5.6: Failure of Compromise Flashcards
3 issues dividing the north and south
1) morality of slavery
2) constitutional rights of states to protect slavery
3) economic policies between free/slave labor states
whig nomination for 1852
- another military hero (of mexican war)
- general winfield scott
whig strategy for 1852 election
- attempted to ignore the slavery issue
- concentrated for traditional platform above improving roads and harbors
- however no one gaf b/c the political landscape was shifting to emphasize sectional issues
democrats nomination for 1852
- northern who was acceptable to southern democrats because he supported the fugitive slave law
- franklin pierce
democrats vs whigs
- pierce and the democrats won all but four states
- the days of whigs were numbered… they were falling apart
senator stephen a. douglas
- proposed building a transcontinental railroad through the center of the country
- southerners preferred a more southerly route
kansas-nebraska act
- douglas introduced a bill to divide the territory into 2 (nebraska & kansas)
- allowed setters in each territory to decide on slavery
- since the territories were north of 36º60’, Douglas gave southerners an opportunity to expand slavery
responses to kansas-nebraska act
- northern democrats condemned it (it was passed regardless)
- repealed the missouri compromise (which had lessened regional tensions for 30 years)
- lead conflicts between slavery & antislavery to explode
migration to kansas
- douglas expected the issue to be settled peacefully by the antislavery farmers from the midwest who migrated to kansas and became a majority
- slaveholders from missouri set up homesteads in kansas
- new england emigrant aid company paid for the transportation of antislavery groups “bleeding kansas”
border ruffians
- proslavery missourians
- crossed the border to create proslavery legislature in lecompton
- antislavery settlers refused to recognize this government and created their own in topeka
bleeding kansas escalation
- 1856, proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of lawrence (killed 2, destroyed homes & businesses)
- john brown, retaliated by killing 5 in a proslavery farm settlement at pottawatomie creek
pierce administration did nothing ot keep order in the kansas territory
sumner-brooks incident
- violence in Kansas spilled into us congress
- 1856, MA senator Charles sumner attacked the democratic administration & remarked against andrew butler
- his nephew defended his honor by walking into senate chamber and beating sumner over the head with it
fall of the whig party
- north southern tensions over slavery broke apart the party
- whigs scattered and joined other parties
whigs joining know nothings
- those who were frightened about immigration
- know nothings were winning a few local and state elections, but their power declined as slavery became more contentious
whigs joining democratic party
- supported the expansion of slavery
- mainly the south, however
whigs joining republican party
- opposed the expansion of slavery
- joined REPUBLICAN PARTY…
republican party
- founded in wisconsin as a reaction to the passage of kansas-nebraska
- composed of free-soilers, antislavery whigs, and democrats
- their first platform was to repeal kansas nebraska & fugitive slave law
republican nomination for 1856
BTW: republicans go against slavery
- california senator: john c. fremont
- called for no expansion of slavery, free homesteads, and protective tarrifs
know nothing nomination for 1856
- millard fillmore
- won 20% of popular vote
democrats nomination for 1856
- james buchanan
- rejected pierce and Stephen Douglas because stye were too closely identified with the kansas-nebraska
- they won majority of popular and electoral vote
election 1856
- republicans made a strong showing for a sectional party
- fremont carried 11/16 free states
- people predicted that republicans could win the White House without a single southern vote
buchanan administration
- democrat’s popular sovereignty and republican’s anti-slavery campaigns received blows during the administration
“lecomptom constitution”
- buchanan’s first challenge was to decide on a proslavery constitution for kansas
- buchanan knew that that constitution did not have majority support, but he still asked congress to accept the document and admit kasnsa as a slave state
- however congress didn’t b/c many democrats including Douglas joined with republicans in rejecting the consiuttion
dred scott
held in slavery in missouri, taken to wisconsin (free), returned to missouri
- argued that his residence on free soil made him free
- sued for freedom, reached the supreme court
dred scott v. sandford
Chief Justice Roger Taney (southern democrat) presided
- court ruled against Scott for following reasons:
- dred scott had no right to sue b/c AAs were “not citizens”
- slaves were a form of property and thus could not be deprived from someone
- missouri compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded slavery
dred scott v. sandford effects
- declared all parts of western territories open to slavery
- “greatest crime in the annals of the republic”
northerns suspected the democratic president & Supreme Court were trying to settle the slavery question
- it escalated suspicions of a conspiracy once more
Douglas’s attempt for compromise
- he was left with the impossible task of supporting popular sovereignty without rejecting the dred Scott decision
abraham lincoln
- successful trial lawyer and former member of the illinois legislature
- republican candaidate
- served a term in congress (1840) as a whig
lincoln vs douglas
- challenging for re-election as senator from illinois
- Lincoln was unknown compared to Douglas (champ of popular sovereignty, good candidate for president)
house divided speech
- Lincoln not an abolitionist: moderate against expansion of slavery, felt it was a moral issue
- when accepting the illinois republican’s nomination, he said:
“I believe this government cannot endure, permanent half slave and half free”
freeport doctrine
in freeport, illinois
- lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the dred Scott decision
- freeport doctrine: Douglas said slavery could not exist in a community of local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes) maintaining it
freeport doctrine effect on southern democrats
- angered the because Douglas didn’t “go far enough” to support the implications of the dred Scott decision
aftermath of LD debates
- Douglas won reelection, btu in the long run lost ground in his own party
- lincoln emerged as a national figure and leading contender for republican nomination for presidents in 1860
