Renewal of Sectional Struggle (1848-1854)

Chapter 18

Popular Sovereignty Panacea• Political parties HAD helped protect national unity• Democrats

– Lewis Cass (MI) – supported popular sovereignty for slavery in territories

– Put burden of slavery on voters not politicians• Whigs

– General Zachary Taylor (KY)– Avoided taking any strong political positions

• Free Soil Party– Martin Van Buren– Not created as an abolitionist party!– Supported internal improvements and homesteads to

increase national appeal– Included wide range of supporters: Anti-Polk, anti-

expansionists, racists who wanted to keep blacks from west

– Former Conscience Whigs – opposed slavery on moral grounds

– Took votes from Cass• Taylor wins election!

Lewis Cass Zachary Taylor

Californy Gold

• 1848 – gold discovered in American River near Sutter’s Mill in northern California

• Attracted large number of people– Clipper ships allowed for fast ocean travel to

California• Replaced by steamships when rail line was

built through Panama– Most did not “strike it rich” at all– Many came to create businesses and make

money off of those who came to mine gold• Sudden influx of people overwhelmed government

resulting in chaos and crime• California quickly organizes and applies for

admission as a free state in 1849

Sectional Balance and Underground Railroad

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD•Organized system of routes and safe-houses to help slaves escape south to Canada•“Conductors” led groups of slaves to freedom

– Harriet Tubman runaway slave who became the most famous conductor

•Estimated 1,000 slaves per year were rescued!•Led to South demanding stricter Fugitive Slave laws

• Southern states dominated presidency, Supreme Court and were equal in Congress

• Southern economy supported Northern textile industry• South feared loss of power, especially by adding of free

states• Texas was upset that federal government would take some

of its territory away from it• Southerners did not want to end slave trade in DC

Compromise of 1850• Seventh of March Speech (1850) by Daniel Webster (“The

Great Unifier”) argued that Compromise was only way to settle slavery issue and maintain the Union.

• John C. Calhoun (“The Great Nullifier”) proposed that slavery be left alone and that runaway slaves be returned and that the political balance be restored.

• William H Seward opposed concessions, demanded abolition.– Must follow “God’s higher law” not the Constitution

• Zachary Taylor dies and is replaced by Millard Fillmore– Fillmore supports compromise/preserving union

• “Fire eaters” of South vigorously opposed compromise!

Compromise of 1850 • Developed by Henry Clay; passed by Stephen Douglas

– California is free state– Fugitive Slave Act requires runaways to be returned and

punishes those that help them to escape– Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C.– Popular Sovereignty to determine slavery in territories of

Mexican Cession– Texas gives up disputed land to New Mexico, but gets

$10 million from federal government

The United States Senate, A.D. 1850Clay introduces Compromise of 1850

Fugitive Slave Act

• Called “Bloodhound Bill” or “Man-Stealing Law” by northerners

• Law said Northerners had to capture and return runaways– Federal officials paid $10 for returning blacks to

slavery, paid only $5 to set them free• Forced many moderate northerners into radical abolitionist

camp

• MA passed state law making it illegal to enforce federal Fugitive Slave Act (nullification)

• Personal Liberty Laws– State laws passed that refuse to follow Fugitive Slave

law and deny access to jails• South was angry because North refused to enforce the law

– Undermines legitimacy of compromise– Law polarized Northern and Southern opinions

Election of 1852

• Democrats united behind Franklin Pierce– Dark horse candidate from New Hampshire– Tended to be pro-Southern Northerner– Supported further territorial expansion

• Whigs split North and South– Nominate Winfield Scott because he was military

general• Supported the Compromise of 1850 and the

Fugitive Slave Law which made him unpopular with northern abolitionists

• Northern Whigs vs. Southern Whigs

• Pierce wins election!• Election led to collapse of Whig party and collapse

of national political parties in favor of sectional ones

Winfield ScottWhig Franklin Pierce

Democrat

Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border• “Filibustering”

– Private armies invaded Latin American countries to gain slave territory for US including Cuba

– William Walker “grey eyed man of destiny”• Led private military forces first to take Baja

California, then Nicaragua; executed in 1860• Cuba

– Polk initially offered $100 million to Spain, but Spain rejected offer “at any price”

• Black Warrior– Cuba seized American ship; used as excuse by

some to declare war on Spain• Ostend Manifesto

– Offered $120 million for Cuba; if not, US would invade

– When became public, made abolitionists angry and forced US to abandon idea

The Allure of AsiaChina

•Treaty of Nanking – Gave Britain 5 treaty ports and Hong Kong from

China•Caleb Cushing sent by US to protect US access to Chinese ports in 1844

– Treaty of Wanghia (1844)• First US-Chinese treaty• Got “most favored nation” status and extra-

territoriality• Allowed US missionaries into China

Japan•Tokugawa Shogunate had kept Japan isolated•1852 Fillmore sends Matthew Perry to Japan

– Arrived via steamship in Edo Bay July 8 1853– Treaty of Kanagawa (1854)

• Gave protections to American sailors, allowed US to use Japan as coaling station, opening of a consulate

Southern Pacific Railroad and Gadsden Purchase• US needed faster, cheaper way to get from Atlantic to Pacific

– Cost so high, could only build one railroad!– Region where railroad was built would get economic advantages

• Gadsden Purchase (1853)– Land purchased from Mexico to allow expansion of railroad– Gave South claim for a southern railroad, easier geography, all territory organized (unlike

northern route)– Led to push to have Nebraska organized to allow for northern alternative

• Completed territory of continental US

Mexican Cession

Annexation of TexasGadsden Purchase

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Growth of railroads spurred settlement of west

• Douglas wanted lands west of IA and MO organized so railroads would go through Chicago– Created Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory– Douglas proposes popular sovereignty in Kansas and

Nebraska territories to get Southern support for northern railroad

• Assumed Kansas would be slave and Nebraska free

• Violated Missouri Compromise• Law was vigorously opposed in Congress, but Douglas

eventually got it passed piece by piece• Compromise between regions was made virtually

impossible. – North stopped enforcing Fugitive Slave Law– Made Northerners and Southerners feel like they

couldn’t live with each other.

• Created in 1854 to oppose further extension of slavery into western territories

– Called slavery a great moral, social, political evil

– Demanded repeal of Kansas-Nebraska Act and Fugitive Slave Act

• Weakened Whig and Democrat parties– Whigs did not ever recover

• Became popular very fast!– Was purely sectional in nature

Republican Party