CH 18 and 19

What event that happens in 1850 made it easier for the Compromise to pass?

{President Taylor died and his successor helped the Compromise pass} At the height of the controversy in 1850, President Taylor unknowingly helped the cause of concession by dying suddenly, probably of an acute intestinal disorder. Portly, round-faced Vice President Millard Fillmore, a colorless and conciliatory New York law- yer-politician, took over the reins. As presiding officer of the Senate, he had been impressed with the argu- ments for conciliation, and he gladly signed the series of compromise measures that passed Congress after seven long months of stormy debate.

Who wins the election of 1860? Why was the South not in terrible shape in the government after that election?

Lincoln wins. retained a five-to-four majority on the Supreme Court. And although the Republicans had elected Lincoln to the presidency, they controlled neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives

What is the importance of the Ostend Manifesto?

This startling document urged that the administration offer $120 million for Cuba. If Spain refused, and if its continued ownership endangered American interests, the United States would "be justified in wresting" the island from the Spanish.

In the 1850s, the United States begins to interact with Asia in a major way for the first time. What is the importance of the Treaty of Wanghia with China?

American trade with China flourished thanks to Cushing's treaty, though it never reached the proportions his backers had dreamed of. More immediately important was the opportunity it opened for American missionaries, thousands of whom soon flooded prayerfully through the treaty ports to convert the "heathen Chinese." Fatefully, America had now aligned itself with the Western powers that chronically menaced China's cultural integrity. All of them would one day reap a bitter harvest of resentment.

What did Commodore Matthew Perry do in 1852-1854, and what is the importance of the Treaty of Kanagawa?

Importance: he persuaded the Japanese to sign the land- mark Treaty of Kanagawa....he tried to sway the Japanese into getting land

California gold rush:

Inflow of thousands of miners to northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world by the end of that year. The onslaught of migrants prompted Californians to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849.

Underground Railroad

Informal network of volunteers that helped runaway slaves escape from the South and reach free-soil Canada. Seeking to halt the flow of runaway slaves to the North, southern planters and congressmen pushed for a stronger fugitive slave law.

How did the gold rush transform California?

It attracted tens of thousands of people to the future Golden State almost overnight, completely overwhelming the one-horse territorial government. A distressingly high proportion of the newcomers were lawless men, accompanied or followed by virtueless women. An outburst of crime inevitably resulted from the presence of so many miscreants and outcasts. Robbery, claim jumping, and murder were commonplace, and such violence was only partly discouraged by rough vigilante justice. In San Francisco, from 1848 to 1856, there were scores of lawless killings but only three semi legal hangings.

What do the election results from 1860 tell us about the state of the Union at that point?

Meeting at Charleston in December 1860, the delegates unanimously voted to leave the Union. The results tell us that the South will secede if Lincoln becomes president .

Popular sovereignty:

Notion advanced before the Civil War that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. Seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by northern abolitionists, who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories.

Fugitive Slave Law:

Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened the anti slavery cause in the North.

What new party is going to arise due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Who makes up the members of this party?

Undoubtedly the most durable offspring of the Kansas-Nebraska blunder was the new Republican party. It sprang up spontaneously in the Middle West, notably in Wisconsin and Michigan, as a mighty moral protest against the gains of slavery. Gathering together dissatisfied elements, Members: it soon included disgruntled Whigs (among them Abraham Lincoln), Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Opium War:

War between Britain and China over trading rights, particularly Britain's desire to continue selling opium to Chinese traders. The resulting trade agreement prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the Chinese.

What were William Walker's goals in Nicaragua in the 1850s? How does he try to achieve these goals?

William Walker, tried repeatedly to grab control of this Central American country. (He had earlier tried and failed to seize Baja California from Mexico and turn it into a slave state.)

In the 1848 presidential election, who were the Whig, Democrat, and Free Soil candidates?

Zachary Taylor-Whig Lewis Cass-Democratic Martin Van Buren-Free Soil

What is the significance of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty?

A full-blown confrontation with Britain was avoided by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850, which stipulated that neither America nor Britain would fortify or seek exclusive control over any future isthmian waterway

Gadsden Purchase

Acquired additional land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad.

Compromise of 1850:

Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Washington, D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.

What were the first seven states to secede from the United States and form the Confederate States of America in the winter of 1860-1861?

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas

What happened at the Charleston and Baltimore conventions for the Democrat party in 1860?

Carolina, with Douglas the leading candidate of the northern wing of the party. But the southern "fire-eaters" regarded him as a traitor, as a result of his unpopular stand on the Lecompton Constitution and the Freeport Doctrine. Constitutional Union party: Formed by mod- erate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis. Both of these meetings split the parties further. The Charleston meeting was held to decide a presidential candidate, and Douglas was nominated. The southerners walked out because he was a traitor in their eyes. The remains could not get the 2/3 majority. In Baltimore, Douglas was nominated with the lack of Southern vote. The enraged southern nominated John Breckinridge as their leader at a rival convention.

