I. Popular Sovereignty and the Mexican Cession
    A. Intense debate over what to do with the Mexican Cession.
        1. Wilmot Proviso: New territory should be free of slavery
            a. Supported by northern antislaveryites
            b. Blocked in Congress by infuriated Southern senators
        2. Issue threatened to split both Whigs and Democrats along sectional lines
            -- Immediate strategy: Don’t do anything about the issue
    B. "Popular Sovereignty"
        1. Lewis Cass, 1812 War vet, became Democratic candidate for president in 1848
            a. Polk in poor health, decided not to run for reelection
            b. Cass reputed as the father of popular sovereignty
        2. Definition: Sovereign people of a territory, under general principles of the Constitution,
           should determine themselves the status of slavery.
        3. Supported by many because it kept in line with democratic tradition of self-
            determination.
            -- Politicians supported it as it seemed a viable compromise between extending slavery
                (Southern view) and banning it (northern Whig view).
        4. Fatal flaw: It could spread the "peculiar institution" to new territories.

II. Election of 1848
    A. Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, "Hero of Buena Vista"
        1. Noncommittal on slavery issue; yet owned slaves on LA sugar plantation.
        2. Supporters made sure he didn’t say anything provocative & played on his military record.
    B. Free-Soil party
        1. Coalition of northern antislavery Whig, Democrat, and Liberty Party men in the North
            distrusting Cass & Taylor
        2. Supported Wilmot Proviso; against slavery in the territories
            -- "Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men."
        3. Advocated federal aid for internal improvements & free gov’t homesteads for settlers.
        4. Van Buren nominated as presidential candidate
        5. Party foreshadowed emergence of Republican party 6 years later.
    C. Result: Taylor 163, Cass 127, Van Buren 0
        -- Free-Soilers won no states and did not actually affect the outcome of the election.

III. California statehood
    A. Gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill; prospectors in 1848 known as "forty-eighters"
        -- Numbers relatively small compared to following year
    B. 1849 -- Masses of adventurers flocked to northern California.
        1. Most did not make a profit; many returned home
        2. Those who provided services made money off the miners; laundry, stores, etc.
        3. Large speculators made handsome profits as they used heavy machinery and
            cheap labor to mine the rivers.
        4. Mostly single men looking to strike it rich; many outside the law
    C. Gold essentially paved the way for rapid economic growth in California
        1. San Francisco sprouted up in just months.
        2. Northern California became the state’s main population center.
            -- By 1850, California’s population had grown from 14,000 to over 100,000.
        D. CA drafted a Constitution in 1849 that excluded slavery and asked Congress for
           admission
            1. CA would bypass territorial phase, blocking southern chances to spread slavery.
            2. Southerners violently opposed CA statehood; saw another free state as a threat.

IV. Sectional balance in 1850
    A. South
        1. Had presidency, majority in the cabinet, and a majority in the Supreme Court
        2. Equal number of states in Senate thus strong veto power
    B. Yet, South deeply worried
        1. In 1850, 15 free and 15 slave states
        2. CA would tip the balance in the Senate and set a free-state precedent in the southwest
        3. New Mexico and Utah territories seemed leaning toward free state status.
        4. Texas claimed vast area east of Rio Grande (part of NM CO, KA & OK) and threatened
            to seize Santa Fe.
        5. Southerners angered by Northern demands for abolition of slavery in Wash. DC.
        6. Extremely angered over loss of runaway slaves, many assisted by North.
    C. When CA applied, southern "fire-eaters" threatened secession

V. Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave issue
    A. Consisted of informal chain of antislavery homes which hundreds of slaves
        were aided by black & white abolitionists in their escape to free soil Canada.
    B. Harriet Tubman ("Moses") (ex-slave from Maryland who escaped to Canada)
        1. Led 19 expeditions from her farm in Canada & rescued 300 slaves (incl. her parents)
        2. Served Union army in South Carolina as a spy during the Civil War.
    C. Jerry Loguen: Led hundreds of slaves to their freedom
    D. Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1842
        1. PA tried to prohibit capture and return of runaway slaves within its borders.
            -- Violated federal government’s fugitive slave law of 1793
        2. Supreme Court ruled state law unconstitutional since it was a federal power
        3. personal liberty laws passed by many Northern states which prohibited state
           officials from assisting anyone pursuing runaway slaves.
    E. Political. significance: by 1850 southerners demanded a new more stringent fugitive-slave law
        1. Old law passed by Congress in 1793 now seemed inadequate vis-à-vis runaways
            -- About 1,000 runaways successfully escaped per year.
                i. Small in number; more slaves bought their freedom than ran away.
                ii. Southerners infuriated in principle; Constitution not being obeyed.
        2. Unfriendly state authorities (e.g., Pennsylvania) failed to provide needed cooperation.
        3. Southerners blamed abolitionists; claimed they operated outside the law.

VI. Compromise of 1850
    A. Sunset of the "Great Triumvirate"
        1. Clay initiated his 3rd great compromise
            a. North & South should compromise; North should enact more effective fugitive slave
                legislation.
            b. Supported by Stephen Douglas, the "Little Giant"
        2. Calhoun (dying of TB) rejected Clay’s position as not being adequate safeguards.
            a. Leave slavery alone, return runaway slaves, give South rights as a
                minority (Concurrent Majority), and restore political balance.
        3. Webster supported Clay’s compromise (famous "7th of March speech" of 1850)
            a. Urged all reasonable concessions to the South, including tough fugitive law.
            b. Discouraged legislating on the territories since God had already passed the
                Wilmot Proviso -- climate prevented cotton in new territories.
                -- Ironically, CA became a leading cotton producer.
            c. Significance: Turned the North toward compromise
            d. Abolitionists assailed Webster as a traitor; had regarded him as one them
                -- Webster despised them; antislavery but pro-Union; never joined them.
        4. Meanwhile, William H. Seward (nicknamed "Higher Law" Seward by his adversaries) a
            younger northern radical, was against concession.
            a. Stated Christian legislators must obey God’s moral law as well as man’s law
            b. Slavery should be excluded from territories due to "higher law" than Constitition
    B. Threat of war
        1. President Taylor, swayed by Seward, seemed against concessions to South.
        2. Taylor determined to send troops to Texas if Texans armed against New Mexico.
            a. Would lead army himself and hang all "damned traitors." (Jacksonian)
            b. Would have started Civil War in 1850; southern states would have defended TX
    C. Road to Compromise
        1. Taylor died of cholera on July 9, 1850 and thus helped cause of compromise.
        2. Vice-president Millard Fillmore assumed the presidency; signed "Compromise of
            1850"
        3. Stephen Douglas most important in getting the bill passed through Congress.
    D. "Compromise of 1850" (Omnibus legislation -- passed in separate parts)
        1. California admitted as a free state
        2. Abolition of the slave trade in District of Columbia
        3. Popular sovereignty in remainder of Mexican Cession: New Mexico and Utah territories.
        4. More stringent Fugitive Slave Law (than 1793)
        5. Texas to receive $10 million from federal gov’t as compensation for its surrendering
           of disputed territory to New Mexico.
    E. Result
        1. North got better deal.
            a. CA tipped Senate in favor of the North
            b. Popular sovereignty in NM & UT territory probably in favor of North (desert)
            c. $10 million to Texas a modest sum; new area almost certain to be free.
            d. Halt of slave trade in Washington DC a step toward emancipating it.
        2. Fugitive Slave Law became the single most important frictional issue between
           north and south in the 1850s.
            a. Fugitive slave law a major blunder by South; seen by North as appalling
                i. Abolitionist movement given a big boost by the "Bloodhound Bill".
                    -- Spurred northern spirit of antagonism toward the South.
                    -- Southerners infuriated that law not executed in good faith
                ii. Slaves could not testify in their own behalf and were denied a jury trial.
                iii. Heavy fines & jail sentences for those who aided and abetted runaways.
            b. Some states refused to accept the Fugitive Slave Law
                i. Massachusetts made it illegal to enforce it (move toward nullification)
                ii. Other states passed "personal liberty laws" denying local jails to feds.
            c. Ableman v. Booth, 1859 -- Supreme Court upheld the Fugitive Slave Law.
        3. Compromise of 1850 won the Civil War for the North
            a. Bought ten precious years to expand economic growth and sentiment Union cause.
            b. Many northerners unwilling to go to war in 1850 for the Union cause.
            c. Inflammatory events in 1850s brought northern willingness to resist secession

