Chapter 14: The Gathering Storm, 1848-1860

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico. proposed that Texas be annexed as a slave state and that any territory acquired from a war with Mexico would be free

Fugitive Slave Act

A law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders

Douglas

America can exist as half free and half slave.

Republican

An anti-slavery stance Federal funding for transportation

President Polk believed the claims in the Wilmot Proviso to be an opportunity to ease tensions between the North and the South. He firmly supported the proviso and signed the bill immediately after its passage in the Senate.

False

The lower southern states cited various grievances against the federal government as reasons for seceding. They chose to leave out the issue of slavery in order to gain legitimacy from the Union.

False

The term Bleeding Kansas referred to the purging of anti-slavery members from the state legislature following the election of 1855.

False

After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the people of Kansas were "perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions." Identify the various events that took place in Kansas as a result of this act.

Free-state advocates met in Topeka, drafted a free-state constitution, and applied for statehood. Rival groups, both pro- and anti-slavery, attempted to gain political control of the territory and recruited emigrants to move to Kansas. In the 1855 election, individuals from Missouri entered into Kansas and illegally elected pro-slavery legislatures.

Identify how South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun countered the Wilmot Proviso.

He insisted on the proviso would deprive slavery owners of their right to life, liberty and property, Since Slaves were considered property at that time.

In his inaugural address on March 4, 1861, Lincoln made many pledges. Identify some of these promises made by the president-elect.

He pledged not to obstruct the institution of slavery in states where it existed. Lincoln insisted that the Union is "perpetual" and that no state could lawfully leave the Union. He pledged to not use force against the South except when in defense of national forts.

What was the Wilmot Proviso, and how did it impact the national debate over slavery?

It claimed that if any new territory should be acquired from Mexico, slavery would be banned in that new land. It reignited the debate over the status of slavery in the West.

In 1856, the Kansas-Nebraska Act sparked intense and violent debate over the status of slavery in Kansas. Why did John Brown and four of his sons travel from Massachusetts to Kansas and, in the dark of night, drag five men from their houses and hack them to death with swords?

John Brown declared himself a holy warrior against slavery. After the murders, he told his son, "God is my judge. ... We were justified under the circumstances. ... [Without] the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins." Brown's attacks, which became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, sparked a violent guerrilla war in Kansas Territory.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

My opponent is only interested in "process" or "popular sovereignty." I am focused on principle. The American government can't exist as half free and half slave.

What did the presidential nominating conventions for the 1860 election reveal about political attitudes based on geography?

Opinions tended to be more radical in the Northeast and the Lower South. Border states tended to be more moderate.

Identify the first state to secede from the Union in 1860

South Carolina

Compromise of 1850

(1) California admitted as free state, (2) territorial status and popular sovereignty of Utah and New Mexico, (3) resolution of Texas-New Mexico boundaries, (4) federal assumption of Texas debt, (5) slave trade abolished in DC, and (6) new fugitive slave law; advocated by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas

After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, a Kentucky man explained that the attack changed everything. "I was a Kentuckian, but now I am an American." What does this quotation suggest about the impact of the attack on Fort Sumter?

The attack had an effect in uniting the North in its opposition to the south

What does this advertisement suggest about the book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe?

The book includes African American characters. The book was influential and sold many copies.

How did the gold rush impact living conditions and society in California?

The majority of California's Native American population died due to disease and violence by white settlers., The population soared, as hundreds of thousands of Americans, along with tens of thousands from other parts of the world, migrated to California. Miners often lived in lawless and violent temporary camps or shantytowns.

William Seward declared that any compromise with slavery was "radically wrong and essentially vicious" and that there was "a higher law than the Constitution." Identify the statement that best describes why Seward made this statement on the Senate floor.

This was a response to Daniel Webster's speech criticizing extremists on both sides and insisting that the geographic extent of slavery had already been settled.

Henry Clay presented eight resolutions to Congress in an attempt to mediate the conflict over slavery. After intense negotiations, northern and southern politicians reached agreement on the Compromise of 1850.

True

Democratic

a pro-slavery stance enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act territorial expansion

Identify the statements that accurately describe the new Republican party.

created when the "conscience Whigs" joined with anti-slavery Democrats and Free-Soilers dedicated to the exclusion of slavery from the western territories

Identify the statements that accurately describe the American "Know-Nothing" party.

embraced nativism was opposed to the territorial expansion of slavery, was opposed to the "fanaticism" of abolitionists

Kansas-Nebraska Act

repealed the Missouri Compromise and established popular sovereignty in the Nebraska and Kansas territories

What did South Carolina consider the "final signal" for the southern state to execute its plan of abandoning the Union?

the election of Abraham Lincoln

In 1849, President Taylor called for immediate statehood for California. A Georgia congressman responded, "that if by your legislation you seek to drive us [slaveholders] from the territories of California and New Mexico . . . and to abolish slavery in this District [of Columbia] . . . I am for disunion." What does this quotation reveal about relations between the North and the South?

the sincerity of the southern threat to leave the Union if Taylor's plan was implemented, the frustration of Southerners regarding the free status of California and New Mexico

The Compromise of 1850 was made up of eight distinct resolutions that were intended to reduce tensions over slavery between the North and the South. Identify some of these resolutions.

to abolish the sale of slaves in the nation's capital, to admit California as a free state to retain slavery in the District of Columbia to deny Texas its extreme claim to much of New Mexico

Popular Sovereignty

was a legal concept that gave white male voters in a new U.S. territory the right to determine whether to permit slavery

Why was slavery in the western territories so important to Southerners and southern society?

Banning slavery in the West would have decreased southern political power. It was important for Southerners to maintain the delicate balance between free and slave states in Congress to protect their slave-centered economy.

Identify the outcomes of the election of 1858.

Douglas was reelected to the Senate .Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives.