Short History of the United States — Chapters 34-35
[Sidenote: Pierce elected President.
] 349. Pierce elected President, 1852. --It was now Campaign time for a new election.
The Whigs had been successful with two old soldiers, so they thought they would try again with another soldier and nominated General Winfield Scott, the conqueror of Mexico.
The Democrats also nominated a soldier, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, who had been in northern Mexico with Taylor.
The Democrats and Whigs both said that they would stand by the Compromise of 1850. But many voters thought that there would be less danger of excitement with a Democrat in the White House and voted for Pierce for that reason.
They soon found that they were terribly mistaken in their belief.
[Sidenote: The Nebraska bill, 1854. _Source-Book, 284-287. _] [Sidenote: Douglas asserts Compromise of 1820 to be repealed.
] 350. Douglas's Nebraska Bill.
--President Pierce began his term of office quietly enough.
But in 1854 Senator Douglas of Illinois brought in a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska.
It will be remembered that in 1820 Missouri had been admitted to the Union as a slave state.
In 1848 Iowa had been admitted as a free state.
North of Iowa was the free Territory of Minnesota.
Westward from Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota was an immense region without any government of any kind.
It all lay north of the compromise line of 1820 (p. 222), and had been forever devoted to freedom by that compromise.
But Douglas said that the Compromise of 1820 had been repealed by the Compromise of 1850. So he proposed that the settlers of Nebraska should say whether that territory should be free soil or slave soil, precisely as if the Compromise of 1820 had never been passed.
Instantly there was a tremendous uproar.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN PIERCE.
] [Sidenote: The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854. ] [Sidenote: Antislavery senators attack the bill.
] [Sidenote: The Independent Democrats.
] 351. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854. --Douglas now changed his bill so as to provide for the formation of two territories.
One of these he named Kansas.
It had nearly the same boundaries as the present state of Kansas, except that it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains.
The other territory was named Nebraska.
It included all the land north of Kansas and between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains.
The antislavery leaders in the North attacked the bill with great fury.
Chase of Ohio said that it was a violation of faith.
Sumner of Massachusetts rejoiced in the fight, for he said men must now take sides for freedom or for slavery.
Some, independent Democrats published "An Appeal."
They asked their fellow-citizens to take their maps and see what an immense region Douglas had proposed to open to slavery.
They denied that the Missouri Compromise had been repealed.
Nevertheless, the bill passed Congress and was signed by President Pierce.
[Illustration: Territory opened to slavery.
] [Sidenote: Abraham Lincoln, _Hero Tales_, 325-335. ] [Sidenote: Aroused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
] 352. Abraham Lincoln.
--Born in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln went with his parents to Indiana and then to Illinois.
As a boy he was very poor and had to work hard.
But he lost no opportunity to read and to study.
At the plow or in the long evenings at home by the firelight he was ever thinking and studying.
Growing to manhood he became a lawyer and served one term in Congress.
The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act aroused his indignation as nothing had ever aroused it before.
He denied that any man had the right to govern another man, be he white or be he black, without that man's consent.
He thought that blood would surely be shed before the slavery question would be settled in Kansas, and the first shedding of blood would be the beginning of the end of the Union.
[Sidenote: Seward's challenge to the Southerners.
_McMaster_, 347-351. ] [Sidenote: The Sons of the South.
] [Sidenote: Fraudulent election.
_Source-Book_, 287-289. ] 353. Settlement of Kansas.
--In the debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill Senator Seward of New York said to the Southerners: "Come on, then....
We will engage in competition for the soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is strong in numbers as it is in right."
Seward spoke truly.
The victory came to those opposed to the extension of slavery.
But it was a long time in coming.
As soon as the act was passed, armed "Sons of the South" crossed the frontier of Missouri and founded the town of Atchison.
Then came large bands of armed settlers from the North and the East.
They founded the towns of Lawrence and Topeka.
An election was held.
Hundreds of men poured over the boundary of Missouri, outvoted the free-soil settlers in Kansas, and then went home.
The territorial legislature, chosen in this way, adopted the laws of Missouri, slave code and all, as the laws of Kansas.
It seemed as if Kansas were lost to freedom.
[Sidenote: Free-state constitution.
] [Sidenote: The Senate refuses to admit Kansas.
] 354. The Topeka Convention.
--The free-state voters now held a convention at Topeka.
They drew up a constitution and applied to Congress for admission to the Union as the free state of Kansas.
The free-state men and the slave-state men each elected a Delegate to Congress.
The House of Representatives now took the matter up and appointed a committee of investigation.
The committee reported in favor of the free-state men, and the House voted to admit Kansas as a free state.
But the Senate would not consent to anything of the kind.
The contest in Kansas went on and became more bitter every month.
[Sidenote: Origin of the Republican party.
_McMaster_, 352-355. ] [Sidenote: Anti-Nebraska men.
] 355. The Republican Party.