VII. Election of 1852
    A. Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce (from NH)
        1. Essentially a pro-Southern northerner; acceptable to the slavery wing of the party.
        2. Campaign came out in favor of the Compromise of 1850.
    B. Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott ("Old Fuss & Feathers") but party fatally split
        1. Antislaveryites supported Scott but hated his platform of supporting Fugitive Slave Law
        2. S. Whigs supported platform but hated Scott; questioned loyalty on Comp. of 1850
    C. Result: Pierce d. Scott 254 - 42
    D. Significance: Marked effective end of Whig party; complete death 2 years later
    E. Significance of Whig party: Webster & Clay had kept idea of Union alive (both died in 1852)

VIII. Expansionism under President Pierce
    A. U.S. and Britain sought Central American isthmus (Nicaragua) as a potential canal waterway.
        1. War in Nicaragua seemed inevitable; Britain challenged Monroe Doctrine
        2. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850): Neither U.S. or Britain would fortify or secure exclusive
            control over any future isthmian waterway.
    B. America looks toward Asia
        1. Acquisition of California and Oregon territory gave U.S. access to the Pacific.
        2. Pierce sent U.S. warships led by Commodore Matthew Perry (brother of 1812
            War hero) to Japan to forcibly open trade with the 200-year isolationist Japan.
    C. Cuba
        1. Polk had offered Spain $100 million for Cuba; Spain categorically refused.
            a. Southerners hoped to carve several states out of Cuba and restore political. balance.
            b. Some southerners had invested in sugar plantations in Cuba
        2. 1850-51 -- two expeditions by private southern adventurers into Cuba failed.
        3. 1854, Spain seized U.S. steamer Black Warrior on a technicality.
            -- Southerners demanded a war with Spain to seize Cuba
        4. Ostend Manifesto
            a. Secret document whereby U.S. would offer $120 million for Cuba and if Spain U.S.
                would take it by force.
            b. News leaked out and angry northern free-soilers forced Pierce to abandon it.

IX. Gadsden Purchase (1853)
    A. U.S. concerned that CA & Oregon inaccessible by land & sea routes too tough
        1. Feared region might break away if direct land route not achieved
        2. Railroads seemed the key
    B. Debate: Should transcontinental railroad route run through the North or South?
        1. Too costly to have two railroads.
        2. Railroad would provide enormous benefits to the regions receiving it.
        3. Best route seemed partly below the Mexican border.
    C. 1853, U.S. purchased Mesilla Valley from Santa Anna for $10 million.
    D. Result:
        1. South boosted its claim to railroad
            a. Claimed all areas of line were either states or organized territory unlike North.
            b. Geography favored southern route since Rocky Mountains were lower
        2. North now tried to quickly organize Nebraska territory but the South opposed it.

X. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
    A. Stephen Douglas proposed carving Nebraska Territory into 2: Nebraska, Kansas
        1. Slavery issue would be based on popular sovereignty
        2. His main motive was to give Illinois the eastern terminus for the proposed Pacific railroad.
        3. Kansas would presumably become slave; Nebraska free
        4. 36-30 line prohibited slavery north of it; Kansas above it.
            -- Solution: Repeal Compromise of 1820
        5. Southerners fully supported it and pushed Pierce to support KS-NB Act
    B. Douglas successfully rammed the bill through Congress; great orator of his generation
        1. Northerners reacted furiously: some saw Compromise of 1820 as a sacred pact.
        2. Douglas miscalculated effects of his proposal on the North; more concerned
            with railroad, his state, and his presidential prospects than slavery issue.
    C. Kansas-Nebraska Act passed in 1854
        1. Northern reaction
            a. Refused to honor Fugitive Slave Law
            b. The antislavery movement grew significantly
            c. North unwilling to compromise on future issues
        2. Southern reaction
            a. Angry that northern free-soilers tried to control Kansas, contrary to the
                presumed "deal."
            b. Democratic party was shattered
        3. Effectively wrecked the Compromises of 1820 & 1850
    D. Birth of the Republican party
        1. Republican party formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
            a. Included Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other opponents of the
                Kansas Nebraska Act.
            b. Abraham Lincoln came out of political retirement and ran for the senate.
            c. Became nation’s 2nd major political party overnight.
        2. Republican party not allowed South of Mason-Dixon line.
    E. Considered by historians to be the main short-term cause of the Civil War.

