A Divided Nation…

CHAPTER 15

SECTION 15.2

Trouble in Kansas

ELECTION OF 1852

• 1852 - four candidates for the Democratic

presidential nomination.

• Many turned to Franklin Pierce, a little-known

politician from New Hampshire.

• He promised to honor the Compromise of 1850

and the Fugitive Slave Act.

• Southerners trusted Pierce because of this.

• The opposing Whigs also held their convention in 1852.

• Choosing war heroes as their delegates had been successful

in the past (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor).

• The Whigs passed over current president Millard Fillmore

because they believed his strict enforcement of the Fugitive

Slave Act would cost (lose) votes.

• Instead, they chose Winfield Scott, a Mexican War Hero, as

their candidate. But, he was not trusted by Southerners

because he did NOT fully support the Compromise of 1850.

• In the end, Pierce won the election of 1852 by a large

margin.

• This is seen as a major defeat for the Whigs.

KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT

• A proposal to build a railroad to the West coast helped revive the

slavery controversy and opened a new period of sectional

conflict.

• Because of this new act, the question of slavery is to be decided

by popular sovereignty – by the people who vote in the elections

there.

• This sparked violent conflict between pro-slavery and

antislavery groups.

DOUGLAS AND THE RAILROAD

• Stephen Douglas wanted to build a railroad that ran to the Pacific Ocean from Chicago, Ill.

• He knew a territory needed to be created out of the Louisiana Purchase.

• The Missouri Compromise required that land to be made of free territory.

• Douglas needed southern support to build the line.

• The only way he could get support was if the new territory west of the state of Missouri was opened to slavery.

TWO NEW TERRITORIES

• This plan would divide the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase

into two territories - Kansas and Nebraska - and would allow the

people in each territory to decide on the question of slavery.

• Many in the north were against the idea. The act would eliminate

the Missouri Compromise’s restriction on slavery north of the 36’

30’ line!

• Eventually, the measure passed both houses of Congress and was

signed into law.

• Lost amid all the controversy was Douglas’s proposed railroad to

the Pacific Ocean.

• Congress would not approve the construction of such a railroad

until 1862.

KANSAS DIVIDED

• Anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups rushed their supporters to Kansas. This can’t be happening!

• More than 5,000 pro-slavery voters crossed the border to vote and then returned home.

• As a result the state turned to pro-slavery.

• Strict laws would be passed that made it a crime to question slaveholder’s rights and said that hose who helped fugitive slaves could be put to death.

• An anti-slavery legislature would be created 25 miles away.

• Despite opposition, President Pierce only recognized the pro-slavery legislature.

BLEEDING KANSAS

• Many moved to Kansas to homestead in peace but now

were affected by the dispute. In April 1856, a

congressional committee arrived in Kansas to decide

which government was legitimate.

• Although the committee members deemed the election

unfair, the federal government did not agree.

ATTACK ON LAWRENCE

• In May 1856 a pro-slavery jury charged anti-slavery

leaders with treason. About 800 men rode to Lawrence to

arrest the anti-slavery leaders, but they had fled.

• Instead they took their anger out on the town by

setting fires, looting buildings, and destroying presses

used to print anti-slavery newspapers.

JOHN BROWN’S RESPONSE

• On the night of May 24, 1856 John Brown and his

men killed five pro-slavery men in Kansas in what

became known as Pottawatomie Massacre.

Brown dragged pro-slavery men out of their cabins

and killed them with swords. He declared his

actions were ordered by God.

Kansas collapsed into civil war.

About 200 were killed.

The events in “Bleeding Kansas” became national

front-page stores.

BROOKS ATTACKS SUMNER • Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts criticized pro-slavery

people in Kansas and personally insulted a fellow senator who

favored slavery from South Carolina.

• In retaliation, Representative Preston Brooks, a relative of that

senator, used a walking cane to beat Sumner unconscious in the

Senate chambers.

• Many southerners will send Brooks canes through mail! (An

example of fan-mail?)

• He was given a fine of $300.

• Northerners will give him the nickname of “Bully Brooks”.

• It took Sumner three years before he was well enough to return to

the senate.

CHAPTER 15.3

Political Divisions

POLITICAL PARTIES UNDERGO CHANGE…

• Stephen Douglas predicted the Kansas-Nebraska Act

would “raise a storm” and it did as it brought the slavery

issue back into the national spotlight.

• People from four groups, Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers,

and abolitionists joined together in 1854 to form the

Republican party, a party united against the spread of

slavery in the West.

• Some Whigs and Democrats joined together and formed a

new party called the American Party, or the “Know-

Nothing” Party.

DELEGATES CHOSEN…

• The Democrats nominated James Buchanan for President in 1856.

• The Republicans chose John C. Fremont as their nominee for President in 1856.

• On election day, Buchanan won 14 of 15 slave states; Fremont won 11 of 16 free states and Fillmore won only one state: Maryland.

