pre civil war

Let’s Review…

America wins the war and defeats Mexico in 1848

- Nicholas Trist was sent to negotiate a treaty at the end of the war

- Polk is not enthusiastic about Nick T and asked him to return to the states

- He refuses

- Trist finalizes the treaty without full backing of the president

- Polk is incredibly unhappy

- It works out in the end, Senate ratified the treaty 38-14 with many Whigs 

and Democrats unsupportive of the treaty

What position did Whigs take in the Mexican-American War?

“There is no probability that any territory 

will ever be acquired in which slavery 

would ever exist”

From the diary of James K. Polk

Southerners think otherwise…

Wilmot Proviso

August 1846 (1.5 years before the Mexican-American even ended) 

- PA Democrat David Wilmot suggested an amendment to an army 

appropriations bill

- “That, as an express and fundamental condition of the acquisition of 

any territory from the Republic of Mexico… neither slavery nor 

involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory”

- What is the issue with this? How was the issue of slavery settled many 

years ago?

Party lines

- House approves of the amendment but the Senate does not

- In the House of Reps the party lines are along the sections of the US

- Northern Whigs and Democrats vote yes

- Southern Whigs and Dems vote no

The North resents the South for a number of reasons

- One being the inability for Polk to get the Oregon territory up to the 54-40 line

- “Our rights to Oregon have been shamefully compromised. The administration 

is Southern, Southern, Southern! Since the South have fixed boundaries for free 

territory, let the North fix boundaries for slave territories.”

The Election of 1848

In 1832… who was elected?

- It was the first instance of a PRIMARY ELECTION

1848 Primary

Lewis Cass

Martin Van Buren

Zachary Taylor

Democrats

Democratic party is struggling to pick a presidential candidate

- John C. Calhoun: Popular with Southern Dems who believe is state’s 

rights

- Democrats wanted someone more moderate

- James Buchanan: Secretary of State under Polk

- Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Northern Cali. will be 

free states

- NM, Arizona, and SoCal will be slave states

- “Sounds good to me” -nobody said this because this is really 

distressing to Southerns

- Also looking at a map this just does not make sense

Democrats

- Lewis Cass: Senator from Michigan

- Bright idea: Popular Sovereignty

Popular Sovereignty

Let each state decide if they get to be free states or slave states

- Great in theory but there is a slight issue

- Northerners assume territories will decide immediately if they will be 

a slave state or not

- If a territory decides they are free before they can figure out if 

they need slavery there isn’t an issue

- Southerners assume the territories will wait until they can create a 

state constitution before they decide on being a slave state or not

- Slavery will already establish itself and you cannot take it back

- Nobody thinks about this long enough for it to matter so everyone thinks 

its a good idea

Martin Van Buren

- Martin Van Buren: Vice-president under Andrew Jackson, 8th president 

for 1 term

- Van Buren feels left out and disrespected by the Democratic party

- He founds the FREE SOIL PARTY

- Members of the Free Soil Party come from mostly Northern Whigs (So 

called conscious Whigs)

- Essentially their platform is anti-slavery

- Why won’t this work?

- Whigs have their own anti-slavery thing (they voted for Wilmot 

Proviso)

- Southerners are on board with the popular sovereignty thing

- Neither side wants to fully confront the issue of slavery

The Whigs

The Whigs don’t bother with a primary

- They want to pick a guy who wins

- Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, despite political clout, cannot win

- Zachary Taylor on the other hand can win

- He wins the Mexican American War

- Taylor supports the Whigs but not really with his full chest, he just 

as easily could’ve been a Dem

- He just wants to be president

Now what?

What does the election of 1848 tell us?

What does it tell us about the attitudes towards the question of slavery?

What is the purpose of government? Does leaving the slavery question 

Compromise of 1850

Tensions were reaching a boiling point on the issue of slavery

- Zachary Taylor died in office, territories want statehood

Henry Clay (73 at that point) created what would be known as 

the Compromise of 1850

- Aided and completed by Stephen Douglas of IL

The compromise consisted of 5 major legislations

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

Article IV, Section II of the Constitution

““No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws 

thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or 

Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but 

shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or 

Labour may be due”

1. Slaves are to be returned to the state they fled

2. Those caught aiding fleeing slaves will be fined $500 

(~$16,000 in today’s money)

Review

Zachary Taylor was an elected Whig president

- Taylor died in office about 1.5 years into his term

- He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore in 1850

Political parties were changing

- Sectionalism was dividing the country yet again

- People were unified on the slavery front

- Whether they were for or against slavery depended on the location 

Franklin Pierce

- Democrat, wins election after Fillmore in 1852

- Northerner who believed abolitionism threatened the Union

- Support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act leads to decline in popularity

