Kansas-Nebraska Act - Constituting America

1860, John C. Breckinridge’s Understanding Of The Constitution

6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 in 90 2016, Joerg W. Knipprath 6. Presidential Elections and Their Constitutional Impact, 1860 John C. Breckinridge’s Understanding Of The Constitution

Guest Essayist: Professor Joerg Knipprath

Election of 1860

John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky entered the year 1860 as Vice President, having been elected to that office in 1856 as a Democrat from the Stephen Douglas wing of the party. Taking the oath of office when barely 36 years old, one year above the constitutional minimum, he remains the youngest man elected to that office. When the Whig party collapsed because its intrinsic identity as a national party was ground up between the sectional millstones over slavery, the Republican Party emerged as, initially, a staunch anti-slavery movement. Buoyed by its success in the 1858 congressional elections, the party expanded its political agenda. It strongly supported the Union, and moderated, but did not abandon, its official opposition on slavery. By 1860, it was the party of the North, which former Northern Whigs joined enthusiastically.

1860, Stephen Douglas’ Understanding Of The Constitution

6. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 90 in 90 2016, David J. Shestokas, J.D. 6. Presidential Elections and Their Constitutional Impact, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 1860 Stephen Douglas’ Understanding Of The Constitution, David J. Shestokas J.D.

Guest Essayist: David J. Shestokas

“Tell them to obey the laws and uphold the Constitution.”
Stephen A. Douglas, deathbed instructions for his sons, June 3, 1861[1]

Stephen Douglas’ instruction to his sons to uphold the Constitution should have been quite clear. He had spent three decades in public life, including 18 years in the United States Congress. He had given hundreds if not thousands of speeches on the critical constitutional issues of his day: organization and admission of new states and the regulation of slavery in territories purchased from France and won in war with Mexico.

Reply in the Senate to Stephen Douglas by Jefferson Davis

Daily Essay 2013, Joerg W. Knipprath 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Dred Scott Decision, Joerg W. Knipprath, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Reply in the Senate to Stephen Douglas by Jefferson Davis, The Constitution of the United States of America, The Missouri Compromise

Guest Essayist: Professor Joerg Knipprath, Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School

American politics in the 1850s were dominated by the polarization over slavery, which was reflected in the increasingly menacing tone of the national political “conversation” and the retreat into starker sectionalism of political allegiances. Attempts at political compromise over this national sickness initially appeared promising, but ultimately provided only bandages, not cures. When politics failed, the doctors of the law on the Supreme Court stepped in with a massive dose of controversial and untried constitutional medicine in the Dred Scott decision. When that, too, failed, the only means left to stop the spread of the poison was through the extreme surgery of military conflict that cost the blood of over 600,000 Americans. The South wanted amputation of what it saw as the source of the poison—the North’s crusade of political domination. The North rejected amputation and wanted to save the whole patient through radical surgery to cut out the evil—Southern slavery. Read more

May 15, 2013/2 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

Reply in the Senate to William Seward by Jefferson Davis

Daily Essay 2013, James Legee 1. The Federalist Papers, 2. The Constitution, 3. The Amendments, 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Constitutional Amendment X, Constitutional Amendment X, Declaration of Independence, Federalist No. 01, Federalist No. 39, James Legee, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Reply in the Senate to William Seward by Jefferson Davis, The Constitution of the United States of America

Guest Essayist: James Legee, Graduate Fellow at the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the study of Free Institutions and the Public Good, Villanova University

Senator Jefferson Davis’ response to William Seward’s State of the Country Speech was effectively a political speech- it was not meant to fully articulate the Southern cause of State’s Rights, nor was it a long-winded justification of that “peculiar institution,” slavery. Rather, Davis’ goal was to respond to Seward’s earlier speech, which condemned slavery. Within Davis’ speech, though, we find an idea more dangerous and pernicious than slavery as a positive good or that a State has rights; Davis rejected the central principle of the American Founding and Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Read more

May 14, 2013/2 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

“A House Divided” by Abraham Lincoln

Daily Essay 2013, Tony Williams 2. The Constitution, 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 17. Topics, A House Divided by Abraham Lincoln, Article IV, Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence, Dred Scott v. Sanford by Justice Roger Taney, Kansas-Nebraska Act, The Constitution of the United States of America, The Missouri Compromise, Tony Williams

Guest Essayist: Tony Williams, Program Director for the Washington-Jefferson-Madison Institute

On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln won the Republican nomination for the vacant U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. His opponent in the election would be Stephen Douglas. Upon his nomination, Lincoln delivered the “House Divided” speech in the war of words of what would culminate in the Lincoln-Douglas debates later that year. Read more

May 7, 2013/2 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

Speech on the Dred Scott Decision by Abraham Lincoln

Daily Essay 2013, Joerg W. Knipprath 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 17. Topics, Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence, First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln, Joerg W. Knipprath, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Speech on the Dred Scott Decision by Abraham Lincoln, The Constitution of the United States of America, The Missouri Compromise

Guest Essayist: Professor Joerg Knipprath, Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School

Abraham Lincoln’s speech on the Dred Scott Case reveals the complex nature of his views on slavery and racial equality, complexity that reflected the divided national psyche. Many Americans in the broad middle rejected the Southern defense of slavery and believed that the “peculiar institution” violated basic human rights and the fundamental equality of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness promised to all in the Declaration of Independence. Read more

May 6, 2013/3 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

Letter to John Holmes by Thomas Jefferson

Daily Essay 2013, James Legee 2. The Constitution, 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, Constitutional Amendment X, James Legee, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Letter to John Holmes by Thomas Jefferson, The Missouri Compromise

Guest Essayist: James Legee, Graduate Fellow at the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the study of Free Institutions and the Public Good, Villanova University

Thomas Jefferson’s April, 1820 Letter to John Holmes came as the nation expanded westward into the Louisiana Purchase, and with the homesteaders and settlers came the question of slavery. In an attempt to address slavery and its role in the new territories, it was agreed by Congress that slavery would be allowed in Missouri but no other state North of the 36°30â€² line; additionally, Maine would enter the Union as a Free State. Read more

April 23, 2013/1 Comment/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

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