--The most important result of the Kansas-Nebraska fight was the formation of the Republican party.
It was made up of men from all the other parties who agreed in opposing Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska policy.
Slowly they began to think of themselves as a party and to adopt the name of the old party of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe--Republican.
[Sidenote: Presidential candidates, 1856. ] [Sidenote: Buchanan.
] [Sidenote: Frémont.
] 356. Buchanan elected President, 1856. --The Whigs and the Know-Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore for President and said nothing about slavery.
The Democrats nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania for President and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for Vice-President.
They declared their approval of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and favored a strict construction of the Constitution.
The Republicans nominated John C.
Frémont.
They protested against the extension of slavery and declared for a policy of internal improvements at the expense of the nation.
The Democrats won; but the Republicans carried all the Northern states save four.
[Sidenote: Dred Scott decision, 1857. _McMaster_, 355-357;
_Source-Book_, 290-291] [Sidenote: Opinions of the judges.
] 357. The Dred Scott Decision, 1857. --The Supreme Court of the United States now gave a decision in the Dred Scott case that put an end to all hope of compromise on the slavery question.
Dred Scott had been born a slave.
The majority of the judges declared that a person once a slave could never become a citizen of the United States and bring suit in the United States courts.
They also declared that the Missouri Compromise was unlawful.
Slave owners had a clear right to carry their property, including slaves, into the territories, and Congress could not stop them.
[Sidenote: Lincoln's policy.
] [Sidenote: His debates with Douglas.
_McMaster_, 388-389; _Source-Book_, 290-294. ] 358. The Lincoln and Douglas Debates, 1858. --The question of the reëlection of Douglas to the Senate now came before the people of Illinois.
Abraham Lincoln stepped forward to contest the election with him.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand," said Lincoln.
"This government cannot endure half slave and half free....
It will become all one thing or all the other."
He challenged Douglas to debate the issues with him before the people, and Douglas accepted the challenge.
Seven joint debates were held in the presence of immense crowds.
Lincoln forced Douglas to defend the doctrine of "popular sovereignty."
This Douglas did by declaring that the legislatures of the territories could make laws hostile to slavery.
This idea, of course, was opposed to the Dred Scott decision.
Douglas won the election and was returned to the Senate.
But Lincoln had made a national reputation.
[Illustration: HARPER'S FERRY.
] [Sidenote: Civil war in Kansas.
_McMaster_, 357. ] [Sidenote: John Brown.
] [Sidenote: The slave constitution.
] [Sidenote: Douglas opposes Buchanan.
] 359. "Bleeding Kansas."
--Meantime civil war had broken out in Kansas, Slavery men attacked Lawrence, killed a few free-state settlers, and burned several buildings.
Led by John Brown, an immigrant from New York, free-state men attacked a party of slave-state men and killed five of them.
By 1857 the free-state voters had become so numerous that it was no longer possible to outvote them by bringing men from Missouri, and they chose a free-state legislature.
But the fraudulent slave-state legislature had already provided for holding a constitutional convention at Lecompton.
This convention was controlled by the slave-state men and adopted a constitution providing for slavery.
President Buchanan sent this constitution to Congress and asked to have Kansas admitted as a slave state.
But Douglas could not bear to see the wishes of the settlers of Kansas outraged.
He opposed the proposition vigorously and it was defeated.
It was not until 1861 that Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state.
[Sidenote: John Brown's Raid, 1859. _Higginson_, 286-289;
_Source-Book_, 294-296. ] [Sidenote: He seizes Harper's Ferry.
] [Sidenote: His execution, 1859. ] 360. John Brown's Raid, 1859. --While in Kansas John Brown had conceived a bold plan.
It was to seize a strong place in the mountains of the South, and there protect any slaves who should run away from their masters.
In this way he expected to break slavery in pieces within two years.
With only nineteen men he seized Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, and secured the United States arsenal at that place.
But he and most of his men were immediately captured.
He was executed by the Virginian authorities as a traitor and murderer.
The Republican leaders denounced his act as "the gravest of crimes."
But the Southern leaders were convinced that now the time had come to secede from the Union and to establish a Southern Confederacy.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
CHAPTER 31
§ 323. --_a_.
Why were the people of South Carolina so opposed to any limitation of slavery?
How did they show their opposition?
_b_.
Had slavery disappeared in the North because people thought that it was wrong?
§§ 324, 325. --_a_.
What suggestions were made by some in the North for the ending of slavery?
What do you think of these suggestions?
_b_.
For what did Garrison contend, and how did he make his views known?
Why were these views opposed in the North?
§ 326. --_a_.
Why were the Southerners so alarmed by Nat Turner's Rebellion?
_b_.
What power had Congress over the mails?
How would you have voted on this question?
§§ 327, 328. --_a_.
Why is the right of petition so important?
How is this right secured to citizens of the United States?
_b_.
Why should these petitions be considered as insulting to slaveholders?
