chapter 18 renewing the sectional struggle, 1848–1854

Chapter 18Renewing the

Sectional Struggle, 1848–1854

I. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea

• Democrats in 1848:– Polk pledged himself to a single term– The Democratic National Convention turned to

aging leader General Lewis Cass– Their platform was silent on the burning issue of

slavery– Cass’s views were well known because he was

the reputed father of ___________________

I. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea (cont.)

• Popular sovereignty—• the doctrine that stated the sovereign people of a

territory, under the general principle of the Constitution, should themselves determine the _______ ___ ________________.

– It had a persuasive appeal:• Public liked it because it accorded with the

democratic tradition of self-determination

I. Popular Sovereignty Panacea (cont.)

• Politicians liked it because it seemed a comfortable compromise between:– The free-soilers’ bid for a ban on slavery in the territories– Southern demands that Congress protect slavery in the

territories.

• Popular sovereignty tossed the slavery problem into the laps of the people in the various territories• Advocates of the principle hoped to dissolve it from a

national issue to a series of local issues.• Yet, popular sovereignty had one fatal defect:

– It might serve to ________ the blight of __________.

II. Political Triumphs for General Taylor

• The Whigs– They nominated ___________________, the

“Hero of Buena Vista”– Their platform:• They dodged all troublesome issues• Extolled the virtues of their candidate• He would not commit himself on the issue of slavery

extension.

II. Political Triumphs for GeneralTaylor (cont.)

• The ____________________:– Organized by ardent antislavery Northerners• Came out for the Wilmot Proviso and against slavery

in the territories• Boarded their appeal by advocating:

– federal aid for internal improvement– free government homesteads for settlers

• They attracted industrialists opposed to Polk’s reduction of protective tariffs


• Appealed to Democrats resentful of Polk’s settling:– Part of Oregon– While insisting on all of Texas

• Harbored many northerners:– Whose hatred was not directed at slavery as much as at

blacks– Who gagged at the prospect of sharing the newly acquired

western territories with African Americans

• Contained an element of “Conscience Whigs”:– Who condemned slavery on moral grounds

• The free soilers chose _________________


• Free-Soilers’ party platform:• They condemned slavery not so much for enslaving

blacks but for destroying the chances of free white workers to _____ ___from _____-________ dependence to the esteemed status of self-employment

• They argued that only with free soil in the West could a traditional American commitment to upward mobility continue to flourish

• First widely inclusive party organized around the issue of slavery and confined to a single section, they foreshadowed the emergence of the Republicans.


• Taylor’s wartime popularity:– 1,360,967 popular and ____ electoral votes

• Cass:– 1,222,342 popular and 127 electoral votes

• Van Buren– 291,263 ballots and apparently diverted enough

Democratic strength from Cass in the critical state of New York.

Map 18-1 p380

III. “Californy Gold”

• The discovery of gold on the American River near _____________, California, early in 1848, (see Map 18.1):– The most reliable profits made by those who

mined the miners:• By charging outrageous rates for laundry• And other personal services

– The “forty-niners” chasing their dream of gold, most notably Australia in 1851.

III. “Californy Gold”(cont.)

• The California _______ _____:– Attracted tens of thousands of people– A high proportion of the newcomers were

lawless men, accompanied or followed by virtueless women

– An outburst of crime inevitably resulted– Robbery, claim jumping, and murder most

commonplace

III. “Californy Gold”(cont.)

• Majority of Californians were decent and law-abiding citizens, needed protection:– Grappled earnestly to erect an adequate state

government.• Encouraged by President Taylor, they drafted a

constitution in 1849 that excluded slavery• Then appealed to Congress for admission, _________

the usual territorial stage– Would California prove to be the golden straw that broke

the back of the Union?

IV. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad

• The South of _____ was relatively ___-____:• Nation’s leadership: Zachary Taylor in the White

House• Boasted a majority in the cabinet and on the

Supreme Court• Its cotton fields were expanding, cotton prices were

profitably high• Few believed that slavery was seriously threatened

IV. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad (cont.)

• The South was deeply worried by the ever-tipping political ____________:

• 15 slave states and 15 free states• Admission of California would destroy the delicate

equilibrium in the Senate• Potential slave territory under the American flag was

running short• Agitation in the territories of New Mexico and Utah

for admission as nonslave states• California might establish a precedent.

