[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed. To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to February 1857 thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Monthly Record of Current Events * – 2-6
Editor’s Drawer – 7-12
Fashions for February – 13-14

* Two new states coming into the union – Minnesota and Oregon. Arizona application to become a territory – Denied. Not enough people, among other reasons. U.S to enter into contract with Transatlantic Telegraph Company. “The Indian Appropriation Bill includes a sum of $700,000 for pacifying the natives in Oregon.” - “In the House, the Committee on Territories has reported a bill abrogating the laws passed by the Legislature of Kansas, and ordering a new election.”

“In the Senate the Republican vote has been greatly increased by the recent State elections. . . . The next Senate, it is estimated, will be composed of 37 Democrats, 20 Republicans, and 5 Americans.”

Governor Geary set forth, “in a long and elaborate message”, the state of affairs in Kansas.

“Mr. Preston S. Brooks, the assailant of Mr. Sumner in the Senate Chamber, died very suddenly at Washington, January 27, at the age of 37 years. He had been for some days confined to his room by a cold, but was apparently recovering, when he was attacked by croup, and expired almost before any serious danger was apprehended.”

“The vocabulary of crime, especially in New York, has been enriched by a new term descriptive of a new mode of robbery. It is performed by two or more, one of whom seizes the victim by the neck from behind, in such a manner as to strangle him and render him powerless, while the others proceed to rifle his pockets. This is styled garroting from its resemblance to the well-known Spanish mode of execution.”

The foregoing description is followed by a detailed account of the Burdell case, comprising more column inches than any other topic in the current events section.

[AlaskaErik]

March 1857 was the last time a Democrat president saw his Democrat successor sworn into office.

[C19fan]

The portion about “late trouble” in Kansas nice euphemism for Bloody Kansas.

[buckalfa]

Let’s see. War in the Middle East, turmoil in the Far East, equal rights debate, comic celebrity and fashion. I guess after 150 years, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[C19fan]

I noticed the update of Walker and his Filibusters getting their comeuppance in Nicaragua. Walker was a character trying to conquer various portions of Mexico and Central America. His antics fueled hopes among the slave holding elite in the South that Latin American offered fertile ground for expansion of the Slave Power.

[Jim W N]

Wrongly decided as Justice Taney decided that due process must have the results with which he would agreeh. Thus, Taney's invention of the oxymoron "substantive due process", another Court-generated perversion of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court had no valid jurisdiction in this case since slavery was not a constitutional issue - until the 13A-15A, slavery was a states' issue - and Dred Scott had undergone due process in the Missouri Supreme Court.

[rdl6989]

On March 4, 1857 President James Buchanan was inaugurated, taking the oath from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. The Vice President was John C Breckinridge. Breckinridge would be elected to the US Senate in 1860, but then was expelled. He was also indicted for treason. Breckinridge was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on November 2, 1861.

Breckinridge was one of the commanders of the Orphan Brigade, also known as the 1st Kentucky Brigade.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 23 (reply #161).

Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics" (1978)

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This is the first excerpt from this book. You can read my book report on it from July 19 of last year (reply #47)

William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Abraham Lincoln reacts to the Dred Scott decision, but first we have to catch up with what he has been doing for the past year. This excerpt starts back on June 19, 1856 (reply #25) .

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David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from election day – November 4, 1856 (reply #21) .

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 19 (reply #99).

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 25 (reply #187).

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Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era

[OIFVeteran]

Definitely one of the top ten worst Supreme Court decisions of all time.