"Bleeding Kansas"

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in a reaction and opposition to the concept of "popular sovereignty" pushed into law by Douglas in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. "Popular sovereignty" meant that each new territory should make its own decision, by popular vote, whether to allow slavery. The new Republican Party took its name from Jefferson's Republican Party because, like Jefferson, the new Republican Party opposed slavery in the new territories. The Republican Party brought in Whigs and members of the small "Free Soil Party," which had been based on the Wilmot Proviso (which passed the House but not the Senate). The Wilmot Proviso stated that none of the territory acquired from Mexico should be opened to slavery.

Almost immediately after enactment of popular sovereignty in the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), it was put to the test in 1855 in Kansas. Civil war in Kansas broke out between free and slave forces. In early 1856, pro-slavery forces burned down the "Free State Hotel" and destroyed the offices and presses of antislavery newspapers. A man was killed.

In retaliation, a fanatical white man named John Brown took four of his sons and two others and went to Pottawatomie in Kansas, and executed five (5) pro-slavery colonists. This event became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. Unlike most abolitionists, Brown supported violent action against slavery. As time went on, more and more blood was shed in Kansas. Some prominent anti-slavery activists and intellectuals in the northeast, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, even praised John Brown.

In the "Crime against Kansas" speech, an abolitionist Senator from Massachusetts Charles Sumner described the slave oligarchy and insulted and humiliated the absent and elderly Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. In retaliation, Butler's nephew, Preston Butler, who was a congressman, went into Sumner's chambers and beat him senseless with a cane. It took Sumner many years to recover. Preston Butler immediately resigned but became such a hero to the South that he was unanimously reelected by his district.

This entire conflict in Kansas over slavery in the 1850s was called "Bleeding Kansas" because of the violence that occurred on both sides.

The never-ratified Lecompton Constitution of Kansas was an unsuccessful attempt to stop the violence in Kansas. This pro-slavery document was designed as a response to the positions of the abolitionists. The Lecompton Constitution never took effect as it was first rejected by Congress and then defeated by a referendum (vote) in the state of Kansas.

By the end of his Administration, Pierce could claim "a peaceful condition of things in Kansas." But the Democrats refused to renominate him for a campaign for a second term, turning to the less controversial James Buchanan. Pierce returned to New Hampshire, leaving his successor to face the rising fury of the sectional whirlwind. Pierce died in 1869.

Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln: Irreconcilably Different

Real leaders were arising outside of the presidency: Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Douglas was the Jacksonian Democrat, while Lincoln was initially the anti-Jackson Whig. Everything between President Jackson (1836) and the Civil War (1861) can be understood through the eyes of Douglas and Lincoln. Both were from Illinois, a state that was ideologically in the middle between the North and the South.

Illinois was a key state because it was just across the Mississippi river from Missouri, which was a slave state under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. There was a good deal of violence there leading up to the Civil War.

Elijah Lovejoy was a pastor in St. Louis, and in 1837 he started a newspaper called the St. Louis Observer, which published articles against slavery. The opposition to his paper was so great that he had to move to Alton, Illinois. There, he kept publishing articles against slavery.

But the opposition didn't cease, and Lovejoy's printing press was thrown into the river three times. The Ohio Anti-Slavery Society gave him a new printing press, and local slave owners decided to destroy it. A mob came over from St. Louis and Lovejoy was killed trying to protect his press. This violence shocked the North.

From this history arose the political rivalry of Lincoln and Douglas, one of the greatest rivalries in all of American history. Lincoln and Douglas were opposites in every possible way. Lincoln was very tall, while Douglas was very short. Lincoln had lots of dark hair,^[9] while Douglas's hair was thinning. Lincoln was initially a Whig, Douglas was a Democrat. Lincoln was a wealthy attorney for the powerful Railroads. Douglas was a government attorney for the State. Both were extremely ambitious, constantly running for public office. Both were smarter than most in politics, and both were superb public speakers (unlike, for example, Jefferson, who avoided public speaking). Truth be told, Douglas was an even better public speaker than Lincoln; Douglas was more compelling in style, and funnier.

Originally inspired by President Andrew Jackson, Douglas quickly became leader of the Illinois Democratic Party. Douglas was elected at the young age of 22 to be the state's top attorney. By age 28 he became an Illinois Supreme Court Justice; by age 29 he was elected to the House of Representatives in Congress. At age 34 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and won every reelection until he died in office. In the U.S. Senate, he became very powerful and earned the nickname "Little Giant." His speeches would attract huge crowds in the galleries of the Senate. Politically, he was virtually unbeatable.

As a Jacksonian Democrat, Douglas favored Manifest Destiny and acquiring as much property westward as possible. The Mexican War was a way to obtain more property, so he favored it in the mid-1840s.

At the same time, Abraham Lincoln was rising as a Whig in Illinois. While Douglas won virtually every election he was in, Lincoln lost virtually every election he entered. But he kept trying, again and again. Unlike Douglas, Lincoln opposed the Mexican War because the Whigs saw it as a way for the South to gain more slave territory. Lincoln disputed the claim that Mexicans had shed American blood on American soil, and introduced the "Spot Resolutions" in Congress disputing where the bloodshed occurred.

On economic issues, Lincoln sought national unity (remember, he represented railroads, which make more money from a united nation than a divided one). Douglas did not care much for economic issues, but also wanted to keep the nation together.

Consider for yourself which person, Lincoln or Douglas, was likely to be more sympathetic to slavery? Is either going to be entirely pro-slave or abolitionist? No, both were in the middle on the slavery issue, neither entirely for nor against slavery.

Both Lincoln and Douglas looked for ways to avoid the coming Civil War. Many Americans, beginning with Jefferson, started to worry about how slavery was ripping the country apart. Jefferson used to wake up in a cold sweat after having nightmares about the tragic future that the United States faced over the issue.

In 1858, Lincoln and Douglas ran against each another for Senate. Their debates that year became known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and they dealt primarily with slavery. In the end, Douglas won the race by a vote in the legislature (at that time legislatures, not the public, picked the U.S. Senators). But Lincoln gained valuable publicity that helped him succeed later. The presidential debates that are held today were inspired by the Lincoln-Douglas debates.