The American Pageant ap edition
II. The North-South Contest for Kansas
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II. The North-South Contest for Kansas Northerners began to pour into Kansas, and Southerners were outraged, since they had supported the Compromise of 1850 under the impression that Kansas would become a slave state. Thus, on election day in 1855, hordes of Southerners “border ruffians” from Missouri flooded the polls and elected Kansas to be a slave state; free-soilers were unable to stomach this and set up their own government in Topeka. Thus, confused Kansans had to chose between two governments: one illegal (free government in Topeka) and the other fraudulent (slavery government in Shawnee). In 1856, a group of pro-slavery raiders shot up and burnt part of Lawrence, thus starting violence. III. Kansas in Convulsion John Brown, a crazy man (literally), led a band of followers to Pottawatomie Creek in May of 1856 and hacked to death five presumable pro-slaveryites. This brutal violence surprised even the most ardent abolitionists and brought swift retaliation from pro-slaveryites. “Bleeding Kansas” was earning its name. By 1857, Kansas had enough people to apply for statehood, and those for slavery devised the Lecompton Constitution, which provided that the people were only allowed to vote for the constitution “with slavery” or “without slavery.” However, even if the constitution was passed “without slavery,” those slaveholders already in the state would still be protected. So, slaves would be in Kansas, despite the vote. Angry free-soilers boycotted the polls and Kansas approved the constitution with slavery. In Washington, James Buchanan had succeeded Franklin Pierce, but like the former president, Buchanan was more towards the South, and firmly supported the Lecompton Constitution. Senator Stephen Douglas, refusing to have this fraudulent vote by saying this wasn’t true popular sovereignty, threw away his Southern support and called for a fair re-vote. Thus, the Democratic Party was hopelessly divided, ending the last remaining national party for years to come (the Whigs were dead and the Republicans were a sectional party). IV. “Bully” Brooks and His Bludgeon “Bleeding Kansas” was an issue that spilled into Congress: Senator Charles Sumner was a vocal anti-slaveryite, and his blistering speeches condemned all slavery supporters. Congressman Preston S. Brooks decided that since Sumner was not a gentleman he couldn’t challenge him to a duel, so Brooks beat Sumner with a cane until it broke; nearby, Senators did nothing but watched, and Brooks was cheered on by the South. However, the incident touched off fireworks, as Sumner’s “The Crime Against Kansas” speech was reprinted by the thousands, and it put Brooks and the South in the wrong. V. “Old Buck” versus “The Pathfinder” In 1856, the Democrats chose James Buchanan, someone untainted by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and a person with lots of political experience, to be their nomination for presidency against Republican John C. Fremont, a fighter in the Mexican-American War. Another party, the American Party, also called the “Know-Nothing Party” because of its secrecy, was organized by “nativists,” old-stock Protestants against immigrants, who nominated Millard Fillmore. These people were anti-Catholic and anti-foreign and also included old Whigs. The campaign was full of mudslinging, which included allegations of scandal and conspiracy. Fremont was hurt by the rumor that he was a Roman Catholic. VI. The Electoral Fruits of 1856 Buchanan won because there were doubts about Fremont’s honesty, capacity, and sound judgment. Perhaps it was better that Buchanan won, since Fremont was not as strong as Lincoln, and in 1856, many people were still apathetic about slavery, and the South could have seceded more easily. VII. The Dred Scott Bombshell On March 6, 1857, the Dred Scott decision was handed down by the Supreme Court. Dred Scott was a slave whose master took him north into free states where he lived for many years. After his master’s death, he sued for his freedom from his new master, claiming that he had been in free territory and was therefore free. The Missouri Supreme Court agreed, freeing him, but his new master appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overruled the decision. Outcomes or decisions of the case… Chief Justice Roger Taney said that no slave could be a citizen of the U.S. in his justification. The Court said a legislature/Congress cannot outlaw slavery, as that would go against the 5th Amendment saying a person’s property cannot be taken without due process of law. This was the bombshell statement. The Court then concluded the Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional all along (because it’d banned slavery north of the 36° 30’ line and doing so was against the second point listed above). The case inflamed millions of abolitionists against slavery and even those who didn’t care much about it. Northerners complained; Southerners were ecstatic about the decision but inflamed by northern defiance, and more tension built. The North—South scoreboard now favored the South undeniably. The South had (1) the Supreme Court, (2) the president, and (3) the Constitution on its side. The North had only Congress (which was now banned from outlawing