L1 Antebellum Politics & Sectional Crisis (1848-1854) – Comprehensive Notes

Exam Logistics and Course Announcements

• Final Exam (Exam 4)

  • Date: Tuesday, December 1

  • Opening/Closing window: 10{:}15\,\text{AM} – 12{:}15\,\text{PM} (strict 2-hour limit mandated by university policy)

  • Format: 50 questions (multiple-choice and true/false)

  • Same length as first 3 exams despite longer window; no cumulative content.

  • Coverage: last 5 lectures only (≈ 10 questions drawn from each lecture instead of 8).

• Extra-credit opportunity: submit proof of voter registration ("voter ID") by ext{December }1 for +5 points.

• Course schedule: Last regular class = Monday before Thanksgiving; no meetings after break.

• Instructor health note: recent illness (fever + loss of taste) turned out to be bronchitis, not COVID-19.

Election of 1848

• Main candidates

  • Zachary Taylor (Whig) – Mexican-American War hero; Louisiana slaveholder; opposes expansion of slavery westward; priority = "preserve the Union."

  • Lewis Cass (Democrat) – former MI governor; later architect of popular sovereignty.

  • Martin Van Buren (Free Soil Party) – former president; heads new antislavery third party.

• Electoral map shows essentially 2 colors (Whig vs. Democrat); Free Soil gets 0 electoral votes but splits key northern states, handing victory to Taylor.

• Whig convention passes over Henry Clay (career statesman, “Great Compromiser”) to nominate Taylor.

• Taylor serves only 16 months → dies in office; VP Millard Fillmore becomes 13^{\text{th}} president.

The Free Soil Party

• Motto: “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.”

• Membership: Northern Democrats, Liberty-Party abolitionists, assorted anti-slavery voters.

• Goal: ban slavery in all new western territories (esp. land gained from Mexico: CA, UT, NV, NM, etc.).

• Importance: splits Democratic vote in 1848 and accelerates sectional debate.

Popular Sovereignty (Lewis Cass’s Plan)

• Transfer slavery decision from Congress to territorial settlers.

• Applies only to territories, not established states.

• Cass quote: territories deserve “the right to regulate their own internal concerns in their own way.”

• Appeal: seemingly democratic; defuses disunion threats.

• Critiques

  1. Excludes African Americans from votingon their own status.

  2. Lets white majorities decide whether to deny Black freedom → basic human-rights violation.

  3. Democratic Party ultimately rejects the plan, claiming Congress lacks power over slavery anywhere.

California Gold Rush (kick-off 24\,\text{Jan} 1848)

• Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill; publicized by President James K. Polk before he leaves office.

• Migration facts

  • By 1854 ≈ 300{,}000 people (mostly young men) flood CA → largest internal migration in U.S. history to date.

  • International influx: South America, Canada, Australia, Asia, Europe.

• Economic effects: enormous gold infusion → national boom, counteracting earlier panics (e.g., 1837).

• Consequences

  • Native Americans dispossessed & forced into labor.

  • Boomtowns like San Francisco explode overnight; “Forty-Niners” nickname immortalized (NFL team, etc.).

Push Toward Statehood & the Compromise of 1850

• President Zachary Taylor urges immediate admission of California and New Mexico as free states to break stalemate.

  • CA unilaterally drafts free-state constitution Dec. 1849.

  • NM follows with free constitution by 1850.

• Southern backlash

  • Jefferson Davis (Taylor’s son-in-law, future CSA president) brands plan “anti-Southern.”

  • Secession threats already voiced 1849.

• Senate “Triumvirate” debate: Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun (supported by Stephen A. Douglas & Jefferson Davis).

Key Provisions of the Compromise (Clay’s last masterpiece)

1. California admitted as free state → shifts congressional balance toward free states.

2. Public slave auctions banned in Washington, D.C. (private sales still legal).

3. Utah & New Mexico Territories decide slavery via popular sovereignty.

4. Fugitive Slave Act (FSA) of 1850 – strict federal enforcement to capture & return runaways; most controversial plank.

Fugitive Slave Act 1850

• Obligates all citizens, federal officials, and Northern states to assist in recapture.

• Empowers slave catchers to seize alleged runaways (even long-escaped or never-enslaved free Blacks).

• No jury trial for accused runaways; commissioners paid \$10 for return decision vs. \$5 for release → perverse incentive.

• Northern response

  • Outrage among abolitionists (Frederick Douglass advocates resistance; John Brown arms Black militia).

  • Dramatic expansion of Underground Railroad activity.

Underground Railroad

• Not literal; metaphorical “railroad” of safe houses & guides (“conductors”).

• Participants: white abolitionists, free Blacks, some Native Americans, religious groups (Quakers, etc.).

• Legal risk: helpers face fines & imprisonment under FSA—parallels later humanitarian resistance movements (e.g., hiding Jews from Nazis).

William Still

• Free Black clerk, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.

• Documents & aids ≈ 800 fugitives on route to Canada → invaluable historical record.

Harriet Tubman (“Moses”)

• Born enslaved Maryland coast; escapes 1849 to Philadelphia.

