The Politics of Slavery

SG #3, 4

The beginnings of the political discussion on slavery

Henry Clay's Missouri Compromise (1820)

Andrew JacksonOwned over 100 slaves on his plantation the Hermitage

Abolitionism grew during his presidency in the North , flooding the mails with literature.

Strengthened southern state’s rights philosophy with reaction to tariff nullification crisis

Southern slave supporters passed a series of gag rules after northerners submitted anti-slave petitions

James G. Birney: Liberty Party

Minor political party created after a separation from William Lloyd Garrison

Post Jackson Politics

1840 election

Virginia planter, pro-state’s rights, supporter of Texas annexation and slavery

John Tyler: Whig or…. Turns DemocratWilliam Henry Harrison:

Dies after one month

1844: Quite a mess of an election

Texas annexation announced by Tyler, passed on 1st day of Polk’s presidency

Whigs picked Henry Clay to run again

No magic for the Great Compromiser: Birney took votes away from free soil Whigs

As a result: James K. Polk (D) was elected

Anti-Slavery Van Buren sought Dems. nomination, Polk selected as dark horse

Polk: Mr. Manifest Destiny

•Polk: Tennessee slaveholder, bought more during his presidency.

•Mr. Polk’s War: Mexican-American War led to Mexican Cession (CA, UT, NV, Part of CO, AZ and NM)

•A Slavocracy?

•Added Oregon to America

•Rejected Wilmot Proviso (banning slavery in Mexico territory), advocated extending Missouri Comp line to Pacific

•Gadsden Purchase and wanted purchase of Cuba

Most of Mexican Cession below Missouri Comp. line

Gadsden Purch. made to make southern transcont. RR route-strengthening southern economy

http://vimeo.com/10734221

Free Soil IdeologyFree Soil supporters claimed that the South was stagnating, rejecting values of progress and individualism and threatening democracy

THEY FEARED OF A NATION OF SLAVEHOLDERS! A SLAVOCRACY!

Free Soil-ites advocated not for abolitionism necessarily, but a limit on spread of slavery

Ideology split Whigs, helped form the Republican Party

Election of 1848

Zachary Taylor (W), war hero, no political experience

Lewis Cass (D), pro-slavery advocate

Martin Van Buren runs for the Free Soil Party, supporting limit on spread of slavery

The Mexican Cession-Result of the The Mexican Cession-Result of the Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Mexican Cession-Result of the The Mexican Cession-Result of the Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Events of the 1850’s

SG #5,6

-Taylor threatens veto of the 1850 Compromise Bill but….

dies after gastroenteritis: he ate milk, cherries and pickles at a 4th of July picnic

-Mexican Cession and California statehood threatens Union, southerners threaten secession.

-Politics dominated by Clay, Webster, and Calhoun one more time: What to do?

Stephen Douglas separates the Bill into 5 Bills, Millard Fillmore becomes president, supports 1850 Compromise

1850 Compromise passes as five separate bills:

1. California admitted as free state

2. Slave trade abolished in D.C.

3. Utah and New Mexico admitted with pop sov

4. Fugitive Slave Law passed

5. Texas gave up land to NM and Arizona

1852 Election: Calm before the Storm

Democrat candidate: Franklin Pierce from NH

Scott runs as anti-slavery Whig, loses pro-slavery Whig support, splits party and loses election

President Franklin Pierce:

-Doughface: Northerner with southern sympathies

-Young America movement: Supported Ostend Manifesto: seize Cuba

-Kansas/Nebraska Act, Bloody Kansas sinks his presidency

Whigs dump Fillmore, nominate Gen. Winfield Scott

Kansas Nebraska Act 18541. Stephen Douglas

promotes northern route for transcont RR

2. Southerners accept popular sov. for both Nebraska and Kansas

3. Nebraska goes for free soil

The Storm arrives! Northern Whigs, Free-Soilers and Northern Democrats hate the K/N Act. It destroys the sacred Missouri Compromise!

Bleeding Kansas

Sacking of free-town Lawrence, KS May 22, 1856

Border ruffians from Missouri

Kansas implodes into violence as Missouri ruffians and pro slavery-ites invade

Republican Party is born-Northern Whigs and Dems and Free-Soilers

-John Brown depicted as the savior of African Americans in the US

John Brown in Kansas and in West Virginia

May 22, 1856: The caning of Charles Sumner (MA) by Preston Brooks (SC)

-Sumner had attacked the Fugitive Slave Law, Stephen Douglas, Comp of 1850 and Brook’s uncle Andrew Butler from SC

1856: James Buchanan defeats John C. Fremont, Millard Fillmore helps as Know-Nothing candidate draining Republican votes from Fremont

Buchanan: utterly helpless as president, promises in inaugural to not run again:

Help!: Dred Scott Case, Lecompton Constitution, L-D Debates, Harper’s Ferry all blow up his presidency

Dred Scott: May 1857, the worst case in Supreme Court history?

-SCCJ Taney, former slaveholder, rules:

-Scott has no rights as a citizen

-Fed govt had no right to enact Comp of 1820 therefore slavery is legal everywhere!

Fall of 1858: Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Illinois

Nation is captured by Illinois senate race and discussion about slavery-Douglas wins, but Lincoln makes a name for himself