Chapter 18
Tokugawa Shogunate
Japanese warrior dynasty - so protective of Japan's insularity that it prohibited shipwrecked foreign sailors from leaving + wouldn't readmit Japanese sailors who had been washed up on foreign shores - Japan had withdrawn after some disagreeable experiences with European world - 1853, Japan ready to emerge from self-imposed quarantine.
Treaty of Wanghia (1844)
July 3 - first formal diplomatic agreement between the US + China - Cushing interested in commerce rather than colonies - secured some vital rights + privileges from the Chinese including "most favored nation" status + "extraterritoriality".
Treaty of Kanagawa (1854)
March 31 - persuaded Japanese to sign landmark treaty - provided for proper treatment of shipwrecked sailors, American coaling rights in Japan, established consular relations - cracked Japan's two-century shell wide open.
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
Mexico ceded land slightly south of Mexico border for $10 million - aroused much criticism among northerners who objected to paying a huge some for a cactus-strewn desert - land purchased due to location of best railway route from California to South.
Compromise of 1850
VP of Taylor Millard Fillmore becomes president upon his death - presiding officer of Senate - had already been impressed with the arguments for conciliation - gladly signed series of compromise measure passed by Congress after 7 months of debate - balancing in Compromise of 1850 delicate in the extreme - less heated struggle to get measures accepted by country than by Congress.
Underground Railroad
assisted in loss of slaves in South - virtual freedom trail consisting of chain of "stations" (antislavery homes) - scores of "passengers" (runaway slaves) were spirited by "conductors" (white + black abolitionists) from slave states to free-soil sanctuary of Canada - Harriet Tubman one of most amazing "conductors".
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
one of most momentous measures ever to pass Congress - greased slippery slope to Civil War by one way of reckoning - antislavery northerners angered by what they condemned as an act of bad faith by the "Nebrascals" - all future compromise w/ South would be immeasurably more difficult - without compromise there was bound to be conflict - Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 dead.
Free Soil Party
organized by antislavery men in the North who distrusted Cass (Dem) + Taylor (Whig) - aroused by the conspiracy of silence in Democratic + Whig platforms - made no bones about own stand - came out for the Wilmot Proviso + against slavery in the territories - broadened appeal by advocating federal aid for internal improvements + urging free govt homesteads for settlers - assembled assortment of new fellows in same political bed - industrialists (angry over reduction of protective tariffs), Democrats (angry over Polk focusing on Texas over Oregon), northerners (hatred was directed at black people + didn't want to have to share new western territories with them), Conscience Whigs (condemned slavery on moral grounds) - foreshadowed emergence of Republican party 6 years later.
Extraterritoriality
provided for trying Americans accused of crimes in China before American officials - Cushing seeked this immunity by memory of a seaman on a US vessel who was strangled to death by Chinese authorities for the accidental drowning of a Chinese woman.
Popular sovereignty
reputed father Lewis Cass - stated that sovereign people of a territory- under the general principles of the Constitution- should themselves determine the status of slavery - had a persuasive appeal - liked by public - accorded with the democratic tradition of self-determination - liked by politicians - compromise between outright ban + demands for Congressional protection - advocates hoped to dissolve national issue into local issues - could serve to spread the blight of slavery.
Harriet Tubman
runaway slave from Maryland - Underground Railroad "conductor" - 19 forays into South - rescued 300+ slaves including her aged parents - received title "Moses".
Fugitive Slave Act
"Bloodhound Bill" - stirred up a storm of northern opposition - fleeing slaves could not testify in own behalf - denied a jury trial - threatened to create dangerous precedents for white Americans - federal commissioner would receive $5 if the runaway were freed + $10 if not - arrangement strongly resembled a bribe - those helping slaves escape were liable to heavy fines, jail sentences, or being ordered to join the slave-catchers.
Most Favored Nation
"most favored nation: status afforded the US any + all trading terms according to other powers - US trade w/ China flourished.
Why specifically did free-soilers oppose slavery, which differed from abolitionists. Explain the logic of their rationale. (3 pts)
(1.) Free-Soilers 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. (2.) Free-Soilers argued that only with free soil in the West could a traditional American commitment to upward mobility continue to flourish. (3.) If forced to compete with slave labor, more costly wage labor would inevitably wither away, and with it the chance for the American worker to own property.
How did Stephen Douglas feel about slavery and its spread, despite engineering legislation that could potentially increase it throughout America? (2 pts)
(1.) His heart did not bleed over the issue of slavery, and he declared repeatedly that he did not care whether it was voted up or down in the territories. (2.) What he failed to perceive was that hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens in the North did feel deeply on this moral issue. 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. As Abraham Lincoln said, the North wanted to give to pioneers in the West "a clean bed, with no snakes in it.''
What effect on the heated debate over slavery did Daniel Webster's famed Seventh of March Speech in 1850 have on northerners, and also on abolitionists and free-soilers? (2 pts)
(1.) It helped turn the tide in the North toward compromise. The clamor for printed copies became so great that Webster mailed out more than 100,000, remarking that 200,000 would not satisfy the demand. (2.) His tremendous effort visibly strengthened Union sentiment. It was especially pleasing to the banking and commercial centers of the North, which stood to lose millions of dollars by secession. One prominent Washington banker canceled two notes of Webster's, totaling $5,000, and sent him a personal check for $1,000 and a message of congratulations. (3.) But the abolitionists, who had assumed Webster was one of them, upbraided him as a traitor, worthy of bracketing with Benedict Arnold.
