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.That year, newleadership was redirecting the U.S.Senate.The old-lineleaders of the previous generation John C.Calhoun, HenryClay, and Daniel Webster had died a few years earlier.Thenext generation included such men as Stephen Douglasof Illinois, a short, shrewd, and ambitious 103 politicianwho put legislation before his colleagues in regard to theorganization of a territory from the old Louisiana Territory.After his bill was changed to create two territories insteadof one, it called for the organization of a western territory,Kansas.The true motivation for Douglas s bill, which became 93Clash of Regionsthe Kansas-Nebraska Act, was to clear the way for theconstruction of the first rail line to cross the United Statesfrom the Atlantic to the Pacific.Douglas, from Illinois, wasdetermined for the line to pass through the northern part ofthe country so that the eastern terminus of the line would beestablished in the northern Illinois city of Chicago.(Douglasdid own slaves himself, 140 in all, but he claimed they hadnothing to do with his decision to support the expansion ofslavery into new parts of the West.)The real controversy of Douglas s new legislation,however, was to create the potential for slavery to enter thenorthern half of the former Louisiana Territory, even thoughthe Missouri Compromise of more than 30 years earlierhad prohibited slavery there.Douglas s logic was, to some,irrefutable: If the people of Kansas want a slaveholdingstate, let them have it, and if they want a free state theyhave a right to it, and it is not for the people of Illinois, orMissouri, or New York, or Kentucky, to complain, whateverthe decision of the people of Kansas may be. 104At the center of Douglas s legislation was a newpolitical concept: popular sovereignty.It would be upto the voters to decide for or against slavery in a giventerritory.The decision would not remain in the hands ofthe federal government or of the states, but with the peopleof the territories.As for the abolitionist movement, theKansas-Nebraska Act was met with opposition at all fronts.That summer, during a Fourth of July rally, William LloydGarrison would burn a copy of the U.S.Constitution anddeclare it a covenant with hell.BLEEDING KANSASWith Kansas and Nebraska now open to slavery, the regionof the West exploded in violence.Even in Douglas s home(continues on page 96) 94The Abolitionist MovementTHE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850AND THE BURNS CASEAs the new decade of the 1850s opened, the U.S.Congress onceagain felt compelled to put together a political compromise to staveoff the possible dissolution of the Union.Under the Compromiseof 1850, which established California as a free state, the new,tough Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became reality.This law requiredNorthern law officials to aid in the recapture of escaped slaves inthe Northern states.The law greatly angered not only abolitionistsbut also significant numbers of Americans who were otherwiseuncommitted on the slavery issue.Abolitionist newspapers beganto print stories of blacks who had found freedom in the North andwho, under the new law, were returned to a life of slavery.One ofthe most notorious and emotional cases took place in Boston fouryears after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was created.The subject of the case was a black slave named Anthony Burns.In 1854, Burns was 24 years old, an intelligent young slave who hadtaught himself to read and write.He had been held in Virginia and treated well by his master. * Burns s master trusted him and hadallowed him a significant amount of freedom to travel throughoutthe commonwealth.That freedom had given Burns the opportunity,in February 1854, to escape to Boston as a stowaway in a boat.Once he found his way to Boston, Burns took a job in aclothing store [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.That year, newleadership was redirecting the U.S.Senate.The old-lineleaders of the previous generation John C.Calhoun, HenryClay, and Daniel Webster had died a few years earlier.Thenext generation included such men as Stephen Douglasof Illinois, a short, shrewd, and ambitious 103 politicianwho put legislation before his colleagues in regard to theorganization of a territory from the old Louisiana Territory.After his bill was changed to create two territories insteadof one, it called for the organization of a western territory,Kansas.The true motivation for Douglas s bill, which became 93Clash of Regionsthe Kansas-Nebraska Act, was to clear the way for theconstruction of the first rail line to cross the United Statesfrom the Atlantic to the Pacific.Douglas, from Illinois, wasdetermined for the line to pass through the northern part ofthe country so that the eastern terminus of the line would beestablished in the northern Illinois city of Chicago.(Douglasdid own slaves himself, 140 in all, but he claimed they hadnothing to do with his decision to support the expansion ofslavery into new parts of the West.)The real controversy of Douglas s new legislation,however, was to create the potential for slavery to enter thenorthern half of the former Louisiana Territory, even thoughthe Missouri Compromise of more than 30 years earlierhad prohibited slavery there.Douglas s logic was, to some,irrefutable: If the people of Kansas want a slaveholdingstate, let them have it, and if they want a free state theyhave a right to it, and it is not for the people of Illinois, orMissouri, or New York, or Kentucky, to complain, whateverthe decision of the people of Kansas may be. 104At the center of Douglas s legislation was a newpolitical concept: popular sovereignty.It would be upto the voters to decide for or against slavery in a giventerritory.The decision would not remain in the hands ofthe federal government or of the states, but with the peopleof the territories.As for the abolitionist movement, theKansas-Nebraska Act was met with opposition at all fronts.That summer, during a Fourth of July rally, William LloydGarrison would burn a copy of the U.S.Constitution anddeclare it a covenant with hell.BLEEDING KANSASWith Kansas and Nebraska now open to slavery, the regionof the West exploded in violence.Even in Douglas s home(continues on page 96) 94The Abolitionist MovementTHE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850AND THE BURNS CASEAs the new decade of the 1850s opened, the U.S.Congress onceagain felt compelled to put together a political compromise to staveoff the possible dissolution of the Union.Under the Compromiseof 1850, which established California as a free state, the new,tough Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became reality.This law requiredNorthern law officials to aid in the recapture of escaped slaves inthe Northern states.The law greatly angered not only abolitionistsbut also significant numbers of Americans who were otherwiseuncommitted on the slavery issue.Abolitionist newspapers beganto print stories of blacks who had found freedom in the North andwho, under the new law, were returned to a life of slavery.One ofthe most notorious and emotional cases took place in Boston fouryears after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was created.The subject of the case was a black slave named Anthony Burns.In 1854, Burns was 24 years old, an intelligent young slave who hadtaught himself to read and write.He had been held in Virginia and treated well by his master. * Burns s master trusted him and hadallowed him a significant amount of freedom to travel throughoutthe commonwealth.That freedom had given Burns the opportunity,in February 1854, to escape to Boston as a stowaway in a boat.Once he found his way to Boston, Burns took a job in aclothing store [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]