Several abolitionists grew so disgusted with the Whigs that they formed their own party, a true antislavery party. . Library of Congress. In 1854 the Missouri Compromise was repealed as part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Congressman James Tallmadge of New York proposed laws that would gradually abolish slavery in the new state. After the 1858 elections, all eyes turned to 1860. Federal troops lined the streets of Boston as Burns was marched to a ship, where he was sent back to slavery in Virginia. War broke out in Kansas between pro-slavery sympathizers and abolitionists, earning it the nickname "bleeding Kansas.". A number of ex-Democrats committed to the party right away, including an important group of New Yorkers loyal to Martin Van Buren. In order to justify their party's existence, Republicans required evidence of the slave power's continual harassment of northerners, which Bleeding Kansas easily provided. By the last half of the decade, slavery was back, and this time it appeared even more threatening. By 1850, California wanted admission as a free state. (2). Congress reached a compromise on Missouris admission, largely through the work of Kentuckian Henry Clay. The Illinois Senate race in 1858 put the scope of the sectional crisis on full display. Americans by 1820 had endured a broad challenge, not only to their cherished ideals but also more fundamentally to their conceptions of self. Inspired by the social change of Jacksonian democracy, white men, regardless of status, would gain not only land and jobs but also the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to attend public schools, and the right to serve in the militia and armed forces. The horrific violence that both endured melted the hearts of many northerners and pressed some to join in the fight against slavery. Wikimedia. Douglas had a number of goals in mind. Antislavery and pro-slavery positions from that point forward repeatedly returned to points made during the Missouri debates. 11. Antislavery feelings continued to run deep, however. The framers of the Constitution never used the word slave. Increased clamoring for the admission of California, New Mexico, and Utah pushed the country closer to the edge. Once again westward expansion challenged this consensus, and this time the results proved even more damaging. Fighting spread even farther against Native Americans in the Far West and against Mormons in Utah. 2 Revolutionaries seized onto these ideas to stunning effect in the late eighteenth century. Whig strongholds often mirrored the patterns of westward migrations out of New England. This piece of Republican propaganda from the 1856 election makes clear distinctions between free states, slave states, and territories. Sectional crisis 1. The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by South Carolina's 1832 Ordinance of Nullification. After spending over $40,000, the U.S. government had successfully reenslaved Anthony Burns.22 A short time later, Burns was redeemed by abolitionists who paid $1,300 to return him to freedom, but the outrage among Bostonians only grew. The heavily-criticized statute authorized commissioners of the U.S. The federal commissioners who heard these cases were paid $10 if they determined that the defendant was enslaved and only $5 if they determined he or she was free.20 Many Black northerners responded to the new law by heading farther north to Canada. Obes Rev. Even seemingly simple and straightforward phrases like all men are created equal were hotly contested all over again. Since its lands were below the line at 3630, the admission of Arkansas did not threaten the Missouri consensus. Revolutionaries seized onto these ideas to stunning effect in the late eighteenth century. In Article I, Section 2, for example, the Constitution enabled representation in the South to be based on rules defining an enslaved person as three-fifths of a voter, meaning southern white men would be overrepresented in Congress. Maine would be admitted to the Union as a free state. Each revolution seemed to radicalize the next. They generated tremendous wealth for the British crown. English political theorists, in particular, began to re-think natural law justifications for slavery. Brooks resigned his seat anyway, only to be reelected by his constituents later in the year. The 1860 Republican Party convention in Chicago created a platform that clearly opposed the expansion of slavery in the West and the reopening of the slave trade. The framers of the Constitution never used the word slave. Slaves were referred to as persons held in service, perhaps referring to English common law precedents that questioned the legitimacy of property in man. Antislavery activists also pointed out that while the Congress could not pass a law limiting the slave trade by 1808, the framers had also recognized the flip side of the debate and had thus opened the door to legislating the slave trades end once the deadline arrived. Effects of the Fugitive Slave