1. 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. Compromise of 1850

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

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

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852

7. The “Know-Nothings” [The American Party]
Nativists.
Anti-Catholics.
Anti-immigrants.

8. 1852 Presidential Election(
√ Franklin Pierce Gen. Winfield Scott John Parker Hale Democrat Whig Free Soil
(“cotton” vs. “conscience” Whigs)

9. 1852 Election Results

10. Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854

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

12. OSTEND MANIFESTO, Oct. 1854
Unofficial confidential document issued by US foreign ministers becomes public
Urged US to acquire Cuba thru any nec means
North outraged—WHY?
Viewed it as slaveowners’ plot

13. “The Crime Against Kansas”THE CANING OF SUMNER, 1855
Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks (D-SC)

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

15. During Pierce’s admin, Whig party fell apart
--Clay & Webster gone
--Split b/t North vs South  
In its place, 2 new parties emerged:
(1) American or “Know-Nothing” (anti-immigrants & Catholics)
(2) Republican

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

17. 1856 Presidential Election
√ James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Democrat Republican Whig

18. 1856 Election Results

19. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857

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

21. Stephen Douglas & the Freeport Doctrine
Popular Sovereignty?

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

23. 1860 Presidential Election
√ Abraham Lincoln Republican
John Bell Constitutional Union
1860 Presidential Election
Stephen A. Douglas Northern Democrat
John C. Breckinridge Southern Democrat

24. 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].

25. 1860 Election: 3 “Outs” & 1 ”Run!”

26. Honest Abe Taking Them on the Half Shell (Currier and Ives, 1860.

27. 1860 Election: A Nation Coming Apart?!

28. 1860
Election
Results

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

30. Secession!: SC Dec. 20, 1860