XI. Antislavery literature
    A. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
        1. Wanted to show the North the evils of slavery by focusing on the splitting of slave
           families and the torture inflicted on slaves.
            a. Inspired by the Fugitive Slave Law
            b. "God wrote it"; Stowe a product of the 2nd Great Awakening
        2. Sold 300,000 in first year alone; over 2 million within a decade; best seller of
            all time in proportion to population; translated into many different languages.
            -- Immensely popular abroad especially Britain & France
        3. Social impact was the most pronounced of any American literary piece.
            a. Lincoln when introduced to her in 1862: "So you’re the little woman who
                wrote the book that made this great war."
            b. Impact on North
                i. Millions of Union soldiers had read it during their youth in 1850s.
                ii. Boosted the abolitionist movement
        4. South condemned it and shuddered that hundreds of thousands of northerners were
            reading such a vivid condemnation of slavery.
    B. Hinton R. Helper: The Impending Crisis of the South (1857)
        1. Non-aristocratic white from N.C. who hated both slavery and blacks.
        2. Attempted to prove statistically that nonslaveholding whites indirectly suffered the
            most from slavery.
        3. Unable to find a publisher in the South; book published in North by New York Tribune in
            an eight-column review.
        4. Impact
            a. Negligible among its targeted audience: poor southern whites
            b. Book banned in the South
            c. Abridged by Republicans in the North as propaganda in 1859 campaign.
            d. Southerners infuriated North using this book "of lies" against them.
                i. Provoked secessionist sentiment in South
                ii. Within 2 years, 15 novels written in response by proslavery writers

XII. "Bleeding Kansas"
    A. New England Emigrant Aid Company: Sent 2,000 into Kansas to prevent slavery
        from taking hold and to make a profit.
        -- Many came armed with breach loading rifles ("Beecher’s Bibles" -- after
            Henry Ward Beecher who helped raise money for their travel)
    B. Southerners infuriated by apparent northern betrayal -- attempts to abolitionize Kansas.
        1. Douglas’ scheme informally implied that Kansas would become slave & NB free.
        2. Armed Southerners sent into region (many from MO) to thwart northerners
        3. Ironically, struggle fought over imaginary blacks (only 2 slaves in Kansas in 1860)
    C. 1855 election in Kansas for first territorial legislature
        1. Proslavery "border ruffians" from MO poured into KS to vote repeatedly.
            -- Proslaveryites triumphed and created puppet government
        2. Free-soilers ignored the bogus election and established extralegal gov’t in Topeka.
    D. 1856, a gang of proslavery raiders shot up and burned part of free-soil Lawrence, Kansas.
    E. The caning of Charles Sumner
        1. Sumner a leading abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts, gave speech "Crime Against
            Kansas" where he lashed out at southern proslaveryites and insulted a S.C. Senator
        2. S.C. Congressman Preston Brooks retaliated by hitting Sumner over the head 30 times
            or more with an 11-oz gold-headed cane.
        3. The House of Reps could not find enough votes (122 to 95-- 2/3 needed) to expel
            Brooks but he resigned nonetheless, and was unanimously reelected by S.C.
        4. Sumner came to symbolize for the North the evils of the slavery system (along with
            bleeding Kansas issue)
        5. Blows to Sumner among the first blows of the Civil War, in a broad sense.
    F. Pottawatomie Massacre -- John Brown & followers, in May 1856, hacked 5 men to
        pieces with broadswords in response to attack on Lawrence (and the caning of Sumner)
        1. Brown an extreme abolitionist who saw himself as a holy warrior; exerted a
            messianic influence over his followers including his sons.
        2. Attack went unpunished by the legal process
    G. Civil war in Kansas ensued from 1856 and merged with Civil War of 1861-1865
    H. Lecompton Constitution (1857)
        1. Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood on popular sovereignty basis.
        2. Southerners, still in power since 1855, devised a tricky document
            a. People were not allowed to vote for or against constitution as a whole but
                voted for the constitution. with or w/o slavery.
            b. If people voted no on slavery, rights of slaveholders already in KS protected
        3. Infuriated free-soilers boycotted the polls
        4. Slaveryites approved constitution with slavery late in 1857.
    I. Federal debate on Kansas
        1. President Buchanan supported the Lecompton Constitution
        2. Senator Douglas fought furiously against it and the House defeated it.
        3. Compromise: Entire Lecompton Constitution re-submitted to popular vote in Kansas
            but pro-slavery Kansas rejected the proposal; Kansas statehood remained in limbo.
        4. Result: Free-soilers victorious but Kansas denied statehood until 1861 when
            southern secessionists left Congress.
    J. Impact on Democratic party
        1. Buchanan’s support for Kansas split the Democratic party along sectional lines.
        2. Republicans would win in 1860 at the expense of split Democrats
        3. Irony: Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska act created the party that would defeat his party while
            he supported the North in the Kansas controversy that split his party.
        4. Result: One of last strands binding the Union together (Dem. party) was severed.

