Exhaustive Study Notes on the Dred Scott Decision, Election of 1860, Secession, and the Outbreak of the Civil War

Constitutional Interpretation, the Fifth Amendment, and the Dred Scott Decision

• Fifth Amendment and Property Rights:

  • The Fifth Amendment protects private property, which is intrinsically linked to capitalism and personal liberty.
  • Government protection of property is essential to protecting liberty.
  • Due Process of Law: Guarantees that the government cannot arbitrarily seize land or property. It provides citizens the right to legal counsel, a day in court, and the opportunity to present a defense against government action.

• Supreme Court Ruling on Slavery in the West:

  • The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had no constitutional right to ban slavery in the Western territories.
  • The Court declared that prohibiting slavery deprived slaveholders of their property without due process of law.
  • This ruling officially opened all Western territories to the expansion of slavery.

• Reactions to the Ruling:

  • Northern Reaction: Public opinion in the North was furious, viewing the decision as a disaster and a complete misreading of the Constitution.
  • Southern Reaction: Southern Democrats and plantation owners strongly approved of the decision, claiming it validated their long-held stance that free states and the federal government had no right to regulate slavery.

• Logical Extension and Broader Impact:

  • If slavery is protected by the Fifth Amendment and the federal government cannot restrict it, state and local governments (such as Illinois) logically lack authority to ban slavery within their borders.
  • This precedent threatened to open the entire United States, including established free states, to slavery.
  • The Lincoln-Douglas debates focused directly on this issue, addressing slavery in both the Western territories and within the state of Illinois (where pro-slavery sentiment existed in Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana).

• Dred Scott's Legal Status and Citizenship:

  • The Court ruled that Dred Scott should never have been allowed to sue in court or be legally married because, as an enslaved person, he was not a United States citizen and had no legal standing.
  • The Court extended this ruling to state that no Black person in the United States—whether free or enslaved—possessed citizenship rights.
  • Chief Justice Roger Todney authored the opinion, writing the infamous line that no Black man has any rights that a white man is bound to respect.

• Impact on Free Black Communities:

  • Deprived several hundred thousand free Black people living in Northern and Southern states of constitutional protection.
  • Free Black citizens in Northern cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia faced the threat of being kidnapped and taken into Southern slavery (as depicted in the movie 12 a slave) without legal recourse to prove their freedom in court.
  • In response, many free Black individuals left the United States for other countries to seek legal protection.

Political Realignment and the Election of 1860

• Strengthening of the Republican Party:

  • The Dred Scott decision deeply alienated Northern voters who were previously neutral, driving them into the Republican Party and making it a dominant political force in the North.
  • Southern Democrats became increasingly unyielding, believing the Supreme Court ruling eliminated any need for political compromise.

• Split of the Democratic Party:

  • The Democratic Party, previously a unified national party, splintered during its nominating convention in Charleston, South Carolina.
  • Northern Democrats advocated for political compromise, while Southern Democrats refused to compromise, causing the party to split into two separate factions with distinct presidential candidates.

• The Four Presidential Candidates in 1860:

  • Northern Democratic Candidate
  • Southern Democratic Candidate
  • Republican Candidate: Abraham Lincoln
  • Constitutional Union Party Candidate: A newly formed party advocating constitutional amendments to divide the nation between North and South along a line extending from the southern border of the Missouri copper mines.

Electoral College Mechanics and the 1860 Result

• Structure of the Electoral College:

  • The President of the United States is not elected through a direct national democratic vote.
  • The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College as a representative buffer between the public and executive leadership to avoid pure direct democracy, which they feared would lead to chaos.
  • The system allows a candidate to win the presidency while losing the national popular vote, an outcome that has occurred $4$ times in American history (including twice in a $26$-year span: $2000$ and $2016$).

• Electoral Allocation and State Voting Rules:

  • Elections are conducted across $50$ separate state contests where voters select electors pledged to a candidate (though electors retain the legal capacity to change their votes).
  • Each state's electoral vote count equals its total members in the House of Representatives (determined by census population) plus its $2$ United States Senators.
  • Examples:
    • Missouri possesses $8$ Representatives and $2$ Senators, giving it $10$ electoral votes.
    • Illinois possesses $17$ or $18$ electoral votes due to its population centered in Chicago.
    • South Dakota has a total population smaller than St. Louis County, yet receives $3$ electoral votes, illustrating how small rural states are proportionally overrepresented due to the minimum $2$ senator votes.
    • Large states like Texas and California are underrepresented relative to their population sizes.
  • $48$ states currently utilize a winner-take-all system where winning the state's popular vote—whether by $1$ vote or $100{,}000$ votes—awards $100\%$ of that state's electoral votes.

• Outcome of the 1860 Election:

  • Because Northern states possessed a much larger population and major population centers (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago), the Republican Party held a distinct structural advantage.
  • Abraham Lincoln won less than $40\%$ of the national popular vote, but decisively won the Electoral College by sweeping the populous Northern states.

