Chapter 10The Coming of the Civil War (1846-1861)

By Morey Hershgordon

Was the Civil War avoidable?• Yes if the United States of America…– Elected better leaders– Established a stronger national government

• The most influential book during the time period.• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852.• Millions of copies were sold to the US and elsewhere.• The books overall meaning is about how slavery was

very dangerous. The main character gets killed by his owner.

• Affect- showed may people that slavery was terrible and judging people by their skin color was very harsh.

•

NORTH vs. SOUTH

• North-1. Anti-slavery

2. Trains

3. Railroads/mileage- 21,700 miles (now they could transport and receive goods)

4. they had most agriculture (corn, wheat, oats tobacco)

5. Finance

6. Livestock (horses, cows, sheep)

7. Manufacturing (telegraph)

• South- 1. Pro-slavery

2. If you were rich you would own slaves to work on your plantation

3. Not much financial or livestock capabilities

Annexation of Texas• Texas wants to be annexed by the US after

declaring independence over Mexico.

• Northerners/Whigs opposed it because they felt it would add to a slave power state.

• Many people thought that this could possibly become a war with Mexico.

• 1845; 28th state of the union

Mexican-American War

Wilmont Proviso

• An agreement that would have closed California and New Mexico to slavery as a requirement for their annexation

• An effect after the war where an agreement was trying to be reached

• PA Democrat David Wilmont in 1846 made this agreement

Missouri Compromise (1820): Cause and EffectsCause

•Louisiana Purchase.

•Admitting Missouri as a state (proslavery or antislavery).

•Wanted to have an equal number of slave and free states in the Union.

Effects

•Slavery would be permitted in Missouri.

•Maine was created from northern Massachusetts as a separate, non-slave state.

•Kept an equal number of free and slave states in the Senate.

•Lands North of 36 degree 30’ N latitude would be free states.

•Did not settle the problem of whether slavery was allowed in unorganized territories in the West.

Compromise of 1850

• After California's population grew drastically in 1850, they wanted to be a apart of the Union as a free state.

HENRY CLAY John C. Calhoun Daniel Webster

Henry Clay’s Compromise (1850)5 laws that supported both NORTH and SOUTH.

1. Congress would not have California be a free state.

2. Residents of Utah and New Mexico would decide if slavery was legal.

3. Congress would put an end to selling slaves except in Washington D.C.

4. Texas gave up its claim to New Mexico for $10 million.

5. Fugitive Slave Act- ordered all people of the US to help return escaped slaves to their owners.

John C. Calhoun’s Compromise (1850)

• March 4, 1850- Senate gets together to hear his opinion. (a southern view because he is from South Carolina)

• “I have believed from the first…the subject of slavery…would end in disunion…” (Prentice Hall 357)

• Cause- North now had control of government and the South could not protect itself

Daniel Webster’s Compromise (1850)

• 3 days after Calhoun’s speech, Webster says, “ … as an American…I speak for the preservation of the Union.”

• Supported Clay’s response• Slavery was not practical in NM• Northern abolitionists were very disgusted

and accused him of putting financial matters first

Decline of Whigs-why?

• There was a huge change in political parties.• Rise of the know-nothings• Slavery issue badly hurt the Whigs• Never won another Presidential election at the end

of the 1850’s• Old issues like dividing political parties in 1830’s

were resolved • It was a new generation of leaders in the 1850’s• Any supporters in the 1830’s were dead or dying and

really had no say.

Rise of the Know-Nothings

• Nativism- movement to ensure that native born Americans got better treatment than immigrants. (3 million Europeans came to America between 1846-1854)

• 1854- Nativists formed a party called the “American Party” (this worked against Irish Catholic candidates)

• They succeeded in local elections in Northern States

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Popular Sovereignty

• Letting people in a territory decide whether or not to allow slavery rather than letting the Congress decide

Creation of the Republican Party• Summer 1854- people in the North had

meetings about the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and made a new party

• Republicans- got support from antislavery Free Soilers, Whigs, and Democrats.

