Notes

1852 Election
Democrats - Franklin Pierce (Support 1850 Compromise)
Whigs - Winfield Scott (Anti-slavery and nativist reputation)
Pierce won; but tried too hard to be all things to all people. Democrat leaders scrapped him.

1854 - Pierce offered to buy Cuba from Spain-rejected
Ostend Manifesto
-US Ambassadors to Spain, Britain & France confid. dispatch
-Suggested if Spain was too stubborn to sell, perhaps we should take it by force.

Diplomatic Gains in Asia
1844 - Trade agreement with China opened 4 ports to US (11 more later)
Japan-Commodore Matthew Perry opened negotiations (1853)
1st American envoy-Townshend Harris
Harris Convention (1858) - 5 Japanese ports opened to US trade


Kansas Nebraska Crisis
Desire to build a transcontinental railroad sparked sectional rivalries and reopened the slavery issue

Douglas' Proposal
Jefferson Davis favored a Southern Route
-Promoted the Gadsden Purchase
-Land in NM and AZ bought from Mexico in 1853 for 10 mill
Stephen A Douglas (IL) - Midwest view
In 1854- A bill dealing with the unorganized portion of the LA purchase to the Canadian border, know by its Indian name, Nebraska.
Needed Southern support to get it passed --> Slavery Concession: Popular sovereignty written into the Bill.
Sort of moot, since MO Compromise excluded slavery there, anyway, thus preventing slaveholders from ever forming a majority
2 More concessions
-Repeal the MO Comp line of 36-30
-Organize into two territories: Kansas and Nebraska
huge opposition in the North
Bill passed with Fillmore's support - May 1854
Demonstrations against the Fugitive Slave Act
All agree Nebraska was Free, scrambled to establish control of KS
Territorial governor arrived 1854-thousand settlers already there, called for election of territorial legislature in 1855, MO ruffians voted pro-slave
Governor denounced the vote, but feared for his life if he altered the results.
Pro slave legislature expelled antislavery members
By 1856- New free state legislature and governor were operating in Topeka
-Applied for statehood
Both sides armed - Sack of Lawrence by proslavery thugs
John Brown retaliated - Pottawatomie Massacre (May 24-25, 1856)
Unleashed Territorial guerilla civil war.

Violence in the Senate
May 20, 1856 - Charles Sumner (MA) ridiculed and attacked elderly Senator Andrew Pickens Butler (SC) in an inflammatory speech)
May 22 - Congressman Preston S. Brooks (SC), kin to Butler, confronted Sumner
-Beat him about the had with a cane
-Sumner collapsed
-Created a martyr for the antislavery cause

Sectional Politics
bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Sumner, and Bully Brooks had fragmented the political landscape
American Party - Millard Fillmore
Republican Party - John C. Fremont
-Transcontinental RR
-Condemned the repeal of the MO compromise and territorial expansion
-"Free soil, Free speech, and Fremont"

Democrats - James Buchanan (left Pierce)
-Endorsed the KS-NE act
-Condemned nativism, endorsed religious liberty
Buchanan won, saving the union depended on concessions to the south, his base of support.

Dred Scott Case 1857
Freedom granted can be lost if returning to slave state
Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney
-Return to MO made him a slave, MO compromise line was unconstitutional (since been repealed), popular sovereignty also unconstitutional by extension
Scott lacked standing in the court anyway because blacks do not have federal citizenship.

Lecompton Constitution
Kansas had anti-slave legislature
Pro-slave Constitutional convention
-Met at Lecompton - Pro slave constitution
President Buchanan supported Lecompton Constitution influenced by political dependence on Southern advisors and congressmen
Referendum: in favor of slavery
Governor called for new election: Overwhelmingly against Lecompton Constitution
1858 Senate passed Lecompton Constitution
-New, supervised vote -> KS firmly rejeceted Lecompton (11,300 : 1,788), even though it meant postponing statehood until the population reached 90,000.

Panic 1857
Causes
*-Reduction in European demand for US gain
*-Overly rapid railway construct
*-Surge in manufacture, outpacing markets
*-Continued weakness of state bank-notes
Catalysts
-Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company failed
-Depression until 1859
North hit the hardest-blamed it on the Democratic Tariff of 1857
South-World markets for cotton quickly recovered
-Seemed to confirm the superiority of the south's economic system of slave based agriculture
Democratic Tariff - Low tariffs in the south!!!

Democrats Divide
Charleston convention
-Gulf states walked out
Rest met in Baltimore on June 18, 1860
--Nominated Stephen Douglas
-Charleston (Slave code platform)
--Nominated John C. Breckinridge (KY)

Lincoln Election
Repo nominee
Resist expansion of slave
Platform appealed to Eastern businessmen (tariff), Wester farmers (free home and RR), and immigrants

Secession of the DEEEP South
Charleston, SC - Dec 20, 1860
-State convention unanimously endorsed an Ordinance of Secession
By Feb 1, 1861 - Joined by MS, FL AL GA LA and TX
Feb 7 - Confederate States of America
-Jefferson Davis elected its first president

Buchanan's Waiting Game
refrained from taking immediate action
Dec 3, 1860 - declared that secession was illegal, but could not coerce states
-However he could enforce laws on individuals
War fought on the premise- individuals in rebellion, but not States


Lincoln and Secession
March 4, 1861-Inaugural Address
-Union of these states is perpetual
-An appeal of harmony
April 4 - Sent provisions (No soldiers or guns) to Sumter
-Confederate government Wanted a showdown
-Demanded Anderson surrender-refused
April 12-Confederates opened fire
-33 Hours later no ammo, and Anderson surrendered
April 15 - Lincoln issued war proclamation
April 19 - Blockaded southern ports

Taking Sides
VA, AR, TN, NC - Joined the Confederacy
-West Virginia broke away and joined the union (1863)
Other slave states - bitter struggles to decide
MD - would have encircled DC with Confederate States
-Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus and jailed pro-Confederate leaders
Robert E. Lee - Bitter choice

Northern and Southern Advantages
North
-Numbers advantage, in states and population
-Industry equipment, mechanics, engineers, bankers, and financial resources, and Transportation
South
-Geography; defensive war in their own territory
-More experienced military leaders (at the beginning)

Bull Run
Naively, both sides expecting a quick victory
North retreated in panic
Sobering experience for both sides
This is where General Thomas Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall"

Lincoln fell back on Anaconda Strat -3 pronged
-Army of the Potomac to defend DC and exert constant pressure on Richmond
-Navy to blockade southern coast, cutting off access to foreign goods and weapons
-Divide the confederacy by sending contingents along the major water ways
Confederate Strat
-Seek help from Britain and France
-Arouse northern public sentiment against the war to force Lincoln to seek a negotiated settlement

Naval Actions
Most important battles for the rest of 1861 and early 1862 were Naval
North successfully greatly constricted flow of goods to the South

Forming Armies
Confederacy - Conscription April 16, 1862
-2 Loop holes
--Substitute or 500$
--Exemptions - including 1 white for each plantation with 20+ slaves
Union - Draft in 1863
-Exemptions, or $300
Widespread public opposition