1. America in 1850 1© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

2. Expansion and Growth America had grown rapidly in the first half of the nineteenth century. The nation had experienced great growth of wealth, industry, and urbanization. Equally important, southern economic influence was waning. 2© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

3. MAP 15.1 U.S. Population and Settlement, 1850 By 1850, the United States was a continental nation. Its people, whom Thomas Jefferson had once thought would not reach the Mississippi River for forty generations, had not only passed the river, but leapfrogged to the West Coast. In comparison to the America of 1800, the growth was astounding. 3 © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

4. Politics, Culture, and National Identity Pride in democracy was one unifying theme in a growing sense of national identity and new middle-class values, institutions, and culture that supported it. An American Renaissance produced writers who focused on social criticism, including: – Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson who experimented with poetic form – Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville who wrote about the darker side of human nature – Frederick Douglass’s autobiography and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin condemn slavery 4© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

5. Political Parties and Slavery The national party system had forced Whigs and Democrats to forge inter-sectional coalitions. By 1848 sectional interests were eroding these coalitions. Sectional divisions in religious and other organizations had begun to divide the country. 5© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

6. Congressional Debate John C. Calhoun had laid out the states’ rights defense by claiming that: – the territories were the common property of each of the states – Congress could not discriminate against slave owners. Northerners grew increasingly concerned over what they saw as a southern conspiracy to control the government: the “slave power.” 6© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

7. In 1850, the three men who had long represented America’s three major regions attempted to resolve the political crisis brought on by the applications of California for statehood. Henry Clay is speaking; John C. Calhoun stands second from right; and Daniel Webster is seated at the left, with his head in his hand. Both Clay and Webster were ill, and Calhoun died before the Compromise of 1850 was arranged by a younger group of politicians led by Stephen A. Douglas. 7© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

8. The Compromise of 1850 The immediate issues leading up to the compromise of 1850 were as follows: Texas and New Mexico were having a boundary dispute Abolitionists wanted slavery to be abolished in Washington D.C. Southerners wanted a more effective fugitive slave law A. Henry Clay stepped in at the age of 73 to create a compromise. His suggestions were as follows: 1.California would be admitted as a free state. 2.Territorial governments be provided for the rest of the Mexican Cession without any restriction on slavery. 3.Texas abandon its claim on eastern portion of New Mexico 4.Federal government to compensate Texas by assuming its public debt prior to annexation (10 bill.) 5.D.C. no longer allowed to be a “slave depot” area. 6.Slavery in D.C. be abolished only with the consent of the people and residents of Maryland. 7.That a new and more rigorous Fugitive Slave Law be adopted (will see this in Dred Scott case.)

9. Congressman working behind Clay to ensure the passage of these laws was Stephen Douglas. He and moderates in Congress realized the measures had a better chance for success when voted on individually. President Taylor who had vowed to veto any compromise died after overindulging on cherries and milk at a hot 4 th of July celebration (salmanilla) succeeded by Pro-Clay New Yorker Millard Fillmore. Fillmore was a back room man, at home with the cigar and brandy crowd. He let it be known that he liked the deal and would signed it. Stephen Douglass: The Little Giant By September of 1850, all the measures were passed and signed by President Fillmore.

10. MAP 15.2 The Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850, messier and more awkward than the Missouri Compromise of 1820, reflected heightened sectional tensions. California was admitted as a free state, the borders of Texas were settled, and the status of the rest of the former Mexican territory was left to be decided later by popular sovereignty. No consistent majority voted for the five separate bills that made up the compromise. 10© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

11. The Fugitive Slave Act The issue of runaway slaves further divided the nation. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 put the full force of the federal government behind slave catchers. Mobs of northerners unsuccessfully tried to prevent the law from being carried out. Black fugitives described their experiences as slaves, helping to raise Northerners’ consciousness. 11© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

12. Escaped slave Anthony Burns, shown here surrounded by scenes of his capture in 1854, was the cause of Boston’s greatest protest against the Fugitive Slave Law. The injustice of his trial and shipment back to the South converted many Bostonians to the antislavery cause. 12© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

13. This handbill warning free African Americans of danger circulated in Boston following the first of the infamous recaptures under the Fugitive Slave Law, that of Thomas Sims in 1851. 13© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

14. 1852 Election The Compromise of 1850 had divided the Whigs deeply. Northern Whigs were mad at Fillmore for signing the compromise that had delivered to them the Fugitive Slave Law, so they would not support his nomination. Southern Whigs upset with “disloyal” northern Whigs abandoned the party.

15. Winfield Scott vs. Franklin Pierce The Whigs nominated Mexican war hero and Virginian Winfield Scott (a non-slaveholder), the south was not fooled. The Democrats were more unified, both Northern and Southern democrats announced their support of the Compromise. They nominated Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire- Southerners felt he was safe on slavery and northerners felt he was a nationalist devoted to popular sovereignty. Pierce won overwhelmingly 254 to Scotts 42 electoral votes

16. The Crisis of the National Party System 16© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

17. The Kansas-Nebraska Act Stephen Douglas pushed through a bill to open the Kansas territory. To win southern support Douglas’ bill declared that the territory would be organized on the principle of popular sovereignty, even though slavery in that territory had been banned under the Missouri Compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska Act proved to: – destroy the Whig Party – nearly destroy the northern wing of the Democratic Party – negate treaties with Indians removed to Kansas in the 1830s. 17© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

18. MAP 15.3 The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 The Kansas-Nebraska Act, proposed by Steven A. Douglas in 1854, opened the central and northern Great Plains to settlement. The act had two major faults: it robbed Indian peoples of half the territory guaranteed to them by treaty and, because it repealed the Missouri Compromise line, it opened up the lands to warring proslavery and antislavery factions. 18© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

19. Bleeding Kansas

20. “Bleeding Kansas” The territory became a battleground of sectional politics. On election day, proslavery Missourians crossed over the border and took control of the territorial legislature. Northerners quickly responded by founding free- soil communities. By the summer of 1856 open warfare erupted. 20© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.

21. 21 This engraving shows “Border Ruffians” from Missouri lining up to vote for slavery in the Kickapoo, Kansas Territory, election of 1855. The widespread practice of illegal voting and open violence earned Kansas the dreadful nickname of “Bleeding Kansas.”

22. The Politics of Nativism Concurrent with sectional pressures came an outburst of anti-immigrant feeling. Reformers were appalled by the influx of Irish into American cities. Former Whigs formed the “Know-Nothing” or American Party to prevent what they saw as a takeover by the immigrants. But the Know-Nothings succumbed to sectional divisions. 22© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.