Slavery was a focus due ❖ 1840s, slavery moved to center stage of American politics

to westward expansion to ➢ As result of nation’s territorial expansion

CA and OR, for example. ■ By 1840, w/ Indian removal, all land east of Mississippi River were white

■ Depression (started 1837) made people settle further west

● Oregon, Willamette Valley (one of the most beautiful and fertile

regions)

➢ Until 1840s, the west was limited to fur traders and explorers, but between 1840

and 1845, 5k emigrants made the 2k journey by wagon train to Oregon

➢ 1860, abt 300k men, women, and children went to Oregon and California

Nat’l borders didn’t really ❖ During most of 1840s, the US and Great Britain jointly administered OR, and UT was

matter, “Manifest part of Mexico

Destiny.” ➢ Nat’l boundaries meant little to those who moved west

➢ 1840s witnessed an intensification of an old belief that God intended the

American nation to expand west

Mexico was bigger than ❖ Settlement of OR didn’t directly raise the issue of slavery

the US. had the CA, NM, ➢ The nation’s acquisition of part of Mexico did

and TX ➢ Mexico gained independence in 1821, population: 6.5 million

■ North provinces: CA, NM, and TX were isolated and settled outposts

surrounded by Indian countries

■ NM population at the time of Mexican Independence consisted of around

30k people of Spanish origin, 10k Pueblo Indians, and an amount of

“wild” Indians
Gente de razón ❖ CA’s non-Indians population in 1821, some 3.2k missionaries, soldiers, and settlers, was

(Californios): people vastly outnumbered by 20k Indians living and working on land owned by religious

capable of reason missions and by 150k members of unsubdued tribes in the interior

Gente sin razón (Indios): ➢ 1834, in hope of reducing power of Catholic Church and attract Mexican and

people w/o reason foreign settlers in CA, the Mexican gov’t dissolved the great mission landholding

The Mexican gov’t and emancipated Indians working for the friars

wanted to attract people ➢ Most land ended up w/ a new class of Mexican cattle ranchers, the Californios,

in CA and reduce power who denied their own identity in large measure against the surrounding Indian

of Church, so they population

emancipated Indians and ➢ Californios referred to themselves as gente de razón, Indios were gente sin razón

had new class of Mexican ➢ For “common good,” Indians were required to continue to work for new

cattle ranchers landholders

❖ By 1840, CA was already linked commercially w/ US, New England ships were trading

US was already linked w/ w/ the region

CA by 1840 ➢ Richard Henry Dana’s novel Two Years before the Mast (1840) illustrated it

■ An account of a young man’s voyage to CA and his experiences there

➢ CA also attracted a small # of American newcomers

➢ 1840, Alfred Robinson published Life in California

■ “In this age of annexation, why not extend the ‘area of freedom’ by the

annexation of California?”

TX was first settled by ❖ The 1st part of Mexico to be settled by significant # of Americans was TX, whose non-

many Americans, Moses Indian population of Spanish origin (Tejanos) numbers only abt 2k when Mexico

Austin offered the became independent

Mexican gov’t a land ➢ To develop the region, the Mexican gov’t accepted an offer by Moses Austin

grant by Moses Austin, received a large land grant

American population ■ Died after and his son Stephen continued the plan, wrestling land in

grew larger than Tejano smaller plots to American settlers at 12 cents per acre

population ➢ By 1830s, the population of American origin had reached around 7k,

considerably exceeding the # of Tejanos

American settlers wanted ❖ Alarmed that its grip on the area was weakening, the Mexican gov’t in the 1830 annulled

greater autonomy in the existing land contracts and barred gumtree emigration from the US

Mexico, slavery already ➢ Led by Stephen Austin, American settlers demanded greater autonomy within

abolished, General Santa Mexico

Anna sent an army in ➢ Part of the area’s tiny Tejano elite joined them

1835 to emancipate ➢ Mostly ranchers and large farmers, welcomed the economic boom that

slaves accompanied the settlers and had formed economic alliances w/ American traders

➢ Slavery was already abolished

■ Local authorities let American settlers bring in slaves

➢ General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (Mexico’s ruler) sent an army in 1835 to

impose central authority, a local committee charge that his purpose was “to give

liberty in our slaves and make slaves of ourselves”

General Santa Anna ❖ The appearance of Santa Anna’s army sparked a chaotic revolt in Texas

attacked the Alamo, ➢ The rebels formed a provisional gov’t that soon called for Texan independence

“Remember the Alamo” ➢ 3/6/1836, Santa Anna stormed the Alamo, a mission compound in San Antonio,

became a rallying cry, killing 187 American and Tejano defenders

Sam Houston became ➢ “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry

elected president of TX ➢ Apr. forces under Sam Houston, former gov of TN, routed Santa Anna’s army at

the Battle of San Jacinto and forced him to recognize Texan independence

➢ Houston was soon elected 1st president of Texas

➢ 1837, the Texas Congress called for union w/ US

➢ Pres. Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren shelved the question due to fear of

political disputes

➢ Settlers from US poured into the region w/ slaves, population: 150k by 1845

John C. Calhoun’s letter ❖ TX annexation remained on the political back burner until Pres. John Tyler revived it in

of getting TX into the US hope of rescuing his failed administration and securing southern support for reelection in

to give the US more 1844

power got leaked. Some ➢ Apr. 1844, letter by John C. Calhoun was leaked to the press

southern leaders wanted ■ Linked the idea of absorbing TX directly to the goal of strengthening

to divide TX to have slavery in the US

more power in the House. ➢ Some southern leaders hoped TX could be divided into several states to give

Clay and Van Buren them more power in Congress

agreed to issue letters ➢ Henry Clay and former pres. Van Buren met at Clay’s KY plantation

rejecting immediate ■ Agreed to issue letters rejecting immediate annexation on grounds that it

annexation might provoke war w/ Mexico

■ Reacted to slavery in a trad manner, but tried to keep it out of politics

Clay got Whig ❖ Clay went on to receive the Whig, nomination, but for Van Buren, letters proved to be a

nomination, Polk got disaster

nominated for Democrat, ➢ Democratic Convention, southerners bent on annexation deserted Van Buren’s

had reannexation of TX cause, and he failed to receive the ⅔ majority necessary for nomination
and reoccupation of OR ➢ The delegates turned to James K. Polk, former gov of TN whose main assets

were his support for annexation and his close association w/ Andrew JAckson,

➢ Polk was a slaveholder

■ Owned plantations in TN and MS

■ Conditions were brutal, half of slave children only lived up to 15

■ Adults ran away

➢ To soothe feelings over rejection of Van Buren, the party platform called for

“reannexation” of TX and “reoccupation” of Oregon

➢ “54” 40’ or fight” was a popular campaign slogan for American control of OR

James K. Polk wanted to ❖ James K. Polk assumed presidency w/ a clearly defined set of goals:

reduce tariff (achieved), ➢ Reduce tariff, reestablish the independent Treasury system, settle dispute over

reestablish treasury ownership of OR, and bring CA into the Union

system (achieved), settle ➢ Congress enacted 1st 2 goals, 3rd goal was achieved in an agreement w/ GB

ownership of OR dividing OR at the 49th parallel

(achieved), and bring CA ■ Many northerners were disappointed by this compromise

in US ❖ Acquiring CA proved more difficult

➢ Polk dispatched an emissary to Mexico offering to purchase the region, but

Polk dispatched an army refused to negotiate

led by Zachary Taylor ➢ By spring 1846, Polk was planning military action

btwn Nueces River and ➢ Apr. Zachary Taylor and American soldiers moved into the region between

