Chapter 19 Drifting Toward Disunion
- Slavery question intense during 1850s.
o Kansas Territory into violence 1855
o Dred Scott decision 2 years later invalidated MO Compromise of 1820 which had previously closed slavery problem.
o 1860 newly formed Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln (outspoken opponent of slavery expansion), civil war was due.
Stowe and Helper: Literary Incendiaries
- 1852 sectional tensions furthered by Uncle Tom’s Cabin
o Dismayed by the Fugitive Slave Law, Harriet Beecher Stowe determined to awaken North to wickedness of slavery, esp focusing on splitting of families.
- Relied on powerful imagery and pathos.
o “God wrote it” – deeper sources of antislavery sentiment was in religious crusades of Second G.A.
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin very successful
o Millions published and translated into scores of languages.
- No other novel in American or perhaps all of history as strong a political force.
- Especially popular in Britain and France.
· Wept over kindly Tom, angelic Eva, and evil Simon Legree.
· Govs in London and Paris had previously considered intervening on behalf of the South, but realized that many of own people aroused by “Tom mania” might not support them.
o Lincoln: “So you’re the little women who wrote the book that made this great war”
- Was true as South angered and many readers and youths who read books would join antislavery cause and fight in the Union.
- 1857 The Impending Crisis of the South by Hinton R. Helper, nonaristocratic white from NC
o Hated both slavery and blacks
o Attempted to prove via stats that nonslaveholding whites were ones who suffered most from slavery.
- Influence negligible among poor whites as it was banned in the South
- HV in North, many were distributed as campaign literature by Republicans.
The North-South Contest for Kansas
- Kansas providing example of worst workings of popular sovereignty.
- Most of newcomers ordinary west-ward moving pioneers, small proportion were abolitionists or free-soilers.
o Most famous of antislavery organizations was New England Emigrant Aid Company.
§ Sent 2000 people to forestall the South and to make a profit.
· Would carry Sharps rifles aka “Beecher’s Bibles” (after Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bro) who had helped raise money for their purchase. (how does this “make a profit”)
- MW South felt betrayed as they thought that after Kansas Nebraska scheme, that Kansas would become a slave state and Nebraska a free state.
o Now thought that “Nebrascals” were out to make both states free.
o TF southerners attempted to “assist” small groups of slaveowners into Kansas.
§ HV bringing slaves into Kansas not profitable.
· Slaves were valuable property and could easily be endangered where there was violence in Kansas, and where soil might be voted free under popular sovereignty.
o AR 1860 2 slaves/107,000 people in Kansas, 15 in Nebraska.
- TF 1855 when it was time for Kansas to elect members of the first territorial legislature, proslavery “border ruffians” voted early and est. own puppet government.
o AR free soilers est. illegal regime of their own.
o TF Kansans could choose b/w a fraudulent and a illegal government
- MW violence over soil when 1856 gang of proslavery raiders shot up part of freesoil town of Lawrence.
Kansas in Convulsion
- John Brown obsessively dedicated to abolitionist cause.
o Brooding over recent attack on Lawrence, “Old Brown” of Osawatomie led followers to Pottawatomie Creek 1856 and hacked to pieces 5 surprised men presumed to be proslaveryites.
§ AR retaliation from proslaveryites.
- Civil war in Kansas would merge into Civil War of 1861 – 1865
- Kansas conflict would destroy millions dollars’ worth of property, paralyze agriculture in some places, and cost scores of lives.
- MW 1857 Kansas had enough people (mostly free-soilers) to apply for statehood on a popular sovereignty basis.
o TF proslaveryites created Lecompton Constitution.
§ People were not allowed to vote for or against a constitution as a whole, but for a constitution either “with slavery” or “with no slavery”
· If they voted against slavery, then that constitution would also protect owners of slaves already in Kansas.
· TF whatever outcome, would still be slavery in Kansas.
o AR many free-soilers mad and boycotted polls.
- TF proslaveryites with no opposition, approved the constitution w/ slavery 1857.
- MW Pierce succeeded by just as inflexible Buchanan who was strongly under southern influence.
o Unaware of divisions within his Democratic Party and supported the Lecompton Constitution.
o MW Douglas was for true popular sovereignty and gave up his support from South and fought for fair play.
- Outcome was compromise that submitted entire Lecompton Constitution to a popular vote.
o AR free-soilers revoked it
o Kansas would remain territory until 1861, when southern secessionists left Congress.
