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the newly passed Fugitive slave act made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in free areas .

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Abolitionists in the north used the stories of fugitive slaves like James hamlet and Anthony burns to gain sympathy for there cases

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Four leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination emerged in 1852

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Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky had helped to settle the Missouri crisis of

1819–20 and the nullification crisis of 1832–33 by proposing compromises.

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In his inaugural address, President Pierce expressed his hope that the

slavery issue had been put to rest “and that no sectional . excitement

may again threaten the durability [stability] of our institutions.”

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By early 1856 Kansas had two opposing governments, and the population

was angry. Settlers had moved to Kansas to homestead in peace, but the

controversy over slavery began to affect everyone.

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Democrat Stephen Douglas had predicted that the Kansas-

Nebraska Act would “raise a storm.” He was right. The

Kansas-Nebraska Act brought the slavery issue back into the

national spotlight.

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Just two days after Buchanan became president, the Supreme Court issued

a historic ruling about slavery. News of the decision threw the country

back into crisis.

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In 1858 Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S.

Senate. His opponent was Democrat Stephen Douglas, who had repre-

sented Illinois in the Senate since 1847.

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Lincoln Presidential Debate TV Spot Official [HD 1080] - Daniel-Day Lewis

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In 1858 John Brown tried to start an uprising. He wanted to

attack the federal arsenal in Virginia and seize weapons there.

He planned to arm local slaves.

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In this climate of distrust, Americans prepared for another presidential

election in 1860. The northern and southern Democrats could not agree

on a candidate. Northern Democrats chose Senator Stephen Douglas.

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Lincoln insisted that he would not change slavery in the South. However,

he said that slavery could not expand and thus would eventually die out

completely. That idea angered many southerners.

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Congress also reacted to the violence of the Sack

of Lawrence. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts criticized pro-

slavery people in Kansas and personally insulted Andrew Pickens Butler, a

pro-slavery senator from South Carolina. Representative Preston Brooks,

a relative of Butler’s, responded strongly.