Chapter 18- The American Pageant
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| Amendment that sough to prohibit slavery from territories acquired from Mexico. Introduced by PA congressman David Wilmot, the failed amendment ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery. | ||
| Hotheaded southern agitators who pushed for southern interests and favored secession from the Union | ||
| (in the context of a slavery debate) Notion that the sovereign people of a given territory should decide whether to allow slavery. seemingly a compromise, it was largely opposed by Northern abolitionists who feared it would promote the spread of slavery to the territories. | ||
| Antislavery party in the 1848 and 1852 elections that opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, arguing that the presence of slavery would limit opportunities for free laborers. | ||
| Inflow of thousands of miners to Northern California after news reports of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 had spread around the world by the end of that year. The onslaught of migrants prompted Californians to organize a government and apply for statehood in 1849. | ||
| Informal network of volunteers that helped runaway slaves escape from the South and reach free-soil Canada. Seeking to halt the flow of runaway slaves to the North, Southern planters and congressmen pushed for stronger fugitive slave law. | ||
| The 7th Vice President of the United States and a leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. He was an advocate of slavery, states' rights, limited government, and nullification. | ||
| Distinguished senator from Kentucky, who ran for president five times until his death in 1852. He was a strong supporter of the American System, a war hawk for the War of 1812, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and known as "The Great Compromiser." Outlined the Compromise of 1850 with five main points. Died before it was passed however. | ||
| 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 the North and the South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery. | ||
| an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States. Pierce's popularity in the North declined sharply after he came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the Missouri Compromise and reopening the question of the expansion of slavery in the West. | ||
| A train route across the United States, finished in 1869. It was the project of two railroad companies: the Union Pacific built from the east, and the Central Pacific built from the west. The two lines met in Utah. The Central Pacific laborers were predominantly Chinese, and the Union Pacific laborers predominantly Irish. Both groups often worked under harsh conditions. | ||
| Civil war in Kansas over the issue of slavery in the territory, fought intermittently until 1861, when it merged with the wider nation Civil War. | ||
| The 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to forestall the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860. | ||
| Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass during the U.S. Senate race in IL. Douglass won the election but Lincoln gained national prominence and emerged the leading candidate for the 1860 Republican nomination. | ||
| 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. | ||
| The first diplomatic agreement between China and America in history, signed on July 3, 1844. Since America signed as a nation interested in trade instead of colonization, it was rewarded with extraordinary amount of trading power. | ||
| A status established by most modern trade agreements guaranteeing that the signatories will extend to each other any favorable trading terms offered in agreements with third parties | ||
| Successor of President Zachary Taylor after his death on July 9th 1850. He helped pass the Compromise of 1850 by gaining the support of Northern Whigs for the compromise. | ||
| in 1853 presented the Japanese with a letter from the President calling for Japan to grant trading rights to Americans, they signed a treaty opening Japan for trade in 1854 | ||
| Acquired addition land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad. | ||
| Proposed that the issue of slavery be decided by popular sovereignty 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. | ||
| Senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. Wrote the Kansas-Nebreaska Act and the Freeport Doctrine | ||
| originally drawn by surveyors to resolve the boundaries between Maryland, Delaware, PA and VA in the 1760's, it came to symbolize the North-South divide over slavery. | ||
| and anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe | ||
| Dred Scott v. Standford. Supreme Court decision that extended federal protection to slavery by ruling that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory. Also declared that slaves, as property were not citizens of the United States. | ||
| book written by North Carolinian Hinton R. Helper, alleged that non-slave holding whites suffered most from slavery | ||
| violent abolitionist who murdered slaveholders in Kansas and Missouri (1856-1858) before his raid at Harpers Ferry (1859), hoping to incite a slave rebellion; he failed and was executed, but his martyrdom by northern abolitionists frightened the South. | ||
| Charles Sumner abolitionist senator speaks on "The Crime Against Kansas and criticizes Andrew Butler; two days later Butler's nephew Preston Brooks beats Sumner with a cane on the Senate floor | ||
| The election in which Abraham Lincoln was first elected President due to the schism of the Democrats. Caused a chain reaction of southern states to secede from the Union since they were afraid of Lincoln's policies. |
