"All Southern Society Is Assailed by the Foulest Charges": Charles Sumner's "The Crime against Kansas" and the Escalation of Republican Anti-Slavery Rhetoric

Pierson, Michael D.

doi:10.2307/365874

Cited by 7 publications

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“…In sum, they had far more to gain from breaking and changing the rules than following them. Pierson (1995) argues that Republican and antislavery proponent Charles Sumner was doing just this when he gave his May 1856 'The crime against Kansas' speech in the Senate. The speech broadly concerned the need to admit Kansas as a free state.…”

Section: Case Study: the Caning Of Senator Sumnermentioning

confidence: 99%

Two sword lengths apart

Gandrud

2015

Journal of Peace Research

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Ideally, national legislatures in democracies should be venues for peacefully resolving conflicts between opposing groups. However, they can become places of physical violence. Such violence can be an indication that countries' legislative institutions are functioning far from the democratic ideal of being venues for peaceful conflict reconciliation. In some cases, such as Ukraine prior to the 2014 outbreak of armed conflict in the country's east and south, violence can indicate and possibly fuel deeper political divisions. In this first global study of legislative violence, I show that brawls are more likely when legislators find it difficult to credibly commit to follow peaceful bargains. Credible commitment problems are more acute in countries with new democracies and disproportionate electoral outcomes-that is, when electoral votes for parties do not closely correspond to the legislative seats they are given. I find robust support for this argument by first examining a case study of legislative violence in the antebellum United States Senate. Pro-and anti-slavery senators became increasingly unable to maintain credible commitments in the leadup to the 1856 caning of Senator Charles Sumner as the allocation of seats in the legislative body became more disproportional. Second, I find further support for my argument in a new global dataset of contemporary instances of violence in national legislatures. In addition, I find strong evidence that violence is more likely in legislatures with small minority governments. Despite reasonable expectations, civil wars are not associated with more legislative violence.

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Section: Case Study: the Caning Of Senator Sumnermentioning

confidence: 99%

Two sword lengths apart

Gandrud

2015

Journal of Peace Research

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Indignation and the Northern Mobilization for War, 1856–1861

Woods

2014

Emotional and Sectional Conflict in the Antebellum United States

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Perceptions and Policy Failure: Explaining President James Buchanan’s Policy Priorities Through Latent Opinion

Chamberlain

2018

J. Policy Hist.

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Abstract:This article evaluates the policy positions of President James Buchanan through the concept of latent opinion, or politicians worrying less about current public opinion and more about what it will be at the next election. Though Buchanan is often viewed as disconnected from the public’s opinions, the evidence shows that his positions on Kansas statehood and the acquisition of Cuba (or Mexican territory) were shaped by his perceptions of, and concerns over, what future public opinion would be in 1860. Though Buchanan was ultimately unsuccessful on both fronts, this study reveals that he was not simply unresponsive to public opinion, which is the common interpretation. Instead, the president’s policy positions were firmly tied to his views on latent opinion. Thus, the findings add a new dimension to scholarly understandings of James Buchanan’s policy priorities while displaying how latent opinion can be a beneficial construct in policy history.

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"All Southern Society Is Assailed by the Foulest Charges": Charles Sumner's "The Crime against Kansas" and the Escalation of Republican Anti-Slavery Rhetoric

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Two sword lengths apart

Two sword lengths apart

Indignation and the Northern Mobilization for War, 1856–1861

Perceptions and Policy Failure: Explaining President James Buchanan’s Policy Priorities Through Latent Opinion

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