Troubled Times_ the Tumultuous 1850s
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Troubled Times the 18503 SOUTHERN CLUB . FIGURE In Southern Argument versus Clubs ( 1856 ) by John , South Preston Brooks attacks Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner after his speech denouncing border pouring into Kansas from Missouri . For southerners , defending slavery meant defending southern honor . CHAPTER OUTLINE The Compromise of 1850 The Act and he Republican Party The Scott Decision and Sectional Strife John Brown and the Election 1860 INTRODUCTION The heated sectional controversy between the North and the South reached new levels of intensity in the . Southerners and northerners grew ever more antagonistic as they debated the expansion of slavery in the West . notorious confrontation between Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina and Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner depicted in the image above ( Figure , illustrates the contempt between extremists on both sides . The Caning of Sumner in May 1856 followed upon a speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he condemned slavery in no uncertain terms , declaring Admitting Kansas as a slave state is the rape of a virgin territory , compelling it to the hateful embrace of slavery and it may be clearly traced to a depraved longing for a new slave state , the hideous offspring of such a crime , in the hope of adding to the of slavery in the national Sumner criticized proslavery legislators , particularly attacking a fellow senator and relative of Preston Brooks . Brooks responded by beating Sumner with a cane , a thrashing that southerners celebrated as a manly defense of gentlemanly honor and
354 14 Troubled Times the Tumultuous 1850 their way of life . The episode highlights the violent clash between and antislavery factions in the , a that would eventually lead to the traumatic unraveling of American democracy and civil war . The Compromise of 1850 LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Explain the contested issues that led to the Compromise of 1850 Describe and analyze the reactions to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act Harriet Beecher Ann , Democrats , and publishes form Republican Party Supreme Court Uncle Tom Congress passes hands down John Brown raids Cabin Ac Scott decision Harpers Ferry 1852 1854 1857 1859 1850 1856 1858 1860 Henry Clay , Preston Brooks canes Abraham Lincoln elected broker Charles Sumner Lincoln president and of 1850 Stephen Douglas debate in Illinois FIGURE At the end of the War , the United States gained a large expanse of western territory known as the Mexican Cession . The disposition of this new territory was in question would the new states be slave states or states ?
In the long run , the War achieved what abolitionism alone had ailed to do it mobilized many in the North against slavery . Antislavery northerners clung to the idea expressed in the 1846 Proviso slavery would not expand into he areas taken , and later bought , from Mexico . Though the proviso remained a proposal and never became a aw , it the sectional division . The Party , which formed at the conclusion of the American War in 1848 and included many members of the failed Liberty Party , made this position the centerpiece of all its political activities , ensuring that the issue of slavery and its expansion remained at the ront and center of American political debate . Supporters of the Proviso and members of the new Soil Party did not want to abolish slavery in the states where it already existed rather , advocates demanded that the western territories be kept free of slavery for the of White laborers who might settle here . They wanted to protect White workers from having to compete with slave labor in the West . Abolitionists , in contrast , looked to destroy slavery everywhere in the United States . Southern extremists , especially wealthy slaveholders , reacted with outrage at this effort to limit slavery expansion . They argued for he right to bring their enslaved property west , and they vowed to leave the Union if necessary to protect their way of the right to enslave ensure that the American empire of slavery would continue to grow . BROKERING THE COMPROMISE The issue ofwhat to do with the western territories added to the republic by the Mexican Cession consumed Congress in 1850 . Other controversial matters , which had been simmering overtime , complicated the problem further . Chief among these issues were the slave trade in the District of Columbia , which antislavery advocates Access for free at .
The Compromise of 1850 355 hoped to end , and the fugitive slave laws , which southerners wanted to strengthen . The border between Texas and New Mexico remained contested because many Texans hoped to enlarge their state further , and , the issue of California had not been resolved . California was the of the Mexican Cession , and following the discovery of gold , it was flush with thousands of emigrants . By most estimates , however , it would be a free state , since the former Mexican ban on slavery still remained in force and slavery had not taken root in California . The map below Figure 143 shows the disposition of land before the 1850 compromise . states and Territories oi the United states oi America March , 1950 NE , MA WI ( IL IN ( AR Mexico Slave FIGURE This map shows the states and territories of the United States as they were in . credit User Commons ) The presidential election of 1848 did little to solve the problems resulting from the Mexican Cession . Both the and the Democrats attempted to avoid addressing the issue of slavery publicly as much as possible . The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan , a supporter of the idea of popular sovereignty , or letting the people in the territories decide the issue of whether or not to permit slavery based on majority rule . The nominated General Zachary Taylor , a slaveholder from Louisiana , who had achieved national prominence as a military hero in the War . Taylor did not take a personal stand on any issue and remained silent throughout the campaign . The Party put forward former president Martin Van as their candidate . The attracted northern Democrats who supported the Proviso , northern who rejected Taylor because he was a slaveholder , former members of the Liberty Party , and other abolitionists . Both the and the ran different campaigns in the North and South . In the North , all three parties attempted to win voters with promises of keeping the territories free of slavery , while in the South , and Democrats promised protect slavery in the territories . For southern voters , the slaveholder Taylor appeared the natural choice . In the North , the Party took votes away from and Democrats and helped to ensure Taylor election in 1848 . As president , Taylor sought to de use the sectional controversy as much as possible , and , above all else , to preserve the Union . Although Taylor was born in Virginia before relocating to Kentucky and enslaved more than one hundred people by the late , he did not push for slavery expansion into the Mexican Cession . However , the California Gold Rus made California statehood into an issue demanding immediate attention . In 1849 , after California residents adopted a state constitution prohibiting slavery , President Taylor called on Congress to admit California and New Mexico as free states , a move that infuriated southern defenders of slavery who argued for the right to bring their enslaved property wherever they chose . Taylor , who did not believe slavery could in tie arid lands of the Mexican Cession because the climate prohibited farming , proposed that the Proviso be applied to the entire area . In Congress , Kentucky senator Henry Clay , a veteran of congressional , offered a series of resolutions addressing the list of issues related to slavery and its expansion . Clay resolutions called for the admission of California as a free state no restrictions on slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession ( a rejection of the Proviso and the Party position ) a boundary between New Mexico and Texas that did not expand
