Sectional disagreements moved settlers into the new territories. Settlers remained Northerners or Southerners.

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1 Unit 6 Notes Sectional disagreements moved settlers into the new territories. Settlers remained Northerners or Southerners. The opening of Oregon and the admission of California to the Union convinced many Americans that a transcontinental railroad was needed to connect the West Coast to the rest of the country. A transcontinental railroad would make travel to the West Coast quicker and it would increase the growth of territories on its route. Southerners wanted a southern route for the railroad, but the route would have to go through northern Mexico for which we paid them $10 million for the territory known as the Gadsden Purchase. Stephen A. Douglas wanted a northern route that began in Chicago. He wanted to open the northern Great Plains to settlement. Congress would need to organize the territory west of Missouri and Iowa. (They would call it Nebraska) To gain Southern support, he said that any states organized in the new Nebraska territory would exercise popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery. Southern leaders wanted the Missouri Compromise repealed, however. Douglas proposed to undo the Missouri Compromise and allow slavery in the region. This Kansas - Nebraska Act divided the region into two territories Kansas on the south and Nebraska on the north. Northerners were outraged by the bill that broke the Missouri Compromise promise to limit the spread of slavery. Congress passes the act anyway in May In 1856 Kansas became the scene of a territorial civil war between pro-slavery and antislavery settlers. It became known as bleeding Kansas because of the violence. The Kansas-Nebraska Act destroyed the Whig Party. Former Whigs, Free-Soil Party members, and some antislavery Democrats formed new political parties with many names. The most popular name was the Republican Party. Anger against the Northern Democrats helped the American Party (Know-Nothings) make great gains. The Northern Know-Nothings joined the Republic Party. Dred Scott an enslaved man whose Missouri slaveholder had taken him to live in free territory before returning to Missouri. Scott argued that the time he spent in free territory meant he was free. The case Dred Scott v. Sanford went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott because, in the opinion of the court, the founders of the nation had not intended Africans to be citizens. The court went on to say that the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery was unconstitutional.

2 Lincoln - Douglas Debates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas held a series of debates while running for the Illinois Senate. Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the western territories and Douglas favored popular sovereignty. Douglas was elected Senator. John Brown s Raid John Brown, a fervent abolitionist, planned to seize the federal arsenal at Harper s Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to seize the weapons then free and arm the enslaved people in the area and begin an insurrection, or rebellion, against the slaveholders. Brown and his followers seized the arsenal but were captured by U.S. Marines, under the command of Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried, convicted and hanged. This raid on Harpers Ferry was a turning point for the South. Southerners feared an African uprising and were angered that Northerners would arm them and encourage them to rebel. Ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford stated that slaves could not sue in the courts because they were not citizens, and the prohibition of slavery established by the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The Election of 1860 The Democrats could not decide on a single candidate for the election of 1860, one candidate, Stephen Douglas, supported popular sovereignty, another, John Breckenridge, supported the Dred Scott decision. The Republican candidate was Abraham Lincoln, who campaigned against slavery in the western territories. Lincoln won the election. The South saw his election as a victory for the abolitionists. South Carolina was the first state to secede. By February 1861, six more states in the lower south voted to secede. Seceding states met, and on February 8, 1861, declared themselves to be the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy. The president of the Confederacy was Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. The southern states seized federal property in their states. In his inaugural speech, Lincoln told seceding states that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed, but he said, the Union of these States is perpetual. He also said that the Union would hold onto the federal property in the seceding states. Lincoln announced plans to resupply Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Jefferson Davis ordered an attack on the fort, and after hours of fighting, the Union commander surrendered. This was the beginning of the Civil War.

3 The upper south seceded, beginning with Virginia after Lincoln asked for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the Union army. The capital of the Confederacy immediately was changed to Richmond, Virginia. General Winfield Scott asked Robert E. Lee to command the Union s troops. He was one of the best senior officers in the United States Army, but he was from Virginia, so when his state voted to secede, he chose to support the Confederacy. Seven of the eight military colleges were in the South, so the South had a large number of trained army officers. The North had ¾ of the U.S. Navy s officers and a strong naval tradition all with most to the navy s warships and all but one shipyard under Union control. The North s industries gave it an economic advantage over the South. Almost all of the country s firearms and gunpowder were produced in the North. The South was able to produce large amounts of food, but they had only one railroad line for moving food and troops, and that could easily be disrupted. The North controlled the national treasury and was able to continue collecting money from tariffs. The banks loaned the federal government money by buying government bonds. In February of 1862, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act; this created a national currency and allowed the government to issue green-colored paper money known as greenbacks. The South s finances were not in good shape and banks could not buy bonds. To raise money, the South taxed its citizens. They were forced to print their own money which caused rapid inflation. Advantages North Population: -22million v. 5 million Manufacturing Railroads Political Leaders Border States South Military Leaders Defensive War Farming Belief in their cause Possible support of England and France

4 Conscription - the drafting of people for military service. Writs of habeas corpus - a person s right not to be imprisoned unless charged with a crime and given a trial. This is a violation of constitutional powers. The Civil War was the first modern war, with new military technology and tactics. New coneshaped bullets used in the Civil War were more accurate and could be loaded and fired faster than previous mini balls. The North had repeating rifles which could be fired many more times than the old style rifles in the South and both sides had exploding shells. This was also the first time there were metal hulled ships, which made all wooden ships obsolete. The first two were the Monitor from the North and the Merrimack from the South. Instead of standing in line, troops defended positions by using trenches and barricades to protect themselves. The use of a blockade of Confederate ports and sending gunboats down the Mississippi to divide the Confederacy was a strategy known as the Anaconda Plan. Thomas J. Jackson got his nickname - Stonewall at the First Battle of Bull Run. Blockade runners - small, fast vessels, used by the South to smuggle goods past the blockade. The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle of the war. This was an important victory for the Union because the South lost its best chance to gain international recognition and support. This victory convinced Lincoln that it was time to end slavery in the South. In September of 1862, Abraham Lincoln announced that he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This decree would free all enslaved persons in states still in rebellion after January 1, The Emancipation Proclamation changed the Civil War from a conflict over preserving the Union to a war to free the slaves. The first African American regiment officially organized in the North was the 54th Massachusetts. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the United States, started the nation s first training program for nurses. The Civil War was a turning point for the nursing profession in the United States. Clara Barton and many other women in both the North and South nursed soldiers on the battlefield. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the war. Four months after this battle, President Lincoln came to the battle field to dedicate part of it as a military cemetery. His Gettysburg Address became one of the best-known speeches in American history. The goal of this speech was to preserve the union.

5 Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery in the United States. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, Five days later, on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln at Ford s Theater.