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#14 Abraham Lincoln is Elected as President 

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#14 Abraham Lincoln is Elected as President 

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With opposition divided three ways, Lincoln rode to victory. It was an odd victory though. He won with only 40% on the votes. Lincoln was voted for in all the North but in the South he was not voted on 10 of the states. With this election the South was afraid that they were going to abolish slavery because it was a clear message that the South was a minoity.

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/abraham-lincoln

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Instead of waiting for Congress to act on slavery John Brown wanted to end it himself. Brown planned a seize at the federal arsenal at Hapers Ferry, Virginia. He wanted to arm slave for a rebellion to end slavery. But all of Brown's men where either killed or captured during the raid. Brown himself was convicted of treason and sentenced to die.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/32c.asp

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During the Kansas-Nebraska Act antislavery activists created a new political oganization called the Republican Party. Republicans where united through the belief that "no man can own another man". Republicans in Illinois nominated Abraham Lincoln for senator up against Stephan Douglas. They challenged each other to debate the slavery issue, and Abraham Lincoln lost.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln–Douglas_debates

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In 1857, slavery was no longer handled by Congress but by the Supreme Court. A slave named Dred Scott moved with his owner to Wisconsin where slavery was banned by the Missouri Compromise. So when Dred Scot returned back to Missouri he goes to court to ask for his freedom. This case went to Chief Justice Taney. Taney first said that on a vote of 5 to 4 Scott can not sue for his freedom in a federal court if he is not a citizen. But then Taney said that no African American, slave or free, can ever be an American citizen. The Dred Scott decision delighted Southerners because the Congres had the right to protect the property rights of slaveholders n a territory.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/32a.asp

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All the violence in Kansas’s really made Charles Sumner a senator of Massachusetts sad. So he decided to make a speech called "The Crime Aginst Kansas". This speech was about the violent attack on Kansas. The speech was fastly printed all over the North and a New England poet congratulated Summers in his braveness. But this arose some attention in South Carolina. Preston Brooks a representative of South Carolina beat Sumner with a metal tipped cane until it snapped in half. This opened the eyes of everyone showing how divided the country was.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_violence

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After the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed settlers poured into Kansas. Most of them were peaceful farmers looking for good farmland, but other settlers moved there to either support or oppose slavery. The struggle over ask Avery soon turned very violent. Proslavery settlers from Missouri called “border ruffians" invaded Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the antislavery government. These "border ruffians" burned a hotel, looted several houses, and threw printing presses of two abolitionists into the Kaw River. Northerners did not have any of this and tried to raise money to rebuild everything that was destroyed. But one man, John Brown came up with his own revenge. He gathered 7 settlers , including 4 of his sons and his son-in-law. Two days after the Lawrence raid Brown and his followers invaded Pottawatomie, Kansas, a proslavery town. They dragged 5 men who where suspected to be supporting slavery and killed them with a sword.

Source: https://www.nps.gov/fosc/learn/education/classrooms/bklesson.htm

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People in the North and South were unhappy with the Fugitive Slave Act,but for different reasons. Northerners did not want to enforce the act and the Southerners did not feel that the act would ensure the return of their escaped property. If a slave was caught and arrested they would have almost no legal rights. So to avoid this many slave went to Canada instead of running the risk of getting caught in the North.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-fugitive-slave-act/

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Henry Clay a senator for Kentucky went through a snowstorm to pay a call to Daniel Webster a senator for Massachusetts to come up with a plan to end the standoff over California. Clay's new compromise allowed everyone to be happy. It pleased the North by admitting California to the union as a free state and pleased the South by allowing them decode to have New Mexico and Utah as slave states. Also, this compromise ended slave trading in Washington D.C but allowed slaveholder to keep their slaves.

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/compromise-of-1850

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For 3 years Congress didn't know what to do with the territory that was gained from the Mexican War. Southerners wanted the territory to be open to slavery, but Northerners wanted it to be closed from slavery. As a compromise Southerners would extend the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific and have anything above it would be a free state and anything below it would be a slave state. The North refused the offer and welcomed California into the union, but southerners were less than happy to let it join declining the admission.

Source: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856

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The Gag Rule kept slavery out of congress for 10 years, but when President James Polk asked for a bill to fond the Mexican War. A Pennsylvanian added an amendment to the bill know as the Wilmot Proviso. This stated that "slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist" in any territory that could have been gained in the Mexican-American War. Southerners in congress strongly disagreed with Wilmot's amendment and continued to not allow congress to be involved with slavery in states.

Source: http://www.understandingrace.org/history/gov/expan_slavery.html

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Nat Turners Rebellion was the last large rebellion, but that didn't stop slaves from still rebelling and running away to freedom. sometimes these "fugitive" slaves would be helped in their escape by sympathetic Northerners. But these sympathetic northerners where just like bank robbers to those who where slave owners, and felt that they where just steeling their land away from them. These slave owners demanded that Congress should pass a fugitive slave law.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-fugitive-slave-act/

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John Quincy Adams predicted the the "contest" over slavery would be settled, but a powerful force soon pushed this back into the open. The Second Great Awakening's leaders promised that God would bless those who would do the lords work, which some Americans thought that it was to abolish slavery. John Quincy Adams became a Congress member and at that time Congress had no power to interfere with slavery in the states. He knew that not everyone was going to agree on abolishing slavery, so he proposed a constitutional amendment that no one can be born into slavery after 1845 but that was turned down.

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/missouri-compromise/videos

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While the Missouri Compromise was still in control, Missouri became a slave sate and Maine joined the Union as a free state. Another thing is that, no slave state can go higher that the latitude 36'30'. Above this line slavery was banned forever except for Missouri, and below this line owning slaves was allowed. This compromise kept the Union together, but pleased very few people.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/23c.asp

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Stephen A. Douglas a senator for Illinois introduced a bill to Congress about building a railroad to California. He thought that this bill would be more likely to be passed if Congress would open the Great Plains to the Nebraska territory and allow people to settle their. The South would agree if he made a few changes to the act. His final bill created 2 new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. It also abolished the Missouri Compromise by allowing the settlers choose weather or not to make it a free or slave state. Douglas callled this policy rule by the people, popular sovereignty.

Source:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/31a.asp

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Weeks after the election, talks of secession are becoming more common. Scared senators try forming a committee to search for another compromise to keep the Union together. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but they needed to slow down the disunion and disaster. When Abraham Lincoln was asked if he could support a compromise on slavery and he was very clear on saying that he will only enforce the Fugative Slave act. On December 20, 1860 South Carolina left the Union and 6 states joined after that.

Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/32e.asp