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CIVIL WAR, THE BEGINNING

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The Compromise of 1850. By 1850 the country had acquired the vast lands from Texas to California. Texas received ten million dollars to pay debts to Mexico and in exchange gave up rights to contested land to the west. California would be admitted to the Union as a free state. In order to placate Southern members of Congress New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada would have local authority about slavery when they applied for statehood. Further, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. That Act required citizens to assist with the apprehension of runaway slaves. It set up commissions to adjudicate cases, rewarding commissioners $5.00 for a ruling in favor of the slave, $10.00 for a ruling in favor of the slave hunters. The Act forbade the slave trade in the District of Washington, but not slavery. The law was a disaster for the country, making criminals out of abolitionists', terrifying African American citizens (an estimated 20,000 citizens left the U.S. for Canada as a result of the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Act). The Act did inspire heightened activity by the Underground Railroad, intensifying the growing rift between the slave owning South and Abolitionists'. From the perspective of a hundred and fifty years, a resolution passed by the South Carolina legislature in 1850, declaring that they would not pass a bill of secession without the company of other slave holding states seems both curious and prophetic.

In 1852 Harriett Beecher Stowe published her seminal work and blockbuster best seller "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This book brought the plight of slaves to millions of citizens, north and south, increasing the public awareness of the evil of the institution and increasing tension for the Southern slaveholders.

By 1856 the Whig party had run it's course, They favored a strong National Government but could not bring their sectarian factions together on the issue of slavery, something the abolitionists' of the nation were demanding be addressed.

The uneasy balance in Congress was maintained by the careful balance of new free and slave states until the Kansas/Nebraska Act. In 1854 Senator Stephan A. Douglas proposed the Kansas/Nebraska Act. It was designed to placate Southern slave holders who were very concerned about the fast population growth in the west by family farmers, non-slave owning family farmers. The idea was that the local populations would determine the status of slavery in the individual territory. The intent was to maintain peace with the slave holding interests of the country. The population was growing very fast west of the Missouri. The new settlers were primarily non-slave owning immigrants from Europe and Northern farmers. Both pro and anti-slavery interests flocked to Kansas, they set up competing governments, they both engages in overt acts of violent terrorism, many people died. John Brown, the notorious abolitionists gained fame in Kansas.

In 1854 the Republican Party was established with the remains of the Whigs, Know Nothings, the Free Soil Party, and the American Party. With the common feeling that the Kansas/Nebraska Act was designed to expand slavery into the west and constrict the availability of land for settlers, conditions were rife for the new party. With their emphasis on abolition and support of workingmen they were not well received in the slaveholding South. The Republicans offered John C. Fremont for the Presidency in 1856. His campaign slogan was, "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men." The slogan well emphasizes their focus on family farmers, workers, and abolition.

In 1857 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the most egregious decision the Supreme Court ever issued. Dred Scott, a slave born in Virginia, was taken by his master, a physician, into the Northwest territories of Wisconsin and Minnesota, where he resided for more than 2 years. Scott sued for freedom and spent ten years in court before the 1857 SCOTUS ruling. Taney, himself from a slave owning family, and a distinctly slave society friendly court, ruled that as a black man Scott was not a citizen, could not bring suit in court, and further, no black could be a citizen, and the slavery provisions of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 were unconstitutional restrictions on slavery. Both the Doctor and his wife were deceased by the time the ruling was issued. Ironically title to Scott was delivered to their children, who delivered Scott his freedom. The case was well covered by the press at the time and served to further inflame anti-slavery sentiment in the country.

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln ran as the Republican candidate for Senate from Illinois. His opponent was the dapper and brilliant incumbent Democrat, Stephen A. Douglas. These seven debates were well covered by the press, Lincoln's feeling that the nation could not survive as a country with both working freemen and slaves performing similar work became well known across the country. Douglas won the Senate seat, but the debates placed a national prominence on Lincoln, who won the rematch with Douglas for the Presidency in 1860.

John Brown, the passionate abolitionist who had gained fame for his radical terrorist activities in "Bloody Kansas" arrived at Harpers Ferry Virginia on October 16, 1859. His plan was to capture the arsenal, distribute the weapons to the slaves of Virginia, who would begin a slave rebellion which was to spread across the South, ending slavery. He and the survivors of his raiding party were captured, most were executed after trial. The state of Virginia handled the trial and execution with restraint and decorum. The incident was very unsettling throughout the South, and only served to heighten Southern fears of violent abolitionist or slave activity. Several violent slave revolts had rocked the South since the 17th Century. The fear of a slave uprising was a real threat that hung over a feudal, slave based society.

The growing activity of the Underground Railroad and the election of Abraham Lincoln, the abolitionist, was viewed by Southern planters as a threat to the foundations of their society, economy and life style.

President Lincoln was an abolitionist, however, he stated plainly and many times, before and after hostilities had broken out, that he would completely abdicate his abolitionist feelings to the higher duty of preserving the Union.

On November 5th, 1860 Governor Gist of South Carolina addressed the special session of the legislature, called primarily to select electors to confirm the election thusly;

""in view of the threatening aspect of affairs, and the strong probability of the election to the presidency of a sectional candidate by a party committed to the support of measures which, if carried out, will inevitably destroy our equality in the Union, and ultimately reduce the Southern States to mere provinces of consolidated despotism, to be governed by a fixed majority of Congress, hostile to our institutions, and fatally bent upon our ruin, I would respectfully suggest that the Legislature remain in session and take such actions as will prepare the state for any emergency that may arise"..I would earnestly recommend that in the event of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, a convention of people of this State be immediately called to consider and determine the "mode and measure of redress."

In the "Declaration of Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of South Carolina from the Federal Union" (December 24, 1860 ) C.G. Memminger wrote;

""the Constitution provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one state under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulations therein, be discharged from such service or labor but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor is due. An increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these states the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution".thus the Constitutional compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding states, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligations."

Between the election of 1860 and Lincoln's inaugural in March seven slave holding states seceded, eight slave holding states had yet to take action.

On April 12, 1861 forces of the Rebels opened fire on Fort Sumpter, a federal coastal fortification in Charleston harbor.

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Our government structure was built on the model of the Iroquois Nation. They also based public decisions on the effect to the 7th generation. Studied at Writers Workshop, University of Iowa. Democrat, liberal, progressive, happy, introverted, (more...)
 
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