356 14 Troubled Times the 18505 Texas ( an important matter , since Texas allowed slavery and a larger Texas meant more opportunities for the expansion of slavery ) payment of outstanding Texas debts from the Lone Star Republic days and the end of the slave trade ( but not of slavery ) in the nation capital , coupled with a more robust federal fugitive slave law . Clay presented these proposals as an omnibus bill , that is , one that would be voted on its totality . Clay proposals ignited a spirited and angry debate that lasted for eight months . The resolution calling for California to be admitted as a free state aroused the wrath of the aged and deathly ill John Calhoun , the elder statesman for the proslavery position . Calhoun , too sick to deliver a speech , had his friend Virginia senator James Mason present his assessment of Clay resolutions and the current state of sectional strife . In eyes , blame for the stalemate fell squarely on the North , which stood in the way of southern and American prosperity by limiting the zones where slavery could . Calhoun called for a vigorous federal law to ensure that escaped enslaved people were returned to their enslavers . He also proposed a constitutional amendment specifying a dual that would represent the South and another for the suggestion that hinted at the possibility of disunion . argument portrayed an embattled South faced with continued northern line of reasoning that only furthered the sectional divide . Several days after Mason delivered speech , Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster countered Calhoun in his Seventh of March speech . Webster called for national unity , famously declaring that he spoke not as a Massachusetts man , not as a Northern man , but as an Webster asked southerners to end threats of disunion and requested that the North stop antagonizing the South by harping on the Proviso . Like Calhoun , Webster also called for a new federal law to ensure the return of escaped enslaved people . Webster efforts to compromise led many abolitionist sympathizers to roundly denounce him as a traitor . Whig senator William Seward , who aspired to be president , declared that he characterized as incompatible with the assertion in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal one day be extinguished in the United States . Seward speech , in which he invoked the idea of a higher moral law than the Constitution , secured his reputation in the Senate as an advocate of abolition . The speeches made in Congress were published in the nation newspapers , and the American public followed the debates with great interest , anxious to learn how the issues of the day , especially the potential advance of slavery , would be resolved . Colorful reports of wrangling in Congress further piqued public interest . Indeed , it was not uncommon for arguments to devolve into or worse . One of the most astonishing episodes of the debate occurred in April 1850 , when a quarrel erupted between Missouri Democratic senator Thomas Hart Benton , who by the time of the debate had become a critic of slavery ( despite being an enslaver ) and Mississippi Democratic senator Henry . When the burly Benton appeared ready to assault , the Mississippi senator drew his pistol ( Figure ) FIGURE This 1850 print , Scene in Uncle Sam Senate , depicts Mississippi senator Henry taking aim at Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton . In the print , Benton declares Get out of the way , and let the assassin ! let the scoundrel use his weapon ! I have no arm ! I did not come here to assassinate ! responds , I only Access for free at .
The Compromise 357 meant to defend myself ! credit Library of Congress ) President Taylor and Henry Clay , whose resolutions had begun the verbal in the Senate , had no patience for each other . Clay had long harbored ambitions for the White House , and , for his part , Taylor resented Clay and disapproved of his resolutions . With neither side willing to budge , the government stalled on how to resolve the disposition of the Mexican Cession and the other issues of slavery . The drama only increased when on July , 1850 , President Taylor became gravely ill , reportedly after eating an excessive amount of fruit washed down with milk . He died days later , and Vice President Millard Fillmore became president . Unlike his predecessor , who many believed would be opposed to a compromise , Fillmore worked with Congress to achieve a solution to the crisis of 1850 . In the end , Clay stepped down as leader of the compromise effort in frustration , and Illinois senator Stephen Douglas pushed separate bills through Congress , collectively composing the Compromise of 1850 . First , as advocated by the South , Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act , a law that provided federal bounties . Second , to balance this concession to the South , Congress admitted California as a free state , a move that cheered antislavery advocates and abolitionists in the North . Third , Congress settled the contested boundary between New Mexico and Texas by favoring New Mexico and not allowing for an enlarged Texas , another outcome pleasing to the North . In return , the federal government paid the debts Texas had incurred as an independent republic . Fourth , antislavery advocates welcomed Congress ban on the slave trade in Washington , although slavery continued to thrive in the nation capital . Finally , on the thorny issue of whether slavery would expand into the territories , Congress avoided making a direct decision and instead relied on the principle of popular sovereignty . This put the onus on residents of the territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery . Popular sovereignty followed the logic of American democracy majorities in each territory would decide the territory laws . The compromise , however , further exposed the sectional divide as votes on the bills divided along strict regional lines . Most Americans breathed a sigh of relief over the deal brokered in 1850 , choosing to believe it had saved the Union . Rather than resolving divisions between the North and the South , however , the compromise stood as a truce in an otherwise sectional conflict . Tensions in the nation remained extremely high indeed , southerners held several conventions after the compromise to discuss ways to protect the South . At these meetings , extremists who called for secession found themselves in the minority , since most southerners committed themselves to staying in the only if slavery remained in the states where it already existed , and if no effort was made to block its expansion into areas where citizens wanted it , thereby applying the idea sovereignty ( Figure ) states and Territories of the United states of America September , 1953 we wI A man PA , Neural IL IN I CA sun in DE Meat Mam AR em ones Mexico LA Slave areas FIGURE This map shows the states and territories ofthe United States as they were from 1850 to March 1853 . credit User Commons ) THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES The hope that the Compromise of 1850 would resolve the sectional crisis proved when the Fugitive
358 14 Troubled Times the 18505 Slave Act turned into a major source of . The federal law imposed heavy and prison sentences on northerners and midwesterners who aided those who had escaped their captivity or refused to join posses to catch . Many northerners felt the law forced them to act as against their will . The law also established a new group of federal commissioners who would decide the fate of brought before them . In some instances , even brought in free northern Black people , prompting abolitionist societies to step up their efforts to prevent kidnappings ( Figure . The commissioners had a incentive to send recaptured enslaved and free Black people to the slaveholding South , since they received ten dollars for every African American sent to the South and only if they decided the person who came before them was actually free . The commissioners used no juries , and the alleged runaways could not I , ox . II In ' II WI ?
ism ' PERS Slave Catchers , an Ian . CA Al ' I . unsung . Keep a Shar Look Out for KIDNAPP , and have TOP EYE open . FIGURE This 1851 poster , written by Boston abolitionist Theodore Parker , warned that any Black person , free or enslaved , risked kidnapping by . The operation of the law further alarmed northerners and for many the existence of a Slave Power is , a minority of elite slaveholders who wielded a disproportionate amount of power over the federal government , shaping domestic and foreign policies to suit their interests . Despite southerners repeated insistence on states rights , the Fugitive Slave Ac showed that slaveholders were willing to use the power of the federal government to bend people in other ates to their will . While rejecting the use of federal power to restrict the expansion of slavery , proslavery turned to the federal government to protect and promote the institution of slavery . The actual number of who were not captured within a year of escaping remained very low , perhaps no more than one thousand per year in the early . Most stayed in the South , hiding in plain sight among free Black people in urban areas . Nonetheless , sou feared the of a vast Underground Railroad the network of northern White and free Black people who sympathized with escapees and provided safe houses and safe passage from the South . Quakers , who had long been troubled by slavery , were especially active in this network . It is unclear how many enslaved people escaped through the Underground Railroad , but historians believe that between and used he network in their bids for freedom . Meanwhile , the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act greatly increased the perils of captured . For many thousands of seekers , escaping the United States completely by going to southern Ontario , Canada , where slavery had been abolished , offered the best chance of a better life beyond tie reach of slaveholders . Harriet Tubman , one of the thousands of enslaved people who made their escape through the Underground Access for free at .
