Quiz: Chapter 17-18
• You know the drill!
• NOTE: Mr. Hess was out of school for Tuesday (11/29) through
Thursday (12/1)
Tuesday
December 1, 2015
Socratic Seminar: Chapters 17-18
Manifest Destiny & Renewed Sectional Struggle
• Which territorial acquisition of the 1830s-1840s was the most significant
and why (CA, OR, TX, ME)
• What is popular sovereignty? Bonus Point: what does panacea mean?
• Which idea in these chapters do you think is most significant when
studying the path to the Civil War?
• Which parts of the chapter . . .
• did you not understand?
• made you think, “WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW THIS???”
• How do ideas found in the chapters manifest themselves today?
• Who were the major stakeholders in these chapters?
• What might be an alternate title for this chapter?
Chapter 18 Significance &
th
The “7 of March Speech”
• While Mr. Hess is out, complete the Chapter 18 Significance
worksheet.
• Then open to page 405 of “The American Spirit”.
• Read Daniel Webster’s speech on compromise.
• Consider:
1.
2.
Wednesday
&
November 30, 2016
How good a prophet was Webster?
Which of his arguments was his strongest piece of evidence?
Thursday
December 1, 2016
Essay Due!
• Please staple or clip your essay materials in the following order:
•
•
•
•
Final Draft
Rough Draft(s)
Outline(s)
Brainstorming
• Once you’ve turned your packet in, please grab a copy of “The
American Spirit.”
Friday
December 2, 2016
Unit 3: Testing the New Nation
1820-1877
•
•
•
•
Chapter 16: The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793-1860
Chapter 17: Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy, 1841-1848
Chapter 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-1854
Chapter 19: Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854-1861
• Exam: Chapters 16-19 – December 9th
• Chapter 20: Girding for War – The North and the South, 1861-1865
• Chapter 21: The Furnace of the Civil War, 1861-1865
• Chapter 22: The Ordeal of Reconstruction, 1865-1877
• Exam: Chapters 20-22 – December 23rd
• NO UNIT ESSAY
Chapter 18
Renewing the Sectional
Struggle, 1848-1854
“Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never
destined to see that miracle.”
Daniel Webster, Seventh of March Speech, 1850
I. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
II. Political Triumphs for General Taylor
• Democrats in 1848: silent on slavery
• Nominated Lewis Cass: father of popular sovereignty
• The sovereign people of a territory should themselves determine the
status of slavery.
• Public liked it because it accorded with the democratic tradition of selfdetermination.
• Politicians liked it because it seemed a comfortable compromise – leave
it up to the people of each territory.
• Why would popular sovereignty probably not work?
• The Whigs in 1848: nominated Zachary Taylor & dodged
troublesome issues.
• The Free Soil Party in 1848: nominated Martin Van Buren
and focused on more than just slavery (internal
improvement, free homesteads).
• Election of 1848: Taylor (W) 163 – Cass (D) 127 – Van
Buren (FS) 0
• We love our military heroes!
Lewis “Smiley” Cass
Democratic Nominee for
President & proponent of
“popular sovereignty”, 1848
III. “Californy Gold”
• The discovery of gold in California, early in
1848, brought thousands west – “49ers”.
• The most significant wealth actually
belonged to those who sold goods and
services to the miners.
• The California gold rush:
• Many lawless men and virtueless women
travelled west.
• Crime skyrocketed: robbery, claim jumping, and
murder
• Decent Californians needed protection –
needed a strong government.
• Encouraged by President Taylor, they applied for
statehood without becoming a territory first.
• CA drafted a constitution in 1849 (excluded
slavery).
Placer Miners in California
Cheap but effective, placer
mining consisted of literally
“washing” the gold out of
surface deposits. No deep
excavation was required. This
crew of male and female miners
in California in 1852 was using a
“long tom” sluice that washed
relatively large quantities of ore.
IV. Sectional Balance and the Underground
Railroad
• The South of 1850 was relatively well-off: Taylor in
WH, majority in cabinet & Supreme Court while
cotton expanded.
