3/6/2013
The Republican Party
-Birth of the Republican party 1854
Slavery had come to dominate the differences in the
parties
-by 1850 the differences had peaked so that antislavery Whigs, Democrats, and Free-Soilers formed a
new anti-slavery party
-official party policy was to oppose the growth of
slavery where it did not exist.
1
3/6/2013
Republican Party
• United in opposing the Kansas-Nebraska
Act and keeping slavery out of the
territories.
• Other than that, it embraced a wide range of
opinions.
• As the party grew, it took on Free-Soilers,
antislavery Whigs and Democrats, nativists
from the North, and radical abolitionists.
The Republican Party
• Attracted temperance supporters, small
farmers who wanted land grants in the
West, commercial farmers and
manufacturers who needed internal
improvements to prosper.
• Support from wide range of diverse groups
gave the Republican Party the strength it
needed.
2
3/6/2013
The Republican Party
• Primary competition was the KnowNothing Party, which was well-organized at
the state level.
• Both parties targeted the same group of
voters.
• Republicans lacked national organization;
they needed a development that would
refocus people’s attention on slavery issue.
The Republican Party
• “Bleeding Kansas” and “Bleeding
Sumner” gave Republicans the issues it
needed to challenge Democrats for
presidency in 1856.
3
3/6/2013
Presidential Election of 1856
√ James Buchanan
Democrat
John C. Frémont
Republican
Millard Fillmore
Whig & KnowKnow-Nothing Party
•Buchanan won election with only 45% of popular vote. Fremont: 33%; Fillmore: 22%.
1856
Election Results
Note: 2 year old
Republicans
received a large
chunk of the votes
even if they did
lose.
4
3/6/2013
Election of 1856
• Demonstrated that Democrats could win the
presidency with national candidate who
could compete in the North without
alienating the South.
• Know-Nothings were in national decline.
• Republicans were now major political force
in the North.
Dred Scott Decision (1857)
5
3/6/2013
Dred Scott Case Timeline
1830-1836
His owner moved to Missouri then to Wisconsin,
where Scott married Harriet.
1843-1847
Scott’s owner died. Scott tried to buy his
freedom, but the widow refused the offer.
1847
Dred Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri.
1850
St. Louis Circuit Court granted Scott and his
family their freedom. Lived in freedom for
several years
1852
Missouri Supreme Court reversed the decision.
He was returned to slavery
1856
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that all
people of African ancestry—slaves as well as those
who were free—
•could never become citizens of the United States
and therefore could not sue in federal court.
•The court also ruled that the federal government
•did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its
territories because it deprived citizens of their
constitutional protection of their property.
•Slavery supporters rejoiced because
“slavery was then legal in all territories” as
they saw it.
6
3/6/2013
1857 The Blow brothers, his first master's sons
and childhood friends of Scott, had helped pay
Scott's legal fees through the years. After the
Supreme Court's decision, they purchased
Scott and his wife and set them free.
Scott was 58 years old.
1858
Dred Scott died nine
months after gaining his
freedom.
He is buried in St. Louis.
7
3/6/2013
While the decision was well-received by
slaveholders in the South, many northerners
were outraged. The decision greatly
influenced the nomination of Abraham
Lincoln to the Republican Party and his
subsequent election, which in turn led to the
South's secession from the Union.
Video
•#14. Use the space to write an emotional
response to your reaction to the ruling in
the Dred Scot case. (share out)
8
3/6/2013
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Lincoln had had only a brief career in
politics. After serving in the Illinois state
legislature, he was elected to Congress as a
Whig. There, he voted for the Wilmot Proviso.
After a single term, he returned to Illinois to
practice law.
Lincoln’s opposition to the KansasNebraska Act brought him back into politics,
this time embracing the Republican cause. He
had long been a rival of Illinois Senator
Stephen Douglas, the author of the KansasNebraska Act. Their rivalry was personal as
well as political. Both men had courted Mary
Todd, who married Lincoln. (Go Abe!)
A House Divided
In 1858, Illinois Republicans chose Lincoln to run for the Senate
against Douglas. Accepting the nomination, Lincoln made a stirring
speech in favor of the Union:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I do not believe
this government can endure, permanently, half slave and half
free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not
expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
—Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
Lincoln did not state that he wanted to ban slavery. Still, many
southerners became convinced that Lincoln was an abolitionist.
9
3/6/2013
Debating Slavery
Lincoln then challenged Douglas to a series of public
debates. Thousands of people gathered to hear them speak.
Newspapers throughout the nation reported what each man
said.
Douglas strongly defended popular sovereignty.
“Each state of this Union has a right to do as it pleases on the
subject of slavery,” he said. “In Illinois we have exercised that
sovereign right by prohibiting slavery. . . . It is none of our
business whether slavery exists in Missouri.” Douglas also
painted Lincoln as a dangerous abolitionist who wanted
equality for African Americans.
Lincoln took a stand against the spread of slavery.
He declared, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”
Lincoln predicted that slavery would die on its own. In the
meantime, he said, it was the obligation of Americans to keep
it out of the western territories.
In reply to Douglas, Lincoln stated: “I am not, nor ever
have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social
and political equality of the white and black races.” But he
did clarify this view. He insisted that “there is no reason in
the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the rights
enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
In the end, Douglas won the Senate election. However,
the debates had made Lincoln known throughout the country.
Two years later, the men would be rivals again—this time for
the presidency.
10
3/6/2013
11