The Compromise of 1850 359 Railroad , distinguished herself for her efforts in helping other enslaved men and women escape . Born a slave in Maryland around 1822 , Tubman , who suffered greatly under slavery but found solace in Christianity , made her escape in the late . She returned to the South more than a dozen times to lead other enslaved people , including her family and friends , along the Underground Railroad to freedom . Harriet Tubman An American Moses ?
Harriet Tubman Figure ) was a legendary in her own time and beyond . An escaped enslaved person herself , she returned to the South thirteen times to help hundred through the Underground Railroad to liberty in the North . In 1869 , printer William . Moses published Sarah Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman . Bradford was a writer and biographer who had known Tubman family for years . The excerpt below is from the beginning of her book , which she updated in 1886 under the title Harriet , the Moses of Her People . FIGURE This portrait of Harriet Tubman hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian . It is proposed in this little book to give a plain and unvarnished account of some scenes and adventures in the life of a woman who , though one of earth lowly ones , and of skin , has shown an amount of heroism in her character rarely possessed by those of any station in life . Her name ( we say it advisedly and without exaggeration ) deserves to be handed down to posterity side by side with the names of Joan of Arc , Grace Darling , and Florence Nightingale for not one ofthese women has shown more courage and power of endurance in facing danger and death to relieve human suffering , than has this woman in her heroic and successful endeavors to reach and save all whom she might of her oppressed and suffering race , and to pilot them from the land of Bondage to the promised land of Liberty . Well has she been called Moses , for she has been a leader and deliverer unto hundreds of her people . Bradford , Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman How does Bradford characterize Tubman ?
What language does Bradford use to tie religion into the for freedom ?
360 14 Troubled Times the 18505 The Fugitive Slave Act provoked widespread reactions in the North . Some abolitionists , such as Frederick , believed that standing up against the law necessitated violence . In Boston and elsewhere , abolitionists tried to protect fugitives from federal authorities . One case involved Anthony Burns , who had escaped slavery in Virginia in 1853 and made his way to Boston Figure ) When federal officials arrested Burns in 1854 , abolitionists staged a series of mass demonstrations and a confrontation at the courthouse . Despite their best efforts , however , Burns was returned to Virginia when President Franklin Pierce supported the Fugitive Slave Act with federal troops . Boston abolitionists eventually bought Burns freedom . For many northerners , however , the Burns incident , combined with Pierce response , only their sense of a conspiracy of southern power . FIGURE Anthony Burns , drawn ca . 1855 by an artist only as Barry , shows a portrait of the surrounded by scenes from his life , including his escape from Virginia , his arrest in Boston , and his address to the court . The most consequential reaction against the Fugitive Slave Act came in the form of a novel , Uncle Tom Cabin . In it , author Harriet Beecher , born in Connecticut , made use of enslaved people stories she had heard firsthand after marrying and moving to Ohio , then on the country western frontier . Her novel appeared as a series of stories in a newspaper , the National Era , in 1851 and was published as a book the following year . told the tale of enslaved people who were sold by their Kentucky enslaver . While Uncle Tom is indeed sold down the river , young Eliza escapes with her baby ( Figure . The story highlighted the idea that slavery was a sin because it destroyed families , ripping children from their parents and husbands and wives from one another . also emphasized the ways in which slavery corrupted White citizens . The cruelty of some of the novel White slaveholders ( who genuinely believe that enslaved people don feel things the way that White people do ) and the brutality of the slave dealer Simon , who beats enslaved people and sexually exploits an enslaved woman , demonstrate the dehumanizing effect of the institution even on those who from it . Access for free at .
The Compromise of 1850 361 an . FIGURE This drawing from Uncle Toms Cabin , captioned Eliza comes to tell Uncle Tom that he is sold , and that she is running away to save her child , illustrates the ways in which Harriet Beecher antislavery novel bolstered abolitionists arguments against slavery . novel proved a runaway bestseller and was the novel of the nineteenth century , inspiring multiple theatrical productions and musical compositions . It was translated into sixty languages and remains in print to this day . message about the evils of slavery helped convince many northerners of the righteousness of the cause of abolition . The novel also demonstrated the power of women to shape public opinion . and other American women believed they had a moral obligation to mold the conscience of the United States , even though they could not vote Figure ) FIGURE This photograph shows Harriet Beecher , the author of Uncle Tom Cabin , in 1852 . work was an inspiration not only to abolitionists , but also to those who believed that women could play a role in upholding the nation morality and shaping public opinion . CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit the Documenting the American South ( collection on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill website to read the memoirs of Levi , a prominent Quaker abolitionist who was known as the president of the Underground Railroad for his active role in helping enslaved people to freedom . The memoirs include the story of Eliza Harris , which inspired Harriet Beecher famous character . The backlash against the Fugitive Slave Act , fueled by Uncle Tom Cabin and cases like that of
362 14 Troubled Times the 1850 Anthony Burns , also found expression in personal liberty laws passed by eight northern state legislatures . These laws emphasized that the state would provide legal protection to any arrested freedom seekers ( including the right to trial by jury ) The personal liberty laws stood as a example of the North use of states rights in opposition to federal power while providing further evidence to southerners that northerners had no respect for the Fugitive Slave Act or slaveholders property rights . CLICK AND EXPLORE Go to an archived page from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources ( site to read the original text of Michigan 1855 personal liberty laws . do these laws refute the provisions of the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ?
