AP/IB American History
Mr. Blackmon
The Emergence of Sectionalism
I.
II.
The Three Sections
A.
Northeast
1.
Ohio and Kentucky were sometimes allied to them
2.
New England formed a subsection within this section
3.
This section is committed to manufacturing.
B.
South
1.
Includes the Chesapeake region, and the Deep South through to the
Mississippi River.
2.
Slavery is the distinguishing social and economic institution defining the
South
3.
Economically, it is dependent on the production of staple crops, especially
cotton.
C.
West
1.
This section was less cohesive
2.
The crucial issues for the West included
a.
internal improvements
b.
Indian affairs
c.
land policy
3.
The West held the balance of power between the two sections.
4.
The future increasingly belongs to the West, by virtue of its growing
population and economic strength.
Sectional Political Issues
A.
Tariff
1.
The tariff in 1812 was set at 12.5%
2.
During the War of 1812, the tariff was raissed to 25%
3.
The Tariff of 1816 kept the war-time levels high in order to portect the
infant textile manufactures against the British.
4.
Both unemployed workers and farmers were convinced that portection was
vital to the return of prosperity.
5.
Attitudes toward protection
a.
The North, except for New England, favored protection.
(1)
New England was still committed to free-trade
(2)
There was cross-sectional support on the grounds of selfsufficiency in the event of war.
b.
The West favored it because they saw growth in the eastern
facotries as a market for its corn and hogs.
c.
The South reversed its earlier position.
(1)
Industry did not develop in the South, in part because
slavery attracted the bulk of the available investment
capital.
(2)
The tariffs inreased the cost of all that they bought.
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(3)
(4)
B.
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High duties limited foreign markets by inhibiting
international trade.
John C. Calhoun's personal oddessey will mark the shifting
Southern position.
Banking Policy
1.
Hamilton's Bank of the United States was allowed to die in 1811 when the
charter expired.
2.
Opposition to a new bank was based on
a.
the constitutional issue; strict constructionists like Jefferson were
not reconciled to the bank, and opposed such a growth of federal
power.
b.
state banks which wanted its business.
c.
a political lever which the opponents of the bank could use is that a
majority of the stock was owned by British investors.
3.
The War of 1812 and banking
a.
During the war, there was a rapid and reckless expansion of credit
by state banks.
b.
The raid on Washington and Baltimore triggered a panic.
c.
Banks outside of New England (the Federalist bankers were much
more cautious about extending credit) suspended specie payments
(exchanging bank notes for gold.)
d.
With specie payments suspended, paper money quickly lost its
value.
4.
The Second Bank of the United States (BUS)
a.
This experience convinced even Republicans like Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe that a bank was necessary.
b.
The BUS was proposed in 1814 and chartered in 1816.
c.
It was originally capitalized at $35,000,000.
d.
The first president, William Jones, managed the bank badly, and
participated in the reckless expansion of credit.
5.
The Panic of 1819
a.
The European war had disrupted their agriculture as well as
business.
b.
The war brought very high demand for American agricultural
products which led to rising prices.
c.
This in turn stimulates a land boom, as farmers tried to put as much
land under the plow as they could.
d.
Settlers bought land on credit, using the land laws of 1800 and
1804 to pay $80 down and 3 more equal installments over a 4 year
period. The farmers expected to pay this debt by profits from high
agricultural products.
e.
Speculators bought up large tracts of land, which in turn drove land
prices up.
AP/IB American History
Emergence of Sectionalism
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
C.
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Until 1817, buyers could borrow from state banks and pay the
government in bank notes, not in hard currency.
The end of the war in Europe brought diminished European
demand for American agricultural products, which burst the
speculative bubble. Falling demand brought falling prices, which
left over-extended farmers unable to pay off their debts.
Jones resigned as the economic situation deteriorated.
The new president is Langdon Cheves, who was much more
cautious.. Cheves tightened credit, called in loans, and foreclosed
mortgages.
Cheves also collected bank notes issued by state banks and
presented them for payment in specie. Many state banks had
issued substantially more paper than they had gold to back it up.
These banks faced ruin when asked to pay gold for their paper
(which is, after all, what the bank note promised).
Fear that state banks would fail led to panic withdrawals, which of
course made the situation still worse.
