Sectionalism Intensifies

 Gave Southern slaveholders the right to reclaim escaped slaves from the North  A claim alone was enough – without right to trial, to testify, or to appeal  Commissioners paid for service – $10 if a “fugitive” captured, $5 if not a fugitive  Federal marshals required to aid in capture  Ordinary citizens could be deputized to help  Fines, arrest if they refused!

 Citizens detested legal requirement to help recapture escaped slaves  Open defiance, despite the risks  Thoreau: “Civil Disobedience” (1849)  Citizens have an obligation to disobey unjust laws  Wait until such laws amended – or act now?  Resistance more visible, more violent

Right! Columbia, give it to him, for he deserves it; give it to Steven till he cries… You have been a bad boy, Steve, ever since you had anything to do with that Nebraska Bill and have made a great deal of trouble in the family, and now I'll pay you for it. No! Please let me free and I’ll never do it again!

A house divided against itself cannot stand. " A house divided against itself cannot stand. " I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South. – Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, 1858

 South feared Northern incitement of slave rebellions  Anyone who didn’t see slavery as a “blessing” was an “enemy” of the South  Georgia Senator Toombs: Keep federal government out of the hands of the “Black Republican” party  1860 convention: Democrats could not agree on a candidate!  Northern Democrats split from Southern Democrats  Each faction nominated its own candidate  North: Douglas, South: John Breckinridge (sitting VP)  Southern Democrats lead party, support Dred Scott ruling and federal slave codes in the territories

 Lincoln, popular in the North, became the Republican nominee  Official Republican position  Non-interference with slavery in existing states  Higher tariffs  Transcontinental railroad  Homesteading laws to settle territories  Democrats’ split gave Lincoln the victory with only the support of the North  Southerners: Lincoln’s election meant abolitionists had won  South Carolina seceded soon after election  6 more lower South states seceded by February, 1861

 By June 1861, states in upper South had also seceded  Confederate capital moved to Richmond after Virginia seceded – too close for Lincoln’s comfort!  Concern grew over allegiance of border states  Lincoln imposed martial law in Baltimore to help quell anti-Union sentiment  Kentucky legislature supported Union when Confederacy challenged state borders  Missouri decided not to secede, despite sympathies for Confederacy