The battle of Fort Sumter was the first stage in a conflict that had been brewing for decades.

The main explanation to origins of the American Civil War is slavery, especially the issue of slavery expansion into nationally owned territories. States' rights and the tariff became entangled in the slavery issue, and were intensified by it.^[1] Other important factors were party politics, expansionism, sectionalism, economics and modernization in the Antebellum Period. Bombardment of Fort Sumter. ... Bombardment of Fort Sumter. ... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Robert Anderson P.G.T. Beauregard Strength 85 soldiers 500 soldiers Casualties 1 dead 5 injured 4 injured The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12 – April 13, 1861), was a relatively minor military engagement at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Slave sale in Easton, Maryland The history of slavery in the United States (1619-1865) began soon after the English colonists first settled in Virginia and lasted until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. ... States rights refers to the idea, in U.S. politics and constitutional law, that U.S. states possess certain rights and political powers in relation to the federal government. ... The Second Party System is the term historians give to the political system existing in the United States from about 1824 to 1854. ... This article is about the history and influence of the concept. ... Sectionalism is a tendency among sections in bureaucracy to blindly focus on the interest of a section at the expense of the whole. ... The Panic of 1857 was a sudden downturn in the economy of the United States. ... Antebellum is a Latin word meaning before war(ante means before and bellum is war). ...

The United States was a nation divided into two distinct regions separated by the Mason-Dixon line. New England, the Northeast and the Midwest had a rapidly growing economy based on family farms, industry, mining, commerce and transportation, with a large and rapidly growing urban population and no slavery outside the border states. Its growth was fed by a high birth rate and large numbers of European immigrants, especially Irish, British, German, Polish and Scandinavian. For the fictional character, see Mason Dixon (Rocky Balboa character). ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... Regional definitions vary The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States. ... In this map:  Union states  Union territories  Kansas, which entered the Union as a free state after the Bleeding Kansas crisis  Union border states that permitted slavery  The Confederacy  Confederate claimed and sometimes held territories The term border states refers to the five slave states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri...

The South was dominated by a settled plantation system based on slavery, with rapid growth taking place in the Southwest, such as Texas, based on high birth rates and low immigration from Europe. There were few cities or towns, and little manufacturing except in border areas. Slave owners controlled politics and economics. Two-thirds of the Southern whites owned no slaves and usually were engaged in subsistence agriculture, but support for slavery came from all segments of southern society. A plantation economy is an economy which is based on agricultural mass production, usually of a few staple products grown on large farms called plantations. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ...

Overall, the Northern population was growing much more quickly than the Southern population, which made it increasingly difficult for the South to continue to control the national government. Southerners were worried about the relative political decline of their region because the North was growing much faster in terms of population and industrial output.

In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderated opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After the Mexican-American War, the issue of slavery in the new territories led to the Compromise of 1850. While the compromise averted an immediate political crisis, it did not permanently resolve the issue of the Slave power (the power of slaveholders to control the national government). The United States in 1820. ... Combatants United States Mexico Commanders Zachary Taylor Winfield Scott Stephen W. Kearney Antonio López de Santa Anna Mariano Arista Pedro de Ampudia José Mariá Flores Strength 78,790 soldiers 25,000–40,000 soldiers Casualties KIA: 1733 Total dead: 13,271 Wounded: 4,152 AWOL: 9,200+ 25,000... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... These are historic regions of the United States, meaning regions that were legal entities in the past, or which the average modern American would no longer immediately recognize as a regional description. ... Henry Clay takes the floor of the Old Senate Chamber; Millard Fillmore presides as Calhoun and Webster look on. ... The Slave Power was the term used in the Northern United States in the period 1840-1865 to describe the political power of the slaveholding class in the South. ...

Amid the emergence of increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in national politics, the collapse of the old Second Party System in the 1850s hampered efforts of the politicians to reach yet one more compromise. The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged too many northerners. In the 1850s, with the rise of the Republican Party, the first major party with no appeal in the South, the industrializing North and agrarian Midwest became committed to the economic ethos of free-labor industrial capitalism. The Second Party System is the term historians give to the political system existing in the United States from about 1824 to 1854. ... The battle of Fort Sumter was the first stage in a conflict that had been brewing for decades. ... The Republican Party of the United States was established in 1854 and is one of the two dominant parties today. ...

Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed. After 1840 abolitionists denounced slavery as more than a social evil — it was a moral wrong. Many Northerners, especially leaders of the new Republican Party, considered slavery a great national evil and believed that a small number of Southern owners of large plantations controlled the national government with the goal of spreading that evil. Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... The Republican Party of the United States was established in 1854 and is one of the two dominant parties today. ... Historic Southern United States. ...

In 1860, the election of Abraham Lincoln, who won the national election without receiving a single electoral vote from any of the Southern states, triggered the secession of the cotton states of the Deep South from the union. Presidential electoral votes by state. ... The states in dark red comprise the Deep South. ...

Abolitionism

Platform of the American Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan

Main article: Abolitionism

Antislavery movements in the North gained momentum in the 1830s and 1840s, a period of rapid transformation of Northern society that inspired a social and political reformism. Many of the reformers of the period, including abolitionists, attempted in one way or another to transform the lifestyle and work habits of labor, helping workers respond to the new demands of an industrializing, capitalistic society. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (600x789, 88 KB) Title Twenty-ninth anniversary of the American Anti-slavery Society, Tuesday, May 12, 1863. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (600x789, 88 KB) Title Twenty-ninth anniversary of the American Anti-slavery Society, Tuesday, May 12, 1863. ... The American Anti-Slavery Society (1833-1870) was founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. ... William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805–May 24, 1879) was a prominent United States abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. ... Arthur Tappan (May 22, 1786 - July 23, 1865) was an American abolitionist. ... This article is about the abolition of slavery. ...