In the end, the BUS acquired large amounts of western land, but at
the cost of being widely blamed by most Westerners as the cause of
the Panic. This was unfair, but this belief is a political time bomb
for the bank.
State banks still resented the BUS, since it had curbed their
activities.
Hard money advocates also resented the bank (which makes less
sense to me; the BUS tended to support hard money).
Land Policy
1.
There was continuous pressure to lower the minimum price for public land
as well as the minimum quantity of land. This is genuinely democratic
pressure, to make land available to small farmers without the presence of a
speculator between the government and the small farmer.
2.
Land Act of 1800: $2.00 / acre and 320 acres / unit sold, with 4 annual
installments. $160.00 needed to take possession.
3.
Land Act of 1804: reduces the size of a unit to 160 acres, therefore the
amount of cash needed to buy land is $80.00.
4.
The West wants cheap land, and it is not prepared to compromise this
issue.
5.
The South and the North both tend to see public land as an asset to be
turned into cash.
a.
The North fears that too much public land will drain off potential
workers and therefore force wages up.
b.
The South fears agricultural competition
c.
Both sections are ready to compromise on land policy in order to
win over the West.
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D.
E.
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Internal Improvements
1.
Situation is similar to land policy.
2.
The West wants internal improvements, especially canals. Also of
importance to the West are harbor works.
3.
The North benefits most from harbor works. It will gradually swing to
consistent support for internal improvements, especially from the Whigs.
4.
The South's internal river system made internal improvements less vital to
it; the improvements cost money, and the South traditionally abhorred
taxes. The South will tend to oppose internal improvements.
a.
John C. Calhoun is a weather-vane on this issue. In his early
career he was a prominent and indefatigable supporter of internal
improvements. Around 1824 (the Tariff of Abominations), he
changes positions radically.
Slavery
1.
Easily the most divisive issue in the country. It is not yet the only crucial
issue, however. In the early national era until the Compromise of 1850,
slavery is just one of the important political issues. After the Compromise
of 1850, it is virtually the only issue.
2.
The African slave trade was abolished by Congress in 1808.
a.
Not a great deal of effort was put into enforcing the ban; however,
the Royal Navy was active, and indeed, was trying to
systematically strangle the trade.
b.
The biggest loophole in the trade is that the US would not permit
the Royal Navy to stop and search a US vessel suspected of being a
slaver. Slavers therefore often flew US flags--most often illegally,
sometimes legally in the sense that they had US papers.
c.
Little of this traffic was directed to smuggling into the US. The
chief destination was Cuba, where the Spanish government was
more than lax at enforcing the ban on the African slave trade. The
US consul in Havana waas usually a Southerner, and often gave
more or less covert assistence to the slavers.
d.
The entry of new slave states was balanced by the entry of new free
states.
(1)
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
(2)
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.
e.
In 1819, there were 10 slave and 11 free states.
f.
The cotton boom led to a more aggressive expansion of slavery,
which intensified the debate.
g.
In the Early National period, the West tended to support slavery.
(1)
The Northwest Territory sold considerable produce to the
South, using the rivers and riverboats.
(a)
This powerful trade link will be weskened
substantially in time by the Erie Canal and the
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(2)
III.
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coming of the railroad. This is a development of
decisive importance to the outcome of the Civil
War.
Many of the settlers in the Northwest Territory, especially
along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, came from Virginia
and Kentucky.
Major Northern Leaders
A.
This time period sees a generational change of leadership in the nation. These
men will dominate the political scene until about 1850.
B.
John Quincy Adams
1.
Son of John and Abigail Adams
2.
Qualities
a.
brilliant, farsighted, imaginative, hard-working, courageous.
b.
inept in personal relations, a poor politician, tense, conscience
ridden, haunted by the fear that he would not be worthy of his
parents.
3.
Positions
a.
A strong nationalist, supporting a protective tariff, the Bank of the
United States, and internal improvements.
4.
Career
a.
an outstanding diplomat, Secretary of State, an unfortunate
President, later a Senator and a great Representative.
C.
Daniel Webster
1.
An outstanding Constitutional lawyer, the most famous orator of the day.
2.
Qualities
a.
very intelligent but pleasure-loving, indolent, selfish. He was not
above solicing bribes.
b.
At several times, he was able to rise above his own pettiness to
greatness in defense of the Union.
3.