Election of 1856: Democrats

- Zachary Taylor (Whig) “betrayed” Whig Southerners by supporting the 

Compromise of 1850

- In particular the act that made California a free state

- Most Southerners who supported the Whig party in the past are going 

to switch the Democratic side

- Democrats are going to lose support from Northerners

Candidate: James Buchanan

Election of 1856: Republicans

- Conscious Whigs and Free-Soilers combine

- Anti-Slavery Democrats who HATE Whigs also join

- Still called the G.O.P because the name came from 

Colonial/Revolutionary War times

- Abraham Lincoln famously joined the Republican Party

- Popular in the North

Candidate: John C. Frémont

Election of 1856: Know-Nothing

- Northern Whigs supported the Know-Nothing Party

- Also known as the American Party or Native American Party (Not the 

same as Native Americans)

- Know-Nothings were a nativist movement in the US

- Know-Nothings were popular in the North because that is where a 

majority of migrants moved and worked in factories

- When asked about their meetings or politics they would reply with “I 

know nothing”

**Nativist: Protecting the interests of American born inhabitants over those 

who have migrated to the US**

Candidate: Millard Fillmore

Results

Republicans put up a good fight

- The party at that point had only existed for 2 years (1854-ish)

Know-Nothing only gets 8 electoral votes

- It is hard to rally people around the migrant issue that:

a. Only affects Northern cities

b. Isn’t slavery. Slavery is on the forefront of everyone’s mind

Democrats win the vote

- James Buchanan is the 15th president

- Buchanan gets to business right away and a few pro-slavery actions take place

LeCompton Constitution

- Bleeding Kansas ended in 1859

- Before it ended, a 5 year period of violence plagued the state

President Buchanan wanted to end the violence

- Buchanan was a PA democrat who was not very pro- or anti- slavery

- He wanted the violence to end

- He sent Democrat Robert Walker of Mississippi to be governor and 

hopefully stop the violence

LeCompton Constitution

Kansas territory needs to decide on being a free or slave state

- Walker is pretty pro-slavery

- He creates a convention in LeCompton, KS

- Anti-slavery groups think this is unfair and rigged

- They refuse to join the convention

- The constitution they end up creating leans very pro-slavery as a 

result

- When voting came, many people crossed the border or stuffed ballot 

boxes

LeCompton Constitution

Walker throws out boxes of ballots, many of which are filled with PRO-SLAVERY 

votes

- He is forced to resign because he loses most support

What is in the LeCompton Constitution?

1. Prohibited any amendment from being added for 7 years

2. Governors needed to be citizens for at least 20 years

3. Free black people could not enter the state

4. Slavery was protected

The vote on the constitution would only reject the slavery provision, not the 

entire constitution

- Walker warned Buchanan before resigning that this would lead to more 

violence

- Stephen Douglas says this violates popular sovereignty

Dred Scott v. Sandford

https://www.britannica.com/video/did-you-know-Dred-Scott-decision/-2539

90

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

- Chief Justice Roger Taney

- Black Americans are not entitled to suing for freedom (or anything really) 

because they are not citizens

- Even if they are free or have lived in a free state, they are still the 

property of some owner

- Allowing fugitive slaves to live in freedom violates the 5th amendment 

for slave owners

- Slaves are property, if they escape into a free state they are being 

“taken away” without consent of the owner

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

- Court also decides that the federal government does not have jurisdiction 

to decide state level issues like should slavery be allowed or not

- This meant that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional

- Although the Compromise was being dialed back because of the 

Kansas-Nebraska Act, it was still a major blow to anti-slavery 

advocates

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

- In order to build infrastructure, territories need to be organized in some 

fashion

- With so many people moving westward in the mid 19th century this is 

much more necessary

- An act designed by Stephen Douglas was created to organize the 

territories that are modern day Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and the 

Dakotas

Railroads

Railroads require planning

In order to plan and lay down the railroads, a lot of people are involved

- The government is involved and they have to make many decisions

- How will the steel get from point A to point B?

- Which direction should the railway go?

- Which states should the rail go through?

- Should the train go to Chicago, IL from Texas? (Stephen Douglas 

would like that he's from Chicago)

- What states even exist who do we talk about this? What state 

government do we talk to about a railroad going through their state?

- Wait if we need to organize these territories and make them states 

we have to decide on whether these states are free or slave states!

It’s always about slavery…

How do we solve this?

Douglas says POPULAR 

SOVEREIGNTY!

- Let Kansas and Nebraska decide 

on their own if they will be free or 

slave territories

- This will cancel out the Missouri 

Compromise (36-30 line no 

longer means anything)

Bleeding Kansas

In order to sway the vote…

Anti-slavery and pro-slavery voters swarmed to the state to hopefully shift 

the vote

The violence lasts from 1854 (when the act is passed) to 1859

It ended with Kansas deciding to be a free state

The Caning Of Charles Sumner

"Crime Against Kansas"

"a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, 

is always lovely to him; though polluted in 

the sight of the world, is chaste in his 

sight—I mean the harlot, Slavery."

Calls out Douglas and Andrew Butler of 

South Carolina

Preston Brooks (friend/cousin of Butler) 

promptly beat Sumner with a cane

John Brown