13.3 Sectional Thing Idk

Popular Sovereignty

New Territories

• New areas of the Mexican Cession were disputed over being free or slave states

• Southerners claimed that citizens had equal rights to move their “property” there

• Polk suggested the idea of extending the Missouri Compromise line

  • Would pass through the new territories into the Pacific Ocean

• Politicians thought of a new strategy = “Popular Sovereignty”

  • Would allow people of each new territory to decide the status of slavery

  • Public approval grew towards popular sovereignty because of its democratic tradition

Political Turnover

• President Polk declined to run again in the election of 1848

• Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor

  • Dodged the issue of slavery

• Free-Soil Party

  • Antislavery Northerners

  • Nominated Martin Van Buren

  • Argued that only free land (states) would allow America to flourish

• Taylor won the election and became the 12th president

Gold Rush

• Discovery of Gold

  • January 1848

  • James Marshall discovered gold in Sierra Nevada, California

  • News spread across the world and by 1849, oversea migrants rushed into California

• The “forty-niners” rushed to California to obtain their dream of gold while abandoning their past lives

  • Left farms, jobs, homes, and families

• California Gold Rush

  • Attracted tens of thousands of people

  • Majority of newcomers were lawless men

  • Outburst of crimes became common

  • Migrants murdered for and robbed gold

• Attraction of the first Chinese migrants

  • Impoverished areas in China became excited by the idea of gold

  • They could go to America and get rich, then return

  • Because many individuals that rushed for gold left their jobs, work opportunities opened

  • Some Chinese immigrants joined American workforce

Indian “Slavery”

• Labor shortages led to the exploitation of Native Americans

• “Indian Hunters” started to arrest Native Americans and assign them into indentured labor

• Indian Indenture Act - forced Native Americans in California into servitude

  • “Loitering” and orphaned Native Americans were pushed into servitude

  • Majority of orphaned Native Americans became orphans from their indenturee

California’s Tensions

• California’s population grew because of the gold rush

• Racial and ethnic tensions grew = California became turbulent

• Pressure grew from Americans to create a stable government

Compromise of 1850

Territorial Tensions

• South of 1850

• Southerners became worried about the political balance

• By 1849, there were 15 slave states and 15 free states

• Southern grievances majority came from the loss of runaway slaves

• Personal Liberty Laws were passed in the North that restricted the capture of runaway slaves

• Southerners demanded new and more stringent fugitive slave laws

The Immoral Trio

• Moderates and unionists joined to create a great compromise to avoid secession

• Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster met

Henry Clay

• Proposed a compromise to Congress in 1850 that would…

  • Admit California as a free state

  • New territorial governments without restrictions on slavery

  • New fugitive slave law

• Clay became known as the “Great Compromiser”

• Debates over the compromise sprouted across Congress

First phase argued by older voices

John C. Calhoun

• Insisted the North should…

  • Grant the South equal rights in the territories

  • Return runaway slaves to the South

  • Stop attacking slavery

  • Change the constitution to have 2 presidents (North/South)

• Calhoun became known as the “Great Nullifier”

• Calhoun’s claims were radical demands that were seen to have little chance in passing

• Calhoun saw it as a new idea for solution

Daniel Webster

• Seventh of March Speech

  • Strengthened Northern sentiment

  • Slavery was seen as evil but breaking American union was worse

• Webster became known as the “Great Orator”

New Generation

• Congress had ultimately rejected Clay’s compromise

• Second phase argued by younger voices

  • William Seward, Jefferson Davis, and Stephen Douglas

William Seward

• Completely opposed Clay’s compromise

• Issue of slavery was more important than being unified

• Argued to exclude slavery on the basis of following God’s moral law

Jefferson Davis

• Saw the issue of slavery as an issue of American economy

  • Cotton economy

Stephen Douglas

• Suggested for Clay’s compromise to be split into smaller sections

  • Instead of passing the compromise as a single bill, Douglas suggested to pass them one by one

• These new leaders were able to produce a new compromise

• Assisted by the sudden death of President Taylor

• Vice President Millard Fillmore decided to follow Stephen Douglas’s suggestion and signed a series of compromises

• Series of compromises became the Compromise of 1850

New Concessions

Concessions to the North

• California admitted as a free state

• Territory disputed between Texas and New Mexico is given to New Mexico

• Abolition of slave trade in the District of Columbia

Concessions to the South

• Areas of Mexican Cession formed into New Mexico and Utah

• Texas receives $10 million as compensation

• New strict fugitive-slave law