Chapter 18 Quiz

Who was John Brown?

He was obsessively dedicated to the abolitionist cause and was a radical. He moved to Kansas and was angered by the recent attack on Lawrence. He led a band of his followers to Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856. There they literally hacked to pieces five sur-prised men, presumed to be proslaveryites. This terrorist butchery damaged the free-soil cause and brought vicious retaliation from the proslavery forces.

What were Douglas' intentions when making the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

His foes accused him of angling for the presidency in 1856. 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. What he failed to perceive was that hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens in the North did feel deeply on this moral issue.

What did Franklin Pierce's platform revive?

His platform revived the Democrats' commitment to territorial expansion as pursued by President Polk and emphatically endorsed the Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law and all.

Although the Democratic platform had been silent on the burning issue of slavery in the territories, how had Cass himself not been silent?

His views on the extension of slavery were well known because he was the reputed father of popular sovereignty. 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 was the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

In 1854, Douglas threw himself behind a legislative scheme that would enlist the support of a reluctant South. The proposed Territory of Nebraska would be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. Their status regarding slavery would be settled by popular sovereignty - a democratic concept to which Douglas and his western constituents were deeply attached. Kansas, which lay due west of slaveholding Missouri, would presumably choose to become a slave state. But Nebraska, lying west of free-soil Iowa, would presumably become a free state.

Estimates indicate that the South in 1850 was losing perhaps 1,000 runaways a year out of its total of some 4 million slaves. However, what were the more common ways in which blacks gained their freedom?

In fact, more blacks probably gained their freedom by self-purchase or voluntary emancipation than ever escaped. The southerners rested their argument on the Constitution, which they claimed protected slavery, and on the laws of Congress, which explicitly provided for slave-catching.

How did delay of the war add immensely to the moral strength of the North?

It added immensely to their will to fight for the Union. In 1850 countless thousands of northern moderates were unwilling to pin the South to the rest of the nation with bayonets. But the inflammatory events of the 1850s did much to bolster the Yankee will to resist secession, whatever the cost.

At the same time, why was Texas nursing an additional grievance of its own?

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. 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.

What did this speech by Webster, called the Seventh of March speech, do?

It helped turn the tide in the North toward compromise. the Free-Soilers and abolitionists, who had assumed Webster was one of them, upbraided him as a traitor. These reproaches were most unfair. Webster had long regarded slavery as evil but disunion as worse.

Since the population of California expanded so quickly, what did this mean?

It made California eligible for statehood in 1850. Privately encouraged by President Taylor, they drafted a constitution in 1849 that excluded slavery and then boldly applied to Congress for admission. California would thus bypass the usual territorial stage, thwarting southern congressmen seeking to block free soil. Southern politicians, alarmed by the Californians' "impertinent" stroke for freedom, arose in violent opposition.

What was the major significance of the presidential election of 1852?

It marked the beginning of the end for the Whig party. The Whigs' demise indicated the eclipse of national parties and the worrisome rise of purely sectional political alignments.

How did James Buchanan deal with the issue of slavery?

James Buchanan refused to deal with the issue of slavery, he believed that it would eventually go away. Southerners did not worry about slavery going away at the federal level, but they worried about the American public.

How did the different sections react to the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

Many southerners, who had not conceived of Kansas as slave soil, rose to the bait. Here was a chance to gain one more slave state. The North had come to regard the Missouri Compromise as almost as sacred as the Constitution itself. Free-soil members of Congress struck back with a vengeance.

How did the North react to the new Fugitive Slave Law?

Massachusetts made it a penal offense for any state official to enforce the new federal statute. Other states passed "personal liberty laws," which denied local jails to federal officials and otherwise hampered enforcement.

Who was the candidate for the Democrats in the Election of 1852?

Meeting in Baltimore, the Democratic nominating convention of 1852 startled the nation. Hopelessly deadlocked, it finally stampeded to the second "dark-horse" candidate in American history, an unrenowned lawyer-politician, Franklin Pierce.

How did the northerners respond to these claims?

Northern railroad boosters quickly replied that if organized territory were the test, then Nebraska should be organized. Such a move was not premature because thousands of land-hungry pioneers were already poised on the Nebraska border. But all schemes proposed in Congress for organizing the territory were greeted with apathy or hostility by many southerners.

