Chapter 18
Renewing the
Sectional Struggle
Popular Sovereignty
• In 1848, Polk decided not to run for re-election due to poor
health
• The Democratic party will look to a war hero from the War of
1812, Lewis Cass.
• Both political parties were trying to ignore the slavery issue to
avoid problems
• Cass supported the idea of Popular Sovereignty
• Popular Sovereignty: state that the sovereign people of a
territory, under the general principles of the Constitution, should
themselves determine the status of slavery
• Politicians liked this idea because it put the responsibility with
the people and hoped it would solve the slavery issue for good
• The major problem was that it could allow for the expansion of
slavery in time when the world was trying to end slavery
General Taylor Triumphs
• Whigs chose General Taylor who had become a hero after his
win at the Battle of Buena Vista
• Taylor had never held public office or voted for president
• Henry Clay would have been the logical choice for the Whigs but
had made too many enemies
• Taylor owned a sugar plantation in Louisiana and many slaves
• Many anti-slavery politicians were upset with the silence on the
issue by both the Democrats and the Whigs so they organized the
Free-Soil Party
• Free-Soil Party supported the Wilmot Proviso and wanted to ban
slavery in all territories of the US. They chose President Van
Buren to run as their candidate
• Taylor’s war-time popularity carried him through the election. He
won with 163 electoral votes
• Van Buren probably took enough votes away from Cass to allow
Taylor to win
General Zachary Taylor (1784–
1850)
This Democratic campaign cartoon of
1848 charges that Taylor’s reputation
rested on Mexican skulls.
California Gold Rush
• Early in 1848, gold was discovered near Sutter’s Mill, California
• Tens of thousands would move to California to try and “strike it
rich”
• Most went during 1849 and became known as the ‘49ers
• Very few miners discovered enough gold to become wealthy
• Those who supplied the miners with clothes, supplies, shelter,
etc. made the most money
• Most of the miners were young, lawless men which resulted in
an outburst of crime
• Native Californians were needing protection so instead of
becoming a territory before applying for statehood, President
Taylor encouraged them to draft a constitution and skip the
territory stage
• Southerners were afraid because California had banned slavery
in its constitution. They feared it could break up the Union.
California Gold Rush Country
Miners from all over the world swarmed
over the rivers that drained the western
slope of California’s Sierra Nevada.
Their nationalities and religions, their
languages and their ways of life, are
recorded in the colorful place names
they left behind.
Placer Miners in California
Cheap but effective, placer mining consisted of literally “washing” the gold out of
surface deposits. No deep excavation was required. This crew of male and female
miners in California in 1852 was using a “long tom” sluice that washed relatively large
quantities of ore.
Underground Railroad
• Runaway slaves had become a problem for southern slave
owners, largely due to the Underground Railroad
• The Underground Railroad consisted of an informal chain of
“stations” through which scores of “passengers” could be led to
the North by “conductors” from slave states to the free-soil
sanctuary of Canada
• Harriet Tubman was the most amazing of the “conductors.” She
made 19 trips into the South and rescued more than 300 slaves
• By 1850, slave owners were pushing for a new, stronger fugitive
slave law
• About 1,000 slaves out of 4 million escaped in 1850.
• More slaves gained their freedom by purchasing it or being
emancipated by their owner than by escaping via the
Underground Railroad
• The South still wanted it to end
Harriet Tubman (on left) with Some of the Slaves She Helped to Free
John Brown called her “General Tubman” for her effective work in helping slaves
escape to Canada on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, she served as a
Union spy behind Confederate lines. Herself illiterate, she worked after the war to bring
education to the freed slaves in North Carolina.
A Stop on the Underground
Railroad
Sliding shelves in the wall of the
Reverend Alexander Dobbin’s home in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, concealed a
crawl space large enough to hide
several escaping slaves.
A Stop on the Underground
Railroad
Sliding shelves in the wall of the
Reverend Alexander Dobbin’s home in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, concealed a
crawl space large enough to hide
several escaping slaves.
Sectional Balance
• The South of 1850 was doing well. President Taylor was a
Southerner, it had the majority in the House, it was equal in the
Senate, and it had 15 states which was more than enough to veto
any amendment to the Constitution.
• The South still had concerns bout preserving its way of life
• The admission of any new states would affect the balance of 15
free states and 15 slave states
• California, New Mexico, and Utah had expressed interest in
becoming free territories. These lands had be bought with mainly
Southern blood.
• Alarmed by the push to outlaw slavery in Washington D.C.
• Texas was at odds with the federal government over territory.
The government wanted to detach the New Mexico territory from
Texas which led to Texans threatening violence.
Texas and the Disputed Area
Before the Compromise of 1850
Compromise
• The aging political giants of Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and
Daniel Webster met with Congress in 1850 to solve the problem of
California entering the Union.
• The South had already agreed to meet in Nashville, TN the next
year to discuss secession if California was allowed to become a
free state.
• All three men had different views on slavery, but they all wanted
to save the Union.
