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The Sack of Lawrence
On May 21, 1856, 800 proslavery menmarched into Lawrence, Kansas, to arrest the leaders of the antislavery government. The group burned the local hotel, raided houses, destroyed two antislavery printing presses, and killed a man. One member of the posse declared: "Gentlemen, this is the happiest day of my life. I am determined to make the fanatics bow before me in the dust and kiss the territorial laws. I have done it, by God." -
Sumner Takes a Beating
In effect of Senator Charles Sumner's "Crmie Against Kansas" speech. Preston Brooks beat Sumner with a cane. Sumner was crippled in a wheel chair for 3 years. -
Pottawatomie Massacre
Calling themselves the Army of the North John Brown and seven others entered the town of Pottawatomie Creek. They were armed with rifles, knives, and broadswords. As they made their way through the town Brown and his band stormed the houses of his enemies. One by one, Brown's group dragged out helpless victims killede them. John Brown's followers insisted that he did no killing at the Pottawatomie Massacre. They said that he had decide which men would live and which would die. -
Battle of Black Jack
John Brown and twenty-five of his men, attacked Henery Clay Pate and his pro-slavery men at dawn along the Santa Fe Trail. In the end. Pate surrendered, and Brown took Pate as prisioner. -
James Buchanan Jr. as president
James Buchanan the fifteenth, was a democrat who became president in 1856 and served as president until 1871. He had been the only president who never married. James was born into a well-to-do family on April 23, 1791. James had been a graduate of Dickinson College and was a gifted debater and in learning the law. James Buchanan died on June 1, 1868. -
Dred Scott vs. Sanford
Delivered by Chief Justice Roger Taney, the opinion declared that all african americans, slaves as well as free, were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal courts. This decision also said that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that Congress did not have the authority to expel slavery in the territories. The Dred Scott case was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. -
Utah War
The Utah War was a costly and unnecessary confrontation between the Mormon people in the Utah Territory and the government/army of the United States. It was caused by misunderstandings that transformed a simple decision to give Utah Territory a new governor into a year of errors with horrific potential. Had there been communications between continents at the time, what is referred to "Buchanan's Blunder" would certainly not have occured. -
Financial Panic of 1857
The panic was caused by a decrease in international ecomomy and the over expansion of the Untied States' domestic economy. The New York branch of Ohio Life Insurence and Trust Company was the first bank to triger the panic. Businesses began to fail and many people were laied off. Lump sums of money were taken out of banks before specie payments were suspended. The panic lasted for two years but the effects lasted for much longer.
