Chapter 18
Presidential candidates in the 1848 election included
Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and Zachary Taylor
Of those people going to California during the gold rush
a distressingly high proportion were lawless men
Daniel Webster's famed Seventh of March speech in 1850 resulted in
a shift toward compromise in the North
In his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster
called for a new, more stringent fugitive-slave law
Southern delegates met at a convention in Nashville in the summer of 1850 to
condemn the compromises being worked out by congress.
The most alarming aspect of the Compromise of 1850 to the northerners was the
decision concerning the new Fugitive Slave Law
In order to maintain the 2 great political party as vital bonds of national unity...
early 19th century politicians avoided public discussions of slavery
President Zachary Taylor unknowingly helped cause the compromise of 1850 when
he died suddenly and Millard Fillmore became president
Harriet Tubman gained fame by
helping slaves to escape to Canada
The Free Soilers condemned slavery because
it destroyed the chances of free white workers to rise to self-employment
The public liked popular sovereignty because
it fit in with the democratic tradition of selfdetermination
The key issue for the major parties in the 1848 presidential election was
personalities
The Wilmot Proviso, if adopted would have
prohibited slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War
The Young Guard from the North were most interested in
purging and purifying the Union
By 1859 the South was
relatively well off, politically and economically
The US victory in the Mexican War resulted in
renewed controversy over the issue of extending slavery into the territories, a possible split in the Whig and Democrat parties over slavery, the cession by Mexico of an enormous amount of land to the US, and a rush of settlers to the new American territory in California
During the 1850s, slaves gained their freedom most frequently by
self-purchase
In the Compromise of 1850, Congress determined that
slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories was to be decided by popular sovereignty
The Free Soilers argued that
slavery would cause more costly wage labor to wither away
In 1848, the Free Soil party platform advocated the following:
support of the Wilmot Proviso, fee gov't homesteads for settlers, opposition to slavery in the territories, end of slavery in DC
In the debates of 1850, Senator William H. Seward, as a representative of the northern Young Guard, argued
that Christian legislators must obey God's moral law
In the 1848 presidential election
the Democratic and Whig parties remained silent on the issue of slavery
The event that brought turmoil to the administration of Zachary Taylor was
the discovery of gold in California
John C. Calhoun's plan to protect the South and slavery involved
the election of 2 presidents, one from the North and one from the South
According to the principle of "popular sovereignty"
the question of slavery in the territories would be determined by the vote of the people in any given territory
During the debate of 1850, William H. Seward argued that
there was a "higher law" than the Constitution that compelled him to demand the exclusion of slavery from the territories
The debate over slavery in the Mexican Cession...
threatened to split national politics along North-South lines
For his position in his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster was
viciously condemned by abolitionists
