CDF Ch. 18/19

Section C, Identification Ch.18

"Fire-Eaters"

Hothead southern agitators who pushed for southern interests and favored secession in the south

Popular Sovereignty

The doctrine that the issue of slavery should be decided by the residents of a territory themselves, not by the federal government

Mason-Dixon Line

The boundary line between slave and free states in the East, originally the southern border of Pennsylvania

Underground Railroad

The informal network that conducted runaway slaves from the South to Canada

Higher Law

Senator William Seward's doctrine that slavery should be excluded from the territories as contrary to a divine moral law standing above even the Constitution

Fugitive Slave Law

The provision of the Compromise of 1850 that comforted southern slave-catchers and aroused the wrath of northern abolitionists

Free Soil Party

Third-party entry in the election of 1848 that opposed slavery expansion and prepared the way for the Republican Party

Compromise of 1850

A series of agreements between North and South that temporarily dampened the slavery controversy and led to a short-lived era of national good feelings

Whigs

Political party that fell apart and disappeared after losing the election of 1852

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

An agreement between Britain and America concerning any future Central American canal

Ostend Manifesto

A top-secret dispatch, drawn up by American diplomats in Europe, that detailed a plan for seizing Cuba from Spain

Gadsden Purchase

Southwestern territory acquired by the Pierce administration to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad

The Missouri Compromise

The sectional agreement of 1820, repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Democratic Party

The political party that was deeply divided by Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act

Republican Party

A new political party organized as a protest against the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Section C, Identification Ch.19

Uncle Tom's Cabin

A powerful, personal novel that altered the course of American politics

The Impending Crisis of the South

A book by a southern writer that argued that slavery especially oppressed poor whites

Beecher's Bibles

Rifles paid for by New England abolitionists and brought to Kansas by anti-slavery pioneers

Bleeding Kansas

Term that described the prairie territory where a small-scale civil war erupted in 1856

Lecompton Constitution

Tricky proslavery document designed to bring Kansas into the Union but blocked by Stephen A. Douglas

Know-Nothing Party/American Party

Anti-immigrant party headed by former President Fillmore that competed with Republicans and Democrats in the election of 1856

Dred Scott Decision/Case

Controversial Supreme Court ruling that blacks had no civil or human rights and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories

Panic of 1857

Sharp economic decline that increased northern demands for a high tariff and convinced southerners that the North was economically vulnerable

Lincoln Douglas Debate

Thoughtful political discussion during an Illinois Senate campaign that sharply defined national issues concerning slavery

Constitutional Union Party

Newly formed middle-of-the-road party of elderly politicians that sought compromise in 1860, but carried only three border states

South Carolina

First state to secede from the Union in December 1860

Confederate States of America

A new nation that proclaimed its independence in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861

Crittenden Compromise

A last-ditch plan to save the Union by providing guarantees for slavery, for in the new territories

Election of 1860

Four-way race for the presidency that resulted in the election of a sectional minority president

Lame Duck

Period between Lincoln's election and his inauguration, during which the ineffectual President Buchanan remained in office

Chapter 18 Section D

Matthew Perry

American naval commander who opened Japan to the West in 1854

Lewis Cass

Democratic presidential candidate in 1848, originally proponent of the idea of "popular sovereignty"

Franklin Pierce

Weak Democratic president whose pro-southern cabinet pushes aggressive expansionist schemes

Harriet Tubman

Famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad who rescued more than three hundred slaves from bondage

Stephen A. Douglas

Illinois politician who helped smooth over sectional conflict in 1850 but then reignited it in 1854

Nicaragua

Central American nation desired by proslavery expansionists in the 1850s

Winfield Scott

Military hero of the Mexican War who became the Whigs' last presidential candidate in 1852

Zachary Taylor

Whig president who nearly destroyed the Compromise of 1850 before he died in office

Cuba

Rich Spanish colony coveted by American proslavery expansionists in the 1850s

Caleb Cushing

American diplomat who negotiated the Treaty of Wanghia with China in 1844

Tokugawa Shogunate

The ruling warrior dynasty of Japan with whom Matthew Perry negotiated the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854

