A.P.
Chapter 19: “Drifting Toward Disunion”
~
1854 – 1861 ~
I.
Stowe
and Helper: Literary Incendiaries
1. In 1852, Harriet Beecher
Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a popular book that awakened the
passions of the North toward the evils of slavery.
2. The book sold millions of
copies, and overseas, British people were charmed by it.
i.
The
book helped
3.
Another
book, The Impending Crisis of the South, was written by Hinton R.
Helper, a non-aristocratic white North Carolinian who tried to prove, by an
array of stats, that the non-slave-holding Southern whites were really the ones
most hurt by slavery.
i.
Published
in the North, this book and Uncle Tom’s Cabin were both banned in
the South but widely read in the North.
II.
The North-South Contest for
1. Northerners
began to pour into
2. Thus,
on election day in 1855, hordes of Southerners from
i.
Thus, confused Kansans had to chose between two
governments: one illegal (in
3. In
1856, a group of proslavery raiders shot up and burned part of
1. John
Brown, a crazy man (literally), led a band of followers to Pottawatomie
Creek in May of 1856 and hacked to death five presumable proslaveryites.
i.
This brutal violence surprised even the most ardent
abolitionists and brought swift retaliation from proslaveryites.
2. By
1857,
i.
If the constitution was passed “without slavery,” then
those slaveholders already in the state would still be protected.
ii.
Angry free soilers boycotted the polls and
3. In
4. Senator
Stephen Douglas, refusing to have this fraudulency, threw away his
Southern support when he fought for a fair election, and the result was the
Lecompton Constitution voted on as a whole.
5. Thus,
the Democratic Party was hopelessly divided, ending the last remaining national
party for years to come (the Whigs were dead and the Republicans
were sectional).
IV.
“Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon
1. “Bleeding
2. Congressman
Preston S. Brooks decided that since he couldn’t challenge Sumner to a
duel, he’d beat the senator with a cane like a dog, which is just what he did
until his cane broke; nearby senators did nothing but watched, and Brooks was
cheered on by the South.
3. However,
the incident touched off fireworks, as Sumner’s “The Crime Against Kansas”
speech was reprinted by the thousands, and it put Brooks and the South in the
wrong.
V.
“Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder”
1. In
1856, the Democrats had chosen James Buchanan, someone untainted by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act and a person with lots of political experience, to be their
nomination for presidency against Republican John C. Fremont, a fighter
in the Mexican-American War.
2. Another
party, the American Party, also called the “Know-Nothing Party” because
of its secrecy, was organized by “nativists,” old-stock Protestants, who
nominated Millard Fillmore.
i.
These people were anti-Catholic and anti-foreign and
also included old Whigs.
3. The
campaign was full of mudslinging, which allegations of scandal and conspiracy.
4. Fremont
was hurt by the rumor that he was a Roman-Catholic.
VI.
The Electoral Fruits of 1856
1. Buchanan
won because there were doubts about Fremont’s honesty, capacity, and sound
judgment.
2. Perhaps
it was better that Buchanan won, since Fremont was not as strong as Lincoln,
and in 1856, many people were still apathetic about slavery, and the South
could have seceded more easily.
VII.
The Dred Scot Bombshell
1. On
March 6, 1857, the Dred Scot decision was handed down by the Supreme Court.
i.
Dred Scot had been a slave whose master had
taken him north into free territory, where he had lived for many years. After his master’s death, he sued for his
freedom from his new master, claiming that he had been in free territory. The Missouri Supreme Court agreed, freeing
him, but his new master appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overruled the
decision.
2. Chief
Justice Taney said that no slave could be a citizen of the U.S. in his
justification
3. The
case inflamed millions of abolitionists against slavery and even though who
didn’t care against it.
i.
In effect, he ruled that the Missouri Compromise had
been unconstitutional: Congress had no right to ban slavery from the
territories.
4. Northerners
complained; Southerners were inflamed by northern defiance, and more tension
built.
VIII.
The Financial Crash of 1857
1. Psychologically,
the Panic of 1857 was the worst of the 19th century, though
it really wasn’t as bad as the Panic of 1837.
2. The
panic was caused by inflation and overgrowth of grain and nowhere to export it.
3. The
North was especially hard hit, but the South rode it out with flying colors,
seemingly proving that cotton was king and raising their egos.
4. Also,
in 1860, Congress passed a homestead act that would provide 160 acres of land
at a cheap price for those who were less fortunate, but it was vetoed by
Buchanan.
i.