- MW after Buchanan antagonized Douglas democrats in North, divided the once-powerful Democratic party.
o Previously had been only national party as Whigs were dead and Republicans were sectional.
o TF death of Democrats = breaking of last party that binded Union together.
“Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon
- 1856 Senator Charles Sumner of MA was a leading abolitionist
o One of few prominent in political life.
o HV also one of most disliked men in Senate.
o Against Lecompton Constitution and delivered “The Crime Against Kansas” speech.
§ Condemned proslavery men.
§ Also insulted SC and Senator Andrew Butler, one of the best liked members of the Senate.
- AR Congressman Preston Brooks enraged
o Code of honor called for a duel
§ But in the South one only fought with their equals, and Sumner’s insults had dropped him to a lower order.
o AR Brooks went to Sumner and pounded orator w/ cane until it broke.
§ Victim unconscious, bleeding.
- AR while Sumner was wrong to insult; the attack put Brooks in the wrong.
o House of Representatives could not muster enough votes to expel Brooks
§ When Brooks resigned, he was triumphantely reelected.
o MW injuries to Sumner’s head serious and forced to leave seat for 3 ½ years.
§ MA also defiantely reelected him, leaving his seat eloquently empty.
- TF “Bleeding Sumner” joined with bleeding Kansas.
- North condemned South, published copies of Sumner’s abusive speech where it made senator doubtless that he is of abolitionist’s cause and won thousands of Republican votes.
- MW South did not fully approve Brooks, but angered b/c of Sumner’s speech and b/c it was applauded in the North.
“Old Buck” vs. “The Pathfinder”
· MW 1856 Democrats nominated James Buchanan
o Stayed away from Pierce and Douglas – both too tainted by Kentucky and Nebraska Act
o Was away in London during Kansas-Nebraska Act, TF was “enemyless”
· MW for Republican party, met in Philadelphia
o “Higher Law” Seward was most conspicuous (obvious) candidate, and would have won nomination was he confident that this was a “Republican Year”
o HV final choice John C. Fremont.
§ Aka “Pathfinder of the West”
§ Explorer-surveyor.
§ Virtually w/o experience, but like Buchanan was not harmed from the Kansas Nebraska Act and therefore was enemyless.
· Republican platform against extension of slavery while Democrats declared for popular sovereignty.
· Antiforeignism present in campaign
o Recent influx of immigrants from Ireland and Germany alarmed “nativists”
o AR organized the American party aka Know-Nothing Party (b/c of its secretiveness)
§ In 1856 nominated ex-president Millard Fillmore.
o Know-Nothing Party were antiforeign and anti-Catholic
o “Americans Must Rule America”
§ Attracted Whigs, threatened to cut into Republican strength.
· A lot of mudslinging in 1856 campaign
The Electoral Fruits of 1856
· Buchanan won electoral college though not popular vote.
o Fremont lost due to doubts of his honesty, capacity and judgment.
§ Also due to threats of southern “fire-eaters” that election of a sectional “Black Republican” would be declaration of war on them, forcing them to secede.
§ TF northerners anxious to save Union and profitable business voted for Buchanan.
o TF conservatism triumphed.
· Was fortunate for Union that secession and civil war did not come in 1856
o Fremont was no Abraham Lincoln
o 1856 North more willing to let South depart in peace than in 1860
o MW Republicans could claim a “victorious defeat”
§ Were a new party, and dealt considerable damage to Democratic machine.
The Dred Scott Bombshell
· Dred Scott decision considered one of the worst decisions made by the Supreme Court
· Was a black slave who lived w/ master for five years on free soil.
o TF sued for freedom on basis of his long residence on free soil.
· Ruled that Dred Scott was a black slave and not a citizen, and therefore could not sue in federal courts
o Denied blacks their citizenship – threatened the ¼ million free blacks’ position in South.
· MW Court could have ended there alone, but made the situation more complicated.
o Under Chief Justice Taney (from MD) leadership, ruled that b/c slave was private property, he/she could be taken into any territory and belegally held there in slavery.
§ Reasoning > 5th Amendment forbade Congress to deprive people of their property w/o due process of law.
o MW also called by saying Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.
§ Previously MO Compromise (banned slavery north of 36 30) was repealed 3 years earlier by Kansas-Nebraska Act.
· HV spirit still present through North.
· Now Court ruled that MO Compromise had no power to ban slavery from territories regardless of what territorial legislatures themselves might want.
· South in victory but terrified northern democrats incl. Douglas
o TF increased difference b/w Democratic party.
