Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis

Stephen A. Douglas

A Democratic senator from Illinois, he proposed breaking up the "omnibus" bill that Clay had envisioned and preferred to have it instead introduced as a series of separate measures to be voted on one by one. Representatives were able to vote to support elements they liked and to oppose those they did not. Douglas also gained support with complicated backroom deals linking the compromise to such nonideological matters as the sale of government bonds and the construction of railroads. As a result of his efforts, by mid-September Congress had enacted all the components of the compromise.

Wilmot Proviso

A bill drawn up by David Wilmot of Pennsylvania that would prohibit slavery in any of the new territories acquired from Mexico. In August 1846, while the Mexican War had been still in progress, Polk had asked Congress to appropriate $2 million for purchasing peace with Mexico. Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, an antislavery Democrat, introduced an amendment to the appropriation bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The socalled Wilmot Proviso passed the House but failed in the Senate. Southern militants contended that all Americans had equal rights in the new territories, including the right to move their slaves (which they considered property) into them.

Zachary Taylor

A general sent to Texas to protect the new state against a possible Mexican invasion. Taylor was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general. Taylor's status as a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican-American War won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died sixteen months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress. In 1845, as the annexation of Texas was underway, President James K. Polk dispatched Taylor to the Rio Grande area in anticipation of a potential battle with Mexico over the disputed Texas-Mexico border. The Mexican-American War broke out in April 1846. In May, Taylor defeated Mexican troops commanded by General Mariano Arista at the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and managed to drive his troops out of Texas. Taylor subsequently led his troops into Mexico, where they once again defeated Mexican troops commanded by Pedro de Ampudia at the Battle of Monterrey in September. Taylor subsequently defied orders by moving his troops further south, where, despite being severely outnumbered, he dealt a crushing blow to Mexican forces under Antonio López de Santa Anna in February 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista. After this, most of Taylor's troops were transferred to the command of Major General Winfield Scott, but Taylor's popularity remained significant. The Whig Party convinced the reluctant Taylor to lead their ticket, despite his unclear platform and lack of interest in politics. He won the election alongside New York politician Millard Fillmore, defeating Democratic candidates Lewis Cass and William Orlando Butler, as well as a third party effort led by former President Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, Sr. of the Free Soil Party. As president, Taylor kept his distance from Congress and his cabinet, even as partisan tensions threatened to divide the Union. Debate over the slave status of the large territories claimed in the war led to threats of secession from Southerners. Despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Taylor did not push for the expansion of slavery. To avoid the question, he urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died suddenly of a stomach-related illness in July 1850, so had little impact on the sectional divide that led to civil war a decade later.

Stephen F. Austin

A young immigrant from Missouri who established the first legal American settlement in Texis in 1822. Austin and others created centers of power in the region that competed with the Mexican government.

Explain how Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks became heroes in their own realms. What did their "encounter" reflect in American society?

After Charles Sumner gave a passionate speech ridiculing Andrew Butler for his views on slavery, Preston Brooks assaulted Sumner. In the South, Brooks was a hero for defending SOuthern views on slavery, while in the North, Charles Sumner became a hero for speaking his mind and for endure a beating because of his beliefs. Charles Sumner became a martyr for the anti-slavery movement and the brutality of his attack became evidence of how passionate Southerners had become about slavery. Northerners accused Southerners of treating their slaves in the same manner and being stiflers of democracy and freedom. Their encounter served as a reflection of the deep division on the subject of slavery within the North and the South. It also showed how differently their economic and territorial interest were. It displayed that the two sections were becoming deeper entrenched in their ideals.

John Brown

Among the most fervent abolitionists in Kansas was John Brown, a grim, fiercely committed zealot who had moved to Kansas to fight to make it a free state. After the events in Lawrence, he gathered six followers (including four of his sons) and in one night murdered five pro-slavery settlers. This terrible episode, known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, led to more civil strife in Kansas—irregular, guerrilla warfare conducted by armed bands, some more interested in land claims or loot than in ideologies. Northerners and southerners alike came to believe that the events in Kansas illustrated (and were caused by) the aggressive designs of the rival section. "Bleeding Kansas" became a powerful symbol of the sectional controversy.

