A.p. ch 18 p.p
- 2. 1848 was filled with unrest in America. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo initiated a new and perilous round of political warfare in America – the acquisition of vast territory raised anew the burning issue of extending slavery into the territories ….
- 3. 1. Northern anti-slavery groups rallied around the Wilmot Proviso, which flatly prohibited slavery in any territory acquired from the Mexican War. 2. Southern senators had blocked passage of the proviso, but the issue would not die. 3. The debate over slavery threatened to split national politics along North- South sectional lines. Representative David Wilmot
- 4. THE POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY PANACEA How did each of the two great political parties (Whigs & Democrats) serve as a vital bond of national unity? What was the political fear amongst leaders in both parties? For both parties, what proved to be the wisest political strategy?
- 5. THE ELECTION of 1848 The Democrats nominated Gen. Lewis Cass – why didn’t Polk run for re-election? Regarding slavery Cass advocated popular sovereignty – what does this mean? The Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor – why didn’t Henry Clay get the nomination? What was the Whig campaign strategy? A third-party emerged – The Free Soil party. Who was their candidate? Explain their campaign platform. The Free Soil party foreshadowed which party six years later? Lewis Cass
- 6. Taylor won by a narrow margin – what role did the Free Soilers play in Taylor’s victory?
- 8. “CALIFORNY GOLD” The discovery of gold in California blew the cover off the slavery lid for President Taylor. Hordes of adventurers from around the world poured into “gold country.”
- 9. Cheap but effective, placer mining consisted of literally “washing” the gold out of surface deposits. No deep excavation was required. This crew of male & female miners in California in 1852 was using a “long tom” sluice that washed relatively large quantities of ore.
- 12. President Taylor As is historically consistent, only a small number of people struck it rich in California. Explain how the in-pouring of tens of thousands of people, the subsequent outburst of crime, and President Taylor’s quiet diplomacy created violent opposition in the South that threatened to break the Union.
- 14. SECTIONAL BALANCE and the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD The South of 1850 was relatively well- off: Describe how. Yet the South was deeply worried – what were its sources of anger and frustration? Explain Texas’ grievance with the federal govt.
- 15. Southerners detested the Underground Railroad, consisting of an informal chain of “stations” (anti-slavery homes), through which scores of “passengers” (runaway slaves) were spirited by “conductors” (usually white & black abolitionists) from the slave states to the free-soil sanctuary of Canada. In actuality, how damaging was this freedom train to southern slavery? Even though the underground railroad probably rescued only 1,000 slaves a year, it caused great excitement in the nation. Abolitionists found it an active way to oppose slavery.
- 16. The most amazing of the “conductors” was an illiterate runaway slave from Maryland, Harriet Tubman. By 1850 southerners were demanding a new and more stringent fugitive-slave law. The old one (1793) was inadequate. What angered southerners most regarding the loss of slaves to the underground railroad?Did the Constitution safeguard slavery?
- 17. TWILIGHT of the SENATORIAL GIANTS Congress was confronted with catastrophe in 1850. Free-soil California was seeking admission and “fire-eaters” in the South were voicing ominous threats of secession. The crisis brought into the congressional forum the most distinguished assemblage of statesmen since the Constitutional Convention (1787). That “immortal trio” – Webster, Clay, and Calhoun – appeared together for the last time on the public stage.
- 18. Henry Clay, the “Great Pacificator,” played a crucial role in engineering his third great compromise. Clay urged that the North and South both make concessions and that the North partially yield by enacting a more feasible fugitive -slave law. John Calhoun, near death, championed the South. He approved of Clay’s intentions but rejected his proposals as not going far enough. His plea was to leave slavery alone, return runaway slaves, give the South its due rights, and restore the political balance. Daniel Webster argued to uphold Clay’s compromise measures. He concluded that compromise, concession, and reasonableness would provide the only solutions. His speech was crucial for passage. He regarded slavery as evil but disunion as worse – he despised the abolitionists.
- 19. DEADLOCK and DANGER on CAPITOL HILL The stormy congressional debate of 1850 was not finished with the three great orators. The “Young Guard,” from the North, led by William Seward, was more interested in purging and purifying the Union rather than patching and preserving it. William Seward
- 20. William Seward, a freshman senator from New York, was the spokesman for the younger northern radicals. A strong antislaveryite, he came out against concession and compromise. He appealed to an even “higher law” than the Constitution to justify abolition. As the great debate in Congress ran its heated course, deadlock seemed certain. Pres. Taylor seemed determined to veto any congressional compromise and he threatened to send an army into Texas to crush the “traitors” – this likely would have started the Civil War. At the height of controversy in 1850, Pres. Taylor suddenly died, thus helping the cause of compromise.