slavery). Reasons the Constitution favored the South… the Supreme Court just said so with the Dred Scott decision and it is the Supreme Court that interprets the Constitution the 5th Amendment said Congress could not take away property, in this case, slaves it could be argued that slavery is in the Constitution by way of the Three-Fifths Compromise it could be argued slavery is not in the Constitution since the word “slavery” is not present, but using this argument, the 10th Amendment said anything not in the Constitution is left up to the states, and the Southern states would vote for slavery. VIII. The Financial Crash of 1857 Psychologically, the Panic of 1857 was the worst of the 19th century, though it really wasn’t as bad as the Panic of 1837. It’s causes were California gold causing inflation, over-growth of grain, over-speculation, as always, this time in land and railroads. The North was especially hard hit, but the South rode it out with flying colors, seemingly proving that cotton was indeed king and raising Southern egos. Also, in 1860, Congress passed a Homestead Act that would provide 160 acres of land at a cheap price for those who were less-fortunate, but it was vetoed by Buchanan. This plan, though, was opposed by the northeast, which had long been unfriendly to extension of land and had feared that it would drain its population even more, and the south, which knew that it would provide an easy way for more free-soilers to fill the territories. The panic also brought calls for a higher tariff rate, which had been lowered to about 20% only months before. IX. An Illinois Rail-Splitter Emerges In 1858, Senator Stephen Douglas’ term was about to expire, and against him was Republican Abraham Lincoln. Abe was an ugly fellow who had risen up the political ladder slowly but was a good lawyer, had a down-home common sense about him, and a pretty decent debater. X. The Great Debate: Lincoln Versus Douglas Lincoln rashly challenged Douglas, the nation’s most devastating debater, to a series of seven debates, which the Senator accepted, and despite expectations of failure, Lincoln held his own. The most famous debate came at Freeport, Illinois, where Lincoln essentially asked, “Mr. Douglas, if the people of a territory voted slavery down, despite the Supreme Court saying that they could not do so (point #2 of the Dred Scott decision), which side would you support, the people or the Supreme Court?” “Mr. Popular Sovereignty,” Douglas replied with his “Freeport Doctrine,” which said that no matter how the Supreme Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down; since power was held by the people. Douglas won the Illinois race for senate, but more people voted for Abe, so he won the moral victory. Plus, Douglas “won the battle but lost the war” because his answer in the Freeport Doctrine caused the South to dislike him even more. The South had loved Douglas prior to this due to his popular sovereignty position, but then came the Kansas pro-slavery vote which he’d shot down. Then the Freeport Doctrine came down where he turned his back on the Supreme Court’s pro-South decision). This Freeport statement ruined the 1860 election for presidency for him, which was what he really wanted all along. XI. John Brown: Murderer or Martyr? John Brown now had a plan to invade the South, seize its arms, call upon the slaves to rise up and revolt, and take over the South and free it of slaves. But, in his raid of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the slaves didn’t revolt, and he was captured by the U.S. Marines under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee and convicted of treason, sentenced to death, and hanged. Brown, though insane, was not stupid, and he portrayed himself as a martyr against slavery, and when he was hanged, he instantly became a martyr for abolitionists; northerners rallied around his memory. Abolitionists were infuriated by his execution (as they’d conveniently forgotten his violent past). The South was happy and saw justice. They also felt his actions were typical of the radical North. XII. The Disruption of the Democrats After failing to nominate a candidate in Charleston, South Carolina, the Democrats split into Northern and Southern factions, and at Baltimore, the Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas for president while the Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge. Meanwhile, the “Know-Nothings” chose John Bell of Tennessee and called themselves the Constitutional Union party. They tried to mend fences and offered as their platform, simply, the Constitution. XIII. A Rail-Splitter Splits the Union The Republicans, sensing victory against their split opponents, nominated Abraham Lincoln, not William “Higher Law” Seward. Their platform had an appeal to every important non-southern group: for free-soilers it proposed the non-expansion of slavery; for northern manufacturers, a protective tariff; for the immigrants, no abridgement of rights; for the West, internal improvements at federal expense; and for the farmers, free homesteads. Southerners threatened that Lincoln’s election would result in Southern secession. Lincoln wasn’t an outright abolitionist, since as late as February 1865, he had still favored cash compensation for free slaves. Abe Lincoln won the election despite not even being on the ballot in the South. XIV. The Electoral Upheaval of 1860 Lincoln won with only 40% of the popular vote, and had the Democratic Party been more organized and energetic, they might have won. It was a very sectional race: the North went to Lincoln, the South to Breckinridge, the “middle-ground” to the middle-of-the-road candidate in Bell, and popular-sovereignty-land went to Douglas. The Republicans did not control the House or the Senate, and the South still had a five-to-four majority in the Supreme Court, but the South still decided to secede. XV. The Secessionist Exodus South Carolina had threatened to secede if Lincoln was elected president, and now it went good on its word, seceding in December of 1860. Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas (the Deep South) followed in the next six weeks, before Abe was inaugurated. The seven secession states met in Montgomery, Alabama in February of 1861 and created the Confederate States of America, and they chose Jefferson Davis as president. President Buchanan did nothing to force the confederacy back into the Union, partly because the Union troops were needed in the West and because the North was still apathetic toward secession; he simply left the issue for Lincoln to handle when he got sworn in. XVI. The Collapse of Compromise In a last-minute attempt at compromise (again), James Henry Crittenden of Kentucky proposed the Crittenden Compromise, which would ban slavery north of the 36°30’ line extended to the Pacific and would leave the issue in territories south of the line up to the people; also, existing slavery south of the line would be protected. Lincoln opposed the compromise, which might have worked, because his party had preached against the extension of slavery, and he had to stick to principle. It also seems that Buchanan couldn’t have saved the Union no matter what he would have done. XVII. Farewell to Union The seceding states did so because they feared that their rights as a slaveholding minority were being threatened, and were alarmed at the growing power of the Republicans, plus, they believed that they would be unopposed despite what the Northerners claimed. The South also hoped to develop its own banking and shipping, and to prosper. Besides, in 1776, the 13 colonies had seceded from Britain and had won; now the South could do the same thing. I. The Menace of Secession On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president, having slipped into Washington D.C. to thwart assassins, and in his inaugural address, he stated that there would be no conflict unless the South provoked it. He marked restoration of the union as his top goal, and offered doubts about it splitting. He stated that geographically, the United States could not be split (which was true). A split U.S. brought up questions about the sharing of the national debt and the allocation of federal territories. A split U.S. also pleased the European countries, since the U.S. was the only major display of democracy in the Western Hemisphere, and with a split U.S., the Monroe Doctrine could be undermined as well if the new C.S.A. allowed Europe to gain a foothold with it. II. South Carolina Assails Fort Sumter Most of the forts in the South had relinquished their power to the Confederacy, but Fort Sumter was among the two that didn’t. And since its supplies were running out against a besieging South Carolinian army, Lincoln had a problem of how to deal with the situation. Lincoln wisely chose to send supplies to the fort, and he told the South Carolinian governor that the ship to the fort only held provisions, not reinforcements. However, to the South, provisions were reinforcements, and on April 12, 1861, cannons were fired onto the fort; after 34 hours of non-lethal firing, the fort surrendered. Northerners were inflamed by the South’s actions, and Lincoln now called on 75,000 volunteers; so many came that they had to be turned away. On April 19 and 27, Lincoln also called a naval blockade on the South that was leaky at first but soon clamped down tight. The Deep South (which had already seceded), felt that Lincoln was now waging an aggressive war, and was joined by four more Southern states: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, AL to Richmond, VA. III. Brother’s Blood and Border Blood The remaining Border States (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland) were crucial for both sides, as they would have almost doubled the manufacturing capacity of the South and increased its supply of horses and mules by half. They’re called “border states” because… they are on the North-South border and… they are slave-states. They have not seceded, but at any moment, they just might. Thus, to retain them, Lincoln used moral persuasion…and methods of dubious legality: In Maryland, he declared martial law in order to retain a state that would isolate Washington D.C. within Confederate territory if it went to the South He also sent troops to western Virginia and Missouri to secure those areas. At the beginning, in order to hold the remaining Border States, Lincoln repeatedly said that the war was to save the Union, not free the slaves, since a war for the slaves’ freedom would have lost the Border States. Most of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole) sided with the South, although parts of the Cherokee and most of the Plains Indians