Unit: 11: Manifest Destiny & the Sectional Struggle Unit

The American Pageant

Spot Resolution

Spot Resolution

proposed by Abraham Lincoln to find out exactly on what spot the American soldier's blood had been shed after Mexicans attacked Americans leading to the Mexican American War.

Dark horse

a candidate with little apparent support who unexpectedly wins a nomination or election (Presidents Pierce and Polk)

Webster Ashburn Treaty

signed between Webster and Britain over the Border between Canada and Maine

Gadsden Purchase

tiny little strip to build a railroad through the desert

Manifest Destiny

an emotional upsurge of certain beliefs in the U.S. in the 1840s and 1850s that they should spread their democratic government over the entire of North America and possibly extend into South America.

Aroostook War

over the Maine boundary dispute by the British, who wanted to build a road from Halifax to Quebec. The proposed road ran through land already claimed by Maine.

Webster

Ashburn Treaty

The Tariff of 1842

passed by President John Tyler and was made to get the government out of a recession as a protective tax to create money

Bear Flag Revolt

Americans in California wanted to be independent of Mexican rule, so when the war with Mexico began, these Californians revolted and established an independent republic where they hoisted the short lived California Bear Flag Republic.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

sold the United States all of the southwest for 15 million dollars in agreement that the rights and religion of the Mexican inhabitants of this land would be recognized by the United States government.

Creole

American ship captured by 130 Virginian slaves in the Bahamas in 1841

Fugitive Slave Law

Slaves who escaped could not testify in their behalf and were not allowed a trial by jury. fficers were expected to help catch runaway slaves. Those found helping slaves would be fined or jailed. This added to the rage in the North.

Compromise of 1850

California joined as a free state, and what was left of the Mexican Cession land became New Mexico and Utah, and did not restrict slavery.

Ostend Manifesto

A group of Southerners met with Spanish officials in Belgium to attempt to get more slave territory. The most brazen scheme for territorial expansion in the 1850s.

Kansas Nebraska Act

Kansas and Nebraska should come into the Union under popular sovereignty. repealed the Missouri Compromise

Underground Railroad

a secret chain of anti-slavery homes at which slaves were hidden and taken to the north

Popular Sovereignty

The doctrine that stated the people of a given territory should themselves determine the status of slavery

Wilmot Proviso

One attempt to prevent slavery in the territories was the

Martin Van Buren

Free soiler

Zachary Taylor

American General during the Mexican American War; the 1848 Whig candidate for president and winner; died in 1850

Millard Fillmore

filled in after Taylor and signed the compromise of 1850

Lewis Cass

came up with popular sovereignty nominee of an election. Came up with a silent response

James K Polk

Expansionist democratic candidate and winner in the 1844 election; achieved goals of Manifest Destiny

William Steward

Young New York Senator who advocated for the supremacy of "Higher Law" to oppose slavery

John Slidell

American minister that was sent to mexico by polk to try to buy California from Mexico

Matthew C. Perry

naval leader who convinced the Japanese to sign a treaty in 1853 with the U.S.

John C. Calhoun

wanted to preserve the Union and he believed in the Constitution and declared slavery okay

Franklin Pierce

elected president in the 1852 election & pro

Stephen Douglas

took over for Henry Clay in the Compromise of 1850 & later drew up the Kansas

John Tyler

a Democrat in his principles, he was against many of the things the Whigs tried to do. He became the first Vice President to take office because of a president’s death.

Winfield Scott

known as “Old Fuss and Feathers" and led American troops into Mexico City during the Mexican American War.

Republican

Political party officially formed in 1854 after the demise of the Whigs, due to the controversy of the Kansas-Nebraska Act