Henry Clay

An aging Henry Clay played a large role in the compromise of 1850. He belived that no compromise could last unless it settled all the issues in dispute. As a result, he took several measures that had been proposed separately, combined them into a single piece of legislation, and presented it to the Senate on January 29, 1850. Among the bill's provisions were the admission of California as a free state; the formation of territorial governments in the rest of the lands acquired from Mexico, without restrictions on slavery; the abolition of the slave trade, but not slavery itself, in the District of Columbia; and a new and more eff ective fugitive slave law. These resolutions launched a debate that raged for seven months. In July, after six months of impassioned wrangling, a new, younger group of leaders emerged and took control of the debate from the old "triumvirate" of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. The new leaders of the Senate were able, as the old leaders had not been, to produce a compromise. One spur to the compromise was the disappearance of the most powerful obstacle to it: the president. On July 9, 1850, Taylor suddenly died—the victim of a violent stomach disorder. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore of New York. A dull, handsome, dignified man who understood the political importance of flexibility, Fillmore supported compromise and used his powers of persuasion to swing northern Whigs into line.

Millard Fillmore

Became the President after President Taylor died from a stomach condition. He was dull, handsome and dignified and he understood the importance of flexibility. He supported the Compromise of 1850 and helped push it through Congress. Fillmore was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former congressman from New York, Fillmore had been elected Vice President in 1848, and was elevated to the presidency by the unexpected death of Zachary Taylor. Fillmore was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain which led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. Fillmore failed to gain the Whig presidential nomination in 1852, and was the unsuccessful candidate of the nativist Know Nothing Party in 1856.

James Buchanan

Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election, on a ticket with former Kentucky Representative John C. Breckinridge, defeating both the incumbent President Pierce and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Throughout most of Pierce's presidency, Buchanan had been stationed in London as minister to the Court of St. James's and so was not involved in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which further divided the country along sectional lines. His subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race against Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing Millard Fillmore. As President, Buchanan allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas to the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. In the process, he alienated both Republican abolitionists and Northern Democrats, most of whom supported the principle of popular sovereignty in determining a new state's slaveholding status. He was often called a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and he fought severely with Stephen Douglas, the leader of the popular sovereignty faction, for control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides. Buchanan indicated in his 1857 inaugural address that he would not seek a second term; he kept his word, and supported Vice President John C. Breckinridge in 1860. In a four-way contest, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln was declared the winner, on a platform of keeping slavery out of all Western territories. He was timid and indecisive at critical moments in history.

"joint occupation" of Oregon

Control of what was known as "Oregon country," in the Pacific Northwest, was also a major political issue in the 1840s. Both Britain and the United States claimed sovereignty in the region. Unable to resolve their conflicting claims diplomatically, they agreed in an 1818 treaty to allow citizens of each country equal access to the territory. This "joint occupation" continued for twenty years.

Santa Anna

Friction between the American settlers and the Mexican government was already growing in the mid-1830s when instability in Mexico itself drove General Antonio López de Santa Anna to seize power as a dictator. He increased the powers of the Mexican government at the expense of the state governments, a measure that Texans from the United States assumed was aimed specifically at them. Sporadic fighting between Americans and Mexicans in Texas began in 1835. In 1836, the American settlers defiantly proclaimed their independence from Mexico. Santa Anna led a large army into Texas, where the American settlers were divided into several squabbling factions. Mexican forces annihilated an American garrison at the Alamo mission in San Antonio after a famous, if futile, defense by a group of Texas "patriots" that included, among others, the renowned frontiersman and former Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett. Another garrison at Goliad suff ered substantially the same fate. By the end of 1836, the rebellion appeared to have collapsed.

General Sam Houston

General Sam Houston kept a small force together after the Alamo and Goliad. On April 21, 1836, at the Battle of San Jacinto, he defeated the Mexican army and took Santa Anna prisioner - who, under pressure from his captors, signed a treaty giving Texas independence. Sam Houston went on the become the President of Texas and offered to join the Union.

