3. Divided We Stand
 1848- the world climate: rash of revolutions in Europe
 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the war w/
Mexico, but initiated a perilous atmosphere of political
warfare in the U.S.
 The issue of extending slavery in the newly acquired lands
 Wilmot Proviso was rallied by the North
 Southern senators blocked it, but the issue would not die
 Debate over the Mexican Cession disrupted the ranks of
the Whigs & Democrats and split national politics along
North-South sectional lines

4. Vaya con Dios, Polk
 1848- President Polk broken  Enemies referred to Cass as
in health by overwork and General “Gass” or jackass
chronic diarrhea
 Democratic platform was
 Pledged himself to a single silent on the issue of slavery
term
 Cass himself was not silent
 At the Democratic National and became the father of
Convention at Baltimore, the popular sovereignty
Democrats chose General
Lewis Cass, a veteran of the
war of 1812, as their
candidate for
presidency. Cass supported
slavery.

5. The Popular Sovereignty
Panacea
 Popular sovereignty- meant that the sovereign
people of a territory should determine the statues of
slavery. It was popular with politicians because it
was a comfortable compromise between the
abolitionists and the slaver-holders.

6. Why would popular sovereignty have a
persuasive appeal to politicians/public?
Politicians Public
 Seemed a comfortable  Accorded with the
compromise between the
free-soiler’s bid for a ban on democratic tradition of
slavery in the territories and self-determination
southern demands that
Congress protect slavery in
the territories
 Tossed the issue of slavery
into the laps of the people in
the various territories
 Hoped to turn a national
issue into local ones

7. Free-Soil Party
 The Whigs, who met in  They supported federal aid
Philadelphia, chose Zachary for internal
Taylor as their candidate for improvements. They argued
presidency. Taylor did not that with slavery, wage labor
have an official stance on would wither away and with
slavery, but he did own it, the chance for the
many slaves. American worker to own
property.
 Henry Clay had not been
chosen because he had too
many enemies.
 The Free Soil Party
emerged.
 It was formed by antislavery
men of the North, who
didn't trust Cass or Taylor

8. Welcome to the presidency, Zachary
Taylor- hope you survive the experience!
 Taylor’s admirers puffed him
up as a gallant knight with
the slogan: “Gen. Taylor
never surrenders!”
 Wartime popularity pulled
him through
 1,360,967 popular votes, 163
electoral votes
 Free-Soiler Van
Buren, although winning no
state won 291,263 ballots
diverting enough
Democratic strength from
Cass in NY to throw the
election to Taylor

9. Democratic Campaign cartoon 1848-
charges that Taylor’s reputation
rested on Mexican skulls

10. Taylor’s Wings
 Tobacco-chewing w/
stumpy legs, rough
features, heavy jaw, black
hair, ruddy complexion and
squinty gray eyes
 Would have been spared
much turmoil if he could
have continued to sit on
the slavery lid
 However- the beginning of
his presidency started with
an economic boom

11. "Californy Gold"
 In 1848, gold was discovered in Sutter’s
Mill, California
 The rush of people in search of gold in
California brought much violence and
disease that the small government in
California couldn't handle.
 In SF 1848-1856: scores of lawless killings but
only 3 semilegal hangings
 Needing protection, the Californians
bypassed the territorial stage of a
state, drafted their own Constitution
(excluding slavery) [privately encouraged by
Taylor] in 1849, and applied to Congress for
admission into the Union.
 The southerners objected to California's
admission as a free state because it would
upset the balance of free and slave states in
the Senate.

12. California Gold Rush Country
Miners from
all over the world swarmed
over the rivers that drained the
western slope of California’s
Sierra Nevada.
Their nationalities
and religions, their languages
and their ways of life, are
recorded in the colorful place
names they left behind.

13. Placer Miners in California
Cheap but effective, placer mining consisted of literally “washing” the
gold out of surface deposits. No deep excavation was required. This crew
of male and female miners in CA [1852] was using a “long torn” sluice
that washed relatively large quantities of ore.