The Act and the Republican Party LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Explain the political of the Act Describe the founding of the Republican Party In the early , the United States sectional crisis had abated somewhat , cooled by the Compromise of 1850 and the nation general prosperity . In 1852 , voters went to the polls in a presidential contest between Whig candidate Scott and Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce . Both men endorsed the Compromise of 1850 . Though it was considered unseemly to hit the campaign trail , Scott did to the of Pierce , as Scott speeches focused on battles during the War of 1812 and the weather . In New York , Scott , known as Old Fuss and Feathers , talked about a thunderstorm that did not occur and greatly confused the crowd . In Ohio , a cannon to herald Scott arrival killed a spectator . Pierce was a supporter of the Young America movement of the Democratic Party , which enthusiastically anticipated extending democracy around the world and annexing additional territory for the United States . Pierce did not take a stance on the slavery issue . Helped by Scott blunders and the fact that he had played no role in the bruising political battles of the past years , Pierce won the election . The brief period of tranquility between the North and South did not last long , however it came to an end in 1854 with the passage of the Act . This act led to the formation of a new political party , the Republican Party , that committed itself to ending the further expansion of slavery . THE ACT The relative calm over the sectional issue was broken in 1854 over the issue of slavery in the territory of Kansas . Pressure had been building among northerners to organize the territory west of Missouri and Iowa , which had been admitted to the Union as a free state in 1846 . This pressure came primarily from northern farmers , who wanted the federal government to survey the land and put it up for sale . Promoters of a transcontinental railroad were also pushing for this westward expansion . Southerners , however , had long opposed the Proviso stipulation that slavery should not expand into the West . By the , many in the South were also growing resentful of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 , which established the 30 ' parallel as the geographical boundary of slavery on the axis . Proslavery southerners now contended that popular sovereignty should apply to all territories , not just Utah and New Mexico . They argued for the right to bring their enslaved property wherever they chose . Attitudes toward slavery in the were represented by a variety of regional factions . For three decades , the abolitionists remained a minority , but they had a effect on American society by bringing the evils of slavery into the public consciousness . In 1840 , the Liberty Party was the political organization to campaign for abolition . This group sought to work within the existing political system , a strategy Garrison and others rejected . Meanwhile , the Party committed itself to ensuring that White laborers would Access for free at .
The Act and the Republican Party 363 work in newly acquired territories and not have to compete with unpaid enslaved people . By the , some abolitionists advocated the use of violence against slaveholders . It is important to note that , even among those who opposed the expansion of slavery in the West , very different attitudes toward slavery existed . Some antislavery northerners wanted the West to be the best country for poor White people to go and seek opportunity . They did not want White workers to have to compete with slave labor , a contest that they believed demeaned White labor . Radical abolitionists , in contrast , envisioned the end of all slavery , and a society of equality between Black and White people . Others opposed slavery in principle , but believed that the best approach was colonization that is , settling freed enslaved people in a colony in Africa . The growing political movement to address the issue of slavery stiffened the resolve of southern slaveholders to defend themselves and their society at all costs . Prohibiting slavery expansion , they argued , ran counter to basic American property rights . As abolitionists fanned the of antislavery sentiment , southerners their defense of their enormous investment in human chattel . Across the country , people of all political stripes worried that the nation arguments would cause irreparable rifts in the country Figure 1411 ) VIII FIGURE In this 1850 political cartoon , the artist takes aim at abolitionists , the Party , Southern states rights , and others he believes risk the health of the Union . As these different factions were agitating for the settlement of Kansas and Nebraska , leaders of the Democratic Party in 1853 and 1854 sought to bind their party together in the aftermath of intraparty over the distribution of patronage jobs . Illinois Democratic senator Stephen Douglas believed he had found a would promote party unity and also satisfy his colleagues from the South , who detested the Missouri Compromise line . In January 1854 , Douglas introduced the bill ( The act created two territories Kansas , directly west of Missouri and Nebraska , west of Iowa . The act also applied the principle of popular sovereignty , dictating that the people of these territories would decide for themselves whether to adopt slavery . In a concession crucial to many southerners , the proposed bill would also repeal the 30 ' line from the Missouri Compromise . Douglas hoped his bill would increase his political capital and provide a step forward on his quest for the presidency . Douglas also wanted the territory organized in hopes of placing the eastern terminus of a transcontinental railroad in Chicago , rather than Louis or New Orleans .
364 14 Troubled Times the 18505 FIGURE This 1855 map shows the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska , complete with proposed routes of the transcontinental railroad . After heated debates , Congress narrowly passed the Act . In the House of Representatives , the bill passed by a mere three votes 113 to 110 . This move had major political consequences . The Democrats divided along sectional lines as a result of the bill , and the Whig party , in decline in the early , found its political power slipping further . Most important , the Act gave rise to the Republican Party , a new political party that attracted northern , Democrats who shunned the Act , members of the Party , and assorted abolitionists . Indeed , with the formation of the Republican Party , the Party ceased to exist . The new Republican Party pledged itself to preventing the spread of slavery into the territories and railed against the Slave Power , infuriating the South . As a result , the party became a solidly northern political organization . As never before , the political system was polarized along sectional fault lines . BLEEDING KANSAS In 1855 and 1856 , and antislavery activists Kansas with the intention of the sovereignty rule of the territories . Proslavery who crossed the border to vote in Kansas became known as border these gained the advantage by winning the territorial elections , most likely through voter fraud and illegal vote counting . By some estimates , up to 60 percent of the votes cast in Kansas were fraudulent . Once in power , the proslavery legislature , meeting at , Kansas , drafted a proslavery constitution known as the Constitution . It was supported by President Buchanan , but opposed by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois . DEFINING AMERICAN The Constitution Kansas was home to no fewer than four state constitutions in its early years . Its constitution , the Constitution , would have made Kansas a state . A proslavery legislature , however , created the 1857 Constitution to enshrine the institution of slavery in the new territories . In January 1858 , Kansas voters defeated the proposed Constitution , excerpted below , with an overwhelming margin of to 138 . Access for free at .
The Act and the Republican Party 365 ARTICLE SECTION . The right of property is before and higher than any constitutional sanction , and the right of the owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is the same and as inviolable as the right of the owner of any property whatever . SEC . The Legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of the owners , or without paying the owners previous to their emancipation a full equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated . They shall have no power to prevent immigrants to the State from bringing with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States or Territories , so long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this State Provided , That such person or slave be the bona property of such How are slaves in the 1857 Kansas constitution ?
How does this constitution safeguard the rights of slaveholders ?
The majority in Kansas , however , were who seethed at the border of the democratic process ( Figure . Many had come from New England to ensure a numerical advantage over the border . The New England Emigrant Aid Society , a northern antislavery group , helped fund these efforts to halt the expansion of slavery into Kansas and beyond . In or ' won . in . use pupa . mum . TI TI . nu ' cue um FIGURE This editorial ran in the Kansas Tribune on September 15 , 1855 , the day Kansas Act to Punish Offences against Slave Property of 1855 went into effect . This law made it punishable by death to aid or abet a fugitive slave , and it called for punishment of no less than two years for anyone who might print , publish , write , circulate , or cause to be introduced into this Territory any materials . containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this Territory . CLICK AND EXPLORE Go to the Kansas Historical Society ( to read the four different state constitutions that Kansas had during its early years as a United States Territory . What can you deduce about the authors of each constitution ?
