RENEWING THE SECTIONAL STRUGGLE
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
Popular SovereigntyPut in the hands of the peopleSelf determinationCompromise
Would it spread slavery?
POLITICAL TRIUMPHS - 1848 Whigs = Zachary Taylor“Hero of Buena Vista”LouisianaDid not take a stand on slavery
Democrats = Lewis CassVeteranPompousGeneral “Gass”
Free Soil PartyFor Wilmont ProvisoVan Buren
Taylor wins163 to 127
“CALIFORNY GOLD”
Sutter’s Mill = 1848
Gold fever
“Forty Niners”
Lawless men = Virtueless Women
Outburst of Crime
1849Drafted ConstitutionApplied for Admission
UNDERGROUND R.R. Created a network of people System of escape routes
Secret tunnels, false cupboards Provided food and clothing Escorted to the next station
Traveled on foot = NightThe North Star
Went without food for days at a time
CONT. Harriet TubmanMaryland
Owner died --- Made a break for freedom
Conductor
19 trips
Helped 300 slaves Including parents
FIGHTING FOR TERRITORY 15/15
Admission of California would destroy the balance in the Senate
New Mexico / Utah = Non-slave states
Texas42nd Parallel½ territory of New MexicoDetach part of Texas
District of ColumbiaAbolition of slavery
SENATORIAL GIANTS Clay (Tennessee) = Compromise
Calhoun (S.C.) = Save the South
Webster (M.A.) = Compromise / Concession 7th of March Speech
South threatens to secede
Henry Clay ---Worked on a compromise California = free state New / more effective fugitive slave laws Popular Sovereignty
New Mexico and Utah
Senate rejected proposal
Taylor = Veto William Seward
COMPROMISE OF 1850
Clay withdrew from the fight
Stephen A. Douglas Tried to push bills through individually
President Taylor dies
Millard Fillmore --- New President Supported Compromise
Compromise of 1850 Became law 7 months later
BALANCING THE SCALES
Fugitive Slave Act“Bloodhound Bill”No trial by juryAnyone caught helping a slave would be fined and jailed$1,000Up to 6 months
North resisted --- “Vigilante Committees”Massachusetts = nullification
DEFEAT/DOOM FOR THE WHIGS
1852Democrats = Franklin PierceWhigs = Winfield Scott
Pierce wins254 to 42
End of Whig party
EXPANSION
Clayton –Bulwer TreatyIsthmian waterway
Nicaragua = William Walker
Cuba = Spain Polk $100 million Steamer – Black Warrior
Ostend Manifesto
GADSDEN PURCHASE James GadsdenSouth Carolina Railroad manMinister to MexicoTreaty in 1853Gadsden Purchase $10 million
CONGRESS LEGISLATES A CIVIL WAR
Kansas and Nebraska = North of the Missouri Compromise Closed to slavery
January 1854 Douglas introduced a new bill
Divide area into two territories Nebraska - North Kansas - South
Establish Popular Sovereignty for each territory
Became law --- The Kansas-Nebraska Act