Rio Grande and declared Nueces River and Rio Grande

war ➢ Fighting broke out, Polk claimed that Mexicans “shed blood upon American soil”

and called for declaration of war

Many Americans ❖ The Mexican War was the 1st American conflict to be fought primarily on foreign soil

supported the war, but and the 1st in which American troops occupied a foreign capital

some didn’t like the war, ➢ A majority of Americans supported the war

due to expansion of ➢ Herman Melville, White-Jacket (1850): They were convinced that since

slavery, and beginning to Americans “bear the ark of Liberties" for all mankind, “nat’l selfishness is

behave like “European unbounded philanthropy…to the world”

monarchies” ➢ A minority in the North hated it, for it would expand slavery

➢ Ulysses S. Grant called the war “one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger

nation against a weaker nation,”

■ Began to behave like “European monarchies”

➢ Henry David Thoreau was jailed in MA for refusing to pay taxes against the war

■ MLK jr. was inspired by nonviolent resistance to unjust laws

Abe Lincoln criticized the ❖ Among the war’s critics was Abe Lincoln, who had been elected to Congress in 1846

war from Illinois

➢ Questioned if Mexicans inflicted casualties on American soil

➢ Disturbed by Polk’s claiming the right to initiate an invasion of Mexico

➢ “Allow the president to invade a neighboring country whenever he deems it

necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to make war at pleasure…If

today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent

the British from invading us, how could you stop him?”

➢ Democrat captured seat in 1848, many blamed result on Lincoln’s criticism

Took Santa Fe, SF and ❖ More than 60k volunteers enlisted and din most of the fighting

Monterey harbors ➢ Combat took place on 3 fronts

 ■ Capt. John C. Fremont, “freed” CA

● Goal: incorporate CA in US

● Had the bear on the flag

■ Monterey and San Francisco Harbors

■ Santa Fe, led by Gen, Stephen W. Kearney

Treaty of Guadalupe ❖ The bulk of fighting occurred in central Mexico

Hidalgo: annexation of ➢ Feb. 1847, Taylor defeated Santa Anna’s army at Battle of Buena Vista

TX, CA, present day NM, ➢ Polk ordered American forces under Winfield Scott to march inland from port of

AZ, NV and UT, US paid Vera Cruz toward Mexico City

Mexico $15M ➢ Scott’s forces routed Mexican defenders and in Sept. occupied country’s capital

Gadsden Purchase: land ➢ Feb. 1848, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

from Mexico in 1853, ➢ US paid Mexico $15M

Alaska from Russia in ➢ The Mexican Cession established the present territory boundaries on N.

1867 American continent except for Gadsden Purchase, additional land brought from

Mexico in 1853, and Alaska, acquired by Russia in 1867

Mexicans hated the war ❖ The Mexican War is only a footnote in most Americans’ historical memory

➢ Few public monuments celebrate the conflict

➢ Mexicans regard the war (“the dismemberment”) as a central event of their nat’l

history and a source of continued resentment

➢ Mexican negotiators of 1848, it was unprecedented to launch a war because a

country refused to sell part of its territory to a neighbor

US got a lot of land, ❖ w/ the end of the Mexican war, the US absorbed ½ a million sq. mi of Mexico’s

people moved in and got territory, ⅓ of that nation’s total area

their rights ➢ Regions that were untied were suddenly split into 2, dividing families and

serving trade routes

■ Estimated 75k to 100k Spanish-speaking Mexicans and more than 150k

Indians inhabited the Mexican Cession

➢ Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed to “male citizens” the rights of

Americans - protected large Mexican landowners in CA

➢ Treaties referred to Indians as “savage tribes”

Manifest destiny was ❖ The spirit of manifest destiny gave a new stridency to ideas abt racial superiority

racist ➢ 1840s, the superiority of “Anglo-Saxon race”

➢ John L. O’Sullivan’s Democratic Review: “Race” was the “key” to the “history

of nations” and the rise and fall of empires

The Anglo-Saxons were ❖ “Race” in the mid-19th century was an amorphous notion involving color, culture, nat’l

the superior race origin, class, and religion

➢ Newspapers, magazines, and scholarly works popularized the link between

American freedom and the innate liberty-loving qualities of Anglo-Saxon

Protestants

➢ The annexation of TX and conquest of Mexico became triumphs of civilization,

progress, and liberty over tyranny of Catholic Church and innate incapacity of

"mongrel races”

➢ Some wanted to expand to all of Mexico

➢ Couldn't assimilate non-white Catholic population, unfit for citizenship in a

republic

TX was already ❖ The imposition of American system of race relations proved detrimental to many
independent, Mexico inhabitants of the newly acquired territories

abolished slavery ➢ TX had already demonstrated as much (had adopted independence and denied

rights of blacks)

➢ Mexico had abolished slavery and declared persons of Spanish, Indian, and

African origin equal before the law

Spanish Mexicans were ❖ Local circumstances affected racial definition in the former Mexican territories

white, while Mexicans ➢ TX defined “Spanish” Mexicans as white

and Indians were “too ➢ Residents of NM of both Mexican and Indian origin were deemed “too Mexican”

Mexican” for democratic self-government

➢ Congress didn’t allow NM to become a state until 1912

Gold led to CA having an ❖ CA had a non-Indian population of less than 15k when the Mexican War ended

increase in population ➢ For most of the 1840s, 10x as many Americans emigrated to OR as to 1848 when

gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at a sawmill owned by

Swiss immigrant Johann A. Sutter

➢ non-Indian population rose to 200k by 1852 and more than 360k 8 yrs later

CA’s population had ❖ CA’s gold rush population was diverse

Mexicans, Europeans, ➢ Miners from Mexico and S. America

and Chinese ➢ Irish, Germans, Italians, and Australians

➢ 25k Chinese between 1849 and 1852 (mostly young men who signed long-term

labor contracts w/ Chinese merchants)

