The Nation Goes to War - A Failure to Compromise
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The Nation Goes to War Tutorial (Part 1)
Objective - In this lesson, you will:
Explain the growing divide between the North and South in the decade preceding the Civil War.
Describe the events of the Civil War.
Analyze the successes and failures of Reconstruction.
Examine the impact that the end of Reconstruction had on African Americans.
As you proceed through this lesson, look for specific information or broader themes that help you ask and answer this investigation question:
What were the causes and consequences, both intended and unintended, of the Civil War?
When Harriet Beecher Stowe was a young woman, her family moved from Connecticut to Cincinnati, Ohio. This was on the border with Kentucky, where slavery was legal. She met many Black people who had escaped slavery and told her of the horrors they experienced. She traveled to the South and made her own observations, too.
She became a strong opponent of slavery and decided to write a book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, about the suffering of enslaved people. In its first year, over 300,000 copies were sold, an extraordinary number. It had a powerful influence on how people viewed slavery. The novel validated the point of view of Americans against slavery, but also caused backlash for enslavers and supporters of slavery.
Think about how Uncle Tom's Cabin shaped popular opinion about slavery. How could Stowe's book have increased the tension in America at that time?
Stowe was trying to convey to readers the human trauma created by the practice of slavery. She wanted people to agree that slavery was an awful curse and must be abolished.
As you proceed through this lesson, look for specific information or broader themes that help you ask and answer this investigation question:
What were the causes and consequences, both intended and unintended, of the Civil War?
A Failure to Compromise
From the nation’s founding, the issue of slavery had been a source of debate. Most Northerners believed that slavery was the opposite of freedom and democracy. Most Southerners believed that the prosperity of the South and the United States depended on the unpaid labor of enslaved Africans and their American-born descendants. The South rejected the obvious truth that slavery was evil. In addition to that, the South was defending a system that made only a few people wealthy.
As the North became more industrialized, immigrants provided much of the labor in factories. The South remained agricultural and depended on slavery. These differences between the North and South further contributed to the division.
As the nation expanded westward, divisions intensified. Each time a territory or state was added, there was a question over whether it would allow slavery. For decades, the North and South found ways to reach compromises, but the disagreements were never fully resolved. By the 1850s, tensions had become exceptionally high.
Tensions Rise
How did the events build upon one another to make war more likely?
Compromise of 1850
In 1849, California applied to become a state without slavery. Until that point, the slave and free states were equal in number. Slave states didn't want to be outvoted in the Senate and talk of secession increased. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky suggested a compromise.
California would be allowed to enter the Union as a free state. The other territories acquired by the United States in the Mexican-American War could decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery.
Fugitive Slave Act
The Compromise of 1850 included a law that would make it harder for enslaved people to claim their freedom following their escape. The Fugitive Slave Act required each state—including free states—to report and return every enslaved person who had escaped. People who helped escapees could be fined or jailed. Many Northerners refused to obey it. Some Northern juries would not convict people who were accused of breaking the law. This law added to the tensions. The law also made it clear that the South's sole motivation was to preserve slavery—not states' rights.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
In 1820, the Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in states and territories north of 36°30' N latitude line, except for Missouri. In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska wanted to become states. Since they were north of 36°30', they would enter as free states. Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed a law that would repeal the Missouri Compromise. Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act, people in each state would be able to vote on whether to allow slavery. This was called popular sovereignty. The bill became law.
Bleeding Kansas
Soon after the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law, people began to flood into Kansas to vote on slavery. Armed supporters of slavery crossed the border from Missouri to ensure slavery would be legal in the new state. Slavery opponents did not accept the new law. Two rival governments formed. In May 1856, pro-slavery forces attacked the town of Lawrence, where many opponents of slavery lived. An abolitionist named John Brown retaliated by killing five pro-slavery settlers. Federal troops had to stop the fighting.
Which of these laws allowed states north of the 36°30' N latitude line to vote on whether to allow slavery?
Kansas Nebraska Act
The passage of the Missouri Compromise in 1820 prohibited slavery in territories north of the 36°30' N latitude line. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed that law and allowed states entering the United States to determine through voting on whether to allow slavery, even if the new state was north of the 36°30' N latitude line.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates:
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln had seven debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the Illinois senator he was challenging. The debates largely focused on the issue of slavery and whether it should be extended into new territories.
Read the following excerpt from the debate, spoken by Lincoln. Consider how Lincoln's initial claim couldn't easily coexist with the argument he makes at the end.
I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.
I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.
While Lincoln did NOT believe in the equality of White and Black people, he did believe that Black people should have equal treatment under the law.
Lincoln pointed out his belief that there were differences between people of different races, but also said that all races should be treated equally before the law.
Lincoln's discussion in the Sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate of the existence of slavery in the United States. What does Lincoln think of slavery and the potential for its spread? How does Lincoln think the problem should be addressed?
We have in this nation this element of domestic slavery. It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is a disturbing element. It is the opinion of all the great men who have expressed an opinion upon it, that it is a dangerous element. We keep up a controversy in regard to it. That controversy necessarily springs from difference of opinion, and if we can learn exactly—can reduce to the lowest elements—what that difference of opinion is, we perhaps shall be better prepared for discussing the different systems of policy that we would propose in regard to that disturbing element.
I suggest that the difference of opinion, reduced to its lowest terms, is no other than the difference between the men who think slavery a wrong and those who do not think it wrong. The Republican party think it wrong—we think it is a moral, a social and a political wrong. We think it as a wrong not confining itself merely to the persons or the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong in its tendency, to say the least, that extends itself to the existence of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far as we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal with it that in the run of time there may be some promise of an end to it.