Antislavery, like many other reform movements of the period, was influenced by the legacy of the great Second Great Awakening, a period of religious revival in the new country stressing the reform of individuals which was still relatively fresh in the American memory. Thus, while the reform spirit of the period was expressed by a variety of movements with often-conflicting political goals, most reform movements shared a common feature in their emphasis on the Great Awakening principle of transforming the human personality through discipline, order, and restraint. The Second Great Awakening  (1800–1830s) was the second great religious revival in United States  history and consisted of renewed personal salvation experienced in revival meetings. ...

"Abolitionist" had several meanings at the time. The followers of William Lloyd Garrison, including Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass, demanded the "immediate abolition of slavery", hence the name. A more pragmatic group of abolitionists, like Theodore Weld and Arthur Tappan, wanted immediate action, but that action might well be a program of gradual emancipation, with a long intermediate stage. "Antislavery men", like John Quincy Adams, did what they could to limit slavery and end it where possible, but were not part of any abolitionist group. For example, in 1841 Adams represented the Amistad African slaves in the Supreme Court of the United States and argued that they should be set free.^[2] In the last years before the war, "antislavery" could mean the Northern majority, like Abraham Lincoln, who opposed expansion of slavery or its influence, as by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, or the Fugitive Slave Act. Many Southerners called all these abolitionists, without distinguishing them from the Garrisonians. James McPherson explains the abolitionists' deep beliefs: "All people were equal in God's sight; the souls of black folks were as valuable as those of whites; for one of God's children to enslave another was a violation of the Higher Law, even if it was sanctioned by the Constitution."^[3] William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805–May 24, 1879) was a prominent United States abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. ... Wendell Phillips Statue in the Boston Public Garden. ... Frederick Douglass, ca. ... Theodore Dwight Weld (1803–1895), the author of American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, was an evangelical American abolitionist. ... Arthur Tappan (May 22, 1786 - July 23, 1865) was an American abolitionist. ... John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was a diplomat, politician, and the sixth President of the United States (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829). ... La Amistad (Spanish: friendship) was a Spanish merchant ship on which a rebellion by the slaves it was carrying broke out in 1839 when the schooner was travelling along the coast of Cuba. ... The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the acronym SCOTUS[1]) is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. ... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... The fugitive slave laws were statutes passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a public territory. ... For the Civil War General of a similar name see James B. McPherson James M. McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis 86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. ...

A woodcut from the abolitionist Anti-Slavery Almanac (1839) depicts the capture of a fugitive slave by a slave patrol.

Stressing the Yankee Protestant ideals of self-improvement, industry, and thrift, most abolitionists— most notably William Lloyd Garrison—condemned slavery as a lack of control over one's own destiny and the fruits of one's labor. Taken from [1] This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Taken from [1] This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Slave patrols (called patrollers or pattyrollers by the slaves) were gangs of poor white people who enforced discipline upon black slaves in groups of 3 to 6 men during the antebellum U.S. southern states. ... For the Major League Baseball team, see New York Yankees. ... Protestantism encompasses the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated with the doctrines of the Reformation. ... William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805–May 24, 1879) was a prominent United States abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. ...

Wendell Phillips, one of the most ardent abolitionists, attacked the Slave Power and presaged disunion as early as 1845: Wendell Phillips Statue in the Boston Public Garden. ... The Slave Power was the term used in the Northern United States in the period 1840-1865 to describe the political power of the slaveholding class in the South. ...

The experience of the fifty years… shows us the slaves trebling in numbers—slaveholders monopolizing the offices and dictating the policy of the Government—prostituting the strength and influence of the Nation to the support of slavery here and elsewhere—trampling on the rights of the free States, and making the courts of the country their tools. To continue this disastrous alliance longer is madness.… Why prolong the experiment?^[4]

Abolitionists also attacked slavery as a threat to the freedom of white Americans. Defining freedom as more than a simple lack of restraint, antebellum reformers held that the truly free man was one who imposed restraints upon himself. Thus, for the anti-slavery reformers of the 1830s and 1840s, the promise of free labor and upward social mobility (opportunities for advancement, rights to own property, and to control one's own labor), was central to the ideal of reforming individuals.

Controversy over the so-called Ostend Manifesto—which proposed U.S. annexation of Cuba as a slave state—and the Fugitive Slave Act kept sectional tensions alive before the issue of slavery in the West could occupy the country's politics in the mid-to-late 1850s. The Ostend Manifesto was a secret document written in 1854 by U.S. diplomats at Ostend, Belgium, describing a plan to acquire Cuba from Spain. ... An April 24, 1851 poster warning colored people in Boston about policemen acting as slave catchers. ...

