Toward the Civil War

Top 10 Facts:

1. Compromise of 1850

2. Harriet Beecher Stowe writes Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852

3. The 1853 Gadsden Purchase acquires Mexican territory for a railroad.

4. Ostend Manifesto in 1854.

5. The Kansas and Nebraska Acts in 1854.

6. Bleeding Kansas 1856-1858.

7. Dred Scot Case 1857.

8. Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

9. John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

10. Lincoln rejects the Crittenden Compromise.

Quotes:

"Kansas was in complete chaos. Armed bands prowled the countryside, shooting at one another and looting."

Stephen B. Oates.

"An Act of Congress which deprives a person ... of his livery or property merely because he came himself or brought his property into a particular Territory ... could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law."

Roger B. Taney.

"I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

Abraham Lincoln.

"Paranoia continued to induce counterparanoia - each antagonist infecting the other reciprocally, until the vicious spiral ended in war."

C. Vann Woodward.

Summary

In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin about slavery. President Franklin Pierce tried to purchase Cuba through the Ostend Manifesto. Townsend Harris opened trading with Japan. Stephen Douglas emerged as a politician encouraging expansion and popular sovereignty. In 1854 Douglas introduced a bill organizing land west of Mississippi and Iowa as Nebraska Territory. He wanted railroads to pass through. However, there were issues regarding slavery. They didn't know if the Missouri Compromise should be extended or not. Finally, it was decided that the Missouri Compromise would be repealed and the states would be open to popular sovereignty. New political parties like the Know-Nothings and Republicans were established. Another event known as "Bleeding Kansas" occurred when the statehood of Kansas was in question. Chaos broke loose when deciding if Kansas should be free or slave. John Brown led several raids. The 1856 presidential election was between Free Soiler John Freemont and eventual winner Democrat James Buchanan. The Supreme Court made a tough ruling in the Dred Scot Case in which they declared that blacks are not citizens and therefore may not take cases to court. Proslavery leaders in Kansas tried to pass the LeCompton Constitution but it failed. Abraham Lincoln began to make a name for himself especially during the Lincoln Douglas debates. John Brown led an attack on Harpers Ferry which is often considered the beginning of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln became president in 1861. The South threatened to secede from the Union. Crittenden proposed to allow slavery in all territories South of 36-30.