#1: What were the most fundamental issues
causing the sectional crisis and threatening to
split the Union in 1850?
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The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
Political Triumphs for General Taylor
California Gold Rush
The Sectional Balance
The Underground Railroad *
#2: Why did the two major political parties, the
Whigs and the Democrats, strive to keep the
most important problem facing America, slavery,
out of the national political discussion? Do you
think that was a wise decision? *
#3: How did the Compromise of 1850 attempt to
deal with the most difficult issues concerning
slavery? Was it a success? Would it have been
more successful if the Fugitive Slave Law had not
been included?
• Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
• Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill
• Breaking the Congressional Logjam
• Balancing the Compromise Scales
• Personal Liberty Laws
– Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842) | Ableman v. Booth (1859) *
#4: Why were proslavery southerners and the
Pierce administration (they controlled) so eager
to push for further American expansion into
Nicaragua, Cuba, and elsewhere in the 1850’s?
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Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
President Pierce the Expansionist
Nicaragua | Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
Coveted Cuba | Ostend Manifesto
America Becomes a Pacific Power *
#5: What were the causes and consequences of
the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Was it realistic to
believe repeal of the Missouri Compromise
would not have caused more sectional tension?
• Pacific Railroad | Gadsden Purchase
• Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
• Congress Legislates a Civil War *
#6: How similar was the Compromise of 1850 to
the Missouri Compromise of 1820? How did
each sectional compromise affect the balance
between North and South? Why could sectional
issues be compromised in 1820 and 1850, but
not after 1854? *