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Free- Soil Party is organised
The Free soil party, a political party organized in 1848 on a platform opposing the extension of slavery, was rooted in the growing conflict between pro-slavery and antislavery forces in the United States. The conflict was intensified by the acquisition of new territories from Mexico and the ensuing argument whether or not slavery would be permitted into those territories. The party evolved from antislavery and otherwise discontented elements in the Democratic and Whig parties. -
California Gold Rush begin
As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000 (compared with the pre-1848 figure of less than 1,000). A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852. -
Congress passes the Kansas- Nebraska Act and the Republican Party is founded
After heated debates, Congress narrowly passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Democrats divided along sectional lines as a result of the bill, and the Whig party, in decline in the early 1850s, found its political power slipping further. Most important, the Kansas-Nebraska Act gave rise to the Republican Party, a new political party that attracted northern Whigs, Democrats who shunned the Kansas-Nebraska Act, members of the Free-Soil Party, and assorted abolitionists. -
A pro-slavery mob sacks Lawrence, Kansas;John Brown stages the Pottawatomie Massacre in retaliation
-Lawrence was a well-known antislavery town. As a result, a proslavery grand jury stated that the newspapers and the Free State Hotel were nuisances and could be "removed."
-Brown sought to "strike terror in the hearts of the pro-slavery people." Brown and a small group of men violently murdered five men living on Pottawatomie Creek. While some justified Brown's actions, others found the brutality appalling, and the murders hurt the free-state cause as much as they helped. -
U.S Supreme Court issues the Dred Scott decision; Lecompton Constitution declared that slavery will be allowed in Kansas
-In the North, the Dred Scott decision fueled antislavery factions and in particular strengthened the Republican Party. In the South, it encouraged proslavery, secessionist elements to make bolder demands in Congress.
- The Lecompton Constitution by Pro-slavery advocates in Lecompton, Kansas in 1857 and the subsequent response to that document by President James Buchanan in a message to Congress. -
Abraham Lincoln debates Stephen A. Douglas during the 1858 Illinois Senate race
What is often overlooked is that the debates were part of a larger campaign, that they were designed to achieve certain immediate political objectives, and that they reflected the characteristics of mid-nineteenth-century political rhetoric. Douglas, a member of Congress since 1843 and a nationally prominent spokesman for the Democratic party, was seeking reelection to a third term in the U.S. Senate, and Lincoln was running for Douglas’s Senate seat as a Republican -
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery -
South Carolina and six other southern sates secede from the Union; Crittenden Compromise is proposed but fails
-In December 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden introduced legislation aimed at resolving the looming secession crisis in the Deep South.
-The compromise would have guaranteed the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states by reestablishing the free-slave demarcation line drawn by the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Its rejection by many Northern Republicans, including President-elect Abraham Lincoln, led to its ultimate failure. -
Fort Sumter falls to Confederate forces, triggers Civil War
South Carolina militia batteries fired upon the vessel as it neared Charleston Harbor, forcing it to turn back to sea. Major Anderson refused repeated calls to abandon Fort Sumter, and by March 1861 there were over 3,000 militia troops besieging his garrison. A number of other U.S. military facilities in the Deep South had already been seized, and Fort Sumter was viewed by many as one of the South’s few remaining hurdles to overcome before achieving sovereignty. -
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated president
Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the United States. In his inauguration speech Lincoln extended an olive branch to the South, but also made it clear that he intended to enforce federal laws in the states that seceded.Since Lincoln’s election, seven states had left the Union.As a result, he had some flexibility in trying to keep the states of the upper South–North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware–in the Union.
