10_Crisis_of_Union

10: The Crisis of the Union
 * 1) ﻿Pro- and antislavery arguments and conflicts
 * 2) Compromise of 1850 and popular sovereignty
 * 3) The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the emergence of the Republican Party
 * 4) Abraham Lincoln, the election of 1860, and secession

Pro and Antislavery Argurements/ Conflicts

 * Description**: As more new states were being admitted to the union, the controversy over the balanced representaion between free states and slave states became more bitter and bitter.
 * After the **Mexican American War**, Representative Wilmot proposed the **Wilmot Proviso**, which attempted to prohibit slavery from the newly acquired territory from Mexico, the proposal died in the senate.


 * Emergence of the **Free Soil Party**: As Zachary Taylor was being elected president, the free-soilers elected 10 members from the congress and emerged into the free-soil party; collapsed as the new republican party rised.


 * California: As the **Gold Rush** took place in the late 1940's, the population of **California** boomed and soon became a state. However, whether it would become a slave or free state became the focus of the controversy, since the large population would affect the balanced representation in congress.

Compromise of 1850

 * Description**: The admission of the statehood of California led controversy over whether it would be free or slaved, due to its large population; which once it becomes either one of them, the balance between free and slave states would be tipped.
 * The resolution to the California issue resulted in the **Compromise of 1950**, proposed by **Henry Clay**.
 * Admission of **California as a free state**
 * Formation of territorial government of all Mexican ceded land (No restriction on Slavery)
 * **Baning slave trade (Not slavery)** in Washington D.C.
 * A New and more effective fugutive slave act
 * **Repealed the Missouri Compromise**

Popular Sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

 * Description**: The Kansas-Nebraska Act attempted to through using popular sovereignty, to decide whether the two territories would become free or slaved, which led a series of bloody and violent riots within the territories.


 * **Stephen Douglas**, a Illinois senator, in order to gain popularity for the railroad to be build at Illinois, proposed the **Kansas - Nebraska Act**
 * It was through **popular sovereignty (Residents voting on the issue)**, attempting to settle the Kansas-Nebraska issues
 * Consequences
 * Pro-slavery groups from Missouri crossed the border and voted
 * **Bleeding Kansas**: Series of violent riots in Kansas territories between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery government. When the pro-slavery government assaulted the anti-slavery government
 * **Potawottamie Massacre: John Brown**, a radical abolitionist (former slave) decided to revenge on the bleeding kansas. He murdered more than 10 pro-slavery governors.
 * **Crime Against Kansas**: After the series of violence in Kansas, **senator Sumner of Massachusettes** delivered the speech attacking the pro-salvery sides. Later he was beaten by **representative Brookes of South Carolina**


 * **John Brown's Raid:** An unsucessful attempt by John Brown and his men trying to capture an arsenal in Viriginia.As the raid horrified the south, Brown was captured and sentence to death. On the day of his execution, churches in the north ringed bell for him as he was considered a hero.
 * **Dret Scott Decision:** Scott, a slave who had been living in the north with his master demanded his freedom from his master's widow, it was rejected.
 * The supreme court ruled that **African Americans had no right to sue at the first place**.
 * From his heredity, from the **beginning Scott was never considered a citizen**
 * the ruling was considered a major victory for the southerners

Emergence of Republican Party

 * Description**: As the Whigs began declining in the 1950s (The former anti-Jacksonians), the Free Soilers, the anti-slavery democrats, and the remaning of the whig party joined and form the new Republican party.
 * The new republican party included the anti-slavery nothern democrats, whigs, free soilers and others.
 * The principles of the republican party: To **restrict slavery** to where it was existing, but not **banning** slavery

Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860

 * Description**: Weeks after the first republican president Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, 8 states in the south seceeded and formed the Conferderate States of America.


 * **﻿Lincoln-Douglas Debates:** The famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas competiting for the Illinois Senate's seat.
 * The debate made Lincoln famous national wide, even though he lost the senate's seats.
 * **Election of 1860:** The democrats were divided over whether who to nominate for president, a election of 4 cadidates
 * The western democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, the southern democrats nominated John Breckinridge
 * The constitutional union nominated John Bell, attempted to fix the union crisis through negotiation
 * The republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln
 * After Lincoln was being elected, the southern states felt their rights to keep slavery was threatened
 * Within weeks of the election, **South Carolina first seceeded** from the union, followed by other states
 * The seceeded states formed the **Confederate States of America**, became the opponent of the union during the **Civil War**.

Citations:
Alan Brinkley: A Survey- American History