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War With Mexico Consequences
-An unwilling government did not sue for peace and concede the loss of its northern lands
-After the fall of Mexico City, the government had not choice but to agree to the U.S. terms
-Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Mexico recognized Rio Grande as Southern border of Texas and U.S. took possession of former Mexican provinces of California & New Mexico
-Wilmot Proviso: forbade slavery in any of new territories acquired from Mexico & eventually led to Civil War -
Compromise of 1850
-1849: gold rush & influx of about 100,000 settlers into California created the need for law & order in the West
-1850: California was admitted as a free state, this added to North's political powers, caused controversy over new fugitive slave law, and provision for popular sovereignty -
Fugitive State Law
-Enforced new law in the North, sometimes forcibly resisted by anti-slavery Northerners. The enforcement of the new law drove a wedge between the North & the South.
-1850: persuaded many Southerners to accept the loss of California to the abolitionists & free-soilers -
Period: to
Underground Railroad
-The Underground Railroad was a network of "conductors" and "stations." This network of Northern free blacks & courageous ex-slaves with the help of some white abolitionists
-This helped escaped slaves to reach freedom in the North in Canada
- Harriet Tubman was the most courageous woman, she went at least 19 trips into the South to help save about 300 slaves -
KS-NE Act
-Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced bill to divide Nebraska territory into 2 parts, Kansas & Nebraska
-This allowed settlers in each territory to decide whether to allow slavery or not -
Republican Part Est.
-Composed of a coalition of free-soilers, anti-slavery Whigs, and Democrats
-The purpose was not end slavery itself, but to oppose the spread of slavery in the territories -
Bleeding Kansas
-Violent civil confrontations emerged from debate over pro/anti slavery
-Anti-slavery won, Kansas was admitted to Union as a free state -
Summer-Brooks Incident
-Congressman Preston Brooks defended his uncle, Andrew Butler's honor by beating Sumner over the head with a cane
-The reason why was because Senator Charles Sumner verbally attacked Democratic administration -
Panic of 1857
-Prices for Midwestern farmers dropped sharply, unemployment in Northern cities increased
-South was less affected because of high cotton prices -
Pro & Con Literature
-1857: an author named Hinton R. Helper wrote a book called "Impending Crisis of the South" that used statistics to demonstrate to Southerners that slavery weakened the South's economy
-Southern's response to Northern literature condemned slavery as evil
-Pro-slavery Southern whites argued that slavery was a positive good for slave & master alike -
Lecompton Constitution
-A document that Buchanan asked Congress to accept and admit Kansas as a slave state
-Congress did not accept because democrats like Stephen Douglas who joined the Republicans in rejecting the Lecompton Constitution -
Dred Scott v Sandford
-The Supreme Court reached its decision on March of 1857, which decided against Scott because he didn't have the right to sue in federal court -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
-A debate in Illinois, Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred-Scott decision
-Douglas responded that slavery could not exist in a community if local citizens did not pass laws maintaining it -
John Brown's Raid
-October 1859, John Brown led a small band of followers in an attack on a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry with the goal to arm Virginia's slaves
-This confirmed the South's worst fears of radical abolitionism -
Election of 1860
-Democratic Party represented the last hope of coalition and compromise. Republican's drafted platform that appealed to the economic self interest of North and Westerners
-Lincoln, a Republican, won 180 electoral votes & 1,866,000 popular votes
-Douglas, a Democrat, won 12 electoral votes & 1,375,000 popular votes
