Moz Knows History-Tensions Rise

Sectionalism Endures

By the mid 1800s, America was hopelessly divided between the North and South. The West, though somewhat different in its personality, more often than not was an extension of the ideas professed in the North and South. You see, it was Northerners and Southerners who moved west, taking their attitudes, (and sometimes their slaves) along with them.

Despite starry-eyed dreams of life in the White House, the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, certainly played a role in keeping the country together. His Missouri Compromise set a line showing where slave lands would begin and end. The deal also brokered the entry of Missouri and Maine into the Union of (United) States simultaneously, keeping the sides equal (11 states apiece) on a wholly unequal issue. By 1850, there would be

15 slave states and 15 non-slave states, so the effort seemed successful. In reality, it simply delayed the inevitable. The Civil War was coming.

Certainly, if anyone could thwart the Gods of War, it was the 3 Super Senators: New England’s own, Daniel Webster, Southern Gentlemen, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay, who had been from the West, until the West followed the wagon trains to California. The 1850s would bring the deaths of the three men who fought so hard to preserve the Union. Calhoun would die of tuberculosis in 1850. Clay and Webster would pass just two years later.

Unable to cope without them, it should be little surprise that the nation plunged into the Civil War less than a decade later in 1861.

New lands added in the 1840s complicated matters. California, in particular, was problematic. It wanted to become a free state. That was a problem. Plus, it had not been decided what to do with the other lands procured as part of the Mexican Cession. Since it didn’t seem likely that they’d be growing cotton in New Mexico anytime soon, Southerners had a lot to worry about.

California applied for statehood in 1850 and Henry Clay was good for one last compromise: The Compromise of 1850. The title may not get any points for originality, but the terms were creative genius. 6 main points addressed important issues, although the focus of Southern slave owners and Northern abolitionists was limited mostly to these two:

1. California would be free. (Big Win for the North)

2. Congress would pass the Fugitive Slave Law, a law helping slave owners catch runaway slaves (Just as big for the South)

On paper, the Compromise seemed fair, but the notion of dry Southwestern lands eventually becoming Free States prompted John C. Calhoun into action. As Congress debated the Compromise of 1850, the terminally ill Calhoun left his deathbed, and was dramatically carried into the Congressional chambers on a stretcher, a copy of a speech clutched in his hand. Too weak to speak, another Southern Senator read his plea to give the South more protection.

In what would be known as the 7th of March Speech, Calhoun’s northern counterpart, Daniel Webster rose, saying in part: “I speak today not

as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American….I speak today for the preservation of the Union.” With Webster’s support, the measure passed. John C. Calhoun would die just a few months afterward. His last words were, “the South, the Poor South.”

The Underground Railroad

The North Star had been more than a Frederick Douglass newspaper. It had been a symbol of hope for those with dreams of freedom from slavery. The Compromise of 1850 threatened to steal that freedom away. No longer were escaped slaves safe in the North. They could be taken back. White abolitionists who helped former slaves could now be charged with wrongdoing. It was clear that the risky, haphazard North Star style escapes would need an upgrade: something more organized, something more secret. And if the laws were unfair, there was only thing you could do: go illegal, and take it underground.

That’s how the Underground Railroad got its name. It was not a railroad, nor was it LITERALLY underground, but underground as in secret and illegal. It was called a railroad due to how quickly a person could make their way North using it. And if the law came sniffing around, the Underground Railroad spanned all the way to Ontario, Canada, out of reach of American laws and its slave catchers. Working mostly at night, “conductors” led escapees from station to station, whether they were in barns, attics, storage rooms, or occasionally, an actual underground chamber.

The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman, who saved herself and more than 300 others from slavery. She had a sense of bravery and dedication that most people could never match. Having escaped a nightmare

of a life in chains, she returned to the South to escape again and again, 20 times, risking for others the very freedom she had earned. Her “Wanted” poster was everywhere, but she never got caught, and neither did those she helped. “I never lost a single passenger,” Tubman once said.

Popular Sovereignty

In 1850, Stephen Douglas helped Henry Clay construct the Compromise of 1850. If he had helped Clay at one stage, he certainly had Clay rolling in his grave with his next act. Four years later, Douglas proposed and helped pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Both states were north of the Missouri border and should have become non-slave states under the Missouri Compromise. In his bill Douglas, proclaimed that the people of those states should decide the manner by vote. This was called Popular Sovereignty. His biggest argument was that that was exactly what the process was for the Mexican Cession lands, so the act was approved. The line set by Clay’s Missouri Compromise was now irrelevant. Now the future of Kansas and Nebraska would be left to a simple vote, a matter that ended up being anything but simple.

Bleeding Kansas

When it came time to vote, “pro-slavers” and “free-soilers” flocked to the areas to insure that their side would have the most votes. Some who voted had come in illegally from out of state. Tensions were high, hostility brewed, and violence quickly followed. In Kansas more than 200 people died in confrontations between the two groups. The situation was so horrendous; the state was referred to as “Bleeding Kansas.”

A man responsible for some of the violence was John Brown. He was an abolitionist extremist. He professed that God told him to free the slaves

by any means necessary. Apparently, God told him to take his sons and raid pro-slavery houses to kill and mutilate the men living there, since that’s exactly what he did. Whether or not you believe the Good Lord would make such a suggestion, many came to the conclusion that one of his core beliefs was certainly true. He thought that slavery would only end through bloodshed. John Brown himself was helping prove that theory to be true. In the end, Kansas would join the US as a free state.

