Chapter 21: A Dividing Nation Reading Notes

21.2 Confronting the Issue of Slavery Congress had established the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. -Outlined the steps leading to statehood -Banned slavery north of the Ohio River -New states added N. of the Ohio River = free -New states added S. of the Ohio River = slave Missouri applies for statehood as a slave state. This is an issue because most of Missouri lay north of the point where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi. Northerners also feared that if slavery was allowed to spread into Missouri than it would continue spreading into the rest of the Louisiana Purchase.

The Tallmadge Amendment James Tallmadge- A representative from New York proposed an amendment that said Missouri could be admitted as a state, but only as a free state. Southerners were upset and argued that Congress did not have the right to decide whether a new state should be slave or free. They claimed state’s rights and said states should decide whether or not to permit slavery. Congress cannot agree/decide. The House votes to approve the Tallmadge Amendment, the Senate defeats it. Congress is deadlocked.

21.3 The Missouri Compromise Congress agrees to a compromise proposed by Henry Clay of Kentucky. The compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and added Maine as a free state. This maintained the balance of free and slave states. The Missouri Compromise also drew an imaginary line across the Louisiana Territory at latitude 36’30’. -North of the line = slavery banned -South of the line = slavery permitted

21.4 The Missouri Compromise Unravels Reformers and abolitionists were flooding Congress with anti-slavery petitions. In 1836 Congress voted to table (set aside indefinitely) all anti-slavery petitions. “gag-rule” This silenced all congressional debate over slavery. Abolitionists continued to attack slavery in newspapers, books, meetings, etc. Southerners resented these attacks as an assault on their way of life/personal character. They were also fearful of slave revolts.

Fugitive slaves continued to be a source of tension between the north and south. The Wilmot Proviso added to a Mexican War bill stated that slavery should not exist in any of the territory that might be acquired from Mexico. -passed in the House -rejected by the Senate Debate over slavery in the new western territories continues California applies for statehood as a free state This would again upset the balance between free and slave states. Congress again becomes deadlocked over what to do.

21.5 The Compromise of 1850 Henry Clay of Kentucky proposes another compromise. California would be admitted as a free state, New Mexico and Utah Territories would be open to slavery. Slavery would be banned in Washington D.C. A strong Fugitive Slave Law would be passed to make it easier to claim runaway slaves. 9 months of debating the compromise follow. Congress finally adopts Clay’s plan.

21.6 The Compromise Satisfies No One Instead of settling the slavery debate, the debate grew louder each year. Both sides were unhappy with the Fugitive Slave Law. Northerners did not want to enforce it and Southerners felt that the law did not do enough to ensure the return of their escaped property. Many fugitive slaves escaped to Canada. The law also said that any person who helped a slave escape or even refused to aid slave catchers could be jailed. Northerner s’ refusal to support the law infuriated slaveholders and made it almost impossible to enforce it. Out of the tens of thousands of fugitive slaves living in the north in the 1850’s only about 300 were caught and returned to their owners.

Two other things in 1854 added fuel to the fire for abolitionists: -the Onsted Manifesto: message to the secretary of state about the possibility of seizing Cuba from Spain (which would add another slave territory to the U.S.) -the Kansas Nebraska Act: created 2 new territories of Kansas and Nebraska and scrapped the Missouri Compromise by leaving it up to the settlers of those territories to vote on whether to permit slavery or not. The Kansas Nebraska Act led to bloodshed in Kansas as settlers flocked there to either support or oppose slavery The violence greatly disturbed Congress and led to fighting there as well. These attacks/the violence showed how greatly divided the U.S. had become.

2. Was the Missouri Compromise constitutional? In 1857 the slavery controversy shifted to the Supreme court in the Dred Scott Case. Dred Scott (a slave) went to court to win his freedom arguing that his stay with his master in Illinois and Wisconsin (free states) had made him a free man. 5 of the 9 justices of the Supreme Court were from the South and 4 from the North. The Dred Scott case put slavery on trial in the U.S. asking: 1.Did Congress have the power to make any laws at all concerning slavery in the territories? and 2. Was the Missouri Compromise constitutional?

21.7 The Dred Scott Decision By a vote of 5-4 the Supreme Court dropped 2 bombshells. 1. decided that Scott could not sue for his freedom in federal court because he was not a citizen. They ruled that no African American, slave or free, was an American citizen or could ever become one. 2. The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because slaves are property and in the Constitution, Amendment 5 says that the government cannot take property away from the people without due process of law---banning slavery in a territory would be the same as taking property away from slaveholders who would like to bring their slaves into that territory and is therefore unconstitutional.

The Dred Scott Decision delighted slaveholders The Dred Scott Decision delighted slaveholders. Congress had protected the property rights of slaveholders in the territories and they thought the issue of slavery in the territories had been settled in their favor. As a result of the decision, slavery was allowed in ALL of the territories. Northerners were stunned and enraged by the Courts’ ruling.

21.8 From Compromise to Crisis Controversy over the issue of slavery led to the formation of a new political party called the Republican party. Republicans believed that no man could own another man, that slavery must be prohibited in the territories, and that all new states must be free states. In 1858, a Republican named Abraham Lincoln ran for the U.S. Senate (IL) against Stephen Douglas. They held public debates and slavery was often the main topic. Lincoln lost the election, but the debates were widely reported and helped his popularity in the nation rise.

Lincoln ran for president of the United States in 1860 with the Republicans united behind him. The Democrats of the South were divided between Stephen Douglas, John Breckenridge of Kentucky, and John Bell of Tennessee. With his opposition divided 3 ways, Lincoln sailed on to victory, but it was a strange victory: just 40% of the votes, all of them cast in the North. In 10 southern states, he was not even on the ballot. The election of 1860 showed the South that they had become a minority and no longer had the power to shape national events or policies. They knew that sooner or later Congress would try and abolish slavery. Congress searched drastically for another compromise as talk of secession filled the air.

21.9 Secession With the election of Lincoln, South Carolina seceded from the Union (December 20, 1860) and 6 other southern states soon followed. Shortly after (March 4, 1861), Lincoln was inaugurated. In his inaugural address, Lincoln stated that he believed secession was both wrong and unconstitutional. April 12, 1861 the first shots are fired between the North and South at Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC. The time for compromise was over. The issues that had divided the nation for so many years would now be decided by war.