Topic 5.1 - Contextualizing

1844 - 1877 The US expanded its territory to the Pacific Ocean and suffered sectionalism over slavery

1861 - Tensions exploded into Civil war, which permanently expanded the power of the federal government.

• New birth of freedom - after four years of fighting and death of many people, slavery ended.

19th century - many advances. Political, demographic, economic, and territorial development changed the country. Right to vote. New Technology and transportation support market revolution. Reforms in education and other areas improved life. Art and literature = American culture.

Growth in Land and Population

1844 - 1877 - The US expanded westward, with many citizens believing it had a destiny to control all land to the Pacific. They added land via negotiations, purchase, and war.

Rapid expansion attracted new immigrants, who left Europe because of famine, poverty, and political issues. Some Americans argued against citizenship for new residence.

Political Conflicts over Slavery

Expansion and sectionalism intensified differences over politics, economics and slavery. Slave owners became insistent on their right to own enslaved people and for the returning of enslaved people who escaped.

Abolitionists became more insistent on ending slavery. Free- soilers argued that the institution should be not allowed into the new territories. Opponents of slavery made an underground railroad to help fugitives escape.

Civil War and Reconstruction

1860 - Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for president.

• Opposed slavery but opposed immediate abolition

• Election frightened slave holders.

  • Feared that his opposition to the expansion of slavery would lead to its eventual end

Eleven states left the Union and a civil war began.

Union victory ended slavery and shifted power to the federal government from the states. Reconstruction, the 12 years after the war was marked by conflict.

• Confrontations between the executive and legislative branches and between the federal and state governments.

• Reshaped how people thought about federalism and the separation of powers among the branches of government.

Racism and Discrimination

The country suffered from tremendous racial conflict. As the freed slaves worked to make new lives, White dominated legislatures passed Black Codes that restricted the basic rights of Black citizens.

• A new labor system called sharecropping emerged that kept Black farmers in conditions like slavery.

• White Americans attempting to keep racial supremacy killed thousands of blacks

Topic 5.2 - The Idea of Manifest Destiny

White European settlers began assuming a right to territorial conquest during the colonial era. John O’Sullivan (a writer) promoted the idea of an across land travel in the 1840s and 1850s.

• Extend westward to the Pacific and southward into Mexico, Cuba, and Central America.

Manifest Destiny was the idea that the US had a divine mission to extend its power and civilization across North America. Driven by nationalism, population increase, rapid economic development, technological advances, and reform ideals.

Conflicts Over Texas, Maine, and Oregon

US had an interest in pushing their borders south into Texas (Mexico’s) and west into the Oregon Territory (claimed by Britain).

Texas

1823 - After winning independence from Spain, Mexico wanted to attract Anglo settlers to farm its northern frontier province of Texas.

Moses Austin, a Missouri Banker, obtained a large land grant in Texas but died before he could recruit American settlers for the land.

Stephen Austin****, Moses’ son, Brought 300 families into Texas and started a migration of settlers into the territory. Began to outnumber Mexicans in Texas.

1829 - Mexico outlawed slavery and required all immigrants to convert to Roman Catholicism. Many refused to obey. Mexico then closed Texas to additional American immigrants. But Americans didn’t obey.

Revolt and Independence

Change in Mexico’s government intensified conflict.

1834 - General Antonio López de Santa Anna became dictator of Mexico and abolished nation’s federalism.

When Santa Anna tried to enforce Mexico’s laws in Texas, Sam Houston led a group of American settlers to revolt, made Texas an independent republic in March 1836, and made slavery legal again.

Alamo - A Mexican army led by Santa Anna captured the town of Golidad and attacked the Alamo (killing all American defenders)

Battle of San Jacinto - An army under Sam Houston caught the Mexicans by surprise and captured their general, Santa Anna

• Forced to sign a treaty that recognized independence for Texas and granted the new republic all territory north of the Rio Grande.

When the news of San Jacinto reached Mexico City, Mexican legislature rejected the treaty and said that Texas was still apart of Mexico.

Revolt and Independence

Houston applied to the US for his country to be annexed.

• Presidents Jackson and Van Buren put off the request for annexation primarily because of political opposition among Northerners to the expansion of slavery

• Texas might be divided into 5 new states, which would mean 10 additional proslavery members of the US Senate.

Threat of war also lowered expansionist excitement.

John Tyler was a Southern Whig who was worried about the growing influence of the British in Texas. Tried to annex Texas, but Senate rejected.

Maine

1840s - Ill-defined boundary between Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

Canada was still under British rule and many Americans regarded Britain as their country’s most significant enemy.

Aroostook War - A conflict between rival groups of lumber workers on the Maine-Canadian border erupted into open fighting. The conflict was soon resolved in a treaty negotiated by US Secretary of State Daniel Webster and the British ambassador, Lord Alexander Ashburton.

Webster- Ashburton Treaty - The disputed territory was split between Maine and British Canada. It also settled the boundary of the Minnesota territory, leaving the Mesabi Range on the US side of the border.

