Am His AP Review.pdf - yourhomework.com Home Page

- Of course, the whole territories-slavery deal was the big issue of the Presidential Election of 1848, e/tboth sides tried very hard to keep the issue away.- The Democrats ran Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan and General William Butler of Kentucky [Polk saidthat once was enough]. Cass had come up w/the idea of popular sovereignty for the territories, but theparty platform still held that Congress couldn’t interfere w/slavery.- The Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, a Southern slaveowner and war hero, and CongressmanMillard Fillmore of NY – and they likewise claimed that Congress couldn’t do anything.- The issue just wouldn’t disappear, though, and a new party even formed b/c of Northern concern overslavery. The Free-Soil Party [“Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men”], which formed from formerLiberty Party supporters and antislavery Whigs, nominated Van Buren as its candidate and got 10% votes.- The election, which Taylor won [as some Southern Democrats voted for him e/t he was a Whig], showedthat politics was, more than ever, splitting along sectional [instead of party and religious] lines.*The Compromise of 1850*- The first big problem was about California, which had been populated in 1849 as a result of the Gold Rush,and was applying for statehood with a free state constitution [since Congress couldn’t decide what to do,Taylor had told CA to apply for admission directly].- Southerners, however, wouldn’t accept CA as a free state b/c it would upset the delicate balance betweenfree and slave states – so they tried to make CA a slave state or at least extend the Missouri line.- Sensing another compromise was necessary, Henry Clay [veteran of the 1820 and 1833 deals] steppedback up and, with the help of Stephen A. Douglas, came up with the Compromise of 1850. Obviously, thebig issue was when territories could prohibit slavery [North = ASAP, South = very late in process whenslaves hopefully already there].- At first, the bill didn’t pass [Daniel Webster helped by giving it his support, but Calhoun did the oppositew/his speech] – but after Douglas split it up and had Congress vote on each aspect separately it worked.There were 5 basic aspects to the deal… CA came in as a free state. Texas boundary kept at present limits but Texas given $10 million in compensation for loss ofterritory to New Mexico. New Mexico and Utah territories to be decided by popular sovereignty. Slave trade banned in Washington DC. A new harsher fugitive slave law.- Yeah, it wasn’t so much a decision as it was an evasion [bought time for nation, some say it won war forNorth b/c it gave them more time to finish industrializing].- The two major problems with the compromise were as follows: What the heck does “popular sovereignty” mean? Nobody knew for sure – so the Southdecided it would mean wait-until-there-are-slaves-and-then-vote, but the North didn’t agree.The new Fugitive Slave Act: basically it allowed slaveowners to go into court in their states toshow evidence their slaves had escaped, have court officials identify the validity of the claim,and then possibly send US marshals after the person [they were paid extra $ to return theperson, too]. This was not too popular w/the North, and abolitionists saw it as a violation ofAmerican rights. Violent resistance even broke out in many Northern towns as a result of theslave catchers [Shadrach Minkins taken across to Canada in 1851, Jerry McHenry freed byabolitionist mob, “Christiana Riot” occurred in Lancaster County].- Also on the abolitionist front came Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which was a hugebestseller. UTC both indicted slavery by describing the horrors of slave life and criticized Northern racism; itsapproach gave slavery a new human face for many Northerners who had never been to the South.- Then the whole Underground Railroad deal annoyed slaveowners even more – e/t the thing was never asorganized as many thought it was, it was a source of constant irritation for the Southerners as it was also asymbol of resistance to oppression and focused more attention on the injustice of slavery.*The Election of 1852 and the Collapse of Compromise*- The Democrats ran Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, and he won easily over the Whig nominee,General Winfield Scott. Pierce defended the rights of each area while Scott ignored the issue, so the Southhad reason to believe nat’l support for the Compromise of 1850 might get rid of the problem altogether. TheFree-Soil party also ran a candidate [anti-compromise, of course].- But in reality Pierce just won b/c the Whigs were being torn apart by sectional strife [and the deaths ofTaylor, Webster and Clay didn’t help either]. By 1852 the Whigs were pretty much a thing of the past.34