Union in Peril (Decade of Crisis)

Enforcement of Fugitive Slave Law

* Law's purpose was to help owners track down runaway enslaved ppl who escaped to Northern state, capture them, & return them to their Southern owners
* Law removed fugitive slave cases from state courts & made them exclusive to jurisdiction of fed gov't
* Also authorized special US commissioners to use warrants to arrest fugitives
* A captured person who claimed to be free & not someone who had just escaped slavery was denied right of trial by jury
* State & local law enforcement officials were required to help enforce fed law

Opposition to Fugitive Slave Law

* Passage of this law in Comp of 1850 persuaded many Southerners to accept that Cali would be free state
* Hwvr, many Northerners bitterly resent law
* RESULT: drove wedge btwn North & South


* Anyone who attempted to hide runaway/obstruct enforcement of law was subject to heavy penalties
* Hwvr, black & white activists in North bitterly resisted law
* Thru court cases, protests, & sometimes force, tried to protect Afr Amers from being returned- or taken for the first time- into slavery

Underground Railroad

* Loose network of activists who help enslaved ppl escape to freedom in North/Canada
* Most "conductors" & those operating the "stations" were free Afr Amers & ppl who had escaped slavery themselves w/ the assistance of white abolitionists
* Most famous conductor = Harriet Tubman
* Free black citizens in North & abolitionists also organized vigilance committees to protect fugitive slaves from slave catchers
* During Civil War, Afr Amer leaders like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, & Sojourner Truth worked for emancipation & supported Black soldiers

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

* Most influential book of its day


* Abt conflict btwn an enslaved man, Tom, with brutal white slave owner, Simon Legere
* By Northern writer Harriet Beecher Stowe
* Moved a generation of Northerners and many Euros to regard all slave owners as cruel & inhuman
* Southerners condemns the "untruths" in novel & looked upon it as one more proof of North's incurable prejudice against Southern way of life
* Later, when Prez Lincoln met Stowe, he said "so you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war"
* In response to Stowe's book, Mary Eastman wrote pro-slavery novel *Aunt Phillis's Cabin*
* Portrayed world of kind slaveowners & happily enslaved ppl

Impending Crisis of the South

* By Hinton R. Helper
* Nonfiction
* Attacked slavery from another angle
* Used statistics to demonstrate to fellow Southerners that slavery weakened the South's economy
* Southern states quickly banned book but it was widely distributed in North by antislavery Free-Soil leaders

Southern Reaction to Abolitionist Literature

* Responding to Northern literature that condemned slavery, proslavery Southern whites counterattacked, arguing that slavery was good for both master and slave
* Pointed out that slavery sanctioned the Bible and grounded in philosophy and history
* Slavery also permitted by US Constitution
* Southern Authorities contrasted conditions of Northern wage workers- "wage slaves" forced to work long hours in factories & mines- w/ familial bonds developed on plantations btwn slaves and masters
* George Fitzhugh, best-known proslavery author, questioned principle of equal rights for "unequal men" and attacked wage system as worse than slavery
* Wrote *Sociology for the South* & *Cannibals All!*

Effect of Law & Literature

* Fugitive Slave Law & books on slavery increasingly polarized nation
* Many Northerners who opposed expansion of slavery only for economic reasons and had scorned abolition became more concerned abt slavery as a moral issue
* At same time, growing num of Southerners, particularly wealthy ones, became more convinced that Northerners would abolish slavery and way of life based upon it as soon as they could

3 Major Issues That Divided North & South

1. Attitudes abt morality of slavery
2. Views abt constitutional rights of states, particularly right to protect slavery
3. Differences over economic policies btwn free-labor industrial North and slave-labor agricultural South

The Election of 1852

* Signs of trouble for Whig party appeared in 1852 election for prez
* Whigs nominated another military hero of Mex War, General Winfield Scott
* Attempting to ignore slavery issue, Whigs concentrated on party's traditional platform
* Improving roads and harbors
* But Scott quickly discovered that sectional issues couldn't be held in check
* Antislavery and Southern factions of party fell to quarreling and party was on verge of splitting apart
* Dems nominated compromise candidate, Franklin Pierce of NH, who they hoped would be safer choice, one acceptable to ppl in all regions
* A Northerner, Pierce was acceptable to Southern Dems bc supported Fugitive Slave Law
* In electoral College, Dems won all but 4 states, suggesting days of Whig Party were numbered

