The Gathering Storm 1850-1860

Sectional political rivalry developed early in the history of the United States between the agrarian South, with a large dependence upon slave labor, and the industrial North. The Constitution of 1789 was a compromise, believed at the time to be the best obtainable. The Northern states grew more rapidly than those in the South, so that gradually their representation in the House of Representatives was greater. However, up to 1850, the number of slave states was kept equal to the number of free states, so the South had the same number of Senators as the North. This provided the Southern states with a veto upon legislation. The 'Missouri Compromise' of 1820 adhered to that principle, admitting Missouri as a slave state, but balancing it by the admission of Maine as a free state. In an effort to dampen down the rivalry of the sections, the Missouri Compromise also set a line (the southern boundary of Missouri) north of which future states coming out of the Louisiana Purchase territory would not have slavery.

The 1848 discovery of gold in California and the influx of settlers led to the organization of a state government excluding slavery without waiting for any act of Congress. If California were thus admitted to the Union, the balance between the free and slave states would be upset and Northern predominance in the Senate established. Three Congressional leaders-Clay, Webster, and Calhoun-recognized the explosive power of the situation and brought about the “Compromise of 1850.' By this, California was admitted as a free state and two new territories-Utah and New Mexico–were organized without making any provision for or against slavery (a concession by the South, as these territories were south of the Missouri Compromise line), and a fugitive slave law, stringent enough to satisfy the South, was passed.

The next clash began about 1852 when the territory west of the Missouri River, now in the states of Kansas and Nebraska, was ready for statehood. Stephen A. Douglas, senator from Illinois and chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, in January 1854, proposed that Congress should take no position on slavery in the territories and states, leaving that as a domestic matter to the local inhabitants. It was recognized that this proposal repealed the provisions of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and instead of putting to rest the slavery issue as Senator Douglas intended, it renewed the old sectional animosities with new violence. A majority of Congress from the North and East was in opposition, but the minority, uniting with the South, under Douglas' leadership, voted the bill into law. Kansas now became an arena of struggle as its admission to the Union as a free state or a slave state depended upon the votes of the inhabitants. The people of Missouri were especially concerned and some living along the border crossed over into Kansas to cast their votes on the pro-slavery side. Emigrant aid societies were established in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other Northern states which stimulated the immigration into Kansas of settlers from the free states. An election was held in November 1854 in which some 1700 armed Missourians participated. This resulted in the election of a pro-slavery delegate to Congress and the framing of the 'Lecompton Constitution' permitting slavery. The "Free Soil party declared the election fraudulent and in September 1855 assembled a convention at Topeka which framed a constitution excluding slavery and which organized a rival government. Civil war broke out between the two factions and Kansas became the scene of constant turmoil and violence.

The people of the North held meetings to raise money, to enlist additional settlers, and to send in arms. In May 1856 a Missouri force invaded Lawrence, wrecked buildings, destroyed the printing offices, and pillaged the town. Soon after that, John Brown, an abolitionist, led a group which mutilated and murdered five pro-slavery settlers. President Buchanan, responding to Southern influence, in 1858 urged Congress to admit Kansas under the 'Lecompton Constitution as a slave state. Senator Stephen A. Douglas was convinced that the population of Kansas had become predominantly in favor of its being a free state, so he broke with Buchanan, influencing the House of Representatives to reject the president's recommendation. This precipitated a split in the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party was organized at this time, activated by belief in the national, as opposed to the federated, nature of the Union, and having as its objectives the restriction of slavery by Congressional action, opposition to the extension of slavery under the doctrine of local sovereignty, and the obtaining of control of the federal government.

What had begun as sectional political rivalry became a “cold war of bitter intensity. The most vocal positions were taken by some of the politicians of the 'cotton states of the Deep South who advocated secession from the Union, and by the Abolitionists of the North who believed slavery morally wrong and looked toward its complete elimination.

Fuel was added to the flame of the controversy by the 'Dred Scott Decision of the Supreme Court in March 1857. By a six-to-three decision, the Court declared that negroes, whether free or slave, were not citizens of the United States, that a slave was a personal chattel, who could be removed by his owner to any state, that both the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 were unconstitutional. This development gave great satisfaction to the ULTRA slaveholders of the South, fearful of the expanding growth and influence of the North, and hopeful that, before it was too late, their economic institutions might be placed beyond the power of future Congressional action. In the North, the decision aroused bitter opposition and widespread determination to resist the enforcement of laws of the slave states which they did not approve.

Senator Stephen A. Douglas took a leading part in the national decision of the problem. He had an unusually broad personal base for an understanding of the different sectional points of view. Born in Vermont, he migrated as a young man to Illinois, and he married a Southern woman whose family were slave-owners. He believed that preservation of the Union was the matter of first priority, and that his formula for leaving the question of slavery to the local inhabitants of each state or territory was the only way in which the Union could be preserved. He regarded slavery as an unfortunate fact of property, but a fact, and had no sympathy for the claim of William H. Seward that there was a "higher law than the Constitution.

Douglas had been a senator from Illinois for twelve years and had a national reputation. In 1858 he campaigned in Illinois for his third term in the Senate. His opponent was the comparatively little-known lawyer Abraham Lincoln, who persuaded Douglas to debate with him in seven meetings. Lincoln declared his conviction that the country could not go on half slave and half free, that it would ultimately be all slave or all free. Douglas rejected this hypothetical "either/or” position as completely unnecessary. The legislature elected Douglas to his third term.

In January 1859 a slave ran away from his home in Weston, Missouri, to Kansas. In February a group of Missourians in Kansas stopped two covered wagons on their way from Lawrence to Nebraska. One wagon was driven by Dr. John Doy, and the other by his son. Within were the missing slave and thirteen other slaves running away from Jackson County, Missouri. The wagons were turned around, driven to Leavenworth, and taken over by ferry to Weston. The slaves were returned to their owners and the two Doys were imprisoned while being held for trial. A change of venue to Buchanan County was granted the defendants, and in March 1859 their trial was held in St. Joseph. The Topeka legislature appropriated one thousand dollars to compensate the attorney general of Kansas and another attorney to defend the Doys while Colonel John Doniphan of St. Joseph was appointed to prosecute the indictment. The Doys were found guilty of grand larceny and they appealed to the Supreme Court. While in the jail in St. Joseph, they were released by a party of Kansans, headed by John Brown, who overpowered the jailer.