The Politics of Sectionalism, 18461861

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The Politics of Sectionalism, 1846-1861
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The Political Landscape

• 1841-45 John Tyler (Whig, sort of)
• Whigs stand for what?
• Tariffs, Bank, Infrastructure, Anti-war, Reform
• 1845-49 James K Polk (Democrat)
• Democrats stand for what?
• Expansionism, Lower Tariffs, No central bank
• Liberty Party
• Abolitionism

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The Mexican Borderlands heat up

• John Tyler asks Texas to join Union
• Wouldnt Texas just be better off as an
  independent country?
• Texas becomes state 1845
• James K Polk sends John Slidell to resolve issue
  with Mexican Government
• Herrera replaced by Arrillaga
• Mexico severs relations in January 1846
• General Zachary Taylor already dispatched to the
  Rio Grande with troops
• Opposition to the War
• Abraham Lincoln and the Spot Resolution
• Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Price of Peace a paltry 15 Million
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Polk rallied the country right?

• Oregon settlement with Britain angered Northern
  Expansionists
• Once war with Mexico broke out, questions surface
  about new territory and whether slavery should be
  allowed in it

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The Wilmot Proviso (1846-1850)

• David Wilmot (DPA) attaches amendment to
  war-appropriations bill
• No slavery in any new territory, except Texas
• Blocked in Senate by slave states who have at
  least a tie in the Senate until 1848
• Debate renewed politically and religiously

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Election of 1848

• Democrats nominate Lewis Cass from Michigan
• Supported Popular Sovereignty in the new
  territories
• Otherwise Ambiguous
• Whigs turned to Zachary Taylor from Tennessee
• Flip Flopper

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A third party

• Northern Democrats (Wilmot) and abolitionist
  Whigs bolt their parties to form the Free Soil
  Party
• Saw slavery as degrading all laborers
• Martin Van Buren nominated as Free Soil nominee
• Cass (Democrat) vs. Taylor (Whig) vs. Van Buren
  (Free Soil)

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1849 Gold Rush!

• 1849-1850 California Gold Rush
• Rapid population increase means California looks
  to enter Union
• Taylor suggests California write up its
  constitution
• California elects to be a free state

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The Situation Simmers

• After Texas entered the Union in 1845, Wisconsin
  entered in 1848
• 15 slave to 15 free
• Californias entrance would tip the scales in the
  Senate
• Taylor supports Popular Sovereignty in California
  and New Mexico
• Southerners (Calhoun) upset and feeling betrayed
• Northerners feel there are even more issues to
  settle

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Clays Compromise

• Admit California as a free state
• Allow Popular Sovereignty in NM and Utah
• End Slave Trade in Washington DC
• New Fugitive Slave Law
• Set the NM-Texas boundary and pay off Texas
• Congress would table issue of the interstate
  slave trade
• July 1850 Taylor dies and Millard Fillmore
  ascends to Presidency

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The Debate Rages on

• Stephen Douglas (D-IL), sneaky like a fox, helps
  to pass each point separately in September 1850
• Why are border states in favor of each law?
• Is this a Compromise?
• Polarized North and South even more

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Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin (1851)

• Best selling novel of all time
• Themes
• Broken Family
• Denial of Freedom
• Christian Martyr
• Few savage owners
• Southern backlash
• Issue of slavery takes center stage

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Election of 1852

• Whigs divided over Compromise of 1850
• Fillmore seen as catering to South
• Southerners upset with Northern attitudes
• Some Southerners bolt to Democratic Party
• Winfield Scott nominated
• Democrats united behind Franklin Pierce of New
  Hampshire
• Satisfied Northern Southern Democrats
• Expansionist and protector of slavery
• Increasing Northern support from Catholics
• Some Northern Protestant Democrats disaffected

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Pierce 1853-1857

• Ostend Manifesto (1854) and General William
  Walkers exploits fan sectionalism
• Douglass railroad project forces Pierce to
  confront the slavery issue
• South objects to Nebraska territory and northern
  route

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Douglass Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854

• Nebraska Territory divided into Kansas and
  Nebraska
• Popular Sovereignty in these territories
• Repealed Missouri Compromise
• Northern Democrats upset with expansionism and
  repeal of Missouri Compromise
• Bill passes with Pierces support

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Bleeding Kansas

• Abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates and
  militants flood into Kansas
• March 1855 vote goes to the pro-slavery advocates
  
• Voting marred by fraud
• Free staters kicked out of legislature
• Free-Staters set up shop in Topeka, KS
• November 1855 to Spring 1856 Civil War erupts
• Dubbed Bleeding Kansas
• Sack of Lawrence followed by John Browns
  slaughter

Border Ruffians
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The Crime Against Kansas
The Caning of Senator Sumner
Cartoon published in 1856 depicts a Freesoiler
being held down by the heads of the Democratic
Party Franklin Pierce, Lewis Cass, James
Buchanan, and Stephen Douglas
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Party Turmoil

