NORTHSOUTH  Northern states had either abolished slavery or put it on the road to extinction  Southern states had built the largest slave society in the world

 The colonial surveyor’s line that came to represent the divide between slave and free

 The South was not merely a society with slaves. It had become a slave society. Slavery shaped the region’s economy, culture, social structure, and politics.

 Whites south of the Mason-Dixon line believed that slavery was necessary and just. By making all blacks outcasts, all whites bound themselves together

Argued about many things. The things they agreed on:  Take land from Indians  Promote agriculture  Uphold white supremacy  Maintain masculine privilege  Defend all of the above from enemies

 Anti-slavery Southerners were hounded from speaking out; professors, clerics, or politicians who even were slightly anti-slavery were driven from jobs and in some cases the victims of violence

 August 1846, Pennsylvania Democrat David Wilmot proposed that Congress bar slavery in all lands acquired in the War with Mexico  Northerners of both parties supported it  Southerners of both parties were outraged

 Southerners demanded political parity— equal power in Washington

 Should slavery be extended to the territories? The Wilmot Proviso says no A compromise of “popular sovereignty” is proposed—let those who live in the territory decide

 The House of Representatives passed the Wilmot Proviso (it is dominated by northern states)  The Senate rejected the proviso (it is dominated by slave states)  It becomes an issue in the election of 1848

 All political parties were split between those advocating slavery and those against it

 Democrats:Lewis Cass (‘popular sovereignty’)  Whigs:Zachary Taylor (Mexican War hero)  Free Soil Party: Martin Van Buren

 Anti-slavery Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats founded the Free Soil Party, making slavery the central issue of the campaign  Neither the Whigs nor Democrats took an official stand on slavery in the election of 1848

 Taylor supported the Free Soil approach to the territories— surprising given that he was a Southerner and slaveholder  He encouraged California and New Mexico to draw up constitutions to apply for statehood promptly

One of the most contentious and significant sessions in its history Senator Henry Clay proposed a series of resolutions that sought to balance the interests of the slave and free states: The Omnibus Bill both the anti-slavery people and the “fire- eaters” or radical secessionist Southerners hated Clay’s plan and it failed

 Sanctioned compromise, stating that the new territories did not have the climate appropriate for slavery, making it a mute point  Northerners thought he abandoned their cause

 broke Clay’s compromise into its various parts and skillfully ushered each part through Congress  Combined, the various bills are known as the Compromise of 1850

 California entered the Union as a free state  New Mexico and Utah would be decided by popular sovereignty  Texas accepted its boundary with New Mexico  Slave trade in Washington DC would be abolished  Fugitive slave laws would be more stringent

 It is more a testament to Douglas’s political skills than to real compromise  It preserved the Union, but only temporarily

 President Zachary Taylor died  President Millard Fillmore succeeds him  California is admitted to the Union  Fugitive Slave Act is passed

 The most explosive measure of the Compromise of 1850  Southerners thought the North betrayed the Compromise  In the North there were some “personal liberty laws” that provided some fugitives with protection  Brutal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act radicalized the North

 First candidate of the Republican Party to run for president