➢ San Francisco became the El Dorado of NorCal

➢ By 1850, it had 30k residents and had become perhaps the world’s most racially

and ethnically diverse city

 ➢ Women played roles in western mining like cooks, running restaurants and

boardinghouses, and working as laundresses, and prostitutes

White miners wanted to ❖ As early surface mines quickly became exhausted, they gave way to underground mining

expel “foreign miners”, that required a large investment of capital

foreign miners had tax on ➢ Worsened conflicts among CA’s racial and ethnic groups

them, leading them to be ➢ 1851 and 1856, "committees of vigilance” took control of San Francisco,

driven out of the state sweeping aside established courts to try to execute those accused of crimes

➢ White miners organized extralegal groups that expelled “foreign miners”

➢ Imposed tax of $20/month on foreign miners, driving many of them from the

state

Less right for people who ❖ CA would long remain in the American imagination of a place of infinite opportunity,

were not white where newcomers could start their lives anew

➢ The state constitution of 1850 limited voting and the right to testify in court to

whites

➢ CA landowners who claimed Spanish descent or married w/ American settlers

were deemed to be white

Indians died, and children ❖ The CA’s Indians, the gold rush and absorption into US proved to be disastrous

were orphaned and ➢ Gold seekers overran Indian communities and vigilantes murdered Indians

became slaves ➢ State officials paid millions in bounties to private militias that launched attacks

on the state’s Indians

➢ Even though CA was free, thousands of Indian children were orphans or vagrants

by local courts, and became slaves

➢ CA Indian population went down to 30k

Australia had a gold rush ❖ The CA gold rush took place almost simultaneously w/ another located halfway around

and attracted people the world (Australia)

➢ 1850s, CA and Australia produced 80% of the world’s gold

➢ Attracted gold seekers from across the globe

➢ Victoria: grew from 77k in 1851 to 411k 6 yrs later

➢ Melbourne rose to prominence

Aboriginal population ❖ The gold rush was a disaster for Aboriginals

declined due to gold rush, ➢ Population declined

European miners wanted ➢ Chinese miners took part in the gold rush and European miners wanted them off

foreign miners off the the land

land ➢ Australians elected anti-Chinese legislation

■ Had taken same measures as CA

Commander Perry helped ❖ The Mexican War ended w/ US in possession of harbors of San Diego and San

open up Japan to the US. Francisco, long seen as the jumping off points for trade w/ the Far East

Townsend Harris became ➢ 1850s, the US took the lead in opening Japan

the 1st American Consul ➢ 1853 and 1854, Commander Matthew Perry sent by Pres. Millard Fillmore to

in Japan negotiate a trade treaty w/ him

➢ Impressed by Perry’s armaments as well as a musical pageant that included

blackface minstrel show, and alarmed by European intrusion, they decided to

trade w. Them starting 1854, w/ 2 ports

➢ 2 yrs later, Townsend Harris arrived as the 1st American consul

■ Inspo for Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly, abt an American who

marries and abandons a Japanese woman)

 ➢ Harris persuaded the Japanese to allow American ships into additional ports and

to establish full diplomatic relations btwn 2 countries

➢ US saw Japan as route to China

Raised the problem of ❖ Victory over Mexico added more than 1M sq. mi to US

slavery expanding west, ➢ The acquisition of this vast territory raised the fatal issue that would disrupt the

would lead to a civil war political system and plunged the nation into a civil war - whether slavery should

expand west

➢ Events soon confirmed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s prediction that if the US gobbled

up part of Mexico, “it will be the man who swallows arsenic…Mexico will

poison us”

Wilmot had a resolution ❖ Before 1846, the status of slavery in all parts of US had been settled by state law or

of prohibiting slavery Missouri Compromise

expanding in territories ➢ Became clear in 1846, when Congressman David Wilmot of PA proposed a

acquired from Mexico resolution prohibiting slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico

➢ Wilmot Proviso, Whigs and democrats supported it, many southerners opposed it

➢ North had the majority but failed in the senate

Taylor won against Van ❖ 1848, opponents of slavery’s expansion organized the Free Soil Party and nominated

Buren Van Buren for president and Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams) as

running mate

➢ Democrats nominated Lewis Case of Michigan (proposed the decision on

whether to allow slavery should be left to settlers, “popular sovereignty”)

➢ Van Buren was motivated by partly revenge against the south for jettisoning him

in 1844
 ■ Polled 300k voters

➢ Victory went to Zachary Taylor

Precedent free from ❖ The Free Soil position had a popular appeal in the North that far exceeded the

slavery: states that have abolitionists’ demand for immediate emancipation and equal rights for blacks

not entered the Union ➢ Well-known precedents existed for keeping territories free from slavery

Northerners hated south ➢ Congress done this in 1787 w/ Northwest ORdinance and Missouri Compromise

domination of gov’t ➢ Many northerners resented southern domination of federal gov’t

❖ For thousands of northerners, the ability to move to the western territories held out the

Due to depression, promise of economic betterment

northerners wanted to go ➢ The depression of the early 1840s had reinforced the trad equation of access to

west to have a better life western land as a way of combating unemployment and low wages in the east

➢ George Henry Evans, editor of pro-labor newspaper: “Freedom of the soil”

offered the only alt to permanent economic dependence for American workers

Free soil meant barring ❖ Such views merged easily w/ opposition to the expansion of slavery

slavery westward and ➢ The term “free soil” had a double meaning

appealing to the racism in ■ Free Soil platform of 1848 called both for barring slavery from western

northern society territories and for the federal gov’t to provide free homesteads to settlers

in the new territories

■ The idea also appealed to the racism so widespread in northern society

➢ Wilmot himself that his controversial Proviso was motivated to advance “the

cause and rights of the free white man” to not compete w/ “black labor”

Southerners wanted to ❖ To white Southerners, the idea of barring slavery from territory from Mexico seemed a

expand slavery to violation of their equal rights as members of Union

celebrate fruits of victory, ➢ Southerners fought for the land, so they had the right to share in fruits of victory

and older plantations had ➢ A majority of slaves in 1849 lived states that had not existed when the

soil exhaustion Constitution was adopted

➢ Many older plantations suffered from soil exhaustion

➢ Southern leaders became convinced that slavery must expand or die

Listing down uprising ❖ In world history, the year 1848 is remembered as the “springtime of nations,” a time of

against monarchies in democratic uprisings against monarchies of Europe and demands by ethnic minorities for