Career
a.
A diplomat, Secretary of State, Senator
4.
Positions
a.
He is a weather-vane for New England business interests
(1)
he was a supporter of the Hartford Convention and an
opponent of the War of 1812. Prior to 1815, he opposed
the Bank, internal improvements, and the tariff.
(2)
As New Wngland became more wedded to the textile
industry, Webster shifts to strong support for the tariff and
the Bank, and internal improvements.
(3)
In the last analysis, Webster is a nationalist.
D.
DeWitt Clinton
1.
Governor of New York
2.
He was primarily interested in the construction of the Erie Canal.
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Emergence of Sectionalism
E.
IV.
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Martin Van Buren
1.
Nicknamed the "Red Fox," organizer of the Albany Regency in New York,
which dominated politics for years. He built a political machine.
2.
Qualities
a.
He was intelligent, affable, a political animal who avoided taking
clear-cut stands that could cost him support.
b.
He was a brilliant politician.
Southern Leaders
A.
William H. Crawford
1.
Secretary of the Treasury under Monroe.
2.
Qualities
a.
a manipulator of people, popular, a brilliant politician.
b.
Crawford pushed through a bill in 1820 which limited holding
federal offices to 4 years, because he saw how patronage could
increase his power.
3.
Positions
a.
Basically a states' righter, and a spokeman for the large planters.
b.
The planters at this time supported the Bank and a moderate tariff.
c.
During the post war depression, he worked on relief plans for small
farmers.
4.
Crawford was a formidable opponent until his stroke in 1824, which
abruptly ended his political career.
B.
John C. Calhoun
1.
The greatest, most important, most feared of Southern leaders.
2.
Qualilties
a.
He was very briliant, the outstanding logician in the Senate, a
devotee of duty, cold and restrained in personal relations,
scrupulously honest (he once applied for a loan from the Bank of
the US, which he needed badly; the Bank granted it but hinted
strongly that he need not feel obligated to pay it back; Calhoun
returned the loan rather than compromise his integrity.), respected,
reverenced, feared, but not loved.
3.
Career
a.
Early Career
(1)
In his early years, he was a War Hawk and prominent
nationalist.
(2)
He supported a moderate tariff, the Bank, internal
improvements, and a large Navy and a good army.
(3)
He will serve as Secretary of War undesr Monroe, later
serve as Vice President, Secretary of State (where he was a
disaster) and Senator.
b.
Later Career
(1)
The Tariff of Abominations was Calhoun's watershed.
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(2)
c.
d.
4.
5.
He begins to protect the interests of the slaveholding South
against changes in the nation that threatened "the peculiar
institution" and the Union.
(3)
Calhoun becomes the spokesman of a Section, the South.
(4)
He developes fully the Doctrine of Nullification and
evolves his Theory of the Concurrent Majority.
(5)
More than anyone else, he enunciates the defense of slavery
and of the South.
Calhoun was a hard man, a fierce man, an unforgiving and
inflexible man. Intellectually, he was fearless and honest, a close
reasoner who did not flinch at the direction his thought took him.
As I study him, he has earned my grudging (very grudging) respect.
Of the great Triumvirate--Webster, Clay, and Calhoun--, Calhoun
is the one I respect the most, and is the greatest figure among those
three giants.
e.
The tragedy for the nation and the South is that he placed his
immense talents at the service of an indefensible cause. In the last
analysis, his thought is fundamentally perverted.
Contemporary Opinions
a.
"Mr. Calhoun, the cast-iron man, would sometimes come in .
. . . I know of no man who lives in such utter intellectual
solitude. . . . There is no hope that intellect so cast in narrow
theories will accommodate itself to vrying circumstances."
Harriet Martineau 1838
b.
"He always appeared to me rather as a mental and moral
abstraction than a politician." Varina Howell Davis 1890
c.
". . . tall, careworn, with furrowed brow, hagard and intensely
gazing, looking as if he were dissecting the last abstration
which sprung from the metaphysician's brain, and muttering
to himself in half-uttered tones, 'This is indeed a crisis.'
'Henry Clay
d.
"The slaveholder has the best of the argument the very
moment the legality and constitutionality of slavery is
conceded." Frederick Douglass
e.
On His Deathbed: "I see nothing to regret and little to
correct."
Calhoun's Thought
a.
