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.14 Abraham Lincoln is Elected President

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.14 Abraham Lincoln is Elected President

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Having his opposition divided three ways, Lincoln sailed to victory, however, it was quite an odd win, as he won with 40 percent of the votes, all from the North, he was not even on the ballot in ten Southern states. White Southerners viewed the outcome of the election as a message declaring that they were now the minority, with no power to shape the nation or politics, they feared that Congress would attempt to or abolish slavery.

Source : SocialistWorker.org

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Talk of seceding filled the air of the South in the weeks following the election, in response, alarmed senators formed the Senate committee in attempts to find a new compromise to keep the nation together. Lincoln made his response about whether or not he would agree to a compromise with slavery clear, saying that he would not interfere with slavery in the South and would support the Fugitive Slave Laws, but would not allow slavery to spread to new territories. Meanwhile in Charleston, South Carolina, delegates attending a state convention on December 20, 1860, voted to leave the Union, there was an uproar in the city and as more states began seceding, they created the Confederate States of America.

Source : legislature.state.al.us

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During the time that Lincoln was using politics to end the spread of slavery, abolitionist John Brown decided to take a more extreme approach, as he planned to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in order to arm slave for a rebellion to end slavery. Brown began his insane attack in 1859, which, was quite unsuccessful, as his men were convicted of treason and he was sentenced to die, although his plan failed it stuck fear in Southerners who began to realize if a slave rebellion were to break out, it was their blood that would be spilled.

Source : nationalgeographic.org

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Lincoln's competition in the Senate race was Senator Stephen Douglas, who believed that there was nothing wrong with the country going along half-slave half-free, and when Lincoln challenged him to a slavery debate he accepted. During this debate, Douglas said that the decision in the case of Dred Scott had settled the slavery issue, but Lincoln disagreed arguing that slavery was a moral issue, not a legal matter, and although Lincoln lost the election, the debates were reported widely, helping make him a national figure.

Source : intellectualtakeout.org

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In 1857 the slavery controversy shifted from Congress to Supreme Court as the case of Missouri slave by the name of Dred Scott, who went to court to fight for freedom saying that his journey to Wisconsin, a free state, with his owner made him a free man. There were nine justices on the Supreme Court, nine from the North, and they had two questions to answer, 'did Scott have the right to bring a case to federal court? Second, did his time in Wisconsin make him a free man?', Chief Justice Taney, who opposed slavery, hoped to use Scott's case to settle slavery controversies once and for all. Unfortunately, by a vote of five to four, Dred Scott lost his case, as the Court decided he could not sue for his freedom because he was not a citizen, nor could he become a citizen.

Source : myblackhistory.net

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The bloodshed in Kansas disturbed Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, and in his opinion prove his suspicion that Senator Douglass had planned all along to make Kansas a slave state, in 1856 this suspicion was voiced in his speech called "The Crime Against Kansas", by using harsh language he informed listeners of Douglass' violent assault on innocent territory. Copies of his speech were quickly printed enraged Southerners, and South Carolina representative, Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner with his metal tipped cane until it broke in half, by the time other senators could pull him away, Sumner was unconscious and bloody, he took three years to recover while Southerners sent Brooks new canes, applauding Brooks.

Source : faculty.polytechinc.org

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After the Nebraska-Kansas Act was passed, settlers poured into Kansas, and although many were peaceful farmers looking for good land, some came to support or oppose slavery, and as the South took collections of young men from towns to go support slavery, in the North abolitionists raised money to send weapons to antislavery settlers. The struggle over slavery soon became violent and on May 21, 1856, proslavery settlers intruded the home of the antislavery government in Lawrence, Kansas, houses were invaded, a hotel was burned, and two printing presses owned by abolitionist newspapers were tossed into the Kaw River. Two days after the attack, John Brown, a fiery abolitionist, led seven men to the pro slavery town of Pottawatomie, Kansas, where they dragged five men who were suspected of supporting slavery and hacked them to death.

Source : nps.gov

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Early in the year of 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglass of Illinois introduced a bill, for his wish to build a railroad to California, to Congress, which, created an uproar due to the fact that he believed that the project was more likely to succeed if Congress organized the Great Plains into the Nebraska Territory and open the region to settlers. Although the Nebraska Territory was above the Missouri Compromise line and Douglass' bill said nothing about slavery, Southerners in Congress said they would agree to the compromise if a few changes were made, and in the final version of the act, known as the Nebraska-Kansas act, two new territories were made, Nebraska and Kansas, it abolished the Missouri Compromise and allowed settlers in the regions to chose the statehood of the territories. This caused a large amount of fear to rise in Northerners, as they were haunted by slavery marching across the Great Plains.

