Nativism• Increase in immigration

after 1845• 3 million in decade after

1845• Political power of

immigrants also increased• Coalesced around issues of

temperance and schools• Virulent and violent

response by “Native” Americans

“Know Nothings”• Emergence of the

American Party (Know-Nothings)

• Result of the merger of two secret fraternal societies– Order of the Star-Spangled

Banner and– Order of United Americans

• Total number approx. 1 million

• Total population of approx 23,000,000

Publicity and Nativism

• Supported multifaceted anti-immigrant/nativist agenda

• Appealed to Northern Whigs who had not already become Republicans

• Scored big gains in elections in 1854• Redirected by Republicans in 1855 toward

cause of antislavery• Split along sectional lines over slavery after

1855–1856• Decreasing immigration meant decline in

nativism

• In part as a possible cross country railroad path

• 1853 saw another land purchase by the US• The Gadsden Land purchase

• Stephen A Douglas • Pushing for a northern route west

from Chicago• January 1854, introduced a Bill

that became known as the • Kansas-Nebraska Act• A railroad bill that turned into

much more

In order to get his bill passed he needed broad support including southern congressmen

“All questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories, and in the new States to be formed therefrom are to be left to

the the people residing therein, through their appropriate representatives”

• He also put in a clause repealing the Missouri compromise

• Once more this was there to draw southerners to vote for his plan

• However, he underestimated the feelings over the issue of slavery

• Huge opposition in North• Many opposed any

expansion of slavery into the territories

• One vocal opponent was• Abraham Lincoln of Illinois• Slavery “an unqualified evil

to the negro, the white man, and to the state”

“The Monstrous injustice of slavery deprives our republican example of

its just influence in the world – enables the enemies of free

institutions, with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites. . . . Let us re-adopt

the Declaration of Independence, and with it the practices, and policy,

which harmonize with it”

• With the Act, it was assumed, correctly, that Nebraska would go to the abolitionists• Kansas however, was less certain• It was next to a slave state in

Missouri• For many the campaign for Kansas

was a precursor for the civil war

Bleeding Kansas

• In order to ensure that the “right” decision would be made supporters from both the

• Pro slavery and• Anti slavery groups began to move into

Kansas

• Anti Slavery William H. Seward

• “Since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it in behalf of the cause of freedom. We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, God give victory to the side which is stronger in numbers as it is in right”

• Pro slavery Senator David Atchison

• “We are playing for a mighty stake”

• “If we win in we carry slavery to the Pacific ocean; if we fail we lose Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and all the territories; the game must be played boldly”

• Struggle for control of Kansas became intense after 1854– Border ruffians from Missouri crossed into

Kansas to vote illegally for slave government– Majority favored free soil and opposed slavery

• Kansas became the leading issue in politics– Two competing legislatures by 1856

• Dispute led to caning of Senator Charles Sumner

Lawrence

• May 1856• Pro slavery group attacks Lawrence• Newspaper offices destroyed• Abolitionist Governors house burned• Free State Hotel Destroyed

Pottawatomie Creek• Radical abolitionist

John Brown led his 4 sons and 3 other men to Pottawatomie Creek

• Dragged 5 pro slavery men from their homes

• Hacked them to death in front of their families

•End 1856 •250 dead •$2 million in property damage

Election of 1856• Republicans first truly sectional party in American

history– Anti-slavery and old Whig support for internal

improvements– Ran John C. Frémont

• Democrats endorsed popular sovereignty– Nominated James Buchanan

• American Party nominated ex-Whig Millard Fillmore

• Buchanan elected– Allowed South to go on offensive over slavery

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Counties Carried by Candidates in the 1856 Presidential Election

End Tuesday

Dred Scott Case• Involved question of whether residence in an anti-

slave territory made a slave free• Supreme Court heard case– Majority of justices from South– Declared Missouri Compromise’s ban on slavery in the

