US HISTORY AND CONSTITUTION

The student will demonstrate an understanding of how regional and ideological differences led to the Civil War and an understanding of the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on democracy in America. STANDARD 3

USHC 3.1 Evaluate the relative importance of political events and issues that divided the nation and led to civil war, including the compromises reached to maintain the balance of free and slave states, the abolitionist movement, the Dred Scott case, conflicting views on states’ rights and federal authority, the emergence of the Republican Party, and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

Why did expansion challenge democracy? The southern elite became increasingly determined to maintain slavery. As new western states applied for admission to the Union, sectionalism increased.

Free state/Slave state balance Because of the growing population of the northern and western states through immigration and westward movement, the South was losing the ability to protect southern interests in the House of Representatives despite the advantage given to them by being able to count three fifths of their slaves for the purposes of representation.

In 1820, Northern opposition to the application of Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, was overcome by a compromise that also admitted Maine as a free state and drew the line on the expansion of slavery 36, 30’

The annexation of Texas delayed for almost a decade because of the divisiveness of admitting another large slave state. Northerners saw the Polk administration’s willingness to give up the 54 40’ in Oregon, and provoking a war with Mexico over territories in the southwest as the influence of the slave power.

Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed that the United States assert that any territories won from Mexico be “free soil”: no slavery. The Wilmot Proviso passed the House but was stopped in the Senate - southerners must maintain the balance of slave and free states to protect slavery. During the Mexican War

GOLD!!!!! The gold rush in 1849 sped the populating of California and its application for statehood as a free state which would again upset the balance.

Popular sovereignty: the voters decided if their state would be slave or free (Mexican Cession territories). California was admitted as a free state The sale of slaves was prohibited in Washington DC, and A new fugitive slave law was to be enforced by the federal government. The Compromise of 1850

Leading to war! The distribution of Garrison’s The Liberator through the mail was banned in the South. Abolitionists were not popular and even sometimes attacked in the North. Abolitionists helped some slaves escape to the North on the Underground Railroad. 3.9 million slaves in the South, an estimate 25,000 to 50,000 escaped.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin reached many northern readers and evoked popular sympathy for slaves and anger over the Fugitive Slave Laws. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

John Brown & Harper’s Ferry Struck fear in the hearts of slave owners and made them both determined to protect slavery and very fearful of the intentions of northerners. Brown held martyr status by vocal Northern abolitionists leading Southerners to believe the feeling was generalized in the North and thus further divided the North and the South.

What caused war? The actions of abolitionists were significant but it was the controversy over the spread of slavery to the territories that eventually contributed to secession, war, and ultimately, abolition.

Popular Sovereignty & Free Soil the Kansas-Nebraska act opened the area north of the 30’ to deciding the question of slavery by popular vote, thus overturning the Missouri Compromise. Competition of pro- slavery and anti-slavery forces turned “Bleeding Kansas” into a battleground and led to the emergence of the Republican Party.

Republicans and Abraham Lincoln were NOT abolitionists. The Republicans took the free soil position on the expansion of slavery into the territories.

The Dred Scott decision: The Supreme Court ruled that because slaves were property and the Constitution protected the right of slave owners to their property regardless of where they took their slaves. Therefore, Congress could make no law restricting the expansion of slavery.

The Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860 running on a platform of “free soil.” Lincoln’s election in 1860 led southern states to meet in convention and pass articles of secession stating that their rights as states were being violated by the federal government.

To protect slavery, South Carolina secessionists led other southern states in seceding from the Union and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy began to occupy the federal forts that were in the South. War!