· MW foes of slavery extension esp. Republicans infuriated by Dred Scott setback.
o Argued that ruling of Court was an opinion, not a decision.
o Majority of the justices were southerners.
The Financial Crash of 1857
· Crash not as bad as Panic of 1837.
· The Financial Crash of 1857
o Crash not as bad as Panic of 1837.
o HV psychologically was probably worst panic of 19th century.
o Causes of the crash
§ Californian gold inflated currency
§ Demands of Crimean War over stimulated growth of grain
§ Speculation of land and railroads ripped the economic fabric
o 5000 businesses would fail, in addition to unemployment and hunger meetings
o “Bread or Death”
· North was the hardest hit
o HV South enjoyed favorable cotton prices abroad
o Panic conditions appeared to prove that cotton was king and therefore stronger than the North.
o Drove south to delusion that they were stronger.
o MW due to financial distress, North had new demand for free farms of 160 acres from public domain.
§ Previously some had encouraged federal government to abandon ancient policy of selling land for revenue
§ HV now the argument was that federal government should grant acreage to sturdy pioneers as a reward for risking themselves to get the land.
· HV scheme to provide land as gifts had two oppositions:
o Eastern industrialists had long been unfriendly to free land (feared their underpaid workers would go to West instead)
o South opposed b/c slavery could not flourish on 160 acres
§ TF free farms would fill up territories rapidly w/ free-soilers
· AR of debate 1860 Congress passed homestead act.
o HV vetoed by Buchanan who supported the southerners.
· Panic of 1857 also created higher tariff rates.
o Several months before panic had made Tariff of 1857 due to large Treasurey surplus.
o Tariff responded to pressures from South
o > Reduced duties on goods to 20%
§ Lowest point since War of 1812
o Then the panic set in, and northerners suffered from less protection, TF pointed towards the need of higher duties.
§ AR of Panic of 1857 Republicans had two economic issues to fight for; protection for the unprotected and farms for the farmless.
An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges
- MW elections for Illinois senator
o Douglas’ term about to expire and Republicans eager to run against him w/ Abraham Lincoln.
o Largely self-educated, not born into the elite.
o The most Uncommon Common Man.
o Married into higher Todd family.
o Was “Honest Abe” because he would refuse cases that he had to suspend his conscience to defend.
o Had previously been a typical political figure.
o HV after Kansas-Nebraska Act, he emerged as one of foremost politicians and orators of NW.
o 1856 Republican convention where Fremont was nominated, Lincoln received 110 votes for VP nomination.
The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas
- Lincoln as Republican nominee for Senate seat challenged Douglas to joint debates.
o HV Douglas was probably nation’s strongest debater.
- Previously two contestants ill-matched
o Polished, “Little Giant” Douglas contrast to thin Lincoln.
o Most famous debate in Freeport, Illinois.
- Lincoln: “Suppose the people of a territory should vote slavery down? The Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision had decreed that they could not. Who would prevail, the Court of the people?
· Answer was the Freeport Doctrine
- “No matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down. Laws to protect slavery would have to be passed by territorial legislatures. These would not be forthcoming in the absence of popular approval and slavery would soon disappear.
o Had American history on Douglas’ side, where when public opinion does not support federal gov (Jefferson’s embargo), law was almost impossibile to enforce.
o AR Douglas defeated Lincoln for Senate seat.
o “Little Giant’s” loyalty to popular sovereignty had powerful appeal in Illinois.
o Previously Senators chosen by state legislatures and more were pro-Douglas than pro-Lincoln.
- HV less pro-Douglas in the people and more Lincoln, where “Honest Abe” won a clear moral victory.
o MW Lincoln achieved attention as prominent northern politician, to emerge as potential Republican nominee for president.
- Also, Douglas lowered his own chances of winning presidency by winning Illinois.
o Also further split the divided party.
- After Douglas opposition to Lecompton Constitution for Kansas and opposition of the Supreme Court at Freeport, southern democrats determined to secede rather than accept him.
o TF Lincoln-Douglas debate platform was preliminary battlefields of the Civil War.
John Brown: Murderer or Martyr?
- Had secret plan to invade South secretly w/ followers, call upon slaves to rise, arm them, and est. a black free state as a sanctuary.
o Harper’s Ferry 1859 seized federal arsenal and incidentally killed innocents incl a free black, and injuring some more.
o HV slaves were largely ignorance of Brown’s strike and failed to rise.
o AR John Brown and remnants failed and U.S. Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee lead soon captured his army.