The Dreaded Dred Scott Case

The court of public opinion wields tremendous power. Once mobilized, the many often overrun the few. The thing with public opinion is that it can be manipulated, but never fully controlled. Certainly, abolitionists and many otherwise indifferents were offended by the outcome of the Dred Scott case. Dred Scott had been a slave in the state of Missouri. No problem. When the family he worked for moved to Wisconsin, he continued serving as a slave. Problem. Slavery was illegal in Wisconsin. Optimistic abolitionists buoyed by the Amistad ruling, sued on behalf of Dred Scott, trying to win his freedom. They took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Public Opinion Revisited

Thanks to earlier educational reforms, the American public was becoming more adept at reading. People like Horace Greeley helped sway public opinion with powerful editorials. Another author would open a window to hundreds of thousands of readers about the evils of slavery in the form of a novel. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe showed the world the cruelty and indignity suffered by slaves. More and more joined the abolitionist movement wanting to spare real people from the trials and tribulations suffered by Stowe’s well researched, but still, fictional characters.

When Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he remarked, “So this is the little lady who started this great war.”

Operation: End Slavery Part 2

Bleeding Kansas sealed John Brown’s reputation as a man of action in the War on Slavery. Donations poured in and supporters joined the cause as Brown was set to touch off what hoped would be the spark that started the house of slavery burning to the ground. In his crusade, Brown hoped to incite a spontaneous slave rebellion where slaves across Virginia would turn on their masters and put an end the plantation system once and for all.

To provide the necessary weapons, Brown and his followers raided a government arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (West Virginia today). There were 18 conspirators in all, taking over the installation with little effort. Leaving wouldn’t be as easy. The townspeople surrounded the area, keeping Brown and his followers inside until the Marines arrived, led by Colonel Robert E. Lee. In the end, Brown was wounded, captured, tried for treason, and hanged. The uprising he envisioned was a dismal failure.

The Rise of Lincoln

Some people rise on their own volition. Their achievements warrant attention, catch the public’s eye. Then the figure rises to prominence. Sometimes, it’s a matter of showing you’re just as capable at a task that another is famed for. Such was the case of Abraham Lincoln, a political unknown whose assent to fame came at the expense of his opponent, Stephen Douglas. Douglas, who had erected the Kansas-Nebraska Act, was the most famous political leader of the late 1850s. He was known throughout the land as the “Little Giant” a small man with big ideas, and a bright future.

Yet, in 1858, Lincoln threatened to unseat the Senator from Illinois in his re-election bid. In the days leading up to the election, they held a series of seven debates, later known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln took on the Little Giant and held his own. Abe debated so well that even though he lost the election, he raised his profile across the land, and would have a chance for redemption when the two men squared off again in 1860 for the Presidency of the United States.

One aspect of the Lincoln-Douglas debates lingered on, growing into a cancer that would kill Stephen Douglas’ aspirations to the presidency. This was Douglas’ admission that he did not fully agree with the Dred Scott decision. While not a controversy for those re-electing the Senator from Illinois, on a national stage, the act didn’t play so well. Southern states were so aghast, that a second Democratic candidate joined the fray. This spilt the Democratic vote, opening the door for a man named Lincoln. Ironically, in the end, Douglas won only one state. The state of Missouri, whose Missouri Compromise was undermined by Douglas with Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln would win the election, becoming the nation’s first Republican president.

The Face of America

In 1860 there were 19 free states, and 15 slave states. Four of the slave states were called border states. All were slave states that stayed with the Union. They also geographically made the border between slave and free states. The border states were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Although their armies were nearly equal in size, the territorities of North and South had vast differences. The North was 21 million strong in Plus, they had most of the jobs, industry, and products. Immigrants generally came to the North, many coming from lands that had already abolished slavery. The South, on the other hand, had only 9 million people, including 3 million slaves! While they certainly had farming, the focus was on cash crops rather than foodstuffs.

Lincoln’s Views

While he would later be forever known as the man who freed the slaves, even as a Presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln never said that ending slavery was a priority. Although, Lincoln was firmly against the spread of slavery, he was not a true abolitionist. He went as far as to promise the South that he would not abolish slavery if elected. The South didn’t believe him, and never gave Honest Abe a chance to see if he would make good on that promise before taking serious action.

Like Douglas, some of Lincoln’s own words from the Senate debates continued to leave a bad taste in Southerner’s mouths. Although the bulk of the speech seemed prepared to follow America through any outcome, the opening line of the “House Divided” would be analyzed again and again.

Said, Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.”

Many saw in those words, what they perceived as Lincoln’s true intent—freeing the slaves. Although it may seem strange today to think that back then some people didn’t like Lincoln, the reality was that the Southern states were so frightened by the prospect of a Lincoln presidency that they threatened to secede if he was elected. When that happened, some were quick to back up their word. Within a month, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Unlike their battles with President Jackson, this time South Carolina wasn’t alone. While Lincoln was awaiting his inauguration, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed.

When the first threat to secede occurred, Andrew Jackson was quick to react, pushing South Carolina back in line. Now James Buchanan was president. Buchanan did nothing. In the meantime, Lincoln could do nothing but wait to be handed the reins of control, and hope the situation wouldn’t get any worse, but it did.

Questions

1. What was Henry Clay’s nickname?

2. Which state became free in the Compromise of 1850?

3. What were John C. Calhoun’s last words?

4. How many trips did Harriet Tubman take on the Underground Railroad?

5. How many people died in Bleeding Kansas?

6. According to the Supreme Court, why couldn’t Dred Scott sue?

7. What novel stirred up awakened readers to the horrors of slavery?

8. Who captured John Brown?

9. What office did Lincoln and Douglas run for in 1858?

10. What was the first state to secede from the Union?