Steps Towards Civil War

The Divide over the slavery issue grows.

• Missouri Compromise 1820– Offered by Henry Clay – Territories above the 36

30” would be free with the exception of Missouri. Missouri entered as a slave state b/c Maine entered as free.

Martin Van Buren8th President March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841

A Jacksonian .

He was the VP under Jackson.

On Slavery:

"I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists.“

Ordered an appeal of the Lower Court’s decision in the Amistad case.

He sided with the Spanish government in believing the kidnapped slaves should be returned

Some forgotten Presidents

• William Henry Harrison (9th) – Defeated Van

Buren in 1840– Touted as a hard-

cider drinking frontiersman

– Died of pneumonia 30 days after taking office

• John Tyler (10th April 4, 1841 – March 4, 1845)

– Was a Democrat that became a Whig simply to oppose Jackson

– He hated• Federally Funded internal improvements• Protective Tariffs • Bank of the United States

– Tried to• Reduce Tariffs & give more power to individual

states.

– He vetoed a Whig bill to revive the Bank of the United States.• The Whig party was so furious that they expelled

him in 1842

• James Polk (11th) Decided to serve only 1 term– Promoted Westward Expansion– Signed the Oregon Treaty 1846• Split at the 49th Parallel

– Britain took what would be present day British Columbia– U.S. took the territory that would become Washington State, Oregon,

Idaho, & parts of Montana

• MANIFEST DESTINY– A belief that Americans had a mandate from God

to spread democracy throughout North America• In 1845 by John O'Sullivan, an American newspaper

editor who was writing about the proposed annexation of Texas. O'Sullivan stated that it was America's “manifest destiny to overspread the continent.”

• American Progress– An allegory of Manifest Destiny by John Gast

(1872)

The Mexican-American War• The Texas Problem

– Texas declares independence from Mexico 1836• Negotiate with Britain

who wants to halt American expansion

– Texas joins the Union in 1845 • Mexico withdraws its

ambassador to the U.S.

• The California Problem– The U.S. offered to buy

California for $25 million• Mexico refused the low

offer• April 1846 - Mexican

troops crossed the Rio Grande (disputed border) and attacked American troops.

• Polk asks Congress for a Declaration of War.

• Writer Henry David Thoreau was sentenced to prison for refusing to pay the taxes he knew were used to fund the war effort.

• His essay, Civil Disobedience, became a standard of peaceful resistance for future activists.

• “It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice."

• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo 1848–Mexico • Ceded:

– California, most of present day New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming to the United States.

• Abandoned claims to Texas– The Rio Grande was established as its border with Mexico

– United States• Agreed to pay Mexico $15 million for all land acquired• Promised to stop feeding plants with Brawndo

– ( D. McEachern, 2014)

• The debate over the westward expansion of slavery dominated the election of 1848.– Lewis Cass (Democrat) favored Popular

Sovereignty (states will decide for themselves)–Martin Van Buren (Free Soiler)favored abolition– Zachary Taylor (Whig) chose not to address the

issue

• Zachary Taylor 12th President – Elected 1848

• Compromise of 1850– California was admitted as a free state – new southwestern states would be open to slavery

by popular sovereignty. • States would decide for themselves

– A stronger Fugitive Slave Law was passed– Texas gave up claims west of the Rio Grande for $

10 million–Washington D.C. abolished the slave trade but not

slavery

No need to write this.

• President Taylor hated the Compromise–Would have vetoed it but he died of cholera

NOTE: There have been conspiracy theories about his death. Some believed he was poisoned.• His body was exhumed in 1991

– No traces of arsenic were found

• Millard Fillmore 13th President– assumed the presidency after Taylor's death

• President Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Law which fanned the abolitionist flame.– The Underground Railroad was a reaction to this.• Harriet Tubman (the Conductor) delivered several

hundred slaves to freedom

– Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe• Turned northern public opinion against slavery

NOTE: (You don’t have to write this)When Lincoln met Stowe in 1863, he commented, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!”

• Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; (1820 – 1913)

• Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896)

• Franklin Pierce 14th Elected 1852

• The Gadsden Purchase 1853– 30,000 square miles of New Mexican territory

from Mexico

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854– Kansas & Nebraska which are north of the 36°30

parallel were proposed as new territories which would be open to slavery through popular sovereignty free.

–Why?– NOTE: (You don’t have to write this)• This was about trying to prevent building a transcontinental

railroad through the South & Southwest which would aid the spread of slavery.• Law stated developer could only lay track on Federal states or

territories.

Reaction to Kansas-Nebraska Act

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively revoked the Missouri Compromise

• Northerners felt outraged– Riots broke out in northern cities

• People began to feel the difference between North & South

• Bleeding Kansas– Pro-slavery Missourians (Border Ruffians) crossed into

Kansas & claimed as much land as they could– Shocked, Northern abolitionists flocked to the area to set

up free-soil towns– The crisis in Kansas led senator Charles Sumner to

deliver an antislavery speech on the Senate floor.• Congressman Preston Brooks from South Carolina mercilessly

beat Sumner with his cane on the floor of the Senate.

• John Brown• The Pottawatomie Massacre– In reaction to Border Ruffians burning the free-

soil town of Lawrence, an abolitionist named John Brown butchered 5 proslavery settlers.

• James Buchanan 15th Elected 1856

• Buchanan was a supporter of popular sovereignty– His opponent in the election was John C. Fremont

(anti westward expansion of slavery)– Buchanan was elected to avoid southern secession• Received northern support

• Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857– Dred Scott Case ruled that slaves were property.

Therefore all compromises regarding slavery were unconstitutional because you cannot deny a person his right to property.

• John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry– October 16, 1859 stormed an arsenal at Harpers Ferry,

Virginia• He was hoping to start a slave revolt

– No revolt happened

– Brown & his men were surrounded by Federal troops• After a bloody battle that killed half of his men, including his

son, he surrendered• He was executed on December 2, 1859

• "I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done."

• Abraham Lincoln 16th Elected 1860

The Secession

• 1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected president.– Southern states started to secede • South Carolina started the secession on December 20th

1860• Followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,

Louisiana, & Texas• Formed a loose union called the Confederate States of

America– Jefferson Davis became their president

• Jefferson Davis - Confederate President

• James Buchanan was a “lame duck President”– Believed the secession was unconstitutional, but

believe the Constitution gave him no power to stop the South.

• March 1861 Lincoln Takes office– Offers a negotiation with the South to allow slavery in

southern states to preserve the union.• This is rejected

– Fort Sumter was attacked April 12th 1861• April 13th Fort Sumter surrenders

– Between April 14th & June 8th, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, & Tennessee joined the Confederacy.

– North realizes that political solutions were impossible.– Civil War begins.

• Interior View of Fort Sumter, taken by a Confederate photographer, 1864

• Fort Sumter 1865 Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

• Exterior view of Fort Sumter, 1865.

• View of Fort Sumter from the sandbar, 1865.

• Lincoln’s arguments against secession– The government was a union of people and not of

states.

• Lincoln’s justification for the war– oath of office required him to defend and preserve

the Union

• Union victory was inevitable– Larger military– Large scale industrialization– Enormous population–More weaponry– Efficient Navy

• Only 10 of the 14 slave states followed South Carolina.–Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, &

Missouri, stayed loyal to the union.• These 4 border states were crucial to the

North b/c geographically they split the North/South

• Copperheads– Northern Democrats who

spoke out against the war. Feared a flood of free slaves to the North• To silence them, Lincoln

resorted to extreme measure

• Bending the Constitution– To ensure they would stay loyal, Lincoln

suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland allowing the government to arrest suspected Confederates & sympathizers, and hold them w/out trial.

