20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

1. 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I • Purpose: to understand the slavery discussion of western territories and its consequences for American politics, specifically: • The deepening divide between North and South • Dismantling of the second party system • The political aftermath of the Mexican War • The Compromise of 1850 • The Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas • The demise of the Whigs as a national party • Timeframe: 1846-1856 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

2. 1.1 North and South: Values and Perceptions • Cultural differences grew in the antebellum era: • Northern values can be seen as the result of the Protestant heritage and the increasingly industrial world they were living in: punctuality, curiosity, inventiveness, self-control, thrift, piety, above all industriousness. • Southerners prided themselves on a set of values more appropriate to the agricultural and slaveholding world they lived in: the ideal of the leisured democratic gentleman, hospitality, personal pride, paternalism, grace to those beneath and respect for those above their own station, bravery, and most of all honor. • The events of the late 1840s and 1850s introduced many misgivings into the political realm and poisoned political culture in the US. 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

3. 1.2 Slavery, Expansion, and Politics • In 1848, the country had two nation-wide parties: Democrats and Whigs. • Both parties had avoided the issue of slavery since the Missouri compromise. • Southerners implied that even the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. • In the late 1840s and 1850s, Congress became the central battlefield over whether to extend slavery into the new and eventually older territories or not. • In the process, the Whigs were destroyed and the Democrats radically transformed. 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

4. 2.1 The Taylor Presidency • In 1848 Polk did not seek a second term.The Whigs ran Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War and slaveholder. • Pro-slavery southerners ran Lewis Cass of Michigan. Cass endorsed “popular sovereignty”, the idea that a territory’s settlers, not Congress, should decide if they wanted slavery or not. • Taylor won the election; many Southerners hoped that Taylor would be strongly pro-slavery in the territories. • Instead, Taylor wished that California and New Mexico should become states immediately; then they could outlaw slavery if they wished. • There was one crucial difference to popular sovereignty. The territorial phase would be skipped, and Congress would have nothing to do with slavery decision. • Many Southerners feared that if no new slave states joined the Union, the Senate balance would be lost. • Taylor died in 1850, M. Fillmore became president. Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

5. 2.2 The Compromise of 1850 • In 1850, Henry Clay, with the support of Daniel Webster and Stephen Douglas proposed a set of compromise measures: • Admit California as a free state • Divide rest of Mexican cession into two territories, Utah and New Mexico • Assign enough of western Texas to the New Mexico territory; the Federal Government should assume the public debt of Texas as compensation • In the District of Columbia, slavery should continue, but trade should end • A more forceful fugitive slave law. 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

6. 2.3 Problems of the Compromise of 1850 • Henry Clay tried to get the compromise through Congress as an omnibus bill, but failed due to uncompromising congressmen from both camps. Stephen Douglas proposed the measures of the compromise separately. They all passed. • Nevertheless, the Compromise of 1850 was more of an armistice; it was flawed: • It did not stipulate how popular sovereignty was to be enacted and enforced. Popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico was mostly hypothetical. • The Fugitive Slave Act was controversial, because fugitive slaves had no right to trial by jury. The Act allowed slave catchers to operate on northern soil. As a consequence, the abolitionist movement was radicalized. Resistance was formed. Henry Clay (1777-52), the “Great Compromiser” Stephen Douglas (1813-1861), the “Little Giant” 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

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8. 2.4 Uncle Tom’s Cabin • In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of Lyman Beecher, published the abolitionist novel Uncle Tom‘s Cabin. • Among the book’s scenes were the dramatic escape of the slave Eliza across the frozen Ohio river and the death of the slave Uncle Tom by the whip of his new owner Legree. • The book sold over 1.2 million copies and was outlawed in several Southern states. Dozens of anti-Uncle Tom’s Cabin books were published in the South. • The book‘s emotional appeal convinced many readers that slavery was evil because it killed innocents and separated mothers and children. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

9. 3.1 The Election of 1852 and the Pierce Presidency • The controversy over the Fugitive Slave Act created a deep rift between northern and southern Whigs. The party ran Winfield Scott, who endorsed the compromise of 1850. • The Democrats nominated the little-known politician Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. They demanded popular sovereignty for all the territories, including those covered by the Missouri Compromise. • Divided, with their prominent leaders dead, the Whigs went down in defeat. Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

10. 3.2 The Ebbing of Manifest Destiny • Pierce tried to rally his party behind Manifest Destiny, as Polk did in 1844. • Pierce was connected to a number of schemes to seize Cuba (Quitman Filibuster, Ostend Manifesto) by privately led invasions, but abandoned them. • William Walker seized power in Nicaragua with a group of filibusters, reinstituted slavery there and declared himself president of Nicaragua. He was supported by politicians of the US South. When he provoked the opposition of the steamship company owner Vanderbilt, Walker had to flee Nicaragua and was executed in Honduras in 1860. William Walker (1824-1860). A military freebooter or filibuster. Briefly conquered Nicaragua. 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

11. 3.3 The Kansas-Nebraska Act • In 1854, Stephen Douglas, a democrat from Illinois, proposed a bill to organize and split the Kansas-Nebraska territory. • He hoped to realize a trans-continental railroad starting in his home state. • As a concession to Southerners who wanted a railroad starting in New Orleans or Memphis, Douglas proposed popular sovereignty for Kansas-Nebraska. • The Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively negated the Missouri Compromise. • The territory was divided, Kansas implicitly intended as a slave state. • Kansas was the great failure of popular sovereignty. 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

12. 3.4 Bleeding Kansas • Abolitionists from New England send antislavery activists into Kansas. But most settlers came from neighboring slave state Missouri. • During the first territorial elections in 1855, thousands of Missourians came to Kansas to vote illegally. • As a result, pro-slavery forces established a territorial legislature in Lecompton, that was recognized by the Pierce administration. • Anti-slavery forces organized a rival territorial legislature at Topeka. • In 1856, a guerrilla group from the South burned Topeka. • In response, radical abolitionists, led by the religious fanatic John Brown, killed 5 men associated with the Lecompton government, hacking them to pieces with swords at Pottawatomie. • More attacks led to a civil war situation, which is called “Bleeding Kansas” 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

13. 3.5 The Caning of Charles Sumner • Simultaneously to the events in Kansas, violence came to the US Congress. • In 1856, speaking on the situation in Kansas, antislavery senator Charles Sumner denounced most of the Senate for complicity in slavery and singled out and insulted Andrew Butler of South Carolina. • Two days later, Preston Brooks of South Carolina, a relative of Butler, strode into the Senate chamber and hit Sumner with a cane until it broke - “Bleeding Sumner”. • The broken cane became a relic, Brooks a hero. Charles Sumner (1811-1874) 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

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15. 4.1 The Whigs Disintegrate • Another casualty of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the Whig party. Most northern Whigs voted against the Act, most southern Whigs in favor. • Northern Whigs were also split into anti-slavery “conscience Whigs,” led by William Seward, and by Pro-Compromise of 1850 conservatives, led by former president Millard Fillmore. • The party could not maintain its national organization, and became practically non-existent in 1856 - the second party system was at an end. Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) Last Whig president (1850-52), later candidate for the nativist American Party 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I

16. Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854. Proposed by Stephen Douglas, a leading northern Democrat. The act formally organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening them to slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. It effectively negated the Missouri Compromise. This highly controversial legislation led to the violence of Bleeding Kansas and divided the Whigs so badly they effectively ceased to exist. Sample Keyword 20. The Road to Secession, pt. I