Europe nat’l independence

➢ American principles of liberty and self-gov’t appeared to be triumphing in the

Old World

➢ The Chartist movement in Great Britain organized massive demonstrations in

support of a proposed Charter that demanded democratic reforms

➢ The French replaced their monarchy w/ a republic

➢ Hungarians proclaimed independence from Austrian rule

➢ Patriots in Italy and Germany divided into numerous states, demanded nat’l

unification

➢ Chartism faded away, France had Napoleon Bonaparte as a dictator

CA wanted to enter as a ❖ w/ the slavery issue appearing more and more ominous, established leaders moved to

free state, compromise of resolve differences between the sections

1850 let that happen, ➢ Some disputes were long standing, but immediate source of controversy arose

along w/ capital’s slave from acquisition of new lands after the Mexican War

trade be abolished, new ➢ 1850s, CA asked to be admitted as a free state

slaves would allow ■ Southerners opposed it

southerners to reclaim ■ Sen. Henry Clay offered a plan w/ main provisions that came to be known

runaway slaves, states as the compromise of 1850

acquired from Mexico ● CA would enter the Union as a free state

will decide status of ● Slave trade would be abolished in state’s capital

slavery, pay off TX’s ● New slaves would allow southerners to reclaim runaway slaves

debt ● Status of slavery in the remaining territories acquired from

Mexico would be left to the decision of local white inhabitants

● Pay off TX debt while independent

❖ In the Senate debate on the Compromise, the divergent sectional positions received

Daniel Webster and John eloquent expression

C. Calhoun hated it b/c ➢ Powerful leaders spoke for and against compromise

they favored slavery. ■ Daniel Webster of MA wanted to abandon Wilmot Proviso and accept

William H. Seward hated new fugitive slave law if this were the price of sectional peace

slavery, why he hated the ➢ John C. Calhoun was too ill to speak

compromise ■ Slavery must be protected by the nat’l gov’t and extended into all the new

territories

➢ The north must yield or the Union could not survive

➢ William H. Seward of NY also opposed to compromise

■ Responded that a “higher law” than the Constitution condemned slavery -

the law of morality

❖ Pres. Zachary Taylor was alarmed by the talk of disunion

Pres. Taylor accused ➢ Accused southern leaders in Congress of hold CA hostage to their own legislative

southern leaders of aims and insisted that all congress needed to do was admit CA to the US
holding CA hostage, ➢ Died to intestinal infection on Jul. 9, 1850

Millard Fillmore ➢ Successor, Millard Fillmore threw his support to Clay’s proposal

supported Clay’s ■ Helped break impasse in Congress and secure adoption of the

proposal Compromise of 1850

❖ For one last time, political leaders had removed the dangerous slavery question from

congressional debate

Fugitive slave act allowed ➢ New Fugitive Slave Act made further controversy inevitable

federal agents to go into ■ Allowed special federal commissioner to determine the fate of alleged

the north to find slaves fugitives w/o benefit of a jury trial or interfering w/ the capture of

fugitives and required individual citizens to assist in capture

➢ Supported the measure of federal agents into communities throughout the north

➢ Security of slavery was more important to them than states’-rights consistency

❖ The fugitive issue affected all the states, not just those that boarded on the South

Slave catchers tried to get ➢ Slave catchers entered CA attempting to get fugitives from TX and NM who

slaves from TX and NM, hoped to reach freedom in British Columbia

transcendentalists ➢ Issue drew into politics individuals like Ralph Waldo Emerson

believed it was dangerous ➢ Emerson and others infield by transcendentalism viewed the Fugitive Slave Act

the gov’t was doing the as a dangerous example of how a gov’t doing the bidding of the South could

south’s bidding override and individual’s ability to act according to his conscience - the

foundation, for Emerson, of genuine freedom

❖ During the 1850s, federal tribunals heard more than 300 cases and ordered 157 fugitives

returned to the South, many at the gov’t’s expense

➢ In a series of dramatic confrontations, fugitives, aided by abolitionist allies,

 violently resisted recapture

➢ 1851, a large crowd in 1851 rescued the escaped slave Jerry from jail in

Syracuse, NY, and went to Canada

➢ Margaret Garner, KY slave who escaped w/ her family to Ohio, killed her how

young daughter than to see returned to slavery by federal marshals

■ Became basis of Toni Morrison’s Beloved

❖ In the North, several thousand fugitives and free-born blacks, worried that they might be

Canada was letting swept in the stringent provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act, fled to Canada

fugitive slaves ➢ The sight of so many refugees seeking liberty in a foreign land challenged the

familiar image of the US as an asylum for freedom

➢ Toronto newspaper: “Families are separating, leaving their homes and flowing in

all directions to seek in Canada.”

❖ At least temporarily, the Compromise of 1850 seemed to have restored sectional peace

Franklin Pierce won and party unity

➢ In 1852 presidential election, Democrat Franklin Pierce won a sweeping victory

over the Whig Winfield Scott on a platform that recognized the Compromise as a

female settlement of the slavery controversy

➢ He won

❖ 1854, the old political order finally succumbed to the disruptive pressures of

Stephen A. Douglass sectionalism

wanted a transcontinental ➢ Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill to provide territorial gov’ts for

railroad in Kansas and Kansas and Nebraska (Louisiana Purchase)

Nebraska ➢ Douglass saw himself as the new leader of the Senate

 ➢ Hoped a transcontinental railroad could be constructed through Kansas or

Nebraska

➢ Used popular sovereignty

❖ Unlike the lands taken from Mexico, Kansas and Nebraska lay in the nation’s heartland,

Kansas and Nebraska was directly in the path of westward expansion

a free state ➢ Slavery was prohibited there due to Missouri Compromise

➢ Congressman Joshua Giddings and Sen. Salmon P. Chase - the Appeal

■ Arranged Douglas’s bill as “gross violation of a sacred pledge,” part and

parcel of “an atrocious plot” to convert free territory into “a dreary

region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves

❖ Thanks to Douglas’s energetic leader, the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law

Democratic party ➢ Shattered Democratic Party’s unity

shattered, soon collapsed ➢ Protest meetings sprang up throughout the North

➢ Half the northern democrats in the House cast negative votes

➢ Their party led to the other half to support the measure

➢ During the next 2 yrs, the Whig party, unable to develop an unified response to

the political crisis, collapsed

❖ The disruptive impact of slavery on the trad parties was the immediate cause of political

