistance to his infringement on civil liberties. The North eventually mobilized its larger troop resources for war
and ultimately turned to an unpopular and unfair draft system.
Northern economic and financial strengths enabled it to gain an advantage over the less-industrialized South. The
changes in society opened new opportunities for women, who had contributed significantly to the war effort in
both the North and South. Since most of the war was waged on Southern soil, the South was left devastated by the
war.
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1.
What did Lincoln do that provoked South Carolina to bombard Fort Sumter, and what did Lincoln do
immediately following the attack?
2.
Which states were Border States and how did they influence Lincoln’s statements and actions?
3.
At the outbreak of war, what advantages did the South have and what advantages did the North have?
4.
Why did the South believe they would be able to enlist foreign intervention and why were they unable to do
so?
5.
What incidents threatened peaceful relations between the Union and Britain?
6.
How did the war impact the economy in the North and the economy in the South?
7.
How justified were Lincoln’s wartime abridgments of civil liberties and his treatment of the Copperheads?
8.
What were the advantages of the South during the Civil War? What were the advantages of the North?
What advantage proved most important to each side? What were the disadvantages of each side? Which
disadvantage proved most troublesome to each side?
9.
To what degree did Britain get involved in the American Civil War? Assess the importance of that degree of
involvement to the North and to the South. Review key events involving the British (cotton, grain, Trent
affair, Alabama, and Laird rams).
10. How did the American Civil War reshape the Americas? What did European powers do in the Americas
during the American Civil War?
11. How was the impact of the Civil War different for the soldiers and civilians of the North and South?
12. Did the results of the Civil War justify its cost? Does the answer to that question depend partly on whether
you are a Northerner or a Southerner, black or white?
13. What made Lincoln a great president? Was it primarily his political leadership or his personal qualities and
character?
05 UNIT: 21 CHAPTER
The Furnace of Civil War, 1861–1865
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The Union defeat at Bull Run ended Northern complacency about a quick victory. George McClellan and other
early Union generals proved unable to defeat the tactically brilliant Confederate armies under Lee. The Union
naval blockade put a slow but devastating economic noose around the South.
The political and diplomatic dimensions of the war quickly became critical. In order to retain the Border States,
Lincoln first deemphasized any intention to destroy slavery. But the Battle of Antietam, in 1862, enabled Lincoln
to prevent foreign intervention and turn the struggle into a war against slavery. Blacks and abolitionists joined
enthusiastically in a war for emancipation, but white resentment in part of the North created political problems for
Lincoln.
The Union victories at Vicksburg in the West and Gettysburg in the East finally turned the military tide against
the South. Southern resistance remained strong, but the Union victories at Atlanta and Mobile assured Lincoln’s
success in the election of 1864 and ended the last Confederate hopes. The war ended the issues of disunion and
slavery, but at a tremendous cost to both North and South.
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1.
How successful was McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac?
2.
What are some of the pivotal battles of the Civil War and what was the outcome of each?
3.
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do and how did it affect the Union cause?
4.
How successful was Lee as commander of the Confederate army?
5.
Once he was put in charge of the entire Union army, how did Grant prosecute the war until its end?
6.
What was the political situation as the election of 1864 approached, and how did Lincoln win a reelection?
7.
What were the costs of the Civil War?
8.
Why did the North win the Civil War? How might the South have won?
9.
Rank the following battles in order of importance and justify the ranking: Antietam, Gettysburg, and
Vicksburg.
10. Should the Civil War be seen primarily as a war to save the Union or as a war to free the slaves? Why?
What name would you give to the conflict?
11. What role did race and racism play in the Civil War? How did the war itself reflect and affect American
attitudes toward race? Why were the black Union soldiers so critical in this regard? What impact did
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation have on the war and society?
12. How does the popular image of the Civil War compare with the historical reality? Discuss the different
perceptions and memories of the war in the North and South (for example, the popular images of Lee or
Sherman in the two sections).
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William H. Seward
Gen. Lewis Cass
popular sovereignty
Period 5: 1844-1877
Free Soil Party
Fugitive Slave Law
Underground
Railroad
Harriet Tubman
Henry Clay
Stephen Douglas
John C. Calhoun
Daniel Webster
Seventh of March
Whittier
William H. Seward
higher law
Millard Fillmore
Compromise of 1850
Personal Liberty
Laws
Anthony Burns
Franklin Pierce
Gen. Winfield Scott
Free Soil Party
Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty
slavocracy
William Walker
Ostend Manifesto
Caleb Cushing
Commodore
Matthew Perry
James Gadsden
Gadsden Purchase
Stephen Douglas
Kansas-Nebraska
Act
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Hinton Helper
Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher
John Brown
Bleeding Kansas
40. Lecompton
Constitution
41. Pres. James
Buchanan
42. Stephen Douglas
43. Charles Sumner
44. Preston Brooks
45. James Buchanan
46. John C. Fremont
47. American Party
48. Know-Nothing Party
49. Chief Justice Roger
Taney
50. Dred Scott decision
51. Panic of 1857
52. Sen. Stephen Douglas
53. Abraham Lincoln
54. Lincoln-Douglas
debates
55. Freeport Doctrine
56. John Brown
57. Lt. Col. Robert E.
Lee
58. John C. Breckinridge
59. John Bell
60. Constitutional Union
Party
61. Confederate States of
America
62. Jefferson Davis
63. Crittendon
Compromise
64. Border States
65. Gen. Robert E. Lee
66. Thomas "Stonewall"
Jackson
67. King Wheat
68. King Corn
69. Trent affair
70. Laird rams
71. Maximilian
72. confederacy
73. President Jefferson
Davis
74. Morrill Tariff Act
75. National Banking
System
76. Federal Reserve
System
77. Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell
78. Clara Barton
79. Dorothea Dix
80. Sally Tompkins
81. Battle of Bull Run
82. Battle of Manassas
83. Gen. Thomas
"Stonewall" Jackson
84. Gen. George
McClellan
85. Richmond, VA
86. Peninsula Campaign
87. Jeb Stuart
88. Robert E. Lee
89. Seven Days' Battles
90. Gen. Winfield Scott
91. ironclad
92. Second Battle of Bull
Run
93. Gen. John Pope
94. Battle of Antietam
Creek
95. 13th Amendment
96. Gen. A.E. Burnside
97. Gen. Joseph Hooker
98. Gen. George Meade
99. Battle of Gettysburg
100. Pickett's Charge
101. Gettysburg Address
102. Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant
103. Vicksburg
104. Gen. William
Tecumseh Sherman
105. Radical Republicans
106. Clement L.
Valandigham
107. Copperheads
108. Butternut Region
109. Union Party
110. Appomattox
Courthouse
111. John Wilkes Booth
112. freedmen
113. Freedmen's Bureau
114. Gen. O. O. Howard
115. Pres. Andrew
Johnson
116. Radical Republicans
117. Wade-Davis Bill
118. Black Codes
119. Civil Rights Bill
120. Fourteenth
Amendment
121. Thaddeus Stevens
122. Reconstruction Act
123. 15th Amendment
124. Ex parte Milligan
125. Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
126. Susan B. Anthony
127. Frederick Douglass
128. Union League
129. Hiram Revels
130. Blanche K. Bruce
131. scalawags
132. Carpetbaggers
133. Ku Klux Klan
134. literacy tests
135. understanding
clauses
136. grandfather clauses
137. Tenure of Office Act
138. Gen. Zachary Taylor