William Seward

New York senator who argued that the expansion of slavery was forbidden by a "higher law"

China

Nation whose 1844 treaty with the United States opened the door to a floor of American missionaries

Daniel Webster

Northern spokesman whose support for the Compromise of 1850 earned him the hatred of abolitionists

California

Acquired from Mexico in 1848 and admitted as a free state in 1850 without ever having been a territory

Section F, Chapter 18

E: Led to the formation of the new Free-Soil antislavery party

C: The evasion of the slavery issue by Whigs and Democrats in 1848

E: Made the issue of slavery in the Mexican Cession areas more urgent

C: The California gold rush

E: Aroused southern demands for an effective fugitive-slave law

C: The Underground Railroad

E: Was the predecessor of the antislavery Republican Party

C: The Free Soil Party

E: Created a short-lived national mood of optimism and reconciliation

C: The Compromise of 1850

E: Aroused active northern resistance to legal enforcement and prompted attempts at nullification in Massachusetts

C: The Fugitive Slave Law

E: Fell apart after the leaking of the Ostend Manifesto

C: The Pierce administration's schemes to acquire Cuba

E: Heightened competition between southern and northern railroad promoters over the choice of a transcontinental railroad

C: The Gadsden Purchase

E: Led to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, without regard for the consequences

C: Stephen Douglas's indifference to slavery and desire for a northern railroad route

E: Caused a tremendous northern protest and the birth of the Republican Party

C: The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Chapter 19 Section D

Preston Brooks

Southern congressman whose bloody attack on a northern senator fueled sectional hatred

Stephen A. Douglas

Leading northern Democrat whose presidential hopes fell victim to the conflict over slavery

Dred Scott

Black slave whose unsuccessful attempt to win his freedom deepened the sectional controversy

Jefferson Davis

Former United States senator who in 1861 became the president of what called itself a new nation

Harriet Beecher Stowe

"The little woman who wrote the book that made this great war: (the Civil War)

John Brown

Fanatical and bloody-minded abolitionist martyr admired in the North and hated in the South

Hinton R. Helper

Southern-born author whose book attacking slavery's effect on whites aroused northern opinion

Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas

Scene of militant abolitionist John Brown's massacre of proslavery men in 1856

Montgomery, Alabama

Site where seven seceding states united to declare their independence from the United States

John C. Fremont

Romantic western hero and the first Republican candidate for president

Charles Sumner

Abolitionist senator whose verbal attack on the South provoked a physical assault that severely injured him

Harpers Ferry, Virginia

Site of a federal arsenal where a militant abolitionist attempted to start a slave rebellion

John C. Breckenridge

Buchanan's vice president, nominated for president by breakaway southern Democrats in 1860

James Buchanan

Weak Democratic president whose manipulation by proslavery forces divided his own party

New England Emigrant Aid Company

Abolitionist group that sent settlers and "Beecher's Bible" to oppose slavery in Kansas

Chapter 19 Section F

E: Persuaded millions of northerners and Europeans that slavery was evil and should be eliminated

C: H.B. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin

E: Led to a mini prairie civil war between proslavery and antislavery factions

C: The exercise of "popular sovereignty" in Kansas

E: Offended Senator Douglas and divided the Democratic party

C: Buchanan's support for the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution

E: Infuriated Republicans and made them determined to defy the Supreme Court

C: The Dred Scott case

E: Made Lincoln a leading national Republican figure and hurt Douglas's presidential chances

C: The 1858 Illinois senate race

E: Convinced southerners that the North generally supported murder and slave rebellion

C: John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

E: Shattered one of the last links between the sections and almost guaranteed Lincoln's victory in 1860

C: The splitting of the Democratic party in 1860

E: Moved South Carolina to declare immediate secession from the Union

C: The election of Lincoln as president

E: Paralyzed the North while the southern secessionist movement gained momentum

C: The "lame-duck" period and Buchanan's indecisiveness

E: Ended the last hopes of a peaceful sectional settlement and an end to secession

Lincoln's rejection of the Crittenden Compromise