A House Divided - GML/ Give me Liberty Ch 13

AP US History Give me Liberty chaper 13

Compromise of 1850

Complex compromise devised by Senator Henry Clay, and admitted California as a free state and included a stronger fugitive slave law; gave more political power to the north and introduced popular sovereignty to the country

Fugitive slave act

Law that gave the federal government authority of cases involving runaway slaves, aroused considerable opposition in the north.

Sparked a new wave of moral arguments against slavery, including uncle Tom’s cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Popular Sovereignty

Programs that allow settlers and disputed territory to decide the issue of slavery themselves (most closely associated with Senator Stephen A Douglas of Illinois.)

Changed the debate of slavery

Stephen A. Douglas

Illinois, Senator strong, believer and western development. Introduced Bill to give territorial governments to Kansas and Nebraska.

What did Stephen A Douglas represent?

One of the last American politicians willing AND ABLE to attract votes for multiple sections of the country

What did the rise of the “free soil party”and death of the whigs signal

A shift in how American saw slavery politics

Ostend Manifestio (1854)

Document written by US diplomats that propose the United States buy Cuba from Spain or take it by force if Spain refused

Caused by the south needing more slave territory for sectional balance

William Walker

Well-known American ‘filibuster’ who led private armies to invade Latin American countries took power and became president of Nicaragua to establish a pro

What is a filibuster?

political tactic in U.S. Senate where senators delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate indefinitely, using the tradition of unlimited speaking time

Treaty of Wanghia (1844)

First US-China diplomatic treaty, Signed by Caleb Cushing, gave the US most favored Nation Status, establishing fixed tarriffs, extraterritoriality + expanded US trade with China

Treaty of Kanagawa

US- Japan treaty that ended Japan’s 220 year long isolation + opened 2 ports (Shimoda+Hakodate) for American Ships to refuel and trade.

Signed by Tokugawa Shogunate & President Fillmore

Gadsen Purchase

US acquisition of land From Mexico (parts of Modern day AZ & New Mexico) For 10 million dollars to secure a southern route For a transcontinental railroad across the states to CA

Kansas-Nebraska Act

law sponsored by Stephen Douglas to allow settlers in newly organized territories NORTH of the Missouri Border to declare slavery Issue themselves;

fury over the resulting repeal of the MO Compromise of 1820 led to violence in kansas + formation of the republican party

Lewis Cass

Father of Popular Sovreignty, democratic senator and war of 1812 veteran, ran for president but lost against Zachary taylor (12th pres) in 1848

Bleeding Kansas

Violence between pro and anti slavery settlers in Kansas Territory

Discredited Douglas’s poilcy, thus aiding republicans

John Brown

Radical and Militant abolitionist who believed violence was necessary to end slavery, the the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre in “Bleeding Kansas”

Lecompton Constitution (1857)

Kansas’s proslavery state Constitution, made by Southern advocates to ensure slavery’s existence, DESPITE anti slavery settlers

Pottawatomie Creek

pivotal and violent event in Bleeding Kansas where radical abolitionist, JOHN BROWN, and his followers killed 5 pro slavery settlers in retaliation for the sacking of Kansas

Preston Brooks

Pro-slavery SC congressman, assaulted Senator Charles Sumner with a cane bc of his anti slavery speech

Senator Charles Sumner

Leader MA Senator and abolitionist. Radical republican known for his anti slavery speech esp ‘Crime against Kansas”

Andrew Buchanan (15 pres 1857-1861)

Supported the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, had a moderate stance that angered North and South Radicals

He won the election but made no action to stop the dividing nation

Dred Scott v Sanford (1857)

US Supreme Ct decision in which Chief Justice Roger B Taney ruled that Congress couldn’t prohibit slavery in the territories, on the grounds that such a prohibition would violate the 5th amendments rights of slaveholder, and that no black person could be a US citizen

Panic of 1857

Financial crisis because gold fueled inflation (CA gold rush) and grain and railroad over speculation —> banks failed and business collapse

Convinced deep south of the economic superiority of mono-culture over industrialization

Roger B Taney

Cheif Justice who delivered the Dred Scot v Sanford decision which denied black people citizenship, further sparking slavery debates

Tariff of 1857

Significant tax reduction, lowering import duties

Angered northerners who wanted protection but benefited the south because they generally wanted lower tariffs.

Abraham Lincoln

16 pres from 1860 election, Anti-Slavery, focused o stopping its spread, gained national prominence in Lincoln-Douglas debates

his election triggered secession in the deep south

Republican Party

founded 1854 as a response to escalating national conflict over the expansion of slavery

Anti slavery party, prominent in the north

Freeport Doctrine (1858)

during Stephen Lincoln debates