IV. Sectional Balance and theUnderground Railroad (cont.)

• Texas had additional grievances:– Huge area east of the Rio Grande and north of

forty-second parallel– Embracing half the territory of present-day New

Mexico (see Map 18.2)– The federal government was proposing to

________ ________– Hot-blooded Texans threatening Santa Fe taking

what they regarded as rightfully theirs.


• Southerners:• Angered by the nagging agitation in the North for the

abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia• Looked with alarm on the prospect of a ten-mile oasis

of free soil between slaveholding Maryland and slaveholding Virginia• More disagreeable to the South was the loss of

runaway slaves:– Assisted by the Underground Railroad—freedom train– Amazing conductor: ____________________


• 1850 southerners demanded new and more stringent __________________________:– Old one proved inadequate to cope with runaways– The abolitionists who ran the Underground

Railroad did not gain personally from their lawlessness

– Slave owners were the losers.– Estimates of losing 1000 runaways a year out of

some 4 million slaves.

Map 18-2 p382

V. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants

• Congressional catastrophe in 1850:– Free-soil California wanted admission– “_____________” in the South threatened

secession– Planed to meet in Nashville, Tenn. to withdraw

from the Union– The “immortal trio”—Clay, Calhoun, and

Webster—met in Congress for the last time

V. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants(cont.)

• _____________-73 years old:– Played a critical role– The “Great Compromiser”—to reprise the role

he played in Missouri and nullification– He urged that the North and South both make

concessions– And that the North partially yield by enacting a

more feasible fugitive-slave law.


• Senator ___________________-88 years old and dying of tuberculosis– The “Great Nullifier”—• Approved Clay’s proposed concessions• But rejected them as not providing adequate safe-

guards for southern rights– His impassioned plea was to leave slavery alone, return

runaway slaves, give the South its rights as a minority, and restore the political balance.

– He wanted to elect two presidents; one from the North and one from the South, each wielding a veto.


• _____________-86 years old:– Upheld Clay’s compromise measures– He urged all reasonable concessions to the

South, including a new fugitive-slave law with teeth

– As for slavery in the territories, he asked, why legislate on the Subject? • His conclusion: that compromise, concession, and

sweet reasonableness would provide the only solutions.


• Webster’s famed _____________ _____________ (1850) was his final:– His tremendous effort visibly strengthened

Union sentiment– Pleasing to the banking and commercial centers

of the North—stood to lose millions by secession• The Free-Soilers and abolitionists upbraided him as a

traitor, worthy of bracketing with Benedict Arnold.– These reproaches were most unfair. Webster had long

regarded slavery as evil but disunion as worse.

VI. Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill

• The stormy congressional debate (1850) was not finished:– The Young Guard from the North was coming

• ________________________:– A strong antislaveryite, came out unequivocally

against concession– Argued that Christian legislators must obey

God’s moral law as well as man’s mundane law

Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill (cont.)

– He appealed to exclude slavery in the territories with reference to an even “_____________” than the Constitution

– This term may have cost him the presidential nomination and the presidency in 1860.• President Taylor seemed bent on vetoing any

compromise passed by Congress• His military ire was aroused by the threats of Texas to

seize Santa Fe.

VII. Breaking the Congressional Logjam

• President Taylor unknowingly helped the cause of concession by_________suddenly:– Vice-President Millard Fillmore took the reins• As presiding officer of the Senate—was impressed

with the arguments for conciliation• He gladly signed the series of compromise measures• The balancing of interests in the Compromise of 1850

was delicate in the extreme (see Table 18.1).

VII. Breaking the CongressionalLogjam (cont.)

• Heat in the Congress:– Northern states, “_____________”—Clay,

Webster, Douglas—orated on behalf of the compromise

– Southern “fire-eaters” were violently opposed to concession

– In June 1850, southern extremists met in Nashville:• Took a strong position in favor of slavery but

condemned the compromise measure

VII. Breaking the CongressionalLogjam (cont.)

– The second ______________________dawned:• Disquieting talk of secession subsided• Peace-loving people, both North and South, were

determined that compromises should be a “finality”• And the explosive issue of slavery should be buried.

Table 18-1 p384

VIII. Balancing the Compromise Scales

• Who got the better deal of the 1850 Compromise?

• _________ (see Map 18.3):– California, a free state, tipped the balance

permanently against the South– Territories of New Mexico and Utah were open

to slavery—basis of popular sovereignty– The iron law of nature—the “highest law”—in

favor of the free soil.

