Transcript Chapter 18 PowerPoint

Sectional Struggle
1848 - 1854
1a., b. Slavery In The New Territories
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The short term effect of the Mexican War – more territory
The long term effect – it brought the issue of slavery center
stage in American politics
Will slavery be in the new territories?
One proposed solution was popular sovereignty
This solution appealed to many moderates
Moderates were those who didn’t like slavery, but yet didn’t
fight against it with all their being (Lincoln was a moderate)
1) The states were allowed to vote on the issue and
choose to be either a slave or free state
2) It put the issue of slavery into the laps of the people
so the government didn’t have to solve the issue
Sectional political parties arose – the Free-Soiler party
They were against slavery in all new U.S. territories.
1c. Slavery In The New Territories
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The Election of 1848
Zachary Taylor is elected president – Taylor garnered
popularity from his success as a general in the Mexican War
Sectional tensions arose under his administration when
California applied for statehood as a free state in 1849
This threatened the equal balance of free and slave states,
which were at 15 states each
Southerners were also concerned about the North harboring
fugitive slaves – facilitated by Harriet Tubman and the
Underground Railroad
President Zachary Taylor
The United States - 1845
2a. The Compromise of 1850
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California’s request for statehood sparked a historic debate
in Congress between three legendary politicians
1) Henry Clay – 73 yrs old; Kentucky senator; he urged
the Congress to admit CA as a state and that the North
obey the Fugitive Slave Law
2) John C. Calhoun – 68 yrs old; dying; wanted slavery
and the South left alone
3) Daniel Webster – 68 yrs old; Illinois senator; didn’t like
slavery but didn’t want the country to split, supported
Clay’s compromise
2b. The Compromise of 1850
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President Taylor dies suddenly in 1850 after just a year in
office
He is replaced by his VP Millard Fillmore
Admitted California as a free state
It took disputed area from the slave-holding state of Texas
which was given to New Mexico
Abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
Tightened the Fugitive Slave Law
The North came out with the better end of the bargain in the
Compromise of 1850
The North gained the rich state of CA. The FSL was bad
for the South; it intensified the abolition movement and
the North did not enforce the law honestly.
The United States – 1850-53
President Millard Fillmore
3. Expansionism in the 1850s
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The Election of 1852 – Franklin Pierce is elected
Expansionist
American lawyer and politician William Walker tries to gain
Nicaragua as a slave-owning, English-speaking colony for
the South but he was stopped by a coalition of Latin
American troops
The Clayton – Bulwer Treaty – 1850 – The U.S. and Britain
have a brief dispute over who has the rights to canal territory
in Nicaragua
Matthew Perry – opens the U.S. to trade in Japan, albeit
through intimidation in 1854
Southern states also schemed for the island of Cuba
especially in response to the admission of California as a
free state.
In the Ostend Manifesto Spain would be forced to sell it to
the U.S. but the manifesto leaked, and the Northern states
stopped American acquisition of Cuba
3. The Kansas Nebraska Act - 1854
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Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas boldly tries to solve the
sectional issue again with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
All new territories could choose to be slave or free by
popular sovereignty
This threw out the Missouri Compromise of 1820
Some criticize Douglas’ move here; many believe the
Kansas-Nebraska Act was the final push that put the country
on the inevitable path to Civil War.
Stephen Douglas
President Franklin Pierce