Antislavery sentiment among some groups in the North intensified after the Compromise of 1850, when Southerners began appearing in Northern states to pursue fugitives or often to claim as slaves free African Americans who had resided there for years. Meanwhile, some abolitionists openly sought to prevent enforcement of the law. Violation of the Fugitive Slave Act was often open and organized. In Boston — a city from which it was boasted that no fugitive had ever been returned — Theodore Parker and other members of the city's elite helped form mobs to prevent enforcement of the law as early as April 1851. A pattern of public resistance emerged in city after city, notably in Syracuse in 1851 (culminating in the Jerry Rescue incident late that year), and Boston again in 1854. But the issue did not lead to a crisis until revived by the same issue underlying the Missouri Compromise of 1820: slavery in the territories. Henry Clay takes the floor of the Old Senate Chamber; Millard Fillmore presides as Calhoun and Webster look on. ... An April 24, 1851 poster warning colored people in Boston about policemen acting as slave catchers. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 - May 10, 1860) was a reforming American minister of the Unitarian church, and a Transcendentalist. ... Nickname: Location of Syracuse within the state of New York Coordinates: , City Government  - Mayor Matthew Driscoll (D) Area  - City 66. ... The Missouri Compromise, also called the Compromise of 1820, was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. ...

Arguments for and against slavery

William Lloyd Garrison, a prominent abolitionist, was motivated by a belief in the growth of democracy. Because the Constitution had a three-fifths clause, a fugitive slave clause and a 20-year extension of the Atlantic slave trade, Garrison once publicly burned a copy of the U. S. Constitution and called it "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell".^[5] In 1854, he said: Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America and is...

Opposite opinions on slavery were expressed by Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens in his "Cornerstone Speech". Stephens said: This is an article about the Confederate Vice President. ... The Cornerstone Speech was delivered by Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stephens in Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861. ...

Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ...

"Free soil" movement

Frederick Douglass

See also: Free Soil Party

The assumptions, tastes, and cultural aims of the reformers of the 1830s and 1840s anticipated the political and ideological ferment of the 1850s. A surge of working class Irish and German Catholic immigration provoked reactions among many Northern Whigs, as well as Democrats. Growing fears of labor competition for white workers and farmers because of the growing number of free blacks prompted several northern states to adopt discriminatory "Black Codes." Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Frederick Douglass, ca. ... The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. ... The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... The Black Codes were laws passed to restrict civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans, particularly former slaves. ...

In the Northwest, although farm tenancy was increasing, the number of free farmers was still double that of farm laborers and tenants. Moreover, although the expansion of the factory system was undermining the economic independence of the small craftsman and artisan, industry in the region, still one largely of small towns, was still concentrated in small-scale enterprises. Arguably, social mobility was on the verge of contracting in the urban centers of the North, but long-cherished ideas of opportunity, "honest industry," and "toil" were at least close enough in time to lend plausibility to the free labor ideology.

In the rural and small-town North, the picture of Northern society (framed by the ethos of "free labor") corresponded to a large degree with reality. Propelled by advancements in transportation and communication—especially steam navigation, railroads, and telegraphs—the two decades before the Civil War were of rapid expansion in population and economy of the Northwest. Combined with the rise of Northeastern and export markets for their products, the social standing of farmers in the region substantially improved. The small towns and villages that emerged as the Republican Party's heartland showed every sign of vigorous expansion. Their vision for an ideal society was of small-scale capitalism, with white American laborers entitled to the chance of upward mobility opportunities for advancement, rights to own property, and to control their own labor. Many free-soilers demanded that the slave labor system and free black settlers (and in places such as California, Chinese immigrants) should be excluded from the Great Plains to guarantee the predominance there of the free white laborer. A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, converting it to mechanical work. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... The Republican Party of the United States was established in 1854 and is one of the two dominant parties today. ... The term white American (often used interchangeably and incorrectly with Caucasian American[2] and within the United States simply white[3]) is an umbrella term that refers to people of European descent residing in the United States. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... For other uses, see Great Plains (disambiguation). ...

Opposition to the 1847 Wilmot Proviso helped to consolidate the "free-soil" forces. The next year, Radical New York Democrats known as Barnburners, members of the Liberty Party, and anti-slavery Whigs held a convention at Buffalo, New York, in August, forming the Free-Soil Party. The party supported former President Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, Sr., for President and Vice President, respectively. The party opposed the expansion of slavery into territories where it had not yet existed, such as Oregon and the ceded Mexican territory. The Wilmot Proviso was introduced on August 8, 1846 in the House of Representatives as a rider on a $2 million appropriations bill intended for the final negotiations to resolve the Mexican-American War. ... The Barnburners were a liberal faction of the New York state United States Democratic Party in the mid 19th century. ... Liberty Party was a political party in the United States during the mid-19th century. ... Nickname: Location of Buffalo in New York State Coordinates: , Country State County Erie Government  - Mayor Byron Brown (D) Area  - City 52. ... Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed Old Kinderhook, was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. ... Charles Francis Adams (August 18, 1807, Boston - November 21, 1886, Boston), the son of John Quincy Adams and Louisa Adams, was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and writer. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

Relating Northern and Southern positions on slavery to basic differences in labor systems, but insisting on the role of culture and ideology in coloring these differences, Eric Foner's book Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men (1970) went beyond the economic determinism of Charles Beard (a leading historian of the 1930s). Foner emphasized the importance of free labor ideology to Northern opponents of slavery, pointing out that the moral concerns of the abolitionists were not necessarily the dominant sentiments in the North. Many Northerners (including Lincoln) opposed slavery also because they feared that black labor might spread to the North and threaten the position of free white laborers. In this sense, Republicans and the abolitionists were able to appeal to powerful emotions in the North through a broader commitment to "free labor" principles. The "Slave Power" idea had a far greater appeal to Northern self-interest than arguments based on the plight of black slaves in the South. If the free labor ideology of the 1830s and 1840s depended on the transformation of Northern society, its entry into politics depended on the rise of mass democracy, in turn propelled by far-reaching social change. Its chance would come by the mid-1850s with the collapse of the traditional two-party system, which had long suppressed sectional conflict. For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Eric Foner (born February 7, 1943 in New York City) is an American historian. ... This article is about the general notion of determinism in philosophy. ... Charles Austin Beard (November 27, 1874 _ September 1, 1948) was an American historian, author with James Harvey Robinson of The Development of Modern Europe (1907). ... The Slave Power was the term used in the Northern United States in the period 1840-1865 to describe the political power of the slaveholding class in the South. ...

