Chapter 1 : Continuation Flashcards
Federal government
Federal: relates to the government of the United States
The White House: home is the US president elected by an electoral college (group of people representing the states of the US who are responsible of electing the president and Vice President)
The US Congress: drew up laws in the Capitol
The US Congress
The US Congress itself comprised two distinct institutions
The House of Representatives: represented the people the greater the population the state had the more representatives
The Senate: represented the states however the size of the state each state had 2 senators (senator was seen as the defender of states rights
The Senate was more important in protecting the rights of the slave states than the House of Representative
For a proposal to become a law, the approval of both the houses is needed
The political system is based on
Separation of powers: maintains a distinction between the different branches of government.
Checks and balances: makes them work together
Supreme Court
Responsible to decide whether the decisions and policies of the Congress, the president, and the states and the state governors kept to the constitution
However enforcing its judgements depended on the other branches of government
Slavery
Slaves were transported from west Africa
All the states south of the Mason-Dixon slavery increased
South was well suited to the rapid development of cotton production and use of slave labor.
Abolitionists were people who were strongly against slavery, people who wanted to abolish slavery
In the south people wanted to expand slavery slavery to protect the south’s position within a US constitution
Secession
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger political entity, organization, union, or military alliance
The south wanted to secede as the Confederacy
Emancipation
Emancipation is the fact or process of being set free from legal, social or political restrictions which like liberation (the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery or oppression
Opponents of slavery believed they could get rid of slavery by:
Peaceful emancipation: slavery could be abolished b agreement of key bodies (state assemblies/Congress)
Military emancipation: slaves are freed as a strategy to defeat rebellion (freed slaves might encourage a wider rebellion)
Violent emancipation: slavery could be abolished by force
Manifest destiny
(Obvious destiny where US is expanding from coast to coast east to west)
In 1836 Texas declared independence and looked to the USA for protection and America offered to annex Texas and they accepted and Texas joined the USA as the 28th state
Annex : add territory to one’s own territory by appropriation
The Wilmot Proviso
David Wilmot was a democratic member of the US House Of Representatives he proposed that any territory gained by US from the Republic of Mexico shall not be a slave state
The Wilmot Proviso was never passed by the Congress and Was rejected twice but the voting split for the Wilmot Proviso highlighted the sectional differences between members of the same political party and the differences started to become more and more prominent
Frederick Douglas
He was a former-slave that escaped slavery and became an abolitionist
He travelled widely and educated a wider audience about the political issue of slavery
He wrote many anti-slavery books
Mexican American war
Mexican American war was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846-1848 which stemmed from the annexation of the Republic of Texas by the US
A peace treaty was negotiated and Mexico was obliged to surrender areas of its northern provinces to the USA. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war between Mexico and The United States, Mexico encoded 55% of its territory to the United States
Territorial Expansion
US started expanding from England to the US and expanded from east to west
In 1789 the USA was former British colonies
As the population increases the people move towards the West and the US gets richer
The major consequences was the movement of people into the new land as the major issue was when it came to deciding whether the proposed state would become slave or free because the two sections needed to keep in balance to avoid either North or South becoming more powerful
Henry clay
Henry Clay was a leader of the House Of Representative was responsible of the idea of the Missouri Compromise
Democrats
Democrats was a political party
Famous democrats: Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, John Calhoun
They believed the USA was essentially a rural agricultural society and placed great importance in states rights
But they were apposed to expanding the power of the national government but were prepared to use the government to expand to the west gaining more farmland
Against tariffs since materials become more expensive to pay for roads that are not going to be used
The Whigs
Famous whigs: Henry Clay, Daniel Webster
Whigs wanted to develop the industrial power of the USA using tariffs to protect new industries, building canals and railroads
Stephen Douglas
Douglas was a leading Northern Democrat and was made the popular sovereignty
He believed that the populations of the individual states should decide on the issues of slavery
Republican Party
Anti-Slavery political party that took the place of whigs when it started to decline the, the common reason between the members of the Republican Party was that they were against slavery and nothing more
Free-soilers were a group that wanted to stop slavery from expanding to the west
William Parker
A Maryland-slave owner (Edward) crossed state lines to recover his escaping slaves and he was shot and killed
William Parker (former slave) escaped using the Underground Railroad
Anthony Burns and The Boston Slave Riot 1854
Riot: a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd
Not all fugitive slaves got away,
Anthony Burns was a former slave now as a free man in Boston then he was charged the Fugitive Slave Act as a run away slave then returned to his owner by the federal government
This aroused protests
Eventually he was freed
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas: The conflict over Kansas that occurs when people from the free and the slave states move in back to their sides when Kansas can vote under Douglas’s popular sovereignty, further increases tension and radicalizes people
Kansas-Nebraska act: Splits Kansas Off from the Nebraska Territory so it can become a state. Strongly supported by pro-slavery groups and apposed by the anti slavery faction as Kansas likely to become slave. Convinces the North of ‘Slave Power’, in part since Kansas is north of the 36 30 line of the previous compromise
The sacking of Lawrence :
Lawrence a small free state town was attacked by border ruffians who destroyed the printing presses of free state newspapers as well as the Free State Hotel
The Battle of Osawatomie: another free state town attacked and destroyed by border ruffians
Lecompton Constitution: Pro-Slavery constitution voted for by Kansas in 1858, supported by US president Buchanan but ultimately rejected by congress
Wyandotte Constitution: Free constitution adopted Kansas in 1860
The Caning of Senator Sumter
Senator Charles Sumner was a leading abolitionist who was attacked by Preston Brooks who Sumner insulted in his speech. He beat him senselessly with a stick which is known as the Caning of Sumner
The Democratic National Convention
Democrats split during the National Convention
The votes split
Douglas represented a Northern Democrat
Breckinridge represented a southern Democrat
This lead to Lincoln winning the election
The Crittenden Compromise
Similar to the Missouri Compromise
The Corwin Amendment
Similar to the popular sovereignty
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter and it’s impacts started the war
The south attacks Fort Sumter and the North tries to defend it and therefore the shooting begins and the war begins
Habeas Corpus
The Great Writ of Habeas Corpus is a right in the constitution that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment
Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus to give military authorities the necessary power to silence the rebels
Therefore commanders could arrest anyone that seemed threatening
The Emancipation proclamation
The emancipation proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by Lincoln in 1862 during the Civil War
The proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are and shall be free
and freed slaves could be enlisted in the Union Army
Compromise of 1850
North gets California added as a free state, ending the balance between sections in the Senate. It also gets the slave trade (but not slavery) abolished in DC. The south gets the Fugitive Slave Act.
Popular Sovereignty
Stephan Douglas argued that the issue of slavery should be decided by referendums (voting) in all new territories conquered from Mexico.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
A slave-owner’s claim that a slave was a fugitive was sufficient for the slave to be arrested.
Fugitive slaves could not ask for trial by jury nor legally represent themselves in court (in place of a lawyer representing them).
Any federal official who failed to arrest a known fugitive slave, even in states where slavery was banned, would be fined $1000.
John Brown
Lead raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1860. Harper’s Ferry was a Federal arsenal (weapons stockpile). He wanted to give the slaves weapons so they could revolt. It failed and he was captured by Federal troops. His execution made some in the North feel sorry for him, but it was not popular at the time.
Election of 1860
Won by Lincoln in a 4 way election. Stephan Douglas, John Bell and John Breckenridge all ran against Lincoln. Bell wanted to avoid the slavery issue, Douglas wanted to refer everything to state elections under ‘popular sovereignty’ and Breckenridge wanted a federal slave code, reinforcing slavery. Lincoln won but only a minority voted for him.
