How the Compromise

Collapsed

Chapter 12:The Failure of the Politicians

How the Compromise Collapsed

Ironically, President Pierce, who declared his administration would not be controlled by seeking land, was the man to go full speed ahead searching for new territory.

James Gadsden was sent to buy the northern part of Mexico and all of Lower California

Pierre Soulé went to Spain to buy Cuba.

Then after Hawaii was reached, Pierce looked into buying Alaska from the Russians.

How the Compromise Collapsed

Mexico had no interest, but sold a small tract south of the Gila River

Northern congressmen, however, were opposed.

The Gadsden Purchase was only approved after 9,000 acres were removed from the treaty.

Expansion was no longer a means of compromise.

South of Rockys

The Ostend Manifesto President Pierce wanted

to buy Cuba for slave territory but Spain would not sell.

Secretary of State William L. Marcy sent American ministers to Ostend in Belgium to shape the U.S. policy of Cuba in 1854.

The “Ostend Manifesto”, meant to be a secret dispatch to Marcy, reached the press and caused an uproar.

Marcy and his ministers

The Ostend Manifesto The ministers advised

the United States to take Cuba by force if need be.

Pierce and Marcy claimed to not want anything to do with this, but Pierce was now labeled as pro-slavery and a war-like expansionist.

The Ostend Manifesto firmly identified slavery with expansion.

William L. Marcy

The Kansas-Nebraska Act Keeping the question of

slavery out of congress was the only hope for the success of the Compromise of 1850.

Senator Stephen A. Douglas, architect of the Compromise of 1850, was the man to revive the slavery issue in Congress.

The American dream was to build a railway from the East to the West.

Only organized and surveyed land would be included because government grants controlled the railways.

Stephen Douglas

The Kansas-Nebraska Act Douglas

introduced a bill providing for Kansas and Nebraska Territory.

Southerners would not want a bill passed for anti-slavery states, and Douglas needed their votes.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act To win their support,

Douglas made two provisions.– Missouri Compromise of 1820

would be updated to Compromise of 1850

– Popular Soverignty would decide whether the two new states were free or slave states. (Kansas and Nebraska)

The Kansas-Nebraska Act He knew the promise

would cause problems, but he felt he needed southern votes and Pierce could help him.

In 1854 Douglas managed to have his Kansas-Nebraska bill passed. Southerners were happy, but Northerners held protests, transforming the question of slavery into a battle over the spread of slavery to new territories.

Expansion and Slavery The Congressional battle over slavery was about

where it did not exist and might never go. Northerners did not want the expansion of slavery or

to live near and compete with blacks. Several Midwestern states banned blacks. Southerners felt it was an attempt to bar them and

their property from territories. The thought the north was trying to prevent them from growing.

The New Republican Party In the North, the Kansas-

Nebraska bill was greeted by anger. Parties were formed to resist slavery expansion.

July 6, 1854, two new parties were founded. One new party was the Republican party, who took their platform against slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Fugitive Slave Act.

Congressional elections in November 1854 produced a revolution in American politics.

17951851-1852 ((Whigs vs. Democrats))

1854 ((Know Nothing & Republicans vs. Weakened Democrats))

1860s – North vs. South

The Old Whig Party was shattered and members joined other parties.

The Democratic Party stagger but did not collapse.

In 1852 Democrats were a substantial part of Congress, but in 1854 there were only 83 Democrats and 108 Republicans.

The New Republican Party

The Know-Nothing Party The other 43 representatives of

Congress in 1854 were members of the new Know Nothing Party.

Know-Nothings were a reaction to the flood of immigrants.

The Party grew out of the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, a secret association formed in 1849.

Its real name was the American Party.

The Know-Nothing Party The group seeks refuge in

hate and prejudice rather than real issues of their day.

Together, Republicans and Know-Nothings won enough seats to control Congress.

It was hard to tell Republicans and Know-Nothings apart, especially when a majority were both.

Bleeding Kansas Douglas thought

slavery troubles were banished from Congress to the west.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act did bring blood-shed to Kansas.

Popular sovereignty did not say when a territory could decide about slavery.

Bleeding Kansas The Northerners and Southerners raced to the

territory to be the first to decide the fate of the land.

Antislavery New Englanders raised money to rush emigrants to Kansas.

They used guns to fight for popular sovereignty rather than votes.

Bleeding Kansas Violence in Kansas was

inevitable but the situation became critical only twice.

In May 1856 a proslavery sheriff led a mob into antislavery Lawrence, sacking and burning the town.

Antislavery messiah John Brown led a party including his four sons to a Pottawatomie Creek settlement. They split the men’s skulls there and killed them.

Somehow Kansas avoided becoming a territory of total anarchy and civil war.

Antislavery messiah John Brown

Charles Sumner is Attacked Charles Sumner delivered a

speech called “The Crime Against Kansas” to the Senate using insulting words to attack the south.

Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina was a nephew of a senator and avenged this hate on May 22, 1856 by beating Sumner at his desk with a cane.

Brooks resigned and was reelected. He became a southern hero.

Sumner became a Northern martyr and never regained his health.

Before his return, the empty seat proclaimed northern and southern leaders were no longer on speaking terms.

Brooks beats Sumner with a cane

Quote “Did John Brown fail? John Brown

began the war that ended American Slavery and made this a free republic. His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior

to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun.’ I

could live for the slave, John Brown could die for them.” –

Frederick Douglass