Chapter 10

Sect 3 & 4

In the presidential election of 1856 there were 5 political parties.

Whig Party Failed to nominate a candidate

Republican PartyWon one-third of the popular vote and 11 northern states

Know-NothingsPut up a candidate but dissolved over the slavery issue

DemocratsWon with James Buchanan promising to stop the “agitation of the slavery issue”

Free-Soil Party Absorbed into the Republican Party

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved man who had lived in a free state and sued for his freedom.

Within a year of the election, another event intensified the divisions in the nation over slavery.

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down the controversial decision in March, 1857.

• ruled against Scott.• said slaves were

property and not allowed to sue in court.

• said the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

• pleased the South.• angered the North and

abolitionists.

The Dred Scott decision:

In 1858, in a race for the Illinois senate seat, Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln debated the issue of slavery.

The seven debates got national attention.

Lincoln Douglas

Spoke with direct and deliberate tone focusing on how slavery was a struggle between right and wrong.

Had an energetic, commanding voice and spoke of the political issues.

Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, popular sovereignty, and the

Scott decision.

Supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty.

Opposed the annexation of Texas.

Supported the annexation of Texas.

On the issue of slavery:

Douglas won the Senate seat by a slim margin.

The debates gave Abraham Lincoln national recognition that was important in the 1860 presidential election.

Both candidates believed the issue of slavery had to be resolved peacefully, within the framework of laws.

His goal was to inspire local slaves to join a revolution that would defeat slavery.

John Brown organized a small party of men and attacked a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia.

John Brown’s raid failed but intensified national division.

Most abolitionists (black and white) refused to join Brown although a few sent money for guns.

Brown was arrested, tried, and executed.

Lincoln and other Republicans condemned Brown.

The South was on alert and many prepared for war.

The possibility of war between the North and South loomed.

Near the end of the 1850s, attempts at compromise over slavery had failed.

The election of 1860 had four candidates.

He believed the federal government must protect slavery.

A Democrat, John C. Breckinridge was from Kentucky.

He believed popular sovereignty should decide the slavery issue when territories became states.

A Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas was from Illinois.

He believed slavery should not be allowed in the territories.

A Republican, Abraham Lincoln was from Illinois.

He believed the federal government should support slavery and defend the Union.

Constitutional Unionist John Bell wasfrom Tennessee.

With no national candidate dominating the campaign, Lincoln won with just over half of the electoral votes needed and 40 percent of the popular vote.

The vote for Abraham Lincoln was mostly a vote for moderation toward the issue of slavery and a vote for the Union.

However, the South felt it no longer had a voice in the national government and did not see how it could remain in the Union.

South Carolina was the first southern state to leave the Union.

At a state convention held six weeks after Election Day, legislators voted to secede. It was a unanimous vote.

X

Outgoing President Buchanan publicly condemned South Carolina’s action.

However, he did not use force to prevent it.

Within weeks, six other Southern states followed South Carolina.

The states with the largest enslaved populations seceded.

• closely resembled the U.S. Constitution.

• stressed the independence of each state.

• implied that states had the right to secede.

• forbid importing new slaves from other countries.

The constitution of the Confederate States of America:

Jefferson Davis, former senator from Mississippi, became president of the Confederate States of America.

• he urged peace between the Confederacy and the Union.

• he decided to try to hold on to the Union forts the Confederacy claimed, such as Fort Sumter.

When Lincoln took office:

However, Confederate forces attacked and captured the fort in defiance of Lincoln.

After Fort Sumter fell, Lincoln declared that insurrection existed.

Four more southern states immediately joined the Confederacy.

The issue of slavery had long divided the nation, even at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

A Nation Divided by Civil War

The economic sectional differences in the mid-1800s also greatly contributed to the national division.

Predictions were the Civil War would be short, but it lasted for four terrible years.