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Decade of Discord

Added Dec 05, 2013 •

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until the 1840s tensions between the North and South are relatively contained snow weather sectional controversies developed the country may be able to work out its differences but issues related to western expansion soon spiral Beyond Beijing 50s is a many ways of Cold War chowder  series of crises with sent the nation beginning ironically with a compromise compromise that proved quickly bankrupt who have the Giants of American political life you had Henry Clay of Kentucky a wig Daniel Webster of Massachusetts John C Calhoun great senator from South Carolina engage in debate over the future of the nation would that future include slavery cuz what is Dory bill money has pointed out that's a concern to the side that the land open to slavery remains constant and the slave population can use to grow at the weight of roughly 25% for a 10-year. Percentage pretty soon you're going to have slaves chasing runaway Masters so benevolent diffusion was the phrase used on one or two occasions event opening up more of the land game from War the American West to the slave plantation system these aging Senators play Calhoun and Webster voices of influence Decades of legislation dominate the first phase of the debate in fact play offers a compromise proposal which what's the slave trade buying and selling of African Americans in the District of Columbia that passed over stringent Fugitive Slave address the concerns of some Southerners organized new territories without the mention of slavery thus allowing the go to settle those regions to determine the future of slavery in that area admitted California as a free state adopted some of the debt that Texas had been building up ever since the Texas Revolution 1836 in any event the kind of 1850 was supposed to be an Omnibus Bill whatever something for everyone unfortunately it really didn't solve any problems after 6 months and impassioned debate please proposal is defeating and the younger group of leaders enters the scene William Seward of New York will poses the compromise Jefferson Davis of Mississippi representing the new caucus South and Stephen A Douglas of Illinois but he could pack a wallop a fabulous turnt like many of the Great politicians of that day was a leader of a political movement called the Young Democrats he took over the reins of power from Henry Clay in the the all the negotiation of the Compromise of 1850 removes one major obstacle to the compromise that and Douglas's decision to break up the Omnibus Bill into a series of separate measures that could be considered originally broke the deadlock by September the compromise legislation is enacted into law with the support of President Millard Fillmore the lights were problematical they satisfied nobody but they did allow the nation to go on for a while but crumbling crumbling the first thing to go was the two party system now both the Whigs and the Democrats were National parties but over the issue of slavery they be sectional parties and this happened first in the Wicks the Whigs disintegrated or making 51 - 52 - 53 they just simply see play exist as a party because they couldn't bring their northern and southern Wings together volume to maintain National Harmony by avoiding divisive issues but as western territories once considered unfit for cultivation change will open up questions of Slave versus free again take Center Stage even the route of the proposed Transcontinental Railroad becomes an until mid 19th century the direction of movement is continent is from the south to the north from Mexico North or else is coming down Hudson's Bay down the Pacific coast first with the gold rush in the Oregon Trail which was relatively small migrations compared to his coming later they begin to shift a little bit East-West with the railroads of hookah the West to the east in the East to the West as a whole set of resources which existed in the west to really enter the national economy can I die from Hawaii wraps because he wanted the Eastern Terminus of a Transcontinental Railroad to be Chicago instead of St Louis on you on what's needed to get some states organized in territories to his West propose the Kansas-Nebraska Daddy add a great controversy because the southern Senators is southern political Elite in the southern Planters Southern Democrats said wait a minute if Kansas is organized as a territory it's probably going to come in as a free state and then where are we going to be in course Stephen Douglas need it the Democratic votes in order to pass this bill and so he said to them what can I do to get this bill passed because he was thinking organized the terror get the Pioneers out there and get the railroad through there and they said abolish the Missouri Compromise line throw it open to popular sovereignty well it was a hard sell in the north but he was able to do it just barely mostly with Southern vote so you have the Kansas Nebraska bill pass in 1854 in Kansas as it attempts to determine whether it's going to be a slave state or Free Soil was fired by Senator David Atchinson of Missouri and he said in his Senate speech and here I'm paraphrasing we are going to organize cans for slavery and on the other side Senator Charles Sumner and Minnie Massachusetts man said we're going to fund where's to go in to Kansas an organized as a free state so the situation was polarized from the get-go real elections in the spring of 1855 ignitus storm of protests there are Border Ruffians who ran across from Missouri and my vote in Kansas elections and in the process they often do little looting and burning and you had exclusively pro slavery territorial legislature that was elected fraudulently so if you were President Franklin Pierce New Hampshire what would you do clearly thousands of votes were fraudulent there was no doubt about that will he decided that he would except the election of the fraudulent legislature rather than stir up any trouble trouble decided to hold their own election and they establish their own Capital which was that Lawrence Kansas so you had two governments and also had a number of men who were organizing themselves into malicious and it was a very very unstable situation burrito gorilla fighting in American history with this is largely night run it will