Law lithograph, 1850. The law itself fostered corruption and the enslavement of free Black northerners. They became an all-encompassing referendum on the American past, present,andfuture. The Missouri Compromise marked a major turning point in Americas sectional crisis because it exposed to the public just how divisive the slavery issue had grown. In a clear bid to extend slaverys influence throughout the country, the act created special federal commissioners to determine the fate of alleged fugitives without benefit of a jury trial or even court testimony. New pressures challenging the delicate balance again arose in the West. The Dred Scott decision seemed to settle the sectional crisis by making slavery fully national, but in reality it just exacerbated sectional tensions further. This map, published by the US Coast Guard, shows the percentage of enslaved people in the population in each county of the slave-holding states in 1860. The American Civil War had begun. Yet even with the booming cotton economy, many Americans, including Thomas Jefferson, believed that slavery was a temporary institution and would soon die out. The national breakdown over slavery occurred over a long timeline and across a broad geography. Legislators ultimately agreed that this hard ban violated the U.S. Constitution but reaffirmed Missouris ability to deny citizenship to African Americans. South Carolina declaration of secession, 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 contest on November 6 with just 40% of the popular vote and not a single southern vote in the Electoral College. Despite the furor, the Missouri crisis did not yet inspire hardened defenses of either slave or free labor. During Taylors brief time in office, the fruits of the Mexican War began to spoil. In abolitionist and especially Black American circles, Frmonts defeat was more than a disappointment. The print shows a number of incendiary personalities, like John C. Calhoun, whose increasingly sectional beliefs were pacified for a time by the Compromise. Bleeding Kansas was the first place to demonstrate that the sectional crisis could easily be, and in fact already was, exploding into a full-blown national crisis. It showed that most Southerners did not actually support the existence of slavery. Douglas proposed a bold plan in 1854 to cut off a large southern chunk of Nebraska and create it separately as the Kansas Territory. At Harper's Ferry, Brown took over a town with a force of 14 whites and 5 blacks. Both regions saw the fate of the growing Western territories as inexorably tied to their own way of life and whether free labor or slavery would continue to flourish. that the administration was abusing its powers. Though seemingly a disastrous decision for abolitionists, this controversial ruling actually increased the ranks of the abolitionist movement. Leonhardt (engraver), Map Showing the Distribution of the Slave Population of the Southern States of the United States Compiled from the Census of 1860, c. 1861. The Sectional Crisis Sectionalism in the Early Republic Slavery's history stretched back to antiquity. By 1820, preserving the balance of free states and slave states would be seen as an issue of national security. Why was the sectional crisis important quizlet? Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787; Charles C. Tansill, ed.. Conference committee report on the Missouri Compromise, March 1, 1820; Joint Committee of Conference on the Missouri Bill, 03/01/1820-03/06/1820; Record Group 128l; Records of Joint Committees of Congress, 1789-1989; National Archives. The episode highlights the violent clash between pro- and antislavery factions in the 1850s, a conflict that would eventually lead to the traumatic unraveling of American democracy and civil war. During the secession crisis that followed, fears nearly a century in the making at last devolved into bloody war. The debate filled newspapers, speeches, and Congressional records. Tensions rose with the Louisiana Purchase, but a truly sectional national debate remained mostly dormant. Revolutionaries in the United States declared, All men are created equal, in the 1770s. 2. As the Republicans gained power the Democrats continued to fracture along sectional lines, which only increased with the crisis over the Lecompton Constitution. While northerners appealed to their states rights to refuse to capture people escaping slavery, white southerners demanded a national commitment to slavery. 2. He felt uniting the colonies for independence was more important at that time, than causing the Continental Congress to debate the issue of slavery. William Still was an African-American abolitionist who frequently risked his life to help freedom-seekers escape slavery. The Compromise of 1850 tried to offer something to everyone, but in the end it only worsened the sectional crisis. Prior to the American Revolution, nearly everyone in the world accepted it as a natural part of life. 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