XIII. Election of 1856
    A. James Buchanan chosen as Democratic nominee over Pierce (seen as too weak) and
        Douglas (who alienated the southern wing of the party after denouncing Lecompton
        constitution.)
        1. Pennsylvania lawyer who sympathized with southern views
        2. Party platform heavily supported popular sovereignty in the territories.
    B. Republicans nominated Captain John C. Ferment "Pathfinder of the West"
        1. 1^st presidential election for the new Republican party
        2. Party platform vigorously against the extension of slavery in the territories.
    C. American Party ("know-nothing") nativist in orientation
        1. Composed of primarily old-stock Protestants reacting to recent wave of Irish, German,
            Mexican & Chinese immigration; anti-Catholic (accused Ferment of being Catholic)
        2. Ex-president Millard Fillmore nominated.
        3. Supported by remnants of the dying Whig party.
    D. Buchanan d. Fremont 174 to 114; Fillmore 8.
         -- Violent threats of southern "fire-eaters",who claimed the election of a "Black
            Republican" would lead them to secede, forced many northerners to support Buck.

XIV. The Dred Scott Decision (March 6, 1857)
    A. Dred Scott had lived with his master for 5 years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory.
        1. Backed by abolitionists, he sued for freedom on basis of his residence on free-soil.
        2. 1854, federal circuit court upheld Missouri court’s denial of his suit for freedom.
            a. Ironically, courts decision to try case affirmed Scot’s status as a citizen
            b. Scott’s lawyers appealed case to the Supreme Court
    B. 80-year-old Marylander Chief Justice RogerB. Taney wrote the 55 page opinion.
        1. Taney had been a Jacksonian who helped destroy BUS while sec. of treasury.
        2. Main theme of his 22-year tenure on the Court was the defense of slavery.
    C. Decision:
        1. Dred Scott was a black slave and not a citizen and could not sue in federal courts.
            -- As a result, all blacks, north & south, were no longer citizens.
        2. Slaves could not be taken away from owners w/o due process of law. As private property
            (5th Amendment) slaves could be taken into any territory and held there.
        3. The Missouri Compromise was ruled unconstitutional; Congress could not forbid
            slavery in territories even if states wanted to. (KS-NB Act had already done this)
    D. Impact
        1. Many northern proponents of popular sovereignty horrified, including Douglas
            -- Further split Democratic party along sectional lines.
        2. Republicans infuriated; many claimed decision was merely an opinion not
            a decision and thus nonbinding.
            -- Southerners claimed that northern unwillingness to honor the Supreme Court’s
                decisions was further cause for disunion.