§ E. Lee would soon become general in Confederate army.
o “Old Brown” convicted of murder and treason after hasty but legal trial.
§ Presumed to be insane by relatives who were trying to save him.
§ HV Brown knew he would be worth much more to abolitionist cause dangling from rope than another.
§ AR his demeanor during trial dignified and courageous
- South saw entire North as a “murderous gang of abolitionists”, dominated by Brown-loving” Republicans.
- MW abolitionists and ardent (char’d by fervor) angered by Brown’s execution.
o Though many ignorant of his past and his purposes, outraged that VA hanged so earnest a reformer who was working for so righteous a cause.
§ Ralph Waldo Emerson would compare him to Jesus.
The Disruption of the Democrats.
- 1860 was most fateful presidential election in American history.
o On issue of peace or civil war.
- Democrats deeply divided
o Douglas as leading candidate of northern wing of party.
o HV southern “fire-eaters” saw him as traitor due to his unpopular stand on Lecompton Constitution and Freeport Doctrine.
§ Soon delegates from cotton states walked out and rest could not make 2/3 vote for Douglas.
o AR entire body dissolved and first secession was that of the southern delegates in DNC. Departure became habit forming
§ Would try again in Baltimore.
o This time northern democrats more united and though southern delegates would leave, rest of convention managed to nominate their hero.
- Platform for popular sovereignty, against obstruction of the Fugitive Slave Law.
o AR angered southern democrats organized rival convention in Baltimore, where most of northern states not represented.
§ Elected leader as the current VP (?) John C. Breckinridge, moderate.
o Platform favored extension of slavery, and annexation of slave-populated Cuba.
- MW new party emerged fearing for Union
o Constitutional Union party, condemned as the “Do Nothing” party.
o Consisted of former Whigs and Know-Nothings
§ A veritable (true) “gathering of gray-beards” (conservatives)
o Desperate to nominate a compromise candidate.
§ Would nominate John Bell of Tennessee.
o “The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws”
A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union
- Republicans presented w/ opportunity as opponents were divided.
- Gathered in Chicago in a Wigwam (huge, boxlike wooden structure)
o Seward was best known of candidates, but his radical utterances incl. “irrespressible conflict” speech 1858 (referred to an “irrepressible conflict” b/w slavery and freedom, though not necessarily a bloody one” (how was this damaging?)) had ruined his prospects (future).
§ “Success Rather Than Seward.
o Lincoln was second best known candidate and had fewer enemies.
o Would be nominated, overtaking Seward on the third ballot (there was a first ballot?)
- Republican platform appealed to every important non-southern group.
o Free-soilers (nonextension of slavery), northern manufacturers (protective tariff), immigrants (no abridgement of rights), West (internal improvements at federal expense) (wouldn’t that anger the East?), farmers (free homesteads from public domain).
§ “Vote yourselves a farm” > “Land for the Landless”
- MW South condemned Lincoln as the rail-splitter would split the Union.
o HV “Honest Abe” hated slavery, but was no outright abolitionist.
§ As late as Feb 1865 agreed to favor compensation to freed slaves.
o HV for time being saw fit that he issued no statements to compromise w/ south as this would stir up antagonism in the North.
- Enthusiastic support for Lincoln.
o “Little Giant Killer”, “Woodchopper of the West”, “High Old Abe” for Lincoln
o Douglas “Little Giant” supporters: “We want a statesmen, not a rail-splitter as President”.
§ Char’d vigorous speaking campaign but also threatened any secessionists.
The Electoral Upheaval of 1860
- Was more of a minority president than any other who was voted into presidency (except John Quincy Adams – how was he a minority president?)
o 60% of voters preferred some other candidate.
o Also a sectional president
§ For 10 states in south was not allowed on ballot.
§ 1860 election had virtually one in North, other in South.
o MW after Lincoln won, SC had excuse to secede.
- MW Douglas drew strength from all sections and ranked fairly close second in popular vote.
o Douglas and Breckinridge Democrats together had 365,000 more votes than Lincoln.
§ Myth that if Democrats had united behind Douglas, would have triumphed
§ HV others say that even if “Little Giant” received all electoral votes earned by all of Lincoln’s opponents, Lincoln still would have won more electoral votes due to populous states in North and NW.
- HV ballots still did not have strong sentiment for secession
o Breckinridge favored extension of slavery but was no disunionist.