This plan, though, was opposed by the northeast, which
had long been unfriendly to extension of land and had feared that it would
drain its population even more, and the south, which knew that it would provide
an easy way for more free soilers to fill the territories.
5. The
panic also brought calls for a higher tariff rate, which had been lowered to
about 20% only months before.
IX.
An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
1. In
1858, Senator Stephen Douglas’ term was about to expire, and against him was
Republican Abraham Lincoln, an ugly fellow who had risen up the
political ladder slowly but was a good lawyer and a pretty decent debater.
X.
The Great Debate: Lincoln versus Douglas
1. Lincoln
rashly challenged Douglas, the nation’s most devastating debater, to a series
of seven debates, which the senator accepted, and despite expectations of
failure, Lincoln held his own.
2. The
most famous debate came at Freeport, Illinois, where Lincoln brought this
scenario: if the people had a territory voted slavery down, would they be
right, despite the Supreme Court saying that they could not do so?
i.
Douglas replied with his “Freeport Doctrine,”
which said that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down
if the people voted it down; the people had the power.
3. Douglas
won, but more people voted for Abe, so he won the moral victory.
XI.
John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
1. John
Brown now had a plan to invade the South, seize its arms, call up on the slaves
to rise up and revolt, and take over the South and free it of slaves, but in
his raid of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the slaves didn’t revolt, and he was
captured and convicted of treason and sentenced to death.
2. Brown,
though insane, was not stupid, and he portrayed himself as a martyr against
slavery, and when he was hung, he instantly became a martyr for abolitionists;
northerners rallied around his memory.
3. The
South was happy, but abolitionists were infuriated by his execution (they
conveniently forgot about his violent past)
XII.
The Disruption of the Democrats
1. After
failing to nominate a candidate in Charleston, South Carolina, the Democrats
split into North and South, and at Baltimore, the Northern Democrats nominated
Stephen Douglas for president while the Southern Democrats chose John C.
Breckinridge.
2. Meanwhile,
the “Know-Nothings” chose John Bell of Tennessee.
XIII.
A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
1. The
Republicans, sensing victory against their split opponents, nominating Abraham
Lincoln, not William Seward.
2. Their
platform had an appeal to every important non-southern group: for free soilers
it proposed non-extension of slavery; for northern manufacturers, a protective
tariff; for the immigrants, no abridgement of rights; for the West, internal
improvements at federal expense; and for the farmers, free homesteads.
3. Southerners
threatened that Lincolns election would result in Southern secession.
4. Lincoln
wasn’t an outright abolitionist, since as late as February 1865, he had still
favored cash compensation for free slaves.
5. Abe
Lincoln won despite not even being on the ballot in the South.
XIV.
The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
1. Lincoln
won with only 40% of the popular vote, and had the Democratic Party been more
organized and energetic, they might have won.
2. The
Republicans did not control the House or the Senate, and the South still had a
five to four majority in the Supreme Court, but the South still decided to
secede.
XV.
The Secessionist Exodus
1. South
Carolina had threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected president, and now
it went good on its word, seceding in December of 1860.
i.
Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas followed in the next six weeks.
2. The
seven seceders met in Montgomery, Alabama in February of 1861 and created the Confederate
States of America, and they chose Jefferson Davis as president.
3. President
Buchanan did nothing to force the confederacy back into the Union, partly
because the Union troops were needed in the West and because the North was
still apathetic toward secession; they felt that it was better that the South
had seceded.
XVI.
The Collapse of Compromise
1. In
an attempt at compromise (again), James Henry Crittenden of Kentucky
proposed the Crittenden amendments, which would ban slavery north of the
36°30’ line and would leave the issue in territories south of the line up to
the people; also, existing slavery south of the line would be protected.
2. Lincoln
opposed the compromise, which might have worked, because his party had preached
against the extension of slavery, and he had to stick to principle.
3. It
also seems that Buchanan couldn’t have saved the Union no matter what he could
have done.
XVII.
Farewell
to Union
1. The
seceding states did so because they feared that their rights as a slaveholding
minority were being threatened, and were alarmed at the growing power of the
Republicans, plus, they believed that they would be unopposed despite what the
Northerners claimed.
2. The
South also hoped to develop its own banking and shipping, and to prosper.
3. Besides,
in 1776, the 13 colonies had seceded from Britain and had won; now the South
could do the same thing.
