Chapter 11 Sectional Conflict Increases
Section one: An Uneasy Balance
I. The Debate Reopens
A. In 1837 the House passed the gag rule prohibiting all
memorials, and papers relating to the abolition of slavery from being debated, printed, read, or even mentioned in Congress.
B. Missouri Compromise of 1820 had not ended the debate over the spread of slavery.
C. Congressional debates often ended in violence.
D. Further trouble began with the annexation of Texas because it would tip the balance. Texas entered as a slave state, but it also
extended westward the dividing line set by the Missouri Compromise.
E. Debate arose in 1846 over whether slavery should be allowed in any territory acquired from Mexico should there be a war (war
declared May 1846)
1. Senators Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas proposed that the territories rely on popular sovereignty which would allow the
citizens to vote.
F. Rep. David Wilmot of Pa. proposed an amendment to a bill
authorizing funds to buy territory.
1. Wilmot Proviso- banned slavery in all lands acquired from Mexico.
2. Support split along regional lines. The South threatened to secede if it became law.
3. The Proviso was cut from the final bill.
II. The 1848 Election
A. Democrats- Lewis Cass favored popular sovereignty
Whigs- General Zachary Taylor-political views unknown;
Slaveholder.
B. Anti-slavery Democrats and Whigs angered by the reluctance of either party to address the slavery issue formed the Free Soil
Party in August 1848.
1. Free-Soilers demanded Congress prohibit the expansion of
slavery into the territories.
2. Supported free western homesteads and internal improvements.
3. Proclaiming “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men they nominated Martin Van Buren.
III. The Slavery Issue in Congress
A. General Taylor won the election.
B. Congress was divided over California and New Mexico
1. California wanted to enter the Union as a free state
C. Questions arose over slavery in Texas as the state claimed
part of its western boundary extended in what the government
considered New Mexico territory.
1. Anti-slavery members of Congress declared their intent to limit
Texas’ size.
2. Pro-slavery forces wanted a tougher fugitive slave law.
3. Southern members also resisted a plan to abolish the slave
Trade in Washington, D.C.
IV. Clay’s Proposal
A. Proposed:
1. admitting California as a free state
2. Abolishing the slave trade, not slavery, in the
District of Columbia.
3. Divide the New Mexico territory into two- New Mexico and
Utah on the basis of popular sovereignty.
4. Strengthen the fugitive slave law.
5. Texas gives up claim to part of New Mexico for $10 million.
C. Angry northern and southern lawmakers supported the end of the Union.
1. North - abolitionists
2. South- known as fire-eaters (extreme pro-slavery)
V. The Great Debate in Congress
A. Debate over Clay’s proposal
B. Bitter attack from John C. Calhoun- leader of the fire-eaters.
Called for a dual presidency. Died in 1850.
C. Daniel Webster- leading northern Whig; gave a speech in support of Clay’s proposal.
D. President Taylor opposed the Compromise, but died
suddenly in July 1850.
E. Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, who favored the compromise became President.
F. Clay’s measure passed and was known as the Compromise of
1850.
Section 2- Compromise Comes to an End
I. The Early 1850s
A. Election of 1852
1. Democrats- Franklin Pierce of N.H. -supported
compromise of 1850; satisfied some Free-Soilers; some
southern support.
2. Whigs-Gen. Winfield Scott; southern Whigs did not feel he
would enforce the Compromise
3. Free-Soilers- John P. Hale of N.H.
4. Pierce won by a landslide.
B. The Fugitive Slave Act
1. Part of the compromise- very unpopular- the law made it
a crime to assist runaway slaves.
2. It authorized the arrest of escaped slaves even in free
states
3. Many northerners supported “personal liberty” laws,
which guaranteed legal assistance to captured slaves.
4. the new law turned many northerners into abolitionists.
II. Antislavery Literature
A. Abolitionists used their pens to win supporters.
B. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
1. Sections were printed in an abolitionist newspaper before
being published as a book in 1852.
2. The book sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. but was hated
by southern audiences who banned the book.
III. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
A. With westward expansion and railroad construction,
Congress needed to organize the western lands.
B. Stephan Douglas-Illinois senator- introduced the Kansas-
Nebraska Act which organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska on the basis of popular sovereignty.
C. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri compromise.
1. supported by southerners; opposed by northerners
2. Some critics opposed because of economic reasons;
worried that slaves would take jobs from whites and
immigrants.
IV. Bleeding Kansas
A. To increase the number of anti-slavery settlers to Kansas,
New Englanders formed the Emigrant Aid Company to help
Anti-slavery families move to Kansas.
B. Pro-slavery forces countered by urging southerners to move to
Kansas.
C. As Kansas prepared to elect their first territorial legislature, some
5000 proslavery Missouri residents crossed into the territory
and cast illegal votes.
1. the illegal votes helped to elect a proslavery legislature
2. the new legislature passed a code making it illegal to
criticize slavery.
3. they banned newspapers, journals and sermons that supported
Free States and abolition.
D. Antislavery settlers refused to recognize the legitimacy of the
New government.
1. They formed the Free State Party and elected their
own legislature.
2. Two governments now were competing for control.
E. Violence erupts- pro-slavery raiders from Missouri attack
Anti-slavery settlers in Kansas.
F. In revenge, a group led by abolitionist, John Brown,
attacked a proslavery group along the Pottawatomie Creek.
1. The “Pottawatomie Massacre” shocked both Northerners and southerners and sparked more violence in what became known
as “Bleeding Kansas.”
