How did the Dread Scott Case heighten tension in 1857 - page 2
Keywords: Dread Scott, 1857, American civil war, tension
By ROYDS on 29/09/2008
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
Page Number: 2 of 2 pages: 1 2to blame for this. He according to many historians including Kenneth Stampp perused policies that pushed most northerners into the republican camp, which had emerged from the elections of 86 as a serious rival and threat the Democratic Party, which contributed to the fragmentation of the Democratic Party. Also many suspected him of being a supporter of the Slave Power conspiracy even before the case and that the case only confirmed northern fears. Buchanan was not helped however by the already existing economic problems. The initial boom of the 1850s was tailing off and heading towards a recession. This depression climaxed in 1857 (later called the Panic of 1857), which resulted in mass northern unemployment. This was blamed upon by the north and particular the Republican Party on the low tariffs of the democrats. The south and their ‘King Cotton’ economy was not hit by the depression, this only made them confident their system was better than that of the North’s. The reason this was so bad for sectional tensions was because the southern extremists ‘Fire Eaters’ case of a southern succession from the union was becoming more influential as well as the a mainstream opinion that there was indeed a Slave Power conspiracy. Buchanan then shortly later accepted the Lecompton Constitution, a pro-slavery constitution; despite Walker’s advise not to. This was more proof of the slave power conspiracy at work and more political ammunition for Republicans.
The Dred Scott Case was an “eleven year sage that started as a simple free suit and escalated into the most notorious cause celebre in American constitutional history” (McPherson) and was no doubt a huge catalyst in sending North-South relations into an all time low, with one side pulling out of the union a real possibility. However there were some other fundamental mistakes that Buchanan and the Democrats made in the same year that ignited the sectional hatred in America economically, socially, and politically.
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