Railroads grew, and so transformation in the mid 1850s

did trade ➢ Rise of the Republican party also reflected the underlying economic and social

changes

■ Notably completion of market revolution

■ Mass immigration from europe

 ➢ The period from 1843, when prosperity retired, to 1857, when another economic

downturn hit, witnessed explosive economic growth, especially in the North

■ 5k mi in 1848, railroad mileage grew to 30k by 1860

➢ Railroads complete the reorientation of the Northwest’s trade from the South to

the east

➢ As late as 1850, most western farms shipped their produce down the Mississippi

River

➢ By 1860, 60M bushels of wheat were passing through Buffalo on their way

eastern cities and abroad

❖ By 1860, the North had become a complex, integrated economy,

Most northerners still ➢ w/ eastern industrialists marketing manufactured goods to the commercial

lived in small towns and farmers of the West,

rural areas, but the ➢ while residents of the region’s growing cities consumed the food westerners

industrial revolution was produced

spreading fast ➢ The majority of the population still lived in small towns and rural areas

■ Owned a shop or farm still lay within reach

➢ Industrial revolution was spreading rapidly

❖ 2 great areas of industrial production had arisen

Industrial production ➢ Along the Atlantic coast, stretched from Boston to Philly

risen in Atlantic Coast ➢ Great lakes, like Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago

and Great Lakes, had a ➢ Chicago became a complex manufacturing center, producing 5k reapers each

lot of manufacturing year, along w/ barbed wire, windmills, and prefabricated “balloon frame” houses,

all of which facilitate further western settlement

 ➢ NYC by 1860, had become the nation’s preeminent financial, commercial, and

manufacturing center

➢ The south didn’t share these broad economic changes

❖ Nativism emerged as a local political movement in the 1840s

The Know Nothing Party ➢ 1854, it burst on nat’l political scene w/ the sudden appearance of American or

appealed to anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party (started as secret org)

and antislavery, appealed ➢ Trumpeted its dedication to reserving political office for native-born Americans

to nativists and to resisting the “aggressions” of the Catholic Church

➢ Know Nothing Swept 1854 state elections in MA, electing gov, congressmen,

and state legislature

➢ Know Nothing Took mayor’s office in Philly, Chicago, and San Francisco

➢ Nativists were “anti-Nebraska”

➢ North, Know Nothings appeal combined anti-Catholic and anti-slavery sentiment

w/ opposition to sale of liquor

➢ The 1854 elections revealed a "deep seated feeling in favor of human freedom

and also a fine determination that hereafter none but Americans shall rule

America.”

❖ Despite severe anti-Irish discrimination in jobs, housing, and ed, it’s remarkable how

Europeans benefited from little came of demands that immigrants be barred from the political nation

being while, while free ➢ Europeans benefited from being white

blacks couldn’t get jobs ➢ During 1850s, free blacks saw immigrants them out of jobs as servants and

common laborers

➢ Newcomers arrived to white male suffrage being the norm

 ➢ New England states tried to reduce power in immigrants(MA and CT required

literacy and 2-yr waiting period), western states desperate for labor allowed

immigrants to vote well before they became citizens

❖ By 1856, it was clear that the Republican Party would become the major alt to to

Republicans used the Democratic Party in the North

appeal of free labor ➢ Managed to convince northerners that Slave Power posed a more immediate

threat to liberties and aspirations than “property” and immigration

➢ Used idea to free labor for appeal

➢ Antithesis between “free society” and “slave society” coalesced into a

comprehensive worldview that glorified the North as the home of progress,

opportunity, and freedom

❖ The defining quality of northern society, Republicans declared, was the opportunity it

People in the north can affected each laborer to move up to the status of landowning farmer or independent

move up in society, craftsmen, thus achieving the economic independence essential to freedom

slavery must be kept out ➢ Slavery spawned a social order consisting of degraded slaves, poor whites w/ no

of territories so that free hope of advancements and idle aristocrats

labor could flourish ➢ Slavery must be kept out of the territories so that free labors could flourish

❖ To southern claims that slavery was the foundation of liberty, Republicans responded w/

Freedom nat’l: ending the rallying “freedom nat’l”

federal gov’t’s support of ➢ Northerners of diverse backgrounds and interests rallied in defense of superiority

slavery of their own society

Dependent nature: lack of ➢ Republicans acknowledged that some northern laborers were locked into jobs as

Protestant, middle-class factory workers and unskilled laborers

virtues ■ Hard to move up in society

■ “Dependent nature”

❖ Republicans were not abolitionists (preventing slavery, not attacking it where it existed)

Sen. Seward: the country ➢ Many leaders viewed the nation’s division into free and slave societies as an

will either be fully "irrepressible conflict” - Sen. William H. Seward of NY, 1858

slaveholding or free ➢ Predicted that the country will be a fully slaveholding or free labor nation

❖ Their free labor outlook, resonated w/ north, helps to explain the Republicans’ rapid rise

Republicans rose to to prominence

prominence by Kansas ➢ Dramatic events in 1855 and 1856

elections in 1854 and ■ Kansas elections, hundreds of proslavery Missourians crossed the border

1855, and May 1856 from to cast fraudulent votes

proslavery mobs ■ Pres. Franklin Pierce recognized the legitimacy of the resulting proslavery

legislature and replaced it w/ territorial gov. Andrew H. Reeder of PA

■ Setters from free states soon est. a rival gov’t and civil war broke out in

Kansas (200 casualties

■ May 1856, proslavery mob attacked the free-soil stronghold of Lawrence

❖ “Bleeding Kansas” seemed to discredit Douglas’s policy of leaving the decision on

slavery up to the local population, thus aiding the Republicans

SC rep Preston Brooks ➢ Drew strength from incident in Congress

beat up MA Sen. Charles ■ SC rep, Preston Brooks, wielding a gold-tipped cane, beat the antislavery

Summer b/c of “The Sen. Charles Summer of MA unconscious after Summer delivered a

Crime against Kansas.” denunciation of “The Crime against Kansas”

■ Many southerners applauded him again, and had cane w/ words of “Hit
 him again!”

❖ In the election of 1856, the Republican Party chose as its candidate John C. Fremont and

drafted a platform that strongly opposed the further expansion of slavery

R: John C. Fremont ➢ Democrats nominated James Buchanan (former minister to Great Britain in 1854)

D: James Buchanan ■ Also endorsed the principle of popular sovereignty as the only solution to

KN: Millard Fillmore slavery controversy

➢ Know-Nothings presented ex-pres. Millard Fillmore

➢ Fremont outpolled Buchanan in the North, 11/16 states

➢ Buchanan won the entire south, Illinois, Indiana, and PA

➢ Fillmore carried only Maryland, ran well among former Whig voters in upper

south and more conservative areas of North

❖ The 1856 election returns made starkly clear that parties had reoriented themselves along

sectional lines

❖ The final collapse of the party system took place during the administration of a president

who epitomized the old political order

➢ James Buchanan served in PA’s legislature in both houses of Congress, and Sec.