• Made up of farmers, professionals, business owners

Bleeding Kansas/free soilers

• Free soilers- 1,200 New Englanders who were sent to Kansas to fight against slavery

• 1855- Kansas has 2 capitals1. Topeka- antislavery2. Lecompton- proslavery

• “Bleeding Kansas”- term that described the territory where the fights broke out. (John Brown and his sons had raided many proslavery settlers)

Bleeding Sumner• Charles Sumner-

1. Senator from Massachusetts2. gave a speech on May 20th titled “The Crime against Kansas”3. he talked “trash” about Andrew Butler4. attacked Southerners for demanding slavery in territories

• Andrew Butler- Senator from South Carolina

• Preston Brooks- 1. Andrew Butler’s nephew2. Member of the House of Representatives3. Beats Sumner with his cane, and Sumner never recovers from the

beating.

Election of 1856

1. James Buchanan- Pennsylvania Democrat

2. John C. Fremont- Republican

3. Millard Fillmore- American Party (former President)

• Buchanan wins by winning all of the Southern states votes and a few from the North.

Dred Scott Decision

• One of the most controversial decisions in US history• Dred Scott- enslaved man living in Missouri; filed a suit

against his owner.• Cause- he and his wife lived in US in a place where

slavery was not allowed and thought they were now free.

• Court- said ALL slaves were not citizens and could not sue.

Effects of the Dred Scott Decision

1. Slaves could not sue in court and were not citizens

2. Enslaved people could not win freedom by living in a free state/territory.

3. Missouri Compromise- ruled unconstitutional

Lecompton Constitution

• Fall 1857- Fall 1857- small proslavery group in Kansas make a convention to get a letter written to the Constitution about keeping the laws of statehood.

• President Buchanan allowed the Lecompton Constitution to pass.

Lincoln-Douglass Debates

• Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglass were vying in 1858 for a US Senate spot from Illinois.

• There were a total of 7 debates that took place all throughout Illinois.

• The main topic discussed was about slavery in territories and what should happen.

• Eventually Douglass won the election, and Lincoln wrote in a letter “he was glad to have taken part in the campaign”.

Lincoln-Douglass Debate

John Brown’s Raid

• October 16, 1859- John Brown attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia with 21 others (16 whites, 5 blacks)

• tried to seize weapons and give to slaves so that they could defend themselves when they would revolt

• Arsenal- a place where weapons are stored and made

• Colonel Robert Lee surrounded Brown’s men and killed half the men (2 of Brown’s sons)

• Convicted of treason• Sentenced to be hanged• He accepted his death sentence• Southerners called him a “tool of Republican

abolitionists.• The Northerners led solemn prayers on the day that he

was hung.• This even more made tensions worse between NORTH

v. SOUTH

John Brown (cont’d)

Election of 1860 (Democrats)

• April 1860-Democratic Party had a meeting for 10 days about who they were going to elect to run on behalf of the Democrats

• The northern state and southern states both had different views, so they split.

• N. Democratic nominee- Stephen Douglass• S. Democratic nominee- John C. Breckinridge

Election of 1860 (Republicans)

• Between William Seward (New York) and Abe Lincoln (Illinois)

• Delegates were worried that Seward was too antislavery to get Southern votes

• Choose Abraham Lincoln

Election of 18601. Abraham Lincoln (R. Illinois)- 180 electoral votes

2. John C. Breckinridge (D. Kentucky)- 72 electoral votes

3. John Bell- (Constitutional Union Tennessee)- 39 electoral votes

4. Stephen Douglass (D. Illinois)- 12 electoral votes

Lower South

• Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina (they secede, beginning on Dec. 20, 1860 over the next couple weeks)

• Confederate States of America- an association of the 7 seceding Southern states, formed in 1861.

• Secessionists- people who wanted the South to secede

• Southerners thought it was terrible that a President could be elected without any southern electoral votes.

Last Minute Compromises

• There were 3 “last minute compromises” that were attempted but could not be reached.

1. Slave south line 36 30’ in North

2. All Southern states would go to peace

3. Enforce US laws and commit to stopping the expansion of slavery.

Fort Sumter• Many southerners were still outraged outside and

around Charleston, South Carolina.• Fort Sumter- a federal fort on an island in

Charleston’s harbor.• After Lincoln was inaugurated, he made a speech

that promised the SOUTH there would be no war• April 6, 1861- Lincoln tells Gov. of South Carolina he

is sending a ship with food (no soldiers or supplies)• April 12, 1861- South opened fire on Fort Sumter

beginning the Civil War.

Upper South

• Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas• They secede and join Lower South in the

Confederacy.

• You have just been through one of the toughest and deadliest times in American History.

• Hopefully you now are thrilled to learn about the CIVIL WAR!!!