Sectional tensions and the emergence of mass politics

The politicians of the 1850s were acting in a society in which the traditional restraints that suppressed sectional conflict in the 1820s and 1850s — the most important of which being the stability of the two-party system — were being eroded as this rapid extension of mass democracy went forward in the North and South. It was an era when the mass political party galvanized voter participation to an unprecedented degree, and a time in which politics formed an essential component of American mass culture. Historians agree that political involvement was a larger concern to the average American in the 1850s than today. Politics was, in one of its functions, a form of mass entertainment, a spectacle with rallies, parades, and colorful personalities. Leading politicians, moreover, often served as a focus for popular interests, aspirations, and values.

Historian Allan Nevins, for instance, writes of political rallies in 1856 with turnouts of anywhere from twenty to fifty thousand men and women. Voter turnouts even ran as high as 84% by 1860. A plethora of new parties emerged 1854-56, including the Republicans, People's party men, Anti-Nebraskans, Fusionists, Know-Nothings, Know-Somethings (anti-slavery nativists), Maine Lawites, Temperance men, Rum Democrats, Silver Gray Whigs, Hindus, Hard Shell Democrats, Soft Shells, Half Shells and Adopted Citizens. By 1858, they were mostly gone, and politics divided four ways. Republicans controlled most Northern states with a strong Democratic minority. The Democrats were split North and South and fielded two tickets in 1860. Southern non-Democrats tried different coalitions; most supported the Constitutional Union party in 1860. Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 - March 5, 1971) was an educator, historian, and author and journalist. ... The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1850s. ...

Many Southern states held constitutional conventions in 1851 to consider the questions of nullification and secession. With the exception of South Carolina, whose convention election did not even offer the option of "no secession" but rather "no secession without the collaboration of other states," the Southern conventions were dominated by Unionists who voted down articles of secession. Official language(s) English Capital Columbia Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Columbia Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32° 2′ N to 35° 13′ N  - Longitude 78° 32′ W to 83...

Southern fears of modernity

Allan Nevins argued that the Civil War was an "irrepressible" conflict. Nevins synthesized contending accounts emphasizing moral, cultural, social, ideological, political, and economic issues. In doing so, he brought the historical discussion back to an emphasis on social and cultural factors. Nevins pointed out that the North and the South were rapidly becoming two different peoples, a point made also by historian Avery Craven. At the root of these cultural differences was the problem of slavery, but fundamental assumptions, tastes, and cultural aims of the regions were diverging in other ways as well. More specifically, the North was rapidly modernizing in a manner threatening to the South. Historian James McPherson explains:^[8] Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 - March 5, 1971) was an educator, historian, and author and journalist. ... Avery Odelle Craven (born August 12, 1885 near Ackworth, Iowa; died January 21, 1980, Chesterton, Indiana) was an historian who specialized in the study of the nineteenth-century United States and the American Civil War. ...

When secessionists protested in 1861 that they were acting to preserve traditional rights and values, they were correct. They fought to preserve their constitutional liberties against the perceived Northern threat to overthrow them. The South's concept of republicanism had not changed in three-quarters of a century; the North's had.... The ascension to power of the Republican Party, with its ideology of competitive, egalitarian free-labor capitalism, was a signal to the South that the Northern majority had turned irrevocably towards this frightening, revolutionary future.

Harry L. Watson has synthesized research on antebellum southern social, economic, and political history. Self-sufficient yeomen, in Watson's view, "collaborated in their own transformation" by allowing promoters of a market economy to gain political influence. Resultant "doubts and frustrations" provided fertile soil for the argument that southern rights and liberties were menaced by Black Republicanism ^[9] Yeoman is an antiquated term for farmers, tradesmen and other members of the early English middle class. ...

J. Mills Thornton III, explained the viewpoint of the average white Alabamian. Thornton contends that Alabama was engulfed in a severe crisis long before 1860. Deeply held principles of freedom, equality, and autonomy, as expressed in republican values appeared threatened, especially during the 1850s, by the relentless expansion of market relations and commercial agriculture. Alabamians were thus, he judged, prepared to believe the worst once Lincoln was elected.^[10] Republicanism is the political value system that has dominated American political thought since the American Revolution. ...

Slavery in the West

Territorial acquisitions

In the 1850s, sectional tensions were revived by the same issue that had produced them dating back to the Missouri Compromise of 1820: slavery in the territories. Northerners and Southerners, in effect, were coming to define "Manifest Destiny" in different ways, undermining nationalism as a unifying force. This article is about the history and influence of the concept. ...