Territories unconstitutional– Hinged on defense/protection of private property

• Created intense partisan feelings throughout country

• Intensified, rather than settled, slave controversy

Lecompton Constitution• Effort to legitimize pro-slavery government and

prepare Kansas for entry into Union as a slave state• Maneuvered to keep anti-slave settlers from voting

to guarantee a constitution that included slavery• Buchanan administration recognized pro-slavery

constitution, recommended statehood for Kansas• Generated controversy in Congress, which

eventually defeated statehood measure• Issue split Democratic Party and discredited

Stephen Douglas with party• Aided in election of a Republican president in 1860

Economy in the 1850s

• North becoming industrial• More than a decade of

unprecedented growth after 1845• Helped by high level of U.S. education–U.S. second-leading industrial

producer in the world by later 1850s–Role of industry / slavery in

creating distinct “North” and “South”

• South relied increasingly on slavery• Region had what some called

“colonial” economy–“King Cotton” defined region’s

economy• Defended slave system as better

than the free market

Panic of 1857• Both domestic and international causes• Massive unemployment and widespread

hardship• Prosperity had returned by 1858• Economic crisis intensified sectional

hostility– South fared better than rest of country–North blamed South for blocking tariffs that

could have protected Northern industry

Free Labor Ideology• All work in a free society was honorable• Slavery degraded manual labor by equating it with

bondage– Central component was social mobility– Incompatible with slavery

• Key feature of Republican party’s platform• Hinton Rowan Helper’s The Impending Crisis of the South

(1857)– Called on non-slaveholding whites to overthrow the slave

system– Virtually banned in the South– Huge impact in North

Lincoln–Douglas Debates

• Over election to U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858

• Lincoln argument that nation could not remain forever half-slave and half-free

• Douglas professed no interest in slavery per se and defended its existence in the South

• Lincoln elevated to national prominence• Douglas won senate seat – lost favor in South

John Brown’s Raid at Harpers Ferry

• Quiet since action in Kansas – Regrouping–Hebrews 9:22–Without shedding of

blood there is no remission of sin

• Intended to take the battle to the sinners

• Plan seize federal arsenal

• foment a slave uprising

• 17 whites and 5 blacks led by Brown• Attack government arsenal at Harpers Ferry on

October 16, 1859• Very little support• Local militia quickly took Brown and supporters

• Raid lasted 36 hours–Impact lasted longer

• In the south fear grew• Slave revolts were seen everywhere• Rumors of Brown based abolition

networks• Lincoln’s speech still in their heads• All part of a Northern conspiracy

• In north• Brown seen by many as hero• On day of execution• Bells rang in hundreds of towns• Guns fired salutes• Ministers preached sermons of

commemoration• Brown made “the gallows as glorious as the

cross”

Final Due Thursday December 17th 9:30 AM in my office

• Question for take home essay • “America did not exist until 1877: discuss using evidence from the class readings and

lectures”

The United States

areis

Election of 1860• Democrats meet in Charleston, South

Carolina • Confrontation inside and outside the

building• Douglas the leading figure• Could not get 2/3rd majority needed• 50 southern delegates walked out• After 57 failed ballots• Convention adjourned to meet again in 6

weeks in Baltimore

Baltimore

• Larger number of southern delegates walked out

• Regular democrats eventually nominated Douglas

• Southern Rights Democratic Party nominated John C. Breckinridge

• Constitutional Union Party

• Formed from:• Southern Whigs who

could not vote democrat

• Northern Whigs who considered Republicans to radical

• Nominated John Bell

• When democrats split • Doorway opened for republicans• No hope for 15 southern states• But of 5 northern states they didn’t get in

1856, only needed 2 or 3• Crucial states –Pennsylvania–Illinois–Indiana

• Lead candidate coming into Chicago convention William H. Steward

• Seward respected• Served as a governor and a senator• Had a long career• This also caused problems• Long career = enemies• Emphasis shifted to Lincoln• Second choice votes• Also from crucial lower north state• Nominated on third ballot