In 1856 , clashes between antislavery and border came to a head in Lawrence , Kansas . The town had been founded by the New England Emigrant Aid Society , which funded antislavery settlement in the territory and were determined that Kansas should be a state . Proslavery emigrants from Missouri were equally determined that no abolitionist tyrants or negro thieves would control the territory . In the
spring of 1856 , several of Lawrence 366 14 Troubled Times the 18505 leading antislavery citizens were indicted for treason , and federal marshal Israel Donaldson called for a posse to help make arrests . He did not have trouble volunteers from Missouri . When the posse , which included Douglas County sheriff Samuel Jones , arrived outside Lawrence , the antislavery town committee of safety agreed on a policy of nonresistance . Most of those who were indicted . Donaldson However , Jones , who had been shot falsely claiming that he had a court with , revolvers , cutlasses and ed two men without incident and dismissed the posse . during an earlier confrontation in the town , did not leave . On May 21 , order to do so , Jones took command of the posse and rode into town armed knives . At the head of the procession , two an American and a with a crouching tiger . Other banners followed , bearing the words Southern rights and The Superiority of the White Race . In the rear were artillery pieces , which were dragged to the center of town . The posse smashed the presses oft burned down the deserted Free Sta ie two newspapers , Herald of Freedom and the Kansas Free State , and Hotel Figure . When the posse left , Lawrence residents found themselves unharmed but . The next morning , a man named Jo reinforcements , heard the news of Brown and his sons , who were on their way to provide Lawrence with he attack . Brown , a strict , Calvinist and staunch abolitionist , once remarked that God had raised him up on purpose to break the jaws of the wicked . Disappointed that the citizens of Lawrence did not resist he slave hounds of Missouri , Brown opted not to go to Lawrence , but to the homes of proslavery settlers near Creek in Kansas . The group of seven , including four sons , arrived on May 24 , 1856 , justice . They burst into the cabin and announced they were the Northern Army that had come to serve proslavery James Doyle and marched him and two of his sons off , sparing the youngest at the desperate request of Doyle wife , One hundred yards down the road , Owen and Salmon Brown hacked captives to death with broadswords and John Brown shot a bullet into Doyle forehead . Before the night was done , the Browns visited two more cabins and brutally executed two other proslavery settlers . None of executed enslaved any people or had had anything to do with the raid on Lawrence . Brown actions precipitated a new wave of violence . All told , the guerilla warfare between proslavery border and antislavery forces , would continue and even escalate during the Civil War , resulted in over 150 deaths and proper loss . The events in Kansas served as an extreme reply to proposition of popular sovereignty . As the violent clashes increased , Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas . Antislavery advocates use of force carved out a new direction for some who opposed slavery . Distancing themselves from William Lloyd Garrison and other , Brown and fellow abolitionists believed the time had come to slavery with violence . Shown are the ruins of the Free State Hotel . The violent hostilities associated with Bleeding Kansas were not limited to Kansas itself . It was the controversy over Kansas that prompted the caning of Charles Sumner , introduced at the beginning of this chapter with the Access for free at .
The Act and the Republican Party 367 political cartoon Southern Chivalry Argument versus Club Figure . Note the title of the cartoon it lampoons the southern ideal of chivalry , the code of behavior that Preston Brooks believed he was following in his attack on Sumner In Sumner Crime against Kansas speech he went much further than politics , his verbal attack with allusions to sexuality by singling out fellow senator Andrew Butler from South Carolina , a zealous supporter of slavery and Brooks uncle . Sumner insulted Butler by comparing slavery to prostitution , declaring , Of course he Butler has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows , and who , though ugly to others , is always lovely to him though polluted in the sight of the world , is chaste in his sight . I mean the harlot Slavery . Because Butler was aged , it was his nephew , Brooks , who sought satisfaction for Sumner attack on family and southern honor . Brooks did not challenge Sumner to a duel by choosing to beat him with a cane instead , he made it clear that he did not consider Sumner a gentleman . Many in the South rejoiced over Brooks defense of slavery , southern society , and family honor , sending him hundreds of canes to replace the one he had broken assaulting Sumner . The attack by Brooks left Sumner incapacitated physically and mentally or a long period of time . Despite his injuries , the people of Massachusetts reelected him . THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1856 he electoral contest in 1856 took place in a transformed political landscape . A third political party appeared he American Party , a formerly secretive organization with the nickname the Party because its members denied knowing anything about it . By 1856 , the American or Party lad evolved into a national force committed to halting further immigration . Its members were especially opposed to the immigration of Irish Catholics , whose loyalty to the Pope , they believed , precluded their loyalty the United States . On the West Coast , they opposed the entry of immigrant laborers from China , who were hought to be too foreign to ever assimilate into a White America . he election also featured the new Republican Party , which offered John Fremont as its candidate . Republicans accused the Democrats of trying to nationalize slavery through the use of popular sovereignty in he West , a view captured in the 1856 political cartoon the Throat of a Free ) The cartoon features the image of a settler tied to the Democratic Party platform while Senator Douglas ( author of the Act ) and President Pierce force an enslaved person down his . Note that the enslaved person cries out Murder ! help , my poor Wife and Children , a reference to the abolitionists argument that slavery destroyed families . DOWN THE A FIGURE This 1856 political cartoon , Forcing Slavery Down the Throat ofa Free , by John , shows Republican resentment ofthe Democratic represented as an actual expanding slavery into new western territories . The Democrats offered James Buchanan as their candidate . Buchanan did not take a stand on either side of the issue of slavery rather , he attempted to please both sides . His , in the minds of many , was that he was out of the country when the Act was passed . In the above political cartoon , Buchanan , along with Democratic senator Lewis Cass , holds down the advocate . Buchanan won the election , but Fremont garnered more than 33 percent of the popular vote , an impressive return for a new party . The
368 14 Troubled Times the Tumultuous 1850 had ceased to exist and had been replaced by the Republican Party . also transferred their allegiance to the Republicans because the new party also took an stance , a move that further boosted the new party standing . The Democrats courted the Catholic immigrant vote . The Republican Party was a thoroughly northern party no southern delegate voted for Fremont . The Scott Decision and Sectional Strife LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Explain the importance of the Supreme Court Scott ruling Discuss the principles of the Republican Party as expressed by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 As president , Buchanan confronted a and volatile situation . The nation needed a strong personality to lead it , and Buchanan did not possess this trait . The violence in Kansas demonstrated that applying popular democratic principle of majority the territory offered no solution to the national battle over slavery . A decision by the Supreme Court in 1857 , which concerned the enslaved Scott , only deepened the crisis . SCOTT In 1857 , several months after President Buchanan took the oath of office , the Supreme Court ruled in Scott . Scott ( Figure 1416 ) born with slave status in Virginia in 1795 , had been one of the thousands forced to relocate as a result of the massive internal slave trade and taken to Missouri , where slavery had been adopted as part of the Missouri Compromise . In 1820 , Scott owner took him to Illinois and then to the Wisconsin territory . However , both of those regions were part of the Northwest Territory , where the 1787 Northwest Ordinance had prohibited slavery . When Scott returned to Missouri , he attempted to buy his freedom . After his owner refused , he sought relief in the state courts , arguing that by virtue of having lived in areas where slavery was banned , he should be free . FIGURE This 1888 portrait by Louis shows Scott , who fought for his freedom through the American court system . In a complicated set of legal decisions , ajury found that Scott , along with his wife and two children , were free . However , on appeal from Scott owner , the state Superior Court reversed the decision , and the Scotts remained enslaved . Scott then became the property of John Sanford ( his name was misspelled as in later court documents ) who lived in New York . He continued his legal battle , and because the issue involved Missouri and New York , the case fell under of the federal court . In 1854 , Scott lost in federal Access for free at .
