Chapter 14 Flashcards
(17 cards)
Compromise of 1850
The four-step compromise that admitted California as a free state, allowed residents of Utah and New Mexico territories to decide the issue of slavery for themselves, ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and passed a new fugitive slave law to enforce the constitutional provision stating that a slave escaping into a free state shall be delivered back to the owner.
Wilmot Proviso
The amendment offered by Pennsylvania Democrat David Wilmot in 1846 which stipulated that “as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico…neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of that territory.”
Popular sovereignty
A solution to the slavery crisis suggested by Michigan senator Lewis Cass by which territorial residents, not Congress, would decide slavery’s fate.
Fugitive Slave Act
Law, part of the Compromise of 1850, that required authorities in the North to assist southern slave catchers and return runaway slaves to their owners.
Ostend Manifesto
Message sent by US envoys to President Pierce from Ostend, Belgium, in 1854, stating that the United States had a “divine right” to wrest Cuba from Spain.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Law passed in 1854 creating the Kansas and Nebraska Territories but leaving the question of slavery open to residents, thereby repealing the Missouri Compromise.
“Bleeding Kansas”
Violence between pro- and antislavery forces in Kansas Territory after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.
Know-Nothing Party
Anti-immigrant party formed from the wreckage of the Whig Party and some disaffected northern Democrats in 1854.
Republican Party
Party that emerged in the 1850s in the aftermath of the bitter controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, consisting of former Whigs, some northern Democrats, and many Know-Nothings.
Dred Scott decision
Supreme Court ruling, in a lawsuit brought by Dred Scott, a slave demanding his freedom based on his residence in a free state and a free territory with his master, that slaves could not be US citizens and that Congress had no jurisdiction over slavery in the territories.
Lecompton Constitution
Pro-slavery draft written in 1857 by Kansas territorial delegates elected under questionable circumstances; it was rejected by two governors, supported by President Buchanan, and decisively defeated by Congress.
Panic of 1857
Banking crisis that caused a credit crunch in the North; it was less severe in the South, where high cotton prices spurred a quick recovery.
Lincoln-Douglas debates
Series of debates in the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaigns during which Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln staked out their differing opinions on the issue of slavery in the territories.
John Brown’s Raid
New England abolitionist John Brown’s ill-fated attempt to free Virginia’s slaves with a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.
Constitutional Union Party
National party formed in 1860, mainly by former Whigs, that emphasized allegiance to the Union and strict enforcement of all national legislation.
Confederate States of America
Nation proclaimed in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1861 after 7 states of the Lower South seceded from the US.
Fort Sumter
Begun in the late 1820s to protect Charleston, South Carolina, it became the center of national attention in April 1861 when President Lincoln attempted to provision federal troops at the fort, triggering a hostile response from on-shore Confederate forces, opening the Civil War.
