5.6: Failure of Compromise

Question 1

3 issues dividing the north and south

Answer 1

1) morality of slavery
2) constitutional rights of states to protect slavery
3) economic policies between free/slave labor states

Question 2

whig nomination for 1852

Answer 2

• another military hero (of mexican war)
• general winfield scott

Question 3

whig strategy for 1852 election

Answer 3

• attempted to ignore the slavery issue
• concentrated for traditional platform above improving roads and harbors
• however no one gaf b/c the political landscape was shifting to emphasize sectional issues

Question 4

democrats nomination for 1852

Answer 4

• northern who was acceptable to southern democrats because he supported the fugitive slave law
• franklin pierce

Question 5

democrats vs whigs

Answer 5

• pierce and the democrats won all but four states
• the days of whigs were numbered… they were falling apart

Question 6

senator stephen a. douglas

Answer 6

• proposed building a transcontinental railroad through the center of the country
• southerners preferred a more southerly route

Question 7

kansas-nebraska act

Answer 7

• douglas introduced a bill to divide the territory into 2 (nebraska & kansas)
• allowed setters in each territory to decide on slavery
• since the territories were north of 36º60’, Douglas gave southerners an opportunity to expand slavery

Question 8

responses to kansas-nebraska act

Answer 8

• northern democrats condemned it (it was passed regardless)
• repealed the missouri compromise (which had lessened regional tensions for 30 years)
• lead conflicts between slavery & antislavery to explode

Question 9

migration to kansas

Answer 9

• douglas expected the issue to be settled peacefully by the antislavery farmers from the midwest who migrated to kansas and became a majority
• slaveholders from missouri set up homesteads in kansas
• new england emigrant aid company paid for the transportation of antislavery groups “bleeding kansas”

Question 10

border ruffians

Answer 10

• proslavery missourians
• crossed the border to create proslavery legislature in lecompton
• antislavery settlers refused to recognize this government and created their own in topeka

Question 11

bleeding kansas escalation

Answer 11

• 1856, proslavery forces attacked the free-soil town of lawrence (killed 2, destroyed homes & businesses)
• john brown, retaliated by killing 5 in a proslavery farm settlement at pottawatomie creek

pierce administration did nothing ot keep order in the kansas territory

Question 12

sumner-brooks incident

Answer 12

• violence in Kansas spilled into us congress
• 1856, MA senator Charles sumner attacked the democratic administration & remarked against andrew butler
• his nephew defended his honor by walking into senate chamber and beating sumner over the head with it

Question 13

fall of the whig party

Answer 13

• north southern tensions over slavery broke apart the party
• whigs scattered and joined other parties

Question 14

whigs joining know nothings

Answer 14

• those who were frightened about immigration
• know nothings were winning a few local and state elections, but their power declined as slavery became more contentious

Question 15

whigs joining democratic party

Answer 15

• supported the expansion of slavery
• mainly the south, however

Question 16

whigs joining republican party

Answer 16

• opposed the expansion of slavery
• joined REPUBLICAN PARTY…

Question 17

republican party

Answer 17

• founded in wisconsin as a reaction to the passage of kansas-nebraska
• composed of free-soilers, antislavery whigs, and democrats
• their first platform was to repeal kansas nebraska & fugitive slave law

Question 18

republican nomination for 1856

Answer 18

BTW: republicans go against slavery

• california senator: john c. fremont
• called for no expansion of slavery, free homesteads, and protective tarrifs

Question 19

know nothing nomination for 1856

Answer 19

• millard fillmore
• won 20% of popular vote

Question 20

democrats nomination for 1856

Answer 20

• james buchanan
• rejected pierce and Stephen Douglas because stye were too closely identified with the kansas-nebraska
• they won majority of popular and electoral vote

Question 21

election 1856

Answer 21

• republicans made a strong showing for a sectional party
• fremont carried 11/16 free states
• people predicted that republicans could win the White House without a single southern vote

Question 22

buchanan administration

Answer 22

• democrat’s popular sovereignty and republican’s anti-slavery campaigns received blows during the administration

Question 23

“lecomptom constitution”

Answer 23

• buchanan’s first challenge was to decide on a proslavery constitution for kansas
• buchanan knew that that constitution did not have majority support, but he still asked congress to accept the document and admit kasnsa as a slave state
• however congress didn’t b/c many democrats including Douglas joined with republicans in rejecting the consiuttion

Question 24

dred scott

Answer 24

held in slavery in missouri, taken to wisconsin (free), returned to missouri
- argued that his residence on free soil made him free
- sued for freedom, reached the supreme court

Question 25

dred scott v. sandford

Answer 25

Chief Justice Roger Taney (southern democrat) presided
- court ruled against Scott for following reasons:

1. dred scott had no right to sue b/c AAs were “not citizens”
2. slaves were a form of property and thus could not be deprived from someone
3. missouri compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded slavery

Question 26

dred scott v. sandford effects

Answer 26

• declared all parts of western territories open to slavery
• “greatest crime in the annals of the republic”

northerns suspected the democratic president & Supreme Court were trying to settle the slavery question
- it escalated suspicions of a conspiracy once more

Question 27

Douglas’s attempt for compromise

Answer 27

• he was left with the impossible task of supporting popular sovereignty without rejecting the dred Scott decision

Question 28

abraham lincoln

Answer 28

• successful trial lawyer and former member of the illinois legislature
• republican candaidate
• served a term in congress (1840) as a whig

Question 29

lincoln vs douglas

Answer 29

• challenging for re-election as senator from illinois
• Lincoln was unknown compared to Douglas (champ of popular sovereignty, good candidate for president)

Question 30

house divided speech

Answer 30

• Lincoln not an abolitionist: moderate against expansion of slavery, felt it was a moral issue
• when accepting the illinois republican’s nomination, he said:

“I believe this government cannot endure, permanent half slave and half free”

Question 31

freeport doctrine

Answer 31

in freeport, illinois

• lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the dred Scott decision
• freeport doctrine: Douglas said slavery could not exist in a community of local citizens did not pass laws (slave codes) maintaining it

Question 32

freeport doctrine effect on southern democrats

Answer 32

• angered the because Douglas didn’t “go far enough” to support the implications of the dred Scott decision

Question 33

aftermath of LD debates

Answer 33

• Douglas won reelection, btu in the long run lost ground in his own party
• lincoln emerged as a national figure and leading contender for republican nomination for presidents in 1860