Defense of Slavery
(1)
"I hold that, in the present state of civilization, where
two races of different origin and distinguished by
color and other physical differences as well as
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(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
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intellectual are brought together, the relation now
existing in the slaveholding states between the two is,
instead of an evil, a good--a positive good. ("The
Danger of Abolitionist Petitions" 1837) [Where
previous generations of Southerners--Jefferson, for
example--had described slavery as a "neceessary evil",
now it is described as a "positive good"]
"The difficulty is in the diveristy of the races. So
strongly drawn is the line between the two in
consequence . . . that it is impossible for them to exist
together in the same community, where their numbers
are so nearly equal as in the slaveholding sttes, under
any other relation than that which now exists. Social
and political equality between is impossible. . . . . But
without such equality, to change the present
condiditon of the African race, were it possible,
wouldbe but to change the form of slavery. It would
make them the slaves of the community instead of the
slaves of individuals." "Report on the Circulation of
Abolitionist Petitions" 1836
[The intellectual defense of slavery rests upon two possible
arguments: (1) an aristocratic world view, which is at
variance with dominant American culture, which sees a
paternalistic aristocracy and definite social gradations; this
position is anti-democratic but not inherently racist; this is
the preferred argument of Calhoun and Fitzhugh (2) a
racist assertion of the superiority of one race over the
other, which leads to a concept of Herrenvolk
egalitarianism, which is the actual practice of the South in
the Age of Jackson, especially the turbulent Southwest, and
which is the argument most often used, since it appealed to
the mass of white voters, slaveholders as well as nonslaveholders; both Calhoun and Fitzhugh will appeal to it.
(cf Frederickson, in Weinstein, Gatell, Sarasohn, pp. 3458)]
[A similar view, by one of the best known if highly
idiosyncratic defenders of slavery, George Fitzhugh]
"Negroes are not free because God, and nature, and
the general good, and their own good intended them
for slaves." George Fitzhugh, 1857
"I hold then, that there has never yet existed a wealthy
and civilized society in which one portion of the
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community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor
of the other." ("The Danger of Abolitionist Petitions"
1837)
(6)
"I may say, with truth, that in few countries so much
is left to the share of the laborer and so little exacted
from or where there is more kind attention to him in
sickness or infirmities of age. Compare his condition
with the tenants of the poorhouses in the most
civilized portions of Europe--look at the sick and the
old and infirm slave, on one hand, in the midst of his
family and friends, under the kind superintending
care of his master and mistress, and compare it with
the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in
the poorhouse." ("The Danger of Abolitionist Petitions"
1837) [This is the concept of "wage slavery" so prevalent in
Southern defense of slavery]
(7)
[Another Southerner's view:] "Slavery was universal
throughout history, sanctioned by the Bible, honored
by the Greeks, needed by infantile blacks, and exalted
by the South into a patriarchal relationship between
master and slave. 'No class of laboring people in any
country upon the globe are better clothed, better fed,
or more cheerful, or labor less'" Sen. William Smith
(quoted in Freehling 150)
(8)
"I fearlessly assert that the existing relation between
the races in the South . . . forms the most solid and
durable foundation on which to rear free and stable
institutions." ("The Danger of Abolitionist Petitions"
1837) {Notice the concept of Herrenvolk democracy)
(9)
"There is, and always has been, in an advanced stage
of civilization, a conflict between labor and capital."
("The Danger of Abolitionist Petitions", 1837)
Rebuttal to Calhoun on Slavery
(1)
"It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very
sources of moral principle. It establishes false
estimates of virtue and vice; . . . It perverts human
reason, and reduces man endowed with logical powers
to maintain that slavery is sanctioned by the Christian
religion, that slaves are happy and contented in their
condition, that between master and slave there are ties
of mutual attachment and affection, . . . [T]he bargain
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between freedom and slavery contained in the
Constitution of the United States is morally and
politically vicious, inconsistent with the principles upon
which alone our Revolution can be justified." John
Quinccy Adams 1820
(2)
"We will prove that the slaves in the United States are
treated with barbarous inhumanity; that they are
overworked, underfed, wretchedly clad and lodged,
and have insufficient sleep; that they are often to wear
round their necks iron collars armed with prongs, to
drag heavy chains and weights at their feet while
working in the field; . . . have some of their front
teeth torn out or broken off that they may be easily
detected when they run away; that they are frequently
flogged with terrible severity, . . . that they are often
suspended by the arms and whipped and beaten till
they faint, . . . that their ears are often cut off, their
eyes knocked out, their bones broken, their flesh
branded with red hot irons; that they are maimed,
mutilated and burned to death over slow fires. All
these things, and more, we shall prove. . . . We will
establish all these facts by the testimony of scores and
hundreds of eyewitnesses, by the testimony of
slaveholders in all parts of the sla0ve states. . . ."