Oregon

Once claimed by 4 different nations (Spain, Russia, Great Britain, and the US)

Britain based its claim to Oregon on the Hudson’s Bay Company’s profitable fur trade with Native Americans on the Pacific Northwest.

US based its claim on

1. The exploration of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Grey in 1792

2. The overland expedition to the Pacific Coast by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805

3. The fur trading post and fort in Astoria, Oregon (made by John Jacob Astor in 1811)

Protestant missionaries and farmers from the US settled in the Willamette Valley and farmed. Caused Americans to catch “Oregon fever.”

Many Americans believed that taking undisputed possession of all of Oregon and annexing Texas was their country’s Manifest Destiny.

Expansionists hoped to persuade Mexico to give up its California

Election of 1844

The possible Texas annexation and the expansion of slavery split the Democratic Party in 1844.

• Northern Whigs who opposed immediate annexation and wanted to nominate former president Martin Van Buren to run again

• Southern Whigs who were pro slavery and pro annexation rallied behind former vice president John C. Calhoun of South Carolina

Van Buren- Calhoun dispute deadlocked the Democratic convention. Democrats ended up nominating a dark horse candidate - James K. Polk

• From Tennessee, protegé of Andrew Jackson.

• Committed to Manifest Destiny.

• Favored the annexation of Texas, acquisition of California and reoccupation of Oregon Territory to 54° 40'

“Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”- A democratic slogan that appealed to American Westerners and Southerners who were in an expansionist mood.

Henry Clay (the Whig nominee) was on the fence over Texas annexation.

Voters in NY were alienated, they abandoned the Whig Party to support the antislavery Liberty Party.

• The Whig’s loss of New York’s electoral votes proved decisive and Polk won.

Annexing Texas and Dividing Oregon

John Tyler took the election of Polk as a signal to push the annexation of Texas through congress.

• Instead of looking Senate approval of a treaty that would have required a 2/3 vote, Tyler persuaded both houses of Congress to pass a joint resolution for annexation.

  • Only required a simple majority of each house.

Tyler left Polk with the problem of dealing with Mexico’s reaction to annexation

Polk decided to back down from his party’s slogan 54° 40' or Fight - he didn’t want to go to war over Oregon.

• He signed an agreement with the British to divide the Oregon territory at the 49th parallel

• Final settlement of the issue was delayed until the US agreed to grant Vancouver Island and the right to navigate the Columbia River to Britain

1846 - Treaty was submitted to the Senate for ratification. Some Northerners viewed the treaty as a bribe to Southern interests because it removed British Columbia as a source of potential free states.

• Mexican American war already broke out, and the US didn’t want to fight 2 wars. Senate opponents of the treaty voted for the compromise.

Settlement of the Western Territories

Following the peaceful acquisition of Oregon and violent acquisition of California, the migration of Americans into these lands increased. The arid region between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast was known as the Great American Desert. Emigrants passed through quickly to get to the west.

Fur Traders’ Frontier

Fur traders were the earliest nonnative to open the far west. In the 1820s, they held yearly meetings in the Rockies with American Indians to trade for animal skins.

• James Beckwourth, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith were explorers and trappers who provided early information about trails and frontier conditions to later settlers

Overland Trails

Much larger group of pioneers who made the journey west in hopes of clearing the forests and farming the fertile valleys of California and Oregon.

1860 - hundreds of thousands reached their westward goal by following the Oregon, California, Santa Fe, and Mormon trails.

A wagon train needed months to reach the foothills of the Rockies or face the hardships of the southwestern deserts.

Pioneers feared attacks by American Indians, but also disease and depression on the trails.

Mining Frontier

Discovery of gold in California in 1848 set off migrations to mineral mountains of the West.

Gold or silver rushes occured in Colorado, Nevada, the Black Hills of the Dakotas, and other western territories.

Brought many people into the western mountains, including immigrants from China.

Farming Frontier

Most pioneer families moved west to start homesteads and begin farming.

Congress Preemption Actos of the 1830s and 1840s gave squatters the right to settle public lands and purchase them for low prices.

Government made it easier for settlers by offering parcels of land as small as 40 acres for sale.

Moving west was expensive, so many poor people didn’t move.

Isolation of the frontier made life for pioneers difficult during the first years, but rural communities soon developed. Institutions (schools and churches) were modeled after those in the east.

Urban Frontier

Western cities that arose as a result of railroads, minerals, and farming attracted many people and businessmen.

• San Francisco and Denver arose because of gold and silver rushes.

• Salt Lake City grew because it offered fresh supplies to travelers on trails.

Foreign Commerce

Growth in manufactured goods and agricultural products caused a large growth of exports and imports.

1. Shipping firms encouraged trade and travel across the Atlantic by making a schedule instead of waiting for a ship to fill.

2. Demand for whale oil to light homes caused a whaling boom among New England merchants.

3. Improvements in ship design came to speed gold seekers on their journey to the California gold fields.

4. Steamships had a greater storage capacity, were cheaper, and followed schedules better

5. US expanded trade to Asia. New England merchants conducted profitable trade with China for tea, silk, and porcelain.

   1. Government sent Matthew C. Perry and a fleet of naval ships to Japan (which had been closed for two centuries)

   2. Perry pressured Japan’s government to sign the Kanagawa Treaty, which allowed US vessels to enter two Japanese ports to take on coal.

Settlement of the Western Territories

Settlement of the Western Territories

Expansion after the Civil War

1855 - 1870 - issues of union, slavery, civil war, and postwar reconstruction would overshadow the desire for more land.

The Manifest Destiny continued to be an important force for shaping US policy.

• 1867 - Secretary of State William Seward succeeded in purchasing Alaska when the nation was just recovering from Civil war.

Topic 5.3 - Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War

The US annexation of Texas quickly led to diplomatic trouble with Mexico. Mexicans’ anger over the annexation and Polk’s desire to expand brought them to war

Conflict with Mexico

Polk dispatched John Slidell as his special envoy to the government in Mexico city. Polk wanted him to…

1. Persuade Mexico to sell the California and New Mexico territories to the US

2. Settle the disputed Mexico-Texas border

Mission failed. Mexican government refused to sell California and insisted that Texas’ southern border was on the Nueces River. Polk and Slidell asserted that the border lay farther to the south, along the Rio Grande.

Immediate Causes of the War

As Slidell waited for Mexico’s response to the US offer, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to move his army toward the Rio Grande, into Mexican territory.

1846 - Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande and captured an American army patrol, killing 11.

Polk used the incident to justify sending his prepared war message to congress.

• Northern Whigs opposed going to war over the incident and doubted Polk’s claim that American blood was shed on American soil.

• Protests didn’t work, a large majority in both houses approved the war

Military Campaigns

Most of the war was fought in Mexican territory by small armies.

General Kearney succeeded in taking the New Mexico territory and southern California with a small force.

John C. Frémont led only a few soldiers, officers, and American civilians who settled in California and overthrew Mexican rule in the region in June 1846. Proclaimed California to be an independent republic.

California became known as the Bear Flag Republic

Zachary Taylor's force drove the Mexican army from Texas, crossed the Rio Grande into northern Mexico, and won a major victory at Buena Vista

Winfield Scott invaded central Mexico. The army of 14,000 under Scott's command succeeded in taking the coastal city of Veracruz and Mexico City

Consequences of the War

War was a military disaster from the start for Mexico, but the Mexican government was unwilling to sue for peace and concede the loss of its northern lands. But had to agree once Mexico City fell.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Negotiated by diplomat Nicholas Trist with Mexico

• Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas.

• Mexican Cession - The US took control of California and New Mexico. The US paid 15 million and assumed responsibility for any claims of American citizens against Mexico

Some Whigs opposed the treaty because they saw it as an immoral effort to expand slavery.

A few southern Democrats disliked the treaty because they wanted the US to take all of Mexico. Since this land is south of the line established in the Missouri Compromise dividing Slave and Free territory, it was a region where slavery could expand into.

Wilmot Proviso

Issue of slavery made the US entry into a war with Mexico controversial.

1846 - Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot proposed that an appropriations bill be amended to forbid slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.

Bill proposed after the Mexican War that stated that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any territory gained from Mexico

-Quizlet

• Appealed to many voters and lawmakers who wanted to preserve the land for White settlers and protect them from having to compete with enslaved labor.

Passed in the house, where the north had more power, but defeated in the senate, since the south had more power

Prelude to civil war?

By increasing tensions between the North and the South, the acquisition of vast western lands did renew the sectional debate over the extension of slavery.

• Northerners viewed the war as part of as southern plot to extend "slave power"

• Southerners realized they could not count on Northerners to accept the Expansion of slavery.

Topic 5.4 - The Compromise of 1850

Manifest Destiny and expansion intensified debate about the spread of slavery.

Abolitionists and White people eager to settle west didn’t want competition of slave labor opposed expansion.

Slaveowners and people who felt they benefited from slavery wanted the continued growth of slavery.

Southern Expansion

Southerners resented the Missouri Compromise because it barred slavery from the Louisiana Purchase lands. Also dissatisfied with the territorial gains from the Mexican War because they were not large enough. Eager to find new land for cultivation using enslaved labor.

Manifest Destiny to the South

1850s - many slaveowners wanted new land, especially in Latin America, where they thought plantations worked by enslaved people were economically great. Cuba was sought out for.

Ostend Manifesto

Polk offered to purchase Cuba from Spain for $100 million, but Spain refused to sell their last remnant of their empire in the Americas. Several southern people led small expeditions to Cuba to take the island. Easily defeated and were executed.

Franklin Pierce adopted pro-Southern policies and dispatched three American diplomats to Ostend, Belgium to secretly negotiate with Spain.

Called the Ostend Manifesto, and was leaked to the press - Antislavery members of congress forced him to stop.