• Conducts 19 missions; rescues parents, siblings, and ~300 others.

• Strategies: male disguise, pistol for defense and to quell panicked escapees (“You will be free or die a slave!”).

• Civil War service: Union scout & spy; leads raid freeing > 750 slaves.

• Maryland slaveholders place 40{,}000 (≈ \$1 million 2020 dollars) bounty on her head; she famously defies, asserting right to “liberty or death.”

Webster’s 7^{\text{March}} Speech (1850)

• Daniel Webster cautions

  • Northern abolitionists: avoid provoking South with extreme measures.

  • Southern “fire-eaters”: secession will guarantee war.

• Calls for “sectional equilibrium” to preserve Union; echoes Clay’s approach.

Presidential Interlude

• Death of Zachary Taylor (July 1850): VP Millard Fillmore becomes 13^{\text{th}} POTUS.

  • Lame-duck stature, minimal initiative; Whigs bypass him in next election.

Election of 1852: Whig Collapse Begins

• Candidates

  • Franklin Pierce (Democrat) – NH lawyer; Mexican-War brigadier; surprise nominee.

  • Winfield Scott (Whig) – famed but pompous general (“Old Fuss & Feathers”).

• Results: Pierce wins landslide 254 EV vs. 42.

• Pierce presidency

  • Overly eager to please; indecisive; alcohol dependency → dies 1869 of cirrhosis.

  • Fails in bid to purchase Cuba as new slave state.

Kansas–Nebraska Act 1854

• Context

  • Expansion, Pacific trade, California gold combine to spur demand for transcontinental railroad.

  • Sec-of-War Jefferson Davis (MS) favors southern route; Senator Stephen A. Douglas (IL) wants Chicago hub.

• Douglas strategy

  1. Organize huge unorganized area west of IA/MO into Kansas & Nebraska Territories.

  2. Invoke popular sovereignty → territories could choose slavery, nullifying Missouri-Compromise line (36^{\circ}30').

  3. Southern votes secured; Act passes with bipartisan support.

  4. Douglas personally profits—owns land along proposed northern rail route.

• Consequences

  • Repeals Missouri Compromise north-of-line ban → national outrage.

  • Sparks violent contest (“Bleeding Kansas”) between pro- and anti-slavery settlers (details in later lectures).

  • Destroys Whig Party – antislavery Northern Whigs bolt.

  • Birth of Republican Party (1854) – coalition of former Whigs, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska Democrats; platform = stop slavery’s expansion.

  • Charles Sumner (MA) to William Seward: “A party of Freedom must arise from this chaos.”

Key Personalities & Their Roles (Quick Reference)

• Henry Clay – “Great Compromiser”; designs Compromise 1850; dies 1852.

• Daniel Webster – MA senator; March-7 speech; dies 1852.

• John C. Calhoun – SC senator; pro-slavery theorist; dies 1850.

• Stephen A. Douglas – IL senator; Kansas-Nebraska mastermind; railroad interests.

• Jefferson Davis – MS senator; later CSA president; Sec-of-War under Pierce.

• Charles Sumner – MA senator; leading antislavery voice; helps found Republicans.

• William Seward – NY; future Lincoln secretary of state; early Republican.

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

• Popular Sovereignty

  • Raises moral question: Can majority vote justly deny minority human rights?

• Fugitive Slave Act

  • Federalizes moral complicity: ordinary Northerners compelled to uphold slavery → accelerates shift from indifference to active resistance.

  • Demonstrates limits of compromise when fundamental rights collide with law.

• Underground Railroad

  • Illustrates civil disobedience against unjust law; foreshadows later civil-rights tactics.

• Kansas–Nebraska Act

  • Shows how economic motives (railroad profits) and political calculation can upend long-standing moral/political settlements.

  • Provokes realignment: the modern party system (Democrats vs. Republicans) emerges over slavery expansion.

Chronological Anchor Points ( 1848 – 1854 )

1848 – Gold discovered; Taylor (Whig) elected over Cass & Van Buren.
1849 – California drafts free constitution; secession threats begin.
1850 – Compromise incl. FSA; Taylor dies → Fillmore.
1852 – Clay, Webster die; Pierce (Dem) wins landslide; Whig decline.
1854 – Kansas–Nebraska Act; birth of Republican Party.

Study Tips for Exam 4

• Expect ≈ 10 questions per lecture; focus on the five sessions outlined above.

• Master cause-and-effect chains: Gold Rush → statehood crisis → Compromise 1850; Compromise 1850 → FSA backlash → Underground Railroad; Railroad ambition → Kansas-Nebraska → party realignment.

• Memorize key dates, acts, and personalities; pay attention to party shifts (Free Soil → Whig collapse → Republican emergence).

• Be able to explain why FSA and Kansas-Nebraska were turning points—both galvanized Northern opinion and destroyed old compromises.

• Review announced word list & PowerPoint (on Google Drive) for professor’s preferred terminology.

Good luck—remember the exam window is only 120 minutes on \text{Dec}\,1!