Lead Up to the Civil War

Events during the 1850s led to the most tumultuous period of United States history: the Civil War years.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Legislators sought to open up more lands for settlement with the success of the admission of Missouri and Maine. Southern and northern members of Congress (and American citizens) debated the issue of slavery in any new territory. The next territories to be considered were Kansas and Nebraska. These territories offered prime real estate for agriculture and thus the increased likelihood of the use of enslaved people to fill the tremendous need for labor. Northern legislators argued that these territories should be free as they were above the 36-30 line of latitude established by the 1820 Missouri Compromise. However, Southern legislators countered with the inclusion of California as a free state in disregard to that provision of the Missouri Compromise.

The debate was settled under “popular sovereignty” (choice of the people). “Popular sovereignty” allowed the residents of the territory to decide whether to allow slavery or not via a public referendum. The bill including this provision passed and was labeled the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was very controversial because it effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. Popular sovereignty was put into place to settle the issue of slavery in new territories regardless of location or how the land was acquired. However, the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the floodgates for pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions rushed into territories to create voting majorities. The resulting chaos created opposing capitals and constitutions within territories. The tension increased and culminated in violence. The lasting legacy of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was ultimately its failure as the violence resulted in the moniker “Bleeding Kansas”.

A new political party arose from the violence. Upset with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, political parties splintered and formed a new political party whose platform opposed slavery. The Republican Party (and its platform) impacted the 1856 Presidential Election. However, the first Republican president was elected in the Presidential Election of 1860, an election that changed the course of American history with a candidate who changed the course of history.

MAP OF KANSAS-NEBRASKA TERRITORY

Scott vs Sanford

Often referred to as the Dred Scott Decision, the Supreme Court ruling in Scott v. Sanford dictated that slaves were considered property and therefore had no rights.

Enslaved man, Dred Scott, brought suit against his owner and argued his master held citizenship in both slave and free states. Since Scott’s master and he had lived in free territory for many years, Scott argued that he should legally be entitled to his freedom. The Supreme Court’s ruling stated no enslaved or free Black was a citizen and as such was not entitled to rights or the argument for rights. Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories. The Supreme Court’s ruling found popular sovereignty and the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. The issue of slavery would have to be settled via a constitutional amendment.

John Brown

John Brown was a fierce abolitionist who believed God called him to end the practice of slavery by any means, including violence and murder. Brown, along with his followers (including his sons), was active in the violence of “Bleeding Kansas.” One of the prominent events of the “Bleeding Kansas” period was the Pottawatomie Massacre, an event in which John Brown and his followers murdered proponents of slavery.

John Brown

Fleeing the Kansas and Nebraska territories, John Brown headed east. He believed he could raise an army of abolitionists and slaves in a slave uprising. Brown planned an attack on the federal arsenal (weapons storage) at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (currently West Virginia.) Brown’s raid failed when United States military forces arrived to restore order. Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee were successful in ending the raid, killing some of Brown’s followers including some of Brown’s sons and capturing Brown himself. John Brown was tried, convicted and executed for treason in six weeks.

Even today the debate over John Brown continues. Was he an abolitionist hero or was he a radical traitor whose actions led to the deaths of many followers and opponents?

The Presidential Election of 1860

In 1860 the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the Presidential Election of 1860. The years prior had led to numerous splits in political parties, and some of the splinter groups merged and became the Republican Party. While the Democratic Party held a majority, their party was regionally split. Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, while Southern Democrats nominated John Breckenridge of Kentucky. Former Whig supporters formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee.

The candidates’ stances on slavery was at the forefront of the election. Bell wanted to maintain a union of the states no matter the outcome of slavery. Breckenridge sided with the Dred Scott Decision and believed the federal government could not interfere with the issue of slavery. Douglas believed the issue of slavery should be decided by the people as he had proposed with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Finally, Lincoln did not want to interfere where slavery existed but stood against the expansion of slavery in new territories. The sectionalism that had built from laws, proposals, war, treaties, court rulings and violence was publicly manifested in the Presidential Election of 1860. The Democratic Party held the South’s electoral votes but lost some to John Bell and the Constitutional Party. The Northern Democrats lost most of their respective electoral votes to Lincoln and the Republican Party.

After Lincoln’s victory in the presidential election, South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860. (Several southern states were so strongly against Lincoln’s candidacy, they had removed his name from their ballots! And yet Lincoln still won the election, despite not being on many southern ballots!) Soon, six other states followed. They formed the Confederate States of America or the Confederacy. Later, four more states joined the Confederacy and set the stage for civil war. While a long succession of events led to the Civil War, it was the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 that set those events into a motion towards war.

Consider This

Consider the following questions:

Was one event more likely to cause the Civil War than another?
What might have happened if Lincoln had not been elected president?
Do you think the United States would still have found its way into a civil war?
Why do you think the South was so ardent in its opposition to Lincoln as president?

Add one more question of your own that would challenge or change the outcome of history during this period.

MAP OF KANSAS-NEBRASKA TERRITORY BY MORSE & GASTON; FILLMORE, MILLARD, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PUBLIC DOMAIN.

PHOTOGRAPHS ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN