Anti-Slavery Politics and the Origins of the Civil war ...

Anti-Slavery Politics and
the Origins of the Civil

War, 1844-1860

Whigs and Anti-Expansionism

 Texas annexation and war with
Mexico as slaveholder conspiracies

 Wilmot Proviso (Texas as last slave
state annexed)

 Cotton and Conscience Whig
divisions

 Liberty Party created in 1844 (helps
Democrat win presidency)

The Free Labor Ideology Emerges

 Free Soil Party created(1848)
 Slavery degrades work ethic,

promotes laziness
 Honest work demeaned (rugged

individualism)
 Northern laborers should be able to

escape wage slavery and gain and
work western land

Compromise of 1850 (Henry

Clay)

 Mexican cessions upset slave-free state
balance (How to admit new states?)

 California admitted as free state
 New Mexico and Utah divided
 U.S. to assume Texas debt
 Slave trade in D.C. abolished
 Fugitive slave laws enhanced
 Legislation passed as separate laws with

northern and southern moderates voting
for each bill

Elections of 1848 and 1852

 Whigs run Mexican War heroes

• Zachary Taylor (1848)
• Winfield Scott (1852)

 Democrats unite on states sights, elect
Franklin Pierce in 1852

 Anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American
Party further divides Whigs

The Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854)

 Popular sovereignty and
Stephen Douglas

 Allows choice on slavery issue
 Compromise allows transcontinental

railroad to run through northern
states
 Voids Missouri Compromise of 1820
 Democrat President Pierce supports
it





Bleeding Kansas

 Mini-civil war in Kansas over slavery
question

 Competing constitutions
 Border Ruffians and John Brown
 Pierce recognizes pro slavery

Lecompton Constitution

The Rise of the Republican
Party

 Northern Whigs
 Free Soilers (support Homestead Act

and the Free Labor Ideology)
 American Party supporters
 Temperance and national education
 Abolitionists

Election of 1856

 Democrat James Buchanan elected
 Republican Party (1854) gains

legitimacy as serious, unified
opposition

The Dred Scott decision (1857)

 Taney Court
 Slaves are property,

not citizens
 Cannot sue in court (no standing)
 Cannot deprive person of property

(5th Amendment due process)
 Congress cannot prohibit slavery in

territories
 Missouri Compromise, Kansas-

Nebraska unconstitutional

Southern “Fire Eaters”

 Prohibiting slavery unconstitutional
 Right to secession (Union as a

confederation of states)
 Northern conspiracy exists to end

slavery
 Republican win would be seen as

justifying secession
 Hopes of annexing Cuba (Ostend

Manifesto, 1854)

Southern Moderates

 Fear losing territories to US if
secession occurs

 Racism and fear of Cuban annexation
 Fear border state violence and war

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s
Ferry (1859)

 Followers seize federal arsenal to
start armed slave rebellions

 Brown arrested, tried, and hanged
 Brown seen as a martyr in anti-

slavery movement

Election of 1860

 Republicans settle on Lincoln of Illinois
 Democrats divide on slavery extension
 Southern Democrats in Charleston, select

John Breckinridge, threaten secession if
Republicans win
 Northern Democrats in Baltimore, select
Stephen Douglas, favor popular
sovereignty
 Constitutional Union Party selects John
Bell, favors compromise and Union

First Round of Secession

 Lincoln victory leads to South
Carolina secession (December 1860)

 Deep South follows in January 1861
(FL, GA, LA, MS, TX, AL)

 Confederate States of
America created

 Jefferson Davis (MS.)
elected President



Crittenden Compromise (1860-
1861)

 Border states seek compromise
 Missouri Compromise Amendment
 Federal compensation for runaway

slaves
 Prohibit abolition of slavery without

individual state’s approval
 Republicans reject plan

(free soil ideology)