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The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise, proposed by Henry Clay in 1820, ended the argument regarding Missouri's statehood. It began by admitting Missouri as a slave state. Maine was also admitted to keep the balance between slave and free states. Lastly, Congress drew an imaginary line across the Louisiana Purchase at latitude 36°30ʹ. South of this line, slavery was permitted, and above the line, it was banned, except in Missouri. This was the first major compromise that led to civil war. -
The Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay came up with another compromise, this time about the dispute over Califonia's statehood. Fortunately, he got support for his plan from a fellow senator, Daniel Webster. The plan began by admitting California as a free state. To balance that, it opened the New Mexico and Utah territories up to slavery. In addition, slave trade was banned in the nation's capital. However, slaveowners in D.C. could keep their slaves. The last provision was a stronger fugitive slave act. The South couldnt -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
In 1854, Stephen Douglas proposed a very controversial bill in which a railroad would be built to California. He thought it might be easier if the Great Plains were opened up to settlers as the Nebraska Territory. The bill, passed as the Kansas-Nebraska Act later that year, was very different than the original. It created the Nebraska and Kansas Territories and allowed settlers to permit slavery or not. Northerners were haunted that this would give slavery a chance to spread across the plains. -
Derd Scott Case
Dred Scott, a Missouri slave, traveled to Wisconsin with his master and came back thinking that his stay in a free state had made him a free man. He sued for his liberty in court. The court decided that Scott hadn't the right to sue in Federal court because he was a slave. Cheif Justice Taney also decided that his stay in a free state hadn't made him a free man since the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The South approved of this decision, but the North was enraged ad called it wicked. -
The Election of 1860
Most republicans supported Abraham Lincoln, but everyone else was split between other nominees. That allowed Lincoln to cruise to presidency. Even though he got only 40% of the votes, he still won because his opposition was split in three ways. For the South, a republican leader meant the loss of the ability to keep their culture, liberty, and property unaltered. In order to keep their slaves and way of life, seven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
Lincoln offered the betraying states to come back to the Union peacefully, but the they were quite content with their own government. The traitor states would not rejoin because their interests would not be permitted. On April 12, 1861, South Carolina Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in the Charleston harbor. After almost one and a half days of heavy shelling, the fort had surrendered. No one had died in that shelling, but the war to come would be full of blood.
