History 103 *** AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1877 *** Nov. 25, 1996

THE POLITICAL REALIGNMENT OF THE 1850s

I. "Young America"

• Quest for Cuba
• Ostend Manifesto (1854) and controversy
• Gadsden Purchase (1853-54)

   

II. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Stephen Douglas's desire to organize Nebraska
• Concessions to southerners:
  • Repeal of Missouri Compromise
  • Creation of two territories
• Controversy over bill
• Passage

III. Collapse of the Second Party System

• Competing explanations for Whig Party's demise
• Rise of Republican party (1854- )
• Rise of American (Know-Nothing) party (1854- )
• Elections of 1854-55 and implications

IV. "Bleeding Kansas"

• Test of popular sovereignty
• Lecompton government (established 1855)
• Topeka government (established 1855-56)
• "Bleeding Sumner" (1856)
• John Brown and the Pottawatomie Massacre (1856)

V. Presidential Election of 1856

• American party splits
  • Southern wing nominates Fillmore
  • Northern wing moves toward Republicans
• Democrats nominate James Buchanan, defend Kansas-Nebraska
• Republicans nominate John C. Frémont
• Buchanan's victory
• Changing role of party politics

VI. The Dred Scott Decision

• Case history
• Supreme Court ruling against Scott (1857)
• Taney's opinion re: blacks, Missouri Compromise