Chapter 18
Renewing the
Sectional Struggle,
1848–1854
I. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
• 1848 Democrats nominated General Lewis Cass
– Cass was the reputed father of popular sovereignty
• Doctrine said each state would decide slavery issue
• It had a persuasive appeal
– People liked the democratic tradition
• Self-determination for each state
• Made it a ‘state’ issue, not a national issue
– Politicians liked the ‘comfortable compromise’
• The free-soilers’ bid for a ban on slavery
• Southern demands that Congress protect slavery
• Yet, popular sovereignty had one fatal defect
– It might serve to spread the blight of slavery.
II. Political Triumphs for General Taylor
• The Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor (war hero)
• Free Soil party nominated Martin van Buren
– Also wanted internal improvement, free homesteads
– They foreshadowed the Republican party
• 1848 election results
– Zachary Taylor wins
Taylor (W) Cass (D)
Popular 1,360,967 1,222,342
Electoral
163
127
Van Buren (FS)
291,263*
0
*Van Buren hurt Cass in the critical state of New York
p379
Map 18-1 p380
III. “Californy Gold”
• The discovery of gold on the American River
– Sutter’s Mill, California, early in 1848
• The California gold rush (“forty-niners”)
– Attracted tens of thousands of people
• Influx & crime demanded more government
– Drafted a constitution in 1849 that excluded slavery
• Had been encouraged by President Taylor
– California applied for statehood
• Bypassed the usual territorial stage
p381
IV. Sectional Balance and the Underground Railroad
• The South of 1850 was relatively well-off
– But worried by the ever-tipping political balance:
• 15 slave states and 15 free states
• Southerner slave states
– Concerned about abolition in District of Columbia
– Wanted more stringent fugitive-slave law (1850)
• Underground Railroad allowed slaves to escape
• Amazing conductor: Harriet Tubman.
• Texas had additional grievances
– Concerned about territory east of the Rio Grande
p381
p382
Map 18-2 p382
V. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
• Congressional catastrophe in 1850
– Free-soil California wanted admission
– “Fire-eaters” in the South threatened secession
• Henry Clay-The “Great Compromiser”
• John C. Calhoun-The “Great Nullifier”
• Daniel Webster-Seventh of March speech(1850)
– Webster regarded slavery as evil but disunion worse
VI. Deadlock and Danger on Capitol Hill
• William H. Seward led younger antislaveryites
• Pres. Taylor promised to veto Cong. compromise
VII. Breaking the Congressional Logjam
• Millard Fillmore=President when Taylor dies
– He gladly signed Compromise of 1850
• Heat in the Congress
– “fire-eaters” violently opposed to compromise
• Met in Nashville, decided no succession
• The second Era of Good Feelings dawned
– Talk of secession subsided
– Peace-loving people, happy with compromise
– Slavery issue had “finality”
p385
VIII. Balancing the Compromise Scales
• Measuring the 1850 Compromise
• For the North = California becomes a free state
– Tipped the balance to the North
• 16 free states, 15 slave states
• For the South = Fugitive Slave Law (1850)
– Fleeing slaves: Couldn’t testify, denied a jury trial
• Free blacks subject to “man-stealing”
– Northerners liable to be fined / jailed
– Angered and rallied anti-slavery Northerners
Map 18-3 p386
p387
IX. Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
• 1852 Elections
• Democrats nominate Franklin Pierce
– Prosouthern northerner, supported compromise
– Supported territorial expansion
• The Whigs nominated Winfield Scott
• Best general of his generation, supported compromise
– Whig party split over slavery
• 1852 Election Results
– Pierce won in a landslide 254 electoral vote to 42
– Popular vote 1,601,117 to 1,385,453 for Pierce
– Marked the effective end of the Whig party
Map 18-4 p388
X. Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
• The spirit of Manifest Destiny was revived
• Desire for a transcontinental railroad
• Desire to control isthmus of Panama
• Southern “slavocrats” looked southward
– Promoted revolution in Nicaragua
– Then legalized slavery
– Sugar-rich Cuba
• Enticing prospect for annexation
• They already had a large population of enslaved blacks
• Ostend Manifesto
– Urged U.S. administration to offer $120 million for Cuba.
Map 18-5 p389
XI. The Allure of Asia
• Americans wanted to tap the rich Asian markets
– Opium War—Britain gained trade rights
• Treaty of Wanghia (1844) Gave U.S. China rights
• America now wanted trade rights in Japan
– Japan isolated from world for ~200 years
– Perry led U.S. ships into Tokyo Bay (July 1853)
– Treaty of Kanagawa signed (March 1854)
XII. Pacific Railroad Promoters and the
Gadsden Purchase
• Mex. War legacy creates a geographic problem
– California /Oregon, 8000 miles west of the capital
– A transcontinental railroad was needed
• Where to build the railroad?
– The Gadsden Purchase for $10 million (1853)
• James Gadsden – Santa Anna Negotiate
• Best route for the southern railroad
– Northerners wanted Nebraska Territory organized
p391
Map 18-6 p392
XIII. Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme
• Proposed Nebraska Territory to be split
– Kansas and Nebraska
• Slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty
– Assumption - Kansas to become a slave state
– Assumption - Nebraska would become a free state.
• Plan contradicted the Missouri Compromise of 1820
• Southerners supported the plan
– Would create a huge political / social conflict
• And make Douglas more popular
p393
Map 18-7 p393
XIV. Congress Legislates a Civil War
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act
– One of the most momentous ongressional measures
• It greased the slippery slope to Civil War
– The Act wrecked two compromises (1820 and 1850)
– Extremists nsaw less and less they could live with
– The Democratic Party was shattered
• The Republican Party was born
– Gathered dissatisfied Whigs, Democrats, FreeSoilers, Know-Nothings, Kansas-Nebraska foes
• Including Abraham Lincoln
– Never supported south of the Mason-Dixon Line