What were the concessions (what did each side get) in the Compromise of 1850?

The ailing Clay himself delivered more than seventy speeches, as a powerful sentiment for acceptance gradually crystallized in the North. It was strengthened by a growing spirit of goodwill, which sprang partly from a feeling of relief and partly from an upsurge of prosperity enriched by California gold.

Who were the two candidates (and their parties) in the 1858 Illinois Senate election?

Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate .

Who are the four candidates for president in 1860, and what is the platform for each of the candidates and their parties? (Four parties are: Republicans, northern Democrats, southern Democrats, and Constitutional Union)

Abraham lincoln: Republicans Stephen Douglas: Democrats John Bell: Constitutional Union John Breckinridge:Southern Democrats

Why did the United States buy the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico for $10 million in 1853?

Another chunk of Mexico now seemed desirable because the campaigns of the recent war had shown that the best railway route ran slightly south of the Mexican border.

Free Soil party:

Anti Slavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers.

In the debate over the Compromise of 1850, the Young Guard in the North emerges as a political force. William Seward, one of their more notable members, gave an important speech. What was his speech about, and what nickname did he get because of the speech?

Argued earnestly that Christian legislators must obey God's moral law as well as man's mundane law. He therefore appealed, with reference to excluding slavery in the territories, to an even "higher law" than the Constitution. This alarming phrase, wrenched from its context, may have cost him the presidential nomination and the presidency in 1860.

March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court issues the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. What is the background of the case? What did the Supreme Court decide, and what was the reasoning?

Basically, the case was simple. Dred Scott, a black slave, had lived with his master for five years in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. Backed by interested abolitionists, he sued for freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil. It ruled, not surprisingly, that Dred Scott was a black slave and not a citizen, and hence could not sue in federal courts.* The tribunal could then have thrown out the case on these technical grounds alone.

What happened at Harper's Ferry in 1859, and what was the Northern and Southern reaction?

Brown raided and captured the federal arsenal in an attempt to raid the South secretly. Seven innocents, one a black slave, were accidentally killed. The south saw this as treason and saw brown as a murderer. They also concluded the North was full of abolitionists with the same ideas. The north was outraged because thy ignored his bloody past and actions because a reformer was hanged.

In response to the Underground Railroad, what type of new and stronger law did Southerners want?

By 1850 southerners were demanding a new and more Stringent fugitive-slave law. The old one, passed by Congress in 1793, had proved inadequate to cope with runaways, especially since unfriendly state authorities failed to provide needed cooperation. Unlike cattle thieves, the abolitionists who ran the Underground Railroad did not gain personally from their lawlessness.

John C. Calhoun

Calhoun rejected them as not providing adequate safeguards for southern rights. His impassioned plea was to leave slavery alone, return runaway slaves, give the South its rights as a minority, and restore the political balance. He had in view, as was later revealed, an utterly unworkable scheme of electing two presidents, one from the North and one from the South, each wielding a veto.

Henry Clay:

Clay urged with all his persua- siveness that the North and South both make conces- sions and that the North partially yield by enacting a more feasible fugitive-slave law.

Seventh of March speech:

Daniel Webster's impassioned address urging the North to support the Compromise of 1850. Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion.

How did Buchanan and Douglas respond to the Lecompton Constitution?

Deliberately tossing away his strong support in the South for the presidency, he fought courageously for fair play and democratic principles. (((The outcome was a compromise that, in effect, submitted the entire Lecompton Constitution to a popular vote. The free-soil voters thereupon thronged to the polls and snowed it under. Kansas remained a territory until 1861,when the southern secessionists left Congress.)))

Treaty of Kanagawa:

Ended Japan's two- hundred-year period of economic isolation, establishing an American consulate in Japan and securing American coaling rights in Japanese ports.

What were the major causes of the panic of 1857? Which region was most successful during the panic?

Financial crisis brought on by gold- fueled inflation, over speculation, and excess grain production. Raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands.

What two candidates run for the Whigs and Democrats in the 1852 presidential election? Who wins?

Franklin Pierce-Democratic-254 Winfield Scott-Whig-42

What were the main ideas of the Free Soil party? What groups of people joined their ranks?

Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men." These freedoms provided the bedrock on which the Free-Soilers built their party. They condemned slavery not so much for enslaving blacks but for destroying the chances of free white workers to rise up from wage-earning dependence to the esteemed status of self-employment. Those with: industrialists, Democrats, northerners, "Conscience Whigs,"

The debate at Freeport was the most famous of the 1858 Illinois Senate debates. What was the important question Lincoln asked at this debate? How did Douglas respond, in what came to be known as the Freeport Doctrine?

