RENEWING THE SECTIONAL STRUGGLE

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

Popular SovereigntyPut in the hands of the peopleSelf determinationCompromise

Would it spread slavery?

POLITICAL TRIUMPHS - 1848 Whigs = Zachary Taylor“Hero of Buena Vista”LouisianaDid not take a stand on slavery

Democrats = Lewis CassVeteranPompousGeneral “Gass”

Free Soil PartyFor Wilmont ProvisoVan Buren

Taylor wins163 to 127

“CALIFORNY GOLD”

Sutter’s Mill = 1848

Gold fever

“Forty Niners”

Lawless men = Virtueless Women

Outburst of Crime

1849Drafted ConstitutionApplied for Admission

UNDERGROUND R.R. Created a network of people System of escape routes

Secret tunnels, false cupboards Provided food and clothing Escorted to the next station

Traveled on foot = NightThe North Star

Went without food for days at a time

CONT. Harriet TubmanMaryland

Owner died --- Made a break for freedom

Conductor

19 trips

Helped 300 slaves Including parents

FIGHTING FOR TERRITORY 15/15

Admission of California would destroy the balance in the Senate

New Mexico / Utah = Non-slave states

Texas42nd Parallel½ territory of New MexicoDetach part of Texas

District of ColumbiaAbolition of slavery

SENATORIAL GIANTS Clay (Tennessee) = Compromise

Calhoun (S.C.) = Save the South

Webster (M.A.) = Compromise / Concession 7th of March Speech

South threatens to secede

Henry Clay ---Worked on a compromise California = free state New / more effective fugitive slave laws Popular Sovereignty

New Mexico and Utah

Senate rejected proposal

Taylor = Veto William Seward

COMPROMISE OF 1850

Clay withdrew from the fight

Stephen A. Douglas Tried to push bills through individually

President Taylor dies

Millard Fillmore --- New President Supported Compromise

Compromise of 1850 Became law 7 months later

BALANCING THE SCALES

Fugitive Slave Act“Bloodhound Bill”No trial by juryAnyone caught helping a slave would be fined and jailed$1,000Up to 6 months

North resisted --- “Vigilante Committees”Massachusetts = nullification

DEFEAT/DOOM FOR THE WHIGS

1852Democrats = Franklin PierceWhigs = Winfield Scott

Pierce wins254 to 42

End of Whig party

EXPANSION

Clayton –Bulwer TreatyIsthmian waterway

Nicaragua = William Walker

Cuba = Spain Polk $100 million Steamer – Black Warrior

Ostend Manifesto

GADSDEN PURCHASE James GadsdenSouth Carolina Railroad manMinister to MexicoTreaty in 1853Gadsden Purchase $10 million

CONGRESS LEGISLATES A CIVIL WAR

Kansas and Nebraska = North of the Missouri Compromise Closed to slavery

January 1854 Douglas introduced a new bill

Divide area into two territories Nebraska - North Kansas - South

Establish Popular Sovereignty for each territory

Became law --- The Kansas-Nebraska Act