2. Brown and his followers went into hiding.
G. Violence spilled over to Congress
1. Sen. Charles Sumner of Mass. delivered a 2 day speech on
Crimes Against Kansas.
2. He also ridiculed proslavery Sen. Andrew Butler of SC.
3. Rep. Preston Brooks attacked Sumner with a cane on the floor of the Senate.
V. The Republican Party
A. In 1854 a group of antislavery Whigs and Democrats and some
Free-Soilers organized the Republican party which was
against the expansion of slavery.
B. The Republican Party worked with the Know-Nothings to
defeat the Democrats in 1854 and 1856.
C. In 1856 the Republicans nominated John C. Fremont for
President.
D. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania
who supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
E. Know-Nothings and Whigs nominated Millard Fillmore who
ran as the American Party candidate.
E. The Democrats painted the Republicans as the party of
sectionalism.
G. Buchanan received support in both free and slave states
with 174 electoral votes, Fremont 114 and Fillmore 8.
H. The election signaled the end of both the Whigs and the
American Party.
VI. Lecompton Constitution
A. In 1857 Kansas was voting for delegates for the Constitutional
Convention.
1. Antislavery forces, fearing corruption, boycotted the elections.
B. The convention met in Lecompton, Kansas and drafted a
Constitution that protected the rights of slaveholders.
1. the Constitution gave the voters only the right to decide whether more slaves could enter the territory, not whether slavery
should exist in the territory.
C. Senator Stephen Douglas attacked the Lecompton
Constitution as fraud.
1. It did not meet his goal of popular sovereignty.
2. His stand cost Douglas support among southerners.
3. Popular sovereignty was largely discredited
D. In 1861 Kansas was admitted as a free state.
Section 3 On the Brink of War
I. Dred Scott and the Supreme Court
A. Dred Scott, a slave, sued for his freedom based on having lived in
Free Illinois and free Wisconsin territory with his owner
before returning to Missouri.
B. In 1856 the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
C. Chief Justice Roger Taney, a southerner, wrote the majority
opinion.
1. Scott was not a citizen, and therefore could not bring suit
in U.S. courts.
2. He concluded that no African-American, slave or free, could ever
enjoy the rights of a U.S. citizen.
3. Taney also denied that the Federal government had any authority
to limit the expansion of slavery. He said the Missouri
compromise violated the 5th amendment, which forbids the gov’t
to deny anyone’s rights to property without due process.
D. The Dred Scott decision outraged northerners. There
seemed to be no way to keep slavery from spreading.
II. Lincoln and Douglas
A. Representative Abraham Lincoln ran against Democrat Stephen
Douglas for the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858.
1. The conflict over slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
prompted Lincoln to return to politics. He was against the
expansion of slavery.
2. Douglas supported popular sovereignty.
3. In Lincoln’s acceptance speech for the party’s nomination he quoted from the Bible, “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot
Stand”
B. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates.
C. Douglas’ argument for popular sovereignty came to be called the
Freeport Doctrine and it helped him to narrowly defeat
Lincoln in the race.
III. John Brown’s Raid
A. After fleeing Kansas, Brown went east and obtained money
from New England abolitionists for his next plan.
1. He armed a band of twenty men, including five African-Americans.
B. In 1859 Brown’s force seized the federal arsenal in Harper’s
Ferry, Va.
1. Brown planned to give the guns to slaves living nearby.
2. He hoped that runaways and free African-Americans would
join him in his attempts to liberate slaves from their owners.
3. No slaves came to help.
C. Federal troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee assaulted Brown’s
position, killing half his men and capturing the rest.
D. Brown was convicted of murder, criminal conspiracy, and
treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia.
1. He was hanged on December 2, 1859.
E. Although questioning his sanity, Brown’s supporters
felt he acted justly and heroically.
1. Brown was seen by some as a martyr.
2. The South viewed him as a fanatic who deserved punishment.
3. Many southern secessionists believed the incident would bring small farmers and poor whites to support the planter’s cause.
IV. The Election of 1860
A. Southern moderates formed the Constitutional Union Party
and nominated John Bell of Tennessee. He played down
sectional differences.
B. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas.
C. Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge of Ky.
who felt Congress had a duty to protect slavery in the
territories.
D. Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. His platform was
designed to attract northern industrialists as well as midwest
farmers.
E. The results mirrored the nation’s sectional divisions.
F. Lincoln received 180 electoral votes; Douglas 12, Breckinridge 72;
Bell 39.
1. Lincoln received about 40% of the popular vote.
V. Secession
A. Many southerners views Lincoln’s election as a victory for
abolition.
B. South Carolina called a convention and unanimously voted to
Leave the Union in December 1860.
C. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
soon passed similar acts.
D. Early in 1861 delegates from six of the seven states met in
Montgomery, Alabama and drafted a constitution for the
Confederate States of America.
1. It resembled the U.S. Constitution except for (1) it guaranteed the right to own slaves and (2) it stressed that each state was “sovereign and independent.”
2. They chose Jefferson Davis of Mississippi (former U.S. Senator and Secretary of War) as provisional president of the Confederacy.
E. The southern states justified their position with the doctrine of
States’ rights.
F. Beyond states’ rights was the determination to protect slavery.
They feared if the North became a voting majority they would
prohibit slavery in the territories and even abolish it in the South.
G. President Lincoln urged the south to accept the election results.
He said secession was both wrong and unconstitutional.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
John Brown: “I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”