Freeport question: Raised during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates by Abraham Lincoln, who asked whether the Court or the people should decide the future of slavery in the territories. Freeport Doctrine:Declared that since slavery could not exist without laws to protect it, territorial legislatures, not the Supreme Court, would have the final say on the slavery question. First argued by Stephen Douglas in 1858 in response to Abraham Lincoln's "Freeport question."

What is the doctrine of popular sovereignty? Who is credited as being the father of the doctrine?

General Lewis Cass This was the doctrine that stated that the sovereign people of a territory, under the general principles of the Constitution, should themselves determine the status of slavery.

What literary works did Harriet Beecher Stowe and Hinton R. Helper write? What was the main idea of each work, and how did each inflame passions in the United States?

Harriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery. It heightened northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict. Antislavery tract, written by white southerner Hinton R. Helper, arguing that nonslaveholding whites actually suffered most in a slave economy.

How did Buchanan respond to the secession of seven states? Why does the text suggest this happened?

He really did nothing. He said they can't legally secede, but he could find no way to stop them in the constitution

Why did many northerners vote for Buchanan in the 1856 presidential election?

He was therefore "Kansas-less" and, hence, relatively enemy- less. But in a crisis that called for giants, "Old Buck" Buchanan was mediocre, irresolute, and confused. Many northerners, anxious to save both the Union and their profitable business connections with the South, were thus intimidated into voting for Buchanan.

What was the most alarming part of the Compromise to Northerners? What were the details of the new law?

Most alarming of all, the drastic new Fugitive Slave Law of 1850—"the Bloodhound Bill"—stirred up a storm of opposition in the North. The fleeing slaves could not testify in their own behalf, and they were denied a jury trial. These harsh practices, some citizens feared, threatened to create dangerous precedents for white Americans.

What did the Supreme Court have to say about the Missouri Compromise in the Dred Scott decision?

Now the Court ruled that the Compromise of 1820 had been uncon- stitutional all along: Congress had no power to ban slavery from the territories, regardless even of what the territorial legislatures themselves might want.

Explain how each of the following issues posed a potential problem for the United States in 1850: potential admission of California as a free state, Texas and New Mexico, District of Columbia, and Underground Railroad

Potential admission of California as a free state: There were then fifteen slave states and fifteen free states. The admission of California would destroy the delicate equilibrium in the Senate, perhaps forever. Texas and New Mexico: It claimed a huge area east of the Rio Grande and north to the forty-second parallel, embracing in part about half the territory of present-day New Mexico (see Map 18.2). The federal government was proposing to detach this prize, while hot-blooded Texans were threatening to descend upon Santa Fe and seize what they regarded as rightfully theirs. The explosive quarrel foreshadowed shooting. District of Columbia: Many southerners were also angered by the nagging agitation in the North for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. They looked with alarm on the prospect of a ten-mile-square oasis of free soil thrust between slaveholding Maryland and slaveholding Virginia. Underground Railroad: The loss of runaway slaves, many of whom were assisted north by the Underground Railroad. This virtual freedom train consisted of an informal chain of "stations" (antislavery homes) through which scores of "passengers" (runaway slaves) were spirited by "conductors" (usually white and black abolitionists) from the slave states to the free-soil sanctuary of Canada.

What were the lasting results of Buchanan and Douglas' actions?

President Buchanan, by antagonizing the numer- ous Douglas Democrats in the North, hopelessly divided the once-powerful Democratic party. Until then, it had been the only remaining national party, for the Whigs were dead and the Republicans were sectional. With the disruption of the Democrats came the snapping of one of the last important strands in the rope that was barely binding the Union together.

What was the controversy over the voting for the members of the first territorial legislature in Kansas in 1855?

Pro-slavery "ruffians" poured into Kansas. These "ruffians" tipped the vote even though they didn't live in Kansas. When the day came in 1855 to elect members of the first territorial legislature, proslavery "border ruffians" poured in from Missouri to vote early and often. The slavery supporters triumphed and then set up their own puppet government at Shawnee Mission. The free-soilers, unable to stomach this fraudulent conspiracy, established an extralegal regime of their own in Topeka. The confused Kansans thus had their choice between two governments—one based on fraud, the other on illegality.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by Stephen Douglas in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad.

What law does the Kansas-Nebraska Act have to overturn? What is the reaction to this in the North?

Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, thus revoking the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by Stephen Douglas in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern transcontinental railroad. REACTION: They regarded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as an intolerable breach of faith, and they would henceforth resist to the last trench all future southern demands for slave territory.

