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1848 Election
In this election, the Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass, who advocated for popular sovereignty. The Whigs nominated Mexican War hero General Zachary Taylor. The Free Soil Party nominated the former president Martin Van Buren. The Whigs opposed slavery and the Democrats were antislavery. Taylor barely defeated Cass. -
Formation of the Free Soil Party
This party was formed after neither the Whigs nor Democratic-Republicans nominated a presidential candidate who was willing to outlaw slavery in the new Texas/Mexico territory. As a result, many abolitionists from the North banded together to form the Free Soil Party. This party had the slogan, "free soil, free labor, and free men." They did not want slavery to expand -
Compromise of 1850
Due to the California Gold Rush in 1849, around 100,000 settlers migrated there. This created a need for law and order. California drafted a new constitution for the state that banned slavery. President Taylor supported the admission of both California and New Mexico as free states. This plan sparked ideas in the Southern states of succession. -
Compromise of 1850 (Part 2)
However, Henry Clay proposed a compromise that would: admit California as a free state, divide the Mexican territory into New Mexico and Utah, give the disputed Texas land to the new territories, give Texas $10 million to cover their debt, ban the slave trade in the District of Columbia but allow whites to own slaves as they did before, and rigidly enforce a new Fugitive Slave Law. When President Taylor died, Vice President Millard Fillmore took over and passed the laws of the compromise. -
Election of 1852
The Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott whose campaign focused on improving roads and harbors and ignored the slavery issue. This caused the party to get on the verge of splitting. The Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce who was a Northerner, but supported the Fugitive Slave Law. Pierce won all but four states in the electoral college vote. -
Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
This was the most influential book during the period that discussed the conflict between a slave and his brutal owner. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was a Northerner, moved a generation of Northerners and Europeans to view all slave owners as cruel. The Southerners denied this and used the book as a way to show how prejudiced the North was. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Senator Stephen Douglas proposed a plan to build a transcontinental railroad. For it to be passed he had to gain Southern approval. To do this, he passed a bill to divide The Nebraska territory into two: the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory. The settlers in each territory would decide the slavery laws. Since these areas were north of the 36 30 line, it allowed the Southern states to expand slavery which they could not do before because of the Missouri Compromise. Pierce passed it. -
Bleeding Kansas
The new compromise repealed the Missouri Compromise. After this anti and pro-slavery forces exploded. Douglas thought the issues would be settled peacefully, but that was not the case. Northerners organized the New England Emigrant Aid Company, which paid for the transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas. Fighting broke out and the territory became known as "Bleeding Kansas". President Pierce and his administration did nothing to stop this conflict, further splitting the North and South. -
Birth of the Republican Party
The Republican Party was founded in Wisconsin as a reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It included some Free Soilers, antislavery Whigs, and Democrats. The party opposed the spread of slavery, but not slavery itself. They called for the repeal of the KN Act and the Fugitive Slave Law. The party continually increased as conflict continued in Kansas. It became the second-largest party. -
Election of 1856
The Republicans nominated John C. Fremont who called for no expansion of slavery, free homesteads, and a protective tariff. The Know-Nothings nominated former president Millard Fillmore. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan and won the popular and the electoral vote. However, the Republicans had a strong showing and won 11 out of 16 of the free states in the electoral vote. -
Lecompton Constitution
Buchanan had the challenge of deciding whether to accept Kansas' proslavery state constitution. The Lecompton Constitution did not have support from the majority of the settlers, yet he still asked Congress to accept it. Congress rejected it along with most of the Kansas settlers. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
A former slave in Missouri, Dred Scott argued that because he lived as a free man in Wisconsin for 2 years he should have still been a free man when he returned to a slave state. The majority of the court decided against Scott for these reasons: Scott had no right to sue, Congress did not have the power to deprive a person of property, and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Southerners were happy with this, but Northerners were very mad. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford (part 2)
The Supreme Court then declared that all western territories were open to slavery. Many Republicans thought this decision might have been planned with Buchanan's new election. This made many Democrats join the Republican party. -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The focus of the nation was now on Senator Douglas' campaign for reelection. Abraham Lincoln was challenging him for this seat. Lincoln was not an abolitionist but was against the expansion of slavery. Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" speech. After many debates, Douglas said in the Freeport Doctrine that slavery could not exist if local citizens did not pass laws to maintain it. Douglas won reelection but lost a lot of support from Southern Democrats. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown started a slave uprising in Virginia. He led some followers to attack the federal arsenal on Harper's Ferry. He was going to use guns from here to arm the slaves. However, federal troops under Robert E. Lee captured Brown and his followers and had them convicted and hung. The South saw this attack as the South's true intention, to destroy the South using slave revolts. -
Election of 1860
In the Democratic convention, Stephen Douglas' nomination was blocked by angry Southerners and supporters of President Buchanan. A second convention was held where Douglas was nominated. However, the Southern slave states held their own convention and nominated Vice President John C. Breckenridge. The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. A group of former Whigs, Know-Nothings, and Democrats formed a new party called the Constitutional Union Party. They nominated John Bell. Lincoln won.