The Crisis Sectionionalism

What to do about the new territories… Congress had to deal w/new states being formed in the territories taken from Mexico most specifically the status of slavery in these new states Wilmot Proviso - introduced to Congress by David Wilmot banned all African Americans slave or free from land taken from Mexico in order to preserve land for the small white farmer. The House accepts the bill but the Senate defeats the bill President Taylor tries to settle the issue by admitting California & New Mexico as states immediately.

Compromise of 1850 Problem w/Taylor’s plan - New Mexico didn’t have enough people to be a state & Southern planters argued they hadn’t had enough time to settle the new territories. Southern states meet in Nashville to discuss seccession. Henry Clay proposes - the North would get California as a free state & a prohibition of slave trade in the District of Columbia; the South would get a stronger fugitive slave slave & a chance to settle the New Mexico territory. Taylor opposed the compromise but died & Stephen Douglas adopted in w/some minor changes. Proposal was split into separate parts. Accepted by a combination of Northern Democrats & Southern Whigs. South backed away from a seccession.

Kansas-Nebraska Act Douglas introduces a bill to organize these territories. Trying to gain southern support, he proposes to that the territories be given popular sovereignty & to repeal the Missouri Compromise in the territories The North is angered by this & sees it as the South breaking the long-time agreement

The Rise of New Parties Free-Soil - formed as a result of territorial dispute of land gained from Mexico, racial prejudice & opposition to slavery, focused on the “rights of white freemen” Know-Nothing (American Party) -appealed to evangelical Protestants who were against Catholics immigrating to America, collapsed after a short run Republican - coalition of former Whigs, Know-Nothings, Free-Soilers, & Democrats, focused on sectional struggle, appealed to northern voters, the party promised to save the West for white, small farmers

Other Key Events Harriet Beecher Stowe’s - Uncle Tom’s Cabin focuses on the issue of slave families & the horror of the slaveowner Dred Scott v. Sanford ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because Congress could not restrict a slaveowner from taking his slaves into a territory John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, VA. Believed he was the instrument to rid the world of slavery. Planned on arming the slave to start a guerrilla war. Brown was caught & tried for treason & executed. North portrayed him as a martyr, but the South took this to mean that the Republicans would use armed force to get rid of slavery. The South vowed that if another Republican was elected as president, they would have no other choice but to secede.