Chapter 14 Notes

I. Slavery in the Mexican Cession

A. Three possible solutions
1. Extend Missouri Compromise Line (36°30’)
2. Texas for slaveholders, CA and NM territories for free-soilers (Wilmot Proviso)
3. Popular sovereignty

B. Taylor’s Position
1. CA and NM “unsuitable” for slavery.
2. Disagreed with Calhoun’s assertion that keeping slavery entailed its expansion
3. Knowing that CA and NM had a majority of Free-Soilers, he proposed a popular sovereignty solution
4. His solution was intended to appease Southerners who viewed federal barring of slavery as unconstitutional
5. Southerners, however, were angered because the outcome would be the same as that proposed by Wilmot Proviso

C. Clay’s Compromise (Compromise of 1850)
1. Admit CA as free state
2. Split NM territory into two states (Utah and New Mexico) without federal restrictions on slavery.
3. Settle Texas/NM border dispute in favor of NM
4. Appease Texas by having Feds pay its public debt
5. Continue slavery in DC but get rid of slave trade within (no selling or buying in city limits)
6. Improve fugitive slave law- make it tougher for slaves to escape
7. Clay’s proposal was controversial. Clay and Webster argued tirelessly in its favor but met resistance from Calhoun and Southern followers
8. Disagreement between Clay and President Taylor appeared to doom Clay’s proposal
9. However, Taylor dies on July 9th 1850 and was replaced by VP Fillmore who appointed Webster as his Secretary of State (Webster and Clay were allied in favor)
10. Democratic Senator Douglas split Clay’s proposal into separate bills, which all passed and jointly became known as the Compromise of 1850

D. Repercussions of the Compromise
1. While meant to solve sectional differences, voting in Congress had occurred along sectional lines
2. Passed because conciliatory members voted with the majority on the various bills
3. North clearly gained- CA as free state, NM and Utah as likely free states, settlement of NM/TX border in NM’s favor and abolition of slave trade in DC
4. South gained the end of federal prohibition of slavery in territories and the principle that states had the right to choose by voting
5. Split southerners into pro-compromise Unionists and anti-compromise secessionists
6. Fugitive slave law appeared to be major victory for the south


II. The Slavery Debate Intensifies

A. Fugitive Slave Act
1. Alleged fugitives denied trial by jury and right to testify on own behalf
2. Fugitives to be returned to slavery based only on claimant’s testimony, county appointed commissioners received $10 for ruling in favor of the claimant but only $5 if ruling in favor of alleged fugitive
3. Viewed by the North as the cost of keeping the Union together
4. Having slave-catchers on Northern soil galvanized northern anti-slavery sentiment
5. To undermine the law, committees were formed to take fugitives to Canada, lawyers lengthened proceeding in order to increase slave catcher’s expenses, some states passed “personal-liberty laws” that forbade the use of state jails for the incarceration of fugitives
6. Viewing the North as betraying the compromise of 1850, southerners became more entrenched and united in their opposition against the north

B. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in protest of the Fugitive Slave Act
2. Super-best seller published in 1852
3. Almost all northerners read or viewed a theatrical version.
4. Thought clearly anti-slavery, it reinforced racist views of darker-skinned blacks as stupid and more submissive than lighter-skinned ones
5. It had a massive impact on northern attitude toward northern slavery

C. Election of 1852
1. Whig Party deeply fragmented, as its northern members were becoming staunch abolitionists
2. Southern Whigs attempted to sell the party as pro-slavery and pro-union
3. Whigs nominated Winfield Scott because he was a war hero and Virginian
4. Democrats nominated dark-horse Franklin Pierce of NH who supported slavery
5. Democrats rallied both Northerners and Southerners around the Compromise and the idea of popular sovereignty in the territories. (And renewed quest for manifest destiny in the Caribbean and South America)
6. Pierce won by the widest margin since Election of 1820

III. The Whigs’ Undoing

A. Kansas-Nebraska Act
1. Masterminded by Democrat Stephen Douglas, an ardent expansionist who was trying to build a railroad from Chicago to San Francisco.
2. Proposed the organization of northern Midwest as a territory
3. Because the entire area was about the Missouri Compromise Line, Douglas understood that there would be Southern Opposition
4. To gain Southern support, Douglas explicitly stated that the Nebraska bill would apply the Compromise of 1850’s popular sovereignty to the issue of slavery. Moreover, he contended that the Missouri Compromise was no longer valid.
5. The territory was split into two (Nebraska and Kansas). It was tacitly understood that Kansas would be a slave state and Nebraska would be free.
6. Opposed to the spread of Slavery into Kansas, no Northern Whigs voted in favor of the bill. Whigs were increasingly a regional rather than a National party
7. The bill passed with Congressional support from all Southern legislators (Whigs and Democrats) and half the Northern Democrats