Source : georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu

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Both Northerners and Southerners were unhappy with the Fugitive Slave Act, while Northerners did not want to enforce the act and Southerners believed that the act did not do enough to ensure the return of slaves, or as they saw them, property. Under the Fugitive Slave Act, runaway slaves had almost no legal rights, causing many runaways to flee all the way to Canada, and those who assisted runaway slaves or refused to assist slave catchers could be jailed. When slave catchers went to Boston, they were surrounded by crowds of angry citizens, enraging slaveholders, and making the enforcement of the act almost impossible.

Source : history.com

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Henry Clay, the senator of Kentucky during the time and the creator of the Missouri Compromise, came up with a plan to end the deadlock over California's statehood, however to get his plan to Congress he needed the support of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. This new compromise had something that would please everyone, and it began with admitting California into the Union as a free state, pleasing Northerners. To please Southerners, Clay proposed that in New Mexico and Utah territories be given the decision of whether or not they wish to be admitted as slave states of free states, in addition, the plan would end slave trading in Washington D.C., but slaveholders in the area would still be able to keep their slaves. Finally, Clay's plan would include the passage of strong fugitive slave laws, making it easier for slaveholders to find and reclaim their runaway slaves. Congress debated the Compromise of 1850 for nine long months as Southerners spoke of leaving the Union peacefully, because no one wanted to go through a war of slavery, Congress passed Clay's planning September of 1850, though there were still few Southerners who were weary of the Compromise.

Source : georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu

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For the next three years Congress questioned what to do with the land gained from Mexico, so a bill that would extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific was proposed by Southerners, however Northerners in Congress members rejected this idea. In 1849, California requested admission into the Union as a free state and while Northerners in Congress accepted this request, Southerners in Congress believed that this would upset the balance between slave states and free states. The statehood of California led to Southerners speaking of withdrawing from the Union and Northerners denouncing slavery as an inhumane crime

Source : users.humboldt.edu

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The gag rule kept slavery out of congress for 10 years, but in 1846, President James Polk sent a bill to Congress requesting for funds for the war with Mexico. Pennsylvania representative, David Wilmot, added another amendment to the Bill of Rights, which is known as the Wilmot Proviso, which states that, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in any area of Mexico they receive from the result of the Mexican-American War. Southerner Congressmen were very much against the Wilmot Proviso, which, passed house but was rejected by Senate.

Source : cartoons.osu.edu

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Although Nat Turner's rebellion was the last large slave revolt, individual slaves continued to run to freedom in the North, and they would receive the assistance of Northerners. In slaveholders' points of views Northerners were equal to bank robbers,  slaves were important and valuable and every time one would disappear it was the same as a piece of land vanishing, so they demanded that Congress make a fugitive slave law.

Source : SonOfTheSouth.net

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Although the Missouri Compromise settled the "contest" over slavery momentarily, as the Second Great Awakening approached, in the 1820's and 1830's, leaders of the religious revival promised that God would bless those who completed the Lord's work, and for some that meant the abolition of slavery. Congress was flooded with anti-slavery petitions, responding with the claim that they had no power to interfere, leaving abolitionists to ask, 'What about the District of Columbia?', and to avoid answering their questions Congress created the "gag rule" silencing all congressional debate over slavery, including John Quincy Adams suggestion in 1845 that people could not be born into slavery. The rule did not silence abolitionists, as they continued their attack on slavery in books, newspapers, and public speakings, all the while Southerners began fearing instead of resent abolitionists, due to the rebellion
of Nat Turner, as they began to make stricter laws.

Source: American.history.si.edu

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Northerners in Congress questioned the statehood of Missouri, whether or not it should be admitted as a slave state, all the while Maine was requesting to being admitted as a free state. As the debate of Missouri dragged on Southerners began speaking about seceding and civil war, so rather than causing a breakup in the Union, The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Maine as a free state while Missouri was admitted as a slave state. At the same time, Congress created an imaginary line across the Louisiana Purchase, which would determine which states would be admitted as free states or slave states.

Source : georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu