Chapter 13: Destruction of the Union

Louis Pisha AP US History

Chapter 13: Destruction of the Union

The Divisive Issue

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill

The Republican Party

The Test in Kansas

“Bleeding Kansas”

The Election of 1856

The House Divided

The Dred Scott Decision

Lecompton versus Topeka

The Panic of 1857

The Election of 1858

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Personal Liberty Laws

Heightened Violence

Harpers Ferry

Reactions North and South

The Contest for the Speakership

The Election of 1860

Secession: The Confederate States of America

Failure of Compromise

Two New Presidents

Fort Sumter

▪ North increasingly irked by slavery—fugitive slave law among other things clearly showed its evils, while Southerners less and less tolerant of criticism so became defensive

▪ Attempt by government to sidestep issue only invited violence—Americans voted for Pierce hoping for tranquility, but instead distrust

▪ Cotton and conscience Whigs tore the party apart, and Democrats eroding

▪ South saw efforts to end slavery even worse because it would ruin their economy and cause biracial discord

▪ Once South lost equality in Senate, insisted on spread of slavery into territories as only solution—North equally determined to keep it out

▪ South pulled the states rights card again, and North said union indivisible

The Divisive Issue

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill

▪ Douglas (Little Giant) introduced a bill for organization of Nebraska Territory—he was a popular sovereignty-ist

▪ Also wanted to build a railroad West from Chicago—others working for other routes

▪ Realized his bill (and his pitch for Prez) would fail without S support, so turned to popular sovereignty

▪ Dixon proposed repeal of Missouri Compromise, and Douglas agreed to get support

▪ Failed to assess slavery as a moral issue—people hated slavery after Uncle Tom’s Cabin—antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined to oppose Douglas’s bill and the repeal of Missouri Compromise

▪ Bill included repeal and making Nebraska and Kansas, which Missouri thought would become a slave state, so South accepted it

The Republican Party

▪ Pierce put pressure on House, and finally passed

▪ Antislavery-ists exploded in demonstrations in North

▪ Democrats becoming a Southern party as lost seats in N

▪ Group of Whigs and Democrats joined under the name Republicans to suggest connection to founding fathers (Jefferson) and opposition to slavery as well as criticism of opportunistic land-grabbing

▪ Entirely N and devoted to containing slavery—some joined on purely antislavery grounds, but some didn’t want any blacks in their West

▪ Joined by Northern Conscience Whigs, Free-Soilers, abolitionists, N Democrats —Republicans associated Democrats with slavery in public mind

▪ Whigs on downfall but unclear whether Republicans future victor—American party strong—played on hatred of Catholicism, demon rum, corruption, and slave power conspiracy, as well as foreign-born citizens

▪ Cooperation b/w Americans and Republicans

The Test in Kansas

▪ No trouble in Nebraska, but disorder in Kansas discredited popular sovereignty

▪ Speculators came, as well as Missourians

▪ Thayer organized Emigrant Aid Company to pay for antislavery Americans to move to Kansas to offset population, but not popular (neither was a similar Southern program)

▪ Free soil was for white Americans only

▪ Violence broke out at Leavenworth—Pierce refused to recognize Topeka (free) constitution—band of Missourians killed a bunch of people

“Bleeding Kansas”

▪ John Brown massacred a village at Pottawatomie Creek and went into hiding

▪ Summer of guerrilla war

▪ Sumner denounced aged Senator Butler for slavery and used sexual metaphors, so his cousin, Senator Brooks, beat Sumner up in the Senate

▪ South triumphantly reelected Brooks when resigned

▪ Sumner’s empty seat became reminder to N and focus of antislavery—martyr

The Election of 1856

▪ Pierce didn’t accomplish stability, Cuba, favoring either section, Kansas-Nebraska act a failure

▪ Seward joined Republicans, as well as Chase, Wade, Lincoln

▪ One part of American party withdrew because not explicitly antislavery enough —some endorsed Fremont, some Filliard Millmore

▪ Republicans adopted a highly antislavery platform—Congress had duty to protect territories from slavery (but didn’t have a problem with blacks being excluded), condemned Ostend Manifesto, chose Freemont as candidate