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

* Dems, firmly in control of both White House & Cong, found they could avoid issue of slavery in territories
* Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois proposed building transcontinental railroad thru center of country, w/ major terminus In Chicago, to promote Western settlement (& inc value of his own real estate in Chicago)
* Southerners preferred more southerly route
* To win Southerner support, Douglas introduced bill to divide Nebraska Territory into 2 parts- The Kansas and Nebraska territories, & allow settlers in each territory to decide whether to allow slavery

Impact of The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

* Since these territories were located *north* of the 36deg3' line, Douglas's bill gave Southerner an opportunity to expand slavery into lands that had been closed to it by the Missouri Comp of 1820
* Many Northern Dems condemned bill as a surrender to "slave pwr"
* Still, after 3 months of bitter debate, both houses of Cong passed Douglas's bill as Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and Prez Pierce signed it into law
* After 1854, conflicts btwn antislavery and proslavery forces exploded, both in Kansas and on floor of US Senate

Context of “Bleeding Kansas”

* Stephen Douglas, Kansas-Nebraska Act sponsor, expected slavery issue in territory to be settled peacefully by antislavery farmers from Midwest who migrated to Kansas and constituted majority
* Slavery holders from neighboring Missouri also set up homesteads in Kansas as means of winning control for South
* Northern abolitionists and Free-Soilers responded by organizing the New England Emigrant Aid Company (1855), which paid for transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas
* Fighting broke out btwn proslavery and antislavery grps, & territory became known as "bleeding Kansas"

Midst of “Bleeding Kansas”

* Proslavery Missourians, called "border ruffians" by their enemies, crossed border to create proslavery legislature in Lecompton, Kansas
* Antislavery settlers refused to recognize this gov't and created their own legislature in Topeka
* 1856-> proslavery forces attacked free-soil town of Lawrence, killing abt 2 and destroying homes and businesses
* Two days later-> John Brown, stern abolitionists, retaliated
* Attacked proslavery farm settlement at Pottawatomie Creek, killing 5

Reaction to “Bleeding Kansas”

* In Washington, Pierce admin did nothing to keep order in Kansas territory and failed to support honest elections there
* As Kansas became bloodier, Dem Party became more divided btwn its Northern & Southern factions
* Plan to let territories decide on slavery for themselves had resulted in chaos & bloodshed
* Caning of Senator Sumner

Caning of Senator Sumner

* Violence in Kansas spilled over into halls of US Cong
* 1856-> MA senator Charles Sumner attacked Dem admin in vitriolic speech, "The Crime Against Kansas"
* His remarks included personal charges against SC senator Andrew Butler
* Butler's nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks, defend uncle's honor by walking into Senate chamber and beating Sumner over the head repeated with a cane
* Sumner never fully recovered from the attack
* Action by Brooks outraged North, and the House voted to censure him while Southerners applauded deed
* Sumner-Brooks incident was another sign of growing passions on both sides

Founding of Republican Party

* Inc tensions over slavery divided Northern & Southern Dems & broke apart Whig party
* Ex-Whigs scattered
* Those frightened abt immigration joined Know-Nothing Party
* With support of new members, Know-Nothings won a few local and state elections in the mid-1850s
* Hwvr, as expansion of slavery became paramount political issue, signif of immigration decline, and along with it, the Know-Nothing Party
* Ex-Whigs who supported expansion of slavery usually joined Dem Party
* South became core of party, although Dems were still strong in North
* Former Whigs who opposed Slavery expansion formed core of new party
* The Republican Party was founded in Wisconsin in 1854 as reaction to passage of Kansas-Neb Act

About Republican Party

* Composed of Free-Soilers and antislavery Whigs & Dems, its purpose was to oppose spread of slavery in territories-not to end slavery itself
* Its first platform called for repeal of both Kansa-Neb Act and Fugitive Slave Law
* As violence inc in Kansas, more ppl, inc some abolitionists, joined Repub Party, and it became second largest party in Country
* But it was strictly Northern , or sectional, party
* Its success threaten & alienated the South