XV. Financial Crash of 1857
    A. Not as bad as Panic of 1837 but probably the worst psychologically in 19th c.
    B. Causes
        1. Influx of California gold into economy inflated currency.
        2. Crimean War overstimulated growing of grain
        3. Speculation in land and railroads backfired.
    C. Results
        1. Over 5,000 businesses failed within a year.
            -- North hardest hit; South’s cotton crop enjoyed high prices & demand
        2. Unemployment widespread
        3. Renewed demand for free farms of 160 acres from public domain land.
            a. Gov’t practice of selling land for revenue not effective
            b. Pioneers risked life to develop western land; deserved free land.
            c. Opposition
                i. Some eastern industrialists feared population drain to west.
                ii. Southerners feared homesteads would fill up territories with free-soilers; 160 acres
                    not enough for gang-labor slavery.
            d. In 1860, Congress passed a homestead act that made public lands
                available for 25 cents an acre.
                -- Vetoed by Buchanan who sympathized with southern leaders.
        4. Demand for higher tariff rates
            a. Tariff of 1857 had reduced rates to 20% as a result of embarrassing
                federal surpluses.
            b. Eastern industrialists now clamored for more protection.
        5. Republicans had two major issues for 1860: higher tariffs & homestead act.

XVI. Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) – Senate seat in Illinois
    A. Lincoln’s nomination speech: "A house divided cannot stand. I believe this government
        cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
    B. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven joint debates
    C. Freeport debate most famous -- Freeport Doctrine
        1. Lincoln forced Douglas to answer whether or not a territory could vote
            down slavery despite the Dred Scott decision.
        2. Douglas answered that territories could refuse to pass laws protecting
            slavery thus effectively ending slavery in that territory.
        3. Although Douglas and others had publicly answered this question before in Kansas issue,
           his position led to a split in his party and an end to his chances to win the presidency.
        4. Douglas’ popular sovereignty position prevailed in the election
        5. Despite his loss, the debates catapulted Lincoln into the national spotlight and became
           the political stepping stone to the Republican nomination in 1860.

XVII. John Brown attacks Harper’s Ferry
    A. Brown’s scheme: invade the South secretly with a few followers and lead slaves to rise,
        give them arms, and establish a kind of black free state.
        -- Gained financial assistance for weapons from certain northern abolitionists.
    B. October, 1859 -- Seized the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
        1. 7 innocent people killed including a free black; ten others wounded.
        2. Most slaves unaware of Brown’s strike; did not rise up in rebellion
        3. Brown trapped in armory and eventually surrendered to Capt. Robert E. Lee
    C. Brown and his followers were hanged after a brief but legal trial.
    D. Brown became a martyr in the North
        1. Abolitionists and free-soilers were infuriated by Brown’s execution.
            -- Some attributed Christ-like characteristics to him (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
        2. Moderate northerners, including Republican leaders, deplored Brown’s attack.
    E. Effects of Harper’s Ferry were ominous in southern eyes.
        1. Brown seen as an agent of northern abolitionism and anti-slavery conspiracy.
        2. Southern states began to organize militias for protection against future threats.
            -- Essentially, this was the beginning of the Confederate army.
        3. Perhaps the most immediate cause of disunion besides Lincoln’s election.

XVIII. Nominating conventions of 1860
    A. Democratic party split in two
        1. Met first in South Carolina with Douglas as leading candidate of northern wing.
            -- Southern "fire-eaters" regarded him as a traitor for his position on Lecompton and
                Freeport Doctrine and eight cotton states walked out of the convention.
        2. Next convention in Baltimore nominated Douglas while the Democratic party split in two
            a. Platform: popular sovereignty and against obstruction of Fugitive Slave Law by
                the states.
            b Again, many cotton-state delegates walked out and organized a rival convention
                in Baltimore where many northern states were unrepresented.
        3. Southern Democratic party nominated John C. Breckinridge:
           a. Kentucky moderate (not a disunionist)
           b. Platform: extension of slavery into territories and annexation of Cuba.
    B. Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee
        1. Wanted to preserve the Union; saw Bell as a compromise candidate.
        2. Consisted of former Whigs from the upper South and Know-Nothings
        3. Feared that a Lincoln victory would cause Deep South states to secede.
    C. Republicans nominate Abraham Lincoln
        1. Seward the front-runner but perceived as too radical for victory in general election.
        2. Republican platform (broadly based)
            a. Nonextension of slavery (for free-soilers)
            b. Protective tariff (for industrialists)
            c. No abridgment of rights for immigrants (disappointed "Know Nothings")
            d. Pacific railroad (for the Northwest)
            e. Internal improvements for the West at federal expense
            f. Free homesteads from the public domain (for farmers)
        3. Southern secessionists warned that the election of Lincoln would split the Union.
            a. Lincoln not an abolitionist; yet issued no statement to quell southern fears.
            b. Lincoln chose not to campaign; let his record stand on its own