Theodore Dwight Weld Slavery As It Is, 1839 (Data
compiled from thousands of Southern newspapers)
Limited Government, Nullification, and the Concurrent Majority
(1)
". . . the powers of Congress were delegated to it in trust
for the accomplishment of certain specified objects which
limit and control them, and that every exercise of them
for any other purposes is a violation of the Constitution .
. . " 1828
(2)
". . . We hold it as . . . unquestionable that the
Constitution of the United States is a compact between
the people of the several states, constituting free,
independent, and sovereign communities, that the
government it created was formed and appointed to
execute, . . . the powers therein granted as the joint
agent of the several states; that all its acts, transcending
these powers, are simply and of themselves null and
void, and that in case of such infractions, it is the right
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of the states, in their sovereign capacity, each acting for
itself and its citizens, in like manner as they adopted the
Constitution to judge thereof in the last resort and to
adopt such measures . . . as may be deemed fit to arrest
the execution of the act within their respective limits."
"Address to the People of the United States," 1832
"The great and leading principal is, that the General
Government emanated from the people of the United
States, forming distinct political communities, and
acting in their separate and sovereign capacity, and
not from all the people forming one aggregate political
community; that the Constitution of the United
States is, in fact, a compact, to which each State is a
party . . . . Stripped of all its covering, the naked
question is, whether ours is a federal or a consolidated
government; a constitutional or absolute one; a
government resting ultimately on the solid basis of the
sovereignty of the States or on the unrestrained will of
a majority; a form of government, as in all other
unlimited ones, in which injustice, and violence, and
force must finally prevail. Let it never be forgotten
that, where the majority rules without restriction, the
minority is the subject, and that, if we should absurdly
attribute to the former the exclusive right of
construing the Constitution, there would be, in fact,
between the sovereign and subject, under such a
government, no Constitution, or, at least, nothing
deserving the name, or serving the legitimate object of
so sacred an instrument." "Fort Hill Address", 1831
A Refutation of Calhoun's Position: "The ordinance is
founded . . . on the strange position that any one
State may not only declare an act of Congress void,
but prohibit its execution; that the true construction
of that instrument permits a State to retain its place
in the Union and yet be bound by no other of its laws
than those it may choose to consider as constitutional.
. . . But reasoning on this subject is superfluous when
our social compact, in express terms, declares that the
laws of the United States, its Constitution, and
treaties made under it are the supreme law of the land,
and, for greater caution, adds 'that the judges in every
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(6)
(7)
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State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding.' And it may be asserted without fear
of refutation that no federative government could exist
without a similar provision. . . .If the doctrine of a
State veto upon the laws of the Union carries with it
internal evidence of its impractical absurdity, our
constitutional history will also afford abundant proof
that it would have been repudiated with indignation
had it been proposed to form a feature in our
Government . . . . I consider, then, the power to annul
a law of the United States, assumed by one State,
incompatible with the existence of the Union,
contradicted expressly by the letter of the
Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent
with every principle on which it was founded, and
destructive of the great object for which it was
formed." Andrew Jackson "Proclamation to the People of
South Carolina" 1832
"Man is so constituted as to be a social being. . . . He
is so constituted that his direct or individual affections
are stronger than his sympathetic or social feelings. . .
.
"And hence [there is)]the tendency to a universal state
of conflict between individual and individual;
accompanied by the connected passions of suspicion,
jealousy, anger and revenge; followed by insolence,
fraud and cruelty; and, if not prevented by some
controlling power, ending in a state of universal
discord and confusion, destructive of the social state
and the ends for which it is ordained. This
controlling power, wherever vested, or by whomsoever
exercised, is GOVERNMENT.