produce the James gang younger gang Montrell play tourist will also be jayhawkers in Kansas will read back into Missouri named John Brown goes into the homes of some prominent pro slavery people takes the mat and summarily execute apologizing but saying that to your pro-slavery and we can have that in this is an you can only fight on this level exact sir size this kind of cruel to where it's really personal I'm in these are people who sometimes have been neighbors who know each other hate each other and I'm no find each other and it's the kind of thing which will devastate this kind of Countryside atrocities on both sides both sides will raise the Black Flag they take no prisoners gives The Bleeding Kansas States Army had to go there in an effort to try to keep the pace this is a sexual prices that is bacteria rating and this controversy came back to the halls of Congress and that is when you had the debates over what to between Charles Sumner attacking the southern senator from South Carolina and calling slavery a w**** and attack by a representative from South Carolina Preston Brooks so if you just can't imagine this kind of thing happening on ordinary daily basis it just really did seem like the country was falling apart Democratic Party leaders looking for a candidate who cannot be linked to Bleeding Kansas nominate James Buchanan a party regular who was England during the crisis the newly-formed Republican Party nominates John Fremont who gained Fame as the man who mapped the Oregon Trail Young & Vicious former Whigs like Abraham Lincoln like Sam and Chase like Joshua Giddings life Charles Sumner join the Republican Party because it took the economic program of the Whigs and wedded it to anti-slavery principles when it came to slavery in the territories and as it turned out Fremont did very well in a 3-way race which Buchanan one and the thing about the Republican party that most students of American he tend to forget is that it was the first party ever in American history to arise out of a purely sectional issue so it was a northern party identified with Northern leaders appealing to the northern electric with no base at all in the Play Party in the you can and takes office a financial Panic strikes the country followed by a depression that lasts several years and inmar a 1857 only two days after Buchanan's inauguration the Supreme Court of the United States hands down one of the most controversial decisions history its ruling in the case of Dred Scott versus Sandford Dred Scott and then a slave he had belong to an army physician who had taken Dred Scott in the course of his military service into territory that have been made Free Soil by the Northwest Ordinance and by the Missouri Compromise and on the basis of that when the surgeon died Dred Scott sued in his estate for the case took nine years to get Spring Court the court said first of all that Dred Scott was not a citizen dust could not Sue and I Stay write his suit for his freedom have to do just say that slaves are property and you can take property any place hilly country there for you can't make any place Free Soil was the application and this really forced an impasse upon who would abolish slavery or even Limited in any way in the circumstances that in 1858 for the senator from Illinois should occupy our attention because in that contest you had Abraham Lincoln pitted again what is old rival Stephen Douglas hello candidates for the Senate could reinforce the candidacy by appealing to the people who were selected this late I just like the worst so Lincoln and Douglas conducted a series of debates throughout the state of Illinois and really made Lincoln I'm not a hustle word necessary but a known name in a way that play The Hills probably could have Paris with Lincoln and Douglas each talking mainly about slavery it was just how how important they were and how well-attended they were and how eloquent both men were and if you can imagine the six foot for Lincoln standing next to the five foot to Douglas and really laying out the position of the Republican party and the Democratic party in this will a series of debates so everyone was reading about them everyone was was wondering what Stephen Douglas was going to say about the Dred Scott decision Abraham Lincoln was going to respond when Stephen Douglas charged Abraham Lincoln in the Republican party with being quote-unquote n***** loving and advocate racial amalgamation had so many important issues about the country being discussed in these elections in a very political circus-like atmosphere that was part and parcel of the electioneering of the 19th century lose ground the party forfeits its majority in the house resulting in stormy Congressional sessions during the next two years the battles in Congress however are soon overshadowed by a spectacular event just south of the capital John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Virginia John Brown had been dominant in allowing and making Kansas bleed he migrated East again collected the number of his followers he had visions of striking a blow against slavery and in October of 1859 swept into Harpers Ferry and attempted to capture this lower oversized 10 the locals managed to drive John Brown and a few maybe a half a dozen of his followers into a fire engine only Arsenal rentals in Harpers Ferry and there they essentially trap Brown and 13 hostages the rumors that what's the war department in Washington claim that as many as 2,000 runaway slaves have seized control of the Arsenal at Harpers Ferry the Secretary of what summons Colonel Robert E Lee and JEB Stuart who just happened to be in the area right briefly told him he could have a couple of companies of Marines switch for the only soul in the neighborhood I put those Marines are trained trained Harpers Ferry still in civilian clothes and Stuart who has volunteered to be hey commandeered another railroad engine and set up behind the Marines it is dark when they arrive we surveys the begins formulating a plan JEB Stuart Lee's Emissary will give the fugitives a chance to surrender if they refuse the Marines Israel green will take 12 men and charge the firehouse where Brown and his followers are barricaded  Don the next morning we watches his plans and JEB Stuart probably bring her was waving a white flag walked up to the door  and the door opened a crack in Stuart say Harvey of rifle recognize