Civil War What led us astray Free Soil

Civil War What led us astray?

Free Soil Party (1848) • Antislavery Whigs/Democrats • Objective: Stop spread of slavery in territories

Election 1848 • Van Buren – Free Soilers • Lewis Cass – Democrats • Zachary Taylor – Whigs – Taylor won the election – Van Buren won the popular vote (10%) – 13 Free Soilers elected Congress – showed slavery as a big political issue

New ideas within the 1850 s: • Clay –North & South to compromise if not the nation could fall apart

• Calhoun – Slavery needs to (& will) stay – Wanted fugitive slaves back – North to admit property back…IF NOT… – South will secede!!

• Webster – Union needs to be preserved or ELSE…CIVIL WAR! – Opposed slavery in territories – End to slave trade – BUT…South does have the right to ask for escaped slaves back

Politics in 1854 • “New” Republican Party – Free Soilers – Northern Democrats – Antislavery Whigs • Objective: keep slavery out of the Western Territory

Election 1860 • Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrats) – Keep Union together • John Bell (Constitutional Union Party) – Keep Union together • John Breckenridge (Southern Democrats) – Proslavery • Abraham Lincoln (Republicans) – Keep Union together

• Lincoln won • South Carolina seceded because: – Lincoln won the Election 1860 w/out Southern votes – No Southern voice in the gov’t – Federal gov’t infringed on states’ rights – Slavery

Confederate States of America • President: Jefferson Davis – Beliefs: • States have rights to secede • North would never fight BUT if they did South would win • Southern states started it by seizing forts/arsenals

“ 1 st Event” –Fort Sumter was bombarded –South felt it should be in their hands because it protected Charleston Harbor.