Expansionists wanted new empires no matter what.

William Walker tried to take Baja California (a long peninsula stretching south of San Diego from Mexico. Seized power in Nicaragua in 1855. His regime gained recognition by the US in 1856.

His scheme to make a proslavery Central American empire; collapsed when a coalition of Central American empire invaded and defeated him.

Another ambition was to make a canal through Central America. It would create a shortcut to allow ships to travel faster. Great Britain also had the same desire. Agreed to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. Neither nation would attempt to take complete control of any future canal route in Central America.

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty gave the US a free hand to build a canal without British participation.

Gadsden Purchase

Pierce succeeded in getting a small strip of land from Mexico in 1850 for $10 million. Was a great region for the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Conflict Over Status of Territories

Issue of slavery in the territories gained in the Mexican War became the focus of sectional differences in the late 1840s. Wilmot Proviso would have broken balance of slavery in new territories. Defeat of it only increased sectional feelings.

Three Conflicting Positions on Slavery Expansion

Free soil Movement

Northern Democrats and Whigs supported the Wilmot Proviso and the position that all African Americans should be excluded from the Mexican Cession. Abolitionists advocated for eliminating slavery everywhere. Many northerners who opposed westward expansion of slavery did not oppose slavery in the south. Wanted the west to be a white opportunity for everyone.

“Free soil, free labor, and free men.”

Also advocated for free homesteads and internal improvements.

Southern Positions

Southern plantation owners viewed attempts to restrict the expansion of slavery as violations of their constitutional right to take their property wherever they wished.

Others were more moderate - agree to extend the Missouri Compromise line westward to the Pacific Ocean and permit territories north of that to be free of slavery.

Popular Sovereignty

Lewis Cass Proposed a compromise solution that soon won considerable support from moderates across the country. He argued that the slavery matter should be determined by a vote of the people who settled a territory.

The Election of 1848

Expansion of slavery into the territories was a vital issue in the presidential race of 1848.

• Democrats nominated Senator Cass and adopted a platform pledged to popular sovereignty

• Whigs nominated Mexican War hero General Zachary Taylor, who had never been involved in politics and took no position on slavery

• Free soil party nominated Martin Van Buren.

  • Party consisted of Conscience Whigs and antislavery Democrats. Barnburners because their defection threatened to destroy the Democratic party.

Taylor defeated Cass since the vote was given to the Free-Soil Party in key Northern states.

Compromises to Preserve the Union

Gold Rush of 1849 and influx of many settlers into California made the need for law and order in the West.

California’s constitution banned slavery.

President Taylor supported the admission of California and New Mexico as free states.

Taylor’s plan sparked talk of secession among the radicals (“fire-eaters”) in the South. Some Southern extremists even met in Nashville in 1850 to discuss secession.

Kentucky senator Henry Clay proposed another compromise to solve the issue.

1. Admit California to the Union as a free state

2. Divide remainder of Mexican Cession into two new territories (Utah and Mexico) and allow the settlers to vote on slavery

3. Give the land in dispute between Texas and the New Mexico territory to the new territories in return for the federal government assuming Texas’s public debt of $10 million

4. Ban the slave trade in the District of Columbia but permit Whites to own enslaved people there as before.

5. Adopt a new Fugitive Slave law and enforce it rigorously.

Senate debate over the compromise proposal. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C Calhoun delivered their last great speeches.

• Webster argued for compromise to save the Union (alienated the Massachusetts abolitionists who formed the base of his support)

• Calhoun argued against the compromise and insisted that the South be given equal rights in the acquired territory.

Northern opposition to compromise came from younger antislavery lawmakers (like William H. Seward of NY who argued that a higher law than the Constitution existed.

Opponents managed to prevail until death of President Taylor (who opposed Clay’s plan)

Millard Fillmore signed the bills into law.

Passage

Compromise of 1850 bought time for the Union. Cali = free state, added to the North’s political power. The debate deepened the commitment of many Northerners to saving the Union from secession. Parts of it became sources of controversy, especially the Fugitive Slave law.

Topic 5.5 - Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences

Immigration (particularly by Roman Catholics) and how to promote and respond to industrial growth were among the largest issues that divided people politically. Slavery was the dominant issue overall.

Immigration Controversy

As immigration increased, opposition arose. Some americans disliked the ethnicity or religious faiths of the immigrants and the idea that they could take their jobs.

Irish

• 2 million

• Mostly tenant farmers driven from home land due to crop failures and famine in the 1840s

• Came with limited interest in farming, few skills, and little money

• Faced discrimination because of their Roman Catholicreligion.

• Worked hard and competed with African Americans for domestic work and low skill jobs.

• Strong communities developed in Northern cities.

• Most Irish spoke English well and understood electoral politics.

• Joined the Democratic Party - anti-British and pro-worker

• They were initially excluded from NYC’s democratic organization Tammany Hall, but in the 1850s they secured jobs and eventually took control in the 1880s.