In the Election of 1856, who were the presidential candidates? Who won?

Republican candidate - John C. Frémont Democratic candidate - James Buchanan Know-Nothing candidate - Millard Fillmore James Buchanan won the election.

What was the Gadsden Purchase?

Secretary of War Jefferson Davis arranged to have James Gadsden, a prominent South Carolina railroad man, appointed minister to Mexico. He negotiated a treaty in 1853, which ceded to the United States the Gadsden Purchase for $10 million.

What did Webster propose in this meeting?

Speaking deliberately and before overflowing galleries, he urged all reasonable concessions to the South, including a new fugitive-slave law with teeth. As for slavery in the territories, asked Webster, why legislate on the subject? To do so was an act of violation, for Almighty God had already passed the Wilmot Proviso. 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 concluded that compromise, concession, and sweet reasonableness would provide the only solutions.

Who was the candidate for the Whigs in the Election of 1848?

The Whigs, meeting in Philadelphia, nominated Zachary Taylor.

Why was the struggle to get these measures accepted by the country was hardly less heated than in Congress?

The ailing Clay himself delivered more than seventy speeches, as a powerful sentiment for acceptance gradually crystallized in the North. But the "fire-eaters" of the South were still violently opposed to concessions. A movement in the South to boycott northern goods gained some headway.

The South, losing the economic race with the North, was eager to...?

extend a railroad through adjacent southwestern territory all the way to California. 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.

Who was the candidate for the Free Soil party in the Election of 1848?

former president Martin Van Buren

What did the Ostend Manifesto show?

how far people were willing to go to expand slavery along with how much other people hated it.

Who did the Free Soil party attract?

industrialists displeased by Polk's reduction of protective tariffs, Democrats resentful of Polk's settling for part of Oregon while insisting on all of Texas, northerners whose hatred was directed not so much at slavery as at blacks and who gagged at the prospect of sharing the newly acquired western territories with African Americans, and "Conscience Whigs".

What was the one fatal defect of popular sovereignty?

it might have served to spread the blight of slavery.

What groups of people were attracted to the Republican party?

it soon included disgruntled Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Spanish officials in Cuba rashly forced a show-down in 1854, when they...?

seized the American steamer Black Warrior on a technicality. Now was the time for President Pierce, dominated as he was by the South, to provoke a war with Spain and seize Cuba.

What did Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska scheme flatly contradict?

the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had forbidden slavery in the proposed Nebraska Territory north of the sacred 36° 30' line. The only way to open the region to popular sovereignty was to repeal the ancient compact outright.

Why did admitting California as a state prove to be a major issue?

the South was deeply worried, as it had been for several decades, by the ever-tipping political balance. There were then fifteen slave states and fifteen free states. The admission of California would destroy the delicate equilibrium in the Senate, perhaps forever.

Zachary Taylor would have been spared much turmoil if he could have continued to sit on the slavery lid. However, what changed this?

the discovery of gold in California in 1849.

What did the Free Soil party foreshadow?

the emergence of the Republican party six years later.

What did the Republican party symbolize?

the increasing sectionalism that was leading the nation toward civil war.

What was undoubtedly the most durable offspring to come out of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

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. it elected a Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives within two years.

What would the fate of California establish a precedent for?

the rest of the Mexican Cession territory.

Luckily for the Democrats, the Whig party...?

was hopelessly split. Antislavery Whigs of the North swallowed Scott as their nominee but deplored his platform, which endorsed the hated Fugitive Slave Law. Southern Whigs, who doubted Scott's loyalty to the Compromise of 1850 and especially the Fugitive Slave Law, accepted the platform but spat on the candidate.

What was the New England Emigrant Aid Company?

The most famous of these antislavery organizations was the New England Emigrant Aid Company, which sent about two thousand people to Kansas to forestall the South - and also to make a profit.

Why did popular sovereignty have a persuasive appeal?

The public liked it because it accorded with the democratic tradition of self-determination. Politicians liked it because it seemed a comfortable compromise between the free-soilers' 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. Advocates of the principle thus hoped to dissolve the most stubborn national issue of the day into a series of local issues.

