Chapter 16 - The Last Attempts at Compromise

Freeport Doctrine

Freeport Doctrine

________- Decide slavery before entering Union + use force to maintain slavery.

Popular sovereignty

________- People in Kansas + Nebraska vote on slavery.

California

1848- Gold discovered in ________.

Slaves

________ are not citizens → Can not sue in federal courts.

Lincoln

________- Slavery shouldnt expand into ANY territories.

Abraham Lincoln

________- Railroad + Homestead Act + protective tariff + against slave trade & spread of slavery.

Charles Sumner

________- Attacked slavery interests.

1854-1856

Greatest influence

Election of 1856

Irrelevant

1846

Fails to pass

Unified Democrats + Whigs

Sectional voting

1848

Gold discovered in California

1849

Influx of gold hunters ("Forty-niners")

1848

Formed

1854

Adopted by Republican party

1858

Competed w/ Lincoln for Senate

1860

Competed w/ Lincoln for presidency

South

Harshly criticized

North

Emotional + stirred abolitionists

Stephen Douglas

Wanted transcontinental railroad

Popular sovereignty

People in Kansas + Nebraska vote on slavery

1854

Formed modern Republican party

Election of 1856

John C. Fremont

1859

Harpers Ferry Raid → Martyr in North

1861

Kansas entered as free state

Charles Sumner

Attacked slavery interests

Dred Scott

Slave that lived in free territory

Freeport Doctrine

Decide slavery before entering Union + use force to maintain slavery

Abraham Lincoln

Railroad + Homestead Act + protective tariff + against slave trade & spread of slavery

John C. Breckinridge

Southern Democrats + support slavery & states rights

John Bell

Constitutional Union Party

Lincoln

Slavery shouldnt expand into ANY territories

South

Constitutional right to secede from Union

Abolition

Literature, humanitarian reforms, events

South defended slavery

Popular sovereignty + property rights

Violence

Anti-slavery vs. pro-slavery

Divisive events

Elected Abraham Lincoln + secession

Know-Nothing Party (American Party)

A nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s

Wilmot Proviso

An unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War

Popular Sovereignty

A controversial political doctrine according to which the people of federal territories should decide for themselves whether their territories would enter the Union as free or slave states

Gold Rush

A large migration of people to a newly discovered gold field

Compromise of 1850

A package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War

Stephen Douglas

A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which was won by Republican Abraham Lincoln

Fugitive Slave Law

Required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state

Uncle Tom's Cabin

An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe

Nativism

The policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska

Republican Party

Emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into American territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act

John Brown

First reaching national prominence for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, he was eventually captured and executed for a failed incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry preceding the American Civil War

Bleeding Kansas

The period of repeated outbreaks of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces following the creation of the new territory of Kansas in 1854

Brooks-Sumner Affair

Occurred on May 22, 1856 in the United States Senate chamber, when Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts

Lecompton Constitution

Drafted by pro-slavery advocates and included provisions to protect slaveholding in the state and to exclude free people of color from its bill of rights

Dred Scott Case

A case in which the Court decided that slaves who were descendants of American slaves were not citizens of the United States

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate

Election of 1860

Demonstrated the divisions within the United States just before the Civil War. The election was unusual because four strong candidates competed for the presidency.

Crittenden Compromise

An unsuccessful proposal to permanently enshrine slavery in the United States Constitution, and thereby make it unconstitutional for future congresses to end slavery

Secession

The action of withdrawing formally from membership of a federation or body, especially a political state