XIX. Presidential election of 1860
    A. Lincoln elected president with only 40% of the vote; most sectional election in history.
        1. Lincoln won all Northern states except NJ and MO (180 electoral votes to 123)
            a. Lincoln not allowed on the ballot in 10 southern states
            b. S.C. rejoiced at the returns; now had their excuse for secession.
        2. Breckinridge won all the Deep South states plus AK, MD, and DE
        3. Bell won border states of VA KY and mid-slave state of TN
        4. Douglas won only MO and NJ but finished 2nd in popular votes
    B. South still had control of both Houses of Congress and a 5-4 majority on Supreme Court
        -- Antislavery amendment could be defeated by only 1/4 of states yet South had
            15 states (nearly half) that would prevent such an amendment.

XX. Southern states secede from the Union
    A. Four days after the election of Lincoln, the "Black Republican", South Carolina legislature
        unanimously called for a special convention in Charleston.
        -- December, 1860, 170 South Carolina unanimously voted to secede from the other states.
    B. Within six weeks, six other states seceded (MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX) all during
        Buchanan’s "lame-duck" period.
        -- Four others seceded in April, 1861, after beginning of Civil War (VA, AK, NC,TN) as
            they refused to fight their fellow southerners and agree to Lincoln’s call for volunteers.
    C. Confederate States of America formed in Montgomery Alabama meeting.
        -- Jefferson Davis chosen as president of provisional government to be located at
            Richmond, VA (after Fort Sumter).
    D. President Buchanan did little to prevent southern secession.
        1. Claimed the Constitution did not give him authority to stop secession with force.
        2. More significantly, northern army was small and weak and scattered on the frontier.
        3. Many of his advisors prosouthern
        4. Northern sentiment predominantly for peaceful reconciliation rather than war.
        5. Ironically, Lincoln continued Buchanan’s vacillating policy when he became president.
        6. Buchanan’s serendipitous wait-and-see policy probably helped save the Union.
            -- Use of immediate force would have probably driven border states of MD and KY to
                the South. This would have sealed the Union’s fate.
    E. Reasons for southern secession (mostly related in some form to slavery)
        1. Alarmed at the political balance tipping in favor of the North.
        2. Horrified at victory of the sectional Republican party which appeared to
            threaten their rights as a slaveholding minority.
        3. Angry over free-soil criticism and abolitionism, and northern interference
            such as the Underground Railroad and John Brown’s raid.
        4. Many southerners felt secession would be unopposed
            a. Northern industrialists dependent on southern repayment of loans and
                cotton could not afford to cut economic ties.
            b. Debts could be repudiated in case of war.
        5. Opportunity to end generations of dependence to the North.
            a. Independent South could develop its own banking and shipping while
                trading directly with Europe.
            b. No longer at the mercy of northern industrialists crying for higher tariffs.
        6. Morally they were in the right
            a. 13 original states had voluntarily entered the Union; now southern states
                were voluntarily withdrawing from it.
            b. Saw self-determination of the Declaration of Independence as applying to
                them. (Right to replace gov’t with one that meets the needs of the people)

XXI. Crittenden amendments -- final attempt at compromise
    A.. Proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky (heir to political throne of Clay),
    B. Designed to appease the South
    C. Provisions
        1. Slavery in the territories was to be prohibited north of 36-30 but was to be given full
           federal protection south of that line existing or "hereafter to be acquired" (as in the case
           of Cuba)
        2. Popular sovereignty for future states.
    D. Rejected by Lincoln; all hope of compromise was gone.
        -- Lincoln saw himself elected on the principle of nonextension of slavery.

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