But government, although intended to protect and
preserve society, has itself a strong tendency to
disorder and abuse of its powers . . . The powers which
it necessary for government to possess, in order to
repress violence and preserve order, cannot execute
themselves. . . . The powers vested in them to prevent
injustice and oppression on the part of others will, if
left unguarded, be by them converted into instruments
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to oppress the rest of the community. . . .
Power can only be resisted by power, and tendency by
tendency. Those who exercise power and those subject
to its exercise--the rulers and the ruled--stand in
antagonistic relations to each other. . . . [Solution:
Amend the Constitution to Provide for the Concurrent
Majority] The necessary consequence of taking the
sense of the community by the concurrent majority is .
. . to give to each interest [commercial, industrial,
agricultural, North, South, West] a negative [veto] on the
others. It is this mutual negative among its various
conflicting interests which invests each with the power
of protecting itself and places the rights and safety of
each where only they can be securely placed, under its
own guardianship." "A Disquisition on Government"
1851, published posthumously
Western Leaders
A.
Thomas Hart Benton
1.
Senator from Missouri
2.
Positions
a.
An ardent expansionist, advocate of hard-money, suspicious of
banks, champion of small farmers and free homesteads. He will
eventually lose his seat in the Senate over his oppostion to the
expansion of slavery.
b.
Colorful, fearless, extravagent.
B.
William Henry Harrison
1.
Positions
a.
Chiefly a soldier, not strongly identified with any postiion. The
Whigs chose him to run for President precisely for this reason, and
in an attempt to ride to the White House with the "man on
horseback."
C.
Henry Clay
1.
One of the towering figures of the era. A great Speaker of the House, also
Secretary of State and Senator
2.
Qualities
a.
A very brilliant speaker, and an exceptionally skilled politician; a
"man's man" with a (deserved) reputation as a drinker, poker
player, and skirt chaser. He had a streak of recklessness, and loved
power. He was very ambitious, and desired the White House very
much.
b.
I have the feeling that his intelligence was so great that he did not
have to properly apply himself to win court cases. I am left with
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the feeling that he never achieved his potential. He can be
superficial and cynical.
c.
He is a contradictory man--a slave holder who genuinely seems to
have thought slavery was wrong and who actively worked in his
personal life with the American Colonization Society. he did not
see slavery as the crucial issue facing the nation, and, in his
lifetime, it wasn't.
3.
Positions
a.
He understood that in a democracy power must be shared to be
wielded.
b.
A very strong nationalist who tries to compromise sectional
interests.
c.
Genuinley desired a unified nation based on mutually supportive
economies. Thus, his espousal of the "American System," which
is Hamilton's old program.
d.
Clay tied Western improvements with the Northern tariff for a
coalition between the two. He argued that the inter-relationship of
the sections would hold the nation together: stimulating
manufactures would increase the demand for Wesstern products,
while Western prosperity would lead to greater consumption of
Northern products.
e.
In the last analysis, his nationalism was a very constructive force.
It was not his fault that the American System did not overcome
growing sectionalism.
f.
Repeatedly, he strove to put together compromises between the
sections. He deserves the title of "The Great Pacificator" or "The
Great Compromiser."
D.
Andrew Jackson
1.
The giant of the era, the single most dominating individual in an era of
titans. I have an entire hand-out on this pwoerful and interesting man.
2.
Qualities
a.
At this time, he is the "Hero of New Orleans," enormously popular
and surrounded by a coterie of talented friends.
3.
Jackson posssessed a pugnacious personality, and a demonic will power
with outstanding combative instincts.
The Missouri Compromise
A.
The controversy over the admission of Missouri revealed that the unity of the
nation was more apparent than real. Prosperity was disguising the divisions.
B.
In 1817, the territory of Missouri petitioned for admission to the Union.
1.
The population was 60,000, including 10,000 slaves, so Missouri would
enter as a slave state. This was about the same number of slaves as were
in New York when New York passed its post nati law.
C.
James Talmadge of New York introduced an amendment, cleverly called the
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E.
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Talmadge Amendment, to the Missouri Enabling Act which
1.
prohibited the further introduction of slaaes into Missouri
2.
Provided that all slaves born in Missouri after 1820 would be freed at age
25 (this is an example of a post nati law)
3.
Talmadge was evidently motivated by a sincere repugnance to slavery. he
had been heavily involved n the passage of New York's post nati law.
