Chapter 18 In order to maintain the two great political parties as vital bonds of national unity, earlynineteenth-century politicians avoided public discussion of slavery. The United States’ victory in the Mexican War resulted in renewed controversy over the issue of extending slavery into the territories, a possible split in the Whig and Democrat parties over slavery, the cession by Mexico of an enormous amount of land to the United States, and a rush of settlers to new American territory in California. The Wilmot Proviso, if adopted, would have prohibited slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War. The debate over slavery in the Mexican Cession threatened to split national politics along North-South lines. In 1848, the Free Soil party platform advocated all of the following: support of the Wilmot Proviso; free government homesteads for settlers; opposition to slavery in the territories; and an end to slavery in the District of Columbia. Presidential candidates in the 1848 election included Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and Zachary Taylor. According to the principle of “popular sovereignty,” the question of slavery in the territories would be determined by the vote of the people in any given territory.
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The public liked popular sovereignty because it fit in with the democratic tradition of selfdetermination. In the 1848 presidential election, the Democratic and Whig parties remained silent on the issue of slavery. The key issue for the major parties in the 1848 presidential election was personalities. The event that brought turmoil to the administration of Zachary Taylor was the discovery of gold in California. The Free Soldiers argued that slavery would cause more costly wage labor to wither away. Of those people going to California during the gold rush, a distressingly high proportion were lawless men. The Free Soilers condemned slavery because it destroyed the chances of free white workers to rise to self-employment. By 1850, the South was relatively well off, politically and economically. Harriet Tubman gained fame by helping slaves to escape to Canada.
The Essay on The Mexican War By Otis A Singletary
The Mexican War by Otis A. Singletary Otis A. Singletary wrote The Mexican War. The book is full with various events that took place in American history during the time of war. Singletarys book is a complete description of historic events. According to Singletary, Mexican War was actually the most successful offensive war in the American military history. The Mexican War closely examines the ...
During the 1850s, slaves gained their freedom most frequently by self-purchase. John C. Calhoun’s plan to protect the South and slavery involved the election of two presidents, one from the North and one from the South. Daniel Webster’s famed Seventh of March speech in 1850 resulted in a shift toward compromise in the North. In his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster called for a new, more stringent fugitive-slave law. For his position in his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster was viciously condemned by abolitionists. The Young Guard from the North were most interested in purging and purifying the Union. In the debates of 1850, Senator William H. Seward, as a representative of the northern Young Guard, argued that Christian legislators must obey God’s moral law. During the debate of 1850, William H. Seward argued that there was a “higher law” than the Constitution that compelled him to demand the exclusion of slavery from the territories. President Zachary Taylor unknowingly helped the cause of compromise in 1850 when he died suddenly and Millard Fillmore became president. Southern delegates met at a convention in Nashville in the summer of 1850 to condemn the compromises being worked out in Congress.
In the Compromise of 1850, Congress determined that slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories was to be decided by popular sovereignty. The most alarming aspect of the Compromise of 1850 to northerners was the decision concerning the new Fugitive Slave Law. The Fugitive Slave Law included all of the following provisions: denial of a jury trial to runaway slaves; denial of fleeing slaves’ right to testify on their own behalf; the penalty of imprisonment for northerners who helped slaves to escape; and a higher payment if officials determined blacks to be runaways. Many northern states passed “personal liberty laws” in response to the Compromise of 1850’s provision regarding runaway slaves. In light of future evidence, it seems apparent that in the Compromise of 1850 the South made a tactical blunder by demanding a strong fugitive-slave law. The fatal split in the Whig party in 1852 occurred over slavery. The election of 1852 was significant because it marked the end of the Whig party.
The Essay on The Underground Railroad Slaves Slavery Slave
The Underground Railroad One of the most shameful periods in history was the institution of slavery in the nineteenth century 2. Slavery was a divided issue in the 1800's. Most slaves brought to America were known as low class people who could bring no good, but history fails to state that many of the slaves who came were people of many trades, ambitions, as well as determinations. The Underground ...
For a short time in the 1850s, an American seized control of Nicaragua. The man who opened Japan to the United States was Matthew Perry. The prime objective of Manifest Destiny in the 1850s was Cuba. The United States’ scheme to gain control of Cuba was stopped when northern freesoilers fiercely protested the effort. The most brazen scheme for territorial expansion in the 1850s was expressed in the Ostend Manifesto. Most American leaders believed that the only way to keep the new Pacific Coast territories from breaking away from United States control was to construct a transcontinental railroad. A southern route for the transcontinental railroad seemed the best because the railroad would be easier to build in this area. Stephen A. Douglas proposed that the question of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Territory be decided by popular sovereignty. Stephen A. Douglas’s plans for deciding the slavery question in the Kansas-Nebraska scheme required repeal of the Missouri Compromise. One of Stephen Douglas’s mistakes in proposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act was underestimating the depth of northern opposition to the spread of slavery. The new Free Soil party in 1848 found major support from those who favored high tariffs, had wanted all of Oregon up to the 54 40′ line, condemned slavery as immoral, wanted to keep slavery out of the territories; and believed that slavery harmed white labor.
The Essay on The Kansas-Nebraska Act
... the Kansas and Nebraska territories. He wanted to send an transcontinental railroad into the area to help increase the economic activity in his home state ... too much influence in politics. Lincoln said that the Kansas- Nebraska Act “put slavery on the high road to extension and perpetuity and ...
In 1850, the South was deeply worried because the Underground Railroad was carrying away hundreds of slaves each year and California sought admission as a free state. Southerners insisted that the first transcontinental railroad should run through the Southwest because construction would be less difficult there and the railroad would pass through already organized territory of the United States. The impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to enrage the antislavery abolitionists, and lessen the prospects for future compromises between North and South. The consequences of the Kansas-Nebraska Act included the splitting of the Democratic Party and demise of the Whig party.