Abraham Lincoln

Given the gravity of the sectional crisis, the congressional elections of 1858 took on a special importance. Of particular note was the United States Senate contest in Illinois, which pitted Stephen A. Douglas, the most prominent northern Democrat, against Abraham Lincoln, who was largely unknown outside Illinois. Lincoln was a successful lawyer who had long been involved in state politics. He had served several terms in the Illinois legislature and one undistinguished term in Congress. But he was not a national figure like Douglas, and so he tried to increase his visibility by engaging Douglas in a series of debates. The Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted enormous crowds and received wide attention. Lincoln's opposition to slavery was more fundamental. If the nation could accept that blacks were not entitled to basic human rights, he argued, then it could accept that other groups—immigrant laborers, for example—could be deprived of rights, too. And if slavery were to extend into the western territories, he argued, opportunities for poor white laborers to better their lots there would be lost. The nation's future, Lincoln argued (reflecting the central idea of the Republican Party), rested on the spread of free labor. Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong, but he was not an abolitionist. That was in part because he could not envision an easy alternative to slavery in the areas where it already existed. He shared the prevailing view among northern whites that the black race was not prepared to live on equal terms with whites. But even while Lincoln accepted the inferiority of black people, he continued to believe that they were entitled to basic rights. Lincoln and his party would "arrest the further spread" of slavery. They would not directly challenge it where it already existed but would trust that the institution would gradually die out there of its own accord.

John C. Calhoun

He sought the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1844, but lost to surprise nominee James K. Polk, who went on to become president. He served as Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845. He then returned to the Senate, where he opposed the Mexican-American War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the Compromise of 1850 before his death in 1850. Calhoun often served as a virtual party-independent who variously aligned as needed with Democrats and Whigs. Calhoun was one of the "Great Triumvirate" or the "Immortal Trio" of Congressional leaders, along with his Congressional colleagues Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. John C. Calhun stated that, "slavery was a good- a positive good." It was good for the slaves because they enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in the North, good for southern society because it was the only way the two races could live together in peace, and good for the entire country because the southern economy, based on slavery, was the key to the prosperity of the nation.

Describe the elements of the Compromise of 1850.

Henry Clay spearheaded the effort and lumped all of the issues into a singular bill. Among the bill's provisions were: -the admission of California as a free state -the formation of territorial governments in the rest of the lands acquired from Mexico, without restriction on slavery -the abolition of slave trade, but not slavery itself, in the District of Columbia -a new and more effective Fugitive Slave law These resolutions were debated for six months. New young leaders in Senate tried to resolve the issue. President Taylor suddenly dies. Millard Fillmore became President and understood the power of flexibility. Stephen DOuglas breaks up the larger bill into smaller issues that could be voted on one by one. Representatives were able to vote up the issues they supported and vote down the issues they opposed. Douglas also brokered backroom deals such as the sale of government bonds and construction of railroads in order to push the compromise through.

Charles Sumner

In May 1856, US Senator, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a strong antislavery leader, rose to give a speech entitled "The Crime Against Kansas." In it, he gave particular attention to Senator Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina, an outspoken defender of slavery. Th e South Carolinian was, Sumner claimed, the "Don Quixote" of slavery, having "chosen a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him, though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight . . . the harlot slavery." The pointedly sexual references and the general viciousness of the speech enraged Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina. Several days after the speech, Brooks approached Sumner at his desk in the Senate chamber during a recess, raised a heavy cane, and began beating him repeatedly on the head and shoulders. Sumner, trapped in his chair, rose in agony with such strength that he tore the desk from the bolts holding it to the floor. Then he collapsed, bleeding and unconscious. So severe were his injuries that he was unable to return to the Senate for four years. Throughout the North, he became a hero—a martyr to the barbarism of the South. In the South, Preston Brooks became a hero, too. Censured by the House, he resigned his seat, returned to South Carolina, and stood successfully for reelection.

sectionalism

In national politics, sectionalism is loyalty to the interests of one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole. It is often a precursor to separatism.

