Toward Civil War Ch 16

Lesson 1 Search for Compromise Political Conflict Over Slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act

Political Conflict Over Slavery After the Mexican War, the US gained a lot of land. Congressman David Wilmot introduced the Wilmot Proviso which wanted to ban slavery in any land gained from the Mexican War John C Calhoun of the South said slavery should be legal in that land In the 1848 election both Whigs and Democrats avoided the slavery issue. Abolitionist didn’t like that and formed their own party: the Free-Soil Party. They lost the election but gained seats in Congress. Zachary Taylor became the 12th president Southerners wanted a new fugitive (runaway) slave law to combat the Underground Railroad In 1849 California applied to become a free state, abolitionist want to end slavery in Washington DC. All of this and the South was threatening to secede In the Compromise of 1850 suggested by Henry Clay, California became a free state but every other land from the Mexican War could become a slave state if they wanted to. Also, Washington DC could have slavery but could not sell slaves. There was also a Fugitive Slave Act that said if you helped a escaped slave you could be fine or imprisoned, even in the North. The president, Zachary Taylor, didn’t like the plan but he died in office. His vice president, Millard Fillmore, became the 13th president and he liked the plan.

Kansas-Nebraska 1854 Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois suggest a new plan for slavery in the territories that wanted to become states- “popular sovereignty”- letting the voters of the territories decide. North didn’t like it because it messed with the Missouri Compromise line. The plan passed as the Kansas-Nebraska Act under the 14th president Franklin Pierce. Kansas wanted to become a state. Now under the new plan voters in Kansas would vote to become free or slave. Armed pro-slavery supporters known as border ruffians came from Missouri just to vote. There were 6,000 voters but only 1,500 voters actually lived in Kansas. Kansas became a slave state but anti- slavery people thought they cheated in the vote so they didn’t obey the new slave laws and made their own government inside Kansas. By 1856 Kansas had two governments. Slavery supporters attacked an anti-slavery headquarter in Lawrence Kansas. John Brown led a counterattack on the pro-slaves killing five of them. The violence was called “Bleeding Kansas” and “The Civil War in Kansas”. Federal troops had to come to stop it

Lesson 2 Challenges to Slavery Birth of the Republican Party Dred Scott v Sandford Lincoln and Douglas

Birth of the Republican Party Northern Democrats, Whigs, Free-Soilers joined to form the new Republican Party. The major goal of the party was to ban slavery in new territories. In 1854 there was an election, not for president but for Congress and Senate. The Republicans won a lot of seats in Congress in the North from the Democrats. The opposite happened in the South. After the election, the Democrats controlled the South and the Republicans the North. In 1856 there was a presidential election, and the Democrats in the South won and elected the 15th president James Buchanan

Dred Scott v Sandford Dred Scott was an enslaved African American. His master took him to North to Illinois a free state. Then they came back to Missouri, a slave state. 1846 He sued for his freedom, 11 years later the case went to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice (judge) Roger Taney said that since he was not a citizen, he had no right to sue and he was property and could be moved wherever his master wanted. He also said the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because you cant tell someone were they can and can’t take their property.

Lincoln and Douglas In Illinois, Abraham Lincoln was a rising star in the Republican Party. He battled Stephen Douglas for the Senate seat there. They had seven debates in 1858, mostly about slavery. One debate in Freeport, Illinois, had Douglas saying voters could exclude slavery by refusing to pass slave laws in their state. This was called the “Freeport Doctrine”. Douglas said Lincoln wanted blacks to be fully equal to whites. Lincoln denied it but said blacks should have some rights and freedoms like earning a living. Douglas won the election but Lincoln became very popular In 1859 John Brown led a raid on an arsenal (storage site for weapons) in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He wanted to take guns and give them to slaves to start a revolt. Brown was caught and hanged. Some saw him as a martyr-person who dies for a cause. White Southerners were paranoid that the North was against them

Lesson 3 Secession and War 1860 Election Fighting at Fort Sumter

1860 Election The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. They wanted to leave slavery alone where it existed but ban it in territories. Southerners feared that if Republicans won then they would try to stop slavery in the stop, or promote more revolts like John Brown’s. In most Southern states they didn’t even have Lincoln on the ballot. Lincoln still won. The South did not trust a new Republican president to protect their rights. On 12/20/1860 South Carolina seceded (withdrew) from the US. Congressman wanted to keep the South from leaving the US and said we will keep the Missouri Compromise line from before in all territories. The Republicans refused saying, that they just won an election to stop slavery in the territories, why would they help slavery In Feb 1861, 6 states including FL joined South Carolina in secession. They called themselves a new nation, the Confederate States of America, and chose Jefferson Davis as their president. They said states volunteered to join the US and could leave the US especially since the government was denying the South equal slave rights in the territories or failure to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act All of this happened before Lincoln started his job as president on 3/4/1861. In his inaugural address (first speech), he said the US will stay together forever and the federal government will not leave the South, including military bases and forts. He also pleaded with the South not to leave and that its up to the South if there is a Civil War

Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum. A year will not pass, till we shall have to take Cuba as a condition upon which they will stay in the Union. Abraham Lincoln

What happened in America in the 1860s was a war of secession, a war of independence, no different in principle from what happened in America in the 1770s and 1780s. - Secessionist quote

Fighting at Fort Sumter The next day the military base in South Carolina, Fort Sumter sent a message to the president saying it was low and supplies the Confederates demanded they surrender. Lincoln told the army to send supplies to the fort. Jefferson Davis ordered the attack on Fort Sumter and on 4/12/1861. The Union army (North) surrendered. Lincoln issued a call for troops. More states joined the Confederacy: South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia-first. Then Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas after Fort Sumter