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Chapter 12
The Failure of the Politicians
Election of 1848
Polk does not seek re-election
Democrats and the Whigs do not confront
the problem of sectionalism
Issues not on either party's
platform
Democrats - Lewis Cass no stance on slavery
Whigs - Zachary Taylor, who owned many slaves
- no platform
Free-Soilers - Martin Van Buren
Free-Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men
Taylor wins the election
Zachary Taylor- "Old Rough and Ready"
- James Polk referred
to him as a narrow-minded bigot
- not a politician
- slave owner, but not sympathetic
- 40 years in army-very
nationalistic
California Gold Rush ----> Sutter's Mill
Gold Rush adventurers, 49'ers came by Wagon
Train;
Cape Horn; Panama
Population explosion in California
Taylor encourages the writing of a
state constitution and application for statehood
In 1849
15 Free States
15 Slave States
All hell
breaks loose!
Taylor meets with southern leaders who threaten secession
Angry Taylor responds that he would
do anything to preserve the Union
7/4 1850- Washington Monument
Taylor has dessert, milk and cherries
-five days later he is dead
Millard Fillmore becomes President
**
Compromise of 1850
(January
- September)
Problem - 15 slave, 15 Free
New Territories and statehood,
keeping the balance in the Senate
Key issue- the expansion of slavery
Key Players
- Daniel Webster, fierce nationalist from Massachusetts
- William Seward, antislavery Whig from New York
- John C. Calhoun, near death
(actually cannot
read his speech)
- Henry Clay of Kentucky and his protege'
Stephen Douglass of Illinois
Southerners
are ready to secede,
but Nashville Convention fails
Taylor dies - Fillmore is President
Fillmore was
a good politician
His Cabinet quits;
he appoints Daniel Webster as Secretary of State
He supports Clay
Clay proposes the Compromise of 1850
-California is admitted as free state
-boundary of Texas was established
-Texas debt of 10 million was paid
-Popular Sovereignty in New Mex &Utah
-slave trade abolished in DC
-strict
Fugitive Slave Law
Effects-
Balance never again in Senate.
South had to closely watch Congress
Immigrants
avoided south, settled in North and the West
Railroads gave free states economic superiority
-Strong Fugitive
Slave Laws
Provision of the Compromise of 1850
Federal Marshall had to assist in the capture of runaway slaves
Northern abolitionists were furious and countered with the passing of State Liberty Laws which nullified the Fugitive
Slave Laws (ironic)
Underground Railroad -
Harriet Tubman "Moses" series of safe houses and
stopovers which would now re-route into Canada
Election of 1852
Franklin Pierce - Democrat who endorsed the Compromise
(won in 27 out of 31 states)
Whigs - General Winfield Scott
Pierce wins big!
Gadsden Purchase -
puts final touches into Southern California
Ostend Manifesto - Belgium,
from Wm. Marcy to Pres. Pierce
concerning Cuba
Pierce is branded a wild pro-slavery expansionist
Uncle Tom's Cabin -
Harriet
Beecher Stowe
a Northerner who never experienced slavery first hand
She attacked the institution of slavery,
not the southern people
Situations and dialogue - unreal but very powerful.
300,000 copies sold
- won people over
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Transcontinental Railroad Debate
Jefferson Davis
- southern route to New Orleans
Stephan Douglas - mid-west(Chicago)
* repealed the Missouri Compromise
prohibiting slavery north of 36'30
* Kansas and Nebraska Territories would be organized along the principles
of popular sovereignty
Fair for both, but......
Northerners were against the expansion of slavery because they
felt it was morally incorrect and they did not want to live near or compete with Blacks
New Republican Party
-
formed to resist the expansion of slavery
-saw it as a moral and political evil
-demanded the repeal of Fugitive
Slave and
Kansas-Nebraska Acts
Congress 1854 - 108 New Repub
- 83 Democrats
- 43 Know -Nothings
Know-Nothings (American Party)
Nativists
Platform - combat political influence of immigrants, especially
R.Catholics
eventually absorbed by pro-slavery
Kansas Problems - free or slave
influence felt by
both sides.
Thousands of pro-slavery Missourians
crossed border and voted illegally
Anti-Slavery Kansans
drew up their own constitution and elected a free govt
President Pierce sided with the pro-slavery government
In Congress, Charles Sumner verbally attacks the Kansas issue and insults to Sen. Butler of So. Carolina.