James Buchanan served of State under James K. Polk

in the gov’t and ➢ Committed himself to pacify inflamed sectional emotions

committed himself to ❖ Even before his inauguration, Buchanan became aware of an impending Supreme Court

pacify inflamed sectional decision that held out the hope of settling the slavery controversy once and for all

emotions ➢ During the 1830s, Dred Scott had accompanied his owner, Dr. John Emerson of

Missouri, to Illinois, where slavery was prohibited by Northwest Ordinance of

The case of Dred Scott 1787

claimed that a slave in a ➢ After returning to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that residence

free land is free on free soil had made him free

❖ The Dred Scott decision was announced in Mar. 1857

➢ All 9 justices issued individual opinions

■ Divided by 6-3

The majority of the Dred ■ Majority (Chief Justice Roger B. Taney), only white persons could be

Scott decision were citizens of the US

racists. ■ Believed that “blacks had no rights which the white man was bound to

respect.”

■ Blacks could never be part of the "political family”

❖ The case could have ended there, but inspired by the idea of resolving the slavery issue,

Taney pressed on

➢ Scott remained a slave, Illinois law had not effect on him after return to Missouri

Scott remained a slave, ➢ In Wisconsin, Congress possessed no power under the Constitution to bar slavery

discussion on whether or from a territory

not it was ➢ Missouri Compromise, recently repealed by Kansas-Nebraska Act, had been

unconstitutional for unconstitutional and so was any measure interfering w/ southerners’ right to

slavery to happen bring slaves into the western territories

➢ Decision declared unconstitutional

➢ Undermine Douglas’s doctrine of popular sovereignty

❖ Perhaps the person least directly affected by the Dred Scott decision was the plaintiff

himself, for a new master immediately emancipated Scott and his wife, Harriet

➢ Both died on eve of Civil WAr

Master freed Scott and ➢ The rep of Supreme Court sank low (Republicans saw it as controlled by slave

his wife, Harriet, but both power)

died eve of Civil War ❖ Pres. Buchanan: Slavery henceforth existed in all the territories, “by virtue of the

Constitution.”

➢ 1858, administration attempted to admit Kansas as a slave state under the

Pres. Buchanan admitted Lecompton Constitution (drafted by pro-southern convention w/o popular vote)

Kansas as slave state, ➢ Outraged by this violation of popular sovereignty, Douglas formed an unlikely

violated popular alliance w/ congressional Republican to block the attempt

sovereignty ➢ Kansas remained a territory; would join as free state on eve of Civil War

➢ Convinced southern democrats that they couldn’t trust the party’s most popular

leader

❖ The depth of Americans’ division over slavery were brought into the sharp focus in 1858

in one of the most storied election campaigns in the nation’s history

➢ Seeking reelection to the senate as both a champion of popular sovereignty and

Douglas faced Lincoln the man who prevented the administration from forcing slavery on the people of

Kansas, Douglas faced an unexpectedly strong challenge from Abe Lincoln

➢ Lincoln ran for public office at 21, served 4 terms as Whig in state legislature and

one in congress from 1847 to 1849

❖ Lincoln reentered politics in 1854 as a result of Kansas-Nebraska Act

➢ Said he “hated slavery as much as any abolitionist.”

■ Was willing to compromise w/ the south to preserve the Union

Lincoln hated slavery, but ❖ Lincoln developed a critique of slavery and its expansion that gave voice to the central

wanted to compromise w/ values of the emerging Republican Party and the millions of northerners whose loyalty it
the south commanded

➢ His speeches combined the moral fervor of the abolitionists w/ the respect for

Lincoln hated the order and the Constitution of more conservative northerners

prospect of slavery ■ “Hated it b/c it derives our republican example of its plausibility”

expansion ➢ If slavery were to be expanded, the “love of liberty” would be extinguished and

with it America’s special mission to be a symbol of democracy

❖ Even though Lincoln lived in a society firmly in the grasp of the market revolution and

worked on occasion as an atty. For Illinois Central Railroad, his American was the world

of the small producer

Lincoln lived as a ➢ His own personal life personified the free labor ideology and the opportunities

laboring man, wanted northern society offered to laboring men

black men to have a right ➢ 1850s, property-owning farmers, artisans, and shopkeepers far outnumbered

move up the social ladder wage earners in Illinois

➢ Fascinated and disturbed by proslavery ideologues

➢ “I want every man to have the chance and I believe a black man is entitled to it,

in which he can better his condition”

❖ The campaign against Douglas, the North’s preeminent political leader, created

Lincoln’s nat’l rep

➢ Nominated for senate in June 1858, Lincoln etched sharply the differences

Lincoln believed that between them

people needed to choose ■ “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this gov’t cannot

to oppose or favor endure, permanently half slave and half free”

slavery, a divided house ➢ Lincoln’s point: Americans must choose between favoring or opposing slavery
cannot stand ➢ Douglas’s policy of popular sovereignty reflected a moral indifference that could

only result in the institution’s spread throughout the entire country

❖ The Lincoln-Douglas debates, held in 7 Illinois towns and attended by tens of thousands

of listeners, remain classics of American political oratory

➢ Clashing definitions of freedom lay at their heart

Why we have Lincoln- ■ Lincoln: opposition to slavery, rekindle spirit of founding fathers that

Douglas in S&D, tried to place slavery to “ultimate extinction”

Lincoln opposed slavery, ■ Douglas: local self-gov’t and individual determination, insisted that

Douglass believed in popular sovereignty wasn’t incompatible w/ Dred Scott decision

local self-gov’t and ➢ Douglas: Although territorial legislatures could no longer exclude slavery

individual determination directly, if the people wished to keep slaveholders out all they needed to do was

refrain from giving the institution legal protection

❖ In a critique not only of the antislavery movement but of the entire reform impulse

deriving from religious revivalism, Douglas insisted that politicians had no right impose

their own moral standards on society as a whole

❖ Lincoln shared many of the racial prejudices of this day

➢ Opposed giving Illinois blacks the right to vote or serve on juries and spoke of

colonizing overseas as the best solution for slavery

Lincoln opposed blacks ➢ Didn’t use appeals to racism to garner voters

for right to vote and serve ➢ Refused to exclude blacks from human family

on juries, but refused to ❖ The Illinois election returns reviewed a state sharply divided

exclude them from ➢ Southern Illinois voted Democratic

human family ➢ Northern part voted Republic

South Illinois: Democrat ➢ Before 17th amendment, each legislature chose U.S senators

