Baltimore Polytechnic InstituteDecember 1, 2010

A.P. U.S. HistoryMr. Green

Objectives: Enumerate the sequence of major crises, beginning with the

Kansas-Nebraska Act, that led up to secession, and explain the significance of each event.

Explain how and why the territory of bleeding Kansas became the scene of a dress rehearsal for the Civil War.

Trace the growing power of the Republican party in the 1850s and the increasing domination of the Democratic party by its militantly proslavery wing.

AP FocusIn their attempt to take the White House, the Republicans

are defeated when John Frémont loses to Democrat James Buchanan. Nativists, concerned by German and Irish immigration, organize the American, or Know-Nothing, Party, which probably takes votes from the Republicans.

In March 1857, the Supreme Court rules that Dred Scott is not a citizen because of his race. The decision goes even further, stating that Congress has no authority to exclude slavery from any part of the nation or its territories. The Missouri Compromise is therefore ruled unconstitutional.

The financial crash of 1857 primarily affects the North and West. The South is essentially unaffected because of high cotton prices. Southerners cite this as an example of the superiority of their economic system over the North’s, which exploits the “wage-slaves.”

CHAPTER THEMESA series of major North-South crises in

the late 1850s culminated in the election of the antislavery Republican Lincoln to the presidency in 1860. His election caused seven southern states to secede from the union and form the Confederate States of America.

Election Charts 1852, 1856, 1860, 1864Decades Chart 1850’s

Causes:inpouring California gold-inflated currencyCrimean War in Russia-commoditiesSpeculation in land/railroadsTariff of 1857??? Not so fast my friend

reduced duties to 20%/placed on books just before the crashEffects:

5,000 business failed in the year“Bread or Dead”Northern grain growers hurtKing Cotton no impacted

Next Steps:free land or homesteadstake away workersMore free-soilersBuchanan vetoed it in 1860

1858 Illinois Senate RaceSteven Douglas-incumbent Democratic

senatorAbraham Lincoln-Illinois legislature, 1 term

U.S. U.S. House-Whig PartyKansas-Nebraska Act lit a fire in LincolnReceived 110 votes for VP nomination at the Philadelphia convention of 1856

Lincoln and Douglas agreed to 7 debates between August and October 1858

Freeport, Illinois-Famous debateSuppose people of a territory should vote slavery down and since the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that they could not in the Dred Scott decision, who would prevail, the Court or the People?

Freeport Doctrine-now matter what the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down. Laws to protect slavery would have to be passed by the legislature.

As public opinion goes against an issue, the law is nearly impossible to execute

Douglas won as Senators were chosen by the state legislature

Due to inequitable apportionment, Lincoln actually carried a larger population

Lincoln became famous from the debatesDouglas hurt his chances to become President

with support of the Lecompton Constitution and defiance of the Supreme Court

John Brown studied tactics of Toussaint L’Ouverture and Nat Turner

Raid on Harpers FerryFederal ArsenalKilled 7 innocent people, I Free Black

Did not obtain the objective of slaves rising in revolt, instead

Brown is captured by Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee and hanged.

South angry of northern support for BrownA traitor and apostle of treason

Many ignorant of Brown’s bloody past

Democrats met in Charleston, SCSouthern Democrats upset with Douglas’

support of the Lecompton Constitution and the Freeport Doctrine

Southern Democrats walked out of the convention

Tried again…..in Baltimore and nominated Douglas on the platform of popular sovereignty and against obstruction to the Fugitive Slave Law

Southern Democrats in Baltimore organized their own convention

Nominated John C. Breckenridge from KYextend slavery into territoriesannex slave populated Cuba

Constitutional Union Party-former Whigs and Know-NothingsNominated John Bell from TN“The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of Laws”

Republicans nominate Lincoln over SewardLincoln made fewer enemies than Seward

non-extension of slavery into the territoriesprotective tariffno abridgment of rights for immigrantspacific railroadinternal improvement in the Westfree homesteads

Republicans did not control the House or SenateSouth had a 5-4 majority on the Supreme CourtFederal government could not touch slavery

where it existed except for………..a constitutional amendment which could be defeated ¼ of the states

Southern states seceded during the lame duck session

Buchanan did nothing-Army small and fighting Indians in the West and public opinion

Crittenden amendmentsSlavery prohibited north of 36 degrees 30 minSouth of the line, slavery receive federal protection in all territories now and newPopular sovereignty for statehood

Slavery would be protected in the southern territoriesLincoln rejected this

Finish Chapter 19 Work on Charts.