United States Civil War Part 2 The Road to War United States Civil War Part 2

Gold in California In January 1848 gold was discovered in California. California became a crucial question. Congress had to determine the status of this new region before an organized government could be established.

Slavery Senator Henry Clay halted a dangerous sectional quarrel with a complicated and carefully balanced plan.

Compromise of 1850 His compromise, known in American history as the Compromise of 1850. It stated: California should be admitted as a state with a free-soil (slavery-prohibited) constitution. The remainder of land should be divided into the two territories of New Mexico and Utah and organized without mention of slavery.

Compromise of 1850 Texas should be given a portion of New Mexico for $10 million. Effective machinery should be established for catching runaway slaves and returning them to their masters. The buying and selling of slaves (but not slavery) should be abolished in the District of Columbia. These measures were passed, and the country breathed a sigh of relief.

Compromise of 1850 For three years, the compromise seemed to settle nearly all differences. The new Fugitive Slave Law deeply offended many Northerners, who refused to have any part in catching slaves.

Discover the secret message hidden in this slave song. Compromise of 1850 Many Northerners continued to help fugitives escape, and made the Underground Railroad more efficient and more daring than it had been before. Discover the secret message hidden in this slave song.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin In 1852, for example, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel provoked by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. So many copies were sold the first year, and presses ran day and night to keep up with the demand.

Kansas and Nebraska In 1854 as the region that now comprises Kansas and Nebraska was being settled, the old issue of slavery in the territories was renewed and the quarrel became more bitter.

Slavery Slave-holders in Missouri, objected to letting Kansas become a free territory, for their state would then have three free-soil neighbors (Illinois, Iowa and Kansas). They feared their state would be forced to become a free state as well.

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic senator from Illinois, proposed a bill, the Kansas-Nebraska Act. His plan called for Kansas and Nebraska, to permit settlers to carry slaves into them. The settlers were to then determine whether they should enter the Union as free or slave states.

Kansas-Nebraska Act In May 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed the Senate amid the boom of cannon fired by Southern enthusiasts.

Bleeding Kansas The flow of both Southern slave holders and antislavery families into Kansas resulted in armed conflict, and soon the territory was being called "bleeding Kansas."

Dred Scott Decision Other events brought the nation still closer to war. In 1957 the Supreme Court's decision concerning Dred Scott was one such event. Scott was a Missouri slave who had been taken by his master to live in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery had been banned. Returning to Missouri, Scott sued for freedom on the ground that his residence was on free soil.

Dred Scott Decision The Supreme Court decided that Scott be declined freedom because he was not a citizen; that he was the resident of a slave state (Missouri); and that slave holders had the right to take their "property" anywhere and that Congress could not restrict the expansion of slavery.

Dred Scott Decision The Court's decision invalidated the whole set of comprise setup by Congress in trying to settle the slavery issue.

Dred Scott Decision The Dred Scott decision stirred anger throughout the North. For Southern Democrats, the decision was a great victory, since it gave judicial voice to their justification of slavery throughout the territories.

The Road to War Part 4