14. Sectional Balance
 South of 1850 was relatively well-off
 Taylor was a VA born, slave owning planter from LA
 Boasted a majority in the cabinet & on the Supreme
Court- where it could neutralize northern maneuvers
 Cotton fields were expanding, and cotton prices were
profitably high
 Few sane people, North or South, believed that slavery
was seriously threatened when it already existed below
the Mason-Dixon line
 15 slave states could easily veto any proposed
constitutional amendment

15. Southern worries
 The ever-tipping political balance worried the south
 15 slaves states; 15 free states
 Admission of California would destroy the delicate equilibrium in
the Senate [perhaps forever]
 Potential slave territory under the American flag was running short
 Agitation in the territories of New Mexico and Utah for admission
as nonslave states
 California might create a precedent for the rest of the Mexican
Cession territory
 Many southerners also angered by the nagging agitation in the
North for the abolition of slavery in D.C.- the thought of a 10 mil.
Sq. piece of free soil between MD and VA was apprehensible.

16. How did the California gold rush result in
inflaming strong sectional disputes?
North South

17. Texas & the Disputed Area
before the Compromise of 1850
 Texas claimed a hige area east
of the Rio Grande and north to
the 42nd parallel
 ½ the territory of present-day
New Mexico
 Federal government was
proposing to detach this prize
 Texas threatened to descend
upon Santa Fe and seize what
they regarded as rightfully theirs
 Explosive quarrel foreshadowed
shooting

18. the Underground Railroad
 Harriet Tubman- conductor of the Underground
Railroad who rescued hundreds of slaves.
 Illiterate runaway slave from MD
 19 forays into the South, rescued more than 300 slaves
 Earned the title “Moses”
 The Underground Railroad- informal network of
volunteers that helped runaway slaves escape from
the South and reach free-soil Canada. Seeking to halt
the flow of run-away slaves to the North, Southern
planters and congressmen pushed for a stronger
fugitive slave law.

19. A Stop on the Underground
Railroad
Escaping slaves could be hidden in this small upstairs room of Levi and Catharine
Coffin’s House in Newport, Indiana. The beds were moved in front of the door to
hide its existence. The Levis were Quakers from North Carolina who, during
twenty years in Newport, helped more than 2,000 fleeing slaves safely reach
Canada—and freedom.

20. Harriet Tubman (on left) with Some
of the Slaves She Helped to Free
John Brown
called her “General Tubman” for her effective work in helping slaves escape to Canada
on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, she served as a Union spy behind
Confederate lines. Herself illiterate, she worked after the war to bring education to the
freed slaves in North Carolina.

22. Outcry!
 In 1850, southerners were demanding a new and
strict fugitive-slave law.
 (The old fugitive-slave law passed by Congress in
1793 was very weak.)
 The slave owners rested their argument on the
Constitution, which protected slavery.

23. Escaped Slaves
 1850- South was loosing
1,000 runaways a year
 More blacks gained their
freedom by self-purchase
or voluntary emancipation
than escaping
 Southern Senator:
“Although the loss of
property is felt, the loss of
honor is felt still more”

25. Twilight of the Senatorial Giants
 The congressional debate of 1850 was called to address the possible
admission of California to the Union and threats of secession by
southerners.
 Known as the "immortal trio," Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel
Webster spoke at the forum.
 Henry Clay,[73] the "Great Pacificator," proposed a series of
compromises. He suggested that the North enact a stricter fugitive-
slave law.
 John Calhoun, [68, dying of TB] the "Great Nullifier," proposed to leave
slavery alone, return runaway slaves, give the South its rights as a
minority, and restore the political balance. His view was that two
presidents would be elected, one from the South and one from the
North, each yielding one veto.
 Daniel Webster [68, suffering from liver ailments] proposed that all
reasonable compromises should be made with the South and that a
new fugitive-slave law be formed. Although, he was against slavery and
he supported Wilmot Proviso, because he felt that cotton could not
grow in the territories gained from the Mexican-American War.

26. Swan Song
 Calhoun died in 1850- before the debate was over
 “The South! The South! God knows what will become of her!”
 Charleston monument inscribed: “Truth, Justice, and the Constitution”
 Webster’s famed Seventh of March Speech: Daniel Webster’s impassioned address urging the
North to support of the Compromise of 1850. Webster argued that topography and climate would
keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged Northerners to
make all reasonable concession to prevent disunion
 Helped turn the tide in the North toward compromise
 Webster mailed out more than 100,000 printed copies, remarking that 200,000 would not satisfy
the demand
 Strengthened Union sentiment
 Pleasing to the banking and commercial centers of the North, which stood to lose millions of
dollars by secession
 Free-soilers and abolitionists viewed Webster as a traitor and compared him to Benedict Arnold
 Webster had long regarded slavery as evil, but disunion as worse