What happened after the U.S. public found out about the Ostend Manifesto?

The secret Ostend Manifesto quickly leaked out. Northern free-soilers, already angered by the Fugitive Slave Law and other gains for slavery, rose up in wrath against it. The red-faced Pierce administration hurriedly dropped its reckless schemes for Cuba.

What was the Ostend Manifesto?

The secretary of state instructed the American ministers in Spain, England, and France to prepare confidential recommendations for the acquisition of Cuba. Meeting initially at Ostend, Belgium, the three envoys drew up a top-secret dispatch, soon known as 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.

What was 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. The most amazing of these "conductors" was an illiterate runaway slave from Maryland, fearless Harriet Tubman. During nineteen forays into the South, she rescued more than three hundred slaves.

How did politicans deal with the slavery issue during this time?

To politicians, the wisest strategy seemed to be to sit on the lid of the slavery issue and ignore the boiling beneath. Even so, the cover bobbed up and down ominously in response to the agitation of zeal-ous northern abolitionists and impassioned southern "fire-eaters."

Did the Kansas-Nebraska Act pass through Congress?

Yes, Douglas rammed the bill through Congress with strong support from many southerners.

Who won the Election of 1848?

Zachary Taylor

By 1850, what were southerners 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. But to the slaveowners, the loss was infuriating, whatever the motives.

With slavery and sectionalism to some extent soft-pedaled, the campaign...?

again degenerated into a dull and childish attack on personalities.

Southern fears were such that Congress was con-fronted with catastrophe in 1850. How was this so?

"Fire-eaters" in the South were voicing ominous threats of secession. In October 1849 southerners had announced their intention to convene the following year in Nashville, Tennessee, to consider withdrawing from the Union. The failure of Congress to act could easily mean the failure of the United States as a country. The crisis brought into the congressional forum the most distinguished assemblage of statesmen since the Constitutional Convention of 1787 - Clay, Calhoun, and Webster appeared together for the last time on the public stage.

What was the bedrock on which the Free-Soilers built their party?

"Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men." 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. They argued that only with free soil in the West could a traditional American commitment to upward mobility continue to flourish. 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.

What was the Compromise of 1850?

1.) California was admitted as a free state, tipping the Senate balance permanently against the South 2.) The territories of New Mexico and Utah were open to slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty 3.) the slave trade, but not slavery, was banned in Washington D.C. 4.) Texas was to be paid $10 million from the federal government for ceding some of its land to New Mexico 5.) enhanced Fugitive Slave Law

What were the terms of the new Fugitive Slave Law?

1.) The fleeing slaves could not testify on their own behalf 2.) No jury trial for an escaped slave 3.) The federal commissioner who handled the case of a fugitive slave would receive five dollars if the runaway were freed and ten dollars if not - an arrangement that strongly resembled a bribe 4.) Freedom-loving northerners who aided the slave to escape were liable to heavy fines and jail sentences

What happened after gold was discovered in California?

A horde of adventurers poured into the valleys of California. A fortunate few became wealthy, but many of the people were luckless. The most reliable profits were made by those who sold supplies to the miners, notably by charging outrageous rates for laundry and other personal services.

How did the southerners back up wanting the railroad in the South?

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. Texas was already a state at this point, and New Mexico (with the Gadsden Purchase added) was a formally organized territory, with federal troops available to provide protection against marauding tribes of Indians. Any northern or central railroad line would have to be thrust through the unorganized territory of Nebraska

What were the effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

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. Northern abolitionists and southern "fire-eaters" alike saw less and less they could live with. The Democrats were shattered by it - 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.

What did Calhoun propose in this meeting?

Although approving the purpose of Clay's proposed concessions, 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.

During this time, what was an enticing prospect for annexation?

Cuba, lying just off the nation's southern doorstep

As the great debate in Congress ran its course, what seemed certain?

Deadlock seemed certain. President Taylor, who had allegedly fallen under the influence of men like "Higher Law" Seward, seemed bent on vetoing any compromise passed by Congress.

Who was Stephen A. Douglas?

He was a senator of Illinois who longed longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion and stretch a line of settlements across the continent. He had also invested heavily in Chicago real estate and in railway stock and was eager to have the Windy City become the eastern terminus of the proposed Pacific railroad.