▪ Democrats nominated Buchanan—denied Congress had right to legislate on slavery in territories and avoided question of when they could—also endorsed Ostend

▪ Buchanan won, but Democrats on way out because couldn’t bury or resolve slavery question

▪ His advisors very pro-slavery—Cass, Cobb, Floyd, Black but many resigned or rotated

The House Divided

The Dred Scott Decision

▪ Buchanan urged public to accept Dred Scott decision because he already knew what it would be

▪ 2 questions in case: Could a black person be a citizen and bring a case before court, and was Missouri Compromise constitutional?

▪ Broad decision: Question of whether slavery allowable got purposely long-winded to disguise it

▪ Majority opinion (Taney): Black people inferior and therefore could not claim any rights AND Missouri Compromise unconstitutional

▪ Minority report (Curtis)

▪ Didn’t solve the slavery problem, made it worse

▪ People wondered if Prez and Supreme Court conspiring to extend slavery throughout nation—supported by Buchanan’s prior knowledge of Taney’s decision

▪ Blacks like Douglass called for end of slavery and achievement of vote—Delany left US for Nigeria and came back after Civil War

▪ Northerners feared slavery being allowed in territories

Lecompton versus Topeka

▪ 2 governments in Kansas—proslavery at Lecompton and free-state at Lawrence

▪ Buchanan sent Walker there to get a proslavery constitution adopted with a fair vote—knew that few real abolitionists among settlers so hoped to get rest to cooperate

▪ Free-Soilers refused to participate in election for representatives to constitutional convention, so proslavery delegates met and came up with document prohibiting entry of blacks into Kansas

▪ Voters only opportunity to vote for or against new slavery, not existing, so free-soilers refused to vote and overwhelmingly ratified

▪ Buchanan insisted on acceptance of this constitution

▪ Douglas turned on him and led the fight against ratification

▪ House blocked entry as proslavery—later, in Civil War, came in as antislavery

The Panic of 1857

▪ Major economic crisis that was foreshadowed by political stuff and blamed on sections

▪ Chain of overextended credit broke—companies, banks, etc, failed—people had borrowed too much

▪ Gold had been discovered in California and Australia and financed the world’s buying, and US became more dependent on Europe—then wheat market deflated, and only cotton left

▪ South not hurt much, but N suffered, blamed South, and joined Republican party

▪ Large political impact b/c Republicans capitalized on that issue

The Election of 1858

▪ Democrats hopelessly broken—Buchanan thought only radical slavery measures would get South’s allegiance, but Douglas knew no Northerners would tolerate any concessions to South

▪ Challenger for Senate = Lincoln, tall, sense of humor, relatively unknown

▪ Equality of opportunity, never any spread of slavery, revered Declaration, Constitution

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

▪ Most famous debate on slavery

▪ Lincoln asked Douglas if people could exclude slavery before nationhood

▪ Douglas answered that if no slave code, and people strike one down, slavery impractical

▪ Satisfied some N but horrified S

▪ Douglas tried to portray Lincoln as abolitionist where slavery hated—Lincoln denied this but held to belief that should be contained

▪ Douglas returned to Senate, but Republicans plurality of House

▪ Set up their both ideologies for Prez contest

Personal Liberty Laws

▪ South demanded enforcement of Fugitive Slave Law

▪ Burns, slave who escaped to Boston, was returned home, despite efforts to break him out of jail and mass protests

▪ Every slave returned under Fugitive Slave Laws showed evils of slavery

▪ Some legislatures made slave-catching difficult (ironic use of states-rights)

▪ Meeting called for the reopening of Atlantic slave trade—North thought South was crazy

Heightened Violence

Harpers Ferry

▪ John Brown secured backing of intellectual and financial leaders, bought some guns, and invaded Virginia from Maryland, occupying Harpers Ferry

▪ Captured by small force of marines sent under Lee

▪ Planned to raise a slave insurrection—defended himself under Bible and Declaration of Independence—friends tried to show he was insane