27. Deadlock and Danger on
Capital Hill
 William H. Seward- senator of New York; antislavery and
argued that God's moral law was higher than the Constitution.
 President Zachary Taylor seemed bent on vetoing any
compromise between the North and South that went through
Congress.
 Taylor’s ire was aroused by the threats of Texas to seize Santa
Fe
 Doggedly determined to “Jacksonize” the dissenters’
 If need be, would have led an army against the Texans and
hang all “damned traitors”
 If troops had begun to march, the South would rally to Texas’
defense and the Civil War might have erupted in 1850

28. Welcome to the presidency
Millard Fillmore- you’ve
inherited hell
 In 1850, President Taylor died suddenly
[acute intestinal disorder] and Vice
President Millard Fillmore took the
presidency.
 As former presiding officer of
Senate, he gladly signed the series of
compromise measures that passed
Congress after 7 months of debate

29. Breaking the
Congressional Logjam
 Compromise of 1850- Admitted California as a free
state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular
sovereignty, ended the slave trade [but not slavery itself] in
Washington D.C. and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave
law. Widely opposed in both the North and South it did little to
settle the escalating disputed over slavery.
 “Union savers”: Clay, Webster, Douglas orated on behalf of the
compromise
 Southern opinion reluctantly accepted the verdict of congress
 During this time period, a second Era of Good Feelings came
about.
 Talk of succession subsided and the Northerners and
Southerners were determined that the compromises would
end the issue of slavery.

30. Henry Clay Proposing the
Compromise of 1850
This engraving captures one of the
most dramatic moments in the
history of the United States
Senate. Vice President
Millard Fillmore presides, while on
the floor sit several of the
“Senatorial Giants” of the
era, including Daniel Webster,
Stephen A. Douglas, and John C.
Calhoun.

31. Discussion Question
 Was the Compromise of 1850 a wise effort to
balance sectional differences or a futile attempt to
push the slavery issue out of sight?

32. Balancing the Compromise
Scales
 Who got the better deal of the Compromise of 1850?
 Definitely the North: Thus, the Senate was unbalanced in favor of the North.

33. The One Southern gain
from the Compromise
 The Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850, the Bloodhound
Bill, passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set
high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves
and compelled all law enforcement officers to
participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened the
antislavery cause in the North.
 The events in the 1850s caused the Northerners to
resist succession.
 Arguably the Compromise of 1850 won the Civil War
for the Union

34. The Legal Status of Slavery, from
Revolution to Civil War

35. Protesting the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850 The cartoonist makes bitter
sport of the hated law and heaps scorn on Daniel Webster, on his
hands and knees at the right, who voted for the law as part of the
Compromise of 1850.The outspoken abolitionist William Lloyd
Garrison is depicted much more favorably on the left.

36. Discussion Question
 Why did the North so strongly resent the Fugitive
Slave Law, and why did the South resent northern
resistance to enforcing it?

37. Defeat and Doom for the
Whigs
 In the Democratic Convention of 1852 in Baltimore, the
Democrats chose Franklin Pierce as their candidate for
presidency.
 He supported the finality of everything, including the
Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law.
 Meeting in Baltimore, the Whigs chose Winfield Scott as
their candidate for presidency.
 He also praised the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive
Slave Law.
 The votes for the Whig party were split between
Northern Whigs, who hated the party's platform but
accepted the candidate, and Southern Whigs, who
supported the platform but not the candidate.

38. “We Polked ‘em in ‘44;
we’ll Pierce ‘em in ‘52”
 Franklin Pierce won the
election of 1852.
 254 electoral votes to 42
 1,601,117 to 1,385,453 popular
vote
 The election of 1852 marked
the end of the Whig party.
 It died on the issue of the
Fugitive-Slave Law.
 The Whig party had upheld
the ideal of the Union
through their electoral
strength in the South.

39. President Pierce the
Expansionist
 The victory of the Mexican
War stimulated the spirit of
Manifest Destiny.
 Americans were looking
ahead to possible canal
routes and to the islands
near them, notably Spain's
Cuba.
 Americans lusted for
territory after the
Compromise of 1850.

40. Latin American Envy
 William Walker installed himself as the President of
Nicaragua in July 1856.
 He legalized slavery, but was overthrown by
surrounding Central American countries and killed in
1860.
 Nicaragua was the world's leading marine and
commercial power.
 The British, fearing the Americans would
monopolize the trade arteries there, secured a
foothold in Greytown.

41. Vaya con Dios, Walker
 Walker’s briefly successful dictatorship in Nicaragua
in 1855 began to collapse when he attempted to
seize control of overland transit in the country from
Cornelius Vanderbilt’s company.
 An angry Vanderbilt helped turn other Central
American countries and U.S. authorities against
Walker, and his southern friends in the American
navy proved unable to save him from capture and
execution.

