Chapter 19 - Drifting Towards Disunion

Stowe and Helper:  Literary Incendiaries

• ==Harriet Beecher Stowe== ==published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 as an attempt to show North the horrors of slavery==
  • Helped start the Civil War
• Hinton R. Helper wrote the Impending Crisis of the South in 1857
• Helper hated blacks and slavery and he attempted to use statistics to prove that the non-slaveholding whites were the ones who suffered the most from slavery

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The North-South Contest for Kansas

• Most people that came to Kansas were just westward moving pioneers
• ==New England Emigrant Aid Company== ==was a group of abolitionists that paid people to move to Kansas to make it a free state==
• Abolitionists set up their own government in Topeka, giving Kansas territory two governments
• ==Civil War in Kansas== ==(1856) started when a group of pro-slavery riders burned down part of the abolitionist town of Lawrence==

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Kansas in Convulsion

• ==John Brown== ==was a fanatical abolitionist who hacked 5 presumed pro-slavery men to death at Pottawatomie Creek as a response to the pro-slavery events in Lawrence==
• ==Civil War== ==started up in Kansas in 1856 until it merged with the nation’s Civil War from 1861 to 1865==
• In 1867 Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood with Kansas ended up remaining a territory until 1861, when the southern states seceded from the Union

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"Bully" Brooks and His Bludgeon

• ==Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts== ==gave a provoking speech that condemned pro-slavery men==

  • He personally insulted Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina during this speech

• Two days after Butler was insulted, Butler’s nephew beat Sumner to unconsciousness with a cane

• Sumner’s speech was applauded in the North, and angered people in the South

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"Old Buck" Versus "The Pathfinder"

• Democrats met in Cincinnati and chose James Buchanan as their candidate for presidency in the election of 1856 due to him not being involved with the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act
• The Democratic platform campaigned for popular sovereignty
  • Republicans chose Captain John C. Fremont due to him also not being influenced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • The Republican platform campaigned against extension of slavery
• ==American Party== ==(Know-Nothing Party) was formed by Protestants who were alarmed by increasing number of immigrants from Ireland and Germany==
  • The American Party chose Millard Fillmore as their candidate

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The Electoral Fruits of 1856

• ==James Buchanan== ==won the election of 1856==
• It was good that Republican party didn’t win the election because some southerners said if Republicans won the election, they would secede

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The Dred Scott Bombshell

• Dred Scott was a slave that had lived with his master in Illionois and the Wisconsin Territory for 5 years
  • Scott sued for his freedom on the basis of his long term residence on free soil
• Supreme Court ruled that Scott couldn’t sue in Federal courts and also ruled that he could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery
• ==Fifth Amendment== ==forbade Congress from depriving people of their property without the due process of law==
• Court stated that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional and Congress didn’t have power to ban slavery from the territories, no matter what the territorial legislatures wanted

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The Financial Crash of 1857

• Panic of 1857 was caused by overspeculation in the West and currency inflation due to the inrush of Californian gold

• North was hit hard while South continued to thrive

  • Northerners came up with the idea of the government giving 160 acre plots of farming land to pioneers for free with this idea being opposed by Eastern industrialists

• Tariff of 1857 lowered import taxes to about 20% with the North blaming it for causing the panic

  • The Tariff of 1857 gave Republicans two economic issues for the election of 1860

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An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges

• Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln to run against Stephen Douglas (Democrat) in election of 1858
• ==Lincoln== ==served in the Illinois legislature as a Whig politician and served one term in Congress==

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The Great Debate:  Lincoln versus Douglas

• Lincoln challenge Douglas to a series of 7 debates with the most famous debate being in Freeport, Illinois
• Douglas won the senatorial election but Lincoln won the popular vote

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John Brown:  Murderer or Martyr?

• ==Abolitionist John Brown== ==developed a plan to secretly invade the South, call upon slaves to rise, give them weapons, and establish a black free state==
  • Brown seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry but was caught and sent to death by hanging because many of his supporters failed to show up
  • Brown lived on as a martyr to the abolitionist cause

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The Disruption of the Democrats

• Democrats choose Douglas as their candidate

• Southern Democrats met in Baltimore and chose John C. Breckenridge as their presidential candidate

• Democratic platform favored extension of slavery into the territories and the annexation of slave-populated Cuba

• ==Constitutional Union Party== ==was formed by former Whigs and Know-Nothings==

  • The Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell as their candidate

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A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union

• Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate
• The Republican platform appealed to almost every part of the nation
• Southerners said that if Lincoln was elected as the President, the Union would split, meaning that they would secede

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The Electoral Upheaval of 1860

• Lincoln won the election of 1860, but didn’t win the popular vote

• 60% of the nation voted for another candidate

  • 10 southern states didn’t even allow Lincoln to be on the ballot
  • South Carolina was happy with the outcome of the election as it now had a reason to secede

• Even though the Republicans won the presidential election, they weren’t in control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, or the Supreme Court

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The Secessionist Exodus

• South Carolina’s legislature met in Charleston and voted unanimously to secede in December of 1860

  • 6 other states joined South Carolina: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas
  • 7 seceding states met in Alabama in February of 1861 and created the government of the Confederate States of America and chose Jefferson Davis as president

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The Collapse of Compromise

• Crittenden Amendments were designed to appease the South with them prohibiting slavery in territories north of the 360 30’ line but permitted slavery in the territories south of the line
  • Future states north and south of the 360 30’ line would get to vote on thh issue of slavery
  • Lincoln rejected the Crittenden Amendments

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Farewell to the Union

• Southern states seceded, fearing that the Republican party would threaten their right to own slaves
  • Many southerners felt that their secession wouldn’t be opposed by the North
• Southern states assumed that the northern manufacturers and bankers, which were dependent on southern cotton and markets, wouldn’t cut off the South

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