1. Unit 6: Civil War and Reconstruction 1846-1896
Why It Matters: As you study Unit 6, you will learn how social, economic, and political differences between the North and South grew. As compromises failed, the country plunged into civil war.

2. Ch. 15: Road to Civil War
Why It Matters: Slavery was a major cause of the worsening division between the North and South in the period before the Civil War. The struggle between the North and South turned more hostile, and talk grew of separation and civil war.
The Impact Today: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong, Abraham Lincoln wrote in a letter to A.G. Hodges in By studying this era of our history, we can better understand the state of racial relations today and develop ways for improving them.

3. Section 1: Slavery and the West
Main Idea: As new states entered the Union, the question of whether to admit them as free states or slave states arose.
Key Terms:
Sectionalism
Fugitive
Secede
Abstain

4. I. The Missouri Compromise
When Missouri applied for statehood in 1819, it was a territory whose citizens owned about 10,000 enslaved African Americans.
At the time the Senate was balanced, with 11 free states and 11 slave sates. Missouri’s admission to the Union as a slave state would have upset the balance of power.

5. Missouri Compromise
The North and South, with very different economic systems, were also competing for new lands in the West.
North wanted to stop the spread of slavery into new states and territories.
South resented the North’s attempts to interfere with slavery, which they considered their own affair.

6. The Missouri Compromise
Representative Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, proposed a solution to the Missouri problem.
Maine, which had been a part of Massachusetts, had also applied for admission to the Union as a new state.
Clay suggested admitting Missouri as a slave state and admitting Maine as a free state at the same time.

7. Missouri Compromise The one exception would be Missouri.
Clay also made a second proposal to settle several arguments about slavery in the territories.
He proposed prohibiting slavery in all territories and states carved from the Louisiana Purchase north of the latitude line of 36/30 N.
The one exception would be Missouri.

8. Temporary Solution
Clay’s two proposals-The Missouri Compromise, were passed by Congress in
The Missouri Compromise preserved the balance between free and slave states in the Senate
Ended the debate in Congress over slavery in new states and territories-at least for a while.

9. New Western Lands
The issue of slavery in new Western lands stayed in the background between 1820 and the 1840s.
The proposal to add a new set of states and territories (Texas, New Mexico, and California) brought the issue to a head again.

10. Everything is Bigger and Better in Texas!!!
After winning independence from Mexico, Texas asked for admission to the Union.
Slavery existed in Texas, and below 36’30 line it would have entered the Union as a slave state.
This again brought out the question of whether free or slave states would control the Senate.
As a result Texas’s statehood became an issue in the election.

11. James Polk
Democratic candidate James K. Polk won the election and pressed to add Texas.
Texas became a state in 1845.
At the same time, support in the South for taking over New Mexico and California, which were both part of Mexico also grew.

12. New Western Lands
Disputes between the U.S. and Mexico over boundaries in Texas and the desire of the U.S.
For New Mexico and California led to the Mexican- American War.

13. Debate Heats Up!
A bitter debate over slavery in new Western lands began over proposals by Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania and Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.

14. Wilmot Proviso
Wilmot’s proposal, called the Wilmot Proviso, said that slavery should be prohibited in any lands that might be acquired from Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War.

15. Counterproposals
Calhoun’s counterproposal stated that neither Congress nor any other gov’t authority had the power to prohibit or regulate slavery in any way in a territory.
STATES’ RIGHTS
Neither proposal passed Congress, but these proposals intensified arguments for and against slavery.

16. New Western Lands
Soil Party-which supported the Wilmot Proviso and were against the Democratic and Whig Party.
Whig candidate Zachary Taylor won the election by successfully appealing to both slave and free states.
But the Free Soil Party won several seats in Congress.

17. President Taylor
President Taylor encouraged the territories of New Mexico and California, to apply for statehood.
After California did so in 1849, the problem of the balance of power in the Senate came up again.
California would enter the Union as a free state

18. Talks of Leaving
California upset the balance of 15 free states and 15 slaves states in the Senate.
It was likely that some of the other territories that might soon become states would enters as free states as well.
Southerners worried they would lose power and talked of leaving the Union.

19. A New Compromise
In January 1850 Senator Henry Clay presented a new multi-part plan to settle a number of issues dividing Congress, including the possible spread of slavery into Western lands.
Clay’s Plan
1. California would be admitted as a free state.
2. The New Mexico Territory would have no slavery restrictions.

20. Clay’s Compromise
3. A New Mexico-Texas border dispute would be decided in favor of New Mexico.
4. The slave trade-though not slavery-would be abolished in Washington D.C.
5. There would be a stronger fugitive slave law.
A bitter debate in Congress over the provisions of Clay’s proposal raged for seven months.

21. A New Compromise
Clay’s plan could not pass as a package, and President Taylor opposed it.
Then in July 1820, Taylor suddenly died.
The new president, Millard Fillmore, proposed a compromise.

22. Compromise
Senator Stephen Douglas split Clay’s proposal into five different bills to allow members of Congress to vote on them separately.
Members could vote for measures they agreed with and vote against parts they did not support without rejecting the whole plan.

23. Settled?
Congress passed the series of five separate bills in August and September 1850.
Together they became known as the Compromise of 1850.
Many American, including President Fillmore, thought this compromise would settles the question of slavery once and for all.