Period 5 Flashcards
Manifest Destiny
a saying created by John O’Sullivan, expressed the popular belief that the United States had a divine mission to extend its power and civilization across the breadth of North American during the 1840s. It was driven by nationalism, population increase, rapid economic development, technological advances, and reform ideals
Oregon Fever
due to success in farming in fertile Willamette Valley in the 1840’s, 5000 Americans “caught” this, which caused them to travel 2000 miles over the Oregon Trail to settle in the area south of the Columbia River
54º 40’ or Fight!
Democratic political slogan that was used by James K. Polk during his presidential election, basically saying to either take the territory in Oregon or fight the British for it (even though they really didn’t mean to fight the British)
James K. Polk
president who used the slogan “54º 40’ or Fight” to get people to vote for him since the American people believed that Oregon and Texas belonged to the U.S. at the time. He was also very pro-manifest destiny and was president during the time of the Mexican American War
Mexican American War
technically began in 1846 over disputes over the Texas border (Rio Grande vs. Nueces River), but it can be argued that the annexation of Texas was the beginning of diplomatic trouble with Mexico. This finally boiled over when the Mexican Army crossed the Rio Grande and captured the American army patrol on what the Americans thought was their land (ironically, the Mexicans thought that was their land). Also, it erupted because the U.S. wanted to buy California, but Mexico refused to give it to them. In the end, Mexico lost and U.S. gained the Mexican Cession, California, and established the border separating the two countries at the Rio Grande River. James K. Polk was president during this
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
ended the Mexican American War with the following terms: Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas, the United States would take possession of former Mexican provinces of California and New Mexico (the Mexican Cession), and for these territories, the U.S. paid $15 million and assumed responsibility for any claims of American citizens against Mexico
Wilmot Proviso
an appropriations bill that forbade slavery in any of the new territories acquired from Mexico from the Mexican American War. It passed the House of Representatives twice but it was defeated in the Senate, ultimately failing
49ers
group of people who migrated to California in 1849 in hopes of getting gold/striking it rich during the gold rush there
Free Soil Party
“free soil, free labor, free men,” party that was for preventing the extension of slavery in the west and advocated free homesteads (public land grants to small farmers) and internal improvement
Popular Sovereignty
where the people who settle a territory decide if it will be a slave state or a free state
Compromise of 1850
created by Henry Clay to solve the dispute over California applying to be a free state that failed as a whole but each of the five parts was able to get passed as individual laws by Stephen Douglas. The five parts are: admit California to the Union as a free state, divide the remainder of the Mexican Cession into 2 territories (Utah and New Mexico) and allow settlers in these territories to decide the slavery issue by popular sovereignty, give the land in dispute over Texas and New Mexico territory to the new territories in return for the federal government assuming Texas’s public debt of $10 million, ban the state TRADE in the District of Columbia but permit whites to hold slaves as before, and adopt a new Fugitive Slave Law and enforce it rigorously
Stephen Douglas
a young senator from Illinois who got the Compromise of 1850 passed as five separate laws
Fugitive Slave Law
a law that was passed to persuade Southerners to accept the loss of California to the abolitionists and free soilers and had the chief purpose of tracking down runaway/fugitive slaves who had escaped to a Northern state, capturing them, and then returning them to their owners
Harriet Tubman
escaped slave woman who who at least 19 trips into the South to help some 300 slaves escape
underground railroad
a loose network of Northern free blacks and courageous ex-slaves, with the help of some white abolitionists, who helped escaped slaves reach freedom in the North or Canada
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
most influential book of its day, a novel about the conflict between an enslaved man named Tom and the brutal white slave owner Simon Legree. Its publication in 1852 moved a generation of Northerners as well as many Europeans to regard all slave owners as monstrously cruel and inhuman
Paternalism
the idea that a slave owner treats his slaves like children and his slaves in return treat the owner like a father
Kansas Nebraska Act
act that was proposed by Stephen Douglas in order to win Southern approval for his plan to build a transcontinental railroad through the central Untied States. The provisions where to divide the Nebraska Territory into 2 parts, the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory, and allow settlers in each territory to decide whether to allow slavery or not
Bleeding Kansas
when settlers in the Kansas-Nebraska territory, especially in Kansas, started fighting with each other over the dispute of if the territories would be free or slave states
Know Nothing Party
a party that was created because of native hostility to immigrant Germans and Irish Catholics by Protestant Americans. Members commonly responded “I know nothing” to political question, which gained them their name
Republican Party
a sectional (because it remained strictly a Northern party) political party whose main goal was to oppose slavery in the territories but not to end slavery itself
Lecompton Constitution
a proslavery state constitution for Kansas that President Buchanan told Congress to accept even though it didn’t support the majority of the settlers in Kansas
Dred Scott v. Sanford
where a slave argued that his residence on free soil made him a free citizen and sued for his freedom. However, the Supreme Court decided the case against the slave because he had not right to sue in a federal court because the Constitution did not intend African Americans to be U.S. citizens, Congress did not have the power to deprive any person of property without due process of law (slaves were property), and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded slavery from Wisconsin and other Northern territories
Abraham Lincoln
a successful trial lawyer and former member of the Illinois legislature as well as Republican candidate against Stephen Douglas. He was not as abolitionist, but spoke of slavery as a moral issue.
Became famous for his House Divided Speech
John Brown
in October 1859, led a small band of followers, including his 4 sons and some former slaves, in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in hopes of arming Virginia’s slaves, who he expected to rise up in revolt
Election of 1860
during this election, the South ended up with two candidates because even though they already had Stephen Douglas as their Democratic candidate, they nominated another candidate because they didn’t like him. Abraham Lincoln also ran in this election and won
Crittenden Compromise
a last ditch effort to appease the South that was proposed by Kentucky’s Senator John Crittenden. It was a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to hold slaves in all territories south of the 36 30’. This wasn’t accepted by Lincoln because it violated the Republican position on slavery, which was against the extension of slavery
Fort Sumter
Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War
Anaconda Plan
Union strategy that was made up of three main parts: use the U.S. Navy to blockade Southern ports, cutting off essential supplies from reaching the Confederacy, take control of the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy in two, and raise and train an army 500,000 strong to conquer Richmond, Virginia, which was the capital of the Confederacy
Panic of 1857
Economic downturn caused by overspeculation of western lands, railroads, gold in California, grain. Mostly affected northerners, who called for higher tariffs and free homesteads