42. Southern plans for
expansion
 A full-blown confrontation with Britain was avoided by
the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty- signed by Great Britain and
the United States, it provided that the two nations would
jointly protect the neutrality of Central America and that
neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control
any future isthmian waterway. Later revoked by the Hay-
Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which have the U.S. control of
the Panama Canal
 Southern “slavocrats” cast especially covetous eyes
southward in the 1850s.
 Lusted for new slave territory after the Compromise of
1850 seemingly closed most of the Mexican Cession

43. Central America, ca. 1850, Showing British Possessions and Proposed Canal Routes
Until President Theodore Roosevelt swung into action with his big stick in 1903, a
Nicaraguan canal, closer to the United States, was generally judged more desirable
than a canal across Panama.

44. Yo quiero Cuba.
 Sugar-rich Cuba, was an enticing
prospect for annexation.
 Already held a large population of
enslaved blacks, and it might be
carved into several states,
restoring political balance in the
Senate.
 President Polk had considering
offering Spain $100 million for
Cuba
 Spain replied that they would
sooner see the island sunk into
the sea than in the hands of the
hated Yankees

45. filibustero
 South shook the tree of
Manifest Destiny and during
1850-1851: 2 filibustering
expeditions- ea. w/ several
hundred armed men
descended upon Cuba
 Both feeble efforts were
repelled
 1 ended in tragedy when the
leader and fifty followers-
some from “the best
families” of the South were
shot or strangled
 Outraged Southerners led by
an angry mob sacked Spain’s
consulate in New Orleans

46. 1854- Showdown
 Spanish forces in Cuba
seized the American
steamer- Black Warrior
 The time came for
President
Pierce, dominated by the
South, to provoke a war
with Spain to seize Cuba
 England, France, and
Russia were about to
become bogged down in
the Crimean War and hence
could not aid Spain

47. Cloak & Dagger
 Ostend Manifesto- [1854] Secret Franklin Pierce
administration proposal to purchase, or that
failing, to wrest militarily Cuba from Spain. Once
leaked, it was quickly abandoned due to vehement
opposition from the North.
 Document urged an offer of $120 million for Cuba
 The document eventually leaked out and the
Northerners foiled the President's slave-driven plan.

48. A political cartoon
depicts James
Buchanan
surrounded by
hoodlums using
quotations from
the Ostend
Manifesto to
justify robbing
him. The caption
below reads "The
Ostend Doctrine".

49. Discussion Question
 Earlier American expansionism had generally
enjoyed widespread popular support. Why was
expansionism, including the possible American
acquisition of Nicaragua and Cuba. so controversial
in the 1850s? Was there any way that some of the
Caribbean islands or parts of Central America could
have become incorporated as slave states with the
United States?

50. The Allure of Asia
 After acquiring Oregon and California- breaking into the Asian
market was next on American agenda
 Rivalry between the British once again ignited
 Post-the Opium War- war between British and China over
trading rights, particularly Britain’s desire to continue trading
opium to Chinese traders. The resulting trade agreement
prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the
Chinese
 1842- Britain gained free access to the five so-called treaty ports
as well as control of Hong Kong
 President Tyler sent Caleb Cushing to secure similar
concessions for the US

51. Success with China
 Impressed by Cushing, Chinese diplomats signed the
Treaty of Wanghia- [1844] signed by the U.S. and
China, it assured the United States the same trading
concessions granted to other powers, greatly
expanding America’s trade with the Chinese
 Secured other rights: “Most favored nation” status
which allowed the U.S.: “Extraterritoriality” which
meant Americans accused of crimes in China would
be tried by American officials not in Chinese courts
 Helped thousands of missionaries flooding to China
to cure the “heathen Chinese”

52. Next Stop: Japan!
 After disagreeable experiences with
Europe, Japan withdrew from all
settlement and cultural diffusion into
a cocoon of isolationism lasting for 2
centuries
 The long-ruling warrior dynasty
known as the Tokugawa Shogunate
was so protective that it prohibited
shipwrecked sailors from leaving and
refused to readmit Japanese sailors
who washed up on foreign shores
 By 1853- Japan was ready to emerge
onto the new Global arena

53. Domo arigato, United
States
 1852- President Fillmore dispatched a fleet of warships
commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry the
brother of the hero of the battle of Lake Eerie.
 Entering Edo Bay [later Tokyo] on July 8th, 1853; he
almost inspired a near-panic. After tense negotiations
and plying the Japanese with gifts he persuaded the
Japanese to sign the:
 Treaty of Kanagawa [March 31st, 1854] – ended Japan’s
200-year period of economic isolation, establishing an
American consulate in Japan and securing American
coaling rights in Japanese ports
 Propelling the Land of the Rising Sun into the modern
world and an eventual epochal military clash with the
U.S.

