Impending Crisis, The: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861

683 Pages·34.411 MB·English

by  David M. Potter

THE IMPENDING CRISIS
1848-1861
The
New American Nation Series
EDITED BY
HENRY STEELE COMMAGER
AND
RICHARD MORRIS
B.
THE
IMPENDING
CRISIS
•
1848 1861
By DAVID M. POTTER
DON FEHRENBACHER
ComjiUlrdaud Edited hy E.
ILLUSTRATED
jsL
1817
HARPER ROW, PUBLISHERS
&:
New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London
The map entitled "The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854" is in The XalwnalExperienceby
Blum,Cattonelal© 1963byHarcourtBraceJovanovich,Inc.andisreproducedwith
their permission.
The map entitled "Election of 1860" is in From These Beginnings . . . A Biographical
©
Approach toAmerican Historyby Frederick Nash, copyright 1973 by Roderick Nash.
Reprinted by permission ofHarper & Row, Publishers, Inc.
THE IMPENDINGCRISIS, 1848-1861. Copyright © 1976 by EstateofDavid M. Potter.
Allrightsreserved.PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.Nopartofthisbookmay
beusedorreproducedinanymannerwhatsoeverwithoutwrittenpermissionexcept
inthecaseofbriefquotationsembodiedincriticalarticlesandreviews: Forinforma-
tion address Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, N.Y.
10022. Pubhshed simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited,
Toronto.
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
Potter, David Morris
The impending crisis, 1848-1861.
(The New American Nation series)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865-
Causes. 2. Sectionalism (United States)
I. Fehrenbacher, Don Edward, 1920- II. Title.
E459.P67 973.7'11 75-6354
ISBN 0-06-013403-8
76 77 78 79 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
To MY DAUGHTER, CATHERINE MaRY PoTTER
Contents
Editors' Introduction xiii
1. American Nationalism Achieves an Ominous
Fulfillment
i
2. Portents of a Sectional Rift i8
3. Forging the Territorial Shears 51
4. The Deadlock of 1846-1850 63
5. The Armistice of 1850 90
6. Fire-Eaters, Fugitives, and Finality 121
7. A Railroad Promotion and Its Sequel 145
8. The Ebb Tide of Manifest Destiny 177
9. Two Wars in Kansas 199
10. The Political Parties in Metamorphosis 225
1 1. Dred Scott and the Law of the Land 267
12. Lecompton: The Descent Grows Steeper 297
13. Lincoln, Douglas, and the Implications of
Slavery 328
14. Harpers Ferry: A Revolution That Failed 356
15. Southern Maneuvers on the Eve of Conflict 385
CONTENTS
viii
16. The Election of i860 405
17. The Nature of Southern Separatism 448
18. The Lower South Secedes 485
19. Winter Crisis 514
20. Fort Sumter: End and Beginning 555
Bibliography 584
Acknowledgments 622
Index 623
IlUistrations
Pictures selected and lay-out designed byJudith Mara Gutman
These illustrations will befoundfollowingpage 270
1. Anti-Whig cartoon, with Zachary Taylor on top ofthe heap
2. JohnJordan Crittenden
3. Millard Fillmore
4. The Polk family
5. San Procopio (Retablo), by an unknown native New Mexican artist
6. "Justice's Court in the Backwoods"
7. "Cider Mill"
8. Implements used in warfare during the 1850s
9. "Mexican News"
10. John Charles Fremont
11. "Characters ofSan Francisco, 1854"
12. Cover for the sheet music of"Ho! for the Kansas Plains"
13. Land ownership certificate enabling free-stater Edward E. Hale to
vote in Kansas
14. Slave-staters voting in Kansas
15. Free-staters in Kansas readying their cannon
16. "Ruins ofthe Free State Hotel, Lawrence"
17. William Henry Seward
18. The United States Senate, 1850
19. Franklin Pierce
20. Daniel Webster
21. Lewis Cass
22. "Slave Market at Richmond"
23. "The Resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia"
24. Scene from Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
25. Anti-slavery handbill
26. Harriet Beecher Stowe
ILLUSTRATIONS
i
27. A page from the American Anti-Slavery Almanac
28. John Brown
29. Dred Scott
30. "Southern Chivalry: Argument versus Club's"
31. Abraham Lincoln
32. Stephen A. Douglas
33. Cloth banner promoting the Republican ticket, 1860
34. Pro-Lincoln political cartoon
35. "Steven A. Douglas, Patriot"
36. "A Secession Movement"
37. "James Buchanan,Judas"
38. "J. C. Breckinridge, Traitor"
39. Poster announcing an Anti-Slavery Meeting
40. "We Go for the Union"
41. Announcement ofSouth Carolina's secession on the front page of
the Charleston Mercury, December 20, 1860
42. The Sharps Rifle
43. Fort Sumter after the first shelling
44. "On to Liberty"
Maps and Charts
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 166
Electoral and Popular Votes in the Elections of 1848, 1852, and
1856 266
The Election of 1860 444