2. 1848 was filled with unrest in America.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo initiated
a new and perilous round of political
warfare in America – the acquisition of
vast territory raised anew the burning
issue of extending slavery into the
territories ….

3. 1. Northern anti-slavery groups rallied
around the Wilmot Proviso, which
flatly prohibited slavery in any
territory acquired from the Mexican
War.
2. Southern senators had blocked
passage of the proviso, but the issue
would not die.
3. The debate over slavery threatened
to split national politics along North-
South sectional lines.
Representative David Wilmot

4. THE POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY PANACEA
How did each of the two great political parties (Whigs & Democrats) serve as a vital
bond of national unity?
What was the political fear amongst leaders in both parties?
For both parties, what proved to be the wisest political strategy?

5. THE ELECTION of 1848
The Democrats nominated Gen. Lewis Cass – why
didn’t Polk run for re-election? Regarding slavery
Cass advocated popular sovereignty – what does
this mean?
The Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor – why didn’t
Henry Clay get the nomination? What was the
Whig campaign strategy?
A third-party emerged – The Free Soil party.
Who was their candidate? Explain their campaign
platform. The Free Soil party foreshadowed
which party six years later?
Lewis Cass

6. Taylor won by a narrow margin – what role did
the Free Soilers play in Taylor’s victory?

8. “CALIFORNY GOLD”
The discovery of gold in California blew the
cover off the slavery lid for President Taylor.
Hordes of adventurers from around the world
poured into “gold country.”

9. Cheap but effective, placer mining consisted of literally “washing” the gold out of surface deposits.
No deep excavation was required. This crew of male & female miners in California in 1852 was using a
“long tom” sluice that washed relatively large quantities of ore.

12. President Taylor
As is historically consistent, only a small number of people struck it rich in California.
Explain how the in-pouring of tens of thousands of people, the subsequent outburst
of crime, and President Taylor’s quiet diplomacy created violent opposition in the
South that threatened to break the Union.

14. SECTIONAL BALANCE and the
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
The South of 1850 was relatively well-
off: Describe how.
Yet the South was deeply worried – what
were its sources of anger and
frustration?
Explain Texas’ grievance with the
federal govt.

15. Southerners detested the Underground Railroad, consisting of an informal chain of
“stations” (anti-slavery homes), through which scores of “passengers” (runaway slaves)
were spirited by “conductors” (usually white & black abolitionists) from the slave states to
the free-soil sanctuary of Canada. In actuality, how damaging was this freedom train
to southern slavery?
Even though the underground railroad probably rescued only 1,000 slaves a year, it caused great excitement in the nation.
Abolitionists found it an active way to oppose slavery.

16. The most amazing of the “conductors” was an
illiterate runaway slave from Maryland,
Harriet Tubman.
By 1850 southerners were demanding a new
and more stringent fugitive-slave law. The old
one (1793) was inadequate. What angered
southerners most regarding the loss of
slaves to the underground railroad?Did the
Constitution safeguard slavery?

17. TWILIGHT of the SENATORIAL GIANTS
Congress was confronted with catastrophe in 1850. Free-soil California was seeking
admission and “fire-eaters” in the South were voicing ominous threats of secession. The
crisis brought into the congressional forum the most distinguished assemblage of
statesmen since the Constitutional Convention (1787).
That “immortal trio” – Webster, Clay, and Calhoun – appeared together for the last time
on the public stage.

18. Henry Clay, the “Great Pacificator,”
played a crucial role in engineering his
third great compromise. Clay urged that
the North and South both make
concessions and that the North partially
yield by enacting a more feasible fugitive
-slave law.
John Calhoun, near death, championed the
South. He approved of Clay’s intentions
but rejected his proposals as not going
far enough. His plea was to leave slavery
alone, return runaway slaves, give the
South its due rights, and restore the
political balance.
Daniel Webster argued to uphold Clay’s
compromise measures. He concluded that
compromise, concession, and
reasonableness would provide the only
solutions. His speech was crucial for
passage. He regarded slavery as evil but
disunion as worse – he despised the
abolitionists.

19. DEADLOCK and DANGER on CAPITOL HILL
The stormy congressional debate of 1850 was not finished with the three great orators. The
“Young Guard,” from the North, led by William Seward, was more interested in purging and
purifying the Union rather than patching and preserving it.
William Seward

20. William Seward, a freshman senator from New
York, was the spokesman for the younger
northern radicals.
A strong antislaveryite, he came out against
concession and compromise. He appealed to an
even “higher law” than the Constitution to
justify abolition.
As the great debate in Congress ran its heated
course, deadlock seemed certain. Pres. Taylor
seemed determined to veto any congressional
compromise and he threatened to send an army
into Texas to crush the “traitors” – this likely
would have started the Civil War.
At the height of controversy in 1850, Pres.
Taylor suddenly died, thus helping the cause of
compromise.