Election of 1844

In preparing for the election of 1844, the two leading candidates—Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren—both tried to avoid taking a stand on the controversial annexation of Texas. Sentiment for expansion was mild within the Whig Party, and Clay had no difficulty securing the nomination despite his noncommittal position. But many southern Democrats strongly supported annexation, and the party passed over Van Buren to nominate James K. Polk. Polk had represented Tennessee in the House of Representatives for fourteen years, four of them as Speaker, and had subsequently served as governor. But by 1844, he had been out of public office for three years. What made his victory possible was his support for the position, expressed in the Democratic platform, "that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures." By combining the Oregon and Texas questions, the Democrats hoped to appeal to both northern and southern expansionists—and they did. Polk carried the election, 170 electoral votes to 105.

Harpers Ferry

In the fall of 1859, John Brown, the antislavery radical whose bloody actions in Kansas had inflamed the crisis there, staged an even more dramatic episode, this time in the South itself. With private encouragement and financial aid from some prominent abolitionists, he made elaborate plans to seize a mountain fortress in Virginia from which, he believed, he could foment a slave insurrection in the South. On October 16, he and a group of eighteen followers attacked and seized control of a United States arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. But the slave uprising Brown hoped to inspire did not occur, and he quickly found himself besieged in the arsenal by citizens, local militia companies, and, before long, United States troops under the command of Robert E. Lee. After ten of his men were killed, Brown surrendered. He was promptly tried in a Virginia court for treason and sentenced to death. He and six of his followers were hanged. No other single event did more than the Harpers Ferry raid to convince white southerners that they could not live safely in the Union. Many southerners believed (incorrectly) that John Brown's raid had the support of the Republican Party, and it suggested to them that the North was now committed to producing a slave insurrection.

Bear Flag Revolt

In the summer of 1846, a small army under Colonel Stephen W. Kearny captured Santa Fe with no opposition. He then proceeded to California, where he joined a conflict already in progress that was being staged jointly by American settlers, a well-armed exploring party led by John C. Frémont, and the American navy: the so-called Bear Flag Revolt.

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny reflected both the growing pride that characterized American nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century and the idealistic vision of social perfection that fueled so much of the reform energy of the time. It rested on the idea that America was destined—by God and by history—to expand its boundaries over a vast area. By the 1840s, publicized by the "penny press," the idea of Manifest Destiny had spread throughout the nation. Some advocates of Manifest Destiny envisioned a vast new "empire of liberty" that would include Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Pacific islands, and ultimately, a few dreamed, much of the rest of the world.

Davy Crockett

Mexican forces annihilated an American garrison at the Alamo mission in San Antonio after a famous, if futile, defense by a group of Texas "patriots" that included, among others, the renowned frontiersman and former Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett.

What were the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

Mexico agreed to cede California and New Mexico to the United States and acknowledge the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas. The United States agreed to assume any financial claims its new citizens had against Mexico and to pay the Mexicans $15 million. Settled on February 2, 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

On February 2, 1848, Nicolas Trist (negotiator) reached agreement with the new Mexican government on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Mexico agreed to cede California and New Mexico to the United States and acknowledge the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas. In return, the United States promised to assume any financial claims its new citizens had against Mexico and to pay the Mexicans $15 million.

