Chapter 18

Renewing the Sectional Struggle

Popular Sovereignty

• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, but it started a whole new debate about the extension of slavery.

• Northerners rallied around the Wilmot Proviso • The Southerners were able to vote the proviso down in

the Senate.• Sectional political parties meant the Union was in

jeopardy.• Lewis Cass was the Father of Popular Sovereignty.• It was acceptable because it was a compromise between

the extremes of the North and the South, and it stuck with the idea of self-determination, but it could spread slavery.

Election of 1848

• Democrat – Lewis Cass

– Father of Popular Sovereignty

• Whigs – Zachary Taylor

– Ignored all issues

– Had never held office or voted

– Southern slave owner

• Free Soil – Martin Van Buren

– Committed against extension of slavery in the territories

– Advocated federal aid for internal improvements and urged free government homesteads for settlers

– Wanted to stop the spread of slavery to west because they wanted wages to rise so a working class could climb social ladder

President Zachary Taylor

• Won a narrow victory in the election• He was the second president to die--from illness-- in

office and the second president to die in the White House.

• He was the first president not previously elected to any other public office.

• President Taylor was one of six Presidents born in a log cabin. He was one of seven Presidents from Virginia.

• Zachary Taylor never lived in one place long enough to register to vote. He voted for the first time when he was 62 years old. Taylor had never voted in a Presidential Election until he voted for himself in 1848.

California Gold Rush

• In 1848, gold was discovered in California, and thousands flooded into the state.

• Had a huge effect on the slave issue• Most people didn’t “strike it rich,” but there

were many lawless men and women who settled in California.

• Shortly after California was ready to become a state

• California drafted a constitution and then applied for statehood.

Sutter’s Mill

California Goldmining

49ers

Sectional Balance in 1849

• In 1850, the South was very well off, with a Southerner as president (Taylor), a majority in the cabinet and on the Supreme Court, and equality in the Senate.

• With 15 free states and 15 slave states, the South could veto any proposed amendment that would outlaw slavery.

• The balance of 15 free states and 15 slave states was in danger with the admission of free California.

Senate Debate of Californian Issue

• John C. Calhoun– Argued that the South should get more representation in the

House and there should be two presidents – one from the North and one from the South.

• Daniel Webster– “Seventh of March” speech argued for compromise. Was

considered a “fallen angel” by many Northerners because he did not come out against slavery.

• William Seward– A young senator from New York, was flatly against concession

and hated slavery, but he didn’t seem to realize that the Union was built on compromise, and he said that Christian legislators must adhere to a “higher law” and not allow slavery to exist

• Henry Clay– Argued hard for compromise (Compromise of 1850)

Clay’s Compromise of 18501. Californian admitted as a free state2. The Utah and New Mexico Territories could decide the slave

issue with popular sovereignty3. Outlawed slave trade in DC 4. Slavery still legal in DC5. Stricter fugitive slave laws

• President Taylor was against the compromise but he died in office. This helped the bill get passed since Millard Fillmore was for it.

• By far the most controversial aspect of the compromise was the fugitive slave law. Led to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and Personal liberty laws.

• Helped put off Civil War for 11 more years

Death of President Taylor

• On Independence Day 1850, President Zachary Taylor stood hatless in the sun for hours listening to long-winded speeches. He returned to the White House and attempted to cool off by eating cherries, cucumbers and drinking iced milk. Severe stomach cramps followed and it is likely that Taylor's own physicians inadvertently killed him with a whole series of debilitating treatments

This 1852 daguerreotype of a miner in California is evidence of African Americans's role in the state's pre-Civil War history. Photo courtesy of the Museum of the African Diaspora

Clay’s Compromise

• Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed the Compromise Measures of 1850, a set of five bills favoring compromise among the states on the issue of slavery. President Millard Fillmore signed all five measures into law

Slavery in 1850

Millard Fillmore• He signed the Compromise of

1850 as an alternative to war, but it alienated both sides nonetheless. However, it did stave off war for 10 years.

• President Fillmore never ran for President. He became President after the death of Zachary Taylor.

• When the Library of Congress burned in 1851, Fillmore and his Cabinet helped fight the blaze.

• Millard Fillmore was a founding member of the Buffalo Chapter of he American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Harriet Tubman• Born into slavery, she escaped to

Philadelphia in 1849, and subsequently became one of the most successful “conductors” on the Underground Railroad. Returning to the South more than a dozen times, she is generally credited with leading more than 300 slaves (including her parents and brother) to freedom, sometimes forcing the timid ahead with a loaded revolver. She became a speaker on the anti-slavery lecture circuit and a friend of the principal abolitionists, and John Brown almost certainly confided his Harpers Ferry plan to her.

Underground Railroad

Election of 1852

• Whigs – Winfield Scott– Hero of War of 1812– Whigs 3rd war hero (Harrison and Taylor

• Democrats – Franklin Pierce– Dark horse candidate– Considered a pro-southern northerner– His Secretary of War was Jefferson Davis the future

President of the Confederacy– Expansion fever gripped Pierce. The desire to even

out the imbalance between free and slave states

http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail181.html

Franklin Pierce

• Each of his three children died before he was president and before reaching adolescence.

• Two months before his inauguration, the Pierce family was involved in a train wreck and their 11-year-old son, Benjamin, was thrown from the car and crushed to death before their eyes.

• President Franklin Pierce was arrested during his term as President for running over an old lady with his horse, but the charges were later dropped.

Southern Targets of Expansion

Cuba

• Pierce offered Spain (who owned Cuba) $100 million for Cuba – Spain refused

• Ostend Manifesto – Top secret plan written by Pierce to offer Spain $120 Million for Cuba and if they refused the U.S. would take it by force

• Word leaked out and Pierce was branded pro-slavery which eventually led to his demise

Gadsden Purchase

• The Southerners wanted a route through the South, but best one would go through Mexico, so Secretary of War Jefferson Davis arranged to have James Gadsden appointed minister to Mexico

• Purchased land south of Arizona for $10 million

Kansas-Nebraska Act• Proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas of

Illinois. Wanted Illinois to be the eastern terminus of the Transcontinental railroad.

• In order of the RR to extend west from Illinois, unorganized territories had to be organized and made official U.S. territories

• Kansas and Nebraska territories were formerly part of Louisiana territory

• Douglas needed southern support to pass Kansas-Nebraska Act. South was originally against passage because of their desire to have the RR travel through the South

• Douglas enticed the south into voting for the act by agreeing to let Popular Sovereignty decide the slave issue thereby allowing slavery to potentially spread to where it was originally prohibited by law (Missouri Compromise)

• Essentially overturned the Missouri Compromise