_c_.
Why were the Southerners so afraid of any discussion of slavery?
CHAPTER 32
§§ 329, 330. --_a_.
Show by the map the extent of the Mexican Republic.
_b_.
Why did Texas wish to join the United States?
What attitude had Mexico taken on slavery?
§§ 331, 332. --_a_.
Explain carefully how the Texas question influenced the election of 1844. _b_.
What was the Liberty party?
How did its formation make the election of Polk possible?
_c_.
What is a "joint resolution"?
§ 333. --How did the Mexicans regard the admission of Texas?
What dispute with Mexico arose?
Did Mexico begin the war?
§§ 334, 335. --_a_.
What was the plan of Taylor's campaign?
Of Scott's campaign?
_b_.
Mention the leading battles of Taylor's campaign.
Of Scott's campaign.
§§ 336, 337. --_a_.
What action did the American settlers in California take?
With what result?
_b_.
Explain by a map the Mexican cessions of 1848 and 1853. §§ 338, 339. --_a_.
What was the extent of Oregon in 1845?
_b_.
How was the dispute finally settled?
Explain by a map.
_c_.
What was the extent of Oregon in 1847?
Is it the same to-day?
_d_.
Of what value was this region to the United States?
CHAPTER 33
§§ 340, 341. --_a_.
Why was there little question whether Oregon would be slave or free?
_b_.
Explain carefully Wilmot's suggestion.
What would be the arguments in Congress for and against this "proviso"?
_c_.
What is meant by "squatter sovereignty"?
What do you think of the wisdom and justice of such a plan?
§§ 342, 343. --_a_.
Describe the discovery of gold in California and the rush thither.
What difference did _one year_ make in the population of California?
_b_.
What attitude did California take on the slavery question?
Why?
§§ 344, 345. --_a_.
How had the question of slavery already divided the country?
_b_.
What extreme parties were there in the North and the South?
_c_.
Why was the question about the territories so important?
_d_.
What action did President Taylor take?
Why?
What do you think of the wisdom of this policy?
§§ 346, 347. --_a_.
State the provisions of Clay's compromise plan.
Which of these favored the North?
The South?
_b_.
What law had been made as to fugitive slaves?
Why had it not been enforced?
Why was the change made in 1850 so important?
_c_.
How would you have acted had you been a United States officer called to carry out the Fugitive Slave Law?
§ 348. --_a_.
Who was Mrs. Stowe?
What view did she take of slavery?
_b_.
Were there any good points in the slave system?
_c_.
Why is this book so important?
CHAPTER 34
§§ 349-351. --_a_.
Who were the candidates in 1852?
Who was chosen?
Why?
_b_.
What doctrine did Douglas apply to Kansas and Nebraska?
_c_.
Why did Chase call this bill "a violation of faith"?
_d_.
Was Douglas a patriot?
Chase?
Sumner?
Pierce?
§ 352. --_a_.
Give an account of the early life and training of Abraham Lincoln.
_b_.
What did he think of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
§§ 353, 354. --_a_.
What effect did the Kansas-Nebraska Act have on the settlement of Kansas?
_b_.
Describe the election.
Do you think that laws made by a legislature so elected were binding?
_d_.
Explain the difference in the attitude of the Senate and House on the Kansas question.
§§ 355, 356. --_a_.
How was the Republican party formed?
_b_.
Were its principles like or unlike those of the Republican party of Jefferson's time?
Give your reasons.
§ 357. --_a_.
What rights did the Supreme Court declare a slave could not possess?
Was a slave a person or a thing?
_b_.
What power does the Constitution give Congress over a territory?
(Art.
IV, Sec.
3. ) § 358. --_a_.
Explain carefully the quotations from Lincoln's speeches.
_b_.
Was the doctrine of popular sovereignty necessarily favorable to slavery?
Give illustrations to support your reasons.
_c_.
Was Douglas's declaration in harmony with the decision of the Supreme Court?
§§ 359, 360. --_a_.
Compare the attitude of Douglas and Buchanan upon the admission of Kansas.
_b_.
Describe John Brown's raid.
Was he a traitor?
GENERAL QUESTIONS
_a_.
Give, with dates, the important laws as to slavery since 1783. _b_.
What were the arguments in favor of the extension of slavery?
Against it?
_c_.
Find and learn a poem against slavery by Whittier, Lowell, or Longfellow.
_d_.
Make a table of elections since 1788, with the leading parties, candidates, and principal issues.
Underline the name of the candidate elected.
TOPICS FOR SPECIAL WORK
_a_.
John Brown in Kansas or at Harper's Ferry.
_b_.
The career, to this time, of any man mentioned in Chapters 33 and 34. _c_.
Any one fugitive slave case: Jerry McHenry in Syracuse (A. J.
May's _Antislavery Conflicts_), Shadrach, Anthony Burns.
SUGGESTIONS
Preparation is especially important in teaching this period.