Dred Scott

On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States projected itself into the sectional controversy with one of the most controversial and notorious decisions in its history—Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott was a Missouri slave, once owned by an army surgeon who had taken Scott with him into Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was forbidden. In 1846, after the surgeon died, Scott sued his master's widow for freedom on the grounds that his residence in free territory had liberated him from slavery. The claim was well grounded in Missouri law, and in 1850 the circuit court in which Scott filed the suit declared him free. By now, John Sanford, the brother of the surgeon's widow, was claiming ownership of Scott, and he appealed the circuit court ruling to the state supreme court, which reversed the earlier decision. When Scott appealed to the federal courts, Sanford's attorneys claimed that Scott had no standing to sue because he was not a citizen. The Supreme Court (which misspelled Sanford's name in its decision) was so divided that it was unable to issue a single ruling on the case. The thrust of the various rulings, however, was a stunning defeat for the antislavery movement. Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote one of the majority opinions, declared that Scott could not bring a suit in the federal courts because he was not a citizen. Blacks had no claim to citizenship, Taney argued. Slaves were property, and the Fifth Amendment prohibited Congress from taking property without "due process of law." Consequently, Taney concluded, Congress possessed no authority to pass a law depriving persons of their slave property in the territories. Th e Missouri Compromise, therefore, had always been unconstitutional.

Explain why President Tyler advocated the addition of Texas to the Union while President Jackson did not.

One of the first acts of the new president of Texas, Sam Houston, was to send a delegation to Washington with an off er to join the Union. But President Jackson, fearing that adding a large new slave state to the Union would increase sectional tensions, blocked annexation and even delayed recognizing the new republic until 1837. Spurned by the United States, Texas cast out on its own. England and France, concerned about the growing power of the United States, saw Texas as a possible check on its growth and began forging ties with the new republic. At that point, President Tyler persuaded Texas to apply for statehood again in 1844. But northern senators, fearing the admission of a new slave state, defeated it.

Preston Brooks

Preston Brooks was an American politician and Member of the US House of Representative from South Carolina, serving from 1853 until his resignation in July 1856 and again from August 1856 until his death. Brooks, a Democrat, was a fervent advocate of slavery and states' rights. He is primarily remembered for his May 22, 1856 assault upon abolitionist and Republican Senator Charles Sumner; Brooks beat Sumner with a cane on the floor of the United States Senate in retaliation for an anti-slavery speech in which Sumner verbally attacked Brooks' second cousin, Senator Andrew Butler. Brooks' action was applauded by many Southerners and abhorred in the North. An attempt to oust him from the House of Representatives failed, and he received only token punishment in his criminal trial. He resigned his seat in July 1856 to give his constituents the opportunity to ratify his conduct in a special election, which they did by electing him in August to fill the vacancy created by his resignation. He was reelected to a full term in November 1856 but died five weeks before the term began in March 1857. Sumner was seriously injured and unable to take his seat in the Senate for three years, though eventually he recovered and resumed his Senate career. Brooks' act and the polarizing national reaction to it are frequently cited as a major factor in the rising tensions leading up to the American Civil War.

Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which diffused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act intensified quickly after 1850. Mobs formed in some northern cities to prevent enforcement of the fugitive slave law, and several northern states also passed their own laws barring the deportation of fugitive slaves. White southerners watched with growing anger and alarm as the one element of the Compromise of 1850 that they had considered a victory seemed to become meaningless in the face of northern defiance.

Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. Pierce's secretary of war, Jeff erson Davis of Mississippi, removed one obstacle to a southern railroad route. Surveys indicated that a railroad with a southern terminus would have to pass through an area in Mexican territory. But in 1853, Davis sent James Gadsden, a southern railroad builder, to Mexico, where he persuaded the Mexican government to accept $10 million in exchange for a strip of land that today comprises parts of Arizona and New Mexico. The so-called Gadsden Purchase only accentuated the sectional rivalry.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.

Mexican War

The Mexican-American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.-Mexican War or the Invasion of Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 US annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory, despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.

Pottawatomie Massacre

The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers—some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles—killed five settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. This was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding the American Civil War, which came to be known collectively as Bleeding Kansas. Bleeding Kansas was largely brought about by the Missouri Compromise and Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Republican Party

The Republic party was formed in opposition to Stephen Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska bill. People in both major parties who opposed Douglas's bill began to call themselves Anti-Nebraska Democrats and Anti-Nebraska Whigs. In 1854, they formed a new organization and named it the Republican Party. It instantly became a major force in American politics. In the elections of that year, the Republicans won enough seats in Congress to permit them, in combination with allies among the Know-Nothings, to organize the House of Representatives.

