Chapter 2: The Sectional Crisis, 1830â1850
Chapter 2: The Sectional Crisis, 1830–1850
From the 1790s until 1815, the First Party System functioned with the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans as the main political parties. With the embarrassment of the treasonous Hartford Convention during the War of 1812, the Federalists soon disappeared as a viable political party. During the supposed “Era of Good Feelings,” the Democratic-Republicans ruled as a single party, controlling the presidency for close to three decades. With the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, disgruntled Democrats broke away and formed the Whig party. The Second Party System would last almost another three decades ending with the fall of the Whigs and rise of the Republican Party.
One of the lasting critical issues from Jackson’s presidency was the Nullification Crisis. South Carolina and its leading politician, John C. Calhoun, Jackson’s vice-president, fought with the federal government over the Tariff of 1828, which South Carolina believed gave advantages to the North at the expense of the South. In November 1832, South Carolinians declared the tariff “null and void” and threatened secession. This resulted in an uproar from President Jackson and other political leaders. Under the direction of Henry Clay, the Compromise of 1833 was agreed upon, which promised the lowering of the tariffs and South Carolina’s retreat from secession and nullification.
Sectional tensions rose once again after Texas gained its independence from Mexico and desired to enter the Union as a slave state. Democratic President James K. Polk ran on a platform
©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2012
promising the annexation of Texas, which he fulfilled in 1845. Many northerners and abolitionists felt that admitting Texas as a slave state gave credence to the belief in a “Slave Power Conspiracy” within the Federal government that desired the continued expansion of slavery. Beginning over a dispute with Mexico on the southern border of Texas, the US–Mexican War lasted from 1846 to 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended the war and ceded the New Mexico, Utah, and California territories to the United States. Mexico lost almost half of its territory and the United States doubled in land mass. The sectional crises erupted again over the issue of slavery in the newly acquired lands. The resulting Compromise of 1850, once again facilitated by Henry Clay’s leadership, comprised five separate laws passed that allowed California to enter as a free state, the issue of slave to be decided by popular sovereignty within New Mexico and Utah, the ending of the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and a strengthened fugitive slave law.
Anti-slavery thought and abolitionism had roots in the United States from its beginning. Many of the founding generation were even members of the New York Manumission Society in 1785. Leading abolitionists argued over two theories of ending slavery. Gradualists desired the gradual ending of slavery over time with some believing many slaveholders would voluntarily free their slaves. The American Colonization Society (formed in 1816) supported the gradual ending of slavery with an idea of migrating free blacks to Africa. By 1830, more than 1400 African Americans made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to Liberia. Immediatists, made most famous by William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, sought the immediate ending of slavery no matter the material or economic results. Garrison started his abolitionist newspaper, The
©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2012
Liberator, in 1831 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, pushing for the immediate end of slavery.
Throughout the sectional crisis from 1830–1860 the North and South further entrenched their sectional beliefs on slavery and society. Abolitionists organized and published newspapers, pamphlets, and even created political parties to promote their ideas. Southern politicians and intellectuals responded by creating their own proslavery argument based on religious reasoning, historical examples, and attacks on free labor. After 1850, compromise seemed unachievable as sectional allegiances began to overcome party allegiance. The last decade prior to the Civil War would test the boundaries of sectional and party loyalties.
©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2012
From the 1790s until 1815, the First Party System functioned with the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans as the main political parties. With the embarrassment of the treasonous Hartford Convention during the War of 1812, the Federalists soon disappeared as a viable political party. During the supposed “Era of Good Feelings,” the Democratic-Republicans ruled as a single party, controlling the presidency for close to three decades. With the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, disgruntled Democrats broke away and formed the Whig party. The Second Party System would last almost another three decades ending with the fall of the Whigs and rise of the Republican Party.
One of the lasting critical issues from Jackson’s presidency was the Nullification Crisis. South Carolina and its leading politician, John C. Calhoun, Jackson’s vice-president, fought with the federal government over the Tariff of 1828, which South Carolina believed gave advantages to the North at the expense of the South. In November 1832, South Carolinians declared the tariff “null and void” and threatened secession. This resulted in an uproar from President Jackson and other political leaders. Under the direction of Henry Clay, the Compromise of 1833 was agreed upon, which promised the lowering of the tariffs and South Carolina’s retreat from secession and nullification.
Sectional tensions rose once again after Texas gained its independence from Mexico and desired to enter the Union as a slave state. Democratic President James K. Polk ran on a platform
©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2012
promising the annexation of Texas, which he fulfilled in 1845. Many northerners and abolitionists felt that admitting Texas as a slave state gave credence to the belief in a “Slave Power Conspiracy” within the Federal government that desired the continued expansion of slavery. Beginning over a dispute with Mexico on the southern border of Texas, the US–Mexican War lasted from 1846 to 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended the war and ceded the New Mexico, Utah, and California territories to the United States. Mexico lost almost half of its territory and the United States doubled in land mass. The sectional crises erupted again over the issue of slavery in the newly acquired lands. The resulting Compromise of 1850, once again facilitated by Henry Clay’s leadership, comprised five separate laws passed that allowed California to enter as a free state, the issue of slave to be decided by popular sovereignty within New Mexico and Utah, the ending of the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and a strengthened fugitive slave law.
Anti-slavery thought and abolitionism had roots in the United States from its beginning. Many of the founding generation were even members of the New York Manumission Society in 1785. Leading abolitionists argued over two theories of ending slavery. Gradualists desired the gradual ending of slavery over time with some believing many slaveholders would voluntarily free their slaves. The American Colonization Society (formed in 1816) supported the gradual ending of slavery with an idea of migrating free blacks to Africa. By 1830, more than 1400 African Americans made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to Liberia. Immediatists, made most famous by William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, sought the immediate ending of slavery no matter the material or economic results. Garrison started his abolitionist newspaper, The
©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2012
Liberator, in 1831 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, pushing for the immediate end of slavery.
Throughout the sectional crisis from 1830–1860 the North and South further entrenched their sectional beliefs on slavery and society. Abolitionists organized and published newspapers, pamphlets, and even created political parties to promote their ideas. Southern politicians and intellectuals responded by creating their own proslavery argument based on religious reasoning, historical examples, and attacks on free labor. After 1850, compromise seemed unachievable as sectional allegiances began to overcome party allegiance. The last decade prior to the Civil War would test the boundaries of sectional and party loyalties.
©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2012