At the height of the controversy in 1850, what happened to President Taylor?

He suddenly died and Vice President Millard Fillmore then became the president.

Why did the Democrats choose Franklin Pierce as their candidate?

Because he was enemyless and as a pro-southern northerner, he was acceptable to the slavery wing of the Democratic party.

How did the issue of slavery also reach the U.S. Senate?

Brooding over the turbulent miscarriage of popular sovereignty, Charles Sumner delivered a blistering speech titled "The Crime Against Kansas." He condemned the proslavery men and also referred insultingly to South Carolina and to its senator Andrew Butler, one of the best-liked members of the Senate. This angered Preston Brooks, who was Butler's distant cousin. Brooks then assaulted Sumner on the floor of the Senate.

Overall, what was the Whig party's great contribution?

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.

What did Clay propose in this meeting?

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

How were acute transportation problems another legacy of the Mexican War?

Feasible land transportation was imperative—or the newly won possessions on the Pacific Coast might break away. Camels were even proposed as the answer. Some camels were imported from the Near East, but mule-driving Americans did not adjust to them. A transcontinental railroad was clearly the only real solution to the problem.

Who won the Election of 1852?

Franklin Pierce.

Who was William H. Seward?

He was a senator from New York and was the able spokesman for many of the younger northern radicals. A strong anti-slaveryite, he came out unequivocally against concession. He seemed not to realize that compromise had brought the Union together and that when the sections could no longer compromise, they would have to part company. Seward argued earnestly that Christian legislators must obey God's moral law as well as man's law. He therefore appealed, with reference to excluding slavery in the territories, to an even "higher law" than the Constitution.

Why was Cuba an enticing prospect for annexation?

This remnant of Spain's once-mighty New World empire already held a large population of enslaved blacks, and it might be carved into several states, restoring the political balance in the Senate.

Who was the candidate for the Democrats in the Election of 1848?

Anxious Democrats were forced to seek a new standard-bearer in 1848. President Polk had pledged himself to a single term. The Democratic National Convention at Baltimore turned to an aging leader, General Lewis Cass

What was the Free Soil party?

Ardent antislavery men in the North, distrusting both Cass and Taylor, organized the Free Soil party. Aroused by the conspiracy of silence in the Democratic and Whig platforms, the Free-Soilers made no bones about their own stand. They came out four-square for the Wilmot Proviso and against slavery in the territories. Going beyond other antislavery groups, they broadened their appeal by advocating federal aid for internal improvements and by urging free government homesteads for settlers.

What did Fillmore first do as president?

As presiding officer of the Senate, he had been impressed with the arguments for conciliation, and he gladly signed the series of compromise measures that passed Congress after seven long months of stormy debate.

After this, what did many southern adventurers do?

During 1850-1851, two expeditions, each numbering several hundred armed men, descended upon Cuba. Both feeble efforts were repelled, and the last one ended in tragedy when the leader and fifty followers were summarily shot or strangled.

What was the Whigs' platform like?

Eager to win at any cost, they dodged all troublesome issues and merely extolled the homespun virtues of their candidate. In all of the parties, personality became a huge part of the campaign.

Who was the candidate for the Whigs in the Election of 1852?

Having won in the past only with military heroes, they turned to another, Winfield Scott, perhaps the ablest American general of his generation.

What was the sack of Lawrence?

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. This outrage was but the prelude to a bloodier tragedy.

In June 1850, the assemblage of southern extremists met in Nashville. What did they discuss here?

The delegates not only took a strong position in favor of slavery but condemned the compromise measures then being hammered out in Congress. Meeting again in November after the bills had passed, the convention proved to be a dud. By that time southern opinion had reluctantly accepted the verdict of Congress.

Railroad promoters, both North and South, had projected many drawing-board routes to the Pacific Coast. But the estimated cost in all cases was so great that for many years there could obviously be only one line. Why did both the North and South want it in their own part of the nation?

The favored section would reap rich rewards in wealth, population, and influence.

The California gold rush attracted tens of thousands of people to the future Golden State almost overnight. What happened as a result of this?

The territorial government was completely overwhelmed. 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.