Civil War on the Horizon

Settlers and railroads want to expand West of Missouri Settlers and railroads want to expand West of Missouri F Kansas-Nebraska Bill –2 territories, Kansas and Nebraska –Missouri Compromise repealed Kansas and the Rise of the Republican Party

The Kansas-Nebraska Act F Douglas and support of Manifest Destiny F Abraham Lincoln: expansion of slavery must stop F Bill narrowly passes

Death of the Whig Party F Kansas-Nebraska Act destroys Whig party F Republican Party –Free-Soilers –antislavery Democrats F Democrats and 1854 elections –Democrats lose control of Congress –Become more Southern dominated

Immigration and Nativism F 1840s: surge in German and Irish immigrants –Many immigrants were Roman Catholics –Ethnic riots between Protestants and Catholics F Nativism: established Americans perceived the recent immigrants as responsible for the rise in crime and poverty in the cities

Immigrants in Politics F Increase in political power of immigrants –Rise in foreign-born voters –Many became Democrats –Leaned toward pro-slavery as they competed with Northern blacks for labor F Catholic church anti-Abolitionist F Temperance and Public school debate –Prohibition laws aggravated ethnic conflicts –Public vs. parochial school systems

The Rise of the “Know-Nothings” (The American Party) F Issues –Temperance –Nativism –Opposed tax support for church schools –Lengthen naturalization from 5 to 21 years F Know-Nothings devastate Northern Whigs

The Decline of Nativism F Turmoil in Kansas F Center for nativism shifted to the South –Southern Know-Nothings were pro-slavery –Northern Know-Nothings were anti-slavery F By 1856, Northern Know-Nothings had become Republicans F Nativism faded, along with ethnic tensions and cultural issues

Bleeding Kansas F Kansas-Nebraska Act F “Border Ruffians” F Free Soil settlers F 1855 Territorial elections go proslavery, but with significant fraud F Charles Sumner –“The Crime against Kansas” –Andrew Butler F Preston Brooks

The Caning of Senator Sumner F Brooks canes Sumner –Southern response: Brooks reelected, sent more canes –Northern response: proves contentions of the barbarity of slave owning southerners F “Bleeding Kansas” –1856: attack on Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery Missourians –John Brown and Pottawatomie Creek massacre –Mini civil war in Kansas Andrew Butler

The Election of 1856 F Republicans dominant party in North –1 st truly sectional party –Anti-slavery –Pro internal improvements, including transcontinental railroad –John C. Frémont: “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Men, Frémont” F Democrats and James Buchanan –Popular sovereignty –Blame Republicans for Bleeding Kansas F American Party and Millard Fillmore

Election of 1856 F Election in the North –Democrats vs. Republicans F Election in the South –Democrats vs. American party F High voter turnout in North F Democrats do well charging Republicans with support for racial equality F Republicans claim opposition to expansion of slavery is to protect opportunity for whites

Dred Scott vs. Sandford, 1857 F Dred Scott F Roger B. Taney F The decision –Missouri Compromise unconstitutional –Blacks are not U.S. citizens F Republicans denounce the decision

The Lecompton Constitution F Dred Scott case intensified the slavery controversy F Vote was for limited or unlimited slavery F Lecompton Constitution- Kansas rejected it F Buchanan asks Congress to accept it F Stephen Douglass opposes it F Long and bitter fight within Congress –Split the Democratic Party

“The American System of Manufactures” F Mass production of interchangeable parts F Samuel Colt F American education system produced highest literacy rates in the world in free states –Teaching becomes extension of women’s childrearing role

The Southern Economy F South lagged behind in education F Southern crop price rise F Some economic diversification occurs in 1850s

The Sovereignty of King Cotton F James Hammond and “King Cotton” F George Fitzhugh –Sociology for the South (1854) –Cannibals All (1857)

Labor Conditions in the North F Average per capita income: –40% higher in North vs. South F On the edge of poverty: –many recent immigrants, day laborers, young, single women F Wages and opportunities were still greater in the North than anywhere else in the world

The Panic of 1857 F Financial panic –U.S. grain exports to Europe decreased –High speculation across many sectors of U.S. economy F Working class riots F Short-lived depression

Sectionalism and the Panic F Panic of 1857 intensified sectional hostility more than class conflict F Many Northerners blamed the South for causing the depression F Republicans demand protective tariffs F Post-panic: –Republicans made gains in congressional elections and pushed for measures: Homestead ActHomestead Act Land grants to a transcontinental railroadLand grants to a transcontinental railroad Construction of agricultural & mechanical collegesConstruction of agricultural & mechanical colleges

The Free-Labor Ideology F “Free-labor ideology”: the Republican antislavery arguments of the 1850s F Slavery degraded what should be honorable work F Abraham Lincoln: free labor system –Slavery as the antithesis of upward mobility –Slaves: “fatally fixed” in their position for life F Southerners countered that free labor was prone to unrest and strikes

The Impending Crisis F Hinton Rowan Helper –The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) –Book was banned throughout the South –Aggravated sectional tensions F Free speech not tolerated anymore in the South

Southern Non-Slaveholders F Bonds that held southern society together –Kinship, economic interest, and race –Hope by slaveless to acquire slaves F “herrenvolk democracy” –The equality of all who belonged to the “master race”

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates F 1858 Illinois contest for the Senate F Lincoln –“A house divided against itself cannot stand” –Slavery and freedom were at odds –Dred Scott could lead to slavery in free states F Douglas –Lincoln will provoke secession –Lincoln wanted equality for Blacks

The Freeport Doctrine F Lincoln lost the Senate seat, but won national fame F Douglas’s Freeport Doctrine alienates southern Democrats F Jefferson Davis and federal slave codes for territories

John Brown at Harpers Ferry F Brown’s plot F Harpers Ferry, Virginia, 1859 F Effect in South: Intensifies southern suspicions of Republicans and Abolitionists F Northern Reaction: Sympathy for a martyr

Things to Remember F 1850s: economic well-being and political upheaval F Riots between immigrants and nativists F Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 F Dred Scott decision, 1857 F Growth of Republican party F Leading to a Civil War