Renewing the Sectional
Struggle
1848-1854
“Secession! Peaceable Secession! Sir, Your Eyes and
Mine are never destined to see such a miracle”
Daniel Webster, Seventh of March Speech, 1850
Lands ceded by Mexico to the US as a result of the Mexican-American War
1846- The Wilmot Proviso- (Representative David Wilmot
(Dem) from Penn; proposed that in any territory won from
Mexico-slavery would not exist– voted down in the Senate.
The Election of 1848
The Candidates:
1. Gen. Lewis Cass: chosen by the Democrats at
convention in Baltimore; “father of popular
sovereignty” idea.
• Democrat Platform: silence on slavery in the
territories.
*Popular Sovereignty: idea that the people who lived
in a territory should determine the status of slavery
in that territory.
• Fatal defect: might serve to spread slavery.
2. Zachary Taylor: chosen by Whigs at convention in
Philadelphia; “ Hero of Buena Vista”.
• Dodged the controversial issues• Taylor- Louisiana slave owner
3. The Free Soil Party: formed by antislavery forces in the
North who distrusted Taylor & Cass on the slavery issue.
*condemned slavery –not on moral grounds- but on grounds that
slaves threatened the ability of free white men to earn upward
mobility.
• favored the Wilmot Proviso & against slavery in territories.
• advocated federal aid for internal improvements, free
government homesteads for settlers.
• Voters: industrialists angry at Polk’s reduction of tariffs,
Democrats resentful of Polk’s settling for part of Oregon & all of
Texas, northerners who resented sharing the western territories
with African-Americans, “Conscience Whigs” who condemned
slavery on moral grounds.
•Candidate: Martin Van Buren
The Election of 1848
Zachary Taylor won the election
Van Buren did not win a state but diverted Democrat votes from
Cass in NY to throw the election to Taylor
*1848-Gold Discovered in California
• 1848- on the American River near Sutter’s Mill, California gold
was discovered= miners & settlers flooded into California
(49’ers).
• most miners used placer mining to pan for gold at the earth’s
surface= most did not strike it rich. (Quartz mining)
• people who charged miners for services made the money
• tens of thousands of gold hungry settlers flooded into
California= the tiny government could not handle the influx.
• crime was rampant= vigilante justice (partly successful)
•** 1849- (privately encouraged by Pres. Taylor) California
drafted a constitution that banned slavery & applied for
admission to the US.
Sectional Balance by 1850
• South relatively well off:
1. Zachary Taylor – a Southern slave owner in the White
House
2. Southern majority on the pres. Cabinet & Supreme
Court
3. Equal balance in the Senate
4. Cotton fields were expanding- prices were high
5. 15 slave states could veto any proposed constitutional
amendment interfering with slavery.
*Admission of California might tip political balance (15
free/15 slave states in the Senate)
Southern anxiety
1. Settlers in New Mexico & Utah were agitating for admission as free
states.
2. Texas had a land dispute that included part of New Mexico
3. Northerners wanted slavery in DC abolished
4. The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
• an informal chain of “stations” (antislavery homes)
that would shelter runaway slaves (passengers) from
slave states to free soil in Canada.
• “Conductors” usually black & white abolitionists.
Most famous conductor: Harriet Tubman “Moses”;
runaway slave from Maryland. 19 trips into the South
to help runaways escape including her parents.
•Rescued 300 slaves
** Southerners demanded stricter fugitive slaves
laws
1850- the South was losing about 1000 runaways per
year out of 4 million – less than blacks buying
freedom or voluntary manumission.
** Southerners concluded that the Constitution
protected slavery.
The Old Guard Debates California & Union
The “immortal trio” : Clay, Calhoun, & Webster appeared
together for the last time.
• California wanted admission to the Union
• Southern “Fire-eaters” threatened secession
• 1849- Southerners announced a convention to be held
in Nashville, Tenn. to consider secession.
1. Henry Clay: (73) proposed a series of compromises
(helped by Senator Stephen Douglas)
• North & South had to make concessions- a new fugitive
slave law was needed.
2. John C. Calhoun (68) championed the South- rejected
Clay’s concessions because they failed to protect
Southern rights.
• Leave slavery alone, return runaway slaves, give the
South rights
• A scheme to have a northern & southern president
proposed-never enacted!
3. Daniel Webster (68): Seventh of March Speech (1850)
•Urged adoption of Clay’s concessions
•Urged concessions to the South (new fugitive slave law)
• believed that slavery in the new territories was unlikely
• Seventh of March speech turned the tide towards
The New Guard-New, young members of Congress
•more interested in purging than pacifying
•William H. Seward- (NY) antislavery; against concessions.