Germans

• Economic hardships and failure of democratic revolutions caused more than 1 million to flee to the US.

• Farmers and artisans who moved westward in search of cheap farmland

• Supported public education and opposed slavery

• Close communities

Nativist opposition to immigration

• Many Americans were alarmed by large amounts of immigrants

  • Feared that they would take their jobs and dilute the culture of the Anglo majority

• Most Americans were Protestants while the immigrants were Roman Catholics.

• Hostility towards these immigrants (nativism) led to rioting in big cities

• Formed the Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner which evolved into the American Party, commonly known as the Know Nothing Party.

  • Supported the idea of increasing the time required for immigrants to get citizenship from five years to twenty one years and only allowing native born americans to hold public office.

• As the Whigs disintegrated, the Know Nothing Party gained strength in New England and Mid Atlantic.

• Eventually faded as slavery tensions increased

The Expanding Economy

Industrial Technology

Before 1840, factory production was concentrated in textile mills of New England, but after 1840, it spread to other states of the Northeast.

• Sewing machine (Elias Howe) took much of the production of clothing out of homes and into factories.

• Electric telegraph (Samuel F. B. Morse) went hand in hand with the growth of railroads in speeding up communication.

Railroads

Canal building was replaced with rail lines. Emerged as the largest industry.

• Required large amounts of capital and labor and created business organizations

• Local merchants and farmers would often buy stocks in the new companies to connect their area to the outside world.

• Promoted western agriculture and united commercial interests of Northeast and Midwest

Panic of 1857

Caused a sharp decrease in prices for midwestern agricultural products and a sharp increase in unemployment in Northern cities.

• Cotton prices remained high and the south was less affected

• Some southerners believed that their plantation economy was superior and that continued union with the Northern economy wasn’t needed

Agitation Over Slavery

Political tensions relaxed between the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act and the publication of a best-selling antislavery novel kept slavery issue before the public.

Fugitive Slave Law

Passage of a strict Fugitive Slave Law In 1850 persuaded many Southerners to accept that California would be a free state. Many Northerners resented the law.

Enforcement

• Purpose was to help owners track down runaway enslaved people who had escaped to a Northern state and return them

• Removed fugitive slave cases from courts and made them under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

Opposition

• Anyone who tried to hide a runaway was subject to heavy penalties.

• Black and White activists in the North resisted the law.

Underground Railroad

• Was a loose network of activists who helped enslaved people escape to freedom in the North or Canada.

• Most operators were free African Americans and people who escaped slavery with the assistance of white abolitionists

• Harriet Tubman was a woman who had escaped slavery and aided others in their escaping

• Free black citizens in the North and abolitionists also organized vigilance committees to protect fugitive slaves from the slave catchers.

Books on Slavery - Pro and Con

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Most influential book

• Conflict between an enslaved man (Tom) and the brutal White slave owner, Simon Legree.

• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowemoved a generation of Northerners and many Europeans to regard all slave owners as cruel and inhuman

• Southerners saw it as the North’s incurable prejudice against the Southern way of life

Aunt Phillis’s Cabin

• Written by Mary Eastment

• Portrayed a world of kind slave owners and happily enslaved people Impending Crisis of the South

• Written by Hinton R. Helper

• Attacked slavery by using statistics to show southerners that slavery weakened the south’s economy

Southern Reaction

• Responding to the Northern literature, they counterattacked, said that slavery was good for the master and the enslaved.

• Said it was sanctioned by the Bible and grounded in philosophy and history and the Constitution

• Said that wage workers’ conditions were worse

• George Fitzhugh questioned the principle of equal rights for the “unequal men”

Topic 5.6 - Failure of Compromise

By 1861, politicians attempted many compromises to prevent war. Historians agree on the sequence of major events from 1848 to 1861 that led to the outbreak of the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy.

What divided the south?

1. Attitudes about the morality of slavery

2. Views about the constitutional rights of states

3. Differences over economic policies between the free-labor industrial north and slave-labor agricultural South

Some historians argue that solving these issues was possible but blundering politicians and extremism resulted in an unnecessary war.

National Parties in Crisis

The potency of the slavery controversy increased political instability. Democrats and Whigs grew weak and divided over how to resolve the sectional differences over slavery.

The Election of 1852

Signs of trouble for the Whig Party appeared in the 1852 election for president. They nominated General Winfield Scott.

• Concentrated on improving roads and harbors. Realised that sectional issues couldn’t be held in check.

• The antislavery and Southern factions of the party fell to fighting and the party was on the verge of splitting

Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce

• Acceptable to the southern Democrats because he supported the Fugitive Slave law.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Democrats found that they couldn’t ignore the issue of slavery. Stephen A. Douglas proposed building a transcontinental railroad through the center of the country to promote Western settlement and increase the value of his own real estate in Chicago.

• Introduced a bill to divide Nebraska Territory into two parts and would allow settlers in each territory to decide whether to allow slavery.