The Election of 1856

* Repubs' first test of strength came in presidential election of 1856
* Their nominee was CA senator, the explorer and "Pathfinder," John C Fremont
* Republican platform called for no expansion of slavery, free homesteads, & probusiness protective tariff
* The Know-Nothings also competed strongly in this election, w/ their candidate, former Prez Milliard Fillmore, winning 20% of popular vote
* As the one major national party, Dems expected to win
* Nominated James Buchanan of PA, rejecting Prez Pierce and Stephen Douglas bc they were too closely identified w/ controversial Kansas-Neb Act

Result of Election of 1856

* As expected, Dems won majority of popular and electoral vote
* Repubs made strong showing for sectional party
* Fermont carried 11 of the 16 free states
* Some predicted that the antislavery Repubs could win the White House without a single vote from the South
* Election of 1856 foreshadowed emergence of pwrful political party that would win all but 4 presidents btwn 1860 & 1932

Lecompton Constitution

* One of Buchanan's 1st challenges as prez in 1857 was to decide whether to accept or reject proslavery state constitution for Kansas submitted by Southern legislature at Lecompton
* Buchanan knew that Lecompton Constitution, as it was called, didn't have majority support
* Even so, he asked Cong to accept document and admit Kansas as slave state
* Cong didn't do so b/c many Dems, inc Stephen Douglas, joined w/ Repubs in rejecting constitution
* The next yr, 1858, the proslavery document was overwhelmingly rejected by Kansas settlers, most of whom were antislavery Repubs

Dred Scott v. Sanford

* Congressional folly & presidential ineptitude contributed to sectional crisis of 1850s
* Supreme Court worsened crisis when it infuriated many Northerners w/ controversial proslavery decision in case of the enslaved man named Dred Scott
* Scott had been held in slavery in Missouri and then taken to free territory of Wisconsin where he lived for 2 yrs before returning to Missouri
* Arguing that his residence on free soil made him free citizen, Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri in 1846
* Case worked its way thru court system
* Finally reached Supreme Court which rendered its decision in March 1857, only 2 days after Buchanan was sworn in as prez
* Presiding over court was Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Southern Dem

Result of Scott v. Sanford & Why

* Majority of Court decided against Scott and gave these reasons:
* Dred Scott had no right to sue in fed court b/c Framers of the Constitution didn't intend Afr Amers to be US citizens
* Cong didn't have pwr to deprive any person of property w/o due process of law. If slaves were form of property, then Cong couldn't exclude slavery from any fed territory
* Missouri Comp was unconstitutional b/c it excluded slavery from Wisconsin and other Northern territories

Impact of Dred Scott v. Sanford

* Court's ruling delighted Southern Dems and infuriated Northern Repubs
* In effect, Court declared all parts of Western territories open to slavery
* Repubs denounced as "greatest cry in the annuals of the republic"
* Timing of decision, after Buchanan's inauguration, led Northerners to suspect Dem prez and majority on Supreme Court, including Taney, had planned the decision so that it would settle slavery question
* Inc Northern suspicions of conspiracy and induced thousands of Dems to vote Repub
* Northern Dems like Senator Douglas were left w/ impossible task of supporting popular sovereignty w/o rejecting Dred Scott decision
* Douglas's hopes for compromise and presidency were in jeopardy

Context of Douglas-Lincoln Debates

* 1858: focus of nation was on Douglas's campaign for reelection as senator from Illinois
* Challenging him was successful trial lawyer & former member of Illinois legislature, Abraham Lincoln, as Repub candidate
* Lincoln served 1 term in Cong in 1840s as Whig
* Nationally, unknown compared to Douglas (the Little Giant)
* Champion of pop sovereignty & possible best hope for holding nation 2gether if elected prez in 1860
* Lincoln was not abolitionists - moderate who was against expansion of slavery
* Spoke effectively of slavery as moral issue
* "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong"