Which word best describes Abraham Lincoln's feelings on slavery? Disgust.
A Failure to Compromise
A number of forces added to the flaring tensions in the nation during the 1850s. A Failure to Compromise will eventually lead the United States to civil war.
Sectionalism - Southerners and Northerners cared more about regional interests than they did about the interests of the country. Economic differences and differences over slavery led to a political split between the regions.
States' rights - This was a justification given by Southern states as to why they should be allowed to continue enslaving African Americans. But at the same time they favored the Fugitive Slave Act, which denied the rights of Northern states to protect enslaved people who were able to escape bondage and seek freedom in those states.
Popular sovereignty - Northern Democrats made popular sovereignty their position on slavery. They said that residents of territories should be able to decide by voting whether slavery would be allowed in the territory. This practice would remove forcing the federal government to make the decision. Popular sovereignty was part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The act reversed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which said slavery would never be allowed north of the 36°30' N latitude line. This made possible a further expansion of slavery, leading to a violent state-level civil war.
Laws, called slave codes, were put into place to prevent enslaved African Americans from living freely. They could not travel anywhere without their owners' permission. They could not gather in groups without a White person. They were not allowed to be taught to read and write. They couldn't marry.
There were a number of factors that contributed to the flaring tensions during the 1850s. Differences over slavery as well as economic differences fueled sectionalism. Southerners believed that popular sovereignty should decide whether states allow slavery, but not everyone agreed. African Americans were prevented from living freely because Southern states had put slave codes into place that prevented them from traveling, learning to read and write, and marrying.
Sectionalism intensified in the 1850s because of disagreements over slavery as well as economic differences. Under popular sovereignty more states were able to to determine whether they could have slavery, but not everybody thought they should have that right. Slave codes additionally harmed enslaved African Americans, which angered many opponents of slavery.
The Underground Railroad
The majority of enslaved people were forced to spend their lives in bondage. But some slaves managed to escape.
Many found freedom on the Underground Railroad, a network of African Americans and White people who would lead enslaved people to the Midwest, New England, and Canada. These conductors, as they have been named, on the Underground Railroad guided enslaved people and provided them shelter in homes, churches, and schools.
The best-known conductor was Harriet Tubman. Born into slavery in Maryland in 1820, she left her family behind and escaped to Philadelphia at the age of 29. Instead of safely remaining in a free state, she bravely returned to Maryland in 1850 to bring her sister and two children to freedom in the North.
Tubman repeatedly returned to Maryland to help more enslaved people escape. Over the course of a decade, she led about 70 enslaved people to freedom.
Election of 1856
In 1856, Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican John Frémont for the presidency. During his campaign, Buchanan endorsed popular sovereignty. The sectionalism that had taken over the country was evident in how the vote was split. Every state that Frémont won had ended slavery and was located in the North. Most of the states won by Buchanan still allowed slavery.
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott's enslaver had taken him to places where slavery had been outlawed. Scott argued this meant he should be free. In 1857, Scott's case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled against him. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote, "the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants . . . were then acknowledged as a part of the people." Taney argued that an enslaved person was property. Abolitionists were outraged.
John Brown’s Raid
In 1859, John Brown led a group of 21 other men who wanted to steal weapons from a place where the federal government was storing weapons. They wanted to arm enslaved African Americans and inspire a revolt against the slaveholders. Brown was captured by federal troops and convicted of treason. He was sentenced to death. After his hanging, abolitionists saw him as a martyr for a just cause. Southerners became more fearful that the North would try to end slavery.
1860 Election
Four people ran for the presidency in 1860, but the two main candidates were Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and the Republicans campaigned on the idea that slavery should remain legal in places where it already existed but shouldn't spread to the territories. The sectionalism that had taken over the country could be seen in the results. Lincoln was not even on the ballot in the South. He won every Northern state and became the first Republican president. Southerners felt the result would end slavery.
The Nation Goes to War - A Failure to Compromise
The outcome of the election of 1860 left many in the South believing that the US government would not protect slavery. On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina legislature voted to secede from the United States (despite no such right for a state to secede had ever existed or ever has). Some members of Congress tried to find ways to preserve the Union, such as a series of constitutional amendments that would protect slavery south of 36°30' N line of latitude in present and future territories. Republicans rejected this idea, arguing that they shouldn't break their campaign promise to stop the spread of slavery.
Soon, more states seceded. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all left the country by February 1, 1861. They formed a new government they called the Confederate States of America.
The outcome of the election of 1860 left many in the South believing that the US government would not protect slavery. On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina legislature voted to secede from the United States (despite no such right for a state to secede had ever existed or ever has). Some members of Congress tried to find ways to preserve the Union, such as a series of constitutional amendments that would protect slavery south of 36°30' N line of latitude in present and future territories. Republicans rejected this idea, arguing that they shouldn't break their campaign promise to stop the spread of slavery.
Soon, more states seceded. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all left the country by February 1, 1861. They formed a new government they called the Confederate States of America.
The Texas Declaration of Causes laid out its reasons for secession, which largely overlapped with the reasons that the other states gave. The document cited the federal government's failure to stop those who freed enslaved people and accused it of trampling upon their rights. The Declaration argued that slaveholding states did not have fair representation in Congress.
What caused states to secede after Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election?
They believed the federal government would end slavery.
When Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860, Southern states believed that the federal government would not protect its interests and therefore end slavery. South Carolina was the first state to secede and was quickly followed by six other states. The secession crisis led to the Civil War.
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