Conflict, Disaggregation, Civil War
The 1830s saw two new parties develop–the Democrats and the Whigs. But neither could provide an answer to the problem of slavery, which Frederick Douglass addresses in the first reading in this unit. As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress adopted a fugitive slave law that penalized state officials who interfered with the return of runaway slaves and paid judges more for certifying the return of a slave than for setting the person free. Many northerners refused to comply with this law and helped slaves escape through the “Underground Railway.” Southerners criticized the federal government for not doing more to return escaped slaves.
In the north, abolitionist demands led the Whig Party to splinter in 1854, paving the way for a new Republican Party devoted to abolishing slavery. The Democratic Party offered the alternative of “popular sovereignty,” which meant allowing each state or territory to decide whether slavery would be permitted within its boundaries. With no legislative solution in sight, the Supreme Court attempted to permanently deny blacks citizenship when it decided Scott v. Sanford in 1857. Chief Justice Taney’s opinion was based on a one-sided view of history, and Associate Justice Benjamin Curtis demonstrated the fallacies of his reasoning.
The Dred Scott decision made slavery the main issue in the 1860 presidential election. Illinois Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln argued in his Cooper Union Address that Dred Scott needed to be reversed since it was inconsistent with the nation’s founding principles. This speech convinced abolitionists that he deserved their support and set Lincoln on the path to the Republican nomination for president. The Democratic Party splintered when Southern delegates twice walked out of the nominating convention after it failed to endorse stronger protections for slavery. The 1860 presidential election featured a four-way contest between Lincoln, two Democrats (Stephen Douglas from the north and John Breckenridge from the south) and John Bell from a third party that urged the adoption of a constitutional amendment protecting slavery. The election of Abraham Lincoln–who received only 40% of the popular vote–triggered secession conventions in numerous states.
The crisis grew worse in the four months between Lincoln’s election and inauguration. Democratic President James Buchanan’s last State of the Union Address in December 1860 suggested that if the Union did not enforce laws requiring the return of escaped slaves, the southern states would have no other choice than to secede. Soon after his address, South Carolina passed the first secession resolution in US history. Lincoln’s Inaugural Address denied the possibility of secession and suggested the Union could continue to exist with slavery. The Civil War broke out five weeks after he took office.
Soon after conflict began—and more states seceded–Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in Maryland. He did not wait until Congress had approved this measure, and Chief Justice Taney held in ex parte Merryman that this violated the Constitution. Lincoln ignored Taney’s decision, and he eventually obtained the consent of Congress for the suspension in August 1861. As the war continued, Lincoln suspended more constitutional rights in pursuit of victory, including jailing critics of his policies, shutting down newspapers, and using military commissions to try northern civilians suspected of disloyalty. He justified these policies in a July 1863 letter to Erastus Corning and others, likening American citizens to a sick patient unable to decide upon the best course of treatment. He claimed that it was his duty to preserve the Union even if it meant temporarily abrogating constitutional rights. Lincoln professed his willingness to transfer power to a successor if he lost the 1864 presidential election, but made a fair election impossible because he continued to detain many of his critics until after his reelection was assured. The unit ends with Lincoln’s attempt at reconciliation in his Second Inaugural Address.