• Daniel Webster gave his famous “Seventh of March speech”
which swayed many Northerners to the side of compromise
• President Taylor was no help and threatened to veto any
compromise law that was passed
• He threatened to send troops to Texas if they did not give the
New Mexico territory up willingly
• If this had happened, the Civil War would have probably started
in 1850.
Henry Clay Proposing the Compromise of 1850
This engraving captures one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the United
States Senate. Vice President Millard Fillmore presides, while on the floor sit several of
the “Senatorial Giants” of the era, including Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglas, and
John C. Calhoun.
Compromise of 1850
• President Taylor suddenly died and was replaced with Vice
President Millard Fillmore. Fillmore was in favor of a compromise.
• The Compromise of 1850 was actually a series of very delicate
compromises
• Concessions to the North
California admitted as a free state
New Mexico would get the territory disputed by Texas
Abolition of the slave trade in Washington D.C.
• Concessions to the South
New Mexico and Utah would decide with popular sovereignty
Texas received $10 million as compensation for New Mexico
More strict fugitive slave law was put into place
Fugitive Slave Law
• This law stirred up a massive opposition in the North
• Law didn’t allow slaves to testify on their behalf, they were
denied a trial by jury, and the commissioner who handled the case
would be paid $10 if the slave was found guilty and $5 if the slave
was found innocent
• Many Northerners feared these practices would one day be
applied to white citizens
• People who aided slaves could pay heavy fines or face jail
sentences
• This law moved many moderates in the North to the side of the
abolitionists
• The South was furious because many Northern states refused to
enforce the law and it was really the only positive gain the South
got from the Compromise of 1850
Slavery After the Compromise of 1850
Regarding the Fugitive Slave Law provisions of the Compromise of 1850, Ralph Waldo
Emerson declared in May 1851 at Concord, Massachusetts, “The act of Congress . . . is
a law which every one of you will break on the earliest occasion—a law which no man
can obey, or abet the obeying, without loss of self-respect and forfeiture of the name of
gentleman…
Protesting the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850
The cartoonist makes bitter sport of the hated law and heaps scorn on Daniel Webster,
on his hands and knees at the right, who voted for the law as part of the Compromise of
1850. The outspoken abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison is depicted much more
favorably on the left.
The Legal Status of Slavery, from the Revolution to the Civil War
Whigs Split and Expansion
• Election of 1852 was against Democrat Franklin Pierce and
Whig Winfield Scott
• The Whig party was split over the issue of slavery
• Franklin Pierce won in a landslide and it signaled the end of the
Whig party
• Political parties began to divide along sectional lines
• After victory in the Mexican war, many Americans looked to Latin
America to expand
• Americans were interested in Central America and Cuba
• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty stated that neither America nor Britain
would fortify or seek exclusive control over any future isthmian
waterway
• Ostend Manifesto secret deal to offer Spain $120 million for
Cuba. If Spain refused, war would follow. When Northerners found
out about the deal, it was quickly dropped.
Central America, ca. 1850, Showing British Possessions and
Proposed Canal Routes
Until President Theodore Roosevelt swung into action with his big stick in 1903, a
Nicaraguan canal, closer to the United States, was generally judged more desirable
than a canal across Panama.
Allure of Asia and Gadsden Purchase
• Britain had become a power in China after the Opium Wars. The
US wanted to secure power with them as well.
• Treaty of Wanghai secured vital trading rights and privileges
from the Chinese
• Treaty was successful and trade was good between the two
countries
• Missionaries for the US flooded in China
• Commodore Matthew C. Perry brought Japan out of a 200 year
stint of isolation by securing a treaty between Japan and the US
• Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 provided for proper treatment of
sailors, US coaling rights in Japan, and the establishment of
diplomatic relations
• Gadsden Purchase: US purchased a portion of Mexico for $10
million. This portion would be used to construct a railroad to
California.
Commodore Matthew Perry in Japan, 1853
Among Perry’s gifts to the Japanese was a miniature railway, complete with engine,
cars, and track, which made a vivid impression on the Japanese artist who created this
work.
The Gadsden Purchase, 1853
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• The idea of popular sovereignty was pushed by Illinois Senator
Stephen Douglas.
• The act stated that the Nebraska territory would be split into two
territories. Those territories would vote on the issue of slavery.
• It was presumed Kansas would be a slave state and Nebraska a
free state.
• Southerners liked the idea because it would add another slave
state to the balance of power
• In order to become a law, it had to repeal the Missouri
Compromise. It did with strong support of Southerners.
• This act destroyed both the Missouri Compromise and the
Compromise of 1850.
• It also created the Republican party and set the stage for the
Civil War
Kansas and Nebraska, 1854
The future Union Pacific Railroad (completed in 1869) is shown. Note the Missouri
Compromise line of 36° 30' (1820).
Douglas Hatches a Slavery
Problem
Note the already hatched Missouri
Compromise, Squatter Sovereignty,
and Filibuster (in Cuba), and the aboutto-hatch Free Kansas and Dred Scott
decision. So bitter was the outcry
against Douglas at the time of the
Kansas- Nebraska controversy that he
claimed with exaggeration that he could
have traveled from Boston to Chicago
at night by the light from his burning
effigies.