Unit 5: Topic 6 - Failure of Compromise Flashcards
In 1854, Stephen A. Douglas proposed a bill organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. What was the main purpose of trying to organize these territories?
The bill was so that a midwestern transcontinental railroad could begin building toward California. To make the new road profitable, it needed customers along its lines. Customers meant settlers, and for settlers to own land, the territory needed to be organized.
How did Stephen Douglas propose to resolve the issue of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories?
Douglas added a popular sovereignty provision to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
This meant that people would be able to decide, in their states, whether they would be “free” or “slave.”
He hoped that by allowing the new territories to vote on slavery themselves, he would not need to take a position and hinder his chances of becoming a President.
What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act do?
It repealed the Missouri Compromise by proposing popular sovereignty and created two new territories. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas”, as pro-slavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote.
Explain how popular sovereignty led to “Bleeding Kansas”.
It led to “Bleeding Kansas” because violence erupted to ensure victory for pro- or anti-slavery forces in Kansas. Most Kansas settlers were Free Soilers, but every time there was a vote on popular sovereignty, thousands of Border Ruffians (proslavery raiders, crossing from the slave state of Missouri into the Kansas Territory) poured in to vote for slavery even though they weren’t citizens of the state and thus were not entitled to vote.
Explain the Pottawatomie Massacre.
In revenge for the pro-slavery attack in Lawrence, KS, abolitionist John Brown led an attack on pro-slavery forces located at Pottawatomie Creek.
In what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, John Brown’s forces killed five pro-slavery white people. It marked an escalation of violence in the “Bleeding Kansas” period and increased the tensions regarding slavery.
What happened to Senator Charles Sumner when he gave an anti-slavery speech on the floor of the Senate called “The Crimes Against Kansas”?
Sumner was physically assaulted in the senate chamber.
Convinced that Sumner’s anti-slavery speech impugned the honor of his uncle, Representative Preston Brooks stormed the floor of the Senate and beat Senator Sumner fiercely with a cane.
What did the Lecompton Constitution do?
It was framed in Lecompton, KS, by Southern pro-slavery advocates of Kansas statehood. It contained clauses to protect slavery and a bill of rights that excluded free blacks. As a result, it added to the tensions leading up to the Civil War even though it was never actually passed.
Who was Dred Scott, and what did the Supreme Court decide in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)?
Dred Scott was an enslaved person in Missouri whose enslaver took him to Wisconsin for 4 years before returning with him to Missouri. Contending that once he had crossed into a state where slavery was illegal, he had become liberated, Scott sued for his freedom.
The Court held that Scott was not free for the following reasons:
1) Scott has no standing to sue because, as a Black man, he was not a citizen; he was the physical property of his enslaver.
2) Since slaves are property, a white citizen could not be deprived of his Black property without due process of law.
What was the reaction to the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision?
It outraged abolitionists, and Republicans and many people in the North condemned the decision since it invalidated compromises over slavery and allowed slavery in the Northern states too.
It led to a greater divide between the North and the South and foreshadowed the Civil War.
What happened at John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry?
Brown seized a federal armory at Harpers Ferry, hoping to distribute weapons to slaves and induce an uprising. The plan failed. Virginia state militia under the control of Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his followers, and they were hung after a short trial.
Southerners were stunned by the outpouring of sympathy from the North. He was considered, in some ways, a martyred saint. Southerners viewed John Brown’s raid as the fault of abolitionists, who were bent on causing a slave revolt and destroying the South.
Explain the split in the Whig Party and the formation of the Republican Party.
The Whig Party was split into Conscience Whigs (Northern Whigs whose consciences were bothered by slavery) and Cotton Whigs (Southern Whigs who supported slavery for its economic and cotton-based agricultural value to the nation).
Conscience Whigs teamed up with other anti-slavery parties, such as the Liberty Party and the Free Soil Party, along with some Know-Nothings, to form the Republican Party.