4.
The amendment applied the principle of the Northwest Ordinance--that
Congress has the right to regulate slavery in the territories--but with this
difference: Congress was banning slavery from a territory in which it
already existed.
a.
There had never been any attempt before this to restrict the
interstate movement of slaves.
The Talmadge Amendment passed the House of Representatives, which was
already controlled by North, but is rejected by the Senate
The debate on the issue was fierce
1.
Rufus King hoped to use the slavery issue to revive the old Federalist
party. He is motivated by political opportunism rather than real opposition
to slavery.
a.
Men like Andrew Jackson could sense this; one result is that
Jackson never could understand that some people opposed slavery
on the grounds of real principle; Jackson always saw the slavery
issue as a stalking horse for those who would disrupt the Union.
2.
The issue was carried into the next session of Congress
a.
The South believed that it was critical for them to hve a balance in
the Senate since they had lost the House, and would never catch up
to the population growth in the North.
b.
The debate did not focus on the morality of slavery.
(1)
One issue was that the Three Fifths Compromise would
over-repreesent Missouri in the House. This represents the
beginning of overt Northern resentment over the Three
Fifths Compromise. As William Freehling points out, he
mood of the nation was becoming more egalitarian. To
give the South extra votes for non-citizens seemed to be a
violtion of the principles of the republic. This overrepresentation was a prime example of what many
Northerners began to call the Slave Power.
(2)
Another issue was that Northern laborers and farmers did
not want to compete with slave labor and therefore wished
to restrict the spread of the institution. This will remain an
important source for the opposition of Northerners to the
extension of slavery, as well as a reason which is frequently
overlooked n the aftermath of the Emancipation
Proclamation. This motivation may make these people
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G.
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anti-slavery but does not make them pro-African American
rights.
Henry Clay's compromise, the first of his attempts to compromise the issue of
slavery.
1.
This is the beginning of why he became known as the Great Compromiser
or Great Pacificator.
2.
Clay was himself a slave holder, but showed no enthusiasm for the spread
of the institution, and he seems to have preferred the gradual, compensated
emancipation of the slaves coupled with their emigration to Liberia.
3.
Clay feared that the issue of slavery would divide the country; as a
nationalist, this is the last and worst thing he would like to see.
4.
His compromise tied the admission Missouri to the admission of Maine,
which would maintain the balance.
a.
Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois (who himself held 5 "apprentices,"
which was a euphemism for slaves in the Northwest Territory)
proposed the Thomas Amendment which would "forever prohibit"
slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30' north latitude,
and would permit slavery south of that line. 36° 30' runs along
the southern border of Missouri.
b.
36° 30' meant that the great bulk of the territory obtained in the
Louisiana purchase would be closed to slavery--only Louisiana,
Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas would come from that territory.
Why then did the South accept the line. The answer is climate and
geography: cotton could not be grown north of 36° 30' and
therefore Southerners believed that slavery could not extend north
of that line anyway.
5.
The Missouri Constitution
a.
Clay wrote a new constitution for Missouri
b.
This document explicitly authorized slavery; it also prhibited
emancipation of slaves already in Missouri; it required a law
barring free blacks and mulattoes from entering the state
(1)
free blacks were viewed as a standing incitement to servile
rebellion.
(2)
these clauses are in violation of Article 4 Section 2 of the
United States Constitution "All Citizens of each State shall
be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in
the several states."
(3)
Other states, particularly in the Northwest Territory will bar
free blacks in defiance of the Constitution.
c.
Clay inserted a meaningless phrase to the effect that this clause
should not be construed as a violation of the Constitution.
The Missouri Compromisse and the stormy debates surrounding it helped to
create in the South a sense that it was a conscious and beleagured minority within
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the nation. This is a very important turning point psychologically.
If one traces the beginning of the abolitionist movement in the US, such as the
beginning of Benjamin Lundy's newspaper crusade, it is clear that the Missouri
Compromise helped to create the anti-slavery crusade as a major reform
movement,.
John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary: "I take it for granted
that the present question is a mere preamble--a title page to a great, tragic
volume." (1821)
Thomas Jefferson wrote to a Northern friend: (on slavery) "We have the wolf by
the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go" (on Missouri)
". . . this momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and
filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. . . .
this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence . . . " 1820