Ostend Manifesto

Secret Franklin Pierce administration proposal to purchase or, that failing, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain. Once leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement opposition from the North.

Explain the incident between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks that occurred in the United States Senate. What did Sumner do to make Brooks mad? How did Brooks respond?

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, one of the most disliked men in the Senate. delivered a blistering speech titled "The Crime Against Kansas." Sparing few epithets, he condemned the proslavery men as "hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization." He also referred insultingly to South Carolina and to its white-haired senator Andrew Butler, one of the best-liked members of the Senate. On May 22, 1856, he approached Sumner, then sitting at his Senate desk, and pounded the orator with an eleven- ounce cane until it broke. The victim fell bleeding and unconscious to the floor, while several nearby sena- tors refrained from interfering. Brooks from South Carolina

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty:

Signed by Great Britain and the United States, it provided that the two nations would jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway. Later revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal.

Treaty of Wanghia:

Signed by the United States and China, it assured the United States the same trading concessions granted to other powers, greatly expanding America's trade with the Chinese.

Daniel Webster:

Speaking deliberately and before overflow- ing galleries, he urged all reasonable concessions to the South, including a new fugitive-slave law with teeth. .The good Lord had decreed—through climate, topography, and geography—that a plantation economy, and hence a slave economy, could not profitably exist in the Mexican Cession territory.* Webster sanely con- cluded that compromise, concession, and sweet reason- ableness would provide the only solutions. "Let us not be pygmies," he pleaded, "in a case that calls for men."

What had Congress done about tariffs prior to the panic of 1857, and how did Northerners react to the tariff issue during the panic?

Tariff of 1857: Lowered duties on imports in response to a high Treasury surplus and pressure from southern farmers. Northern manufacturers, many of them Republicans, noisily blamed their misfortunes on the low tariff. As the surplus melted away in the Treasury, industrialists in the North pointed to the need for higher duties. But what really concerned them was their desire for increased protection.

How did abolitionists and Southerners contribute to increased tension in Kansas in 1854-1855?

Tension mounted as settlers also feuded over conflicting land claims. The breaking point came in 1856 when a gang of proslavery raiders, alleging provocation, shot up and burned part of the free-soil town of Lawrence.

What is the major significance of the aftermath of the election of 1852?

The election of 1852 was fraught with frightening significance. It marked the effective end of the disorganized Whig party and, within a few years, its complete death. The Whigs' demise augured the eclipse of national parties and the worrisome rise of purely sectional political alignments.

What was John Brown's role in Kansas?

The fanatical figure of John Brown now stalked upon the Kansas battlefield. Spare, gray-bearded, and iron- willed, he was obsessively dedicated to the abolitionist cause. The power of his glittering gray eyes was such, so he claimed, that his stare could force a dog or cat to slink out of a room. Becoming involved in dubious dealings, including horse stealing, he moved to Kansas from Ohio with part of his large family. (was an American abolitionist who believed and advocated that armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States)

How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act drive the wedge between the sections of the country even deeper?

The growing legion of antislaveryites gained numerous recruits, who resented the grasping move by the "slavocracy" for Kansas. The southerners, in turn, became inflamed when the free-soilers tried to control Kansas, contrary to the presumed "deal. Antislavery northerners were angered by what they condemned as an act of bad faith by the "Nebrascals" and their "Nebrascality." All future compromise with the South would be immeasurably more difficult, and without compromise there was bound to be conflict. The Kansas-Nebraska Act wrecked two com- promises: that of 1820, which it repealed specifically, and that of 1850, which northern opinion repealed indirectly. Emerson wrote, "The Fugitive [Slave] Law did much to unglue the eyes of men, and now the Nebraska Bill leaves us staring." Northern abolitionists and southern "fire-eaters" alike saw less and less they could live with.

What was the northern solution to the panic of 1857, especially as it relates to agriculture and land policy?

The northern solution was to give out land in the west to have it stimulated and fill up the new territories faster. Financial distress in the North, especially in agriculture, gave a new vigor to the demand for free farms of 160 acres from the public domain. For several decades interested groups had been urging the federal government to abandon its ancient policy of selling the land for revenue. Instead, the argument ran, acre- age should be given outright to the sturdy pioneers as a reward for risking health and life to develop it

How did the proslavery advocates in the Kansas government use the Lecompton Constitution as a trick?

The people could not vote against the Constitution, but they could vote for slavery or against slavery. If they voted against slavery, one of the remaining provisions of the constitution would protect the owners of slaves already in Kansas. Whether the constitution was to be with or without slavery, there would still be slavery in Kansas.

What did the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act do to the Democrats?

The proud Democrats—a party now over half a century old—were shattered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They did elect a president in 1856, but he was the last one they were to boost into the White House for twenty-eight long years.