• Republican platform –exclusion of slavery from territories–Higher tariffs–Federal aid for construction of

transport network• Music of election• Lincoln & Liberty–Jesse Hutchinson 1860

• Enthusiasm in the north matched by fear in south• All and every northern politician

seemed to be an abolitionist• Destined to destroy the south• A republican victory seen as the

end of southern control over its own destiny

Wide-Awake clubs

• Southerners saw Lincoln’s nomination as threat to slavery

• 2/3rds of time from 1789 – 1860• Slave holding southerners had been presidents– No northern president had ever won re-election

• Southern justices had been the majority of the Supreme Court since 1791

• Lincoln’s election would destroy this control• A secessionist from Georgia told southern non-

slave holders that if Lincoln were in power• “in TEN years or less our CHILDREN will be the

slaves of negroes”

Lincoln won with 40% of popular vote

Lower South Secedes

• Lincoln’s election brought to fore Southern thinking on the nature of the Union

• When joining union a state: • Gave authority to federal government to act

as agent for various actions of sovereignty• But did not give away fundamental

underlying sovereignty• Any state could withdraw form compact• And reassert individual sovereignty

• Most Northerners saw secession as unconstitutional and treasonable

• Buchanan’s final message to congress– Union “not a mere voluntary association of states”

if secession consummated – United States Government would become a “rope

of sand”• “The Doctrine of secession is anarchy”• “The right of revolution, is never a legal right,

at most it is a moral right”– Abraham Lincoln

• Failed attempts at compromise in 1860 and 1861– Crittendon Compromise most notable

• South Carolina Legislature called convention to vote on Southern belief

• December 20, 1860 – South Carolina withdrew from Union– By vote of 169 to 0

• Seven Southern states had seceded by Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861

• Mississippi January 9, 1861• Florida January 10, 1861• Alabama January 11, 1861• Georgia January 19, 1862• Louisiana January 26, 1861• Texas February 1, 1861

Election of 1860 and Southern

Secession

Southern MusicOh I’m a Good Old RebelMaj. I RandolphConfederate Army

Establishment of the Confederacy

• Seceded states met in Montgomery Alabama

• Established a constitution for the • Confederated States of America• Constitution protected slavery in both the

states and the territories• Strengthened state sovereignty • limited governmental power–No protective only revenue tariffs

• Limited president to a single six-year term

• Sought to encourage upper South to secede

• 1st step ignored radical secessionists for position of power

• Elected Jefferson Davis President• Confederacy needed upper south states• Without them it had• Less than 1 5th of population• Just 1 10th of free population• 1 20th of industrial capacity of Union States

Fort Sumter

• Seceded states claim all federal property

• In South Carolina demand federal withdrawal from Charleston Harbor

• Major Anderson • Southerner– Attempted to forestall war

• Star of West• General Pierre G.T.

Beauregard

• Crisis point when Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861

• What to do?• Decided to send unarmed supply ships to fort• Informs the confederates– Heads I win, Tails you lose

• Confederacy attacked fort before supplies could arrive– Started what became the Civil War in April 1861

• In North, Lincoln issued immediate call for volunteers

• “The American Flag is seen everywhere . . . Men are enlisting as soon as possible”–Response was overwhelming

• Militia 90 day• Lincoln calls for three year volunteers

• In South, public responded enthusiastically• “Everyone is in favor of secession [and]

perfectly frantic with delight”• 8 slaves states still in union• 4 secede after Fort Sumter– Virginia– Arkansas– Tennessee– North Carolina

• Not everyone had an easy decision

• Robert E. Lee• Believed south had

no legal right to secede

• “I cannot raise my hand against my birth place, my home, my children”

• Border states torn by divided sentiments–Only Delaware remained firmly in the Union–Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri contested

ground• West Virginia created in 1863– Anti-slave in orientation, loyal to Union

• Indian Territory and the Southwest–Tribes allied the with Union and Confederacy–Union kept control of West and Southwest

Balance Sheet of War

• North superior in almost every category of measurement–Higher population–Larger military manpower–Almost all of nation’s industrial

capacity and registered shipping

• South did have some advantage–Greater military experience among its

commanders–Rural nature of Southern life provided

civilians with valuable skills–Had begun preparing for war earlier than

the North–Had home-front advantage in defending

own territory–Higher morale and deeper commitment to

cause of war