VIII. Balancing the Compromise Scales (cont.)

• __________:– Urgently needed more slave territory to restore

the “sacred balance”– If not from the recent conquests from Mexico,

then the Caribbean was one answer– The South had halted the drive toward abolition

in the District of Columbia– Most alarming of all, the new _____________

___________(1850)—”the Bloodhound Bill.”

VIII. Balancing the Compromise Scales (cont.)

• Fugitive Slave Law (1850):– Stirred up a storm of opposition in the North– Fleeing slaves:• Could not testify on their own• Were denied a jury trial• Federal commissioner who handled the case of a

fugitive:– If the runaway were freed, _______ dollars– And _____ if not

VIII. Balancing the CompromiseScales (cont.)

– Freedom-loving northerners who aided a slave to escape were liable to heavy fines and jail sentences

– This “_____________” Law was abhorrent• It touched off an explosive chain reaction in the

North• The Underground Railroad stepped up its timetable• Mass. made it a penal offense for any state official to

enforce the new federal statute• Other states passed “personal liberty laws”

VIII. Balancing the CompromiseScales (cont.)

• Abolitionists protested against the man-stealing laws• Beyond question, the Fugitive Slave Law was a

blunder on the part of the_________• Slave catchers redoubled their efforts• With delay of enforcement:

– The South was forging ahead in population and wealth—in crops, factories, foundries, ships, and railroads

– Delay added immensely to the moral strength of the North– 1850s did much to bolster the Yankee will to resist

secession, whatever the cost

• Thus the Compromise of 1850 won the Civil War for the Union (see Map 18.4)

Map 18-3 p386

IX. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs

• 1852 Democratic nominating convention met in Baltimore:– It nominated the second “dark horse”—

_______________________, from New Hampshire• Weak and indecisive figure• War injuries caused him to be known as “Fainting

General”• Enemyless because he was inconspicuous• Prosouthern northerner, he was acceptable to the

slavery wing of the Democratic Party.

IX. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs (cont.)

• His platform revived the Democrats’ commitment to territorial expansion as pursued by President Polk• He emphatically endorsed the Compromise of 1850,

the Fugitive Slave Law and all.

– The Whigs convened in Baltimore; missed a splendid opportunity to capitalize on their record in statecraft:• Having won in the past with war heroes, they turned

to “Old Fuss and Feathers” _____________________– The ablest American general of his generation.


– The Whig platform praised the Compromise of 1850 as a lasting arrangement.

– The political campaign degenerated into a dull attack on personalities.

– The Whig party was hopelessly ________:– Antislavery Whigs of the North took Scott as their nominee

but deplored his platform—which endorsed the hated Fugitive Slave Law

– Southern Whigs doubted Scott’s loyalty to the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law, accepted his platform but spat on the candidate

IX. Defeat and Doom for theWhigs (cont.)

– General Scott, victorious on the battlefield, met defeat at the ballot box.

– John P. Hale took northern Whigs vote from Scott– Hale took 5% of the popular vote

• _________ won in a landslide 254 electoral vote to 42; the popular count was closer: 1,601,117 to 1,385,453.

• The election of 1852’s frightening significance:– It marked the effective end of the disorganized

Whig party.


• ________complete ______:• They augured the eclipse of national party and the

rise of purely sectional political alignments• Governed at times by the crassest opportunism• Won two presidential elections (1840, 1848) in their

colorful career, war heroes

– Greatest contribution was to help uphold the ideal of the Union through their electoral strength in the South and through the eloquence of their leaders: Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

Map 18-4 p388

X. Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border

• The spirit of Manifest Destiny was revived:• A continuous_____________________transportation

route that would effectively sever the two Americas (see Map 18.5)• British encroachment in this area drove the

governments of both the United States and New Granada to conclude treaty in 1848– It guaranteed the American right of transit across the

isthmus in return for Washington’s pledge to maintain “perfect neutrality” on the route—the “free transit of traffic might not be interrupted.”

X. Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border (cont.)

• The agreement led to:• Theodore Roosevelt’s assertion of American control

of the Panama Canal in 1903• Led to the construction of the first

“____________________” railroad

– Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) stipulated that neither America nor Britain would fortify or seek executive control over any future isthmian waterway (later rescinded by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1910; see p. 628).


