Chapter 18 - Renewing the Sectional Struggle 1848-1854

 

Major Themes

• Sectional conflict over the expansion of slavery erupted after the Mexican War, was quieted by the Compromise of 1850, and erupted again with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
• American expansion of the 1850s was resolutely tied to the question of slavery.

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Major Questions

• Was the practice of compromise on slavery issues good politics or ignorant of reality?

• At the roots, what were the causes of sectionalism in antebellum America?

disagreements on slavery, territory, as well as fugitive slave laws (ex. Texans, Southern slave owners)

Pre-Reading

How did the Whigs and Democrats deal with the issue of slavery in during the 1830s and 1840s?

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The Popular Sovereignty Panacea

• Each of the two great political parties was a vital bond of unity, for each enjoyed powerful support in both North and South; therefore they agreed that it was strategy to ignore the issue of slavery.
• President Polk got sick and only could serve ne term so democrats selected General Lewis Cass, a veteran of the War of 1812, to be the new leader.
• Cass supported expanding slavery and was well known as the reputed father of “popular sovereign.” The public liked popular sovereignty not just because it had a persuasive appeal but that it accorded with the democratic tradition of self-determination. Politicians liked it because it seemed a comfortable compromise between the abolitionist bid for a ban on slavery in the territories and southern demands that Congress protect slavery in the territories.
• Popular sovereign had one fatal defect: it might have helped spread the disease of slavery.

Political Triumph for General Taylor

• Whigs favored Zachary Taylor over Clay, due to Clay's large amount of speeches.
• Whigs focused campaign on opponents flaws not real issues such as slavery in the territories
• Anti-slavery men in the North, disgusted with Taylor and Cass, organized the Free Soil Party. Which wanted no slavery in territories, advocating federal aid for improvements internal improvements and urging free government homesteads for settlers
• this new group gained support from those unhappy with Polk and northerners.
• Free-soiler Van Buren diverted votes from Cass in New York caused Taylor to win election.

"Californy Gold"

• The discovery of Gold in Cali in 1848 sent a high fever to go mine gold.
• Only a few people struck it rich mining while most would've made more money staying at home.
• People who were best off were those who businessed off of the miners to wash clothes and other services
• High percentage of settlers were lawless men followed by women, which caused an outburst of crime with robbery, claim jumping, and murder
• Taylor privately encouraged Cali to outlaw slavery and apply to become a state, skipping the territorial stage.
• California entered as a free state

Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad

• The south in 1850 was relatively well off, The south had seated war hero Zachary Taylor in the white house, planter from Louisiana. If outnumbered in the house, the south had equality in the senate, where it could alteast neutralize northern maneuvers.
• North and South believed slavery was seriously threatened where it already existed below the Mason-Dixon line. The fifteen states could easily veto and proposed constitutional amendment.
• The south was worried, there were fifteen free states as well as slave states and the admission of California would destroy the delicate equilibrium in the Senate, slave territory under the American flag was running short.
• Texas claimed a huge area east of the Rio grande and north of forty-second parallel, embracing half of present day New Mexico. Federal Government proposed to detach this prize, while Texans wanted to claim what they thought was rightfully theirs.
• Many southerners also complained of the nagging of the abolitionists from the north and suffered a loss of many runaway slaves, many of whom were assisted by the underground railroad, which consisted of a series of stops and safe houses for slaves to hide and travel to places free of slavery.
• One famous "conducter" who helped runaway slaves was Harriet Tubman, she rescued more than three hundred slaves including her aged parents, and earned the title "Moses"
• By 1850 southerners were demanding a new and more stringent fugitive slave law. The old one passed in 1793 had been proven inadequate. The south estimated about 1,000 runaway slaves a yar out of its total of 4 million

Twilight of the Senatorial Giants

• Congress was confronted with catastrophe in 1850, Free sould California was banging on the door for admission and fire eaters in the south were voicing ominous threats of secession. The crisis brought into congressional forum teh most distinguished assemblage of statesmen since the constitutional convention of 1787, teh old guard of the dying generation and the young gladiators of the new.
• Henry Clay, 73 years old, played a crucial role. He was still eloquent , conciliatory, and captivating. He proposed and skillfully defended a series of compromises. He was ably seconded by thirty seven year old senator Stephen A Douglas whose role was less spectacular but even more important. Clay urged with all his persuasiveness that the North and South both make enacting more feasible fugitive slave law.
• Daniel Webster, took the senate spotlight to uphold clays compromise measures in his last great speech. As for slavery he asked, why legislate on the subject?

Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill

• The debate of 1850 in Congress was not yet finished for the Young Guard from the North were yet to have their say. This group, the north, were more interested in removing and cleaning it than in patching and protecting it.
• William H. Seward was one of the main northern speakers who seemed not to realize that compromise had brought the Union together and that when the sections could no longer compromise, they would have to part company
• Seward argued that Christian legislators must obey God’s moral law as well as man’s mundane law therefore appealing to a “higher law” then the Constitution. He used this as a reason to stop slavery from spreading. This phrase may have cost him the presidential nomination and the presidency in 1860.
• President Taylor agreed with Seward and his “Higher Law.”

