question

*Popular sovereignty

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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.

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*Free Soil Party

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Anti-slavery 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.

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*California Gold Rush

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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. Main catalyst for westward expansion

question

*Underground Railroad

answer

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 a stronger fugitive slave law.

question

Seventh of March speech

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Daniel Webster's impassioned address urging the North to support of the Compromise of 1850. Webster argued that topography and climate would keep slavery from becoming entrenched in Mexican Cession territory and urged Northerners to make all reasonable concessions to prevent disunion.

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*Compromise of 1850

answer

Admitted California as a free state, opened New Mexico and Utah to popular sovereignty, ended the slave trade (but not the slave trade itself) in Washington D.C., and introduced a more stringent fugitive slave law. Widely opposed in both the North and South, it did little to settle the escalating dispute over slavery.

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*Fugitive Slave Law

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Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, it set high penalties for anyone who aided escaped slaves and compelled all law enforcement officers to participate in retrieving runaways. Strengthened anti-slavery cause in the North.

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Clayton

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Bulwer Treaty-Signed by Great Britain and the United States, it provided that the two nations would jointly project the neutrality of South America and that neither power would seek to fortify or exclusively control any future isthmian waterway. Later revoked by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal.

question

Ostend Manifesto

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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.

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Opium War

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War between Britain and China over trading rights, particularly Britain's desire to continue selling opium to Chinese traders. The resulting trade agreement prompted Americans to seek similar concessions from the Chinese.

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Treaty of Wanghia

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Signed by the U.S. and China, it assured the United States the same trading concessions granted to other powers, greatly expanding America's trade with the Chinese.

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Treaty of Kanagawa

answer

Ended Japan's two-hundred year period of economic isolation, establishing an American consulate in Japan and securing American coaling rights in Japanese ports.

question

*Gadsden Purchase

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Acquired additional land from Mexico for $10 million to facilitate the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad.

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*Kansas Nebraska Act

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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 Douglas in an effort to bring Nebraska into the Union and pave the way for a northern Transcontinental railroad.

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Lewis Case

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Father of Popular Sovereignty; Democratic senator who proposed Popular Sovereignty to settle the slavery question in the territories; he lost the presidential election in 1848 against Zachary Taylor but continued to advocate his solution to the slavery issue throughout the 1850s

question

Zachary Taylor

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General that was a military leader in Mexican-American War and 12th president of the United States & was a Whig; he was sent by President Polk to lead the American Army against Mexico at Rio Grande, but was defeated; he died in 1850

question

*Harriet Tubman

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American abolitionist. Born a slave on a Maryland plantation, she escaped to the North in 1849 and became the most renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom.

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Millard Fillmore

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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.

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Franklin Pierce

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Democratic candidate for President in 1852 and the fourteenth president of the US. He made the Gadsden Purchase, which opened the Northwest for settlement, and passed the unpopular Kansas-Nebraska Act

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William Walker

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Installed himself as the President of Nicaragua in July 1856. He legalized slavery, but was overthrown by surrounding Central American countries and killed in 1860. Central American nations formed an alliance to overthrow him

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Caleb Cushing

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American diplomat who negotiated the Treaty of Wanghia with China in 1844. Massachusetts lawyer scholar.

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*Matthew C. Perry

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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

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*Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Harriet Beecher Stowe's widely read novel that dramatized the horrors of slavery. It heightened Northern support for abolition and escalated the sectional conflict.

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The Impending Crisis of the South

answer

Antislavery tract, written by white Southerner Hinton R. Helper, arguing non slaveholding whites actually suffered the most in a slave economy.

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New England Emigrant Aid Company

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Organization created to facilitate the migration of free laborers to Kansas in order to prevent the establishment of slavery in the territory.

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Lecompton Constitution

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Proposed Kansas constitution, whose ratification was unfairly rigged so as to guarantee slavery in the territory. Initially ratified by proslavery forces, it was later voted down when Congress required that the entire Constitution be put up for a vote.

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*Bleeding Kansas

answer

Civil War started in Kansas over the issue of slavery in the territory, fought intermittently until 1861, when it merged with the wider national Civil War.