• appealed to God’s law as higher than the constitution
1850- Pres. Taylor died & Millard Fillmore became pres.- gladly
Signed the compromises.
**The Compromise of 1850
1. California in as a free state= tip balance of power in
Senate to the North for good.
2. New Mexico & Utah- popular sovereignty would
determine slavery.
3. Texas was paid $10 million – but lost claims to NM.
4. Slavery allowed in DC –BUT not the slave trade
5. A new fugitive slave law was enacted
**1850 Fugitive Slave Law –”Man-Stealing Law”
• fleeing slaves could not testify on their own behalf
• fleeing slaves denied a jury trial
• federal commissioners given $5 if runaway was freed
& $10 if not= bribery?
• Northerners who aided runaways were fined or jailed
• Northerners could be ordered to help capture
runaways
US Map after Compromise of 1850
Northern Hostility
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law set off an angry reaction
in the North.
1. 1854- a runaway slave from Virginia was captured
in Boston & had to be removed from the city under
federal guard.
2. Massachusetts made it a punishable offense for
any state official to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law.
3. other states passed “personal liberty laws”- denied
use of local jails to federal officials.
4. the Underground Railroad stepped up its effortsmore northerners helped runaway slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Law was a major blunder for the
South?
• awakened antislavery sentiment in the North
• Southerners angered that Northerners refused to
enforce
The Compromise of 1850 postponed the inevitable
war- who did this postponement help most?
Answer-the North: gave them time to
increase population, wealth, crops,
factories, ships, & foundries. & railroads.
•the events of the 1850’s bolstered the
Yankee will to resist secession= moral
strength increased.
The Election of 1852
1.Democrats- Franklin Pierce (second dark horse): chosen
by Democrats; lawyer-politician from New Hampshire.
•Weak & indecisive
•served without distinction in the Mexican-American War
•Known as the “fainting general”; accused of a fondness
for alcohol.
•chosen mainly because: enemy less, pro-southern
northerner acceptable to slavery wing of the party.
•Platform: pro-expansion & endorsed the Compromise of
1850 & Fugitive Slave Law
2. Winfield Scott: chosen by the Whigs because he was a
military hero of the Mexican-American War.
•
seemed haughty= turned off the masses.
•
Platform: praised the Compromise of 1850
The Presidential Campaign of 1852
Turned into a mudslinging attack of personalities
•
the Whigs said Pierce was the hero of “many a hard
fought bottle”
•
the Democrats charged Scott with pomposity
• The Whig Party was spilt – antislavery Northern Whigs
accepted Scott but deplored his platform.
• The Southern Whigs accepted the platform but did not
trust the candidate.
The Outcome: Pierce won in an electoral landslide 254 to
42.
Popular Vote: 1,601,117 to 1,385,453
Significant Result of the 1852 Election:
• it led to the end of the Whig Party
• led to an eclipse of national parties & the rise of sectional
alignments
• Whigs won only 2 presidential elections- using military
heroes
• The Whig Party legacy- to help uphold the ideal of the
Union
Expansionists Eye South of the Border
US victory against Mexico and discovery of gold in
California jump-started Manifest Destiny. Americans
became interested in Central America.
•Why?- the narrow neck of land was ideal for a
continuous Atlantic-to-Pacific route that might sever the
two American continents.
• Britain gained control of the port of San Juan
(Greytown) on Nicaragua's “Mosquito Coast”. = US &
Columbia sign a treaty in 1848.
1848 US-Columbia Treaty
1. Guaranteed the right of transit to the US across the
isthmus in exchange for American pledge to maintain
“perfect neutrality” of the route so that “free transit of
traffic might not be interrupted”
** later Theodore Roosevelt will use this agreement as
excuse for American control of the Panama Canal in 1903.
2. Led to the construction of the first transcontinental
railroad completed in 1855; ran 48 miles across
Panamanian jungle.
The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850
America nor Britain would fortify or seek exclusive control
over any future isthmus waterway.
The South Covets Slave lands
Southern slave interests looked southward in the 1850’s
for new slave territory.
1.Nicaragua--William Walker (American adventurer) tried
a few times to grab this Central American territory.
• July 1856- Walker & an armed force from the Southern
US installed himself as president & legalized slavery.
• Central American nations worked together & overthrew
Walker= Walker was killed by Honduran firing squad in
1860.
2. Cuba: US southern neighbor; enticing prospect for
annexation.
• already had a large population of enslaved blacks
• could be carved into several southern states=
bring the US Senate back into balance.