Breaking the Congressional Logjam

• In 1850 the deadlock in Congress ended when President Taylor dyed and Millard Fillmore took over. Fillmore signed the series of compromise measures that passed Congress after seven long months of stormy debate but the Compromise of 1850 was delicate in the extreme.
• The northern states “Union savers” accepted these compromises but the southerners “fire eater” were still against. The north and the south came together as the Second Era of Good Feelings starts which didn’t last long.

Balancing the Compromise Scales

• California, as a free state, tipped the Senate balance permanently against the South. The territories of New Mexico and Utah were open to slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. The southerners urgently needed more slave territory to restore the "sacred balance."
• Most alarming of all, the drastic new Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 stirred up a storm of opposition in the North. The fleeing slaves could not testify in their own behalf, and they were denied a jury trial.
• The Underground Railroad stepped up its timetable, and infuriated northern mobs rescued slaves from their pursuers.

Defeat and Doom for the Whigs

• Meeting in Baltimore, Tthe Democratic nominating convention of 1852, startled the nation. Hopelessly deadlocked, it finally stampeded to the second dark horse candidate in American history
• Franklin Pierce, lawyer-politician, was trying to be pushed back by the whig party with the cry, who is Franklin Pierce? Pierce was a weak and indecisive figure.
• Luckily for democrats, the whig party was slpit. Antislavery Whigs of the North swallowed Scott as their nominee but deplored his platform, which endorsed the hated Fugitive Slave Law
• General Scott, victorious on the battlefield, met defeat at teh ballot box. His friends remarked whimsically that he was not used to running, actually he was stabbed in teh beack by his fellow whigs.
• The election of 1852 was fraught with frightening significance, though it may have seemed tame at the time. It marked the effective end of the disorganized whig party and whthin a few years its complete death

President Pierce the Expansionist

• Pierce was willing to be a tool for the southerners to gain more slave territory.
• William Walker became president of Nicaragua in 1856 by force and opened it up to southern slavery. Soon the central American nations united and overthrew him.
• Great Britain took control of Greytown, which was at the eastern end of the proposed Nicaraguan canal root to prevent the Americans from gaining that vital trade artery.
• Threat of an armed conflict was on the horizon.
• 1850, the Clayton Bulwer Treaty stopped the possibility of armed conflict by stating that neither America or Britain would fortify or secure exclusive control over any future isthmian waterways.
• This proved to be a ball and chain for American canal promoters in the future.
• America became a Pacific power with the acquisition of California and Oregon. This made it so the trade with the Far East began to flourish.
• After 200 years of isolation, Japan opened up to the world because of the Russian menace on their doorstep.
• America sent a fleet of warships to flex the muscles of America and to convince Japan to sign a trade treaty. 1854 a commercial treaty was signed.

Coveted Cuba: Pearl of the Antilles

• Cuba was the prime objective of Manifest Destiny in the 1850s. Supporting a large population of enslaved blacks, it was coveted by the South as the most desirable slave territory available.
• During 1850-1851 two "filibustering" expeditions, each numbering several hundred armed men, descended upon Cuba. Both feeble efforts were repelled, and the last one ended in tragedy when the leader and fifty followers were summarily shot or strangled. Now was the time for President Pierce to provoke a war with Spain and seize Cuba.
• Norther free-soilers, already angered by the Fugitive Slave Law and other gains for slavery, rose in an outburst of wrath against the "manifesto of brigands." Confronted with disruption at home, the red-faced Pierce administration was forced to drop its brazen schemes for Cuba.

Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase

• Acute transportation problems were another legacy of the Mexican War. Feasible land transportation was imperative of the newly won possessions on the Pacific Coast might break away.
• Railroad promoters, both North and South, had projected many drawing-board routes to the Pacific Coast. But the estimated cost in all cases was so great that for many years there could obviously be only one line. The favored section would reap rich rewards in wealth, population, and influence.
• Another chunk of Mexico now seemed desirable, because the campaigns of the recent war had shown that the best railway route ran slightly south of the Mexican border.
• James Gadsden negotiated a treaty in 1853, which ceded to the United States the Gadsden Purchase area for $10 million.

Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Scheme

• 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois long to break the North-South dealock over westward expansion and spread a line of settlements across the continent. He was also a heavy investor in Chicago and the railroad industry.
• Douglas proposed to that the new territory be sliced into 2 new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. The issue of slavery in these new territories would be settled by popular sovereignity.
• The Missouri compromise of 1820 had forbidden slavery in the Nebraska territory. So for popular sovereignity to take its course, the compromise had to be repealed.
• Pres. Peirce threw his full weight behind the Kansas-Nebraska Bill with the "help" of his southern advisors.
• The repealing of the Compromise was not taken lightly because it had been around for so long. But with Douglas's political wit and quick mind he shoved the Bill through Congress.
• Northerners were furious over the repeal of the Compromise and now viewed Douglas as a traitor. Although he still gained strong support from the democratic party.

Congress Legislates a Civil War

• The Kansas-Nebraska Bill made it so that the Northerners would no longer give any more ground to the south. And where there is not compromise, there is war. (Dude good quote, remember that!)
• The Fugitive slave law plus the Kansas-Nebraska left the Northerners and Southerners throwing more and more hostility across the continent.
• The Republican party sprang up in the west. It was a combination of all of the opposing politicians to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and spread to the East like a roadrunner being chased by a coyote.
• The rift was started at the Mason Dixon line after the start of the Republican party. The Union was in dire peril, for what is a country when it is 2 countries?