How the Compromise Collapsed

1. How the Compromise Collapsed Chapter 12: The Failure of the Politicians

2. 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 Souléwent to Spain to buy Cuba. • Then after Hawaii was reached, Pierce looked into buying Alaska from the Russians.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

9. The Kansas-Nebraska Act • To win their support, Douglas made two provisions. • Missouri Compromise of 1820 would be updated to Compromise of 1850 • Popular Soverigntywould decide whether the two new states were free or slave states. (Kansas and Nebraska)

10. 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.

11. Expansion and Slavery • The Congressionalbattle 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.

12. 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 Republicanparty, who took their platform against slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Fugitive Slave Act. • Congressional electionsin November 1854 produced a revolution in American politics. 1795 1851-1852 ((Whigs vs. Democrats)) 1854 ((Know Nothing & Republicans vs. Weakened Democrats)) 1860s – North vs. South

13. The New Republican Party • The Old Whig Party was shattered and members joined other parties. • The Democratic Party staggerbut did not collapse. • In 1852 Democrats were a substantial part of Congress, but in 1854 there were only 83Democrats and 108Republicans.

14. 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 AmericanParty.

15. The Know-Nothing Party • The group seeks refuge in hate and prejudicerather 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.

16. Bleeding Kansas • Douglas thought slavery troubles were banished from Congressto the west. • The Kansas-Nebraska Act did bring blood-shedto Kansas. • Popular sovereignty did not say when a territory could decide about slavery.

17. 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.

18. 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 anarchyand civil war. Antislavery messiah John Brown

19. Charles Sumner is Attacked • Charles Sumner delivered a speech called “The Crime Against Kansas” to the Senate using insultingwords 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 martyrand 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

20. 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