This chapter examines the decade that preceded the Civil War. It begins with two dramatic sectional incidents: the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, by a proslavery band in May 1856; and John Brown's retaliatory Pottawatomie massacre. The narrative highlights the symbolic importance of the struggle in Kansas to both the South and the North, as well as the escalating violence of the decade.

Sectional Changes in American Society

The escalation of the sectional conflict occurred against the backdrop of a fundamental economic transformation in the United States. Railroads spread across the country, opening new lands to development and bringing more regions into the wider market. The growth of railroads and rising grain prices in Europe stimulated the expansion of commercial agriculture in the North, making grain as crucial as an export commodity as cotton for the national economy. The railroad network also served to link the West economically to the East rather than the South, creating economic alliances that would help to determine political loyalties in the coming conflict. Previously, most agricultural shipments from the Northwest had gone down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans; in the 1850s, the bulk of this trade now shifted, moving east on railroad lines. At the same time, industry boomed in the North and an immense tide of immigration provided cheap labor for these factories and swelled northern population (and thus political power) at the expense of the South. The arrival of so many immigrants created a number of social problems, particularly in cities where many of the newcomers settled.

With cotton prices relatively high, the South remained prosperous throughout the 1850s. Even so, southern leaders complained about their section's dependence on the North for manufactured goods, shipping, and marketing services. Efforts to promote industrialization in the South or diversify its economy failed. The rising cost of slaves also reduced planters' margin of profit.

The Political Realignment of the 1850s

Friction between native-born citizens and immigrants eventually disrupted the Whig party and helped to destroy the Jacksonian party system. During the same period, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and opening the remaining regions of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery under the doctrine of popular sovereignty. In doing so, it again placed the slavery issue at the center of national politics. Under these strains, the party system crumbled.

The first party to benefit from this political chaos was the nativist Know-Nothings, who called for restrictions on the political power of immigrants and Catholics. The party grew rapidly in 1854 and 1855, as thousands of voters enrolled in its lodges. So many Whigs joined the Know-Nothings that the Whig party could no longer remain competitive and disappeared.

Yet sectional issues also split the Know-Nothing organization at the height of its power. A race ensued between northerners and southerners to settle Kansas; massive proslavery fraud marred the first elections in the territory. Before long, fighting broke out in Kansas between proslavery and antislavery partisans. The continuing turmoil in Kansas and the attack on Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate chamber in May 1856 greatly strengthened the new sectional Republican party, largely at the expense of the Know-Nothings. Aided by the Kansas and Sumner issues, the Republicans emerged in the 1856 election as the strongest party in the North and the second strongest party in the nation, after the Democrats. The Republican Party opposed the expansion of slavery and argued that the aristocratic Slave Power threatened republican government and the rights of white northerners.

The Worsening Crisis

Despite the Republicans' strong and unexpected showing, the Democrats carried the 1856 election. James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, assumed office in 1857 intending to dampen sectionalism. However, the Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court declared that Congress could not prohibit slavery from a territory, ruined the president's hopes. The Court's decision outraged Republicans, for it nullified their principal demand. An economic depression in 1857, which hurt the North more than the South, further weakened Buchanan's influence.

Buchanan's attempt to force the admission of Kansas through Congress under the proslavery Lecompton constitution split the Democratic Party along sectional lines. Stephen A. Douglas, the foremost supporter of popular sovereignty and the leading northern Democrat in the country, broke with the president on this issue and opposed the Lecompton constitution as the work of a small minority in Kansas. Congress rejected the Lecompton constitution, but Douglas now stood as the symbol of the deep sectional divisions within the Democratic Party. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln challenged Douglas in Illinois for his senate seat. Douglas narrowly won re-election, but Lincoln's strong race brought him national recognition and stature.

Southerners of this period became increasingly fearful of the future. The growing concentration of wealth and land within the region produced concerns that without new lands, slavery and the southern economy would stagnate. Various proposals to relieve the South's internal crisis failed, and more and more southern whites felt morally and politically isolated.

The Road to War

John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry in 1859 alarmed southerners, and the support this "murderer" received from prominent northern intellectuals created an additional shock among the planter class. Sentiment for disunion seemed stronger than ever. The Democratic party split into two wings in 1860, each with its own presidential candidate. As a result, the presidential election of 1860 became a four-way contest, which Republican Abraham Lincoln won with less than 40 percent of the popular vote. For the first time in American history, a sectional antislavery party had elected a president.

Following Lincoln's election, the seven Deep South states seceded and organized the Confederate States of America. Congress defeated proposals to resolve the crisis, including the most important one offered by Senator John Crittenden. The refusal of both Republicans and Deep South secessionists to make concessions doomed all compromise efforts. When Lincoln sent supplies to Fort Sumter's Union garrison, Confederate batteries opened fire and captured the fort. The North rallied to Lincoln's call for troops to restore the Union, and four more southern states—the Upper South—seceded. The diverging economies of the two sections, the weaknesses of the nation's political system, the ideology of republicanism with its fears of conspiracies against liberty, and the unique problems posed by slavery had all proven crucial to this outcome. The Civil War had begun.