THE ROAD TO THE CIVIL WAR

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THE ROAD TO THE CIVIL WAR
Part 3 Failure to Establish Effective Compromises
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1) Missouri Compromise of 1850
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Compromise of 1850

• Sectional strife over the new territories started
  soon after the end of the Mexican-American War
• During the Gold Rush, settlers had flooded into
  California, and the populous territory wanted
  statehood
• Californians had already drawn up a state
  constitution

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Californias constitution prohibited slavery, and
so the south opposed Californias bid for
statehood
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Proslavery forces argued that southern California
should be forced to accept slavery, in accordance
with the boundary drawn by the Missouri
Compromise of 1820

• The debate grew so hostile that Southern
  legislators began to discuss openly the
  possibility of secession.
• This led to one of the most intense debates in
  American History.

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Comp of 1850

Compromise of 1850

• John C. Calhoun
• North should honor the Constitution and enforce
  the Fugitive Slave Law
• South wanted California
• Threatened to secede from U.S.
• U.S. should have two Presidents---one from the
  North and one for the South
• These were his state sovereignty theories

• Daniel Webster
• Secession is impractical impossible
• How would we split the land?
• The military?
• Compromise at all cost
• Preserve the Union

• Henry Clay
• The Great Compromiser, with John C. Calhoun,
  Daniel Webster and Stephen Douglas, propose this
  compromise.

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Picture/S.Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

• U.S. Senator from the state of Illinois
• Solved the slavery issue through Popular
  Sovereignty
• Let the people in each territory decide through
  the process of voting whether they want slavery
  or not.
• Along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John
  C. Calhoun they proposed the Compromise of 1850.

Compromise of 1850

• California will be a free state
• Enforce Fugitive Slave Law
• Popular Sovereignty
• Stop slave trade in Washington, D.C.

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Map Comp of 1850
Popular Sovereignty Allow the people in a
territory to vote on whether they want slavery to
exist or not in their state.
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FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW

• The stricter enforcement of the Fugitive Slave
  Law was denounced by Abolitionists
• Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Toms Cabin
• Abolitionists refuse to enforce the law
• Underground Railroad becomes more active

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Fugitive Slave Law
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
RESPONSE BY ABOLITIONISTS An immoral law makes
it a mans duty to break it, at every hazard.
For virtue is the very self of every man. It is
therefore a principle of law that an immoral
contract is void, and that an immoral statute is
void. The Fugitive Slave Law is a statute which
enacts the crime of kidnapping, a crime on one
footing with arson and murder. A mans right to
liberty is as inalienable as his right to life
Ralph Waldo Emerson 3 millions of the American
people are crushed under the American Union! The
government gives them no protection the
government is their enemy, the government keeps
them in chains! The Union which grinds them to
the dust rests upon us, and with them we will
struggle to overthrow it! The Constitution which
subjects them to hopeless bondage is one that we
cannot swear to support. Our motto is, No Union
with Slaveholders.We separate from them, to
clear our skirts of innocent blood.and to hasten
the downfall of slavery in America, and
throughout the world! William Lloyd Garrison
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2) Uncle Toms Cabin
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Picture/Stowe
ABOLITIONISTS

• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abolitionist, authored the
  book Uncle Toms Cabin
• Book was used as propaganda to show the
  inhumanity of slavery.
• Southerners were enraged by this book and called
  it lies.

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In the closing scenes of Harriet Beecher Stowes
novel, Uncle Toms brutal master, Simon Legree,
orders the 1200.00 slave savagely beaten (to
death) by two fellow slaves. Through tears and
blood Tom exclaims, No! no! no! my soul aint
yours Masr! You havent bought it-----ye cant
buy it! Its been bought and paid for by One
that is able to keep it. No matter, no matter,
you cant harm me! I cant? said Legree,
with a sneer well see----well see! Here,
Sambo, Quimbo, give this dog such a breakin in
as he wont get over this month!
Reading/Toms Cabin
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Antislavery sentiments in the North grew stronger
in 1852 with the publication of Uncle Toms Cabin

• Stowe, a Northerner, based her damning depictions
  of plantation life on information provided her by
  abolitionist friends
• She wisely avoided political preaching, instead
  playing on peoples sympathies
• The book sold more than a million copies and was
  turned into a popular play that toured America
  and Europe
• It was an extremely powerful piece of propaganda,
  awakening antislavery sentiment in millions who
  had never before given the issue much thought
• It was in this atmosphere that Franklin Pierce,
  perceived in both the North and South as a
  moderate, was elected President

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FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW

• SOUTHERNERS RESPOND
• Southerners threatened secession and war
• A series of novels are published that portray
  slavery in a positive light
• Believed FSL should be enforced because of the
• 5th Amendment (Constitution protects property)
• Supremacy Clause (Federal law is higher than
  state law)

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3) Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
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Map Comp of 1850

• Congress wanted to build railways through the
  unorganized territory above Texas
• Stephen Douglas sought to address this with the
  Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

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Kan. Neb Act
KANSAS AND NEBRASKA ACT

• Douglas formulated and ushered through Congress
  a law that also gave popular sovereignty to
  residents in the newly formed named Kansas-
  Nebraska Territory
• However, it did not specify when or how they
  were to decide this issue

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• By opening the territories to slavery, the
  Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri
  Compromise of 1820, further destabilizing the
  political situation

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Map Kan/Neb Act
Popular Sovereignty Allow the people in a
territory to vote on whether they want slavery to
exist or not in their state.
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4) Bleeding Kansas
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Bleeding Kansas

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act provoked violence in the
  territories
• Both abolitionists and proslavery groups rushed
  into the territories, planning to form
  governments in hopes of winning the two future
  states for their side
• Just prior to the election for Kansas
  legislature, thousands of proslavery Missourians
  temporarily relocated in Kansas, resulting in an
  illegal, proslavery government

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Bleeding Kan
BLEEDING KANSAS
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in
1854, the Kansas territory became a battleground.
Pro-slavery and antislavery supporters rushed to
settle in Kansas. The territory was torn by
battles and massacres. The issue also bitterly
divided the nation and led to the formation of
the Republican Party.
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The new legislature, which President Franklin
Pierce recognized, promptly declared Kansas a
slave territory

• Abolitionists refused to accept this outcome and
  set up their own government
• Soon after, gangs from both sides roamed the
  territory and attacked the opposition

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Proslavery forces took Pierces recognition as a
license to expel the abolitionists, and they
demolished the abolitionist city of Lawrence.
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Map Bleeding Kan
BLEEDING KANSAS

• This was considered to be the first acts of
  violence between pro-slavery settlers and
  anti-slavery settlers.
• More than 200 people died in the conflict, which
  is how Kansas came to be known as Bleeding
  Kansas, or Bloody Kansas, during this period

(Led by John Brown)
Attacks by free-states Attacks by pro-slavery
states
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5) The Dred Scott Decision
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DRED SCOTT DECISION

• Slave from Missouri traveled with his owner to
  Illinois Minnesota both free states.
• His master died and Scott wanted to move back to
  Missouri---Missouri still recognized him as a
  slave.
• He sued his masters widow for his freedom since
  he had lived in a free state for a period of
  time.
• Court case went to the Supreme Court for a
  decision-----National issue
• Can a slave sue for his freedom?
• Is a slave property?
• Is slavery legal?

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Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the majority
decision

• He declared that slaves were property, not
  citizens and that no black person could ever be a
  citizen of the US
• Because blacks were not citizens, Taney argued,
  they could not sue in federal courts, as Scott
  had done
• He ruled that Congress could not regulate slavery
  in the territories, as it had in the Missouri
  Compromise

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DRED SCOTT DECISION

• Supreme Court hands down the Dred Scott decision

Slaves cannot sue the U.S. for their freedom
because they are property. They are not citizens
and have no legal right under the
Constitution. Supreme Court legalized slavery by
saying that Congress could not stop a slaveowner
from moving his slaves to a new territory The
decision not only nullified the Missouri
Compromise but also the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and
the concept of popular sovereignty.

• North refused to enforce Fugitive Slave Law
• They felt this was further evidence of the Slave
  Powers domination of government

• Southerners call on the North to accept the
  decision if the South is to remain in the Union.

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Reading/Scott decision
DRED SCOTT DECISION
Chief Justice Roger B.Taney in the case of Dred
Scott referred to the status of slaves when the
Constitution was adopted.
They had (slaves) for more than a century before
been regarded as beings of an inferior order and
altogether unfit to associate with the white
race, either in social or political relations
and so far inferior that they had no rights which
the white man was bound to respect. This opinion
was at that time fixed and universal in the
civilized portion of the white race.
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In the North, the Supreme Court decision was
viciously denounced

• Even those who lacked strong abolitionist
  sentiments feared that the decision tilted the
  balance of power too far in the Souths favor
• Many regarded the decision as further proof of a
  Slave Power that would soon dominate the entire
  country, perhaps even forcing slavery on those
  states that did not want it
• In response, many Northern states passed laws
  weakening the fugitive slave act.

Personal Liberty Laws Laws in Northern states
that required a trial by jury for all alleged
fugitives and guaranteed them the right to a
lawyer
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6) Death of John Brown
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Picture/J.Brown
JOHN BROWN

• Violent abolitionist
• Involved in the Bleeding Kansas
• Murdered 5 pro-slavery men in Kansas
• Wanted to lead a slave revolt throughout the
  South by raising an army of freed slaves and
  destroying the South.

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Picture/J.Brown
JOHN BROWN

• Attacked a U.S. Ammunition depot in Harpers
  Ferry, Virginia in Oct. of 1859 to capture
  weapons and begin his slave revolt.

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Picture/J.Brown
JOHN BROWN

• Unsuccessful and captured by USMC under the
  leadership of Robert E. Lee
• Put on trial for treason.

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Picture/J.Brown Hanging
JOHN BROWN

• He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to
  death.
• His last words were to this effect I believe
  that the issue of slavery will never be solved
  unless through the shedding of blood.
• Northerners thought of John Brown as a martyr to
  the abolitionist cause.
• Southerners were terrified that if John Brown
  almost got away with this, there must be others
  like him in the North who are willing to die to
  end slavery.
• Souths outcome To leave the U.S. and start
  their own country.

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John Brown Martyr or Madman?
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Reading/Tubman on Brown
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