Ch 13 - Expansion, War, and Sectional Crisis

Manifest Destiny

The ideology that Euro-Americans were divinely ordained by God to settle the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; Coined by John L. O'Sullivan in 1845

Oregon Trail

An overland trail stretching from Independence, Missouri, across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Northwest, traveled by thousands of American pioneers in the 1840s

Californios

Elite Mexican ranchers in California who received massive land grants and linked California's economy to American merchants trading in leather and tallow

Sioux

A powerful Great Plains Indian confederacy (including the Lakota) that acquired horses and firearms, dominated the central and northern plains, and relied heavily on nomadic bison hunting

Fifty-four forty or fight!

Democratic candidate James K. Polk's 1844 expansionist campaign slogan calling for American sovereignty over the entire Oregon Country up to the border of Russian Alaska

Election of 1844

Presidential election where expansionist Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay, leading to the joint resolution annexation of Texas and resolution of the Oregon dispute

Slidell Mission

A secret 1845 diplomatic attempt by President Polk sending John Slidell to Mexico City to offer $30 million for California and New Mexico and secure the Rio Grande border, which Mexico rejected

Bear Flag Republic

The short-lived independent republic declared by American settlers in the Sacramento River Valley in 1846 during a revolt against Mexican rule supported by John C. Frémont

Conscience Whigs

Northern Whig politicians who opposed the Mexican-American War on moral grounds, warning that it was a conspiracy to acquire territory and extend the institution of slavery

Wilmot Proviso

An 1846 proposal by Democratic Representative David Wilmot to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The 1848 peace treaty ending the Mexican-American War in which Mexico ceded over one-third of its territory to the U.S. for $15 million

Oregon Donation Land Claim Act

1850 federal law that granted free land to white settlers who took up residence in the Oregon Territory before 1854, extinguishing Native American land titles

Slave Power conspiracy

The belief popular among Northern free-soilers that a powerful oligarchy of Southern slave owners dominated the federal government and sought to expand slavery nationwide

Free-soil movement

A political movement opposed to the expansion of slavery into western territories, asserting that free labor on free soil was essential to republicanism and white economic mobility

Election of 1848

Presidential election where Whig candidate and war hero Zachary Taylor defeated Democrat Lewis Cass and Free-Soil candidate Martin Van Buren

Squatter sovereignty

A doctrine proposed by Lewis Cass (later known as popular sovereignty) allowing the white settlers in a territory to vote on whether to permit or prohibit slavery

Forty-niners

The more than 80,000 migrants who flooded into California in 1849 following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, creating rapid economic growth and intense racial conflict

Slavery follows the flag

The constitutional assertion advanced by John C. Calhoun stating that slave owners had the right to take their slave property into any federal territory under the Fifth Amendment

Compromise of 1850

A series of five laws negotiated to quiet sectional tensions, admitting California as a free state, establishing popular sovereignty in Utah/New Mexico, abolishing the D.C. slave trade, and enacting a strict Fugitive Slave Act

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

A harsh federal law component of the Compromise of 1850 that required northern federal officials and citizens to assist in capturing and returning escaped slaves without a jury trial

Personal-liberty laws

Laws passed by several northern state legislatures that nullified federal slave-catching efforts by guaranteeing accused runaway slaves the right to a jury trial and legal assistance

Ableman v. Booth

An 1859 Supreme Court decision led by Roger B. Taney that upheld the constitutionality of the federal Fugitive Slave Act and affirmed federal judicial supremacy over state courts

Gadsden Purchase

The 1853 acquisition of a strip of land in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate a Southern transcontinental railroad route

Ostend Manifesto

A secret 1854 diplomatic memo advising President Franklin Pierce to seize Cuba from Spain by force if Spain refused to sell it, provoking outrage from Northern anti-slavery politicians

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 law authored by Stephen Douglas that organized the Kansas and Nebraska territories, repealed the Missouri Compromise line, and instituted popular sovereignty to decide slavery

