American History Series: The Struggle Over Slavery in the Kansas Territory
Anti-slavery settlers felt they could not get fair treatment from President Franklin Pierce or the territory’s new governor. So they formed their own government. Transcript of radio broadcast:
06 May 2009
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
The most difficult national problem facing the administration of President Franklin Pierce was the situation in Kansas. The territory struggled with the issue of slavery.
Pro-slavery settlers elected a representative to Congress. Then they won a majority of seats in the territorial legislature. An investigation found that people from the neighboring state of Missouri had voted in the elections illegally. Yet the results were accepted.
The new Kansas lawmakers did not like the territorial governor. They demanded that President Pierce dismiss him. Pierce agreed.
This week on our series, Ray Freeman and Steve Ember continue the story of the presidency of Franklin Pierce. And they talk about the presidential election of eighteen fifty-six.
VOICE ONE:
Anti-slavery settlers in Kansas felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an extreme step. They formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory.
Their political group was known as the Free State Party. Party members wrote their own constitution and chose their own governor.
VOICE TWO:
A map of the Territory of Kansas
Territory of Kansas
President Pierce said the actions of the Free State Party seemed revolutionary. He warned against violence. He said if party members attacked any officials or property of the territory or the federal government, party leaders should be charged with treason.
The president gave the pro-slavery governor of Kansas control of troops at two army bases in the territory. Many people feared that the governor would use the troops to arrest the leaders of the Free State government.
VOICE ONE:
Fighting between the two sides almost began when a Free State man was killed by a pro-slavery man. Free State settlers gathered in the town of Lawrence and organized a defense force. At the same time, hundreds of pro-slavery men crossed the border from Missouri. They planned to go to Lawrence and burn it to the ground.
The pro-slavery governor and the Free State governor agreed to hold an emergency meeting. They negotiated a settlement, and the men on both sides went home. The truce did not last long.
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VOICE TWO:
In the weeks that followed, a number of attempts were made to stop or arrest the leaders of the Free State government. Pro-slavery officials urged private citizens to help. Once again, hundreds of men — including many from Missouri — gathered in Kansas. Once again, their target was the town of Lawrence. This time, however, there was no truce.
The pro-slavery mob attacked and burned several buildings. A number of people were killed. The violence might have ended quickly. But one of the men defending the town believed that the battle against the forces of slavery must continue. And he believed that God had chosen him to lead it. The man was John Brown.
VOICE ONE:
John Brown heard that five Free State men had died in the attack on Lawrence. So he said five pro-slavery men must die in return. He led a group that seized and killed five people.
The civil disorder in Kansas continued. Settlers were forced off their land. Houses were burned. More people were killed. The territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
VOICE TWO:
It was clear that there were deep differences between the northern and southern American states. The differences involved their economies, their systems of labor, and their way of life.
The civil disorder caused by these differences was the chief issue in the presidential election of eighteen fifty-six. Three political parties offered candidates: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Know-Nothings.
The Whig Party did not offer a candidate. The party had gone out of existence by then. Its members had split over the question of slavery in the western territories. The split could not be healed. Most southern Whigs joined the Democratic Party. Most northern Whigs joined the Know-Nothing Party.
VOICE ONE:
The Know-Nothing Party began as a secret anti-immigrant organization. It feared that too many people from other countries were coming to live in the United States.
Members did not want to admit that they belonged to the group. When asked, they said, “I know nothing.”
And that is how the organization got its name.
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VOICE TWO:
The Democratic Party was led by President Franklin Pierce. Pierce wanted to run for re-election. Many northern Democrats, however, objected to his support of the pro-slavery legislature in Kansas. Other Democrats did not think he was the strongest candidate. As a result, Pierce faced competition for the party’s nomination.
One opponent was Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas had great political ability. He also had many political enemies. He was the man most responsible for gaining congressional approval of the bill that opened Kansas to slavery.
VOICE ONE:
Pierce’s other opponent for the Democratic nomination was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Buchanan was a northerner who would probably leave the South alone.
“I am not friendly to the idea of slavery,” he said. “but the rights of the South — under our constitution — should have as much protection as the rights of any other part of our Union. ”
VOICE TWO:
The Democratic Party met in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the first time a national political convention was held that far west.
Candidates needed two-thirds of the votes to win the nomination. After several days of voting, no candidate had received enough. So, in an effort to unite the party, Stephen Douglas offered to withdraw. James Buchanan got his votes and the nomination.
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VOICE ONE:
The Republican Party was a new political party. Its members opposed slavery for either moral or economic reasons.
Many Republicans were Abolitionists. They wanted to ban slavery everywhere in the United States. The majority of Republicans, however, were not Abolitionists. They had no interest in ending slave labor in the South. They simply did not want slavery to spread to other areas.
