Turmoil and Transition: Mexican War to Compromise of 1850

1. I. Effect of the Mexican War • “Conscience Whigs,” led by JQ Adams’ son Charles Francis Adams, called the war immoral. • Whigs won control of Congress in 1846, called for no land, and criticized Manifest Destiny

2. Wilmot Proviso • Rep. David Wilmot (D – PA) proposed that slavery be banned in all territories gained from the war. • Measure passed House, died in Senate.

3. Free Soil Movement • Supporters of the Wilmot Proviso formed free soil movement, then Free Soil Party. • Focus on slavery’s impact on small farmers won many supporters, including Frederick Douglass, but not William Lloyd Garrison

4. review • Who called the Mexican War immoral? Who led them? • What did Whigs begin to criticize? • What did the Wilmot Proviso do? How successful was it? • What party did Wilmot Proviso supporters form? • Why did abolitionists disagree over the new party?

5. II. Election of 1848 • Overworked, Polk didn’t run, soon died • Democrats – Lewis Cass – squatter/popular sovereignty; • Free Soil – Martin Van Buren (D), and Charles Francis Adams (W); got N. Democratic support

6. The election • Whigs ran “Old Rough and Ready” Zachary Taylor, a free soil slaveowner. • Taylor got 47% of vote; won electoral college;

7. 3rd party impact • Free Soil votes in New York cost Cass the state (Taylor won it) and the election – spoiler role • Antislavery voters cost Clay the election in 1844, Cass in 1848

8. review • What became of Polk? • Who ran in 1848 for the Democrats? What was his issue? • Who ran for Free Soil? Who was the VP? • Who ran for Whigs? What was his slavery stand? • Who won, by how much, and why?

9. III. 49ers • 1848 John Sutter’s workers discovered gold in Sierra Nevada. • 49ers – 80,000 mostly men poured into California looking for gold; San Francisco grew into major city.

10. Life in gold rush • 49ers lived among saloons, gamblers, prostitutes. • Indians, Mexicans, Chileans, Chinese mistreated, couldn’t dig in best areas; victims of nativist efforts.

11. End of gold • Much crime and diarrhea (California disease), little gold for latecomers to a site. • Many left by mid 1850s; others fought for land; Indians exterminated and enslaved.

12. review • Where was gold discovered, by whom? • How many 49ers? What kind of folks? • What city? • How did it end? Who were the winners and losers?

13. IV. Compromise of 1850 • Quick settlement – Taylor advised California to apply for statehood, Congress to admit it as a free state. • Dying Calhoun: 2 presidents, slaves as property can’t be limited – ignoring precedents of NW Ordinance, Missouri Compromise

14. Other proposals • 1. southerners - extend Missouri Compromise line • 2. Stephen Douglas – squatter/popular sovereignty • 3. abolitionists like William Seward – restrict and eventually end slavery due to a “higher law than the Constitution.”

15. The compromise • President Millard Fillmore, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen Douglas • 1. California free state • 2. Utah and New Mexico, popular sovereignty

16. More compromise • 3. fugitive slave law • 4. D.C. – no slave trade • 5. New Mexico wins land from Texas • Secession threatened by “fire eaters”

17. matching • Taylor ________ • Calhoun _________ • Moderate southerners _____ • Stephen Douglas ______ • Seward/Abolitionists ________ • Fillmore, Webster, Clay, Douglas ________ • Compromise of 1850 – 1st 2 provisions _______ • 3 add-ons to compromise _______ • Fire eaters _______ • A. Extend Missouri Compromise line • B. California free state, Utah New Mexico popular sovereignty • C. Fugitive slave law, no DC slave trade, land from Texas to New Mexico • D. California free state • E. “higher law than Constitution” • F. threatened secession • G. Compromise coalition • H. Slavery property rights • I. popular sovereignty

18. I. Anger over Fugitive Slave Act • North got better end of the Compromise of 1850: no other area to extend slavery to. • Fugitive Slave Law resented in the north, aimed at Tubman and the Underground Railroad.

19. Underground Railroad • Harriet Tubman had gone South to get slaves 19 times, rescued 300, including her parents. • South lost 1000 runaways per year, likely less runaways then self-purchase or voluntary emancipation.

20. Radicalized north • One runaway was captured in Boston and taken through the streets in front of angry northerners. • Massachussetts outlawed enforcing the “man-stealing” law – nullified it.

21. review • Who got the best of the Compromise of 1850? • Which part did the North resent? • Who was the Fugitive Slave Act aimed at? • Harriet Tubman: how many trips and how many slaves? • How many runaways per year? • What event was especially resented? • What did Massachussetts do?

22. II. Other places for slavery • Southerners attempted takeovers of Nicaragua and Cuba, with disastrous and deadly results. • Pierce Administration’s Ostend Manifest0 - $120 million or invasion for Cuba – outraged free soilers.

23. Gadsden Purchase • Gadsden Purchase spent $10 million on Mexican land for a railroad west. • Northern railroad line would have to go through unorganized territory, harassed by Indians.

24. Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act • Sen. Stephen Douglas (D – Ill) pushed Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress; popular sovereignty in both territories. • He wanted railroad from Chicago, but law repealed Missouri Compromise and further radicalized north.

25. review • What two countries did Southerners attempt to take over? • What did the Ostend Manifesto do? What stopped it? • What did the Gadsden Purchase do? Why would northerners care? • What law did Stephen Douglas push? Why? • Name 2 effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

26. III. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. • Focused on splitting families, Fugitive Slave Act – Stowe said “God wrote it.”

27. impact • Millions sold; most politically influential book in history. • Lincoln when meeting Stowe: “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”

28. More literary impact • Readers swore against Fugitive Slave Act; Europeans against intervention in a war. • Hinton Helper’s Impending Crisis in the South argued that slavery hurt poor whites; burned in South and mass distributed in the north.

29. review • Who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin? • What’s the book about? • What impact did it have? • What did Lincoln say? • Who wrote Impending Crisis in the South? • How did the sections of the country react to it?

30. IV. violence • New England Emigrant Aid Company and proslavery Missourians sent people into Kansas to vote. • A fraudulant proslavery and illegal antislavery government was set up.

31. Bleeding Kansas • 1856 proslavery forces burned part of free soil Lawrence, Kansas. • John Brown led Pottowatomie Creek Massacre; he and sons hacked to pieces proslavery families

32. politics • President James Buchanan supported pro-slavery LeCompton Constitution; opposed by Stephen Douglas – no statehood. • Brooks (SC) beat Sumner (Mass) unconscious with a cane on the Senate floor, p. 414

33. review • Who sent people to Kansas? • Why 2 governments? What was the problem with each? • Where did proslavery forces burn? • What did John Brown and sons do? • Why no statehood? What politicians were on each side? • Who caned whom?

34. I. Things falling apart • 1856 Buchanan (D) defeated Fremont (R) and Fillmore (Know Nothing/American Party). • Concerns about Fremont’s character and fire eater secession undermined the Republicans.

35. Dred Scott decision 2 days into Buchanan administration • Dred Scott, living with his master in Wisconsin and Illinois, sued for freedom. • Supreme Court: Scott can’t sue, not a citizen, but Chief Justice Taney not finished.

36. Dred Scott importance • Slave is property which can be taken anywhere; laws limiting this are unconstitutional. • Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty is unconstitutional; opposed by Douglas and abolitionists.

37. review • Why was Buchanan elected? • Who was Dred Scott? • Why did he lose? • Who was the Chief Justice? Where was he from? • Why was his case important? • Who criticized the decision?

38. II. More troubles • Panic of 1857 hurt north, led to 2 demands: Tariff and Homestead Act. • 1858 Republican Lincoln (former Whig) challenged Douglas (D) for Illinois Senate: 7 Lincoln-Douglas debates.

39. Freeport Doctrine • Lincoln: could states vote down slavery in light of Dred Scott? • Douglas’ Freeport Doctrine: anti-slavery state won’t pass the necessary slave laws; Douglas elected by Illinois state legislature.

40. John Brown at Harper’s Ferry • October 1859: Brown and 20 took over arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Va (today WVa) but failed to stir uprising. • Brown hung, calm: a martyr in the north and terrorist in the south.

41. review • What demands came from the Panic of 1857? • How many Lincoln-Douglas debates? • What did Lincoln claim Dred Scott meant? • What was Douglas’ Freeport Doctrine? • Who won, how? • Where was John Brown’s raid? What was his plan? • How did he die? Why was he more useful dead than alive?

42. III. Election of 1860 • 1860 depression-prone Abraham Lincoln got Republican nomination over “higher law” Seward. • Others: Douglas – Northern Democrat, Breckinridge – Southern Democrat, Bell.

43. Lincoln and Secession • Lincoln won with 40% of vote, all from North, 180 electoral votes. • South Carolina seceded first, followed by deep South: Fl, Ga, Al, MS, LA, TX

44. Reactions to secession • 4 month lame duck Buchanan: secession is illegal, but he saw no means to stop it. • Crittendon (K) Compromise rejected by Lincoln: • Slavery protected • extend 36-30 line to California; apply to Latin America

45. review • Who got the nomination for Republicans? • Who else ran? • How did Lincoln win? • What states seceded? • What was the Crittendon Compromise?

46. IV. Civil War unavoidable • February 1865 Montgomery, Alabama new nation formed: Confederate States of America. • President Jefferson Davis (MS), Vice President Alexander Stephens (GA)

47. Lincoln’s first great speech • March 1861 Lincoln’s First Inaugural: Union perpetual, “mystic cords of memory…better angels of our nature.” • South had to return to nation or face war (like Jackson, Buchanan)

48. Fort Sumter • Lincoln resupplied Fort Sumter, SC with unarmed ship. • Confederates fired on fort, which surrendered two days later – first shots of war.

49. Review - id • New Southern nation • Confederate President, VP • Perpetual union • “mystic cords of memory… better angels of our nature.” • First shots of Civil War • Why were they fired?

50. I. More secession • After Fort Sumter Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 troops. • This caused more 4 more states to secede: Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia