Section 2 – pg 362 Compromises Fail Chapter 10 Section 2 – pg 362 Compromises Fail

Pg 362 The Compromise of 1850 In September 1850, Congress passed 5 bills based on Clay’s proposals Compromise of 1850 President Zachary Taylor had opposed it but died in 1850 New President, Millard Fillmore, supported the Compromise and signed it into law

Pg 362 To Please the North The Compromise of 1850 was designed to end the crisis by giving supporters and opponents of slavery part of what they wanted To please the North, CA was admitted as a free state Banned trade in national capital

Pg 362 To Please the South Under the compromise, popular sovereignty would be used to decide slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession People in the territories would vote to be a slave or free state when they request to be admitted to the Union The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed special gov’t officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave Those accused had no right to a trial All it took was a slaveholder or any white witness to swear that the suspect was the slaveholder’s property Northern citizens were required to help capture accused runaways if authorities requested help

Outrage in the North Many northerners hated the Fugitive Slave Act Pg 363 Outrage in the North Many northerners hated the Fugitive Slave Act Hated seeing those accuse of being runaways deprived of their freedoms Thousands of northern African Americans fled to Canada for safety, including those who had never been enslaved

Northern residents banded together to resist the Fugitive Slave Law Pg 363 Northern residents banded together to resist the Fugitive Slave Law Some citizens threatened slaveholders until they left town Other helped runaways get to Canada John C Calhoun had hoped this law would force northerners to realize that southerners had the right to their property But everything the law was enforced it convinced them that slavery was evil

Pg 364 Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of an abolitionist minister, met many slaves Decided to write “something that will make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is” In 1852, published Uncle Tom’s Cabin About kindly Uncle Tom, an enslaved man who is abused by the cruel Simon Legree

Many southerners were outraged by Stowe’s book Pg 364 Many southerners were outraged by Stowe’s book Claimed it was propaganda (false or misleading info that is spread to further a cause) Claimed it did not give accurate description of the lives of the enslaved

The Kansas-Nebraska Act Pg 365 The Kansas-Nebraska Act Kansas-Nebraska Act: pushed through by Senator Stephen Douglas in 1854 Allowed settlers in the territories to decide whether their territory would allow slavery Douglas wanted to develop the land west of Illinois and see railroads built from Illinois through the Nebraska Territory to the Pacific Coast

Pg 365 In 1853, Douglas suggested forming 2 new territories: Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory Southerners objected – both territories lay in areas where slavery was banned meaning they would have to enter the Union as free states Douglas suggested that the issue of slavery could be decided through popular sovereignty undoing the Missouri Compromise

Slave owners supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act Pg 365 Slave owners supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act They were sure that slave owners from Missouri would move across the border into Kansas causing Kansas to enter the Union as a slave state Northerners were enraged by the Kansas-Nebraska Act Believed Douglas betrayed them by reopening the issue of slavery in the territories

Pg 366 After months of debate, southern support enabled Kansas – Nebraska Act to pass in both houses Signed into law by President Franklin Pierce in 1852 He thought that signing this would prevent Congress from having to intervene on the subject of slavery again

Pg 366 Bleeding Kansas The Kansas – Nebraska Act left it to white citizens of the territories to decide the issue of slavery Both pro and antislavery settlers flooded to Kansas within weeks after the bill was signed Both sides were trying to hold the majority when it came time to vote Thousands of Missourians entered in March 1855 to illegally vote in the election Kansas had only 3,000 voters, but nearly 8,000 votes were cast on election day Proslavery voters won but antislavery voters refused to accept results and held a second election

Growing Violence Pg 366 Kansas now had 2 gov’ts, both trying to claim the right to impose their gov’t Violence soon broke out In April, a proslavery Sherriff was shot when he tried to arrest some antislavery settlers in Lawrence Next month he returned with 800 men and attacked the town 3 days later, an antislavery settler from Connecticut (John Brown), led 7 men to a proslavery settlement near Pottawatomie Creek where they murdered 5 proslavery men and boys These incidents set off fighting all over Kansas Violence was so bad that Kansas earned the name Bleeding Kansas

Bloodshed in the Senate Pg 367 Bloodshed in the Senate Violence in Kansas spilled over into the Senate Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was the leading abolitionist senator In a fiery speech, he denounced the proslavery legislature in Kansas and verbally attacked Andrew Butler, an elderly senator from South Carolina (Butler was not present that day)

Pg 367 A few days later, Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, marched into the Senate Chamber and beat Sumner with a heavy cane until he fell to the floor bloody and unconscious Sumner never completely recovered from his injuries Hundreds of southerners sent canes to Brooks to show their support of his actions Sumner saw this as more evidence that slavery was brutal and inhuman