The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia. For months, party members had spoken of just one man. He was John Fremont. Fremont had explored the American west. He had been a senator from California. He was young and exciting. Republicans thought he was the right man to lead their young and exciting party.
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VOICE TWO:
The Know-Nothing Party had a divided nominating convention. Northern and southern members agreed on policies that denounced immigrants. But they split on the issue of slavery. Northern members opposed it. Southern members supported it.
Delegates to the convention chose a candidate who seemed to support the party’s policies. Yet he was not even a member of the party. He was a Whig, former president Millard Fillmore.
Northern members refused to support Fillmore. They broke away from the Know-Nothing Party and supported the Republican candidate, John Fremont.
VOICE ONE:
Fremont could not expect to win any votes in the slave states of the South. He would have to get all of his support in the North. He would have to win the votes of the big states, including Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania was the home of the Democratic candidate, James Buchanan.
Buchanan had said that the constitutional rights of the southern states should be protected. So he could expect to win some votes there. When all the votes were counted, Buchanan was elected. Now he would have to deal with the problems that presidents before him had not been able to solve.
VOICE TWO:
James Buchanan was sixty-five years old. He had served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. He had served as secretary of state and as ambassador. He was a good diplomat. But he was not considered a strong political leader.
Buchanan usually supported the southern position in the dispute about slavery. He said the North should stop interfering with the South. He even said the South had good reason to leave the Union, if northern Abolitionists continued their anti-slavery campaign.
As president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slavery question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. He wanted a cabinet that shared and supported this idea.
We will tell about James Buchanan’s administration in our next program.
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ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Ray Freeman and Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION — an American history series in VOA Special English.
This is program #83 of THE MAKING OF A NATION
American History Series: Kansas Takes Steps Towards Statehood
Pro-slavery settlers race to gain Kansas for the South. But they face opposition from the man President Pierce appointed governor of the territory, Andrew Reeder. Transcript of radio broadcast:
29 April 2009
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION — American history in VOA Special English.
Now, we continue the story of America’s fourteenth president, Franklin Pierce.
Pierce was elected in eighteen fifty-two. He was a compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He was well-liked. But he was not considered a strong leader.
The eighteen fifties were an increasingly tense time in the United States. Most of the population lived east of the Mississippi River. But more and more people were moving west. As western areas became populated, they became official territories, and then new states.
What kind of laws would these new territories and states have? Would the laws be decided by the Congress in Washington? Or would they be voted on by the people living in them?
The biggest legal question affecting western lands was slavery. This week in our series, Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith tell more about the long disputed issue of slavery and the Kansas-Missouri bill.
VOICE ONE:
Owning another human being was legal in many parts of the United States at that time. Slaves were considered property, like furniture and farm animals.
People who owned negro slaves wanted to take all their property — including the slaves — with them when they moved west. People who opposed slavery did not want it to spread. Some of them considered slavery a moral issue. They believed it violated the laws of God. An increasing number of white Americans, however, saw slavery as an economic issue. They wanted new states to be free from slavery, so they would not have to compete with slave labor.
VOICE TWO:
The United States had been established as a democracy. Yet slavery existed. America’s early leaders knew that trying to end slavery probably would split the nation in two. So they looked for compromises. They decided it was better to save the Union…even if it was not perfect…than to watch the Union end.
Like other presidents, Franklin Pierce hoped to avoid the issue. He also believed that earlier legislation had settled the debate. In eighteen twenty, Congress had passed the Missouri Compromise. It extended a line across the map of the United States. South of the line, slavery was legal. North of the line, slavery was not legal, except in Missouri.
Thirty years later, another political compromise made the situation less clear.
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VOICE ONE:
The compromise of eighteen fifty made slavery a local issue, instead of a national issue, in several western territories. It said the people in those territories had the right to decide for themselves if slavery would be legal or illegal.
Within a few years, that law caused a new debate in Congress. Lawmakers argued: was the peoples’ right to decide the issue of slavery restricted only to the territories named in the compromise of eighteen fifty? Or was the right extended to the people of all future territories?
VOICE TWO:
The answer came in eighteen fifty-four. In that year, Congress debated a proposal to create two territories from one large area in the west. The northern part would be known as the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be known as the Kansas territory. Settlers in both new territories would have the right to decide the question of slavery.
President Pierce did not like the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He feared it would re-open the bitter, national debate about slavery. He did not want to have to deal with the results. Tensions were increasing. Violence was increasingly possible.
The Kansas-Nebraska bill had a lot of support in the Senate. It passed easily. The bill had less support in the House of Representatives. The vote there was close, but the measure passed. President Pierce finally agreed to sign it. In exchange, congressional leaders promised to approve several presidential appointments.
Supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska bill celebrated their victory. They fired cannons as the city of Washington was waking to a new day. Two senators who opposed the bill heard the noise as they walked down the steps of the capitol building. One of them said: “They celebrate a victory now. But the echoes they awake will never rest until slavery itself is dead.”