• Southern “slavocrats” looked southward:– Because of boundary limits the South looked

toward Nicaragua• American adventurer, William Walker, tried repeatedly

to grab control of this Central American country• Installed himself president in July 1856 and promptly

legalized slavery– A coalition of Central American nations formed an alliance to

overthrow him.– President Pierce withdrew diplomatic recognition and he died

before a Honduran firing squad in 1860.


• Sugar-rich ______:• Enticing prospect for annexation• They already had a large population of enslaved

blacks• It might be carved into several states, restoring the

political balance in the Senate• President Polk offered $100 million to Spain for Cuba• They refused• Adventurers undertook to shake the tree of Manifest

Destiny


• The secret Ostend Manifesto quickly leaked out• Northern free-soilers rose up in wrath against the

“manifesto of brigands”• The red-faced Pierce administration hurriedly

dropped its reckless schemes for Cuba.

– The slavery issue thus checked ___________ _____________ in the 1850s.


• Spanish officials in Cuba seized the American steamer Black Warrior• Now was the time for the President to provoke a war

with Spain and seize Cuba• The secretary of state instructed the American

ministers in Spain, England, and France to prepare recommendations for the acquisition of Cuba• The three, meeting in Ostend, Belgium, drew up a

top-secret dispatch:• _____________—it urged the administration to offer

$120 million for Cuba.

Map 18-5 p389

XI. The Allure of Asia

• Not covering

XII. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase

• Acute transportation problems was another legacy of the Mexican War– California and Oregon were 8000 miles west of

the nation’s capital– The sea routes were too long– Covered wagon travel was slow and dangerous– Feasible land transportation was imperative– A __________________________ railroad was

the only real solution.

XII. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the Gadsden Purchase (cont.)

• Where to build the railroad?• James Gadsden, minister to Mexico• Santa Anna was still in power and needed money• Gadsden negotiated a treaty in 1853:

– Which ceded to the United States the __________________________for $10 million.

– Best route for the southern railroad– Northerners wanted Nebraska to be organized

Map 18-6 p392

XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme

– In 1854 Senator __________________________ delivered a counterstroke to offset the Gadsden southern expansion westward• He longed to break the deadlock of North-South

westward expansion• He had invested heavily in Chicago real estate and

railway stock• He desired for the Windy City to be the eastern

terminus for the proposed Pacific railroad • He was trying to get the South to support his scheme.

XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme (cont.)

• The proposed Territory of Nebraska would be sliced into two territories, __________________________ (see Map 18.7)– Slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty– Kansas, west of slaveholding Missouri, presumably would

choose to become a slave state– Nebraska, west of free-soil Iowa, presumably would

become a free state.– Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska scheme flatly contradicted the

Missouri Compromise of 1820:» Which forbid slavery in the proposed Nebraska

Territory north of the sacred 36-30’ line.

XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-NebraskaScheme (cont.)

– The only way to open the region to popular sovereignty was to repeal the ancient compact outright

– To southerners here was the chance for another slave state– President Pierce threw his weight behind the Kansas-

Nebraska Bill– But the __________________________could not be

brushed aside– Douglas rammed the bill through Congress, with strong

support from many southerners– The truth is that Douglas acted somewhat impulsively and

recklessly – He predicted a storm, but grossly underestimated it– In the end, he enjoyed a high degree of popularity.

Map 18-7 p393

XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War

• The __________________________:– Was one of the most momentous measures to

pass Congress – It greased the slippery slope to Civil War:• Antislavery northerners were angered and future

compromise with the South would be immeasurably more difficult• The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was a dead letter• The Act wrecked two compromises—those of 1820

and 1850

XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War (cont.)

• Northern abolitionists and southern “fire-eaters” saw less and less they could live with

• The growing legion of antislaveryites gained numerous recruits

• The proud Democratic Party was shattered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Undoubtedly the most durable offspring of the Kansas-Nebraska blunder was the new Republican Party.

– The __________________________:• Sprang up in the Middle West-Wisconsin and Michigan

XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War (cont.)

• It gathered dissatisfied elements, including Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act• It also included_________ _____________• It never was a third party but:

– It would not be allowed South of the Mason-Dixon line.

• The Union was in dire peril.

chapter 18 renewing the sectional struggle, 1848–1854

Documents

general taylor

slavery problem

issue of slavery extension

political triumphs

free soilers

general principle

freesoilers party platform

freesoilers bid