54. Commodore Matthew Perry in Japan, 1853 Among Perry’s gifts to the Japanese
was a miniature railway, complete with engine, cars, and track, which made a vivid
impression on the Japanese artist who created this work.

55. Pacific Railroad Promoters
 With the acquisition of California and Oregon, the
transcontinental railroad was proposed.
 The question was where to have the railroad begin-
the North or the South.
 The South, losing the economic race with the
North, was eager to extend a railroad through
adjacent southwestern territory all the way to
California
 The transcontinental railroad was built largely by
Chinese migrant workers who came during the Gold
Rush.
 Chinese [gam san haak: “travellers to gold mt.”]

56. Transcontinental Railroad

58. Treatment of the Chinese
 Chinese miners
suffered violent attacks
and little legal
protection
 CA placed high monthly
taxes to foreigners in
1852
 U.S. government did
not allow Chinese to
become American
citizens

59. Despite
treatment, Chinese
 Chinese worked: prosper
 Mines
 Ploughman
 Laundrymen
 Placer miners
 Woolen spinners
 Weavers
 Domestic Servants
 Cigar Makers
 Shoe-Makers
 Railroad constructors

60. The Gadsden Purchase
 Secretary of War Jefferson  Gadsden Purchase:
Davis had James Gadsden buy acquired additional land
an area of Mexico from Santa from Mexico for $10 million
Anna for which the railroad to facilitate the
would pass. construction of a southern
transcontinental railroad
 Gadsden negotiated a treaty in
1853 and the Gadsden
Purchase area was ceded to
the United States for $10
million.
 The railroad ran from California
to Houston, Texas.

61. The Gadsden Purchase

62. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska
Scheme
 Stephen A. Douglas- longed to break the North-South deadlock
over westward expansion; proposed the Territory of Nebraska
be sliced into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska.
 Their status on slavery would be decided by popular
sovereignty.
 Kansas would be presumed to be a slave state, while Nebraska
would be a free state.
 This Kansas-Nebraska Act ran into the problem of the Missouri
Compromise of 1820 which forbade slavery in the proposed
Nebraska Territory.
 Douglas was forced to propose the repealing of the Missouri
Compromise.
 President Pierce fully supported the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.

63. Douglas Hatches a Slavery
Problem Note the already
hatched Missouri Compromise,
Squatter Sovereignty, and
Filibuster (in Cuba), and the
about-to-hatch Free Kansas
and Dred Scott decision. So
bitter was the outcry against
Douglas at the time of the
Kansas-Nebraska controversy
that he claimed with
exaggeration that he could
have
traveled from Boston to
Chicago at night by the light
from
his burning effigies.

64. Kansas and Nebraska, 1854 The future
Union Pacific Railroad (completed in
1869) is shown. Note the Missouri
Compromise line of 368 30’ (1820).

65. Congress Legislates a Civil
War
 The Kansas-Nebraska Act: [1854] Proposed that the
issue of slavery be decided by popular soverignty in
the Kansas and Nebraska territories, thus revoking
the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Introduced by
Stephen Douglass in an effort to bring Nebraska into
the Union and pave the way for a northern
transcontinental railroad.
 The Kansas-Nebraska act wrecked two
compromises: the Compromise of 1820 which the
act repealed; and the Compromise of 1850, which
northern opinion repealed indirectly.

66. That S.O.B broke up the
Par-ty
 The Democratic Party was shattered by the Kansas-Nebraska
Act.
 The Republican Party was formed in the Mid-West and it had
moral protests against the gains of slavery.
 It included Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know-
Nothings, and other foes of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. [i.e.
Abraham Lincoln]
 The Southerners hated the Republican Party.
 The Sectional Rift appeared and the new Republican Party
would not be allowed south of the Mason-Dixon line
 Southerners called the Republican Party “a nigger
stealing, stinking, putrid, abolition party”… the union was
officially in dire peril

67. Discussion Question
 Would the sectional conflict have been reheated had
Douglas not pushed through the Kansas-Nebraska
Act? Why or why not?