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Transcontinental Railroad - May 10, 1869

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Transcontinental Railroad - May 10, 1869

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A railroad that linked the East and the far West of the United States. There was many people who were against the building of the railroad because there were certain regions that the railroad were planned to go through that would need an organized government to allow construction and maintenance of the line. The debate over funding the railroad and where it was going to run through was a large part of the political arguments involved in leading the country to civil war.

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The Secession of South Carolina was when the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. They wanted to become independant of the union. Seven different states seceded within three months of Lincoln’s presidency. South Carolina was the first out of eleven states to secede from the civil war.

- When: December 20, 1860

- The Secession of South Carolina didn't really lead to the civil war because it happened during the civil war. South Carolina decided to withdraw from the union when the civil war started.

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The Election of President Lincoln was in November 1860. Abraham Lincoln was a Kentucky lawyer and former Whig representative to congress. Lincoln was facing Douglas who was representing the Northern faction of the Democratic party. His victory signaled the secession of Southern states. Lincoln’s inauguration was on March 4, 1861.

- When: November 1860

- Lincoln's election lead to the civil war because he became president a couple months before it actually started. He was against slavery and that is what the civil war was about.

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John Brown’s Raid was an effort made by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859. This raid was John Brown attempting to take over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. To prepare for this, he rented a small cabin four miles north of Harpers Ferry called “The Kennedy Farmhouse.” Only about eighty people knew about Brown’s raid in advance but others thought that he was contemplating a move against the south. On October 16, 1859, he led into town with all of his crew except four men; who were told to stay back as a rear-guard. Brown's men needed to capture the weapons and escape before word could be sent to Washington that this was happening. Brown and his crew cut the telegraph wire and seized a Baltimore & Ohio train passing through. On October 17, the raiders were cut off of any route of escape by a company of militia. A couple of Brown’s people died, including one of his sons. On October 18, Colonel Lee sent one of his crew members under a white flag of truce to negotiate a surrender for John Brown and his raiders. Brown was told that if he did not surrender, one of his engine houses would be attacked by the Marines. John Brown gave Colonel Lee a thumbs down and Marines charged for the engine house. During this attack, Brown was singled out. In three minutes of the Marines going in the engine house, all the raiders were all still alive but taken prisoner and the raid was over.

- When: October 16-19, 1859
- This helped lead to the civil war because this was a raid about slavery and the civil war was about slavery. This put a little more impact in beginning the civil war.

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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates or the “Great Debates of 1858” were a total of seven political debates between the Republican candidate for the Senate, Abraham Lincoln, and Democratic Senator, Stephen A. Douglas. The debates were centered around the issue of slavery’s expansion into the territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 revoked the Missouri Compromise’s ban on slavery in the Nebraska and Kansas territories and allowed the people to vote pro- or anti-slavery. Lincoln stated that this idea of popular sovereignty would nationalize slavery. Douglas said both Whigs and Democrats believed in popular sovereignty.

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The supreme court handed down this decision which further agitated the conflict over slavery. In the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case, the majority of the Supreme Court ruled that a slave was not a citizen and had no right to sue. Chief Roger Taney went further to realize that the Constitution did not recognize slaves or free blacks as citizens, which according to Taney, blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Taney’s ultimate decision was that Congress could not forbid slavery in the territories, which was hailed in the South and castigated in the North. This made slavery legal in all territories until it might be voted out if a territory we to become a state. This decision came no where close to settling the sectional conflict in the United States and was a key factor in the cause of the civil war.

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Bleeding Kansas was the series of political confrontations that occurred in the United States from 1854 to 1861. The terms “Bleeding Kansas” and “Bloody Kansas” arose because of the violent nature of these confrontations. The conflict was centered around the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a slave state or free state.

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was drafted by Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic Senator, and President Franklin Pierce. This created the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Its initial purpose was to open new farms and make the Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad possible. This caused pro- and anti-slavery people to flood Kansas to vote for their cause.

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Henry Clay proposed that (1) California be admitted as a free state and that (2) the slave trade (but not slavery itself) be abolished in the District of Colombia. To proslavery forces, he offered (3) a federally enforced fugitive slave act, which helped the government to strongly support the return of runaway slaves. He also offered (4) the protection of slavery in the District of Colombia. In addition to these things, Clay proposed that (5) the new territories of New Mexico and Utah be organized without restrictions on slavery. The Compromise of 1850 led intense debate from all sides. President Taylor thought that debate on the Compromise would only cause worse sectional division. The Compromise of 1850 ultimately did little (to nothing) to address and fix the structural differences that divided the United States.

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The Mexican American war began due to the Independent Republic of Texas opting to join America after establishing independence from Mexico. The American victory was celebrated and increased Patriotism, however it also brought along its own set of issues. As a part of the south, slave owners fought to keep their slaves, intensifying the debate over slavery.

- When: April 25, 1846 – February 3, 1848
- Where: Texas, New Mexico, California; Northern, Central, and Eastern Mexico

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In 1819 Missouri made a request to enter the Union as a Slave State, this caused tension as it threatened the balance of the slave and free states. Congress granted Missouri’s request but in order to keep balance, they admitted Main as a free state. Though this was though it was caught to keep peace, it ended up not working as planned and threw the slave state count off balance causing tension towards the civil war.

- When: 1820
- Who: US Congress

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The Cotton Jin revolutionized the production of cotton by speeding up the process of removing the seeds from the cotton fibers. The Cotton Jin allowed farmers to produce 50 times more cotton per slave each day. This gave plantation owners a reason to justify their need for slaves, encouraging them to fight against its abolition.

- When: 14 March 1794
- Who: Eli Whitney