▪ Convicted and hanged in martyr fashion like Jesus

Reactions North and South

▪ Northerners deplored Brown’s actions, but South thought every Northerner would do the same if given the chance, as some remembered him as a martyr

▪ Fear also spread to Deep South and his weapons showed he was more equipped for assassinations than military war

▪ Wave of slave revolts and mob violence

The Contest for the Speakership

▪ Democrats opposed Sherman b/c endorsed Helper’s book which likened slavery for the North to throwing poison in a public well—called for immediate emancipation but deportation of the emancipated slaves

▪ Radical South renewed secession threats—Republicans said would not be bluffed

▪ Congressmen began to carry pistols and words became warlike

▪ Pennington became Speaker

▪ Jefferson introduced resolutions in Senate providing for national slave code, declaration that attacks on slavery unconstitutional

▪ Actually only wanted Democratic party to adopt them, not really expected Senate

The Election of 1860

▪ Democrats divided—N supported Douglas, S supported Buchanan

▪ Southern Democrats got the resolutions adopted as platform, so Douglas couldn’t run on that platform, so Democrats lost North’s votes

▪ Lower South withdrew—rest agreed to decide later in another convention

▪ Republicans nominated Lincoln + Hamlin—Lincoln safer and steadier than Seward

▪ Also Lincoln got votes of free labor, and Republicans built economic recovery issues into their campaign

▪ Constitutional Union party (Whigs) met and hoped to head off secession by nominating moderate, Bell

▪ Meanwhile, further split in Democrats caused N Democrats to nominate Douglas, S Democrats to nominate Breckinridge

▪ Republicans campaigned well and seemed the steady, strong alternative to vacillating Democrats—strongest argument against them was it would cause S to secede

▪ Republicans overwhelming victory, but Southern votes insignificant

Secession: The Confederate States of America

▪ Process by which this accomplished legal and orderly, not revolutionary, although deep emotion under all—transferred passion for US to Confederacy

▪ S Unionists tried to save the union, but most resigned to it being broken

▪ Few actually voted in poll to secede, and the ones who did were the pro-secession ones

▪ South Carolina waited for results of election, but could hold it no longer and meeting called—December 20, 1860, SC left and by February 1861, also Miss, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX—Feb 7, Confederacy formed

Failure of Compromise

▪ Buchanan didn’t recognize secession but didn’t want coercion, so asked Congress to make a compromise

▪ This was really the only hope for northern slavery states

▪ Nation had no leader—Buchanan lame duck and Lincoln not in power yet, so in Congress

▪ Crittenden suggested resolutions protecting slavery in Missouri Compromise line south to Pacific and in any future territory (i.e., the Caribbean), and the latter provision caused many to reject it

▪ Also proposed federal slave code, repeal of all personal liberty laws, and “unamendable” amendment guaranteeing slavery forever

▪ Republicans held firm, and so did Lincoln privately

▪ Crittenden offered referendum to people, but turned back—all compromise thwarted

▪ Peace conference in Virginia that was boycotted by South

▪ Confederate government already established and seizing federal military supplies

▪ Early in the year, changed his course, and appointed Union men to cabinet

▪ Fort at mouth of Charleston, Sumter, had Major Anderson and small garrison

▪ Buchanan tried to send them supplies, but driven off

Two New Presidents

▪ Davis: rich and then poor, former senator, secretary of war, tall, serious, took criticism badly, grew reserved from people who helped him

▪ Lincoln: unknown, poor, confident, emotional, grew into greatness as Prez

▪ Davis’s cabinet: constant change: Benjamin, Stephens

▪ Lincoln’s cabinet: strong men with few changes: Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Stanton

Fort Sumter

▪ Anderson running out of supplies

▪ Three weeks Lincoln vacillated between his cabinet’s advices—told Confederacy that he would provision the fort but no troops unless they attacked

▪ Gave Confederacy an ultimatum and put the decision on their shoulders

▪ Davis decided to ask Anderson when would evacuate fort—said noon April 15

▪ Davis bombarded him for hours April 12-23 but no one killed—Anderson surrendered

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