Chapter 18

1. Chapter 18 Renewing the Sectional Struggle

2. 1848-War with Mexico Ends • Mexico forced to relinquish vast lands • Northern antislaveryites back the Wilmot Proviso • Southerners blocked the passage of the proviso • What to do with the New Territory?

3. Parties Provide National Unity • Try to ignore the slavery issue • Northern abolitionist and Southern fire eaters kept issue alive

4. Election of 1848 • Polk decides not to run • Democrats nominate General Lewis Cass • Pompous • Rhymed with jackass • Father of Popular Sovereignty (people can choose slavery or not in their state)

5. Popular Sovereignty • People of the territory can choose the issure of slavery themselves • Goes with self-determination tradition • Political compromise • Moved issue into the laps of people of the territory • Might serve to spread slavery

6. Political Triumphs for General Taylor

7. Taylor Nominated by Whigs • Cash in on his popularity • Hero of Buena Vista • Never held office

8. Clay had too Many Enemies

9. Taylor did Not Let His Views be Known • Owned slaves in Louisiana

10. Free Soil Party • Organized by those who did not trust Taylor or Cass • For the Wilmot Proviso • Against slavery in the territories • Federal aid for internal improvements • Urged free homesteads

11. Attracted Industrialists Miffed at Polk’s Reduction of Tariff • Democrats resentful of Polk’s settling on part of Oregon and all of Texas • Attracted northerners who did not want to share new territories with blacks • Conscience Whigs who condemned slavery on moral grounds

12. Nominated Martin Van Buren

13. “Free soil, free speech, free labor” • Condemned slavery for the esteemed status of labor, not for blacks • America could only grow if land was given to white Americans in the West • Built around slavery and sectionalism • Foreshadowed the growth of the Republican Party

14. Campaign Ignores Slavery Issue and Focuses on Personalities

15. Taylor’s Wartime Record Pulls Him to Victory • 163-127

16. Californy Gold

17. Discovery of Gold Opens up the Issue of Slavery Again • “The diggings” - only a few struck it rich • Many should have stayed home • More profits in taking care of miners • Tens of thousands travel to California • Frontier violence broke out extensively in California

18. California Applies for Statehood in 1849 • People need protection • No slavery in constitution • By-pass territorial status

19. Sect

20. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad

21. Southern Balance of Power in 1850 • Economically well off • Southerner in White House • Majority in the Cabinet • Majority on the Supreme Court • Equality in the Senate to block legislation • Cotton prices high • Slavery did not seem seriously threatened

22. Southern Worries • Political balance of power tipping • Admission of California would tip balance of power • Potential slave territory dwindling • California would be a dangerous precedent • Texas was laying claim to New Mexico • Threatened to invade Santa Fe • North agitating for the end of slave trade in D.C. • Loss of runaway slaves • Underground railroad • Assisted runaways to the North • Informal chain of stations to help slaves run away to the North

23. Harriet Tubman - Moses • Rescued many slaves, even her parents • 19 days - rescued over 300

24. Southerners Want a More Stringent Fugitive Slave Law • Old law of 1793 inadequate • State authorities did not cooperate • Abolitionists who ran underground railroad did not profit • Blatant unlawful activity

25. Only about 1,000 Runaways Per Year • More gained their freedom by self-purchase and voluntary emancipation • Constitution protects slavery • Southerners felt more loss of honor

26. Twilight of the Senatorial Grants

27. 1850’s Crisis Brought Together the Most Noteworthy Statesmen in American History • Immortal trio of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun appear for the last time • New young gladiators

28. Clay • 73 years old • Is to lead American through one more great compromise

29. Stephen Douglas of Illinois - Little Giant • Helps lead America and supports Clay’s compromises

30. John C. Calhoun • Great Nullifier • 68 and dying of tuberculosis • Last formal speech • Approves Clay’s proposed concessions • Leave slavery alone • Return runaways slaves • Give the South rights as a minority • Restore political balance

31. Dies in 1850 • “The South, The South! God knows what will become of her!” • “Truth, Justice, and the Constitution”

32. Daniel Webster • 68 • Tries to uphold Clay’s compromises • Urged all reasonable concessions to the South - even a new fugitive slave law

33. Seventh of March Speech • Calls for compromise and concessions • Supports the Wilmot Proviso • Slavery could exist in the Mexican Cession because of climate, topography, and geography • Helped turn the North toward compromise with the South • Strengthened the Union sentiment • Had debts cancelled

34. Abolitionists label Webster a traitor • Webster disliked slavery, but disunion worse

35. Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill

36. New Young Guard • More interested in purging and purifying it than patching and preserving the Union

37. William H. Seward • New York Senator • Against concession • Did not realize that compromise had kept Union together • Appealed to a “higher law” than the Constitution (God’s law) to end slavery in the territories • May have cost him the presidential nomination in 1860

38. President Taylor • Did not want to compromise • Texas threatens to seize Santa Fe and Taylor talked of leading troops against Texas

39. Breaking the Congressional Logjam

40. President Taylor Dies Suddenly in 1850 • Helped cause the concession • Millard Fillmore becomes President and signs concessions

41. Union-Savers of the North Help North Accept Compromise • Good will feeling and upsurge in prosperity by discovery of gold

42. Southerners Still Heated in Debate and Began to Hate North • Pro-Union Southerners prevailed

43. Nashville Convention of Southern Extremists Met to Condemn Compromise • Met Again after the bill had passed and meeting became a dud

44. 2nd Era of Good Feelings • Peace-loving people hoped the compromise would end the controversy

45. Balancing the Compromise Scales

46. Who Got the Better Deal in the Compromise of 1850? • North • Balance of power in the Senate • New Mexico and Utah were not to become slaves states for a while • Southern gains weak • Texas to be paid $10 million to give up claims to New Mexico • Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 • Bloodhound Bill • North opposes this strongly • Runaway slaves did not get a fair trial and could not testify in their own behalf • Dangerous precedent • Federal judge get $5 if slave freed and $10 if not • Those who helped slaves escape were liable to heavy fines and jail • Many moderates driven to the ranks of antislaveryites • “We went to bed one night old-fashioned and conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad abolitionists”

47. Underground railroad stepped up its rescues • Massachusetts makes it a law to stop state officials from enforcing federal statutes • Personal liberty laws- denied local jails to federal officials • William Lloyd Garrison - “We execrate it, we spit upon it, we trample it under our feet” • Fugitive Slave Law angers both sides, further split North and South, and made both antagonistic

48. Delay in Fighting - What Did it Mean? • Time on side of North • Growing in economic power • Growing in population • Added moral strength and its will to fight for the Union • Compromise helped win the war for the North by giving them time to get prepared

49. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs

50. Democrats nominate young Franklin Pierce in 1852