The Compromise of 1850 grappled with the acquisition of territory after the Mexican-American War. It included a provision for the enforcement of the fugitive slave laws that caused a series of small, local episodes in the North that raised concerns about slavery. Combatants United States Mexico Commanders Zachary Taylor Winfield Scott Stephen W. Kearney Antonio López de Santa Anna Mariano Arista Pedro de Ampudia José Mariá Flores Strength 78,790 soldiers 25,000–40,000 soldiers Casualties KIA: 1733 Total dead: 13,271 Wounded: 4,152 AWOL: 9,200+ 25,000...

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Main article: Kansas-Nebraska Act

Most people thought the Compromise had ended the territorial issue, but Stephen A. Douglas reopened it in 1854, in the name of democracy. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill with the intention of opening up vast new high quality farm lands to settlement. As a Chicagoan, he was especially interested in the railroad connections from Chicago into Kansas and Nebraska, but that was not a controversial point. More importantly, Douglas firmly believed in democracy at the grass roots—that actual settlers have the right to decide on slavery, not politicians from other states. His bill provided that popular sovereignty, through the territorial legislatures, should decide "all questions pertaining to slavery", thus effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise. The ensuing public reaction against it created a firestorm of protest in the Northern states. It was seen as an effort to repeal the Missouri Compromise. However, the popular reaction in the first month after the bill's introduction failed to foreshadow the gravity of the situation. As Northern papers initially ignored the story, Republican leaders lamented the lack of a popular response. This 1856 map shows slave states (grey), free states (red), and US territories (green) with Kansas in center (white). ... Stephen Arnold Douglas (nicknamed the Little Giant because he was short but was considered by many a giant in politics) was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. ... For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ... Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. ... The United States in 1820. ...

Eventually, the popular reaction did come, but the leaders had to spark it. Chase's "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" did much to arouse popular opinion. In New York, William H. Seward finally took it upon himself to organize a rally against the Nebraska bill, since none had arisen spontaneously. Press such as the National Era, the New York Tribune, and local free-soil journals, condemned the bill. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 drew national attention to the issue of slavery expansion. Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808 – May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio, as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln, and Chief Justice of the United States. ... William Henry Seward, Sr. ... The New York Tribune building - today the site of Pace Universitys building complex of One Pace Plaza in New York City The New York Tribune was established by Horace Greeley in 1841 and was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States. ... The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, and Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat, for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate. ...

Founding of the Republican Party

See also: History of the United States Republican Party

Charles Sumner, the Senate's leading opponent of slavery

Convinced that Northern society was superior to that of the South, and increasingly persuaded of the South's ambitions to extend slave power beyond its existing borders, Northerners were embracing a viewpoint that made conflict likely; but conflict required the ascendancy of the Republican Party. The Republican Party — campaigning on the popular, emotional issue of "free soil" in the frontier — captured the White House after just six years of existence. The Republican Party of the United States was established in 1854 and is one of the two dominant parties today. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (610x743, 58 KB) http://hdl. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (610x743, 58 KB) http://hdl. ... For other uses, see White House (disambiguation). ...

The Republican Party grew out of the controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska legislation. Once the Northern reaction against the Kansas-Nebraska Act took place, its leaders acted to advance another political reorganization. Henry Wilson declared the Whig Party dead and vowed to oppose any efforts to resurrect it. Horace Greeley's Tribune called for the formation of a new Northern party, and Benjamin Wade, Chase, Charles Sumner, and others spoke out for the union of all opponents of the Nebraska Act. The Tribune's Gamaliel Bailey was involved in calling a caucus of anti-slavery Whig and Democratic Party Congressmen in May. For other persons named Henry Wilson, see Henry Wilson (disambiguation). ... Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American editor of a leading newspaper, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, reformer and politician. ... Benjamin Franklin Bluff Wade (October 27, 1800 – March 2, 1878) was a U.S. lawyer and United States Senator. ... For other persons named Charles Sumner, see Charles Sumner (disambiguation). ... Gamaliel Bailey (December 3, 1807 - June 5, 1859) was a U.S. journalist. ...

Meeting in a Ripon, Wisconsin, Congregational Church on February 28, 1854, some thirty opponents of the Nebraska Act called for the organization of a new political party and suggested that "Republican" would be the most appropriate name (to link their cause to the defunct Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson). These founders also took a leading role in the creation of the Republican Party in many northern states during the summer of 1854. While conservatives and many moderates were content merely to call for the restoration of the Missouri Compromise or a prohibition of slavery extension, radicals advocated repeal of the Fugitive Slave Laws and rapid abolition in existing states. The term "radical" has also been applied to those who objected to the Compromise of 1850, which extended slavery in the territories. Ripon is a city located in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ... is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

But without the benefit of hindsight, the 1854 elections would seem to indicate the possible triumph of the Know-Nothing movement rather than anti-slavery, with the Catholic/immigrant question replacing slavery as the issue capable of mobilizing mass appeal. Know-Nothings, for instance, captured the mayoralty of Philadelphia with a majority of over 8,000 votes in 1854. Even after opening up immense discord with his Kansas-Nebraska Act, Senator Douglas began speaking of the Know-Nothings, rather than the Republicans, as the principal danger to the Democratic Party. For other uses, see Philadelphia (disambiguation) and Philly. ...

When Republicans spoke of themselves as a party of "free labor," they appealed to a rapidly growing, primarily middle class base of support, not permanent wage earners or the unemployed (the working class). When they extolled the virtues of free labor, they were merely reflecting the experiences of millions of men who had "made it" and millions of others who had a realistic hope of doing so. Like the Tories in England, the Republicans in the United States would emerge as the nationalists, homogenizers, imperialists, and cosmopolitans. For other uses, see Tory (disambiguation). ... Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution 1830. ... Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ...