Propaganda, Secession, and International Context

• Conspiracy Theories and Media Polarization:

  • Northern public opinion held that a secret "Slave Power" conspiracy was controlling federal policy.
  • Southern plantation owners were convinced that the Republican Party was an abolitionist organization dedicated to destroying slavery.
  • Although Abraham Lincoln repeatedly stated that slavery was constitutionally protected in existing states and that he lacked authority to interfere with it, Southern media portrayed him as an absolute threat to the South.
  • Partisan newspapers functioned as propaganda, driving Southern political leaders to declare that a Republican victory would force their states to secede from the Union.

• Global Status of Slavery in 1860:

  • The institution of slavery was declining globally:
    • Great Britain had outlawed slavery and abolished the African slave trade.
    • The majority of European nations had banned slavery.
    • The Catholic Church formally issued statements condemning slavery.
    • Czarist Russia was taking steps to emancipate its serfs.
  • Southern political leaders felt pressured by international condemnation and concluded that creating an independent nation was the only way to preserve slavery long-term.

Formation of the Confederacy and Executive Inaction

• First Wave of Secession:

  • Following Lincoln's election, South Carolina became the first state to secede, followed quickly by Deep South states: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
  • These states seceded before Lincoln took office during the transition period.
  • Delegates assembled in Montgomery, Alabama, and established the Confederate States of America (CSA).
  • They drafted a constitution similar to the United States Constitution that explicitly protected and enshrined slavery, while actively organizing a military force and executive bureaucracy.

• Hesitation in Moderate Slave States:

  • Upper South and moderate slave states with stronger industrial ties to the North (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri) initially declined to secede.
  • Opponents of secession in these states argued that remaining in the Union provided federal constitutional and military protections for slavery, whereas leaving the Union removed all legal protections.

• Presidency of James Buchanan:

  • James Buchanan, a pro-South Pennsylvania Democrat, is consistently ranked by historians among the top $5$ worst American presidents.
  • As Southern states seceded and seized federal property—including federal forts, armories, arsenals, and military equipment (similar to a hypothetical state seizure of Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri)—Buchanan took no executive action to prevent or stop the seizures.

Outbreak of the Civil War at Fort Sumter

• Lincoln's Inaugural Journey and First Inaugural Address:

  • Because Washington D.C. was surrounded by slave states (Maryland and Virginia), rumors of assassination plots were widespread.
  • To bypass a planned assassination attempt in Baltimore, security officials snuck Lincoln into Washington D.C. in the middle of the night on a alternate train.
  • In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln cited his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
  • Lincoln argued that the United States was a perpetual compact from which no state could legally secede; allowing states to leave at will would make national existence impossible.
  • He pledged not to initiate armed conflict, encouraging peaceful reconciliation, but warned that if the South initiated war, the federal government would respond with force.

• Military Conflict at Fort Sumter:

  • Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, remained under federal military control but was surrounded and cut off from supplies by South Carolina forces.
  • Abner Doubleday (later incorrectly credited with inventing baseball) served as a military officer at the fort.
  • Lincoln announced he would send supply ships carrying only food and essential provisions to the troops stationed at Fort Sumter.
  • To prevent resupply, South Carolina forces opened fire on Fort Sumter, marking the opening shots of the American Civil War.
  • Designed primarily for harbor defense against ships rather than land artillery, the fort surrendered shortly after bombardment began.

War Mobilization and Political Crisis (1861–1862)

• Northern Mobilization:

  • Lincoln declared the Southern states to be in open rebellion and exercised his authority as Commander-in-Chief to call for $100{,}000$ volunteers.
  • Northern public response was enthusiastic, with volunteer enlistments quickly exceeding the requested quotas.
  • Recent immigrants—particularly Irish escaping the Potato Famine and Germans escaping the Revolution of $1848$—enlisted in high numbers to protect American constitutional democracy.
  • The German-American population in St. Louis was the decisive factor that kept Missouri from seceding, counteracting strong pro-secession sentiment in rural, slave-holding areas of the state.

• Second Wave of Secession:

  • In response to Lincoln's call for troops to suppress the rebellion, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

• Early Military Struggles and Political Backlash:

  • During the first two years of the war ($1861$–$1862$), Confederate armies won most major battles in the Eastern Theater, with commanders Robert Ely and Stonewall Jackson repeatedly defeating Union forces.
  • Mounting casualty lists and war photography transformed public perception in the North, ending initial enthusiasm for the conflict.
  • A significant anti-war movement emerged led by "Peace Democrats" (Copperheads), who campaigned to end the war and recognize the Confederacy as an independent nation.
  • In the Congressional elections of $1862$, the Republican Party suffered severe electoral losses to the Peace Democrats.
  • Facing declining public support and military setbacks, Lincoln concluded that saving the Union required a fundamental shift in strategy: expanding war aims from simply preserving the Union to completely destroying the institution of slavery.