Chronology: Key Events in The Origins of the American Civil War,1820–61

1820: Missouri Compromise. (1)
1846: Start of Mexican War; Wilmot Proviso.
1847: Calhoun Doctrine. (2)
1850: Great Compromise (3); Fugitive Slave Law.
1851: Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.
1852: Pierce elected president.
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act. (4)
1854-56: ‘Bleeding Kansas’. (5)
1856: Buchanan elected president.
1857: Dred Scott Case (6); financial panic.
1858: Lincoln-Douglas debates. (7)
1859: John Brown’s raid. (8)
1860: Lincoln elected president (9); South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1861: February: ‘Deep South’ secedes; establishment of the Confederacy
          April: Fort Sumter attacked; ‘Upper South’ secedes.

(1) The Compromise was the last major attempt to deal peacefully with problems between North and South.

(2) Slavery was the great national issue by the late 1840s and it split the Democrats and Whigs. Senator Calhoun of South Carolina supported a Platform of the South to allow slavery in the new territories of California, Texas, Utah and New Mexico.

(3) Drafted by Henry Clay, the Compromise was a genuine attempt to end the quarrels over slavery. It dealt with factors such as the new territories, fugitive slaves and popular sovereignty over the issue of slavery, and it was accepted, with reservations, by both North and South. It enabled California to join the Union as a free state, and created the New Mexico Territory and the Utah Territory. It also brought an end to the sectional conflict that had surrounded the incorporation of Texas and the Mexican War. However, its success was short-lived and postponed rather than prevented future conflict.

(4) The Act opened up Kansas to white settlement and ended the 1850 Compromise because it allowed popular sovereignty and possibly slavery above the 36° 30’ line of the Missouri Compromise. The bill’s proponent, Senator Douglas, had hoped to win Southern support while benefiting the rail interests of the North. However, too many in the North were morally opposed to slavery and when the bill was passed, it split both the Democrats and Whigs.

(5) Kansas became the pivotal state in the issue over slavery. By 1856 there was virtual civil war as both slavers and anti-slavers fought each other and more than 200 died.

(6) Scott was a slave who was assumed to be free as he had lived with his master in free territories. The Supreme Court, however, declared that slavery was legal in all territories and Scott had no rights but existed as property.

(7) Lincoln and Douglas contested Illinois in 1858 and took part in seven debates where Lincoln argued against slavery and Douglas in favour. Douglas became the new senator but Lincoln emerged as a national figure.
 
(8) John Brown organised an armed raid from Kansas (non-slave) into Virginia (a slave state) hoping for a slave uprising. He failed to capture a US army depot at Harper’s Ferry, was arrested and executed. However, the moral support he gained from the North convinced the South that slavery was not safe within the Union, and so hastened the secession process.

(9) Lincoln’s election was the immediate cause for the secession of the Southern states. The Confederacy was created following his inauguration in March 1861.