were pro-North. The war was one of brother vs. brother, with the mountain men of what’s now West Virginia sending some 50,000 men to the Union. The nation’s split was very visible here, as Virginia literally split. IV. The Balance of Forces The South, at the beginning of the war, did have many advantages: It only had to fight to a draw to win, since all it had to do was keep the North from invading and taking over all of its territory. It had the most talented officers, including Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and most of the Southerners had been trained in a military-style upbringing and education since they were children, as opposed to the tame Northerners. Many top Southern young men attended military schools like West Point, The Citadel, or VMI. However, the South was handicapped by a shortage of factories and manufacturing plants, but during the war, those developed in the South. Still, as the war dragged on, the South found itself with a shortage of shoes, uniforms, blankets, clothing, and food, which didn’t reach soldiers due to supply problems. However, the North had a huge economy, many more men available to fight, and it controlled the sea, though its officers weren’t as well-trained as some in the South. As the war dragged on, Northern strengths beat Southern advantages. V. Dethroning King Cotton The South was depending on foreign intervention to win the war, but didn’t get it. While the European countries wanted the Union to be split (which would strengthen their nation, relatively speaking), their people were pro-North and anti-slavery, and sensing that this was could eliminate slavery once and for all, they would not allow any intervention by their nations on behalf of the South. The reason for the pro-North, anti-slavery stance by the people, was the effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin—being lowly wage earners, the common people felt Uncle Tom’s pain. Still, the Southern ideas was that the war would produce a shortage of cotton, which would draw England and others into the war, right? Wrong. In the pre-war years, cotton production had been immense, and thus, England and France had huge surpluses of cotton. As the North won Southern territory, it sent cotton and food over to Europe. India and Egypt upped their cotton production to offset the hike in the price of cotton. So, King Wheat and King Corn (of the North) beat King Cotton of the South, since Europe needed the food much more than it needed the cotton. VI. The Decisiveness of Diplomacy The South still hoped for foreign intervention, and it almost got it on a few occasions. Late in 1861, a Union warship stopped the British mail steamer the Trent and forcibly removed two Confederate diplomats bound for Europe. Britain was outraged at the upstart Americans and threatened war, but luckily, Lincoln released the prisoners and tensions cooled. “One war at a time,” he said. British-built sea vessels that went to the Confederacy were also a problem. In 1862, the C.S.S. Alabama escaped to the Portuguese Azores, took on weapons and crew from Britain, but never sailed into a Confederate base, thus using a loophole to help the South. Charles Francis Adams persuaded Britain not to build any more ships for the Confederacy, since they might someday be used against England. VII. Foreign Flare-Ups Britain also had two Laird rams, Confederate warships that could destroy wooden Union ships and wreak havoc on the North, but after the threat of war by the U.S., Britain backed down and used those ships for its Royal Navy. Near Canada, Confederate agents plotted (and sometimes succeeded) to burn down American cities, and as a result, there were several mini-armies (raised mostly by British-hating Irish-Americans) sent to Canada. Napoleon III of France also installed a puppet government in Mexico City, putting in the Austrian Archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico, but after the war, the U.S. threatened violence, and Napoleon left Maximilian to doom at the hands of a Mexican firing squad. VIII. President Davis Versus President Lincoln The problem with the South was that it gave states the ability to secede in the future, and getting Southern states to send troops to help other states was always difficult to do. By definition in a confederacy, national power was weak. Jefferson Davis was never really popular and he overworked himself. Lincoln, though with his problems, had the benefit of leading an established government and grew patient and relaxed as the war dragged on. IX. Limitations on Wartime Liberties Abe Lincoln did make some tyrannical acts during his term as president, such as illegally proclaiming a blockade, proclaiming acts without Congressional consent, and sending in troops to the Border States, but he justified his actions by saying that such acts weren’t permanent, and that he had to do those things in order to preserve the Union. Such actions included the advancement of $2 million to three private citizens for war purposes, the suspension of habeas corpus so that anti-Unionists could be arrested without a formal charge, and the intimidation of voters in the Border States. The Confederate states’ refusal to sacrifice some states’ rights led to the handicapping of the South, and perhaps to its ultimate downfall. 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