Douglas-Lincoln Debates

* In debate in Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile pop sovereignty w/ Dred Scott decision
* In what became known as Freeport Doctrine, Douglas responded that slavery couldn't exist in community if local citizens didn't pass laws (slave codes) maintaining it
* His views angered Southern Dems b/c from their POV Douglas didn't go far enough in supporting implication of Dred Scott decision
* Douglas won campaign for reelection to US senate
* In long run, hwvr, lost ground in his own party by alienating Southern Dems
* Lincoln, on the other hand, emerged from debates as national figure and  leading contender for Repub nomination for prez 1860

Context of Election of 1860

* In Northern states outside Illinois where Douglas & Dems defeated Lincoln, the Repubs did well in congressional elections of 1858
* Greatly alarmed may Southerners
* Worried not only abt antislavery plank in Repub's program but also abt that party's economic program, which favored Northern industrialists at expense of South
* Higher tariffs pledged by Repubs would help Northern businesses but hurt South, which depended on exporting cotton
* Events leading up to Lincoln's election & secession of 11 Southern states from the Union set up stage for war

On the Road to Secession

* Southern fears grew that a Repub victory in 1860 would spell disaster for their economy & threaten their "constitutional right," as affirmed by Supreme Court, to own enslaved ppl as property
* Adding to their fears were Northern radicals supporting John Brown, the man who had massacred 5 farmers in Kansas in 1856
* John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry
* election of 1860

John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry

* John Brown confirmed South's worst fears of radical abolitionism when he tried to start uprising of enslaved ppl in VA
* Oct 1859: led small band of followers, including his 4 sons and some formerly enslaved ppl, to attack federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry
* His impractical plan was to use guns from arsenal to arm VA's enslaved Afr Amers, whom he expected to rise up in revolt
* Fed troops under command of Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his band after 2-day siege
* Brown & 6 of his followers were tired for treason by state of VA
* At trial, Brown spoke w/ simple eloquence of his humanitarian motives in wanting to free enslaved ppl
* Hwvr, he was convicted & hanged

Impact of John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry

* Brown's raid divided Northerners
* Moderates condemned his use of violence, while abolitionists hailed him as martyr
* Southern whites saw raid and Northern support for it as finally proof of North's true intentions- to use slave revolts to destroy the South


* After John Brown's raid, more and more Amers feared that their country was moving to disintegration
* Presidential election of 1860 would test Union

Breakup of Democratic Party

* As 1860 began, Dem Party represented last hope for compromise
* Dems held their national convention in Charleston, SC
* Steph Douglas was party's leading candidate & most capable of winning presidency
* Blocking his nomination were angry Southerners and supporters of Prez Buchanan
* After deadlocking at Charleston, Dems held 2nd convention in Baltimore
* Many delegates from slave states walked out, enabling remaining delegates to nominate Douglas on platform of pop sovereignty and enforcement of Fugitive Slave Law
* Southern Dems then held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated VP John C. Breckinridge f KY as candidate
* Southern Dem platform called for unrestricted extension of slavery in territories in annexation of Cuba, a Spanish colony that still practiced slavery

Republican Nomination of Lincoln

* When Repubs met in Chicago, they enjoyed hopes of easy win over divided Dems
* They drafted platform that appealed to economic self-interest of Northerns and Westerners
* Called for exclusion of slavery from territories, protective tariff for industry, free land for homesteaders, and internal improvements to encourage Western settlement, including railroad to Pacific
* To win moderates of slavery, they rejected well-known NY Senator William Seward,  a strong opponent of slavery
* They turned to little-known Illinois lawyer of Abraham Lincoln, a strong debater
* They believed that Lincoln could carry Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
* One cloud darkened the Repub's otherwise bright future
* In South, radicals warned that if the country elected Lincoln, their states would leave the Union

Constitutional Union Party

* Fearing Repub victory, group of former Whigs, Know-Nothings, & moderate Dems formed new party: Constitutional Union Party
* For prez, they nominated John Bell of TN & pledged enforcement of laws and Constitution and, above all, preservation of Union

Results of Election of 1860

* While Douglas campaigned across country, Lincoln remained at home in Springfield, Illinois, meeting Repub leaders and giving statements to press
* Election results were predictable
* Lincoln carried every free state of the North, which represented solid majority of 59% of electoral votes
* Breckinridge, Southern Dem, carried Deep South, leaving Douglas and Bell w/ just a few electoral votes in border states
* Hwvr, Lincoln won only 39.8% of popular vote, so he would be minority president
* New political reality was that populous free states has enough electoral votes to elect a prez w/o any electoral votes from South
* Southern fears that North would dominate fed gov't- and could soon threaten democracy- appeared to be coming true

