Chapter 15 American History – Flashcards

Slaveholding Missouri requested to join the Union in 1819. The admission of a new state would upset the free state-slave state balance in the Senate. Henry Clay proposed the Missouri Compromise in the hopes that he could settle the issue of slavery in the territories for good. He suggested that Congress admit Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. He proposed that all territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase above the 36°30'N latitude line, excepting Missouri, would be free. Clay's Missouri Compromise, which passed in 1820, preserved the balance in the Senate and made Congress stop debating over slavery as much.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required citizens to help catch runaways and to not help fugitives. Enforcement of this act led to Northerners becoming more angry and convinced about the evils of slavery. To enforce this law, Southerners would take back slaves who had been living in the North for years and would force free African Americans into slavery. Despite this, Northerners who were a part of the Underground Railroad and other antislavery organizations still aided runaways and helped to buy and free slaves. Northern juries did not convict those accused of breaking the Fugitive Slave Law.

In the Congressional election of 1858, Illinois had a choice of either keeping Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the Senate or replacing him with Republican Abraham Lincoln. Stephen A. Douglas believed that the issue of slavery could be resolved through popular sovereignty. He believed that the Union could stay half slave and half free. Abraham Lincoln believed that slavery should not be allowed to spread to the territories. He believed that the Union could not stay half slave and half free. Because Lincoln was not well known, he challenged Douglas to seven debates. During the debate at Freeport, Douglas stated that the people of a territory could legally exclude slavery before achieving statehood by refusing to pass laws protecting slaveholders' rights. This statement of his became known as the Freeport Doctrine. Lincoln denied that he wanted African Americans to be fully equal to whites. He said that African Americans do have the right to reap the benefits of their labor and that slavery was wrong. Although Lincoln lost the elections, he gained a national reputation.

Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced the Wilmot Proviso, which specified that slavery should be prohibited in any lands that might be acquired from Mexico. The Southerners protested this plan, and it did not get passed. In January 1850, Senator Henry Clay presented a five-part plan to settle all the issues dividing Congress because of the territories acquired from Mexico. The parts were (1) California would be admitted as a free state, (2) the New Mexico Territory would have no restrictions on slavery, (3) the New Mexico-Texas border dispute would be settled in favor of New Mexico, (4) the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, and (5) there would be a stronger fugitive slave law. Calhoun and Webster opened the debate on that plan. The debate lasted seven months. Calhoun opposed the plan, but Webster agreed with it. Clay's plan could not pass as a package, and President Taylor opposed the plan. When Taylor died, President Fillmore supported the plan, and Stephen A. Douglas divided the plan up so that its different parts could be voted on separately. In 1850 after the proposal was split up, Congress passed five separate bills. These laws, which contained the five main points of Clay's original plan, were known as the Compromise of 1850.

Douglas proposed organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska because he wanted to encourage settlement of the West and open the way for a transcontinental railroad. Both territories seemed likely to become free states because they both lay north of the boundary of slavery established by the Missouri Compromise. Douglas proposed abandoning the Missouri Compromise because the use of the Missouri Compromise in this situation would make the Senate unbalanced. He proposed letting the settlers in each territory vote on whether to allow slavery, which he called popular sovereignty. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854.

Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom on the premise that he had once lived on free soil. In 1857 Chief Justice Taney explained the ruling for this case. He wrote that, as a slave, Scott could not bring a lawsuit. He wrote that Scott was not free even though he had lived on free soil because the Fifth Amendment prohibits Congress from taking away property without "due process of law." He wrote that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. The decision meant that the Constitution protected slavery. Southerners and Northern Democrats were pleased with the decision, but Republicans and other antislavery groups were outraged. After abolitionist John Brown heard of the attack of Lawrence, the antislavery capital in Kansas, he led six men along Pottawatomie Creek, where they killed five supporters of slavery. On October 16, 1859, Brown led 18 men on an attack on an arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. He was financed by abolitionists to do this. He was quickly defeated, convicted of treason and murder, and hanged. Some antislavery people opposed Brown for promoting violence, but others, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, considered him a hero and a martyr.

Slavery split the Democratic Party between the North and the South. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas for the presidency and supported popular sovereignty. Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky and supported the Dred Scott decision. Northerners and Southerners who formed the Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell of Tennessee and took no position on slavery. The Republicans, who nominated Lincoln, believed that slavery should be left alone where it existed but should not be in the territories. Lincoln won 40% percent of the popular votes and 180 out of 303 electoral votes, winning the election.

