Essential Questions: Why did the Whig party die? Why did the Republican rather than the Know-Nothing
party emerge as the new majority in the North? What were the origins of Nativism?
I. Kansas and the Rise of the Republican Party
A. Drive to organize the territory west of the Missouri
1. Struggle over creation of Nebraska Territory because of slavery question
a. Under Missouri Compromise, Nebraska would be free
-However, the pro-slavery forces were determined to salvage something
2. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
a. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois suggested applying popular sovereignty concept to Nebraska
b. Ultimately agreed to divide territory into Kansas (west of Missouri) and Nebraska
(west of Iowa and Minnesota)
c. Also agreed to explicitly repeal the Missouri Compromise
B. Reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act was intense
1. Douglas most likely motivated by his belief in Manifest Destiny
a. Willing to pay price needed to win Southern support
b. Likely didn�t realize depth of Northern opposition to the �slave power� and the expansion of slavery
c. Important thing was giving settlers a chance to vote, regardless of outcome
2. Many Northerners did care about the expansion of slavery, including Abraham Lincoln
a. Antislavery Whig who re-entered politicsbecause of the shock caused by the Act
b. Lincoln�s opposition inspired uprising against act
3. Act passed, but not overwhelmingly
C. Emergence of Republican Party
1. Struggle over Kansas-Nebraska Act destroyed Whigs as a national party
a. All Northern Whigs voted against Kansas-Nebraska Act
b. Few Whigs remained in South after 1852
-Most left and joined the Democratic party
2. Midterm election of 1854 were disastrous for Northern Democrats
a. Lost control of the House
b. Most northern Democratic voters left the party
3. Democrats becoming an exclusively Southern party
4. Republicans hoped to emerge as national party
II. Immigration and Nativism
A. Dramatic rise in immigration to U.S. during 1840s
1. Unskilled and semiskilled laborers, many from Germany and Ireland
2. Most new immigrants were also Roman Catholic
B. Immigrants� involvement in politics
1. Concentration of immigrants in cities gave them tremendous political clout
a. Most gravitated toward Democratic Party
b. Whigs didn�t accept or even tolerate them
2. Supported slavery because it kept blacks out of the North
3. Conflict over key issues of temperance and education
a. prohibition laws and efforts to prevent the construction of Catholic schools targeted immigrants
C. The Rise of the �Know-Nothings�
1. Boasted one million members by 1854
2. Supported temperance and opposed tax support for parochial schools
3. Wanted public office restricted to native-born men
4. Sought to lengthen naturalization period
5. Badly hurt Whigs in Northeast in elections of 1854
6. Would be engaged in struggle with Republicans to replace Democrats after 1854
a. Many Republicans feared allying with nativist bigotry
D. The Nativist Decline
1. In 1855, Republicans diverted northern Know-Nothings energies from the pope to slave issue
a. Turmoil in Kansas demonstrated that slavery was a bigger threat than the pope
2. Southern Know-Nothings continued to support slavery
a. Slavery issue came to split Know-Nothing Party as it had earlier split Whigs
3. Northern nativists eventually joined Republican Party
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Chapter 14 : The Gathering Tempest, 1853-1860 (sec 1)
Essential Questions: How did the Nebraska-Kansas issue lead to deeper divisions within the U.S.?
How did the Democratic party split prior to the 1860 presidential election?
III. Bleeding Kansas
A. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act meant a struggle for control of the territory
1. Settlers rushed in from both sides (Bloody)
2. Goal was to establish majority in order to control the territorial legislature
3. Pro-slavery Missourians were determined to establish a pro-slavery government in Kansas
a. Thousands voted illegally to establish a pro-slavery legislature
4. When the territorial governor asked President Pierce to nullify the fraudulent election, Pierce removed him
5. New territorial legislature legalized slavery
6. Free soilers in Kansas, outraged at these developments, adopted a free-state constitution
7. By January 1856, Kansas was the leading issue
IV. The Election of 1856
A. Republicans were largest party in North by 1856
1. First truly sectional party in nation�s history
2. Had little prospect of carrying a single county in the slave states
3. Opposed slavery; supported federal funding for internal improvements
4. Nominated John C. Fr�mont for president
B. Democrats chose James Buchanan
1. Endorsed popular sovereignty
2. Condemned Republicans as �sectional party�
C. American Party ran ex-Whig Millard Fillmore
D. Campaign shaped up as two paired contests
1. Democrats vs. Americans in South
2. Democrats vs. Republicans in North
E. Real excitement of campaign was in North
1. Republicans saw campaign as moral cause
a. crusade against slavery
2. Turnout in North was a remarkable 83 percent of eligible voters
3. Based campaign against slavery on appeals to free-labor ideology
4. Democrats charged that Republicans would destroy the union
F. Buchanan elected, with substantial Southern support
G. The Dred Scott case (1857)
1. South took offensive on slave question after election of Buchanan
2. Vehicle was Supreme Court, which had five justices from slave states
3. Case involved a slave, Dred Scott, whose owner took him to army posts in Illinois and Wisconsin
(free areas) before returning to Missouri
4. Scott sued for freedom based on his long residence in Wisconsin, which the Missouri Compromise had
decreed free territory
5. In Supreme Court, seen as test case of Congress�s power to prohibit slavery in the territories
a. Southern justices decided to rule that Missouri Compromise�s prohibition on slavery in the
territories was unconstitutional
6. Opinion contained several parts
a. Constitution�s protection of private property meant Congress had no right to prohibit slavery
b. Since blacks were not citizens, ruled that case should never had proceeded in first place