Butler's
cousin -
Congressman Preston S. Brooks beats him with cane!!
Bleeding Kansas
In response to popular
sovereignty
North and South rushed into Kansas
May, 1856, pro-slavery sheriff led mob into anti-slavery area,
sacking and burning the town
In an act of revenge, John Brown led a raid against pro-slavers.
They dragged
5 men from their beds
and split open their skulls.
Over the next few years, violence increased causing about
200 deaths.
Election of 1856
Democrat
James Buchanan (popular Sovereignty)
Republican John
Freemont - "Pathfinder of West"
- no slavery in terr
- admit a free Kansas
Know-Nothings Millard Fillmore
Buchanan carried all the Southern States
plus 5 Northern States
*Polk and Jackson on James Buchanan,
the new minister to Russia under Andy Jackson
* James
K. Polk on Buchanan
"He is an able man, but in small matters without judgment. He sometimes acts like an old
maid".
Polk did appoint him Sec of State
More Fuel on the Fire
Dred Scott v Sanford
(1857)
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's
decision rendered Scott a slave.
Political Consequences
-personal
property, compromise, and popular sovereignty
Panic of 1857
Causes: California Gold
Over-speculation, railroads
over production of grain
*Producers of King Cotton felt secure
*Kansas again
-Lecompton constitution
Pro-slavers draft it up, but a legitimate vote rejects it
Lincoln/Douglas
Debates-
United State Senate 1858 - Illinois
Douglas was badly hurt by the Dred Scott Decision because of Popular
Sovereignty.
Douglass admits he does not consider slavery morally wrong
North is now alienated!!
He argued against the Lecompton Const
thus alienating the South
Lincoln - self-educated lawyer
Not an abolitionist - slavery was wrong but should be contained and not allowed to spread in new territories
Congress
had the right to prohibit slavery in the new territories
He did not believe in social or political
equality
for Blacks
Debates
Douglas tried to smear Lincoln as a fanatical abolitionist
Freeport, Illinois
Lincoln asks of Douglas (after the Dred Scott Decision) what if the people of a territory should vote slavery
down? Supreme Court said that they could not in the Decision.
Who would prevail?
The Douglas answer becomes
the Freeport Doctrine
Douglas argued popular sovereignty his consistent position
Illinois backed him, but
he alienates the South and his national prominence
Lincoln emerges as a Presidential prospect
John
Brown and Harpers Ferry
"God's angry man"
"the meteor"
His radical actions caused the
South to begin to organize their militia
Election of 1860
The Democratic National Convention in Charleston,
SC
Stephen Douglas was primary candidate
Southern "fire-eaters" regarded him as a traitor
Entire body dissolved in confusion
Meet again in Baltimore
Northern Democrats nominate Douglas
Another break in the convention by "fire-eaters"
they nominate
John Breckinridge - Kentucky,
moderate but favoring the expansion of slavery into the territories
Another middle of the road group organize the
Constitutional Union Party.
They nominate John Bell of Tennessee.
Their slogan
"The Union, the
Constitution, and the Enforcement of Laws."
Republican Convention in Chicago
William Seward v
Abraham Lincoln
With less enemies Abe wins nomination
Branded as an abolitionist, he hated slavery but
did not call for its end
Platform - free-soiler
non-extension of slavery
railroads
immigrants
protective tariff
Democratic Party Split,
giving the election to the
Republicans
Candidate Popular Electoral
Vote Vote
Lincoln 40%
180
Douglas 29% 12
Breckinridge 18% 72
Bell 13% 39
Lincoln is the winner, but....
-a minority President
60% voted for someone else
a sectional President
not allowed on the ballot for ten Southern States!
The Republicans won the executive
office but did not
win the either House.
Their was no real threat of the Federal Government abolishing slavery where it existed.
(only
an amendment could do it)
The Secessionist Exodus
Four days after the election
South Carolina's
state
legislature voted to secede from the Union
During the next six weeks - 6 more
followed by four later. Total -
11
Feb, 1861 - they created the
Confederate States of America
In Montgomery, Alabama,
they chose
Jefferson Davis of Miss. as Pres
All of this happened, Buchanan stood pat and did nothing
Lincoln would
not take office until March 4, 1861
A failed Compromise - Dec, 1860
The Crittenden Amendment
- 36'30
- a line of demarcation for slavery
*rejected by Lincoln
(anti-expansion)
Jeff Davis
to the Confederate Congress,
"all we want is to left alone".
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