Renewal of Sectional Struggle
(1848-1854)
Chapter 18
Popular Sovereignty Panacea
•
•
•
Lewis Cass
Zachary Taylor
•
•
Political parties helped protect national union
Democrats
– Lewis Cass (MI) – supported popular sovereignty
for slavery in territories
– Put burden of slavery on voters not politicians
Whigs
– General Zachary Taylor
– Avoided taking any political positions
Free Soil Party
– Martin Van Buren
– Created as abolitionist party
– Supported internal improvements and homesteads
to increase national appeal
– Included wide range of supporters. Anti-Polk, antiexpansionists, racists who wanted to keep blacks
from west
– Conscience Whigs – oppose slavery on moral
grounds
– Took votes from Cass
Taylor wins election
Californy Gold
•
1848 – gold discovered in American River near
Sutter’s Mill California
– By San Francisco
•
Attracted large number of people
– Clipper ships allowed for fast ocean travel to
California
• Replaced by steamships when rail line was
built through Panama
– Most did not strike it rich
– Many came to create businesses and make money
off of those who came to mine
•
Sudden influx of people overwhelmed government
resulting in chaos and crime
•
California quickly organizes and applies for admission
as a free state in 1849
Pan mining (placer mining)
• Take a tin, sift sand and gravel through
and look for gold specks
– Done mostly by individuals
• Hydraulic mining
– High pressure water blasted into
mountain to find gold
Sectional Balance and Underground Railroad
•
•
•
•
•
Southern states dominated presidency, Supreme Court
and was equal in Senate
Southern economy restricted Northern industry
South feared loss of power, especially by adding free
states
Texas was upset that federal government would take
some of its territory away from it
Southerners did not want to end slave trade in DC
•
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Organized system of routes and safe-houses to help
slaves escape south to Canada
Conductors” led groups of slaves to freedom
– Harriet Tubman runaway slave who became a
conductor
1,000 slaves per year were rescued
•
Led to South demanding stricter Fugitive Slave laws
•
•
Compromise of 1850
•
•
•
•
•
•
Seventh of March Speech (1850) by Daniel Webster
argued that Compromise was only way to settle slavery
issue
– Webster argued union more important than abolition
William H Seward opposed concessions, demanded
abolition
– Must follow “higher law” not the Constitution
Zachary Taylor dies and is replaced by Millard Fillmore
– Fillmore supports compromise
“Fire eaters” of south vigorously opposed compromise
Compromise of 1850
Developed by Henry Clay; passed by Stephen Douglass
– California is free state
– Fugitive Slave Act requiring runaways to be
returned
– Slave trade abolished in DC
– Popular Sovereignty to determine slavery in
territories of Mexican Cession
– Texas gives up disputed land to New Mexico, but
gets $10 million from federal government
South wanted more territory in Caribbean to offset new
free territories
The United States Senate, A.D. 1850
Clay introduces Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Act
•
Called “Bloodhound Bill” or “Man-Stealing Law” by
northerners
•
Law said Northerners had to capture and return
runaways
– Federal officials paid for returning blacks to
slavery
Forced many moderate northerners into radical
abolitionist camp
•
•
•
MA passed state law making it illegal to enforce
federal Fugitive Slave Act (nullification)
Personal Liberty Laws
– State laws passed that refuse to follow Fugitive
Slave law and deny access to jails
•
South was angry because North refused to enforce the
law
– Undermines legitimacy of compromise
•
Law polarized Northern and Southern opinions
Election of 1852
•
Democrats united behind Franklin Pierce
– Dark horse candidate from New Hampshire
– Tended to be pro-Southern Northerner
– Supported territorial expansion
•
Whigs split North and South
– Nominate Winfield Scott because he was
military general
• Supported Fugitive Slave Law that made
him unpopular with northern abolitionists
Campaign became personal and childish
•
•
•
Pierce wins election
Election led to collapse of Whig party and
collapse of national political parties in favor of
sectional ones
Winfield Scott
Whig
Franklin Pierce
Democrat
Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
•
•
Manifest Destiny encouraged desire for new
territories
– Slave states wanted more “slave friendly”
territory in south
Control of trans-isthmus trade route in Central
America connecting Atlantic and Pacific was
important to US and European nations
•
Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty (Treaty of New
Granada)
– Granted US transit rights through
Panamanian isthmus and right to intervene
militarily
– US promise to allow all nations to trade
through it
•
Panama Railway constructed through
Nicaragua
•
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
– US and Britain agreed not to fortify trade
route
Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
•
Filibustering
– Private armies invaded Latin American
countries to gain territory for US including
Cuba
– William Walker “grey eyed man of destiny”
• Led private military forces first to take
Baja California, then Nicaragua
•
Cuba
– Polk offered $100 million to Spain, but Spain
rejected offer
•
Black Warrior
– Cuba seized American ship; used as excuse
by some to declare war on Spain
•
Ostend Manifesto
– Offered $120 million for Cuba; if not, US
would invade
– When became public, made abolitionists
angry and forced US to abandon idea
Allure of Asia
China
•
•
•
•
Treaty of Nanking
– Gave Britain 5 treaty ports and Honk Kong
from China
Cushing sent by US to protect US access to
Chinese ports in 1844
– Treaty of Wanghia (1844)
• First US-Chinese treaty
• Got most favored nation and
extraterritoriality
• Allowed US missionaries into China
Japan
Tokugawa Shogunate had kept Japan isolated
1852 Fillmore sends Matthew Perry to Japan
– Arrived via steamship in Edo Bay July 8 1853
– Treaty of Kanagawa (1854)
• Gave protections to American sailors,
allowed US to use Japan as coaling
station
Pacific Railroad and Gadsden Purchase
•
•
•
US needed faster, cheaper way to get from Atlantic to Pacific
– Cost so high, could only build one railroad
– Region where railroad was built would get economic advantage
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
– Land purchased from Mexico to allow expansion of railroad
– Gave south claim for a southern railroad, easier geography, all
territory organized (unlike northern route)
– Led to push to have Nebraska organized to allow for northern
alternative
Completed territory of continental US
Mexican
Cession
Gadsden
Purchase
Annexatio
n of Texas
Kansas-Nebraska Act
•
Growth of railroads spurred settlement of west
•
Douglas wanted lands west of IA and MO organized
so railroads would go to Chicago
– Created Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory
– Douglas propose popular sovereignty in Kansas
and Nebraska territories to get Southern support
for northern railroad
• Assumed Kansas would be slave and
Nebraska free
• Violated Missouri Compromise
Law was vigorously opposed in Congress, but
Douglas got it passed
•
•
Compromise between regions was made virtually
impossible.
– North stopped enforcing Fugitive Slave Law
– Made Northerners and Southerners feel like they
couldn’t live with each other.
Republican Party
•
Created in 1854 to oppose extension of
slavery
– Called slavery a great moral, social,
political evil
– Demand repeal of Kansas-Nebraska
Act and Fugitive Slave Act
•
Weakened Whig and Democrat parties
– Whigs did not recover
• Became popular very fast
– Was purely sectional in nature