Why did it make sense to build the transcontinental railroad through southern territory bought by the Gadsden Purchase? What disadvantage did a northern route entail? (2 pts)
(1.) No doubt the Gadsden Purchase enabled the South to claim the coveted railroad with even greater insistence. (2.) A southern track would be easier to build because the mountains were less high and because the route, unlike the proposed northern lines, would not pass through unorganized territory.
Why did popular sovereignty appeal to many Americans? What did advocates hope for? (3 pts)Why did popular sovereignty appeal to many Americans? What did advocates hope for? (3 pts)
(1.) The public liked it because it accorded with the democratic tradition of self-determination. (2.) Politicians liked it because it seemed a comfortable compromise between the abolitionist bid for a ban on slavery in the territories and southern demands that Congress protect slavery in the territories. Popular sovereignty tossed the slavery problem into the laps of the people in the various territories. (3.) Advocates of the principle thus hoped to dissolve the most stubborn national issue of the day into a series of local issues. Yet popular sovereignty had one fatal defect: it might serve to spread the blight of slavery
Ostend Manifesto
American ministers in Spain, England, France instructed by Sec. of State to prepare confidential recommendations for the acquisition of Cuba - envoys drew up a top-secret dispatch known as the Ostend Manifesto - urged that the administration offer $120 million for Cuba - if Spain refused + continued ownership endangered American interests, US would be "justified in wrestling" the island from the Spanish.
What was "undoubtedly the most enduring offspring of the Kansas-Nebraska" Act? Describe this offspring's origins and its various parts. (3 pts)
(1.) Undoubtedly the most durable offspring of the Kansas-Nebraska blunder was the new Republican party. (2.) It sprang up spontaneously in the Middle West, notably in Wisconsin and Michigan, as a mighty moral protest against the gains of slavery. (3.) Gathering together dissatisfied elements, it soon included disgruntled Whigs (among them Abraham Lincoln), Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The hodgepodge party spread eastward with the swiftness of a prairie fire and with the zeal of a religious crusade. Unheardof and unheralded at the beginning of 1854, it elected a Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives within two years. Never really a third-party movement, it erupted with such force as to become almost overnight the second major political party— and a purely sectional one at that.
Opium War
1842 - fought to secure right of British traders to peddle Opium in China - Britain gained free access to five so-called treaty ports + outright control of Hong Kong.
California Gold Rush
1848 - gold discovered on American River near Sutter's MIll, CA - attracted tens of thousands of people to the future Golden State almost overnight - overwhelmed one-horse territorial govt - large portion of newcomers lawless men with virtueless women - luckless many probably would have made more money if just stayed home - most money made from charging outrageous rates for laundry + other personal services.
Commodore Matthew Perry
1852 - President Millard Fillmore dispatched a fleet of warships to Japan - commanded by Matthew Perry - brother of hero of Battle of Lake Erie - prepared diligently for mission - read voraciously about Japan - queried whalers about Pacific Ocean currents - collected specimen of American technology to impress Japanese - brought 4 ships - steamed into Edo (Tokyo) on July 8, 1853 - requested treaty.
Stephen Douglas
1854 - Senator delivered counterstroke to offset Gadsden thrust for southern expansion westward - longed to break North-South deadlock over westward expansion + stretch a line of settlements across the continent - enlisted support of South by campaigning for Nebraska being split into two territories - status regarding slavery settled by popular sovereignty - just went for it, without regard to how fellow Northerners felt.
How did most slaves gain their freedom?
Estimates indicate that the South in 1850 was losing perhaps 1,000 runaways a year out of its total of some 4 million slaves. In fact, more blacks probably gained their freedom by self-purchase or voluntary emancipation than ever escaped. But the principle weighed heavily with the slavemasters. They rested their argument on the Constitution, which protected slavery, and on the laws of Congress, which provided for slave-catching.
How was the Whigs' defeat in the election of 1852 significant to both the party and national politics? (2 pts)
The Whigs' demise augured the eclipse of national parties and the worrisome rise of purely sectional political alignments. The Whigs were governed at times by the crassest opportunism, and they won only two presidential elections (1840, 1848) in their colorful career, both with war heroes. They finally choked to death trying to swallow the distasteful Fugitive Slave Law. (1.) But their great contribution—and a noteworthy one indeed—was to help uphold the ideal of the Union through their electoral strength in the South and through the eloquence of leaders like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Both of these statesmen, by unhappy coincidence, died during the 1852 campaign. (2.) But the good they had done lived after them and contributed powerfully to the eventual preservation of a united United States.
What connection did Zachary Taylor have with slavery, which the Whigs' downplayed?
The self-reliant old frontier fighter had not committed himself on the issue of slavery extension. But as a wealthy resident of Louisiana, living on a sugar plantation, he owned scores of slaves.