The Scott Decision and Sectional Strife 369 court and appealed to the United States Supreme Court . In 1857 , the Supreme by Chief Justice Roger , a former slaveholder who had freed his those he had down its decision . On the question of whether Scott was free , the Supreme Court decided he remained enslaved . The court then went beyond the issue of Scott freedom to make a sweeping and momentous judgment about the status of Black people , both free and enslaved . Per the court , Black people could never be citizens of the United States . Further , the court ruled that Congress had no authority to stop or limit the spread of slavery into American territories . This proslavery ruling explicitly made the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional implicitly , it made Douglas popular sovereignty unconstitutional . DEFINING AMERICAN Roger on Scott In 1857 , the United States Supreme Court ended years of legal battles when it ruled that Scott , an enslaved person who had resided in several free states , should remain enslaved . The decision , written by Chief . Roger , also stated that Black people could not be citizens and that Congress had no power to limit the spread of slavery . The excerpt below is from decision . A free negro of the African race , whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves , is not a citizen within the meaning of the Constitution ofthe United States . The only two clauses in the Constitution which point to this race treat them as persons whom it was morally lawfully to deal in as articles of property and to hold as slaves . Every citizen has a right to take with him into the Territory any article of property which the Constitution of the United States recognises as property . The Constitution of the United States recognises slaves as property , and pledges the Federal Government to protect it . And Congress can not exercise any more authority over property of that description than it may constitutionally exercise over property of any other kind . Prohibiting a citizen of the United States from taking with him his slaves when he removes to the Territory is an exercise of authority over private property which is not warranted by the Constitution , and the removal of the plaintiff Scott by his owner to that Territory gave him no title to freedom . How did the Supreme Court Scott ?
How did the court interpret the Constitution on this score ?
The Scott decision infuriated Republicans by rendering their prevent slavery spread into the . To Republicans , the decision offered further proof of the reach of the Slave Power , which now apparently extended even to the Supreme Court . The decision also complicated life for northern Democrats , especially Stephen Douglas , who could no longer sell popular sovereignty as a symbolic concession to southerners from northern voters . Few northerners favored slavery expansion westward . THE DEBATES The turmoil in Kansas , combined with the furor over the Scott decision , provided the background for the 1858 senatorial contest in Illinois between Democratic senator Stephen Douglas and Republican hopeful Abraham Lincoln ( Figure . Lincoln and Douglas engaged in seven debates before huge crowds that met to hear the two men argue the central issue of slavery and its expansion . Newspapers throughout the United States published their speeches . Whereas Douglas already enjoyed national recognition , Lincoln remained largely unknown before the debates . These appearances provided an opportunity for him to raise his with both northerners and southerners .
370 14 Troubled Times the 18505 , FIGURE In 1858 , Abraham Lincoln ( a ) debated Stephen Douglas ( seven times in the Illinois race forthe Senate . Although Douglas won the seat , the debates propelled Lincoln into the national political spotlight . Douglas portrayed the Republican Party as an abolitionist that aimed to bring about miscegenation , or through sexual relations or marriage . The Black Republicans , Douglas declared , posed a dangerous threat to the Constitution . Indeed , because Lincoln declared the nation could not survive if the slave state division continued , Douglas claimed the Republicans aimed to destroy what the founders had created . For his part , Lincoln said A house divided against itself can not stand . I believe this government can not endure permanently half Slave and half Free . I do not expect the Union to be do not expect the house to I do expect it will cease to be divided . It will become all one thing , or all the other . Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it , and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction or its advocates will push it forward till it shall became alike lawful in all the as well as new , North as well as South . Lincoln interpreted the Scott decision and the Act as efforts to nationalize slavery that is , to make it legal everywhere from New England to the Midwest and beyond . DEFINING AMERICAN The Debates On August 21 , 1858 , Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas met in Ottawa , Illinois , for the first of seven debates . People streamed into Ottawa from neighboring counties and from as far away as Chicago . Reporting on the event was strictly partisan , with each of the candidates supporters claiming victory for their candidate . In this excerpt , Lincoln addresses the issues of equality between Black and White people . A nything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro , is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words , I have no purpose , directly or indirectly , to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists . I believe I have no lawful right to do so , and I have no inclination to do so . I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races . There is a physical difference between the two , which , in myjudgment , will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality , I , as well as Judge Douglas , am in favor of the race to which I belong havingthe superior position . all this , there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence , the right to life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness . I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the White man . I the right to eat the bread , without the leave of anybody else , which his own hand earns , he is my equal and the equal of . Douglas , and the equal of every living man . Access for free at .
John Brown and the Election 371 speech on August 21 , 1858 , in Ottawa , Illinois How would you characterize Lincoln position on equality between Black and White people ?
What types of equality exist , according to Lincoln ?
CLICK AND EXPLORE Go to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site ( on the National Park Services website to read excerpts from and full texts of the debates . Then , visit The Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858 on the Northern Illinois University website to read different newspaper accounts of the debates . Do you see any major differences in the way the newspapers reported the debates ?
