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Mexican-American WarThe Mexican-American War, waged between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848, helped to fulfill America's "manifest destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent. When the war ended in 1848, the United States gained a large swath of land west of the Louisiana Purchase territories. Antislavery Democrat David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed an amendment to the bill that ended the war – his amendment would prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso, as the amendment was called, passed the House but failed to pass the Senate.President James K. Polk supported a different proposal, to extend the Missouri Compromise line through the new territories all the way to the Pacific Coast, banning slavery north of the line and allowing it to the south. Others supported a plan that came to be known by the phrase popular sovereignty, which would allow the people of each territory to decide the status of slavery in their own state by a democratic vote. Compromise of 1850In 1849, the number of slave states in the United States was equal to the number of free states. The balance was tenuous, however, with all of the new land won in the Mexican-American War and the hurried addition of California as a new state after the population boom in the California territory caused by the California Gold Rush of 1849. Southerners worried about the balance of power with California poised to become a free state and New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah seemingly close behind also as free states.An aging Henry Clay worked on a compromise, presenting it to the Senate in January of 1850. Clay’s compromise included: admitting California as a free state but the formation of territorial governments in the rest of the land acquired from Mexico without any restrictions of slavery, abolition of the slave trade but not slavery itself in the District of Columbia (the nation’s capital), and a new and more strict fugitive slave law. These provisions were eventually passed by Congress after many months of debate.Kansas-Nebraska ActIn the 1850s, a transcontinental railroad was under construction. Senator Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois wanted the railroad to run through his state. In order to promote this route, he introduced a bill in January 1854 to organize a huge new territory, known as Nebraska, in the land west of Iowa and Missouri. Douglas knew the South would propose this additional state because it was north of the 36’30” line established by the Missouri Compromise and the territory would thus be closed to slavery. In order to gain southern support, Douglas included a different provision regarding slavery in the new state: the status of slavery in Nebraska, Douglas said, would be determined by popular sovereignty – that is, would be voted on by the people living in the territory. When Southerners wanted even more, Douglas proposed repealing the Missouri Compromise and he agreed to divide the territory into two – Nebraska and Kansas – instead of one. In its final form, this bill was known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act.Many people were appalled by this bill, especially the suggestion to remove the Missouri Compromise. The idea divided the northern Democrats, many of whom considered the Missouri Compromise an almost sacred part of the Union. The idea divided and destroyed the Whig Party, which disappeared almost entirely by 1856. The remnants of these two parties eventually came together, the Anti-Nebraska Whigs (as they became known) joining the Anti-Nebraska Democrats to form the new Republican Party. Bleeding KansasWhite settlers began moving into the Kansas and Nebraska territories almost immediately after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. There were only about 1,500 legal voters in Kansas in 1855 when the territorial legislature held elections but thousands of Missourians crossed the border and voted illegally in order to sway the vote. Over 6,000 voters elected a pro-slavery majority which immediately legalized slavery in Kansas. Outraged anti-slavery forces created a constitutional convention in Topeka and adopted a state constitution that outlawed slavery. They these anti-slavery delegates chose their own governor and petitioned Congress for statehood. President Franklin Pierce supported the pro-slavery territorial legislature.A few months later a pro-slavery posse (a large, violent group) sacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas, where the anti-slavery headquarters were located. The posse burned down the governor’s house and destroyed several printing presses. Abolitionist John Brown had moved his family to Kansas in order to fight to make it a free state. Brown gathered six followers and one night murdered five pro-slavery settlers, leaving their bodies to discourage other supporters of slavery from entering Kansas. This led to more fighting in Kansas with armed bands from both sides conducting raids and murdering their opponents. “Bleeding Kansas” became a symbol of sectionalism - the disagreement between the country’s different sections.Caning of Charles SumnerIn May 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts – a passionate opponent of slavery – gave a speech about the crimes in Kansas. In the speech, Sumner attacked slavery and personally insulted South Carolina Senator Andrew P. Butler. Several days after the speech, Senator Butler’s