Pg. 22 1856: Republican’s Party’s 1st Presidential election
-Republican: John C. Fremont
-Democrat: James Buchanan
-the party put out its first-ever party platform
***6 of the 9 planks set forth bold declarations of equality and civil rights for African Americans based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence
Pg. 23 -the Democratic platform took the opposite position, strongly defending slavery
“All efforts of the abolitionists…are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences and all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people.”
Democrats 1856:
-ending slavery would not only be dangerous but would also ruin the happiness of the people
-the Republicans lost the election
1857:
-Democrats controlled the Supreme Court
-the Supreme Court delivered the Dred Scott decision
-it declared blacks were not persons or citizens but instead were property and therefore had no rights
- Democrats on the Court announced:
That blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.”
1860: Presidential election
-Republican Abraham Lincoln
-Democratic U.S. Senate Stephen Douglas of Illinois
-Democratic platform: supported both the Fugitive Law and the Dred Scott decisions
-Democrats handed out copies of the Dred Scott decision to affirm their belief that is was proper to have slavery and to hold African Americans in bondage
-Republican platform: blasted both the Fugitive Law and the Dred Scott decision
-Republican platform: announced its intent to end slavery and secure equal civil rights for black Americans
**Note: a century and a half, Democrats often have taken a position that some human life is disposable
-Democrats: a black individual was not a life, it was property so the owner could do with his property as he wished
-Today: Democrats have taken that same position on unborn human life
-unborn humans are disposable to do as one wishes
- African Americans current population is roughly 12 % of the population but is about 35% of the population of all abortions are performed
-Democrats encourage abortions even though the majority of African Americans are pro-life
-In Congress today, Democrats are rabidly pro-abortion and consistently vote against protections for innocent unborn human life
-Democrats argue that human life is merely dispensable personal property
-black Americans has suffered under this philosophy
Pg. 25 1860 presidential election
-there was a split in the Democratic Party
-Northern Democrats still approved slavery
-Southern Democrats were willing to split the United States to form their own nation over the issue
-Northern Democrats voted for Stephen Douglas for President
-Southern Democrats voted for John C. Breckenridge
-Republicans voted for Abraham Lincoln so he was elected with only 40% of the popular vote, but 59% of the Electoral college vote
***Republicans also won a majority in the U.S. House and Senate in that election giving control of the lawmaking process for the first time
-anti-slavery and pro-civil rights positions were about to become a reality
-Southern Democrats left Congress and took their States with them forming a nation that described itself as “slaveholding” confederate States of America
-Norther Democrats did not support succession, but still supported slavery and opposed civil rights for black Americans
**the main difference between southern and northern Democrats as the time was their view on secession NOT slavery
-many Democrats celebrated Lincoln's election for it had given them the excuse to secede and form their slave holding nation
Pg. 26 The Knights of the Golden Circle
-an organization composed almost exclusively of Democrats
-before the Civil War, they worked to establish a separate slave nation that included the southern United States, Mexico, and part of Central America
-The War Between the States/The Great Rebellion (Civil War) broke out
-Democrats narrowed their broad goals to focus on making the Confederate States of America as a separate slave nation
Leaders of this new nations of slave holding state:
-Democratic U.S. Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi resigned from the Senate to became President of this e new slaveholding nations
-Democratic Representative Alexander Stephens of Georgia resigned from the House to become Vice=President
-the citizens of this new slaveholding nation became known as “Rebels” since they were in rebellion against the United States
-not every southern Rebel was a slaveholder or supported slavery
-defenders of the southern Confederacy in their misguided efforts to prove slavery was not the primary issue during the Civil War asserted that only 5% of Southerners owned slaves
-misleading data that only 5% of Southerners owned slaves by have a hint of truth it matters that 19% of Southerners lived in households that owned slaves
Ex. South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, etc….had half of their population were slaves
-southern States, ⅔ were either slaves or lived in a slave household, or owned slaves
-southern States, ⅓ made a living by supplying materials or services to the slave homes or plantations
**assertion that only 5% of Southerners may have owned slaves does not diminish the fact that slavery was THE dominant industry in the southern States
-succession documents of the States that left the Union proved it was all about slavery
***slavery was THE primary distinction between the North and the South, Rebels therefore were fighting for the existence of a slaveholding nation
States Rights:
-the cry of the southern States before the Civil War
-they wanted the right of States to make their own decisions about slavery
-they also wanted the right of States to make their own decisions about whether or not to recognize civil rights for black Americans
***”States Rights” became a euphemism first for holding blacks in slavery and then for subjecting them to Black Codes, segregation, and institutional discrimination
In 1860:
-Republicans had firmly control of the federal government