How does the commentary vary , and why ?
During the debates , Lincoln demanded that Douglas explain whether or not he believed that the 1857 Supreme Court decision in the Scott case trumped the right of a majority to prevent the expansion of slavery under the principle of popular sovereignty . Douglas responded to Lincoln during the second debate at Freeport , Illinois . In what became known as the Freeport Doctrine , Douglas adamantly upheld popular sovereignty , declaring It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a territory under the Constitution , the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please . The Freeport Doctrine antagonized southerners who supported slavery , and caused a major rift in the Democratic Party . The doctrine did help Douglas in Illinois , however , where most voters opposed the further expansion of slavery . The Illinois legislature selected Douglas over Lincoln for the senate , but the debates had the effect of launching Lincoln into the national spotlight . Lincoln had argued that slavery was morally wrong , even as he accepted the racism inherent in slavery . He warned that Douglas and the Democrats would nationalize slavery through the policy of popular sovereignty . Though Douglas had survived the senate election challenge from Lincoln , his Freeport Doctrine damaged the political support he needed from the Southern Democrats . This helped him to lose the following presidential election , undermining the Democratic Party as a national force . John Brown and the Election of 1860 LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Describe John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry and its results Analyze the results of the election of 1860 Events in the late did nothing to quell the country sectional unrest , and compromise on the issue of slavery appeared impossible . Lincoln 1858 speeches during his debates with Douglas made the Republican Party position well known Republicans opposed the extension of slavery and believed a Slave Power conspiracy sought to nationalize the institution . They quickly gained political momentum and took control of the House of Representatives in 1858 . Southern leaders were divided on how to respond to Republican success . Southern extremists , known as , openly called for secession . Others , like Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis , put forward a more moderate approach by demanding constitutional protection of slavery . JOHN BROWN In October 1859 , the radical abolitionist John Brown and eighteen armed men , both Black and White , attacked the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry , Virginia . They hoped to capture the weapons there and distribute them among enslaved people to begin a massive uprising that would bring an end to slavery . Brown had already demonstrated during the 1856 attack in Kansas that he had no patience for the nonviolent approach preached by abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison . Born in Connecticut in 1800 , Brown
372 14 Troubled Times the Tumultuous 18505 Figure spent much of his life in the North , moving from Ohio to Pennsylvania and then upstate New York as his various business ventures failed . To him , slavery appeared an unacceptable evil that must be purged from the land , and like his Puritan forebears , he believed in using the sword to defeat the ungodly . FIGURE John Brown , shown here in a photograph from 1859 , was a radical abolitionist who advocated the violent overthrow of slavery . Brown had gone to Kansas in the 18503 in an effort to stop slavery , and there , he had perpetrated the killings at . He told other abolitionists of his plan to take Harpers Ferry Armory and initiate a massive slave uprising . Some abolitionists provided support , while others , including Frederick , found the plot suicidal and refused to join . On October 16 , 1859 , Brown force easily took control of the federal armory , which was unguarded Figure . However , his vision of a mass uprising failed completely . Very few enslaved people lived in the area to rally to Brown side , and the group found themselves holed up in the armory engine house with townspeople taking shots at them . Federal troops , commanded by Colonel Robert Lee , soon captured Brown and his followers . On December , Brown was hanged by the state of Virginia for treason . FIGURE John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry represented the radical abolitionist attempt to start a revolt that would ultimately end slavery . This 1859 illustration , captioned Harper Ferry of the , just before the gate is broken down by the storming . Washington and his associates as captives , held by Brown as hostages , is from Frank Leslie Illustrated Magazine . Do you think this image represents a southern or northern version of the raid ?
How are the characters in the scene depicted ?
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John Brown and the Election 373 CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit the Avalon Project ( on Yale Law impassioned speech that Henry David Thoreau delivered on October 30 , 18 hool website to read the 59 , arguing against the execution of John Brown . How does Thoreau characterize Brown ?
What does he ask of his fellow citizens ?
John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry generated intense reactions in both the grew especially apprehensive of the possibility of other violent plots . destroying their civilization , and support for secession grew . Their anxiety South and the North . Southerners Brown as a terrorist bent on ed several southern states to pass laws designed to prevent rebellions by the enslaved . It seemed that the worst fears of the South had come true A hostile majority would stop at nothing to destroy slavery . Was it possible , one resident of Maryland asked , to live under a government , a majority of whose subjects or citizens regard Jo Christian hero ?
Many antislavery northerners did in fact consider Brown a viewed slavery as a sin saw easy comparisons between him and Jesus Chris . THE ELECTION OF 1860 The election of 1860 threatened American democracy when the elevation In Brown as a martyr and martyr to the cause , and those who Abraham Lincoln to the presidency inspired in the South to withdraw their states from the Union . Lincoln election owed much to the disarray in the Democratic Party . The Doctrine had opened up huge sectional divisions among Democrats . Thoug had furthered the split between northern and southern Democrats . Democrat , especially Stephen Douglas , from becoming their zealots insisted on a southern Democrat . The Democratic nominating convention met in April 1860 in Charleston , So after northern Democrats , who mac slavery in the territories . These nor be very unpopular among the peop the divide within the Democratic Party . Northern Democrats nominated Ste Democrats , who met separately , pu forward Vice President John Party had fractured into two competing sectional factions . up a majority of delegates , rejected Je By offering two candidates for hoping to prevent a Republican vic ory , from the border state Union Party and put up a fourth candidate , John Bell , for president , who ple in their states . A second conference , he red Scott decision and the Freeport Brown did not intend it , his raid ers vowed to prevent a northern candidate . These proslavery uth Carolina . However , it broke up Davis efforts to protect hern Democratic delegates knew that supporting Davis on this issue would in Baltimore , further illustrated Douglas , while southern ge from Kentucky . The Democratic dent , the Democrats gave the Republicans an enormous advantage . Also organized the Constitutional to end slavery agitation and preserve the Union but never fully explained how he accomplish this objective . In a political cartoon of the time Figure , home plate . A skunk raises its tail a holds a bat labeled the other candidates . Holding his nose , avery Extension and declares I guess I he presidential election is presented as a baseball game . Lincoln stands on southern Democrat John better leave for Kentucky , for I smell something strong around here , and begin to think , that we are completely skunk .