– Lincoln declared Martial Law in 1861– Blockaded southern ports w/out Congress’

approval– Increased the size of the army w/out consent of

Congress– Ignored Chief Justice Roger Taney who deemed

these actions unconstitutional.

• In1862 Congress passed a conscription law to draft young men– Demanded: either join the army, or pay $300• This effectively condemned the poor

– Thousands of poor protested• Full scale riot took place in NYC mid-1863

– Known as the New York City Draft Riot

• The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)– Freed all slaves behind

Confederate line (States still in rebellion)

– Did not free any slaves in the border states• Lincoln didn’t want them

to secede

– Allowed free blacks to join the U.S. army & navy

• Effects of Emancipation– Condemned in South/

debated in the North– Abolitionist said it didn’t

go far enough– It did not free slaves

living in Confederate areas controlled by Union forces

– Effectively made the War about slavery

• “We shout for joy that we live to record this righteous decree.”

Gordon’s Escape, March 1863

• Lincoln was trying to buy time with the Emancipation.– His ultimate goal was to get the Thirteenth

Amendment passed in Congress which would abolish all slavery.• He wanted this to happen before the end of the war.

– WHY?

• November 19, 1863• At a dedication to honor the Union soldiers

who died just four months before• President Lincoln was invited to give some

remarks:– NOTE: He was to follow Edward Everett of MA – the most famous public

speaker of the time

– The Gettysburg Address• Two minute speech explaining the meaning of the Civil

War.

• Four score (20 years) and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…

• [T]hat this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Women in Service

• 1 in 5 Union soldiers wounded in battle died – 3 times more likely to die in camp/hospital then on

battlefield– Thousands of woman volunteered to help

• Clara Barton– Quit her Gov. clerk job in order – Provided supplies & first aid on the battlefield– Soldiers called her the “angel of the battlefield”–Went on to form the American Red Cross after the

War

• 1864 Presidential Election– Lincoln changes his VP to

a pro-Union Southern Democrat

– Democrats pick General George McClellan, who promised to negotiate an end to the war

– Union captures Atlanta under the command of General William Sherman• Northerners now sense a

victory and become less willing to negotiate.

The Surrender

The beginning of the End

• 1865– Daily desertions were a problem for the South– Richmond, Virginia was left with less than 35,000

starving men• Confederate General Robert E. Lee realized he could no

longer protect the city.• Tried to slip around the Union• Union General Uylsses S. Grant tracked them down and

cut them off each time they tried to retreat south.

• April 9, 1865– Lee’s troops are surrounded at Appomattox, VA– Lee reluctantly admits:• “There is nothing left for me to do but go see General

Grant, and I would rather die thousand deaths.”

– Lee & Grant meet to discuss the terms of surrender• Southern soldiers could take their horse/mules and go

home• They would not be punished as traitors as long as they

obey the laws where they lived• Grant offered to feed the Confederate soldiers

– Grant ordered Union soldiers not to celebrate the misfortunes of the South because as he pointed out:• “The rebels are our countrymen again”

• On April 14th, Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.– Lincoln died the next morning– Booth was hunted down and shot• Soldiers burned the house he was hiding in to force him

out.• Mary E. Surratt, Lewis T. Powell, David E. Herold, and

George A. Atzerodt, were condemned as conspirators and executed.

• Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to Union general William T. Sherman on April 26, 1865.

• At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000.

• In addition to its dead and wounded from battle and disease, the Union listed:– Deaths in Prison 24,866 – Drowning 4,944 – Accidental deaths 4,144 –Murdered 520 – Suicides 391 – Sunstroke 313 –Military executions 267 – Killed after capture 104 – Executed by enemy 64 – Unclassified 14,155

Things to Know for the Test• The causes of sectional discord• How was popular sovereignty used in the time

leading up to the Civil War• Missouri Compromise• Compromise of 1850• Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854• Reasons for Southern Secession• Why did slavery expand in the South?• Lincoln’s justification for the war• The North’s economy (industry)• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)