Those who had not yet "made it" included Irish immigrants, who made up a large growing proportion of Northern factory workers. Republicans often saw the Catholic working class as lacking the qualities of self-discipline, temperance, and sobriety essential for their vision of ordered liberty. Republicans insisted that there was a high correlation between education, religion, and hard work—the values of the "Protestant work ethic"—and Republican votes. "Where free schools are regarded as a nuisance, where religion is least honored and lazy unthrift is the rule," read an editorial of the pro-Republican Chicago Democratic Press after James Buchanan's defeat of John C. Fremont in the U.S. presidential election, 1856, "there Buchanan has received his strongest support." The Protestant work ethic, or sometimes called the Puritan work ethic, is a Calvinist value emphasizing the necessity of constant labor in a persons calling as a sign of personal salvation. ... For other persons named James Buchanan, see James Buchanan (disambiguation). ... John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813-July 13, 1890), birth name John Charles Fremon [Harvey, p. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ...

Ethno-religious, socio-economic, and cultural fault lines ran throughout American society, but were becoming increasingly sectional, pitting Yankee Protestants with a stake in the emerging industrial capitalism and American nationalism increasingly against those tied to Southern slave holding interests. For example, acclaimed historian Don E. Fehrenbacher, in his Prelude to Greatness, Lincoln in the 1850s, noticed how Illinois was a microcosm of the national political scene, pointing out voting patterns that bore striking correlations to regional patterns of settlement. Those areas settled from the South were staunchly Democratic, while those by New Englanders were staunchly Republican. In addition, a belt of border counties were known for their political moderation, and traditionally held the balance of power. Intertwined with religious, ethnic, regional, and class identities, the issues of free labor and free soil were thus easy to play on. Don Edward Fehrenbacher was a well known Historian of 10th century US politics, Slavery, and Abraham Lincoln. ...

Events during the next two years in "Bleeding Kansas" sustained the popular fervor originally aroused among some elements in the North by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Those from the North were encouraged by press and pulpit and the powerful organs of abolitionist propaganda. Often they received financial help from such organizations as the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. Those from the South often received financial contributions from the communities they left. Southerners sought to uphold their constitutional rights in the territories and to maintain sufficient political strength to repulse 'hostile and ruinous legislation.' The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company was founded in 1854 by Eli Thayer of Massachusetts to support anti-slavery settlement of the Kansas territory. ...

While the Great Plains were largely unfit for the cultivation of cotton, informed Southerners demanded that the West be open to slavery, often—perhaps most often—with minerals in mind. Brazil, for instance, was an example of the successful use of slave labor in mining. In the middle of the eighteenth century, diamond mining supplemented gold mining in Minas Gerais and accounted for a massive transfer of masters and slaves from Brazil's northeastern sugar region. Southern leaders knew a good deal about this experience. It was even promoted in the pro-slavery DeBow's Review as far back as 1848. For other uses, see Cotton (disambiguation). ... Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ... This article is about the mineral. ... GOLD refers to one of the following: GOLD (IEEE) is an IEEE program designed to garner more student members at the university level (Graduates of the Last Decade). ... Capital (and largest city) Belo Horizonte Demonym Mineiro Government  -  Governor Aécio Neves  -  Vice Governor Antônio Augusto Junho Anastasia Area  -  Total 588,528. ... DeBows Review was a highly influential and widely circulated magazine of agricultural, commercial, and industrial progress and resource in the American South during the middle of the 19th century. ...

"Bleeding Kansas" and the elections of 1856

Radical abolitionist John Brown

Main articles: U.S. presidential election, 1856 and Bleeding Kansas

In Kansas around 1855, the slavery issue reached a condition of intolerable tension and violence. But this was in an area where an overwhelming proportion of settlers were merely land-hungry Westerners indifferent to the public issues. The majority of the inhabitants were not concerned with sectional tensions or the issue of slavery. Instead, the tension in Kansas began as a contention between rival claimants. During the first wave of settlement, no one held titles to the land, and settlers rushed to occupy newly open land fit for cultivation. While the tension and violence did emerge as a pattern pitting Yankee and Missourian settlers against each other, there is little evidence of any ideological divides on the questions of slavery. Instead, the Missouri claimants, thinking of Kansas as their own domain, regarded the Yankee squatters as invaders, while the Yankees accused the Missourians for grabbing the best land without honestly settling on it. Image File history File links John_Brown. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Division of the states during the Civil War:  Union states  Union territories  Border states  Bleeding Kansas  The Confederacy  Confederate territories (not always held) Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to in history as Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a sequence of violent events involving Free-Staters (anti-slavery) and pro... Tillage (American English), or cultivation (UK) is the agricultural preparation of the soil to receive seeds. ... For the Major League Baseball team, see New York Yankees. ... For other uses, see squat. ...

However, the 1855-56 violence in "Bleeding Kansas" did reach an ideological climax after John Brown — regarded by followers as the instrument of God's will to destroy slavery — entered the melee. His assassination of five pro-slavery settlers (the so-called "Pottawatomie Massacre", during the night of May 24, 1856) resulted in some irregular, guerrilla-style strife. Aside from John Brown's fervor, the strife in Kansas often involved only armed bands more interested in land claims or loot. Division of the states during the Civil War:  Union states  Union territories  Border states  Bleeding Kansas  The Confederacy  Confederate territories (not always held) Bleeding Kansas, sometimes referred to in history as Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a sequence of violent events involving Free-Staters (anti-slavery) and pro... John Brown, ca. ... The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 to the morning of May 25, 1856. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Guerrilla redirects here. ...

