The Road to Civil WarPart 4

Republicans Challenge Slavery

By the mid-1850’s, people who opposed slavery were looking for a strong political voice. Free Soilers, Democrats, and Whigs met in cities across the North.In 1854, the Republican party was formed in Michigan. The party grew quickly, and by 1856, was ready to challenge the older political parties for power.

The Republican Party

At first, the party was founded to stop the spread of slavery. However, some Republicans were abolitionists.In the 1856 presidential election, they selected the frontiersman John C. Fremont as their candidate. He didn’t have a lot of experience, but he opposed the spread of slavery.

Republicans marched through the streets singing Fremont’s campaign song:“Arise, arise ye brave! And let our war-cry be, Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Fremont and victory!”At this time the Whig party was extremely weak and about to die out. Fremont’s main opponent was Democrat James Buchanan.

James Buchanan was a northerner from Pennsylvania, but he sympathized with the southern position on slavery.Supported by most southerners and many northerners, Buchanan won the election.However, the Republicans did well for a new party. Southerners were worried about the success of this anti-slavery party.

Abraham Lincoln of Illinois

The Republicans next big challenge came in 1858.

Republican Abraham Lincoln was challenging the Democrat Stephen Douglas for his seat in the Senate.

This election captured the attention of the whole nation because many people thought Stephen Douglas would run for president in 1860.

Lincoln was born in the backcountry of Kentucky.Later he moved to Indiana and Illinois.

He lost his mother at an early age, and his father re-married.

As a child, Lincoln spent only a year in school.

Abe would borrow books from neighbors, and he taught himself to read, and spent hours reading by firelight.

After Lincoln left home, he opened a store in Illinois.

There he studied law, and launched a career in politics.

He served 8 years in the state legislature, and then one term in Congress.

Bitterly opposed to 1854’s Kansas-Nebraska Act, he decided to run for the Senate in 1858.

People in Illinois knew and liked him.

To them, he was “just folks” a person who enjoyed picnics, wrestling contests, and other favorite pastimes.

They admired his honesty, wit, and plainspoken manner.

Once he replied, “There are always some fleas a dog can’t reach,” when someone complained they couldn’t understand one of his speeches.

The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign

Stephen Douglas was known as the “Little Giant” because he stood only 5 feet tall.

On the train he used to campaign, a flat car carried a cannon. When the campaign got close to a town, young men in uniform would fire the cannon. People from miles around knew that Senator Douglas was coming to town.Politics and campaigning were a great form of entertainment to people in the mid 19th century.

Lincoln knew that on his own, he would never draw as big of crowds that Douglas did. To solve this problem, he sometimes followed Douglas around on the same train and gave his own speeches.To get even more attention, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of very famous debates throughout the campaign.

The Lincoln-Douglas DebatesDuring the campaign, the candidates held 7 different debates to discuss the current issues.

In one debate, before 10,000 people, Douglas accused Lincoln of being a hot-headed abolitionist who wanted blacks and whites to be equals and socialize.

He warned that trying to totally end slavery would lead to war.

He believed that popular sovereignty was the best way to decide the slavery issue.

Although he personally disliked slavery, he didn’t care which way people voted.

Lincoln replied that if slavery was wrong, it could not be ignored, and if it was evil, it should be kept out of the territories.

Like many whites, he didn’t believe in total equality. He did believe that:

“There is no reason in the world why the [African American] is not entitled to all the natural rights [listed] in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man…In the right to eat the bread…which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.”

The Results

For weeks, newspapers reprinted their speeches. Many northerners started to agree with Lincoln.Lincoln narrowly lost the election, but gained national fame. This would not be the last time the two would run against each other.