A Different America
A Brief History Of The President’s Of The United States
Chapter 12: Stephen Douglas, the 12th President
Part 2: A Split in the Party, Douglas for 3
12th President of the United States, Stephen Douglas
President Douglas would begin his second term a popular President. At the time, his Kansas-Nebraska Act was seen as a political masterpiece that had laid the foundation for America’s movement westward through rail while giving the people the right to choose their own form of government in Kansas. However, dark clouds had gathered for President Douglas, clouds he did not foreshadow.
By his re-election, thousands of pro-slavery and anti-slavery families and groups had moved into Kansas with the intention of ensuring the territory became a state that either supported or disapproved of slavery. What would ensue was a string of violence which historians would go on to call “Bleeding Kansas.”
The burning down of a abolitionist settlement in Kansas
On March 14th, 1857, a group of pro-slavery men set fire to a neighboring town of anti-slavery folks who had migrated to Kansas for the upcoming election at the end of the year. These men, lead by one Theodore Sanford, would go on to raze various towns to the ground in attempts to scare off abolitionist groups in the territory. From March to the beginning of May, various abolitionist settlements had been destroyed. This terror move by the Ol’ Boys, as they called themselves, backfired as the abolitionist soon began fighting back. Already, 23 people had died due to the fires, but the conflict was about to get bloodier.
Charles Sumner being attacked on the floor of the Senate.
News was soon reaching Congress, and in May 22nd of 1856, Senator Charles Sumner would be beaten on the floor of the Senate chamber by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, two days after Sumner had given an intense anti-slavery speech. Sumner was badly injured, as were two other Senators that attempted to help him, one being shot by Laurence M. Keitt.
President Douglas was appalled by what had transpired. He was given a copy of Sumner’s speech and was noting in saying, “This damn fool got himself beat by another damn fool.” Both Keitt and Preston were impeached from office, and Keitt was arrested for shooting Representative Charles Dane (Free-Soiler) of Vermont as he went to help Sumner. This initiative was pushed by Douglas who wanted to make a statement to Congress, however it would soon be decried by his own party, particularly in the South.
John Brown, leader of Abolitionist hostiles during the War Over Kansas and leader of the Freeman's Massacre
Back in Kansas, John Brown, a fervid abolitionist, would hear of the events and would organize a semi-large group and on the night May 27th they would sneak up on where Sanford and his men were, leading 10 pro-slavery men from their homes and hacking them to death. What would be called the Freeman’s Massacre, would officially begin the “War Over Kansas.”
Sanford, who would lose a son in the massacre, would organize a large group of pro-slavery forces who would meet against Brown’s own forces outside the Lawrence settlement. The Battle of Lawrence would see an entrapment of Brown and his abolitionist forces, leading to the death of 103 abolitionist's, and the imprisonment of 40 others.
On July 10th of that year, the vote was finally held, and it proclaimed that the state would be welcomed a Slave State. However, a Congressional Committee would investigate the election and state that Border Rufians had influenced the votes. President Douglas would call the election void.
John W. Geary, Governor of the Kansas Territory
More so, after hearing of the 103 dead in the Battle of Lawrence, President Douglas would send various regiments into the territory to enforce peace. John W. Geary would become Governor of the territory in the end of the year, and with the use of Federal troops, uphold peace in the area.
By 1860, election year, Kansas would be quiet. Still, 136 people would have died by the end of it making it the bloodiest civil dispute between the people of the country over slavery. Still, Douglas remained quite popular amongst northern Democrats. In the south, however, came calls of abolishment of the bank, which the President had called for earlier in his first term but which he had stayed shut about in his second term, working with Congress on other issues like the continued push for industrialization of the country which he pushed with rival turned friend, Abraham Lincoln.
Southern Democratic nominee 1860/1864
John C. Breckinridge of the South hoped to take his parties nomination for the 1860 election. He had the support of former Vice-President Quitman and of much of the Southern pro-slavery folk. However, as 1860 came around, and with the implosion of the Whig party, it became evident that President Douglas was going to do something no other President had done before him. Run for a third term. Clinching the nomination among northern Democrats along with some of the northern Southern vote, Douglas would officially become the Democratic nominee for a 3rd time. Breckinridge would not stand for this as he and other Southern Democrats would leave the Convention and run Breckinridge in a separate ticket under the monicker Southern Democrat.
Willaim H. Seward, 1st Presidential nominee of the Popular Party
The Whig Party, after the 1856 election, completely imploded. Northern Whigs joined, for the most part, with the Anti-Slavers and Free-Soilers to form the Popular Party. This radical Party, headed by William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase, would rise in prominence. Moderate Whigs, however, would find some appeal in joining the Democrats, or at least the Northern Democrats headed by Douglas, that didn’t favor slavery, technically. The most prominent of these Whig-Democrats would be Abraham Lincoln who would switch aisles in the 1860 Senate election.
The 1860 election would see Douglas win a narrow victory as the Popular Party had not garnered enough Northern support and the Southern Democrats did not take the northern-south. For the first time ever a President had been elected to a third term, breaking the precedent created by President Washington.
President Douglas’ second term would see a heated tension across the nation. He was faced with two options, either he tried to reign back the South and lost the North, or he remained with North and lost the South. He chose a middle ground, attempting to keep his Presidency a non-turbulent one.
This would lead to Douglas’ getting little done. Southern Democrat’s, angry with Douglas, refused to work with him, and also alienated Democrat’s from Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana whose states had voted for Douglas in the last election. While Louisiana would fall back in line, Virginia and Kentucky, which had grown less dependent on Slavery, fought it, preferring to stay with the Democratic coalition rather than join the largely secessionist Southern Dems.
One move Douglas is able to get done in his third term is the termination of the Third Bank of the United States, effectively ending the dead Clay’s shining beacon from the days of the Whig’s. Douglas had always been against the Bank since his first term, but was caught up with other things until his third term.
The 1864 Election would go down in history as the last election of an America which still supported Slavery. The Popular Party had gained steam in the North, and with Salmon P. Chase at it’s head, were poised to take the nomination. The Democrat’s, who now rallied under the slogan “Vote Democrat for the Safety of the Union,” attempted to sell themselves as the only viable alternative to Civil War. The Southern Democrats wanted to keep slavery going, and threatened secession if not elected.
Sure enough, Salmon P. Chase would win a narrow Election in 1864, and in December 11th, 1864 South Carolina would secede from the United States.