Fillmore to Buchanan 1850-1861 Flashcards
New immigrants and the search for greater opportunities drove America’s great push westward. This deck describes Americans' belief in a Manifest Destiny, the Mexican American War, and interactions with Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River.
Define:
Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession was the vast Western territory ceded to the United States by virtue of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
In the post-Mexican War period, an overarching political question was how slavery would apply to the new Mexican Cession territories.
How did moderate Southerners view the Mexican Cession territories?
Most moderate Southerners simply favored extending the Missouri Compromise line of 36°30’ westward, and allowing slavery below the line.
A few “fire-eaters” (pro-slavery radicals) did propose opening the entirety of the Mexican Cession to slavery.
Free Soilers wanted to ban all Blacks from the Mexican Cession. Why?
With their slogan of “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men,” Free Soilers hoped to keep the Mexican Cession free of Blacks so that whites could provide the labor force on small farms, known as homesteads, sold to them by the federal government.
The Free Soil Party ran former President Martin Van Buren as their candidate in the 1848 presidential election. From whom did the Free Soil Party draw its support?
Support for the Free Soil Party came from two groups:
- Conscience Whigs, so called because they believed an extension of slavery violated their conscience.
- Antislavery Democrats, known as “barnburners,” because it was feared that their defection from the Democratic ranks would hinder the Democratic Party’s chances in the 1848 election, which it did.
Why was California’s request for admission to the Union as a free state in 1849 such a divisive issue?
California’s admission as a free state would upset the balance of power in the Senate, which had an equal number of Senators from free states and slave states.
Matters became even more heated when President Taylor proposed admitting New Mexico as a free state at the same time.
In an effort to resolve the question of slavery in the Mexican Cession, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850. What were the key components to the Compromise?
Under the Compromise of 1850:
- California would be admitted as a free state.
- Popular sovereignty would decide the slavery issue in the Mexican Cession territories.
- A Fugitive Slave Act would require the federal government to help force freedmen back into enslavement.
What providential event ensured the passage of the Compromise of 1850?
On July 9, 1850, President Taylor, who had been opposed to the Compromise, died of diarrhea. Millard Fillmore, his Vice President, assumed the office and signed each piece of the Compromise as it came before him.
What argument did Senator William Seward adopt in speaking against the Compromise of 1850?
Seward spoke against the Compromise as being a violation of a “higher law than the Constitution.” Seward argued that slavery was immoral regardless of what the Constitution said, and his speech marked him as a radical abolitionist.
What was Stephen Douglas’s role in the Compromise of 1850?
With the Congress unable to agree to the Compromise as a whole, Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois engineered coalitions that passed individual parts of the Compromise, and presented them to the President, one at a time, for signature.
Douglas, known as the Little Giant, earned a reputation as a compromising Northerner who could find common ground with the South.
What was the intent of the Fugitive Slave Law (1850)?
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was intended to bring comfort to the Southern enslavers by forcing the government to hunt down freed Black people and return them to their enslavement, and sometimes, even face their own death.
What did the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 specifically do?
The Law specifically:
- empowered special commissioners to detain Black people.
- held trials in federal – rather than state – court to determine their enslaved status.
- denied juries in trials to determine their enslaved status.
Those caught liberating enslaved people, or attempting to help them in any way, would face severe fines and penalties.
Which religious groups supported slavery in the South?
- Methodists and Baptists supported slavery, citing Biblical support for the peculiar institution; as a result, their numbers grew.
- Unitarians challenged slavery as an institution, and their membership dropped as a consequence.
- Catholics and Episcopalians, present only in negligible numbers in the South, remained neutral over the issue.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of the famous 2nd Great Awakening Preacher, Lyman Beecher Stow, wrote a book that brought attention to the cruelties of slavery. What was it called?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Stowe’s 1852 work illustrated the cruelties of plantation life and the harsh workings of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Banned in the South, Stowe’s work convinced many Northerners of slavery’s intrinsic evil.
Which state banned liquor in 1851?
Maine
Although 13 other states followed Maine’s lead, the temperance movement was largely overshadowed by the crusade against slavery.
Which two immigrant groups opposed the efforts of the temperance movement?
The Germans and the Irish. They viewed the temperance movement as anti-immigrant, and resented efforts to ban wine and liquor.
In 1800 approximately 5% of the population of the North was urban. What percentage was urban by 1850?
About 15% of the population was urban by 1850. This rapid urbanization brought with it many problems, from the growth of slums and disease, to crime and inadequate sanitation.
Between 1845 and 1852, a million immigrants fled Ireland due to what cause?
the Irish Potato Famine
Most of the immigration between 1845 and 1852 can be attributed to the Irish Potato Famine. The potato was an Irish dietary staple, and another million inhabitants of Ireland died of starvation.