nephew, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, approached Sumner at his desk in the Senate chamber and beat him unconscious with a cane. Sumner, before being beaten unconscious, rose with such agony and strength that he tore the desk from the bolts that were holding it to the floor, then collapsed, bleeding and unconscious. Sumner’s injuries prevented him from returned to work for four years, but the citizens of Massachusetts re-elected him anyway and he became a hero throughout the North. Preston Brooks became a hero in the South, being re-elected by South Carolinians even after being censured (publicly and officially reprimanded) by the Senate.Uncle Tom’s CabinWith the rise of the abolition movement came many famous abolitionist writings. These included newspapers such as William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator and books such as Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel,?Uncle Tom’s Cabin,?was among these, published in 1852. While living in Cincinnati, Stowe encountered fugitive slaves and the Underground Railroad. Later, she wrote?Uncle Tom’s Cabin?in reaction to recently tightened fugitive slave laws (see Compromise of 1850). The book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. It described the horrific treatment of slaves by their white masters and the slaves’ yearning for freedom.The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President?Abraham Lincoln?met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.”Missouri CompromiseSee your own notes and worksheets from class in December!John Brown’s RaidSee your own notes and worksheets from class in December! Remember the different depictions of John Brown that we looked at and discussed.John Brown, as depicted in Southern newspapers.John Brown, as depicted by Western newspapers.John Brown, as depicted by Northern newspapers.Dred Scott DecisionOn March 6, 1857 the Supreme Court projected itself into the sectional controversy with one of the most controversial decisions in history – Dred Scott v. Sandford, handed down two days after the inauguration of President James Buchanan. Dred Scott was a Missouri slave, once owned by an army surgeon who had taken Scott with him into Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was forbidden. After the surgeon died in 1846, Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that his residence in free territory had liberated him from slavery. In 1850, the circuit court where Scott had filed the case declared him free, but John Sandford, the brother of the surgeon’s widow claimed ownership of Scott and appealed the decision to the state supreme court, which reversed the decision and declared Scott to be Sandford’s property. When Scott appealed the state court’s decision to the federal court, Sandford’s attorneys claimed that Scott didn’t even have the right to sue because he was not a citizen, but private property.The Supreme Court’s decision was a stunning defeat for the anti-slavery movement. Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that Scott could not bring a suit in the federal courts because he was not a citizen. Blacks had no claim to citizenship, Taney argued, and in fact had no rights at all under the U.S. Constitution. Slaves were property and the 5th amendment prohibited the government from taking away a citizen’s property without “due process”. Southern whites were elated by the decision and in the North, the decision produced widespread dismay. Election of 1860The presidential election of 1860 was among the most complex in U.S. History. The Democratic Party had been torn apart by a battle between southerners, who demanded strong support of slavery, and westerners who supported the idea of popular sovereignty. The northern Democrats had earlier deserted the party (see the Kansas-Nebraska Act). The first Democratic party convention failed to nominate a presidential candidate after many delegates walked out in disgust. The second attempt at a convention, held by a smaller group in Baltimore, nominated Stephen Douglas of Illinois.The southern Democrats who had walked out of the first convention met in Richmond and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. A group of ex-Whigs met in Baltimore to form the Constitutional Union Party. They nominated John Bell of Tennessee as their presidential candidate. They endorsed the Union and remained silent on the issue of slavery.The Republic Party had supporters in the North and almost nowhere else. The Republican Party’s platform – a list of their ideas on important issues – focused on the economy. They supported high tariffs, internal improvements, and a Pacific railroad. They supported popular sovereignty – the right of each state to determine the status of slavery within its own borders. The Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate. Lincoln was appealing because he was eloquent, because of his moderate position on slavery, and because his relative obscurity (he was mostly unknown at the time) ensured that he would not be controversial. In the November election of 1860, Lincoln won the presidency with a majority of the electoral votes but only 40% of the popular vote. The western states voted primarily for John Bell and the Southern states all voted for Breckinridge. Because state legislatures are responsible for printing ballots and conducting elections, Lincoln’s name did not even appear on the ballot in most Southern states.Electoral College Votes, 1860 ................
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