7. Republicans denounced as �gross perversion� of the U.S. Constitution
8. Instead of settling slavery controversy, decision intensified it
H. The Lecompton Constitution
1. Pro-slavery legislature in Kansas called in 1857 for constitutional convention at Lecompton to prepare for statehood
2. Free Soil voters refused to participate because election was rigged
3. Posed problem for Buchanan.
a. Had promised a fair referendum on constitution
b. But majority of legitimate settlers were antislavery
4. Solution was to offer choice between constitution �with slavery� and �with no slavery�
a. Constitution �with no slavery� protected owners� control of those slaves already in Kansas
b. did nothing to prevent future smuggling of slaves across border with Missouri
5. Free-state voters again boycotted
6. Constitution �with slavery� approved by only one-quarter of the eligible voters
7. Antislavery forces went on offensive
a. With support of federal troops, gained control of territorial legislature
b. Submitted both constitutions to voters
-70 percent of eligible voters rejected both
8. Faced with dilemma, Buchanan decided to accept Lecompton constitution �with slavery�
a. Democratically controlled Senate concurred
b. Northern Democrats defected in House, and constitution went down to defeat
9. After voters again rejected Lecompton constitution, action on Kansas statehood stalled
10. Debate over Lecompton split Democratic Party and all but assured election of a Republican in 1860
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Chapter 14: The Gathering Tempest (sec 3)
Essential Questions : How did the economic developments widen the breach between the North and South?
What was the �free labor ideology? How did this concept relate to the politics of the 1850�s?
V. The Economy in the 1850s
A. Prolonged period of economic growth after the mid-1840s
1. Railroads were among biggest growth industries
a. Laid basis for industrialization in Old Northwest
b. Tied West and East together
2. Economic expansion outstripped population
a. U.S. was world�s second-leading industrial producer by late 1850s
b. Biggest industries were agricultural processing and raw materials
-cotton textiles, lumber products, boots and shoes, and flour milling
B. �The American System of Manufactures�
1. U.S. pioneered the mass production of interchangeable parts
a. Began with firearms
C. The Southern economy
1. Literacy levels were much lower in the South
2. Still, South did share in general economic prosperity
a. Cotton prices and production both doubled between 1845 and 1855
b. Similar increases for tobacco and sugar
c. Price of slaves also doubled
3. Overall, Southern crops provided three-fifths of all U.S.exports, with cotton alone providing more than half
4. Some Southerners bemoaned region�s dependence on agricultural exports and import of manufactured goods
a. Feared that the situation made the region a virtual colony of the North
b. Called for the South�s economic independence
5. Some economic diversification in South during 1850s
a. Increased railroad mileage, own investment in industry
b. But even then, the North outpaced it
c. Most of region�s capital remained invested in land, slaves
D. The sovereignty of King Cotton
1. By the late 1850s, the drive for Southern economic diversification lost steam
2. King Cotton reasserted its prominence as output and prices continued to rise
E. Labor conditions in the North
1. Differences between middle class and poor greater in South
2. Many families lived on the edge of poverty
3. Overall, even poor in North were better off than slaves in South
F. Free-labor ideology
1. Republican antislavery argument was finely honed by later 1850s
a. Condemned slavery for degrading the calling of manual labor by equating it with bondage
2. Social mobility was central (work hard and move up the ladder)
3. Celebrated virtues of industry, thrift, and self-discipline
4. Saw slavery as antithesis of upward mobility
G. The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) Hinton Helper
1. Traced dismal economic conditions in South to slavery
2. Called on non-slaveholding whites to overthrow the slave system
3. Had huge impact in North, where Republican Party subsidized an abridged version and used it as a campaign document
VI. Lincoln-Douglas Debates
A. Illinois Senate race in 1858 pitted Abraham Lincoln against Stephen Douglas
1. Became dress rehearsal for 1860 presidential election
2. Seven open-air debates focused almost entirely on the issue of slavery
a. Lincoln warned that slavery and freedom could not co-exist
b. Douglas believed that people had a right to slavery if they wanted it
B. Freeport Doctrine
1. Douglas won Senate race, but real winner in campaign was Lincoln
a. Lincoln�s stature soared as a result of debates
b. Douglas further alienated Southern Democrats
2. Debate at Freeport proved decisive
a. Douglas asked to reconcile his support for Dred Scott decision and his policy of popular sovereignty
b. Replied that even though the Court had legalized slavery in the territories, enforcement of that right
depended on the people who lived there
c. Popular in North, but increased Southern calls for federal slave code for the territories
C. John Brown at Harpers Ferry (1859)
1. Plan was to capture federal arsenal, arm slaves, and lead assault against slave system throughout South
a. Operation backed by some Massachusetts and New York abolitionists
2. State militia units eventually subdued Brown�s small force
a. Brown and six of his followers were eventually hanged
3. Incident aroused Southern fears of widespread slave rebellions
4. Many Northerners considered Brown a martyr to freedom
5. Widened gulf between North and South
a. growing tensions between the two sections