Chapter 10 Section 1 – Guided Reading: The
Divisive Politics of Slavery
1. The terms of the Compromise of 1850:
a. California admitted as a free state; voters in Utah and New Mexico to
decide the slavery issue for themselves (popular sovereignty); voters in
the District of Columbia and Maryland to decide the issue of slavery in
the District of Columbia; the slave trade banned in the District of
Columbia; stricter fugitive slave law
2. The role played by the following figures in the Compromise
Clay – shaped, proposed, and defended it
b. Calhoun – opposed it
c. Webster – approved of and defended it
d. Douglas – saved it by taking it apart and reintroducing the provisions of
a.
the Compromise one at a time
B. Explain what the Wilmot Provisio was, identify who Millard Fillmore was, and
discuss the relationship that existed between secession and the concept of
popular sovereignty.
- Wilmot Provisio – an amendment to a bill in Congress that, if passed, would
have provided for California to enter the union as a free state and would have
banned slavery in Utah and New Mexico
- Millard Fillmore – succeeded Zachary Taylor as president following Taylor’s
sudden death
- Secession – or formal withdrawal from the Union, was the Southern states’
threatened reaction to a lack of popular sovereignty, or local control, over the
question of slavery