B. Free Soil Rising
1. Some opposed slavery on moral grounds
2. Some opposed it for racist reasons and proposed returning blacks to Africa
3. Most agreed that slavery impeded the progress of whites and were concerned that slavery could spread anywhere without the limits imposed by the Missouri compromise
4. The Kansas-Nebraska galvanized free-soilers (thus further splitting the Whig Party)

C. Manifest Destiny Stalls
1. Gadsden Purchase- the purchase of a strip of land in modern day southern Arizona
2. Acquisition was favored by proponents of a southern railroad to California so it was disputed by free-soilers (who believed that a southern conspiracy dominated the govt)
3. Expansion into Caribbean- proposed invasion of Cuba and Central America. Delineated by the secret Ostend Manifesto (drafted by US ambassadors to Spain, France and GB)
4. American adventurer William Walker actually led a paramilitary group that disrupted Central America (filibuster- illegal attempt at colonization)
5. Viewed as another Southern conspiracy to expand slave territory. Pres. Pierce was forced to back off his Manifest Destiny plan of purchasing/invading Cuba (aaah slavocracy!!)

D. Party Chaos
1. Democrats declined in the North due to Douglas pushing through the Kansas-Nebraska Act then declined in the South when Douglas did no back Kansas’ Lecompton Constitution
2. Whig party fragmented as Southern Whigs had backed Douglas while northern free-soil Whigs had opposed him. Whig free-soilers sought out a new party (first the Know-nothings, eventually the Republicans)
3. Antislavery Democrats also looked for new party (eventually Republicans)
4. Briefly, the Know-Nothing (American) Party benefited from the free-soiler dissatisfaction with both parties. However, when Know-Nothings placed acceptance of Kansas Nebraska Act on their platform in 1855, the party collapsed.
5. Out of the turmoil, the Republican Party with its clearly free-soil (and, to some extent, abolitionist agenda) gained prominence


IV. Key events in the collapse of the union

A. Bleeding Kansas
1. Missouri pro-slaver group “steals” elections
2. Lecompton & Topeka govts
3. Sack of Lawrence
4. Pottawatomie Massacre
5. Lecompton constitution controversy
6. Kansas backs out of statehood

B. Dred Scott Decision (1857)
1. Blacks (free and slave) cannot be citizens
2. Slaves property everywhere
3. Missouri compromise unconstitutional
4. Rise of ‘slaveocracy’ conspiracy theory

C. Lincoln-Douglas debates
1. Illinois Senate race had national coverage
2. Lincoln’s free-soil vs. Douglas’ popular sovereignty
3. Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ speech denounces slavery as “a moral, social, and political evil”
4. Douglas portrays Lincoln as an abolitionist bent on equality of the races
5. Lincoln finally takes stand against abolition and equality but for stopping the spread of slavery.
6. Douglas wins by a narrow margin despite Illinois racist sentiment

D. Harper’s Ferry
1. John Brown’s failed attempt to start a slave uprising in Virginia
2. Brown was put to death and became a martyr for the abolitionist cause
3. Southerners perceived a northern conspiracy


V. Election of 1860

A. Sectionalization of the Democrats
1. Upset over the democratic Party’s refusal to explicitly add federal protection of slavery in the territories to the platform and Douglas’ opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, Southern Democrats decided to nominate their own candidate- John Breckinridge of Kentucky
2. Breckinridge went on to win all states of the Lower South
3. Douglas won only Missouri and lost all the north and western states to the republicans

B. The Constitutional Union Party
1. Chose John Bell as their nominee for president
2. Represented pro-union, Southern Whigs
3. Took no position on the extension of slavery
4. Won a few states in the Upper South

C. The Victorious Republicans
1. Chose Lincoln because he was more moderate than Seward of NY
2. Platform included more than just “free-soil” Protective tariffs to gain vital support in Pennsylvania, Federal aid for internal improvements as well as free land for Western settlers essential in winning Western Support
3. Lincoln won a convincing victory-took all northern states and most of the western ones, winning the electoral vote in a landslide. Had only 40% of popular vote

D. Lincoln’s Victory and Southern Secession
1. Southerners viewed Lincoln as a radical abolitionist and did not trust him to keep his promise of leaving slavery intact in the South
2. Still thinking of Harper’s Ferry, his election provoked mass hysteria in the South about a Northern abolitionist conspiracy
3. Before Lincoln’s inauguration, seven of the Lower Southern States seceded, beginning (predictably) with South Carolina.
4. Attempts at compromise were made by Moderated Kentuckian, John Crittenden, who proposed renewal of the Missouri Compromise line, compensation for runaway slaves, and a Constitutional amendment to preserve Southern slavery (Corwin Amendment) (Lincoln was ok with that). Feeling confident after a victory, Republicans refused the proposal
5. Upper Southern states that had closer economic ties with the North and feared that a war would be fought mostly on their soil stayed in the Union (until after the Confederacy attacked Ft. Sumter)
6. Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the Confederacy in February 1861
7. When Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861, he promised to defend federal installations (mostly forts) in the states that had seceded. This set up the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter on April 12, 1861.