Chapter 16 - The Last Attempts at Compromise

Know-Nothing Party (American Party)

• 1854-1856 - Held the greatest influence
• ^^Were anti-Catholic + anti-immigration^^
• After the election of 1856, they became irrelevant

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

• 1824
• Defined the border between Canada and the US
• The two countries would share the Great Lakes + were divided by the 49th parallel

Wilmot Proviso

• 1846 - Failed to pass
• David Wilmot
• ^^Held that any land annexed from the Mexican-American War would be closed to slavery^^
• Sectional voting led to the unification of Democrats + Whigs

Popular Sovereignty

• Lewis Cass
• People in territories would vote whether or not that state would have slavery
• Opposed by Abraham Lincoln + the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott court case

Gold Rush

• 1848 - Gold discovered in California
• ^^1849 - Influx of gold hunters, nicknamed the Forty-niners, traveled to the gold mines to try to get rich^^
  • Few ACTUALLY became rich

Compromise of 1850

• 1850
• Written by Henry Clay
• 5 separate laws
  • California is a free state
  • Popular sovereignty in the land annexed from Mexico
  • Left the option of legalizing slavery to the territories of New Mexico and Utah
  • Banned slave trading in Washington DC
  • Enforced the Fugitive Slave Law

Free Soil Party

• Formed in 1848
• ^^Opposed the further spread of slavery into territories^^
• 1854 - Absorbed by Republican party

Stephen Douglas

• US Senator + served on the Committee on Territories
• Believed in popular sovereignty
• Wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
• 1858 - Competed against Lincoln for Senate election
• 1860 - Competed against Lincoln for presidential election

Ostend Manifesto

• Written by Franklin Pierce + James Buchanan
• ^^Offered Spain $100 mil to buy Cuba^^
• After Spain refused, the US took Cuba by force

Fugitive Slave Law

• 1850
• The big question: If the North wasn’t returning escaped slaves, was that violating the Bill of Rights?
• If judges returned escaped slaves to their owners, they received a reward
• Northern resistance to this law

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• 1852
• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Harshly criticized in the South
• Emotional + stirred abolitionists in the North
• ^^Laid the foundation for the Civil War^^

Nativism

• Opposed immigration, mostly from Southern + Eastern Europe
• Blamed the problems of overpopulation + urban sprawl on immigrants
• Practiced by the Know-Nothing Party + the KKK

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• 1854
• Stephen Douglas wanted land to build a transcontinental railroad
• ^^Decided that people in Kansas + Nebraska would be able to vote on whether or not they wanted slavery^^

Republican Party

• 1854 - Formed modern Republican party
• Composed of Free Soil + Liberty Party + northern Whigs + northern anti-slavery Democrats
• Supported John C. Fremont in the election of 1856

John Brown

• Fought in Bleeding Kansas + Pottawatomie Massacre
• ^^1859 - After dying a hero in the Harpers Ferry Raid, he was seen as a martyr in the North^^

Bleeding Kansas

• 1854-1858
• Lecompton (pro-slavery) vs. Topeka (anti-slavery)
• ^^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^^
• Missourian border ruffians illegally voted for slavery
• 1861 - Kansas entered as free state

Brooks-Sumner Affair

• 1856
• Charles Sumner attacked slavery interests
• Preston Brooks beat Sumner with a cane
• This incident was praised in South + criticized in North

Lecompton Constitution

• 1857
• ^^Pro-slavery gov’t supported by President Buchanan^^
• After the second vote, it was rejected
• Kansas entered as free state

Dred Scott Case

• 1857
• Dred Scott was a slave that lived in free territory
• ^^Supreme Court decision stated that slaves weren’t citizens and couldn’t sue in federal courts + that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional^^
• Angered North

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

• 1858
• Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen A. Douglas
• Freeport Doctrine would decide slavery or not for a state before entering Union + use force to maintain slavery
  • Split Democratic Party
• Made Lincoln nationally famous

Election of 1860

• 1860
• Stephen A. Douglas
• ^^Abraham Lincoln’s campaign contained ideas of a railroad + Homestead Act + protective tariff + against slave trade & spread of slavery^^
• John C. Breckinridge was supported by Southern Democrats + supported slavery & states’ rights
• John Bell was backed by the Constitutional Union Party
• After Lincoln’s victory, the South seceded

Crittenden Compromise

• 1860
• John Crittenden
• ^^Hoped to reestablish + extend 36-30 line (more land for slave territories)^^
• Lincoln believed that slavery shouldn’t expand into any further territories
• After it was rejected, it symbolized the end of the era of compromise

States’ Rights

• Confederate States of America
• Ruled by a weak central gov’t
• Led by John C. Calhoun

Secession

• 1860-1861
• ^^The South believed they had the constitutional right to secede from Union^^
• Formed the Confederate States of America

BIG PICTURE

• Ability to compromise over slavery ↓

• Abolition - Literature, humanitarian reforms, events

• South defended slavery - Popular sovereignty + property rights

• Violence - Anti-slavery vs. pro-slavery

• Divisive events - Elected Abraham Lincoln + secession

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