transcontinental railroad

The U.S. Congress was strongly divided on where the eastern terminus of the railroad should be—in a southern or northern city. Three routes were considered: A northern route roughly along the Missouri River through present-day northern Montana to Oregon Territory. This was considered impractical due to the rough terrain and extensive winter snows. A central route following the Platte River in Nebraska through to the South Pass in Wyoming, following most of the Oregon Trail. Snow on this route remained a concern. A southern route across Texas, New Mexico Territory, the Sonora desert, connecting to Los Angeles, California. Surveyors found during a 1848 survey that the best route lay south of the border between the United States and Mexico. This was resolved by the Gadsen Purchase in 1853. As the nation expanded westward, broad support began to emerge for building a transcontinental railroad. The problem was where to place it—and in particular, where to locate the railroad's eastern terminus, where the line could connect with the existing rail network east of the Mississippi. Northerners favored Chicago, while southerners supported St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans. Th e transcontinental railroad had also become part of the struggle between the North and the South. Pierce's secretary of war, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, removed one obstacle to a southern route. Surveys indicated that a railroad with a southern terminus would have to pass through an area in Mexican territory. But in 1853, Davis sent James Gadsden, a southern railroad builder, to Mexico, where he persuaded the Mexican government to accept $10 million in exchange for a strip of land that today comprises parts of Arizona and New Mexico. The so-called Gadsden Purchase only accentuated the sectional rivalry.

49th parallel

The US-Canadian border as established by President James Polk in a treaty with the British government that fixed the boundary there. On June 5, 1846, the Seante approved the treaty.

Forty-niners

The atmosphere in California at the peak of the gold rush was one of almost crazed excitement and greed. Most migrants to the Far West prepared carefully before making the journey. But the California migrants (known as "Forty-niners") threw caution to the winds, abandoning farms, jobs, homes, and families, piling onto ships and flooding the overland trails. The overwhelming majority of the Forty-niners (perhaps 95 percent) were white men, and the society they created in California was unusually fluid and volatile because of the almost total absence of white women, children, or families.

In what ways did the California gold rush impact immigrants and minorities?

The gold rush also attracted some of the first Chinese migrants to the western United States. News of the discoveries created great excitement in China, particularly in impoverished areas. It was, of course, extremely difficult for a poor Chinese peasant to get to America; but many young, adventurous people (mostly men) decided to go anyway—in the belief that they could quickly become rich and then return to China. Emigration brokers loaned many migrants money for passage to California, which the migrants were to pay off out of their earnings there. The gold rush was producing a serious labor shortage in California, as many male workers left their jobs and flocked to the gold fields. Th at created opportunities for many people who needed work (including Chinese immigrants). It also led to a frenzied exploitation of Indians that resembled slavery in all but name. A new state law permitted the arrest of "loitering" or orphaned Indians and their assignment to a term of "indentured" labor. The gold rush was of critical importance to the growth of California, but not for the reasons most of the migrants hoped. Th ere was substantial gold in the hills of the Sierra Nevada, and many people got rich from it. But only a tiny fraction of the Forty-niners ever found gold. Some disappointed migrants returned home after a while. But many stayed in California and swelled both the agricultural and urban populations of the territory. By 1856, for example, San Francisco—whose population had been 1,000 before the gold rush—was the home of over 50,000 people. By the early 1850s, California, which had always had a diverse population, had become even more heterogeneous. The gold rush had attracted not just white Americans but Europeans, Chinese, South Americans, Mexicans, free blacks, and slaves who accompanied southern migrants. Conflicts over gold intersected with racial and ethnic tensions to make the territory an unusually turbulent place.

What national debate did the idea of a transcontinental railroad spark and how was it resolved?

The issue of slavery came into play once again. The North and South both wanted the terminus of the railroad stationed in their respective territories. The North favored Chicage and the South favored St. Louis, Memphis or New Orleans. The secretary of warsent James Gadsden to Mexico after a survey revealed the the railroad would have to pass into Mexican territory. Gadsden negotiated the sale of this land to the US for $10 million dollars in what became known as the Gadsden Purchase.