• Gave Southerners an opportunity to expand slavery into lands that had been closed to it by the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

• Passed into law

Extremists and Violence

The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise that had lessened regional tensions for more than three decades.

Bleeding Kansas

Stephen Douglas expected the slavery issue in the territory to be settled peacefully by the antislavery farmers from the Midwest who migrated to Kansas and constituted a majority.

Slave holders from Missouri also made homesteads in Kansas to win control for the south.

New England Emigrant Aid Company- Paid for the transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas.

Fighting eventually broke out between the two groups.

“Border ruffians” crossed the border to create a proslavery legislature in Lecompton, Kansas.

Antislavery settlers refused to recognize this government and created their own legislature in Topeka.

1856 - proslavery forces attacked the free soil town of Lawrence, killing two and destroying homes and businesses.

John Brown (an abolitionist) retaliated and attacked a proslavery farm settlement at Pottawatomie Creek.

Pierce administration did nothing to keep order in the Kansas territory and failed to support honest elections there.

Democratic party became more divided between the north and the south.

Caning of Senator Sumner

Violence in Kansas → Halls of the US Congress

1856 → Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner attacked the Democratic administration in a speech.

• Included personal charges against South Carolina senator Andrew Butler

• Butler’s nephew defended his uncle by walking into the senate and beating Sumner over the head with a cane.

Action by Brooks outraged the North and the House voted to censure him while Southerners applauded the deed.

Birth of the Republican Party

Tensions over slavery divided North and South Democrats and broke the Whig Party.

• Those who didn’t like immigration joined the Know Nothing Party; who won a few local and state elections in the mid 1850s.

  • Eventually disappeared as slavery became the prominent issue

• Those who supported the expansion of slavery joined the Democratic Party. South became the core of the party.

• Those who opposed slavery expansion formed the Republican Party as a result of the passage of the Kansas Nebraska act.

  • Free-Soilers and antislavery Whigs and democrats.

  • Purpose = oppose the spread of slavery in the territories, not to end slavery itself.

  • Called for the repeal of the Kansas Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law.

    • Lots of people began to join the Republican Party

  • Strictly northern.

The Election of 1856

Republican’s nominee → John C Frémont

• No expansion of slavery, free homesteads, and a probusiness protective tariff.

Know Nothings nominee → Former President Millard Fillmore

Democrats nominee → James Buchanan

• Rejected Pierce and Stephen Douglas because they identified with the Kansas Nebraska act

• Won the majority of both votes.

Constitutional Issues

Both Democrats’ position of popular sovereignty and Republicans’ stand against expansion of slavery received blows during the Buchanan Administration

Lecompton Constitution

Accept or reject a proslavery state constitution for Kansas?

• Did not have majority support

• Asked Congress to accept the document and admit Kansas as a slave state

  • Congress did not do so because many Democrats joined with the Republicans in rejecting the constitution.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Proslavery decision in the case of an enslaved man named Dred Scott.

• Was held in slavery in Missouri, then taken to free Wisconsin, where he lived for two years before returning to Missouri.

Sued for his freedom in Missouri in 1846.

Chief Justice Roger Taney (a southern democrat) ruled

• Scott had no right to sue in a federal court because the Framers of the Constitution did not intend African Americans to be US citizens.

• Congress did not have power to deprive any person of property without process of law.

• Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded slavery from Wisconsin and other Northern Territories

Delighted Southern Democrats and angered Northern Republicans.

• Declared all parts of the Western territories open to slavery.

Increased Northern suspicions of conspiracy (that it was planned to settle the slavery issue) and made thousands of Democrats to vote Republican.

• Northern democrats such as Senator Douglas were left with supporting popular sovereignty without rejecting the Dred Scott decision.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Stephen Douglas was campaigning for reelection as senator from Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was challenging him as the Republican candidate.

• He was unknown compared to Douglas.

  • Douglas was the hope of popular sovereignty and the best hope for holding the nation together.

Lincoln was not an abolitionist

• Moderate who was against the expansion of slavery, saw it as a moral issue.

House divided Speech won him fame

• Government cannot last permanently half slave and half free.

Lincoln attacked Douglas as being indifferent to slavery as a moral issue.

Lincoln challenge Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision

• Freeport doctrine - Douglas responded that slavery could not exist in a community if the local citizens did not pass laws maintaining it.

  • Angered Southern Democrats because he did not go far enough to support the implications of the Dred Scott decision

Douglas ended up winning. Lost ground in his own party by alienating Southern Democrats; Lincoln emerged as a national figure and a leading contender for the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

Topic 5.7 - Election of 1860 and Secession

In Northern states outside of Illinois, the Republicans did well in the congressional elections of 1858.

• Alarmed Southerners.

  • Worried about the antislavery plan and the party’s economic program, which favored Northern industrialists at the expense of the South.

    • Higher tariffs would help Northern business but hurt the south.

Events leading up to Lincoln’s election and the secession of eleven Southern states from the Union set the stage for war.

