Chapter 8teen *
Presented By: Isabella and Steven
Breaking the Congressional Logjam
• President Taylor had helped
the cause of Concession (as
by granting something as a
right, accepting something
as true, or acknowledging
defeat) by dying
• It took Congress 7 months to
pass the Compromise of
1850
• "Fire-eaters" of the south
hated the idea and had
boycotted Northern goods.
Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
• Franklin Pierce accepted into the slavery wing of the Democratic party
• His platform revived the Democrats’ commitment to territorial expansion
as pursued by President Polk and endorsed the Compromise of 1850
• Compromise of 1850 – California is a free state, New Mexico and Utah to
popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade in Washington DC, and
introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law
• The Whig platform praised the Compromise of 1850 as a lasting
arrangement, less enthusiastically than the Democrats though
• Antislavery Whigs of the North had accepted Scott as their nominee but
absolutely deplored or disapproved his platform – which endorsed the
hated Fugitive Slave Law
Defdeat and Doom for the Whigs (
continuation )
• Southern Whigs doubted Scott’s loyalty ti the Compromise of 1850 and
the Fugitive Slave Law, accepted the platforn but spat on the candidate –
unlike the northerners who spat on the platform but accepted the
candidate
• The election of 1852 was fraught with frightening significance, it marked
the effective end of the disorganized Whig party
• Whigs had won only to presidential elections (1840 and 1848) & both with
wat heroes, but finally ended with the disgrateful Fugitive Slave Law
• Henry Clay and Daniel Webster who were both leaders and
statesmen died during the 1852 campaign but the good they had done to
the nation lived long after their death – the preservation of a united
United States.
The Senate’s deliberations over the Compromise of 1850 -Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Webster called for a
compromise to preserve the Union while Calhoun argued that the Union could only be
preserved if Northerners respected the Southern institutions including slavery. In this painting
Clay has the floor, Calhoun stands third from the right, and Daniel Webster, head in hand sits
on the left.
Expansionist Stirrings South of the
Border
• After the victory over the Mexican War, Gold had been
discovered in California
o Led to the California Gold Rush
o Atlantic-to-Pacific was the only route
o This troubled the two American continents because
whoever held imperial control had control over all
maritime nations of the united nations
• New Granada and the United States had felt unsecured by
the British appearance within the area in the port of San
Juan del Norte
o It guaranteed the American right to transport across the
isthmus in return for Washington's pledge
 This provided a legal cover for the assertion of
American control over the Panama Canal Zone in 1903
Expansionist Stirrings South of the
Border (cont.)
 Also led to the construction of the First
"Transcontinental" railroad
• The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 avoided a "full-blown"
confrontation by stating that neither America nor Britain
would fortify or seek exclusive control over any future
isthmian waterway
o This was later rescinded by the Hay Paunceforte Treaty of
1901
 negotiated in 1899 and 1901 by Secretary of State,
John Hay and British Ambassador, Julian Paunceforte
• Southern "slavocrats" strive for southward expansion for
new slave trade
Expansionist Stirrings South of the
Border (cont. II)
• President Polk offered $100,0000 for the land of Cuba
o Cuba was sugar-rich
o Spaniards rejected the offer and said they would rather
see the island sink into the sea rather than have it in the
hands of the hated Yankees
Pacific Railroad Promoters and the
Gadsden Purchase
• Another legacy of the Mexican War was transportation problems
with California and Oregon being eight thousand miles west of the
nation's capitol
• Sea routes to and from the Isthmus of Panama were too long and
traveling by wagon was slow and dangerous
• Land transportation was so imperative or absolutely necessary /
required, that camels were being used as their way of transportation
from the west to the east, but that didn't work out as planned
• Decisions were made to have railroad routes to the Pacific Coast
put in the north, since they'd reap rich rewards in wealth, population
and influence
• The southerners then were eager to extend railroads through the
southwestern territory all the way to California
Pacific Railroad Promoters and the
Gadsden Purchase ( continuation )
• The best railway route ran slightly south of the Mexican
border
• Secretary of War Jefferson Davis appointed James Gadsden
as minister of Mexico, in 1853 he negotiated a treaty ceding
to the United States the Gadsden Purchase.
• The Gadsden Purchase acquired additional land from
Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a
southern transcontinental railroad
• Many schemes proposed in Congress for organizing
territories were denied by the Southerners - they didn't want
to help or facilitate northern railroads
Douglass Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
• Senator of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas wanted to pass the
Kansas-Nebraska Act
o This would divide the Nebraska Terr. into two sections;
Kansas and Nebraska
o His goal was to break the North-South over deadlock over
westward expansion
o The status of slavery would depend on popular
sovereignty
 Kansas would remain a Slave-State while Nebraska
would become a Free-State
• The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had forbidden slavery in
the Nebraskan Terr. which was located North of the 36°30'
line
Douglass Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
(cont.)
• Douglass` foes accused him of angling for presidency in
1856
• He declared repeatedly that he didn't care whether slavery
was voted up or down the territories
• Northerners felt the Missouri Compromise as an intolerable
breach of faith, that they'd resist to tall future southern
demands for slave territories
• As Abraham Lincoln had said, North wants to give the West "
a clean bed, with no snakes in it. "
• Northerners saw Douglass as a traitor for not doing much to
stop slavery, but his population still remained in the
Democratic Party and in Illinois as a stronghold of
population sovereignty - the belief that the legitimacy of
the state is created by the will of its people
Congress Legislates a Civil War
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a "curtain-raiser to a terrible
drama"
o It wrecked the Compromises of 1820 and 1850
o It led to a Civil War
• The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 caused more tension
between the North and South
• The new Republican Party had sprung up in the MiddleWest, mostly in Wisconsin and Michigan
o The party protested against slavery
• In result, the Republican Party was not allowed in the
Southern areas of the Mason-Dixon Line