North Illinois: Republic ➢ 1858, Republicans candidates for legislature won more votes

➢ Douglas reelected

❖ An armed assault by abolitionist John Brown on the federal arsenal at Harpers Gerry,

VA, further heightened sectional tensions

➢ Brown was a deeply religious man

John Brown hated slavery ■ Didn’t believe God was not forgiving

so much, he killed people ➢ Went to Kansas during civil war

and tried to make a war ➢ May 1856 after attack on Lawrence, he and a few followers murdered 5

against slavery proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek

➢ Next 2 yrs, traveled through the North and Canada, raising funds and enlisting

for a war against slavery

❖ Oct. 16, 1859, w/ 21 men, 7 black, Brown seized Harpers Ferry

➢ Brown’s band was soon surrounded and captured or killed by a detachment of

federal soldiers headed by Col. Robert E. Lee

Brown was executed ➢ Placed on trial for treason, was executed by VA Gov. Henry A. Wise (“a

crucified hero” -Henry David Thoreau)

❖ To the south, the failure of Brown’s assault seemed less significant than the adulation he

seem to arouse from much of the Northern public

❖ W/ the Republicans continuing to gain strength in the North, Democrats might have been

expected to put a premium on party unity as the election of 1860 approaches

➢ A sizable group now viewed their region’s prospects as more favorable outside

North was benefiting the Union than within it

from cotton trade, while ➢ 1850s, influential writers and political leaders kept up a drumbeat of complaints

South wasn’t b/c high abt the South’s problems

prices of slaves and ■ High prices of slaves = impossible for planters’ sons and upwardly

eroding opportunity of mobile small farmers to become planters

freedom through land and ■ The opportunity was eroding for economic independence through

slave ownership ownership of land and slaves (liberty)

➢ North reaped the benefits of the cotton trade, while white southerners feel deeper

into debt

➢ South had to accept “bondage” from North to stay in Union

➢ Independent South could become the foundation of a slave empire

❖ More southerners were speaking openly of southward expansion

➢ 1854, Pierre Soule of Louisiana, American ambassador to Spain, had persuaded

the ministers to Britain and France to join him in signing the Ostend Manifesto

Ostend Manifesto: called ➢ William Walker led a series of “fillbustering” (from spanish word for pirate

on the US to purchase or “filibustero”) expedition in Central America

seize Cuba, where slavery ❖ Born in Tennessee, Walker headed to CA to join the gold rush

was still legal, from Spain ➢ Failed, tried to be rich by becoming a leader of a Latin American country

➢ 1853, led a band that “captured” Baja CA from Mexico and named himself Pres.

Walker tried to be rich ➢ Mexican navals and vessels forced Walker and his men to beat a hasty retreat

from gold rush, but ➢ Decided to become president of Nicaragua, and wanted slavery to be open in that

failed, became ruler of country

Baja CA, then Nicaragua, ➢ Nicaragua was in a civil war, one faction invited Walker to assist by bringing in

and then Granada, was 300 men

driven out ➢ 1855, captured the city of Granada and proclaimed himself president the

following yr

➢ Pierce Administration recognized Walker’s gov’t and neighboring countries sent

in troops, forcing him to flee

➢ Walker won acclaim in South

➢ 1858, feds placed him on trial in NOLA, jury acquitted him

❖ By the late 1850s, southern leaders were bending every effort to strengthen the bonds of

slavery

The south wanted to keep ➢ SC politician, 1860: "Slavery is our king, slavery is our truth, slavery is our

slavery, hoped to become divine right”

an independent nation w/ ➢ New state laws further restricted access to freedom

slavery someday, ■ One in LA, “After the passage of this act, no slave shall be emancipated

Democratic Platform in this state.”

pledge to protect slavery ➢ Some southerners called for the reopening of the African slave trade, hoping for

in all territories not more slaves=lower price

admitted to Union yet ➢ By early 1860, 7 states of the Deep South had gone on record demanding that

Democratic Platform pledge to protect slavery in all the territories that had not

yet been admitted to the Union

➢ No northern politician could accept his position

➢ For southern leaders to insist on it would guarantee the destruction of the

Democratic Party as a nat’l institution

➢ Southern nat’lists (fire-eaters) hoped to split the party and the country and form

an independent Southern Confederacy

 ❖ When the Democratic convention met in Apr. 1860, Douglas’s supporters commanded a

majority but not the ⅔ required for presidential nomination

Douglas became nominee ➢ b/c of fight against KS Lecompton Constitution and refusal to support

for Democrats, in congressional laws imposing slavery on all the territories, Douglas had become

response southern DP unacceptable to political leaders of the Deep South

nominated John C. ➢ Still determined to bring KS as a slave state

Breckinridge ➢ Convention adopted popular sovereignty, delegates from 7 states of Lower South

walked out and the gathering recessed in confusion

➢ 6 weeks later, reconvened replaced the bolters w/ Douglas supporters and

nominated him for president

➢ In response, southern Democrats placed their own ticket in the field, headed by

John C. Breckinridge of KY

■ Insisted that slavery must be protected in western territories

❖ The Democratic Party, the last great bond of nat’l unity, had been shattered

➢ Nat’l conventions had traditionally been places where party managers, mindful of

Democrats in the south the unity in the fall campaign, reconciled their differences

couldn’t trust the north ➢ 1860, neither northern nor southern Democrats were interested in conciliation

democrats anymore ➢ Southern democrats no longer trusted northern counter parts

➢ Douglas’s backers wouldn’t accept a platform that doomed their party to certain

defeat in the North

❖ Meanwhile, Republicans gathered in Chicago and chose Lincoln as their standard-bearer

➢ Lincoln didn’t suffer from Seward’s political liabilities

Former JN didn’t like ➢ Former Know-Nothings (joined Republican ranks) bitterly resented Seward's
Seward funding Catholic efforts as gov of NY to channel state funds to Catholic schools

schools, didn’t deserve ➢ Seward had a not entirely deserved rep for radicalism as a result of his “higher

radical rep law” and “irrepressible conflict” speeches

❖ Lincoln’s devotion to the Union appealed to moderate Republicans, and his emphasis on

the moral dimension of the sectional controversy made him acceptable to Republicans

Lincoln was essential for from abolitionist backgrounds

Republican victory ➢ Never associate KN, could appeal to immigrant voters, and nativists preferred

him to the hated Seward

➢ Coming from Illinois , was better positioned to carry the pivotal “doubtful states”

essential for Republican victory

➢ 3rd ballot, nominated

➢ Party denied validity of Dred Scott decision, reaffirmed Republicans' opposition

to slavery’s expansion, and added economic planks designed to appeal to a board

array of northern voters

■ Free homestead in the west, protective tariff, gov’t aid in building

transcontinental railroad

❖ In effect, 2 pres campaigns took place in 1860

➢ North, Lincoln and Douglas were combatants

North and South had ➢ South, Republicans had no presence and 3 candidates contested the lection

different pres campaigns ■ Douglas, Breckinridge, and John Bell of Tennessee (Constitutional Union

Party or CUP)

➢ CUP was a haven for unionist form Whigs, pledged to preserve “the Constitution

as it is and the Union as it was.”