- 21. Vice President Millard Fillmore took office and gladly signed the congressional compromises after 7 months of debate.
- 22. The struggle to get these compromises accepted by the country was hardly less heated than in Congress: 1. “Union-savers” (Clay & Webster) orated on behalf of compromise 2. Northerners gradually accepted the compromises but continued to flout the Fugitive Slave Law. 3. Southern “fire eaters” violently opposed concessions. Fortunately for the country in 1850 there still prevailed a desire for Union over secession, but this desire was fading fast. The Compromise of 1850 “bought” the North a decade to accumulate the physical and moral strength that would provide the margin of victory.
- 24. BALANCING the COMPROMISING SCALES Who got the better deal in the Compromise of 1850? Explain why the northern concession of popular sovereignty in the New Mexico and Utah Territories was not really a “loss” for the North. And, explain how the apparent gains of the South rang hollow.
- 27. DEFEAT and DOOM for the WHIGS Meeting in Baltimore, the Democratic nominating convention of 1852 nominated a political unknown, Franklin Pierce. Their main plank was to embrace the Compromise of 1850. The Whigs, also convening in Baltimore, missed a splendid opportunity when it nominated war hero Winfield Scott. In spite of his military achievements, why was he a poor choice? The Whig platform praised the Compromise of 1850, though less enthusiastically than the Democrats. Pierce won the election in a landslide – What allowed this “dark horse” to win so handily? Explain why the election of 1852 was fraught with frightening significance in retrospect.
- 29. PRESIDENT PIERCE the EXPANSIONIST The people of Dixie were determined to acquire more slave territory, and the compliant Pierce was prepared to be their willing tool. Why did southerners and the U.S. govt. covet Nicaragua? Explain the significance of the Clayton-Bulwar Treaty.
- 30. Spanish Cuba was also in southern plans as a future slave territory. What sparked the confrontation? Why were the other European powers unable to assist Spain. And explain the secret cloak-and- dagger Ostend Manifesto. For once, internal distresses in the U.S. prevented it from taking advantage of Europe’s distresses.
- 31. America had become a Pacific power with the acquisition of California and Oregon, both of which faced Asia. Americans had been trading with the Chinese, and shippers were urging Washington to establish trade with Japan. The U.S. govt. dispatched an awesome fleet of warships, commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, to pry open the bamboo gates of Japan in 1854.
- 32. PACIFIC RAILROAD PROMOTERS and the GADSDEN PURCHASE Acute transportation problems were a legacy of the Mexican War, and feasible land transportation was imperative to tie the newly acquired lands together. A transcontinental railroad was clearly the only real solution to the problem. What was the greatest obstacle? Describe the North-South rivalry in selecting a route. Why did the southern route win? James Gadsden Explain the negotiations leading to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.
- 34. DOUGLAS’S KANSAS-NEBRASKA SCHEME In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois delivered a counterstroke to offset the Gadsden thrust for southern expansion westward. An ardent booster for the West, he longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion & stretch a line of settlements across the continent. He was determined to have Chicago become the eastern terminus of the proposed Pacific railroad. Douglas threw himself behind a legislative scheme that would enlist southern support. Explain his scheme.
- 35. The Kansas-Nebraska “scheme” entailed carving the Territory of Nebraska into 2 territories, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery status would be decided by popular sovereignty. Kansas, close to Missouri, would likely be a slave territory and Nebraska, adjacent to Iowa, would likely be free. The primary problem was the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which forbade slavery in the Nebraska Territory. It would have to be repealed (Douglas and Pierce supported this move).
- 36. But the Missouri Compromise could not be brushed aside lightly. The North had come to regard the sectional pact as almost as sacred as the Constitution itself. Free-soilers fought back with a vengeance, with violence in the chamber nearly erupting. But Douglas and his supporters prevailed. In retrospect, describe Douglas’s political blunder. Describe the chain-reaction of events/sentiments following passage of the Kansas- Nebraska Act that led to civil war.