• However, the South was always concerned with
this political balance – especially in the Senate.
• 1850: 15 slave states and 15 free states
• Admission of CA would destroy the balance in the
Senate while potential slave territory was running short.
• Slave-California might establish a precedent for slavery
in Mexican Cession.
• Government was going to give part of TX to NM (slave 
non-slave?)
• Northerners pushed for abolition in DC.
To many southerners, this was all the
• What should happen to runaway slaves & the
evidence needed to prove the north was
Underground Railroad?
out to destroy the southern way of life.
V. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
VI. Deadlock and Danger on
Capitol Hill
VII. Breaking the Congressional
Logjam
VIII. Balancing the Compromise
Scales
• Congress had to decide in 1850: Allow free-soil California into the
Union? – Compromise? (Clay, Calhoun, Webster)?
• Webster’s 7th of March Speech declared support for union above all else.
• President Taylor, Clay, Calhoun, and Webster all died in the early 1850s.
• Vice-President Millard Fillmore became president and supported
the Compromise of 1850.
• See next slide for Compromise details.
• Debate in Congress:
• Northern states, Clay, Webster, Douglas spoke on behalf of the compromise
• Southern “fire-eaters” weren’t quite ready for secession – yet.
• The Second Era of Good Feelings dawned, and then quickly ended.
• Both sides dug in deeper after the compromise.
• New “Young Guard” declared nation should end slavery for religious
reasons.
• Southern “fire-eaters” became resolved never to compromise again.
From Top to
bottom:
Clay, Webster,
Calhoun
IX. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
• 1852: Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce (NH)
• “Weak and indecisive figure” (OUCH!)
• Pro-southern northerner, he was acceptable to the
slavery wing of the Democratic Party.
• Supported the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave
Law and all.
• 1852: Whigs failed to capitalize on success of
Clay, Webster, Calhoun – chose Winfield Scott
• Campaign praised Compromise of 1850, but the party
was split on slavery.
• Whig Party was near death thanks to slavery – time for
political parties to exist along sectional lines.
• 1852 Results: Pierce (D) 254 def. Scott (W) 42
Top: Franklin
Pierce – 14th
President of the
U.S.
Bottom: Winfield
Scott – not even
almost the 14th
President of the
U.S.
The Legal Status of
Slavery, from the
Revolution to the Civil
War
X. Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
XI. The Allure of Asia
• The spirit of Manifest Destiny was revived as the
south looked to expand slave territory.
• By the 1850s, though, slavery had become the
significant issue.
• Southern expansionists' dreams would never become
a reality.
• Americans wanted in on the huge markets of Asia
– NEW CUSTOMERS!
• Great Britain was already there (Opium War)
• Treaty of Wanghia: the first formal diplomatic
agreement between U.S. and China on July 3, 1844 –
trade flourished!
• Treaty of Kanagawa: the Americans next set their
sites on the Japanese and forced them to sign this
treaty on March 31, 1854.
• Transformation: Japan had no global military capabilities
in 1854, but it was able to attack the United States less
than 100 years later at Pearl Harbor.
XII. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase
XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
• Mexican Cession provided problems for
transportation – needed transcontinental
railroad through Mexican territory Gadsden
Purchase (1853).
• In 1854 Senator Stephen A. Douglas (D-IL)
delivered the northern answer to the Gadsden
Purchase.
• He was trying to get the South to support his
scheme.
• The proposed Territory of Nebraska would be sliced
into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska.
• Popular sovereignty or Missouri Compromise?
• The South & President Pierce supported the bill –
did they understand how big of an issue this would
become?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn2F
zuPyFlY
XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act set up the final
prelude to civil war.
• Antislavery northerners were angered and future
compromise with the South became almost
impossible.
• The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was ignored by angry
northerners.
• The Act wrecked 1820 & 1850 compromises.
• Northern abolitionists grew in number.
• Democratic Party was shattered by the KansasNebraska Act.
• Republican Party was born out of dissatisfied
elements:
• Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and
other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
It was in the fog of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act that Abraham Lincoln and the
Republican Party began their ascent to
the White House.