1850 -1860
Election of 1848
Zachary Taylor - Whig
Lewis Cass - Democrat
Free Soil Party
 New political party
created to oppose
slavery and particularly
extension of slavery
into the new
territories.
 Attracted Northern
Democrats and
“Conscience Whigs”
 People who were
against slavery
Martin Van Buren
Election Results
President Taylor
 Spent most of time
dealing with California
and slavery.
 Died July 4, 1850
 Cause of death???
 Many thought he might
have been poisoned.
Millard Fillmore
 Became President upon
the death of President
Taylor.
 Presidency was a
failure.
Attitudes about Slavery
 John C. Calhoun
 Allow slavery wherever the owner took them
 Lewis Cass
 Popular Sovereignty
 Allow the voters of the territory decide on slavery
 Extend the 36-30 line across the Mexican Cession
 Popular and easy
 Would divide California
California
 California was the cause of many problems
 Dramatic increase in population
 Arguments over statehood
 Need for better communication
 Slavery?
 Would California be a slave state or a Free State?
Compromise of 1850
 Proposed by Henry Clay
 Would admit California as a Free State
Compromise of 1850
 Fugitive Slave Law
 Became illegal under Federal law to assist runaway
slaves.
 Controversial in North
 Many hated the idea that they could not help runaway slaves.
 Texas Paid to give up land in what is today New
Mexico.
 Slave trade abolished in District of Columbia.
 New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory created.
 Popular Sovereignty would determine status of slavery
there.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Book written by Harriet
Beecher Stowe
 Melodramatic account of
life in the slave owning
south and a runaway
slave.
 Vilified Simon Lagree.
 Very controversial book.
 Made more people aware
of slavery and its evils.
Election of 1852
Winfield Scott - Whig
Franklin Pierce – Democrat
Dark Horse Nominee
Election of 1852
President Pierce
 New Hampshire
 General during the
Mexican War
 Son was killed in train
accident when family
travelled to DC
 His wife blamed his
election for the tragedy.
 She made life difficult for
the President.
 Considered to be one of
worst Presidents
1854 – Stephen Douglas
 Stephen Douglas
 Senator from Illinois.
 Wanted to build a
railroad to California.
 Proposed the Kansas –
Nebraska Act.
Kansas – Nebraska Act
 Two new territories
created.
 Kansas Territory
 Nebraska Territory
 Kansas and Nebraska
opened to white
settlement.
 Had to move Indians
out of Kansas to Indian
Territory (Oklahoma)
Kansas before Kansas – Nebraska Act
Kansas After Kansas – Nebraska Act
Kansas Territory
 White settlers moved into Kansas before Indians
were moved out and before the survey.
 Many disputes
 Land Claim conflicts
 Slave state sympathizers from Missouri rushed
into Kansas
 Claimed tree covered land in counties along the
border with Missouri
Popular Sovereignty
 Kansas Nebraska Act
 Question of slavery would be settled by the vote of the
people.
 This caused a sometimes violent and always emotional
dispute between slave sympathizers and free soilers
/abolitionists.
New England Emigrant Aid Company
 Abolitionist group
 Recruited and funded settlers to move to Kansas
 This was an effort to move Free State voters into
Kansas.
 Established the Free State town of Lawrence
Kansas
1855
Bleeding Kansas
 Kansas was in the forefront of the national conflict
over slavery.
 Kansas very well known in both north and south
 Kansas attracted radicals from both the slave state and
abolitionist elements.
 Elections were held to elect Territorial government
 Missourians came across the border to insure a slave
element victory.
 Tensions increased in Kansas
 Violence was evident
Wakarusa War
 Late 1855
 Violence in the Lawrence area
 One Free soil man was killed
 June of 1856
 Lawrence was raided by Pro-slave sheriffs group
 Free soil newspapers offices and the hotel were
destroyed.
John Brown
 Abolitionist radical
 Killed a group of pro-
slavery settlers near
Pottawatomie
settlement.
 He led much of the
anti-slavery activity for
the rest of 1856.
Bleeding Kansas
 56 men were killed in Kansas during the territorial
period.
 Many of these killings were not associated with the
slavery issue
 Conflicting Land Claims
 Newspapers on both sides of the slavery issue
exaggerated the conflict in Kansas.
 Increased the tension in the entire nation over the
issue of slavery.
Sumner – Brooks Incident - 1856
Election of 1856
James Buchanan - Democrat
John C. Fremont –
Republican
Election 1856
Millard Fillmore – Know
Nothing Party
Election 1856
President James Buchanan
 Pennsylvania
 Only President to
remain unmarried
 “Doughface”
 Northerner with
Southern sympathies
 Unable to contend with
increasing tensions
facing the nation.
Butler County - 1857
 May 1857
 Group of Free soil men
recently released from
jail settled in Butler
County
 Original site of
Eldorado
 August 1857
 Another group of
settlers took claims in
the Chelsea area.
1857 – Dred Scott Decision
 Supreme Court
decision
 Ruled that slaves were
property and could be
taken anywhere by
their masters.
 Ruled unconstitutional
the 36-30 line.
 Slavery could exist
anywhere.
Illinois Senate Election - 1858
Stephen Douglas Democrat
Abraham Lincoln Republican
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
 Douglas and Lincoln travelled across Illinois –
conducting debates concerning mostly the slavery
issue.
 Drew huge crowds
 Newspapers from north and south covered them in depth
 Lincoln trapped Douglas in the debates at Freeport
 Douglas was forced to choose between popular sovereignty and
the Dred Scott Decision.
 Douglas hedged in his answer - called the Freeport Doctrine.
 Angered the pro-slavery elements of the Democratic Party
 Douglas was elected Senator
 Lincoln became equally famous.
John Brown - 1859
 Brown and a group of his followers attacked the
federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
 They intended to take weapons
Presidential Election - 1860
Abraham
Lincoln
Republican
John Breckinridge
Southern
Democrat
John Bell
Stephen
Douglas
Constitutional
Union
Northern
Democrat
Election of 1860