RENEWING THE SECTIONAL STRUGGLE

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY  Popular Sovereignty  Put in the hands of the people  Self determination  Compromise  Would it spread slavery?

POLITICAL TRIUMPHS Whigs = Zachary Taylor  “Hero of Buena Vista”  Louisiana  Did not take a stand on slavery Democrats = Lewis Cass  Veteran  Pompous  General “Gass” Free Soil Party  For Wilmont Proviso  Van Buren Taylor wins  163 to 127

“CALIFORNY GOLD” Sutter’s Mill = 1848 Gold fever “Forty Niners” Lawless men = Virtueless Women Outburst of Crime 1849  Drafted Constitution  Applied for Admission

UNDERGROUND R.R. Created a network of people  System of escape routes  Secret tunnels, false cupboards  Provided food and clothing  Escorted to the next station Traveled on foot = Night  The North Star Went without food for days at a time

CONT. Harriet Tubman  Maryland  Owner died --- Made a break for freedom  Conductor  19 trips  Helped 300 slaves  Including parents

FIGHTING FOR TERRITORY 15/15  Admission of California would destroy the balance in the Senate  New Mexico / Utah = Non-slave states Texas  42 nd Parallel  ½ territory of New Mexico  Detach part of Texas District of Columbia  Abolition of slavery

SENATORIAL GIANTS Clay (Tennessee) = Compromise Calhoun (S.C.) = Save the South Webster (M.A.) = Compromise / Concession  7 th of March Speech South threatens to secede Henry Clay ---Worked on a compromise  California = free state  New / more effective fugitive slave laws  Popular Sovereignty  New Mexico and Utah Senate rejected proposal Taylor = Veto  William Seward

COMPROMISE OF 1850 Clay withdrew from the fight Stephen A. Douglas  Tried to push bills through individually President Taylor dies Millard Fillmore --- New President  Supported Compromise Compromise of 1850  Became law 7 months later

BALANCING THE SCALES Fugitive Slave Act  “Bloodhound Bill”  No trial by jury  Anyone caught helping a slave would be fined and jailed  $1,000  Up to 6 months  North resisted --- “Vigilante Committees”  Massachusetts = nullification

DEFEAT/DOOM FOR THE WHIGS 1852  Democrats = Franklin Pierce  Whigs = Winfield Scott Pierce wins  254 to 42 End of Whig party

EXPANSION Clayton –Bulwer Treaty  Isthmian waterway Nicaragua = William Walker Cuba = Spain  Polk $100 million  Steamer – Black Warrior Ostend Manifesto

GADSDEN PURCHASE James Gadsden  South Carolina Railroad man  Minister to Mexico  Treaty in 1853  Gadsden Purchase  $10 million

CONGRESS LEGISLATES A CIVIL WAR Kansas and Nebraska = North of the Missouri Compromise  Closed to slavery January 1854  Douglas introduced a new bill  Divide area into two territories  Nebraska - North  Kansas - South  Establish Popular Sovereignty for each territory Became law --- The Kansas-Nebraska Act