Chapter 17 section 1

Efforts to Save the Union

In both the North and South, people were divided over slavery. A central issue was whether to allow slavery in new territories.

Some moderates proposed giving voters in each territory popular sovereignty.

Popular sovereignty- the right of voters to decide an issue for themselves.

Northern radicals demanded an end to slavery everywhere in the United States. However, Southern radicals insisted on the right to extend slavery into all new territories.

The Issue of Slavery

An ongoing cause of tension was the balance of power in the Senate. Congress put off admitting Minnesota and Oregon as free states because it would have upset the balance of power between free and slave states in the Senate.

Balance of Power in the Senate

The Democrats and Whigs avoided the topic of slavery in the Election of 1848.

Election of 1848 Democratic Candidate- Senator Lewis Cass

(northern moderate)Whig candidate- General Zachary Taylor

( hero of war with Mexico)Free Soil Party candidate- Martin Van Buren

(former President)

Election of 1848

Angry antislavery forces formed the Free Soil Party, which won enough northern votes away from the Democrats that Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate, was elected our 12th President

Zachary Taylor (Whig) 12th POTUSMillard Fillmore (Whig) Vice President

Results of the Election of 1848

Election of 1848

Zachary Taylor 12th POTUS

California applied to join the Union as a free state, so Congress agreed to Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850.

The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state but left the question of slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories to be decided by sovereignty.

The Compromise also included a strict Fugitive Slave Law. The new Fugitive Slave Law required the return of escaped slaves, even slaves who had reached the North.

Slavery was still legal in Washington, D.C. but the slave trade was to be abolished in Washington, D.C.

Compromise of 1850

California 1850

Compromise of 1850 Map

Henry Clay

Fugitive Slave Law Advertisement 1850

President Zachary Taylor fell ill from cholera and died on July 9, 1850. The new President was Millard Fillmore, who was Taylor’s Vice-President. Fillmore was a supporter of the Compromise of 1850 and helped it pass.

Millard Fillmore (Whig) -13th POTUS

Vice President takes Over

Millard Fillmore 13th POTUS