Of greater importance than the civil strife in Kansas, however, was the reaction against it nationwide and in Congress. In both North and South, the belief was widespread that the aggressive designs of the other section were epitomized by (and responsible for) what was happening in Kansas. Consequently, "Bleeding Kansas" emerged as a symbol of sectional controversy.

Even before news of the Kansas skirmishes reached the East coast, a related violent escapade occurred in Washington on May 19. Charles Sumner's speech before the Senate entitled "The Crime Against Kansas," which condemned the Pierce Administration and the institution of slavery, singled out Senator Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina, a strident defender of slavery. Its markedly sexual innuendo cast the South Carolinian as the "Don Quixote" of slavery, who has "chosen a mistress [the harlot slavery]...who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him, though polluted in the sight of the world is chaste in his sight." Several days later, Sumner fell victim to the Southern gentleman's code, which instructed retaliation for impugning the honor of an elderly kinsman. Bleeding and unconscious after a nearly fatal assault with a heavy cane by Butler's nephew, U.S. Representative Preston Brooks—and unable to return to the Senate for three years—the Massachusetts senator emerged as another symbol of sectional tensions. For many in the North, he illustrated the barbarism of slave society. is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other persons named Charles Sumner, see Charles Sumner (disambiguation). ... Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. ... Andrew Pickens Butler (November 18, 1796-May 25, 1857, was an American statesman and one of the authors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. ... Official language(s) English Capital Columbia Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Columbia Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32° 2′ N to 35° 13′ N  - Longitude 78° 32′ W to 83... This article is about the fictional character and novel. ... Preston Brooks Preston Smith Brooks (August 5, 1819 – January 27, 1857) was a Congressman from South Carolina, notorious for brutally assaulting senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

Indignant over the developments in Kansas, the Republicans—the first entirely sectional major party in U.S. history—entered their first presidential campaign with confidence. Their nominee, John C. Frémont, was a generally safe candidate for the new party. Although his nomination upset some of their Nativist Know-Nothing supporters (his mother was a Catholic), the nomination of the famed explorer of the Far West with no political record was an attempt to woo ex-Democrats. The other two Republican contenders, William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase, were seen as too radical. Sectionalism is a tendency among sections in bureaucracy to blindly focus on the interest of a section at the expense of the whole. ... John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813 – July 13, 1890), was an American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States, and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery. ... The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1850s. ... William Henry Seward, Sr. ... Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808 – May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio, as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln, and Chief Justice of the United States. ...

Nevertheless, the campaign of 1856 was waged almost exclusively on the slavery issue—pitted as a struggle between democracy and aristocracy—focusing on the question of Kansas. The Republicans condemned the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery, but they advanced a program of internal improvements combining the idealism of anti-slavery with the economic aspirations of the North. The new party rapidly developed a powerful partisan culture, and energetic activists drove voters to the polls in unprecedented numbers. People reacted with fervor. Young Republicans organized the "Wide Awake" clubs and chanted "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, Frémont!" With Southern fire-eaters and even some moderates uttering threats of secession if Frémont won, the Democratic candidate, Buchanan, benefited from apprehensions about the future of the Union. Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Look up Public works in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In United States history, the term Fire-Eaters refers to a group of extremist pro-slavery politicians from the South who urged the separation of southern states into a new nation, which became known as the Confederate States of America. ... For other persons named James Buchanan, see James Buchanan (disambiguation). ...

States' rights

Main article: States rights

States' rights was an issue in the 19th century for those who felt that the federal government was superseded by the authority of the individual states and was in violation of the role intended for it by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historian Kenneth M. Stampp notes that each section used states' rights arguments when convenient, and shifted positions when convenient.^[11] For example, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was justified by its supporters as a state's right to have its property laws respected by other states, and was resisted by northern legislatures in the form of state personal liberty laws that placed state laws above the federal mandate. In American politics and constitutional law, states rights are guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, (i. ... Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy. ... // Kenneth Milton Stampp (July 12, 1912 - ), Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley (1946-1983), is a celebrated historian of slavery, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction. ...

States’ rights and slavery

Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger noted that the states' rights “never had any real vitality independent of underlying conditions of vast social, economic, or political significance.”^[12] He further elaborated:

From the close of the nullification episode of 1832-1833 to the outbreak of the Civil War, the agitation of state rights was intimately connected with the new issue of growing importance, the slavery question, and the principle form assumed by the doctrine was the right of secession. The pro-slavery forces sought refuge in the state rights position as a shield against federal interference with pro-slavery projects. ... As a natural consequence, anti-slavery legislatures in the North were led to lay great stress on the national character of the Union and the broad powers of the general government in dealing with slavery. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that when it served anti-slavery purposes better to lapse into state rights dialectic, northern legislatures did not hesitate to be inconsistent.^[13]

Echoing Schlesinger, historian Forrest McDonald wrote that “the dynamics of the tension between federal and state authority changed abruptly during the late 1840s” as a result of the acquisition of territory in the Mexican War. McDonald states:

And then, as a by-product or offshoot of a war of conquest, slavery -- a subject that leading politicians had, with the exception of the gag rule controversy and Calhoun’s occassional outbursts, scrupulously kept out of partisan debate -- erupted as the dominant issue in that arena. So disruptive was the issue that it subjected the federal Union to the greatest strain the young republic had yet known.^[14]

