Question/Problem 3: How did ideas and events contribute to the conflict between North and South?

Leaders of the Republican Party met in Chicago, Illinois, in May of 1860. They adopted a "platform" that included many of the political beliefs they shared. Read the following excerpt from that platform and answer the questions below.

8. That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom; That as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ...we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States.

9. That we brand the recent re-opening of the African slave-trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, as a crime against humanity and a burning shame to our country and age; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that execrable traffic.

1. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) banned slavery in the Northwest Territory yet provided for the return of fugitive slaves. What stand does the Republican party take on the existence of slavery in the territories?

2. How do Republicans view the slave trade?

3. Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 Presidential election. How do you think slave-owners reacted to Lincoln's election based on this reading?

4. How might these ideas contribute to the conflict between the North and the South?