• The winner of the 1856 election was Buchanan.

DRED SCOTT DECISION

• The Dred Scott Decision is considered one of the most important in the history of the Supreme Court

• Dred Scott was a slave belonging to an army surgeon named Dr. John Emerson.

• Scott was taken to free territories and when he returned to Missouri the doctor died making him the property of Emerson’s widow.

• In 1846 Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri state court saying that he had become free when he lived in free territory.

SUPREME COURT DECISION

• In 1857 Scott’s case reached the Supreme Court. The justices, many from the south, had three issues to decide on.

1. The Court had to rule on whether Scott was a citizen. (Only citizens could sue in federal court.)

2. The Court had to decide if his time living on free soil made him free.

3. The Court had to determine the constitutionality of prohibiting slavery in parts of the Louisiana Purchase.

SUPREME COURT’S RULING

• On the first issue to be decided, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney decided that the nation’s founders did not intend to give African Americans the same rights as whites meaning that all African Americans, whether slave or free, were not citizens under the U.S. Constitution.

• If Dred Scott did not have rights under the constitution, then he did not have the right to file suit in federal court.

• On the second issue Justice Taney said then because Scott returned to Missouri, “his status as free or slave, depended on the law of Missouri.”

• The third issue said that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional as the Fifth amendment said that nobody could be deprived of LIFE, LIBERTY, or THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS without due process of law.

• Because slaves were property of people could not be

prohibited from taking them into a federal territory.

Under this ruling, Congress had no right to ban slavery

in any federal territory.

• The Dred Scott decision favored those in the South but

deeply upset those in the North.

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

• In 1858, there was an important election that took

place in the U.S. Senate.

• Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln.

• His opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas, who

had served in the senate for 11 years.

• These two men squared off in what became known

as the Lincoln – Douglas Debates.

LINCOLN’S ARGUMENTS

• Lincoln stressed that the spread of slavery in the

West was the central issue of the campaign.

• He talked often about the Dred Scott Decision.

• Lincoln: African Americans were entitled to all

rights listed in the Declaration of Independence.

• Despite believing that, he didn’t necessarily

believe that African Americans were the social or

political equals of whites.

DOUGLAS’ ARGUMENTS

• Douglas argued that Lincoln “thinks that the Negro is

his brother…”

• Criticized Lincoln for the idea that the U.S. could not

remain “half slave and half free.”

• When pressed by Lincoln about the problems with

supporting popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott

decision, Douglas responded by saying that it did not

matter what the Supreme Court decided about slavery.

• He argued that it is up to the people to make the

decision as slavery could not exist anywhere, unless it is

supported by local police regulations.

• Freeport Doctrine put the question of slavery

back into the hands of American citizens.

• In the end, Douglas ended up winning the Senate

seat but Lincoln ended up becoming a strong and

important leader of the Republican Party.

SECTION 15.4

The Nation Divides

RAID ON HARPER’S FERRY • John Brown – an abolitionist from the North who wanted to start an

uprising by arming local slaves

• John Brown’s Raid - a night when Brown and his men took over a

federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, VA in hopes of starting a slave

rebellion.

• Fearing he would be outnumbered, Brown sent several of his men to

the countryside to get slaves to join the cause. None showed up.

• After fleeing to a fire house, federal troops arrived and stormed the

house and captured John Brown.

• END RESULT: John Brown was convicted of treason, murder, and

conspiracy and was sentenced to death.

• Brown’s raid caused many southerners to use the attack as an

excuse to get out of the union.

ELECTION OF 1860

• The Election of 1860 saw four parties and their

candidates run for president:

• Northern Democrats: Stephen Douglas

• Southern Democrats: John Breckenridge

• Constitutional Union: John Bell

• Republicans: Abraham Lincoln

ELECTION OF 1860

• Lincoln was against the spread of slavery but

promised not to abolish it where it existed.

• RESULT: Lincoln won 180/183 electoral votes in

free states (enough to win the election) but took

no southern states which upset the South.

• The South realized it was losing power.

SOUTHERNER’S REACTIONS • Within weeks of Lincoln’s election, South

Carolina’s legislature called for a special

session to consider the question of secession.

• In an attempt to solve the problem, Sen. John

Crittenden proposed a series of amendments

to protect slavery.

• Lincoln and the Republicans opposed the

amendments and they were defeated.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA

• December 20, 1860 – South Carolina

officially broke from the union leading to

the creation of the Confederate States of

America.

• They were followed by: Mississippi,

Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and

Texas.

• New President: Jefferson Davis

LINCOLN TAKES OFFICE

• March 4, 1861 – Lincoln was inaugurated.

• In his address, Lincoln understood the south’s

need to secede but disagreed with it.

• He hoped to bring the south back on its own,

without a war.

THE SECESSION OF SOUTHERN STATES HINTED AT

THE VIOLENCE TO COME…