• After Election of 1852, Whigs disintegrate
• Sectional tension increased tremendously under
  Pierce
• Some Northern Democrats searching for a new party
• New Parties form from 1854-1856
• Slavery Nativism pushing people into new
  parties
• Know-Nothings Nativists (i.e. vehement
  ANTI-CATHOLICS
• Urban support
• Whigs support this new party
• Want to ignore slavery

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Know-Nothings Republicans

• Know-Nothings do well in Mid-Term elections 1854
• Support in Whig Bastions of the North and urban
  South
• American System Reforms
• Coalition does not hold up amidst Bleeding Kansas
• Can not ignore issue any longer
• Republican Party formed and Northern
  Know-Nothings find a new home as well as Northern
  Democrats
• Not anti-Catholic
• Held together over Pierces and Douglass attempt
  to repeal the Missouri Compromise and Southern
  treachery in Kansas

Know Nothing Party Flag
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Republican Agenda

• Antisouthern
• Infrastructure programs
• High Tariffs
• No Slavery in the Territories

John C Frémont, the first Republican Party
candidate for President
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Election of 1856

• Amidst Realignment there is a mishmash
• Democrats become top-heavy with Southerners
• Buchanan a Pennsylvanian and untainted
• Southerners threaten secession if Fremont wins
• Republicans a new force
• Fremont a hero
• Know-Nothings and Whigs recede
• Know-Nothings split

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The Dred Scott Case

• Owned by Army surgeon in Missouri
• Traveled to IL and WS
• Sues in 1846
• Supreme Court decision handed down in 1857
• Blacks not citizens
• Missouri Compromise unconstitutional

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Reaction

• African Americans outraged
• Republicans choose to abide by decision, but vow
  to contest it again
• Increasing support for Republican Party as it
  seems there is a real Slave Power conspiracy
• How long until abolition of slavery overturned in
  free states?

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The Lecompton Constitution

• Pennsylvanian sent to oversee constitutional
  convention in June 1857
• Free Staters boycott the special constitutional
  convention election
• Pro-slave forces dominate election
• Walker convinces Free Staters to vote for a new
  Congress in fall 1857
• Free Staters prevail after fraud discovered
• Pro-slave convention drafts the Lecompton
  Constitution, which ignored POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
• Walker dismissed
• Successor ignored
• Constitution submitted to Senate
• Eventually defeated in 1858

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Reaction and Developments

• Lecompton passes Senate, but Northern Democrats
  upset
• Struck down in House of Representatives
• Northerners see Slave Conspiracy
• Economic Depression in the North
• Republicans say they have answer
• Religious Revival
• Seeps into national consciousness and Lincolns
  rhetoric

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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• Douglas runs for re-election in 1858
• Brands Lincoln as a radical
• Lincoln challenges Douglas to debates all across
  the state
• Seven debates held across Illinois
• Lincoln attacks Douglas over Dred Scot and
  popular sovereignty
• Dred Scot basically said slavery could not be
  outlawed until the state constitution was
  ratified
• Freeport Doctrine
• Slavery could exist only if protected
• Rebuke of Dred Scot
• Upsets Southern Democrats

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John Browns Raid

• October 16, 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry
• Thoreau, If Walker may be considered the
  representative of the South, I wish I could say
  that Brown was the representative of the North.
  He was a superior man. He did not value his
  bodily life in comparison with ideal things. He
  did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted
  them as he was bid. For once we are lifted out of
  the trivialness and dust of politics into the
  region of truth and manhood. No man in America
  has ever stood up so persistently and effectively
  for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself
  for a man, and the equal of any and all
  governments. In that sense he was the most
  American of us all.
• Secret Six papers

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Democratic Convention

• Northern and Southern Democrats split over
  nominees and issues
• Stephen Douglas
• Federal slave codes
• Democrats splinter Stephen Douglas John C.
  Breckinridge nominated
• Constitutional Union Party established splitting
  the South

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Republican Convention

• Confident and needing lower North
• Broaden their appeal by emphasizing their
  economic issues
• Seward too radical
• Lincoln just right

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The Sectional Election of 1860

• Lincoln vs Douglas
• Bell vs Breckinridge
• Lincoln crushes Douglas in the North and secures
  a majority of electoral votes

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Secession Begins

• SC the first to call for a special convention
• December 20, 1860 SC leaves the Union
• Deep Southern states follow by February 1st 1861
• Texas Ordinance of Secession
• Confederate States of America formed
• See themselves as the heirs of the Revolution

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Helpless

• Buchanan with no political capital can not stem
  the tide
• Crittenden Plan extension of Missouri Compromise
  line
• March 4, 1861 Lincoln takes the helm
• No magic wand
• Tries to isolate Lower South as Upper South
  teeters

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Fort Sumter
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Fort Sumter