The Road to Secession

South fear grew that a Republican victory in 1860 would spell disaster for their economy and threaten their “constitutional right,” as affirmed by the court to own people as property.

John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry

John Brownconfirmed the South’s fears of radical abolitionism when he tried to start an uprising of enslaved people in Virginia.He led a small band of followers to attack the federal arsenal at Harpers FerryHis plan was to use guns from the arsenal to arm Virginia’s enslaved African AmericansRobert E. Lee captured Brown and his band after a two-day siege.They were tried for treason and convicted and hung.His raid divided Northerners.Moderates condemned his use of violence and saw the raid and Northern support as final proof of the North’s intentions to use revolts to destroy the south.Abolitionists hailed him as a martyrThe Election of 1860

*After Brown’s raid, more and more Americans feared that their country was moving to disintegration.Breakup of the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party represented the last hope for compromiseHeld their national convention in South CarolinaDouglas was the party’s leading candidate and the most capable of winning the presidency.Angry southerners and supporters of President Buchanan blocked his nominationThe Democrats held a second convention in MarylandMany delegates from the slave states walked out, enabling the remaining delegates to nominate Douglas on a platform of popular sovereignty and enforcement of the Fugitive slave law.Southern Democrats then held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated John C Breckinridge as their candidate.Called for the unrestricted extension of slavery in the territories and annexation of CubaRepublican Nomination of LincolnWhen Republicans met in Chicago, they enjoyed hopes of an easy win over the divided Democrats.Drafted a platform that appealed to the economic self-interest of Northerners and Westerners.Called for the exclusion of slavery from the territories, a protective tariff of industry, free land for homesteaders, and internal improvements to encourage Western settlementTo win moderates on slavery, they rejected the well known New York Senator William Seward, a strong opponent of slavery.Turned to little known Lincoln.Believed that he could carry the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.Radicals warned that if the country elected Lincoln, their states would leave the unionA Fourth Political PartyFearing a Republican victory, a group of former Whigs, Know Nothings, and moderate Democrats formed a new party,The Constitutional Union PartyNominatedJohn Bell and pledged enforcement of laws and the Constitution and preservation of the UnionElection ResultsLincoln carried every free state of the North (59% electoral votes)Breckinridge carried the southLincoln only won 39.8% of the popular vote, so he was a minority presidentPopulous free states had enough electoral votes to elect a president without any electoral votes from the south.Secession of the Deep South

Republicans didn’t control the Senate nor the Supreme Court.Election of Lincoln was all that Southern secessionists needed to call for immediate disunion.December 1860 → a special convention in South Carolina voted unanimously to secede, saying that they needed to protect slavery.February 1861 → representatives of the seven states of the Deep South met in Montgomery, Alabama, and created the Confederate States of AmericaConstitution was like the US Constitution, except that the confederacy placed limits on the government’s power to impose tariffs and restrict slavery.Crittenden CompromiseA lame duck president (a leader completing a term after someone else has been elected to his or her office)Buchanan had 5 months before Lincoln succeeded himWas a conservative who did nothing to prevent the secession.Congress was more activeSenator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to hold slaves in all territories south of the old Missouri Compromise lineLincoln said that he could not accept this compromise because it violated the Republican position against extension of slavery into the territoriesSouthern Whites who voted for secession believed they were acting in the tradition of the Revolution of 1776.Argued that they had a right to national independence and to dissolve a constitutional compact that no longer protected them from Northern rule.Many also though that Lincoln, like Buchanan, might permit secession without a fight.A Nation Divided

When Lincoln took office as the president in March 1861, people wondered if he would challenge the secession militarily. Lincoln assured Southerners that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed.He also warned that no state had the right to break up the Union.Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter was a federally owned fort in the Confederate states.It was cut off by Southern control of the harbor.Rather than giving up Fort Sumter or attempting to defend it, Lincoln announced that he was sending provisions of food to the small federal garrison.Gave South Carolina the choice of either permitting the fort to hold out or open fireCarolina’s guns thundered and the war beganSecession of the Upper South

Before SC attacked Fort Sumter, only seven states seceded.After Lincoln would use troops to defend the Union, four states of the upper south seceded and joined the Confederacy.They then moved their capital to Richmond, VirginiaPeople of western Virginia remained loyal and became a separate stateKeeping the Border States in the Union

Four slave holding states remained in the UnionAs a result of pro-Union sentiment in those states and partly the result of shrewd federal policies.In Maryland, pro secessionists attacked Union troops and threatened the railroad to Washington.Topic 5.8 - Military Conflict in the Civil War

Civil War was costliest American war in terms of loss of human life. It also freed 4 million enslaved African Americans, giving the US a new birth of freedom.War transformed American society by accelerating industrialization and modernization of the North.War

Union and Confederacy had strengths and weaknessesMilitary Differences

The Confederacy started with the advantage of having to only fight a defensive war while the Union had to conquer a large area.The Confederacy had to move troops and supplies shorter distances than the Union. It had a long coastline that was difficult to blockade, experienced military leaders, and high troop morale.The Union’s population of 22 million against the Confederate’s 5.5 million free Whites would work to its favor in a war of attrition.Economic Differences

