Causes of the Civil War

The Mexican American War The contested land on either side of the Rio Grande finally led to bloodshed President Polk claimed often that it was the Mexicans who had crossed over the boundary and attacked first “shedding American blood on American soil” Congress overwhelmingly voted to go to war with Mexico

Territory Gained from the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty

The “Spot Resolution” A new member of the House introduced what became known as the “spot resolution” This man who went by the name of Abe Lincoln, analyzed three speeches of President Polk’s where he stated that American blood had been shed on American soil Lincoln then asked to see the exact spot where this blood had been shed claiming that it was on contested land and not American soil Lincoln was branded as a Benedict Arnold

Lincoln-Douglas Debates When Lincoln was running against Stephen Douglas for the Senate seat in Illinois Douglas often made fun of Lincoln’s “spot resolution” calling him Spotty Lincoln and saying he wouldn’t adopt the party platform because it wasn’t “adopted in the right spot” Douglas also attacked Lincoln saying he took the enemies side rather than the side of his country

The Wilmot Proviso This was written by Representative David Wilmot and was attempt to prevent slavery from being spread to the new territory gained from Mexico While this passed in the House it did not pass the Senate What ultimately came out of this was the idea of “popular sovereignty” where each state could choose to be a slave or free state based on what the majority of the people in that state wanted

The Kansas-Nebraska Act This act was introduced by Stephan Douglas and formally ended the Missouri Compromise Instead of a line separating free from slave states, popular sovereignty would be the deciding factor This led to the destruction of the Whig Party and political upheaval

Political Parties

Bleeding Kansas Thousands of pro-slavery supporters moved to the Kansas territory to make sure that it became a slavery state This led to violent fights between pro and anti slavery supporters John Brown, an extreme abolitionist, went to Kansas with his sons and murdered several pro-slavery supporters

The Caning of Charles Sumner Charles Sumner was an outspoken antislavery Senator Sumner spoke in front of the Senate about the problem in Kansas He verbally attacked Stephan Douglas and Andrew Butler as the main proponents of this violence in Kansas While Sumner was signing his published speech a few days later Preston Brooks, a relative of Andrew Butler’s, walked up to Sumner and began beating him with a cane He beat him until Sumner could not move and was bloody on the floor

The Caning of Sumner

Preston Brooks He was able to walk out of the chamber without anyone trying to stop or detain him He was a senator from…. South Carolina After the beating of Sumner, Brooks resigned but was immediately reelected

The Compromise of 1850 This was a compromise also written by Henry Clay It was an attempt to give everyone something that they wanted California was admitted as a free state but popular sovereignty was upheld The slave trade but not actual slavery was ended in D.C. The Fugitive Slave Law was also passed

The Fugitive Slave Act This act forced citizens in the North to help with the return of runaway slaves to the South Federal commissioners in charge of overseeing individual cases were paid more for returning suspected runaway slaves than for freeing them The result of this was that many former slaves who had been free for years were captured and sent to the South as slaves The Underground Railroad began to take slaves to Canada instead of the North

Raid on Harper’s Ferry John Brown, the same man who had caused the conflict in Kansas to be so bloody, planned to attack and take Harper’s Ferry where there was an arsenal He was planning to use the weapons to lead a slave uprising He asked Fredrick Douglass to for his help and support, but John Brown was too radical even for a former slave

John Brown’s Execution The raid was soon ended by Robert E. Lee’s troops John Brown and several of his men were tried and executed This proved to the South that there was danger from the abolitionist

Lincoln is Elected Lincoln won the election because the Southern Democrats split their votes among two major candidates Lincoln’s election led to Southern secession with South Carolina in the lead By the time he was inaugurated in January, 7 states had already seceded from the Union