Scott pursed his freedom, with the case eventually reaching the United States Supreme Court. It became a political question on whether or not slavery should be legal. Abolitionists and those who supported the status-quo awaited the outcome. The Supreme Court voted 7-2 against Scott s quest for freedom. Chief Justice Roger Taney summed it up by saying that no black man could ever become a citizen of the United States, whether or not he was free or a slave. Since Scott was black, he was not a citizen, and since not a citizen, he could not legally sue the courts. Abolitionists were outraged, while Southerners rejoiced believing that Justice Taney had stood up for the South. It was another polarizing event that further divided the North and the South. the election of abraham lincoln Abraham Lincoln was a tall, gangly lawyer from the new state of Illinois. Considered a Westerner by the rest of America, it was very unlikely that this quiet and unassuming man would ever become President... much less one the greatest Presidents in American history. But he did, and our lives became forever affected by his leadership and his decisions. Politics in the 1860 s were quite a bit different than they are today. For one thing, there was more than two major political parties, making winning a majority in the Electoral College much more difficult. Each party had a different opinion on what to do regarding the controversy over slavery. Lincoln believed in abolition, but his main concern was that the Union of all states remain intact. Ironically, the southern states said that if he got elected President, they would leave the Union. The country was on the very edge of destruction, and it didn t look like there was any possibility to save it. Lincoln and one of his opponents, Stephen Douglas, also from Illinois, had a series of famous debates. Douglas argued in favor of compromise... that states with slavery should be allowed to keep their slaves, but that slavery should not be allowed in the Territories. That split the Democratic Party into the Southern Democrats and the Northern Democrats. Running for the Southern Democrats was John Breckinridge, a pro-slavery candidate that would carry all the southern states. Take a look at the electoral college map of the election of 1860 below. 5
Activity 1: make a time line below showing the steps that led to war. use lines to give yourselves more room if you need it. 1776 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 6
the election of 1860 compared to the election of 2008 7
QUESTIONS FOR COMPARE AND CONTRAST 1) What were the 10 biggest states in 1860, in order? 2) what were the 10 biggest states ini 2008, in order? 3) what similarities do you see in the two maps? what do the similarities tell you? 4) What about the differences? Same thing. 8
THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN The election of 1860 might have been the most important election in our country s history. Many thought that it would decide the fate of the Union. It did. Four men ran for President. Stephen Douglas was seen as a moderate--a middle of the road kind of guy--and said that each state should decide what they want to do about slaves. The Democratic Party split when the Northerners and Southerners could not agree on the slavery issue. Southern Democrats elected John Breckinridge of Kentucky. He supported the status-quo, meaning don t change anything. He won every state in the Deep South. A splinter group calling themselves the Constitutional Unionists elected John Bell of Tennessee to be their candidate for President. The Republicans, seeing all the confusion in the splintering Democratic Party, sensed that they could win a victory. Douglas, though he won 30% of the popular vote, only won Missouri and half of New Jersey. Lincoln received 39% of the popular votes, but more than enough electoral votes to win with 180 in total. Even if the Democrats would have not fragmented, Lincoln would still have one. Many people viewed southern threats to secede as just that... threats. They didn t think the southern states would seriously considered seceding. They were shocked when South Carolina seceded even before Lincoln was sworn in as President. Soon after that, six more states from the Deep south seceded and formed a new country called the Confederate States of America. The south did not want any changes to their lives. The rich plantation owners convinced the small land owners of the south to agree with them. They said that if Lincoln won and they remained under American control, the north would destroy the southern power pass, abolish slavery, and elect landless poor whites and blacks to positions of power. 9
When Abraham Lincoln, a tall and gangly lawyer from the relatively new state of Illinois, became President, the country was never as fragmented in its history. Lincoln s main concern was to keep the Union intact. Since all the Southern States had broken away, the only possibility seemed to be the use of the military. Both sides enthusiastically grabbed their rifles, put on blue uniforms in the north and gray uniforms in the south. By February, Jefferson Davis was elected President of the Confederacy. South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were out of the Union. Now, it remained to be seen whether the border states would follow. It was important to both sides to convince those border states to join them. While North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas all joined the Confederacy, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and the western counties of Virigina, now called West Virginia (originally called Kanahwa), decided to remain neutral. In other words, they proclaimed that they didn t want to fight for either side, and that they just wanted to stay out of it. It was very important for Lincoln and the Federalists that Maryland didn t join the Confederates. Had this happened, the entire American capital of Washington DC would have been surrounded by the Confederacy. Meanwhile, the Confederacy established it s capital in Richmond, Virginia. The first shots Hostilities in the American Civil War (still called the War Between the States in the South) officially began with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was an American fort in the bay just outside of Charlestown, South Carolina. Lincoln wanted to send supplies to the troops guarding the fort, as they were running out of food and had very little ammunition. As union ships approached the fort, Southern forces began firing on the ships, forcing them to turn away. The Captain of the fort surrendered to the South Carolina after a 34 hour bombardment, seeing that the situation was hopeless. The South had won the first battle of the war. It was April, 1861. Fort Sumter, South Carolina, as it appears today. Lincoln moved quickly. He sent troops into the Border States to keep those states from seceding as well. When pro-confederate riots broke out in Baltimore, Maryland, Lincoln arrested state officials who were sympathetic to the south, held them without trial, and declared Martial Law, which meant he more or less assumed dictatorial powers. He sent pleas to every state in the North asking for a each state to sign up their own militias. They did. As soon as he did that, four more southern States, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Arkansas joined the Confederacy, raising the number of states that seceded to 11, where it would remain throughout the war. Lincoln had said during his inaugural address that he had no intentions of invading the south or banning slavery in southern states that had it. That all changed when shots were fired. The first flag of the Confederacy along with the flag of the United States in 1861. Lincoln refused to have 11 stars taken off, saying that those states left illegally, and that he was going to make them come back. 10