1. Causes of the Civil War
The 1850s:
Road to
Secession

2. Problems of Sectional Balance in 1850
California statehood.
Southern “fire-eaters” threatening secession.
Underground RR & fugitive slave issues:
Personal liberty laws

3. The War With Mexico:
Before the war: suspicions that the objective of war was to gain land: land that would be desirable to Southerners for cotton agriculture
While the war was on, the Wilmot Proviso had been proposed by No. Democrats: no slavery would be allowed in any territory acquired from Mexico
Could shift balance of power

4. Lewis Cass: Popular Sovereignty
Allow the people of the territory to decide
Organize territory w/o mention of slavery;
Leave it to the people of the territory to decide for themselves
A “democratic” method, BUT: at what stage do the people decide???

5. By 1850, sectionalism is prominent:
2 ways of life: urban v. rural, diverse population v. uniform culture
2 economic systems: industrial v. agricultural
2 political philosophies: “we the people” v. states’ rights

6. TERRITORY GAINED FROM MEXICO (Mexican Cession)
California: wants to be admitted as a free state
What will be the policy for the rest of the territory? TENSION…to keep peace
Compromise of 1850:
California: free state
New Mexico & Utah: popular sovereignty
DC: end slave trade
Fugitive Slave Act

7. Clay’s Compromise of 1850 Admit California as free state
New Mexico & Utah : popular sovereignty
End slave trade in DC
Adopt more stringent Fugitive Slave Act
Settle boundary dispute b/t Texas & NM

8. Compromise of 1850

9. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)
So this is the lady who started the Civil War Abraham Lincoln

10. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 Sold 300,000 copies in the first year.
2 million in a decade!

11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

12. The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
Nativists.
Anti-Catholics.
Anti-immigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner created in NYC.

13. 1852 Presidential Election
√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil

14. 1852 Election Results

15. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

16. BACK to Louisiana Territory
Kansas & Nebraska Act
1854 Stephen Douglas: railroad plans
Organize these regions as territories
Use popular sovereignty
BUT: Missouri Compromise had already decided the issue: NO NEW SLAVE STATES
Renews anger between North & South
Fighting in Kansas (“bloody Kansas”)

17. Border “Ruffians” (pro-slavery Missourians)
“Bleeding Kansas”
Border “Ruffians” (pro-slavery Missourians)

18. Bleeding Kansas
Pro-slavery groups pour in to gain control; draw up Lecompton Constitution
Anti-slavery groups, led by NE Emigrant Aid Society; draw up Topeka Constitution
Guns all around. (John Brown & sons hack five pro-slavery men to death.)

19. Tension in Other Areas
Congress: Charles Sumner of Mass. makes anti-slavery speech
criticizes Sen. Andrew Butler of SC.
Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks (H of R), beat Sumner so badly with a cane, he was unable to return to Senate for 4 years
Brooks was censured by H of R
Southerners sent Brooks new canes

20. “The Crime Against Kansas”
Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks (D-SC)

21. Birth of the Republican Party, 1854
Northern Whigs.
Northern Democrats.
Free-Soilers.
Know-Nothings.
Other miscellaneous opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

22. Ostend Manifesto 1854 Rationale to purchase Cuba from Spain
If denied, U.S. should declare war
Manifest Destiny
Fallout from Bleeding Kansas is a setback from movement

23. 1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

24. 1856 Election Results

25. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

26. The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate) Debates, 1858
A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

27. Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine
Popular Sovereignty?

28. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, 1859

29. John Brown: Madman, Hero or Martyr?
Mural in the Kansas Capitol building by John Steuart Curry (20c)

30. Republican Party Platform in 1860
Non-extension of slavery [for the Free-Soilers.
Protective tariff [for the No. Industrialists].
No abridgment of rights for immigrants [a disappointment for the “Know-Nothings”].
Government aid to build a Pacific RR [for the Northwest].
Internal improvements [for the West] at federal expense.
Free homesteads for the public domain [for farmers].

31. 1860 Presidential Election
√ Abraham Lincoln Republican
John Bell Constitutional Union
1860 Presidential Election
Stephen A. Douglas Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge Southern Democrat

32. 1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!

33. 1860
Election
Results

34. Crittenden Compromise: A Last Ditch Appeal to Sanity
Senator John J. Crittenden (Know-Nothing-KY)

35. Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860

36. Fort Sumter: April 12, 1861