Slavery and Sectionalism: The Political Crisis of 1848-1861

Chapter 12

Political Realignment Chapter 12.2

The Tenuous Peace

• The Compromise of 1850 and a return to prosperity calmed American anxieties about recent territorial expansion and the battle over slavery.

• A movement within the Democrats – Young America, sought to continue America’s expansion into Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as increase America’s presence abroad.

• Franklin Pierce – Elected in 1852 – was an ardent proponent of expansion who proposed annexation of Hawaii, Alaska, and Cuba

• Other expansionists raised small personal armies of “filibusters” to take control of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act • Plans for developing the territories in the west created controversy in the years

following the tenuous peace brought on by the Compromise of 1850. • The issue of the route of a proposed Transcontinental Railroad became contentious both

northerners and southerners wanted the line to run through their respective states.

• Southerners refused to allow the railroad to be built through a northern route without a repeal of the ban on slavery north of 36˚30’

• Stephen Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the ban on slavery north of 36˚30’ and created two separate territories (Kansas and Nebraska) out of the unorganized western territories.

• The Kansas Nebraska Act set off a fierce debate in Congress as northerners refused to approve it because it handed more land to the “slave power”

• The Act, which passed in 1854, proved even more contentious than the Compromise of 1850 as Americans split politically along regional lines

Political Change

• The Whig party split into various factions by 1854 which would ultimately coalesce into a new political party – The Republicans, based on opposition to slavery and “The Slave Power” of the South.

• The Democratic party became predominantly centered in the South as pro-slavery Whigs joined the Southern Democrats and coalesced around a pro-slavery stance.

• A third party movement based in a great deal of concern over the rapidly changing demographics of the United States emerged at this time as well – The American Party (also called Know Nothings) was based on nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment. • Many Americans felt new immigrants were taking American jobs, drinking too much

alcohol, refusing to assimilate properly, and that they increased poverty, disease, and crime rates.

Bleeding Kansas • Both Free-Soilers and Proslavery settlers flooded into Kansas following the decision

to allow popular sovereignty in the territory. • Proslavery “border ruffians” illegally cast ballots in the territorial election and

formed a proslavery territorial government. Free-soilers rejected the legitimacy of the legislature and established their own.

• In Congress the issue was fiercely debated as Senator Charles Sumner delivered his famous “Crime Against Kansas” speech in May 1856. • Days after the speech, Congressman Preston Brooks attacked Sumner in the Senate chamber,

beating him with a cane and nearly killing him.

• A few weeks later, proslavery supporters attacked Lawrence, Kansas the home of the antislavery territorial government. The antislavery settlers responded with an attack on the proslavery settlers at Pattawatomie Creek, Kansas. • Widespread violence erupted at both sides poured into the territory to take revenge on the

other and support their respective causes.

• In the midst of this violence the Presidential election of 1856 took place, pitting the remnants of the Whig party (The Republicans and American Party) against a strong, cohesive Democratic party.

Deepening Controversy

• The Dred Scott v. Sanford Case • The Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, both free and enslaved, could never

become citizens, and had no right to sue.

• The Court also declared that Congress lacked the right to regulate slavery in the territories.

• Opponents of slavery denounced the Dred Scott decision as evidence of the slave power’s growing influence on government.

• Republicans become more determined to win back control of government in the 1860 election.

• Fierce debates again resumed over Kansas in 1857 as the proslavery Lecompton Constitution was introduced as a step for admitting Kansas to the Union. • Ultimately the proposed constitution failed, but it demonstrated the intense animosity

growing amongst competing factions in the National Government.

Questions:

• Why did most Northerners oppose the repeal of the Missouri Compromise line of 36˚ 30’?

• What events led to the formation of the Republican Party?

• How did events in Kansas expose the flaw in the policy of popular sovereignty?

• How did the Supreme Court use the Dred Scott case to expand and protect the rights of slaveholders?