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*Dred Scott v. Stanford

answer

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.

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*Panic of 1857

answer

Financial crash brought on by gold-fueled inflation, over speculation, and excess grain production. Raised calls in the North for higher tariffs and for free homesteads on western public lands.

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Tariff of 1857

answer

Lowered duties on imports in response to a high Treasury surplus and pressure from Southern farmers.

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*Lincoln Douglas debates

answer

Series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Douglas won the election but Lincoln gained national prominence and emerged as the leading candidate for the 1860 Republican nomination.

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Freeport question

answer

Raised during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates by Abraham Lincoln, who asked whether the Court or the people should decide the future of slavery in the territories.

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Freeport Doctrine

answer

Declared that since slaves could not exist without laws to protect it, territorial legislatures, not the Supreme Court, would have the final say on the slavery question.

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*Harpers Ferry

answer

Federal arsenal in Virginia seized by abolitionist John Brown in 1859. Though Brown was later captured and executed, his raid alarmed Southerners who believed that Northerners shared in Brown's extremism.

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Constitutional Union Party

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Formed by moderate Whigs and Know-Nothings in an effort to elect a compromise candidate and avert a sectional crisis.

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*Confederate States of America

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Government established after seven Southern states seceded from the Union. Later joined by four more states from the Upper South.

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Crittenden amendments

answer

Proposed in an attempt to appease the South, the failed Constitutional amendments would have given federal protection for slavery in all territories south of 36º30' where slavery was supported by popular sovereignty.

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*Harriet Beecher Stowe

answer

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel that 'started the civil war'. It's effects were seen in the North (where they refused to enforce the new Fugitive Slave Law) as well as Europe (where Britain wanted to aid the South for economic benefits, but they didn't because they knew it would go against the many views of their own people)

question

Henry Ward Beecher

answer

Harriet's brother who was a preacher. He contributed weapons to the abolitionist movement, such as his acclaimed 'Beecher's Bibles' rifles.

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*James Buchanan

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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.

question

Charles Sumner

answer

Senator for Massachusetts who gave a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas" which went on to denounce the South, insult South Carolina and it's senator Andrew Butler. Reelected despite injury.

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Preston S. Brooks

answer

Congressman for South Carolina who, pissed off by Sumner, wanted to challenge Sumner to a duel- but he felt that would make him a lower rank considering a duel is fought between those of equal social rank. So instead he beat Sumner with his cane. He was also reelected despite beating Sumner.

question

*Dred Scott

answer

slave who argued that since he lived in a free state, he should have his freedom. The Supreme Court ruled (1) Scott didn't even have citizenship, so he had no right to sue over the matter (2) Scott was his master's property and according to the fifth amendment, the judicial system can not take away someone's property (3) the Compromise of 1850 was unconstitutional and (4) they had no right to ban slavery from territories

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Roger Taney

answer

Supreme Court justice during the whole Dred Scott.

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Stephen Douglas

answer

a leading Democratic senator in the 1850s; nicknamed the "Little Giant" for his small size and great political power, he steered the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. Although increasingly alienated from the southern wing of his party, he ran against his political rival Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860 and lost.

question

*Abraham Lincoln

answer

Complete boss and badass. One of the most skillful politicians in Republican party. Lawyer Honest Abe. Tried to gain national exposure by debates with Stephen A. Douglas. The Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted much attention. Lincoln's attacks on slavery made him nationally known. He felt slavery was morally wrong, but was not an abolitionist. He felt there was not an alternative to slavery and blacks were not prepared to live on equal terms as whites. Won presidency in November election. First republican

question

*John Brown

answer

An abolitionist who attempted to lead a slave revolt by capturing Armories in southern territory and giving weapons to slaves, was hung in Harpers Ferry after capturing an Armory

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John Breckinridge

answer

vice president under James Buchanan and Democratic presidential nominee in 1860 who supported slavery and states' rights; he split the Democratic vote with Stephen Douglas and lost the election to Lincoln. He served in Confederate army and as secretary of war

question

John Jordan Crittenden

answer

Proposer of the Crittenden Amendments designed to appease the South,that Lincoln flatly rejected.

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