• Pres. Polk had considered offering Spain $100 for
Cuba-Spain refused to consider the offer.
• 1850-1851– two expeditions each numbering
several hundred armed men went to Cuba.
• Both expeditions were repelled- the last
expedition (leader & 50 followers were shot or
strangled).
• 1854- Spanish officials in Cuba seized an American
steamer-the Black Warrior.
• President Pierce could now declare war on Spain &
seize Cuba?--
**The Ostend Manifesto (1854)
The US Sec. of State instructed American ministers
in Spain, England , and France to SECRETLY
prepare recommendation to acquire Cuba. The
meeting took place in Ostend, Belgium.
The Proposal: urged the administration offer $ 120
million for Cuba.
• if Spain refused– the US would be “justified in
taking the island” from Spain.
** NEWS of the Manifesto leaked & northern FreeSoilers rose up against it- Pierce dropped the idea.
US interests in Asia
With the US acquisition of California & Oregon- the US was
becoming a Pacific power. Americans became more interested in
Asian markets.
•Britain had defeated the Chinese in the Opium War (1842) &
gained access to five “treaty ports” & control of Hong Kong (which
Britain held for a century and a half).
The Cushing Expedition
1844 –President John Tyler sent Caleb Cushing (Mass. Lawyer) to
get China to make concessions to the US.
• Cushing sent with 4 warships arrived in Macao (southern China)carrying gifts (weathervane & pair of six-shooters)
• Treaty of Wanghia- 1st formal diplomatic agreement between
the US & China- US got “most favored nation trading status” ;
“Extraterritoriality”- Americans accused of crimes in China would be
tried in American courts.
• US trade with China began to expand
• US missionaries flooded into China
US Interest in Japan
Japan had isolated itself because it did not want to be
westernized ( for 2 centuries following Jamestown).
• Tokugawa Shogunate- the ruling warrior dynasty
protected Japan’s isolation.
The Matthew Perry Expedition 1853
1852-1853- President Millard Fillmore sent a fleet of
warships to Edo Bay (later Tokyo) –shocked Japanese
watched from shore.
• tense negotiations occurred- Perry threatened to blast
his way ashore- Perry went ashore with letters requesting
trade.
• Feb. 1854--Perry returned one year later with 7 men-orwar ships to get Japan’s reply.
• March 1854-Treaty of Kanagawa- proper treatment of
shipwrecked sailors, US coaling rights in Japan,
established consular relations.
• Meiji Restoration- within a decade the era of the Shogun
Commodore Perry
Perry’s Second Trip to Edo Bay
An American Transcontinental Railroad
Americans became convinced of the need for a
transcontinental railroad to connect western US &
eastern US.
Should the Railroad be built in the North or South?
The South wanted a southern route through the
Southwest territory to California.
• a southern track easier to build because it would have
few mountains to cross, land would be protected by
federal troops
•the best route required a piece of land south of
Mexico’s border-Sec. of War Jefferson Davis sent James
Gadsden (southern Railroad man) to negotiate.
•**Gadsden Purchase (1853) Mexico sold the land to
the US for $10 million.
**The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Northern railroad boosters urged Nebraska territory be
organized to prepare the way for a northern route.
• 1854-Stephen Douglas (Ill) heavily invested in Chicago
real-estate & railway stock hoped to make Chicago the
northern terminus for a transcontinental Railroad.
Douglas’ proposal:
1.Nebraska territory divided into two territories: Kansas &
Nebraska.
2.Popular Sovereignty would determine slavery in the two
territories.
3.Kansas which was west of Missouri (a slave state) was
expected to become a slave state.
4.Nebraska-lying west of free-soil Iowa would
presumably be free state
** Kansas-Nebraska Act- contradicted the Missouri
Compromise
•Southerners liked the idea of a slave state (Kansas) being
added
•President Pierce supported the Act.
• Northerners & antislavery advocates, & Free-Soil party
members in Congress opposed the idea= branded him a traitor.
**Effects of Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
1.Led inevitably to the Civil War
2.All future compromise with the South was made more
difficult
3.The Fugitive Slave Law was dead in the North
4.Kansas-Nebraska= death of the Missouri Compromise
5.Antislavery advocates gained more recruits
6.Split the Democrat Party after 1856
7.Led to the creation of the Republican Party (Wisconsin &
Michigan)
•The new party included: disgruntled Whigs (Abe Lincoln),
Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings & other enemies of
Kansas-Nebraska.
•1856- Republicans had elected a Speaker of the House
•Republican Party was a sectional party-not accepted South