Civil War Dbq

There are numerous explanations for the “impending crisis” that led to the Civil War. Van Buren Administration’s unpopularity formed an aim at Presidency causing a nomination between Clay and Webster. They chose William Henry Harrison. John Tyler became a vice president nominee. Harrison won the election, but died a month later. Tyler was more extreme than Jackson, isolating him from his own party, and his proposal of the Texas annexation treaty was crushed. Whigs spurned Tyler, nominating Clay and Democrats put up James K. Polk. The Liberty Party, explicitly antislavery, which added another party to the presidential race drawing votes away.

Frederick Douglas and Lincoln opposed the Mexican War, seeing it as a creation of slavery. Disputes with House and Senate paralyzed the nation. California’s admission as a state without slavery created a dilemma resulting in the Compromise of 1850. Clay’s efforts at a compromise failed. William Seward and Stephen Douglas made a deal for the passage of five bills, temporarily hushing matters. Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, exposed fear that gripped African Americans up north. The election of 1852 found Democrats calling for the Compromise of 1850. The Whigs were divided so they gave Scott, but Pierce won and the Whig party was disbanded.

Distinctions between free labor and slave labor economies were vivid after 1840.

Technological advances and potency of soil on northern plains caused agricultural production in non-slave states, and the North saw a rise of a middle class. While slave-owners flourished, the number of slaves from Upper South to Deep South steered to a decline. Immigration caused a surge in nativism. The Irish tended to vote Democratic and the former Whigs and Free Soilers organized the American Party, better known as the “Know-Nothings.” Rise of the Republican Party could’ve been diverted by nativists’ impulses, but a new crisis carried a new impetus for political

reform.

A bill banning slavery in Nebraska failed so Stephen Douglas presented the Kansas-Nebraska Act, representing the popular sovereignty. But its violation of the Missouri Compromise made a split in the Democratic Party between northern and southern wing. Lincoln got out of his political retirement. Pierce Administration’s bias toward southern territorial expansion goals in Mexico and Caribbean made matters worse. Efforts to organize Kansas where slavery would be banned vs. those wishing to permit slavery caused the creation of two territorial governments. Supporters of slavery set up at Lecompton, while antislavery were at Topeka.

Anti-slavery forces supported the Republican Party so they put up Frémont. Pierce was unpopular so the Democrats put up Buchanan who won. Early in the Buchanan Administration, the Supreme Court decided Dred Scott v. Sandford, a slave whose owner moved him to free land to seek for his freedom. The Lecompton Constitution, backed by Buchanan, would’ve made Kansas a slave territory. Douglas, facing a re-election from Lincoln, enunciated the Freeport Doctrine. Buchanan’s unpopularity left the Democrats in a mess. Douglas was liked up north, but not the south since he refused to openly defend slavery. So the parties split into northern and southern wings: Douglas with the north while Breckinridge the south. Lincoln won by sweeping the free states.

These demonstrations proved that the political parties were suffering a crisis. Slavery became a national debate, signifying the instability and weaknesses within the two main political parties; the Democrats and the Whigs. Slavery split the Democratic Party, dividing the party into northern and southern sections. Also, within the Democratic Party, the upsurge of new political parties such as the Know-Nothings & Republican Parties led to the end of the Whig Party. Overall, the political system was in jeopardy, meaning that the government was incapable to solve the issue of slavery, constitutional clashes, economic differentiations, and diverse political blunders.