Wilmot Proviso
• Polk’s Two Million Dollar Bill 1846
• Wanted Congress to appropriate 2 million dollars he could use to buy Mexican land
• Wilmot Proviso (Proposed by Congressmen David
Wilmot)
• Amendment to the Two Million Dollar Bill
• Stated slavery would be outlawed in any acquired Mexican territory
• Passed by House not Senate
• Vote is along sectional lines

Election of 1848
• Whigs nominate
Zachary Taylor
• Slave owner
• No platform
• Democrats nominate
Lewis Cass
• Father of Popular sovereignty
• Platform does not mention slavery

Election of 1848
• Free Soil Party- against slavery in new territories
• Took members away from both parties
• Antislavery men and racists
• Free Homesteads and Internal
Improvements
• Nominated Martin Van Buren
• Taylor wins- popular war hero

California Gold Rush
• Gold is discovered in
1848, 90,000 people migrate to California
• 50,000 were Americans
• Large proportion were
“lawless” men
• Most did not make money
• Business owners/shopkeepers did though

What impact did the Gold Rush have on
California?

California
• California skipped the territorial stage because their rapid population growth
• They applied for statehood, with a constitution that outlawed slavery
• Will Congress allow California to enter the union as a free state?

Texas
• Texas entered the Union as a slave state in 1845
• Texas claims the eastern part of the New Mexico territory
• This would prevent this territory from becoming a free state
• Texas is in debt from its war for independence
• What should be done about
Texas land claim?

Slavery in the Territories
• Territories are governed by the federal government
• What should be done about slavery in the new territories?

Slavery in Washington DC
• Washington DC is governed by the Federal Government
• Northerners want to abolish slavery in DC

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
• Gave local governments the authority to capture and return escaped slaves
• Northerners resisted the law
• Southerners wanted a stronger law with stiffer penalties for people who helped escaped slaves

Secession
• Some radical southerners threatened to secede from the
Union if the federal government damaged the institution of slavery

•
Wilmot Proviso
• Slavery should be outlawed in the new territories
• Popular Sovereignty
• The people in the territories should decide whether or not they want slavery
• Constitutional Argument
• It would be unconstitutional for the federal government to outlaw slavery in the territories

Henry Clay’s Plan
• CA is admitted
• New Fugitive Slave Law
• Texas gives up land claim in exchange for $10 million dollars
• Slavery in the new territories will be decided by popular sovereignty

President Zachary Taylor
• Elected in 1848
• Opposes compromise, supports Wilmot Proviso
• Dies 1850

Millard Fillmore
• Vice President, becomes President 1850
• Supports compromise

Stephen Douglas
• Stephen Douglas passed each component of Henry
Clay’s compromise individually

Results of Compromise of 1850
• “Finality”
• Balance of power tips in favor of the North
• Northerners upset about Fugitive Slave Law
• Federal commissioners paid $10 for slave captured $5 if captured person was freed
• Tougher penalties for those who aided escaped slaves

Election of 1852
• Democrats
• Pro-south northerner
• Platform-finality
• Winner, southern
Whigs stayed home
• Whigs
• Anti-slavery general
•
•
Platform-finality, praises Fugitive Slave
Act
“Conscience Whigs” support candidate not platform
• Southern Whigs support platform not candidate
Winfield Scott
Franklin Pierce

Southern Expansionism
• Nicaragua
• William Walker- took over country made himself president
• Central American nations overthrow him
• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)
• Neither U.S. or Britain would secure exclusive control of a canal in
Central America

Southern Expansionism
• Ostend Manifesto 1854
• Coveted by southerners, Polk offered $100 million
• 1854 Ministers from Spain, England, France met in Ostend Belgium
• Wrote recommendations for getting Cuba
• Suggested $120 million, if Spain refused then go to war
• Ostend Manifesto got leaked, Pierce dropped schemes

Commodore Matthew perry
• Japan refused to trade/interact with west
• Commodore Matthew Perry persuaded Japan to sign treaty opening trade relations

Gadsden Purchase 1853
• South wants to build a railroad
• Brings wealth, population
• Easiest route to west coast is through Mexican territory
• James Gadsden minister to Mexico, buys a strip of land for
$15 million dollars

Stephen Douglas 1854
• Wanted to build a railroad from Chicago to San
Francisco
• Owned real estate in Chicago
• Railroad would cut through unorganized territory that was given to Indians

Stephen Douglas 1854
• To build the railroad, this territory would need to be organized by congress
• South would not vote to create more free territories
• To gain the support of the south Douglas proposed slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty
– This would repeal the Missouri
Compromise

Stephen Douglas
• Two territories would be formed: Nebraska and Kansas
• It was assumed one would be free the other slave
• Douglas hoped neither would be slave states
• The climate in these territories was not suitable to plantation agriculture

HOW DID DOUGLAS DEFEND THE
KANSAS NEBRASKA ACT?
WHAT ARGUMENTS WERE MADE
BY ITS CRITICS?