DOC PREVIEW
UT Arlington HIST 1311 - 012Lecture12_13

This preview shows page 1-2 out of 5 pages.

Save
View full document
View full document
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 5 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience
View full document
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 5 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 5 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience

Unformatted text preview:

Lecture 12-13: Sectional Conflict and Shattered Union, 1850-1861 I. New Political Choices A. The Politics of Compromise 1. California’s application for statehood revived tensions between North and South. a. California wished to bar slavery. b. What to do about slavery in the Utah and New Mexico territories divided the two sides. 2. The Compromise of 1850 sought to resolve all issues as follows: a. California to be a free state. b. Popular sovereignty to determine whether or not the Utah and New Mexico territories would have slavery. c. Fugitive-slave law to placate southerners. d. Slave trade in Washington, D.C., to end. 3. The Whig party fell apart during the election of 1852. a. Conscience Whigs (antislavery) and Cotton Whigs (proslavery) divided. b. Animosity between Catholics (immigrants) and Protestants (native-born Americans) also hurt the party. B. A Changing Political Economy 1. Industrialization increased during the 1850s. a. Steam power, advanced interchangeable parts, assembly lines, and mass production contributed to the expansion of factory industry. 2. The railroad moved to center place in the economy. a. Railroad mileage more than tripled. b. Agriculture, mining, and manufacturing expanded because of more rail transport. c. Government at all levels helped finance railroad development. 3. The West’s economic and political power increased. a. World grain prices rose during the 1850s. b. New farming equipment made greater production possible. 4. The labor force expanded thanks to immigration. a. Irish immigration climbed because of the potato blight. b. German immigration increased because of crop failures andpolitical chaos. 5. Regionally different economies contributed to sectional division. a. Slavery seemed to loom behind every issue and debate. C. Decline of the Whigs 1. The Whig party weakened because of the foregoing economic changes. a. Efforts to attract immigrants angered American Indian artisans and evangelical Protestants. 2. The American party (Know-Nothings) attracted anti-immigrant andanti-Catholic support.3. Differences over slavery further split the Whigs. a. Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave new impetus to antislavery sentiment. b. Some Northerners began to assist slaves to escape via the Underground Railroad. 4. Temperance reformers also left the Whig party. D. Increasing Tension Under Pierce 1. Choice of a transcontinental railroad route inflamed sectional opinion. a. Southerners wanted a southern route, to encourage the development of more slave states. b. Northern Free-Soilers, evangelicals, and manufacturers wanted a northern route. 2. The Gadsden Purchase angered antislavery forces. a. It facilitated development of a southern transcontinental railroad route. 3. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois maneuvered to obtain a northern route. a. He sought a route based in Chicago. b. His Kansas-Nebraska Act (to organize the territories through which a northern route must pass) allowed for popular sovereignty on the slavery question. II. Toward a House Divided A. A Shattered Compromise 1. The Kansas-Nebraska Act infuriated northern opinion. a. Northern coalitions to defeat it were unsuccessful, but gradually coalesced to form the Republican party. 2. Northerners found even more evidence of a slave power conspiracy in: a. Filibustering by southerners in the Caribbean and Central America. b. The Ostend Manifesto. B. Bleeding Kansas 1. Both sides began to send armed settlers to Kansas. 2. Kansas erupted in violence. a. Proslavery forces entered Kansas from Missouri and voted illegally in elections to organize the territory. b. They attacked the antislavery town of Lawrence when antislavery forces organized their own government. c. John Brown then seized and murdered five proslavery men.3. The Kansas issue also led to violence in Congress. a. Southerners praised the assault on Senator Sumner by Representative Brooks. 4. The Republican party did well in the presidential election of 1856. a. Its relatively narrow defeat underscored the new party’s appeal in the North.b. The American party split apart over the issue of slavery; many northern members joined the Republicans. C. Bringing Slavery Home to the North 1. The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision further angered the North. a. It decreed that Congress could not limit slavery in the territories. 2. In Kansas, the proslavery LeCompton constitution kept tensions high. a. Congress did not approve it, because nonresidents had participated in the ratification vote. b. In a second vote on it, it was defeated because, this time, Free-Soilers in Kansas voted. 3. In Illinois, Abraham Lincoln ran for the Senate against Douglas. a. The two engaged in a series of debates about the expansion of slavery. b. In the Freeport Doctrine, Douglas said that, despite the Dred Scott decision, a territory could exclude slavery by making it uncomfortable for slave owners. D. Radical Responses to Abolitionism and Slavery 1. Southerners defended slavery’s expansion as vital to their economic and political well-being. 2. They defended slavery itself by: a. Offering religious reasons and biblical examples. b. Arguing that it made whites in the South freer and more cultivated than in the North. c. Suggesting that slave labor was more humane than the wage slavery of northern laborers. 3. John Brown attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. a. His goal was a mass slave insurrection. b. The attack frightened the South, pushing many to consider secession. 4. Hinton Rowan Helpers’s The Impending Crisis of the South pushedmore southerners to consider secession. a. Northerners distributed it widely for, though written by a southern racist, it assailed slavery. III. The Divided Nation A. The Dominance of Regionalism 1. The Democratic party split again over the issue of slavery in the territories in 1860. a. Northern Democrats nominated Douglas for president on a platform of popular sovereignty in the territories. b. Southern Democrats nominated Breckenridge on a platformdemanding federal protection of slavery in the territories. 2. The Constitutional Union party nominated Bell.a. It hoped to force the election into the House of Representatives. 3. The Republicans nominated Lincoln. a. Their platform opposed the extension of slavery and supported higher tariffs, internal improvements, and land legislation for the West. B. The Election of 1860 1. The Republicans emphasized the slavery issue and also played on


View Full Document

UT Arlington HIST 1311 - 012Lecture12_13

Download 012Lecture12_13
Our administrator received your request to download this document. We will send you the file to your email shortly.
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view 012Lecture12_13 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view 012Lecture12_13 2 2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?