§ Although a candidate of the “fire-eaters” in the slave states, he polled fewer votes than the combined strength of Douglas and Bell
o MW South not badly off.
§ Had 5-4 majority in Supreme Court.
§ Republicans controlled neither Senate nor House of Reps.
- TF fed gov could not remove slavery in states where it existed except by constitutional amendment where such an amendment could be defeated by ¼ of the states.
- Where 15 slave states nearly ½ of total.
The Secessionist Exodus
- SC had previously threatened to secede if “sectional” Lincoln won.
o 4 days after election, SC legislature voted unanimously to call a special convention.
o 1860 SC unanimously voted to secede.
§ In next 6 weeks, 6 other states of Deep South would secede: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, LA, and Texas (though some of these states were less united)
§ Four more to join later after attack on Fort Sumter, bringing total to 11 states the seceded.
- 1861 Montgomery Alabama, created a gov known as Confederate States of America.
o Chose president as Jefferson Davis
§ West Pointer w/ military and admin experience.
- MW crisis deepened by “lame duck” interlude (would be shortened to 10 weeks by 1933 by 20th Amendment)
o Lincoln would have to wait 4 months in March 4 1861.
o During this time period he was still private citizen in Illinois.
- MW Buchanan blamed for not holding seceders in Union by sheer force.
o Although he was a Unionist, was surrounded by prosouthern advisers.
o Did not believe that southern states could legally secede, but could find no authority in Constitution to stop them w/ guns.
§ “Oh for one hour of Jackson!” – advocates of strong-arm tactics.
§ Buchanan also could not use force as tiny standing army of 15,000 were then widely scattered, and urgently needed to control Indians in West.
o MW Public opinion in North thought fighting would ruin all possibilities of compromise.
§ TF weakness lay in Constitution and the Union itself.
§ When Lincoln became president, would continue Buchanan’s wait-and-see policy.
The Collapse of Compromise
- Desperate attempts to compromise by Senator James Crittenden.
o Proposed Crittenden amendments to the Constitution designed to appease (give peace) to South.
§ Slavery in territories to be prohibited north of 36 30, but south of that line it was given federal protection in all territories existing “hereafter to be acquired” (incl. Cuba)
- Where future states north or south of 36 30 could come into Union w/ or w/o slavery, as they should choose.
- Where slavery supporters were to be guaranteed full rights in southern territories, regardless of the wishes of the majority under popular sovereignty.
o AR federal protection in south might (though improbably) turn entire area permanently into south.
- HV Lincoln flatly rejected Crittenden scheme and all hopes for compromise gone.
o Had kept his word due to his platform. Later gains may come in Cuba and Mexico
§ “Crittenden’s proposal would amount to … war against every people”
- “Old Fogy” Buchanan was in hard position to prevent Civil war
o If he used force on SC in Dec 1860, fighting would have erupted 3 months sooner, and would have less favorable circumstances for Union.
§ North would have appeared as aggressor.
o MW the border states would probably be driven to support their “wayward sisters”
Farewell to Union
- Secessionists left for number of reasons, mostly related to slavery.
o Alarmed by “the despotic majority of numbers”
§ “crime” of the North was the census returns.
o Dismayed at triumph of new sectional Republican party (which appeared to threaten their rights as a slaveholding minority)
o Weary of free-soil criticism and northern interference from Underground Railroad to John Brown’s raid.
§ “All we ask is to be let alone”
- Many southerners supported secession b/c they felt that departure would be unopposed.
o Confident that Yankee would not or could not fight.
§ Believed that northern manufacturers and bankers were very heavily dependent on southern cotton and markets.
§ If war would come, the immense debt owed to northern creditors by South could also be repudiated (rejected) as it later was.
o Argued was an opportunity to end “vassalage” to North.
§ Dixieland could develop its own banking, shipping and trade directly w/ Europe.
§ Tariff of 1857 was low, but feared that Republicans would win control of Congress and drive own protective tariff.
o MW worldwide sentiments of nationalism (then stirring in Italy, Germany and Poland, etc) affected the South.
§ South had own distinctive culture and was more of a subnation.
§ TF principles of self-determination, of Declaration of Independence appeared to be applicable.
· Few seceders felt they were doing anything wrong
§ “13 original colonies had voluntarily entered the Union, and now seven (ultimately 11) southern states were voluntarily withdrawing from it”
o Historial parallels: 1776 it was away from King George III, now 1860-1861 Jefferson Davis, 11 states to throw off “King” Abraham Lincoln.
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