Election of 1848

The presidential campaign of 1848 dampened the controversy for a time as both Democrats and Whigs tried to avoid the slavery question. When Polk, in poor health, declined to run again, the Democrats nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan, a dull, aging party regular. The Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, hero of the Mexican War but a man with no political experience. Opponents of slavery found the choice of candidates unsatisfying, and out of their discontent emerged the new Free-Soil Party, whose candidate was former president Martin Van Buren. Taylor won a narrow victory. But while Van Buren failed to carry a single state, he polled an impressive 291,000 votes (10 percent of the total), and the Free-Soilers elected ten members to Congress. The emergence of the Free-Soil Party as an important political force signaled the inability of the existing parties to contain the political passions slavery was creating. It was an early sign of the coming collapse of the second party system in the 1850s.

Explain why some states were willing and ready to secede after the election of Abraham Lincoln.

They felt as though their voices were not being heard and their plight was futile. Lincoln was appealing because of his growing reputation for eloquence, because of his firm but moderate position on slavery, and because his relative obscurity ensured that he would have none of the drawbacks of other, more prominent (and therefore more controversial) Republicans. In the November election, Lincoln won the presidency with a majority of the electoral votes but only about two-fifths of the fragmented popular vote. The Republicans, moreover, failed to win a majority in Congress. Even so, the election of Lincoln became the final signal to many white southerners that their position in the Union was hopeless. And within a few weeks of Lincoln's victory, the process of disunion began—a process that would quickly lead to a prolonged and bloody war.

Explain the events that rendered the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

This came about via the Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court was so divided that it was unable to issue a single ruling on the case. The thrust of the various rulings, however, was a stunning defeat for the antislavery movement. Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote one of the majority opinions, declared that Scott could not bring a suit in the federal courts because he was not a citizen. Blacks had no claim to citizenship, Taney argued. Slaves were property, and the Fifth Amendment prohibited Congress from taking property without "due process of law." Consequently, Taney concluded, Congress possessed no authority to pass a law depriving persons of their slave property in the territories. Th e Missouri Compromise, therefore, had always been unconstitutional. The ruling did nothing to challenge the right of an individual state to prohibit slavery within its borders, but the statement that the federal government was powerless to act on the issue was a drastic and startling one.

What was remarkable about the election of 1848?

This election dampened the controversy over slavery for a short time. It also saw the emergence of a third party known as the Free-Soil Party since opponents of slavery found both the Whig's (Gen Zachary Taylor) and the Democrat's (Lewis Cass of MI) candidates unsatisfying. The Free-Soil Party's candidate was former President Martin Van Buren. Taylor won narrowly and though Van Buren failed to carry a single state, the Free-Soilers elected ten members to Congress. The new part signaled the inability of the existing parties to contain the political passions slavery was creating. It was an early sign of the coming collapse of the second party system in the 1850s.

James Polk

Won the presidential election of 1844. Polk resolved the Oregon question and established the US-Canadian border at the 49th parellel. Polk was the surprise (dark horse) candidate for president in 1844, defeating Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party by promising to annex the Republic of Texas. Polk was a leader of Jacksonian Democracy during the Second Party System. Polk is often considered the last strong pre-Civil War president, having met during his four years in office every major domestic and foreign policy goal set during his campaign and the transition to his administration. When Mexico rejected the U.S. annexation of Texas (which Mexico considered part of its territory, despite the 1836 Texas Revolution), Polk led the nation to a sweeping victory in the Mexican-American War, which resulted in the cession by Mexico of nearly the whole of what is now the American Southwest. He ensured a substantial reduction of tariff rates by replacing the "Black Tariff" with the Walker tariff of 1846, which pleased the less-industrialized states of his native South by rendering less expensive both imported and, through competition, domestic goods. He threatened war with the United Kingdom over the issue of which nation owned the Oregon Country, eventually reaching a settlement in which the British were made to sell the portion that became the Oregon Territory.