21. Vice President Millard Fillmore took office
and gladly signed the congressional
compromises after 7 months of debate.

22. The struggle to get these compromises accepted by the country was hardly less heated than in
Congress:
1. “Union-savers” (Clay & Webster) orated on behalf of compromise
2. Northerners gradually accepted the compromises but continued to flout the Fugitive
Slave Law.
3. Southern “fire eaters” violently opposed concessions.
Fortunately for the country in 1850 there still prevailed a desire for Union over secession, but this
desire was fading fast. The Compromise of 1850 “bought” the North a decade to accumulate the
physical and moral strength that would provide the margin of victory.

24. BALANCING the COMPROMISING SCALES
Who got the better deal in the Compromise of 1850? Explain why the northern
concession of popular sovereignty in the New Mexico and Utah Territories was not
really a “loss” for the North. And, explain how the apparent gains of the South
rang hollow.

27. DEFEAT and DOOM for the WHIGS
Meeting in Baltimore, the Democratic nominating convention of 1852 nominated a political
unknown, Franklin Pierce. Their main plank was to embrace the Compromise of 1850.
The Whigs, also convening in Baltimore, missed a
splendid opportunity when it nominated war hero
Winfield Scott. In spite of his military
achievements, why was he a poor choice?
The Whig platform praised the Compromise of 1850,
though less enthusiastically than the Democrats.
Pierce won the election in a landslide – What allowed
this “dark horse” to win so handily?
Explain why the election of 1852 was fraught with
frightening significance in retrospect.

29. PRESIDENT PIERCE the EXPANSIONIST
The people of Dixie were determined to acquire more slave territory, and the compliant Pierce was
prepared to be their willing tool. Why did southerners and the U.S. govt. covet Nicaragua?
Explain the significance of the Clayton-Bulwar Treaty.

30. Spanish Cuba was also in southern plans as a future slave territory. What sparked the
confrontation? Why were the other European powers unable to assist Spain. And explain
the secret cloak-and- dagger Ostend Manifesto.
For once,
internal
distresses in
the U.S.
prevented it
from taking
advantage of
Europe’s
distresses.

31. America had become a Pacific power with the acquisition of California and Oregon, both
of which faced Asia. Americans had been trading with the Chinese, and shippers were
urging Washington to establish trade with Japan. The U.S. govt. dispatched an awesome
fleet of warships, commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, to pry open the bamboo
gates of Japan in 1854.

32. PACIFIC RAILROAD PROMOTERS and the
GADSDEN PURCHASE
Acute transportation problems were a legacy of the Mexican War, and feasible land
transportation was imperative to tie the newly acquired lands together. A
transcontinental railroad was clearly the only real solution to the problem. What was
the greatest obstacle? Describe the North-South rivalry in selecting a route.
Why did the southern route win?
James Gadsden
Explain the negotiations leading to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.

34. DOUGLAS’S KANSAS-NEBRASKA SCHEME
In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois delivered a
counterstroke to offset the Gadsden thrust for southern
expansion westward.
An ardent booster for the West, he longed to break the
North-South deadlock over westward expansion & stretch
a line of settlements across the continent.
He was determined to have Chicago become the eastern
terminus of the proposed Pacific railroad.
Douglas threw himself behind a legislative scheme that
would enlist southern support. Explain his scheme.

35. The Kansas-Nebraska “scheme” entailed carving the Territory of Nebraska into 2
territories, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery status would be decided by popular
sovereignty. Kansas, close to Missouri, would likely be a slave territory and Nebraska,
adjacent to Iowa, would likely be free. The primary problem was the Missouri Compromise
of 1820, which forbade slavery in the Nebraska Territory. It would have to be repealed
(Douglas and Pierce supported this move).

36. But the Missouri Compromise could not be brushed aside lightly. The North had come to
regard the sectional pact as almost as sacred as the Constitution itself. Free-soilers
fought back with a vengeance, with violence in the chamber nearly erupting. But Douglas
and his supporters prevailed.
In retrospect, describe Douglas’s political
blunder.
Describe the chain-reaction of events/sentiments following passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska Act that led to civil war.