Secession of Deep South

* In 1860, Repubs controlled neither Senate nor Supreme Court
* Even so, election of Lincoln was all that Southern secessionists needed to call for immediate disunion
* In Dec 1860: special convention in SC voted unanimously to secede, saying that they needed to protect slavery
* Within 6 weeks, state conventions in GA, FL, AL, MS, LA, & TX did the same
* In several states, particularly GA and AL, many ppl were uncertain abt or opposed secession
* Hwvr large slaveowners, arguing that states had right to defend slavery, prevailed
* In Feb 1861: representatives of 7 states of Deep South met Montgomery, AL, and created Confederate States of Amer
* Constitution of this Southern country was like US constitution, except that Confederacy placed limits on govt's pwr to impose tariffs and restrict slavery
* Elected pre & VP were Jefferson Davis of MS & Alexander Stephens of GA
* Crittenden Compromise

Critten Compromise

* Lame-duck prez (leader completing term after someone else has been elected into office), Buchanan had 5 months in office b4 Lincoln succeeded him
* Buchanan was conservative who did nothing to prevent secession
* Cong was more active
* In last-ditch effort to appease South, Senator John Crittenden of KY proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee right to hold slaves in all territories south of old Missouri Comp line, 36deg30'
* Southern Whites who voted for secession believed they were acting in tradition of Revolution of 1776
* Argued that they had right to national independent & to dissolve constitutional compact that no longer protected them from "tyranny" of Northern rule
* Many also thought that Lincoln, like Buchanan, might permit secession w/o fight
* Those how thought this had badly miscalculated

A Nation Divided After Election of 1860

* When Lincoln took office as prez in March 1861, ppl wondered if he would challenge secession militarily
* In his inaugural address, Lincoln assured Southerners that he would not interfere w/ slavery where it existed
* At same time, he warned, no state had the right to break up Union
* He appealed for restraint: "In *your* hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in *mine*, is the momentous issue of civil war. The gov't will not assail *you*. You can have no conflict w/o being yourselves the aggressors"
* Fort Sumter
* Secession of Upper South
* Keeping the Border States in Union

Fort Sumter

* Despite prez's message of conciliation, danger of war was acute
* Critical was status of fed forts in states that had secede
* Fort Sumter, in harbor of Charleston, SC, was cut off by Southern control of harbor
* Rather than either giving up Fort Sumter or attempting to defend it, Lincoln announced that he was sending provisions of food to small federal garrison
* He thus gave SC choice of either permitting fort to hold out or opening fire
* Carolina's guns thundered and thus, on April 12 1861, the war began
* Attack on Fort and its capture after 2 days of pounding united most Northerners behind patriotic fight to save Union

Secession of Upper South

* B4 SC attacked Fort S, only 7 states of Deep South had seceded
* After it was clear that Lincoln would use troops to defend Union, 4 states of Upper South- VA, NC, TN, & AR- seceded and joined Confederacy
* As in earlier states, decision to secede was controversial
* Confed's then moved their capital to Richmond, VA
* Ppl of western VA remained loyal to Union, becoming separate state in 1863

Keeping the Border States in Union

* 4 other slaveholders remained in Union
* Decisions of DE, MD, Missouri, & KY *not* to join the Confederacy were partly result of pro-Union sentiment in those states and partly the results of shrewd federal policies
* In MD, pro-secessionists attacked Union troops & threatened railroad to WA
* Union army resorted to martial law to keep state under fed control
* In Missouri, US troops prevented pro-South elements from gaining control although guerrilla forces for Confederacy were active during war
* In KY, state legislature voted to remain neutral
* Lincoln initially respected its neutrality & waited for South to isolate it before moving in fed troops
* Keeping border states in Union was military & political goal for Lincoln
* Their loss would inc Confed population by 50% and weaken North's strategic position
* Partly to avoid alienating Unionists in border states, Lincoln rejected initial calls for emancipation of slaves