VOICE ONE:
The new bill gave the people of Kansas and Nebraska the right to decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The vote would depend on who settled in the territories. It was not likely that people who owned slaves would settle in Nebraska. However, there was a good chance that they would settle in Kansas.
Groups in the South organized quickly to help pro-slavery settlers move to Kansas. At the same time, groups in the North helped free-state settlers move there, too.
VOICE TWO:
Some of the northern groups were companies called emigrant aid societies. Shares of these companies were sold to the public. The money was used to help build towns and farms in Kansas. Owners of the companies hoped to make a lot of money from the development.
The southern effort to settle Kansas was led mostly by slave-owning farmers in Missouri. They believed that peace in Missouri depended on what happened in Kansas. They did not want to live next to a territory where slavery was not legal.
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VOICE ONE:
In Washington, President Pierce announced the appointment of Andrew Reeder to be governor of the Kansas territory. Pro-slavery settlers urged Reeder to hold immediate elections for a territorial legislature. They believed they were in the majority. They wanted a vote before too many free-state settlers moved in. The legislature would have the power to keep the territory open to slavery and, in time, help it become a slave state.
VOICE TWO:
Governor Reeder rejected the demands. He decided to hold an election, but only for a territorial representative to the national Congress. On election day, hundreds of men from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas. They voted illegally, and the pro-slavery candidate won.
The same thing happened when Kansas finally held an election for a legislature. Governor Reeder took steps to make the voting fair. His efforts were not completely successful. Once again, men from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas. Many of them carried guns. They forced election officials to count their illegal votes. As a result, almost every pro-slavery candidate was elected to the new legislature.
VOICE ONE:
The governor ordered an investigation. The investigation showed evidence of wrong-doing in six areas, and new elections were held in those areas. This time, when only legal votes were counted, many of the pro-slavery candidates were defeated. Yet there were still enough pro-slavery candidates to have a majority.
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VOICE TWO:
Andrew Reeder was governor of a bitterly divided territory. He wanted to warn President Pierce about what was happening.
Reeder went to Washington. He met with Pierce almost every day for two weeks. He described how pro-slavery groups in Missouri were interfering in Kansas. He said if the state of Missouri refused to deal with the trouble-makers, then the national government must deal with them. He asked the president to do something.
VOICE ONE:
Pierce agreed that Kansas was a serious problem. He seemed ready to act. So Reeder returned home and opened the first meeting of the territorial legislature. The pro-slavery majority quickly voted to move to a town close to the Missouri border. It also approved several pro-slavery measures.
Governor Reeder vetoed these bills. But there were enough votes to reject his veto and pass the new laws.
VOICE TWO:
The Kansas legislature also sent a message to President Pierce. It wanted him to remove Andrew Reeder as governor. Political pressure was strong, and the president agreed. He named a new governor, Wilson Shannon. Shannon supported the pro-slavery laws of the legislature. He also said Kansas should become a slave state, like Missouri.
Free-state leaders were extremely angry. They felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an unusual step. They met and formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. It would not be long before the situation in Kansas became violent.
That will be our story next week.
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ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION — an American history series in VOA Special English
This is program #82 of THE MAKING OF A NATION
American History Series: The Kansas-Nebraska Bill Divides the Country
During Pierce’s term, a bill to establish new territories restarts the dispute between North and South over slavery. Transcript of radio broadcast:
23 April 2009
ANNOUNCER:
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
Franklin Pierce was elected the fourteenth president in eighteen fifty-two. He was forty-eight years old, one of America’s youngest presidents.
Pierce was the compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He won the nomination on the forty-ninth ballot at the party’s convention. He then won a big victory in the general election over the candidate of the Whig Party, General Winfield Scott. One of Pierce’s friends, the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, helped him with his campaign.
This week in our series, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith talk about the presidency of Franklin Pierce.
VOICE ONE:
Franklin Pierce was from the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He was a lawyer and former state lawmaker. He also had served in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He became an officer in the Army during America’s war with Mexico in the late eighteen forties.
Pierce had been a public official for more than twenty years when he became president. Yet he was not a strong leader. He also faced a difficult situation in his personal life.
VOICE TWO:
Two of his children had died when they were babies. A third child was killed in a train accident shortly before Pierce was inaugurated.
In addition, his wife Jane did not like the city of Washington. She did not support her husband’s campaign for president. Years earlier, she had urged him to resign from the Senate and return to New Hampshire. She did not want to go back to Washington, even to be first lady.
When her husband was elected, she agreed to live there. But she rarely saw anyone. One of her close friends took her place at public events.
VOICE ONE:
Franklin Pierce was a young man. And his inauguration speech was about a young America. He promised strong support for expanding the territory of the United States. He also promised a strong foreign policy.