States' rights and minority rights

States' rights theories were a response to the fact that the Northern population was growing much faster than the population of the South, which meant that it was only a matter of time before the North controlled the federal government. Southerners were acting as a "conscious minority", and hoped that a strict constructionist interpretation of the Constitution would limit federal power over the states, and that a defense of states' rights against federal encroachments or even nullification or secession would save the South.^[15] Before 1860 most presidents were either Southern or pro-South. The North's growing population would mean the election of pro-North presidents, and the addition of free-soil states would end Southern parity with the North in the Senate. As the historian Allan Nevins described the Southern politician John C. Calhoun's theory of states' rights, "Governments, observed Calhoun, were formed to protect minorities, for majorities could take care of themselves".^[16] Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 - March 5, 1971) was an educator, historian, and author and journalist. ... John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a leading United States Southern politician and political philosopher from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. ...

As early as 1830, in the midst of the Nullification Crisis, Calhoun identified the right to own slaves as the chief southern minority right being threatened:

I consider the tariff act as the occasion, rather than the real cause of the present unhappy state of things. The truth can no longer be disguised, that the peculiar domestick [sic] institution of the Southern States and the consequent direction which that and her soil have given to her industry, has placed them in regard to taxation and appropriations in opposite relation to the majority of the Union, against the danger of which, if there be no protective power in the reserved rights of the states they must in the end be forced to rebel, or, submit to have their paramount interests sacrificed, their domestic institutions subordinated by Colonization and other schemes, and themselves and children reduced to wretchedness.^[17][18]

Until the 1860 election the South’s interests nationally were entrusted to the Democratic Party. In 1860 the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern factions as the result of a “bitter debate in the United States Senate between Jefferson Davis and Stephen Douglas.” The debate was over resolutions proposed by Davis “opposing popular sovereignty and supporting a federal slave code and states’ rights” which carried over to the national convention in Charleston.^[19]

Davis defined equality in terms of the equal rights of states,^[20] and opposed the declaration that all men are created equal.^[21] Jefferson Davis stated that a "disparaging discrimination" and a fight for "liberty" against "the tyranny of an unbridled majority" gave the Confederate states a right to secede.^[22] In 1860, Congressman Laurence M. Keitt of South Carolina said, "The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States."^[23] Laurence Massillon Keitt (1824-1864) is included in several lists of Fire-Eaters — men who adamantly urged the secession of southern states from the United States, and who resisted measures of compromise and reconciliation, leading to the American Civil War. ...

Stampp mentioned Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens' A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States as an example of a Southern leader who said that slavery was the "cornerstone of the Confederacy" when the war began and then said that the war was not about slavery but states' rights after Southern defeat. Stampp said that Stephens became one of the most ardent defenders of the Lost Cause.^[24] This is an article about the Confederate Vice President. ... George Washington Custis Lee, 1832-1913, on horseback, with staff reviewing Confederate Reunion Parade in Richmond, Virginia, June 3, 1907, in front of monument to Jefferson Davis. ...

The historian William C. Davis also mentioned inconsistencies in Southern states' rights arguments. He explained the Confederate Constitution's protection of slavery at the national level as follows:

To the old Union they had said that the Federal power had no authority to interfere with slavery issues in a state. To their new nation they would declare that the state had no power to interfere with a federal protection of slavery. Of all the many testimonials to the fact that slavery, and not states rights, really lay at the heart of their movement, this was the most eloquent of all.^[25]

Southern fears of modernization

According to the historian McPherson, exceptionalism applied not to the South but to the North after the North phased out slavery and launched an industrial revolution that led to urbanization, increased education and reform movements such as abolitionism. The fact that seven immigrants out of eight settled in the North, plus the fact that twice as many whites left the South for the North as vice versa, contributed to the South's defensive-aggressive political behavior. The Charleston Mercury read that on the issue of slavery the North and South "are not only two Peoples, but they are rival, hostile Peoples."^[26] As De Bow's Review said, "We are resisting revolution ... We are not engaged in a Quixotic fight for the rights of man ... We are conservative."^[26]

Antebellum South and the Union

There had been a continuing contest between the states and the national government over the power of the latter—and over the loyalty of the citizenry—almost since the founding of the republic. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, for example, had defied the Alien and Sedition Acts, and at the Hartford Convention, New England voiced its opposition to President James Madison and the War of 1812, and discussed secession from the Union. Thomas Jefferson. ... Text of the act. ... The Secret Journal of the Hartford Convention, published 1823. ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... For other persons named James Madison, see James Madison (disambiguation). ... This article is about the U.S.–U.K. war. ...

Nullification Crisis

Main article: Nullification Crisis

In Congress, John C. Calhoun had favored the War of 1812, protective tariffs, internal improvements at Federal expense, and a national bank. As early supporters of Henry Clay's American System, he and Clay put themselves in opposition to political forces in their own home states and probably cost Clay the Presidency. A federal tax system inspired by the work of Alexander Hamilton and later developed into the "National System" by German-American economist Friedrich List, the purpose was to develop American heavy industry and international commerce. Since iron, coal, and water power were mainly in the North, this tax plan was doomed to cause rancor in the South where economies were agriculture-based.^[27][28] Leading Southerners were already relatively rich, could easily afford to buy European manufactured goods, and (except Clay) could be expe