 ❖ The most striking thing abt the election returns was their sectional character

➢ Lincoln carried the North (1.8 M popular votes or 54% of regional toal and 140%

Lincoln won as 16th nat’l total) except NJ and 180 electoral votes

POTUS ➢ Breckinridge: most slave states

➢ Bell carred 3 upper south states (40% of south as a whole)

➢ Douglas: only Missouri, but had 1.3M popular votes

■ Failure to carry either section suggested that a traditional political career

based on devotion to the Union was no longer possible

➢ w/o a single vote in 10 south state, Lincoln became 16th POTUS

■ Failed to secure majority in popular vote, but still carried electoral college

❖ In the eyes of many white southerners, Lincoln’s victory placed their future at the mercy

of a party avowedly hostile to their region’s values and interests

Many white southerners ➢ Those advocating for secession didn’t believe that Lincoln’s administration

wanted to keep slavery in would take immediate steps against slavery in the states

the states, and boldly ➢ Election of 1860 marked a fundamental shift in power, the beginning of a long

struck for independence period of Republican rule, who coils say what the North’s antislavery sentiment

would demand in 5 yrs or 10

➢ Slave owners feared Republican efforts to extend their party into the South by

appealing to non-slaveholders

➢ Deep south political leaders boldly struck for their region’s independence, at

stake they believed was an entire way of life

❖ In the months that followed Lincoln’s election, 7 states stretching from SC to TX

seceded the Union

The south wanted to ➢ States of the Cotton Kingdom (larger slave population than Upper South)

separate from the union ➢ 1st to secede: SC (highest % of slave population) and history of radicalism

to keep slavery ➢ 12/20/1860: legislature unanimously voted to leave the Union

➢ Declaration of immediate Causes of Secession placed the issue of slavery

squarely at the center of the crisis

➢ North “assumed the right to decide upon the propriety of our domestic

institutions”

➢ Lincoln was a man “whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery”

➢ “Slaveholding states cannot be safe in subjection to nonslaveholding states”

➢ Secessionists equaled their movement w/ the American Revolution

❖ As the Union unraveled, Pres. Buchanan seemed paralyzed

➢ Denied that a state could secede, but also insisted that the federal gov’t had no

Sen. John J. Crittenden right to use force against it

proposed to extend ➢ Sen. John J. Crittenden of KY (slave state btwn North and South) offered the

Missouri Compromise to most widely supported compromise plan of the secession winter

the Pacific, but seceded ➢ Crittenden’s proposal would’ve guaranteed the future of slavery in the states

states rejected where it existed, and extended the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific

Ocean, dividing between slavery and free soil all territories “now held, or

hereafter required”

➢ Seceding states rejected compromise as too little, too late

❖ Crittenden’s plan foundered on the opposition of Lincoln

➢ Lincoln took an unyielding stand against the expansion of slavery

Lincoln didn’t want ■ Informed 1 Republican leader, he intended to “hold firm, as w/ a chain of
expansion of slavery steel”

➢ “We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now

we are told in advance that the gov’t shall be broken up unless we surrender to

those we have beaten, before we take the offices…If we surrender, it is the end of

us and the end of the gov’t.”

❖ Before Lincoln assumed office on 3/4/1861, 7 seceding states for them theConfederate

States of America, adopted a constitution, and chose as their pres. Jefferson Davis of

The Confederate States Mississippi

already chose their ruler ➢ Pres: 6-yr term, cabinet members could sit in congress

and models constitution ➢ Constitution closely molded to US, but explicitly guaranteeing slave property and

closely to US acquired territory

➢ VP: Alexander H. Stephens of GA was “the great truth that the negro is not equal

to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural

and normal condition”

❖ Even after rejecting the Crittenden Compromise, Lincoln didn’t believe war inevitable

➢ When he became pres, 8 slave states of the upper south remained in the Union

Upper south remained in ■ Slaves and slaveholders made a lower proportion of the population tannin

the Union, Lincoln the Deep south

believed secession might ■ Large part of the white population didn’t believe Lincoln’s election

collapse within itself justified dissolving the Union

➢ Even within the Confederacy, whites had divided over secession, w/ considerable

#s of non-slaveholding farmers in opposition

➢ Believed secession might collapse from within

 ❖ In his inaugural address (3.4.1861), Lincoln tried to be conciliatory

➢ Rejected the right of secession but denied any intention of interfering w/ slavery

Talked about rejecting in the states

secession and civil war ➢ Said nothing of retaking the forts, arsenals, and customs houses the Confederacy

had seized

➢ Did promise to hold a remain federal property in the seceding states

➢ Warning: “In your hands, by dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is

the momentous issue of civil war.”

❖ In his 1st month as pres, Lincoln walked on a tightrope

➢ Avoided any action that might drive more states from the Union, encouraged

Lincoln tried to keep the southern Unionists to assert themselves within the Confederacy, and sought to

peace to prevent more quiet a growing glamor in the North for forceful action against secession

states from going out of ➢ Lincoln strive to ensure that it hostilities did break out, the South would fire the

the Union 1st shot (happened on 4.12.1861 at Fort Sumter)

❖ A few days earlier, Lincoln had notified SC’s gov that he intended to replenish the

garrison’s dwindling food supplies

Civil War began ➢ Jeff Davis ordered batteries to fire on the fort for Upper South to join

Confederacy

➢ Apr. 14, commander surrendered

➢ Following day, Lincoln proclaimed that an insurrection existed in the South and

called for 75k troops to suppress it

➢ Civil War begun

■ VA, NC, TN and AR joined confederacy

 ❖ 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published Poems on slavery (ie The Warning)

➢ There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, Shorn of his strength, and bound in

Henry Wadsworth bonds of steel, Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, And shake the

Longfellow warned on pillars of this Commonweal, Till the vast Temple of our liberties, A shapeless

about how the American mass of wreck and rubbish lies

slave was like Samson, ➢ 1861, Longfellow’s warning came to pass

who will destroy the

temple of his tormentors