John Brown heading counter game in Kansas energy 56 note Brown immediately had predicted tempted to bargain using the hostages give me a miles Head Start and I will turn this tight short record with these instructions said no to every attempt at bargaining in tell me when you realize that brown was not going to surrender Stewart step back from the door and waved his cap with little signal to your rain and his Marines  the Marines charge the firehouse rain was armed only with a light dress sword in charge loading this weapon try to stab and then it with a certain friends ended up using the hills of the store to Pummel Brown into unconsciousness meanwhile his fellow marine and made short work of the Raiders so John Brown was through rating Harpers Ferry I think serve some credit for handling a hostage crisis he acted with decision and Leadership and not one hair of the sausages was hard Brown finally found something he could do well that is he can die  he challenged America now to consider what a just man up to do when confronted with an unjust institution that is slightly we went to his death unflinchingly and even inspired a man that they would later call The Stonewall Jackson to write in his diary Brown no other single event does more than the Harpers Ferry raid to convince white Southerners that they cannot live safely in the union it's what's the stage for a crucial presidential election the election of 1860 credibly divisive and controversial part of the politics leading up to the 1860 election sure that if they play the cards right they could win in 1860 but who to nominate and that is where Abraham Lincoln comes in because the 1859 he embarked on a speechmaking tour who's going to visit his son Robert at Harvard and he was asked to speak at Cooper Union in New York City and he knew it would have to be the speech of his life Abraham Lincoln if he came into Cooper Union this large Auditorium with thousands of very highfalutin sophisticated Northerners waiting to see what he could say for himself  when Lincoln Rose does feet have us greatly disappointed he was tall tall oh how tall and so angular and awkward that I had for an inch to the feeling of pity for so ungainly a man those who insist that Federal control of slavery in federal territories violates the Constitution points us prevention which they suppose it bus violates your purpose then plainly stated is that you will destroy the government unless you be enforce the Constitution as you please put people away Woodfire the whole man was transfigured I forgot his clothes his personal appearance and his individual peculiarities you will not abide direction of a Republican president. Suppose you say you will destroy the union and then you say I'm having destroyed it will be upon us  that is cool a Highwayman holds a pistol to my ear and mother Stand and Deliver or I shall kill you and then you will be on murderer presently forgetting myself I was on my feet like the rest yelling like a wild Indian cheering this wonderful man lets us have faith that right makes my hand in that Faith let us to the end there to view our duty as we under standings of the northern audiences and he came back to Illinois Univera good position mean wow the we're falling apart over a plank guaranteeing the sanctity of slavery Northern Democrats were not willing to support and southers led by William Lounge Yancey of Alabama walked out of the convention Los rendering the can incapable of nominating a candidate set the conventions and Matt as Northern Democrats and Southern than Northern Democrats beautifully nominating Stephen A Douglas fir present the southern Democrats nominated John C Breckinridge of Kentucky Republicans smelling victory they surely should have met in Chicago in May can you make Seward New York was Seward was better known and made enough enemies within the Republican party so that link of the one term congressman from the champion of Lincoln Douglas debates this folkloric Lincoln the railsplitter Honest Abe Lincoln was very very good having managers who handle his campaign with right right Talon skill Lincoln was in Springfield insisting I will make no you'll be bound by none  his managers were in Chicago promising for five people they can be sector and stay in any event Lincoln got the votes what about forged in the lead and took the nomination campaigning among the major candidates is intense the Republicans campaign on abroad promising that they would limit the expansion of slavery slavery would have to live where it was and never expand into the territories gained in the Mexican War Lincoln Campaign for higher tariffs on manufactured good for Homestead at giving public land in the west free people who go and live for five years subsidies for railroads to improve Transportation a broad base of economic expansion incredibly repellent to most Southerners and the issues were the same issues that have been dominating the national political culture for the Whole Decade of the 1850 this year was over slavery in the territories and what to do about it sorry let the people decide Douglas also hoping to Garner some support in the sun suggested that on the United States to think about capturing Cuba and potential stage of the slave plantation system sugar in the Caribbean candidate safely campaign he thought Cuba was a nice idea to but mainly on the sanctity of swinging property in the expansion property wherever property could expand so the outcome was predictable in a way because Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party won the election comfortably in the north one every New England State many of the northern states and had a comfortable majority in the Electoral College however the combined votes for the other three candidates outweighed the Republican vote but because they split Abraham Lincoln was president in November of 1860 message that will quickly lead to a prolonged and bloody war between two groups of Americans each year to More Than A Century of struggling to form a nation Peach now convinced that it shares and no common ground with the other The Unfinished nation is 52 part American history series for more information about this program and accompanying materials call +1-800-576-2988 or visit us online at w ww.org

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Decade of Discord

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