In 1854 antislavery Whigs and Democrats joined the Free-Soilers to form the Republican Party. In the state and congressional elections of 1854, the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and of several state governments. The Republicans, who nominated John C. Frémont in the presidential election of 1856, lost this election but beat Know-Nothing nominee former president Millard Fillmore. In the congressional election of 1858, Illinois had to decide whether they wanted to keep current Democrat senator Stephen A. Douglas or replace him with Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln lost this election but gained a national reputation when he challenged Douglas to a series of debates. The Republican nominee, Abraham Lincoln, won the presidential election of 1860.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was the daughter of a New England minister who saw slaves being loaded onto ships to be taken to slave markets when she lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. As an adult and the wife of a religion professor, she wrote books and stories about social reform. She wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel about the evils of slavery. This was published in 1852. This book had a great impact on public feelings about slavery. Stowe was against the Fugitive Slave Act.

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney explained the Supreme Court's decision on the Dred Scott case in 1857. Taney wrote that, as a slave, Scott could not bring a lawsuit. He wrote that Scott was not free by living on free soil because he was property and the Fifth Amendment prohibits Congress from taking away property without "due process of law." He also wrote that Congress could not prohibit slavery in any territory, thereby nullifying the boundary of slavery created by the Missouri Compromise. He also wrote that popular sovereignty with relation to slavery was unconstitutional and that the voters in a territory could not prohibit slavery because that would be the same as taking away a person's property. The decision that Taney explained meant that the Constitution protected slavery.

In 1848, the Whigs chose Zachary Taylor, a Southerner and hero of the Mexican war, as their presidential candidate. Taylor won the election by appealing to both slave and free states. As president, Taylor urged California and New Mexico to apply for statehood. California's statehood got tangled up with other issues in Congress. There was an issue concerning slavery in the District of Columbia, another on the strength of a runaway slave law, and another about the New Mexico-Texas border. Taylor's plan was also delayed because of the issue of the balance of power in the Senate. Taylor opposed Clay's plan to solve these problems. In July 1850 President Taylor suddenly died.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. On December 18, 1860, Senator John Crittenden proposed a series of amendments to the Constitution that would protect slavery. Republicans and leaders in the South alike rejected this compromise. By February 1861, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had all seceded. On February 4, the states that had seceded formed a new nation and government. They called themselves the Confederate States of America and chose Jefferson Davis as their president. Southerners said that they could secede because of states' rights. Most Southerners favored secession, but others were alarmed about it. Most Northerners favored the preservation of the Union, but others favored letting the Southern states secede. On the day of his inauguration, which was on March 4, 1861, Lincoln heard that Fort Sumter was low on supplies and that the Confederates demanded its surrender. Lincoln told South Carolina's governor that he was taking supplies but not arms to the fort. The Confederates decided to attack the fort on April 12, 1861, before Union supplies could arrive. The Union forces surrendered on April 14. Lincoln called for troops to organize, and Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to join the Confederacy.

The differences between the North and the South led to sectionalism, or and exaggerated loyalty to a particular region of the country. Lincoln won the election of 1860 because of sectionalism. He won every Northern state. It was because of sectionalism that Southerners did not trust Northern Republicans such as Lincoln. They did not trust that the Republican government would protect Southern rights. This is why South Carolina, the first state to secede, seceded, followed by Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded after the battle at Fort Sumter because of sectionalism.

The Dred Scott decision was important because it further divided the nation that was on the verge of war. It pleased Southerners and Northern Democrats, but it outraged Republicans and other antislavery groups. It made antislavery people dislike people who were for slavery even more. It was also important because it made the boundary of slavery created by the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. This is noteworthy because, later on, when Senator John Crittenden was proposing a last-minute compromise, he proposed that slavery be protected below the line mentioned in the Missouri Compromise. This line was 36°30'N latitude.

The Compromise of 1850 made it so that the slave trade, but not slavery itself, would be abolished in the District of Columbia. This meant that slaves could not be bought or sold but could still be kept by their masters and forced to work.

The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery from any territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase that was north of the 36°30'N latitude, excepting Missouri. Kansas and Nebraska both lay above that line, so they should have been free states. However, Stephen A. Douglas proposed using popular sovereignty, or allowing the people to decide. He wanted the voters of the territories to decide whether they wanted to be a free or slave territory. This contradicted the Missouri Compromise's boundary of slavery because Kansas and Nebraska both should have been free states, as they were both north of the 36°30'N latitude.