374 14 Troubled Times the 18505 FIGURE The national game . Three outs and one run ( 1860 ) by Currier and Ives , shows the two Democratic candidates and one Constitutional Union candidate who lost the 1860 election to Republican Lincoln , shown at right . The Republicans nominated Lincoln , and in the November election , he garnered a mere 40 percent of the popular vote , though he won every northern state except New Jersey . Lincoln name was blocked from even appearing on many southern states ballots by southern Democrats . More importantly , Lincoln did gain a majority in the Electoral College ( Figure ) The , however , refused to accept the results . With South Carolina leading the way , in southern states began to withdraw formally from the United States in 1860 . South Mary wrote in her diary about the reaction to the election . Now that the Black radical Republicans have the power , she wrote , I suppose they will Brown us all . Her statement revealed many southerners fear that with Lincoln as President , the South could expect more mayhem like the John Brown raid . 10 a I Lincoln 10 I Douglas I Bell FIGURE This map shows the disposition of electoral votes for the election of 1860 . The votes were divided along almost perfect sectional lines . Access for free at .
14 Key Terms 375 Key Terms American Party also called the Party , a political party that emerged in 1856 with an immigration platform Bleeding Kansas a reference to the violent clashes in Kansas between and slavery supporters border proslavery who crossed the border into Kansas to the legislature Compromise of 1850 five laws passed by Congress to resolve issues stemming from the Mexican Cession and the sectional crisis Scott an 1857 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that Black people could not be citizens and Congress had no jurisdiction to impede the expansion of slavery radical southern Party a political party committed to ensuring that White laborers would not have to compete with unpaid enslaved people in newly acquired territories Freeport Doctrine a doctrine that emerged during the debates in which Douglas his commitment to popular sovereignty , including the right to halt the spread of slavery , despite the 1857 Scott decision slaveholders right to bring their property wherever they wished Harpers Ferry the site of a federal arsenal in Virginia , where radical abolitionist John Brown staged an fated effort to end slavery by instigating a mass uprising among enslaved people miscegenation through sexual relations or marriage popular sovereignty the principle of letting the people residing in a territory decide whether or not to permit slavery in that area based on majority rule Republican Party an antislavery political party formed in 1854 in response to Stephen Douglas Nebraska Act Underground Railroad a network of free Black and northern White people who helped enslaved people escape bondage through a series of designated routes and safe houses Summary The Compromise of 1850 The process of reaching a compromise on slavery in 1850 exposed the sectional fault lines in the ed States . After several months of rancorous debate , Congress passed collectively as the Compromise of people on both sides of the divide hoped had solved the nation problems . many northerners feared the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act , which made it a crime not only to help ens people escape , but also to fail to help capture them . Many Americans , both Black and White , flouted the Fugitive Slave Act by participating in the Underground Railroad , providing safe houses for see ers on the run from the South . Eight northern states passed personal liberty laws to counteract the effects tie Fugitive Slave Act . The Act and the Republican Party application of popular sovereignty to the organization of the Kansas and Nebraska territories ended the sec truce that had prevailed since the Compromise of 1850 . Senator Douglas Act the door to chaos in Kansas as proslavery and forces waged war against each other , and radical abolitionists , notably John Brown , committed themselves to violence to end slavery . The act also the second party system of and Democrats by inspiring the formation of the new Republican Par , committed to arresting the further spread of slavery . Many voters approved its platform in the 1856 presidential election , though the Democrats won the race because they remained a national , rather than a sec , political force .
376 14 Review Questions The Scott Decision and Sectional Strife The Scott decision of 1857 went well beyond the question of whether or not Scott gained his freedom . Instead , the Supreme Court delivered a pronouncement about African Americans in the United States , they could never be citizens and that Congress could not interfere with the expansion of slavery into the territories . Republicans erupted in anger at this decision , which rendered their party central platform unconstitutional . Abraham Lincoln fully articulated the Republican position on the issue of slavery in his 1858 debates with Senator Stephen Douglas . By the end of that year , Lincoln had become a nationally known Republican icon . For the Democrats part , unity within their party frayed over both the Scott case and the Freeport Doctrine , undermining the Democrats future ability to retain control of the presidency . John Brown and the Election of 1860 A new level of animosity and distrust emerged in 1859 in the aftermath of John Brown raid . The South exploded in rage at the northern celebration of Brown as a heroic freedom . called openly for disunion . Poisoned relations split the Democrats into northern and southern factions , a boon to the Republican candidate Lincoln . His election triggered the downfall of the American experiment with democracy as southern states began to leave the Union . Review Questions . What was President Zachary Taylor top priority as president ?
preserving the Union ensuring the recapture of escaped enslaved people expanding slavery enlarging the state of Texas . Which of the following was nota component of the Compromise of 1850 ?
the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act the admission of Kansas as a free state the admission of California as a free state a ban on the slave trade in Washington , Why did many in the North resist the Fugitive Slave Act ?
Which of the following was a focus of the new Republican Party ?
supporting Irish Catholic immigration encouraging the use of popular sovereignty to determine where slavery could exist promoting states rights halting the spread of slavery . Border helped to chase abolitionists out of Missouri elect a proslavery legislature in Kansas capture escaped enslaved people disseminate abolitionist literature in Kansas . How did the Bleeding Kansas incident change the face of antislavery advocacy ?
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14 Critical Thinking Questions 377 . On what grounds did Scott sue for freedom ?
the inherent inhumanity of slavery the cruelty of his enslaver the fact that he had lived in free states the fact that his family would be torn apart . Which of the following was nota result of the debates ?
Douglas was elected senator of Illinois . Lincoln national was raised . Citizens in both the North and South followed the debates closely . Lincoln successfully defended the principle of popular sovereignty . What are the main points of the Scott decision ?
10 . 11 . 12 . Why did John Brown attack the armory at Harpers Ferry ?
to seize weapons to distribute to enslaved people for a massive uprising to hold as a military base against proslavery forces in revenge after the sacking of Lawrence to prevent southern states from seceding Which of the following did not contribute to Lincoln victory in the election of 1860 ' the split between northern and southern democrats the defeat of the Whig party Lincoln improved national standing after his senatorial debates with Stephen Douglas the Constitutional Union party further splintering the vote What were southerners and northerners views of John Brown ?
Critical Thinking Questions 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . Why would Americans view the Compromise of 1850 as a solution to the sectional controversy that began with the Proviso in 1846 ?
If you were a proslavery advocate , how would you feel about the platform of the newly formed Republican Party ?
Based on the text of the debates , what was the position of the Republican Party in 1858 ?
Was the Republican Party an abolitionist party ?
Why or why not ?
John Brown is often described as a terrorist . Do you agree with this description ?
Why or why not ?
What attributes might make him this ?
Was it possible to save American democracy in 1860 ?
What steps might have been taken to maintain unity ?
Why do you think these steps were not taken ?
378 14 Critical Thinking Questions Access for free at .