The Union dominated the nation’s economy. Skills of Northern clerks and bookkeepers proved valuable in the logistical support of military operations.Confederates hoped that European demand for its cotton would bring recognition and financial aid.Political Differences

Confederates were struggling for independence.Union was fighting to preserve the Union.States rights proved a liability for the Confederate governmentTo win the war, they needed a strong central government with public support.Union had it, not confederates.The Confederate States of America

Their constitution was modeled after the US constitution, but denied the powers to levy a protective tariff and to appropriate funds for internal improvements.Prohibited foreign slave tradePresidentJefferson Davistried to increase his executive powers during the war, but Southern governors resisted his attempts.Vice PresidentAlexander H. Stephens even urged the secession of Georgia in response to “despotic” actions of the Confederate government.Confederacy was chronically short of money. Tried loans, income taxes, and impressment of private property.Government issued more than $1 billion in paper money, causing severe inflation. Confederate congress nationalized railroads to promote industrial growth, but it was not enough. First Years of a Long War: 1861 - 1862

People first expected the war to last no more lan weeks.Union Strategy

General - in - ChiefWinfield Scott, a veteran of the 1812 and Mexican wars, created a planUse the US Navy to blockade Southern ports (Anaconda Plan), cutting off supplies from reaching the Confederacy Take control of the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy in twoRaise and train an army of 500,000 strong to conquer Richmond.First two parts of the strategy proved to be easier to achieve, but all effectively worked. After the Union’s defeat atBull Run, federal armies experienced a succession of crushing defeats as they attempted various campaigns in Virginia. First Battle of Bull Run

In the first major battle of the war, 30,000 federal troops marched from Washington DC to attack Confederate forces near Bull Run Creek at Manassas Junction, Virginia.Confederate reinforcements under General Thomas (Stonewall)Jackson counterattacked and sent the inexperienced Union troops back to Washington.Ended the illusion of a short war.Peninsula Campaign

GeneralGeorge B. McClellan, the new commander of the Union army in the East, insisted that his troops be given a long period of rest before going into battle. McClellan’s army invaded Virginia in 1862. Were stopped byRobert E. Lee, the commander of the South’s eastern forces. Forced to retreat, replaced with General John Pope Second Battle of Bull Run

Lee struck quickly against Pope’s army in Northern Virginia.Drew Pope into a trap, struck the enemy’s flank, and sent the Union army back to Bull Run.Withdrew to defend WashingtonAntietam

Lee led his army across the Potomac into Maryland. He hoped a Confederate victory in a Union state would convince Britain to give recognition and support to the Confederacy.Lincoln restored McClellan to command.Had the advantage of knowing Lee’s planIntercepted the Confederates at Antietam Creek in SharpsburgLee retreated to Virginia and Lincoln removed McClellan from Union Commander.Antietam was among the most significant battles of the war. Because the confederates did not win, they failed to get attention from Great Britain and France.Fredericksburg

A Union army under Burnside attacked Lee’s army at Fredericksburg and the Confederates suffered immense losses.Monitor vs. Merrimac

Union’s hopes for winning the war depended on ability to maximize its economic advantages by an effective blockade of Confederate Ports.The Union’s blockade strategy was jeopardized by an unusual confederate ship the MerrimacAttacked and sank several Union shipsUnion’s Monitor engaged the Merrimac and it ended in a drawGrant in the West

Union’s campaign for control of the Mississippi River was partly under the command of Ulysses S. Grantwho joined up for the war after an unsuccessful civilian career. Grant used a combination of gunboats and army maneuvers to capture Fort Henry and army maneuvers to capture forts. Foreign Affairs and Diplomacy

Confederacy hopes for independence and expectation that cotton would prove to be king and induce Britain or France to give aid to their war effort.Trent Affair

Britain came close to siding with the Confederacy in late 1861 over an incident at sea. Confederate diplomats were traveling to England on a British steamer to gain recognition. A union warship stopped them and brought them to the US as POWs.Britain threatened them of war unless the diplomats were released.Confederate Raiders

British did allow the Confederates to purchase waships from Britain.Failure of Cotton Diplomacy

Confederacy’s hopes for European intervention were disappointed. King Cotton did not have the power to win over Europe. They found cotton from other sources.General Lee’s setback at AntietamWithout a Confederate victory, British government would not risk recognition.Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made the end of slavery an objective of the Union, which appealed to Britain’s working class.While conservative leaders of britain were sympathetic to the Confederacy, they could not defy the pro-Northern, antislavery feelings.The Union Triumphs (1863 - 1865)

Decisive turning point in the war came in the first week of July when the Confederacy suffered two crushing defeats in the West and the EastVicksburg

Union forces controlled New Orleans and Mississippi River. Union artillery bombarded Vicksburg until the Confederates surrendered the city.Gettysburg