Republican Party

A political party founded in 1854 by former Whigs, Free-Soilers, and anti-slavery Democrats dedicated to stopping the westward expansion of slavery and promoting free-labor economic policies

American, or Know-Nothing, Party

A secret nativist political party that emerged in the 1850s opposing Catholic immigration, advocating literacy tests and anti-immigrant restrictions

New England Emigrant Aid Society

An abolitionist organization formed to dispatch free-soil settlers to Kansas Territory to ensure it voted to become a free state under popular sovereignty

Bleeding Kansas

The period of violent guerrilla warfare (1854–1861) between proslavery and antislavery factions in Kansas Territory following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Election of 1856

Presidential election in which Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican John C. Frémont and Know-Nothing Millard Fillmore by taking prosouthern stances

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Landmark 1857 Supreme Court case ruling that African Americans were not citizens, that slaves were property protected by the Fifth Amendment, and that Congress could not ban slavery in federal territories

House Divided speech

Abraham Lincoln's 1858 acceptance speech for the Illinois Senate nomination, arguing that the nation could not endure permanently half slave and half free

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven famous public debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas concerning slavery, states' rights, and popular sovereignty during the Illinois Senate campaign

Freeport Doctrine

Stephen Douglas's argument during the 1858 debates that territorial residents could effectively ban slavery simply by refusing to pass police laws protecting slave property, alienating Southern Democrats

Fire-eaters

Radical Southern pro-slavery politicians who actively advocated for the immediate secession of the Southern states to form an independent Confederacy

Harper's Ferry raid

An 1859 raid on the federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, led by radical abolitionist John Brown in an attempt to arm slaves and launch a major anti-slavery rebellion

Election of 1860

Sectional presidential election where Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidency without a single Southern electoral vote, serving as the immediate catalyst for Southern secession

James K. Polk

11th U.S. President ("Young Hickory"), an aggressive expansionist Democrat who led the nation during the Mexican-American War and acquired Oregon, California, and the Southwest

John Slidell

Louisiana politician sent by President Polk to Mexico City in 1845 on a rejected mission to purchase California and New Mexico for $30 million

John C. Frémont

U.S. military officer and explorer who aided the Bear Flag Revolt in California and became the first presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1856

David Wilmot

Anti-slavery Democratic representative from Pennsylvania who introduced the Wilmot Proviso attempting to ban slavery in all lands gained from Mexico

Frederick Douglass

Formerly enslaved African American abolitionist, orator, and writer who forcefully condemned the Fugitive Slave Act and fought for Black civil rights

Lewis Cass

Michigan Democrat who advocated squatter sovereignty (popular sovereignty) and ran as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1848

Zachary Taylor

Whig general ("Old Rough and Ready") and military hero of the Mexican-American War who served as 12th U.S. President until his sudden death in 1850

Millard Fillmore

13th U.S. President who took office after Zachary Taylor's death and signed the Compromise of 1850 into law

Winfield Scott

Prominent U.S. Army general who captured Mexico City in 1847 and ran as the final Whig presidential candidate in 1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), a novel that vividly depicted the brutality of slavery and vastly increased Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act

Franklin Pierce

14th U.S. President (1853–1857), an expansionist northern Democrat who supported the Gadsden Purchase, Ostend Manifesto, and Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas

Illinois Democratic Senator who sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, advocated popular sovereignty, authored the Freeport Doctrine, and debated Lincoln in 1858

John Brown

Radical abolitionist who executed proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek during Bleeding Kansas and led the 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry

James Buchanan

15th U.S. President (1857–1861), a prosouthern Democrat whose administration was marred by the Dred Scott decision, Bleeding Kansas, and the onset of secession

Roger B. Taney

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who authored the notorious pro-slavery majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford denying Black citizenship

Abraham Lincoln

16th U.S. President whose opposition to the expansion of slavery propelled him to national leadership in the Republican Party and victory in the Election of 1860

John C. Breckinridge

Vice President under Buchanan and Southern Democratic candidate in the Election of 1860 who ran on a platform demanding federal protection for slavery in territories