In his foreign policy, President Pierce successfully negotiated with Britain to gain American fishing rights along the coast of Canada. However, he was unsuccessful in an attempt to buy Cuba from Spain.
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VOICE TWO:
One of the most important developments in foreign policy during Pierce’s administration actually began earlier. Former president Millard Fillmore had sent Navy Commodore Matthew Perry to Asia. Perry finally sailed into Tokyo Bay in eighteen fifty-three. His arrival led to the establishment of diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and Japan.
VOICE ONE:
National issues presented President Pierce with more difficult decisions. The Compromise of eighteen fifty had settled the dispute over slavery in the western territories. But it did not end slavery. There was still a chance that the North and South would go to war over the issue.
Another question linked slavery and the western territories. Where should the United States build its new railroads.
VOICE TWO:
As America grew and white settlers moved west, many felt a great need for good transportation. They wanted railroads that reached across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Engineers decided that four new rail lines would be possible.
One could cross the northern part of the country, connecting the cities of Saint Paul and Seattle. Another could cross the middle, connecting Saint Louis and San Francisco. A third could connect Memphis and San Francisco. And a fourth could be far to the south, connecting New Orleans and San Diego.
VOICE ONE:
Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed that three lines be built. He said the government could give land to the railroad companies. The companies could then sell the land to get the money they needed to build the lines.
A Senate committee discussed the situation. It decided that building three railroads at the same time would be too difficult. It proposed that only one be built. But which one?
VOICE TWO:
Many congressmen believed that a southern line would be best. There would be little snow in winter. And the railroad would cross lands already organized as states or official territories. A northern or central line would face severe winter weather. And it would have to cross a wild area called Nebraska. Nebraska was neither a state nor a territory.
In trying to settle the question of railroads, the issue of slavery rose once again.
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VOICE ONE:
Nebraska lay north of the Missouri compromise line, which had been established in eighteen twenty. Slavery was not permitted there.
The state of Missouri lay next to Nebraska. Missouri was a slave state. Slave-holders in Missouri did not want the Nebraska area to become a free territory. They were afraid their slaves would flee to it. They felt threatened by the free states and free territories all around them.
VOICE TWO:
For years, Congressmen from Missouri had defeated all attempts to make Nebraska an official territory. When Congress met in eighteen fifty-three, it considered a new bill on Nebraska. Instead of creating one large territory, the bill would create two. The northern part would be called the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be called the Kansas territory. The proposal to split them was called the Kansas-Nebraska bill.
The bill did not clearly say if slavery would be legal, or illegal, in the two new territories.
VOICE ONE:
The purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska bill reportedly was to settle differences among opposing railroad interests in the area. Yet many Americans believed the real purpose was to permit the spread of slavery.
A group of anti-slavery Senators denounced the bill. They said it was part of a southern plan to spread slavery wherever possible. They also said it was being used by Senator Stephen Douglas for political purposes. They said he was trying to gain southern support for himself in the next presidential election. When the Senate began debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Stephen Douglas was the first to defend it.
VOICE TWO:
Douglas said the bill would give people in the Kansas and Nebraska territories the right to decide if slavery would be permitted. He said the same right had been given to people in New Mexico and Utah by the compromise of eighteen fifty. And he said that same right was meant for people of all future territories.
In the past, he noted, the national government had tried to divide free states from slave states by a line across a map. He said a geographical line was not the answer. He said the people of a state or territory had the right to decide for themselves.
Douglas argued that the compromise of eighteen fifty took the place of the earlier Missouri compromise of eighteen twenty. The new Kansas-Nebraska bill, he said, simply recognized the fact that the Missouri compromise was dead.
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VOICE ONE:
Opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska bill quickly rejected the Senator’s argument. They said Douglas was not honest in his statements about the eighteen fifty compromise. True, they said, the compromise gave the people of Utah and New Mexico the right to decide about slavery. But they said it did not give that right to the people of all future territories.
VOICE TWO:
Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill was extremely strong in the northern United States. In city after city, big public meetings were held. Businessmen organized many of the meetings. They were angry at Senator Douglas because he had re-opened the dispute about slavery. They feared that the dispute would hurt the economy.
Northern churchmen also united against the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Thousands signed protests and sent them to Congress. Senator Douglas criticized the churchmen. He said they should stay out of politics.
In the southern United States, the Kansas-Nebraska bill caused little excitement. Most southerners were not greatly interested in it. They believed it might help the cause of slavery. But they also believed it might lead to trouble.
VOICE ONE:
Senate debate on the bill continued for more than a month. Senator Stephen Douglas was sure it would be approved. We will continue the story of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the administration of President Franklin Pierce, next time
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ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION — an American history series in VOA Special English.
This is program #81 of THE MAKING OF A NATION
