C18 - Renewing the sectional struggle 1848-1854 Flashcards
John C. Calhoun
Called the “Great nullifier”. Spoke in favor of the South. Made impassioned plea to leave slavery alone, return runaway slaves and give the South its rights as a minority. Had an idea to elect 2 Presidents, one from the North and one from the South to restore the political balance, This would have been unworkable.
He died in 1850 before the debate was over.
Compromise of 1850
Laws passed in reaction to Southerners who pushed for Fugitive Slave laws.
Caused a decade of delay before the Civil War, which actually allowed the North to grow in population and strength and to gain a moral high-ground related to slavery. This “delay” in the fighting of the Civil War might have given the north the edge, causing eventual victory in the war.
“personal liberty laws”
Passed by some states, making their jails off-limits to federal officials. This meant that people prosecuted under fugitive slave laws could not be jailed in these states’ jails.
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
- Treaty between US and Britain to avoid war over both nations’ interest in Nicaragua in S. America.
Agreement that neither country would control any future canal that would be dug in this area of S. America.
A canal would be very prosperous here because ships would be able to get from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean without sailing around the southern tip of S. America.
In future years the Panama Canal was created (south of this proposed spot in Nicaragua).
“conscience” Whigs
people who condemned slavery on moral grounds.
Underground Railroad
Way that slaves escaped to the North and finally to Canada. A network of “stations” (homes of anti-slavery people) housed runaway slaves (called Passengers).
Ostend Manifesto
Written in advance of a meeting at Ostend, Belgium between European powers and US envoys.
The Manifesto said that the US would buy Cuba from Spain. If Spain would not sell, the US would take it by force.
The secret Manifesto leaked out. People in the North were furious because Cuba would have been added as a slave state.
President Pierce had to drop his ambition of taking Cuba.
Henry Clay
Henry Clay might have seemed the logical choice as the Whig candidate for 1848 election, but he had made too many enemies. Zachary Taylor got the nomination of the Whigs instead.
Lewis Cass
Democratic candidate in 1848 election. Ran b/c President Polk was exhausted and announced he would not run for a 2nd term. Cass believed in Popular Sovereignty related to slavery.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Idea of and pushed through Congress by Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas’s goal was to encourage expansion Westward. Westward expansion had been slowed down by the different goals of the North and the South…South wanted more slave states and North wanted more free states. Neither side wanted the other to gain another state on their side because that would throw off the balance. In 1854, there were equal numbers of both slave/free states, which meant equal numbers of senators from both, which meant that neither side had more power.
Douglas’s idea was that Nebraska territory would be split into states of Kansas and Nebraska. Popular sovereignty (vote by the people in the states) would decide whether these states would allow slavery. Everyone assumed that Kansas would become a slave state and Nebraska a free state.
He aggressively pushed it through Congress and it became law. 2 sides so violently disagreed that some members of congress carried guns for protection.
This Kansas Nebraska Act was at odds with the 1820 law, the Missouri Compromise, which outlawed slavery in that part of the US.
After passage of this act, the North completely stopped enforcing the Fugutive Slave Act too.
Douglas cared less about slavery than he did about coming up with a scheme to allow for Westward expansion. Many people in the North who were in his party strongly disagreed with him and his lack of concern for the Missouri Compromise.
This law may have helped to start the Civil War, a few years later.
Daniel Webster
Gave famous 7th of march speech. 1850
Believed slavery was evil, but disunion (breaking up the Union/the US) was worse.
Seventh of March Speech
- Speech given by Daniel Webster, considered one of his finest. Helped turn the tide in the North to one of compromise on the slavery issue.
Harriett Tubman
illiterate. A runaway slave who helped run the “Underground Railroad”. She helped 300 slaves escape, including her aging parents.
Free Soil party
3rd party that formed in advance of 1848 election because neither Whigs or Democrats took a position on slavery. Free Soil party was anti-slavery. They also were in favor of federal funds being used for internal improvements and to give land to settlers for free.
Slogan: “free soil, free speech, free labor and free men”. They believed free land had to be given to white settlers who moved west in order to preserve America as the land of opportunity.
William H. Seward
Young senator from NY who was a strong antislaveryite. Did not believe in any compromise in 1850
