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Chapter 18 ap us history essay

Chapter 18 1. In order to maintain the two great political parties as vital bonds of national unity, early nineteenth century politicians avoided public discussion of slavery 2. The US’s victory in the Mexican War resulted in renewed controversy over the issue of extending slavery into the territories, a possible split in the Whig and Democrat parties over slavery, the cession by Mexico of an enormous amount of land to the US, and a rush of settlers to new American territory in California 3.

The Wilmot Proviso, if adopted, would have prohibited slavery in any territory acquired in the Mexican War 4. The debate over slavery in the Mexican Cession threatened to split national politics along North-South lines 5. In 1848, the Free Soil party platform advocated all of the following: support of the Wilmot Proviso; free government homesteads for settlers; opposition to slavery in the territories; and an end to slavery in the District of Columbia 6. Presidential candidates in the 1848 election included Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and Zachary Taylor 7.

According to the principle of “ popular sovereignty,” the question of slavery in the territories would be determined by the vote of the people in any given territory 8. The public liked popular sovereignty because it fit in with the democratic tradition of self-determination 9. In the 1848 presidential election, the Democratic and Whig parties remained silent on the issue of slavery 10. The key issue for the major parties in the 1848 presidential election was personalities 11.

The event that brought turmoil to the administration of Zachary Taylor was the discovery of gold in California 12. The Free Soldiers argued that slavery would cause more costly wage labor to wither away 13. Of those people going to California during the gold rush, a distressingly high proportion were lawless men 14. The Free Soldiers condemned slavery because it destroyed the chances of free white workers to rise to self-employment 15. By 1850, the South was relatively well off, politically and economically 16.

Harriet Tubman gained fame by helping slaves to escape to Canada 17. During the 1850’s, slaves gained their freedom most frequently by self-purchase 18. John C. Calhoun’s plan to protect the South and slavery involved the election of two presidents, one from the North and one from the South. 19. Daniel Webster’s famed Seventh of March speech in 1820 resulted in a shift toward compromise in the North. 20. In his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster called for a new, more stringent fugitive-slave law. 21.

For his position in his Seventh of March speech, Daniel Webster was viciously condemned by abolitionists 22. The Young Guard from the North were most interested in purging and purifying the Union 23. In the debates of 1850, Senator William H. Seward, as a representative of the northern Young Guard, argued that Christian legislators must obey God’s moral law. 24. During the debate of 1850, William H. Seward argued that there was a “ higher law” than the Constitution that compelled him to demand the exclusion of slavery from the territories 25.

President Zachary Taylor unknowingly helped the cause of compromise in 1850 when he died suddenly and Millard Fillmore became president 26. Southern delegates met at a convention in Nashville in the summer of 1850 to condemn the compromises being worked out in Congress 27. In the Compromise of 1850, Congress determined that slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories was to be decided by popular sovereignty 28. The most alarming aspect of the Compromise of 1850 to northerners was the decision concerning the new Fugitive Slave Law 29.

The Fugitive Slave Law included all of the following provisions: denial of a jury trial to runaway slaves; denial of fleeing slaves; right to testify on their own behalf; the penalty of imprisonment for northerners who helped slaves to escape; and a higher payment if officials determined blacks to be runaways 30. Many northern states passed “ personal liberty laws” in response to the Compromise of 1850’s provision regarding runaway slaves 31. In light of future evidence, it seems apparent that in the Compromise of 1850 the South made a tactical blunder by demanding a strong fugitive-slave law 32.

The fatal split in the Whig party in 1852 occurred over slavery 33. The election of 1852 was significant because it marked the end of the Whig party 34. For a short time in the 1850’s, an American seized control of Nicaragua 35. The man who opened Japan to the United States was Matthew Perry 36. The prime objective of Manifest Destiny in the 1850s was Cuba 37. The US’s scheme to gain control of Cuba was stopped when northern free-soilers fiercely protested the effort 38. The most brazen scheme for territorial expansion in the 1850s was expressed in the Ostend Manifesto 39.

Most American leaders believed that the only way to keep the new Pacific Coast territories from breaking away from the United States control was to construct a transcontinental railroad 40. A southern route for the transcontinental railroad seemed the best because the railroad would be easier to build in this area 41. Stephen A. Douglas proposed that the question of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Territory be decided by popular sovereignty 42. Stephen A. Douglas’s plans for deciding the slavery question in the Kansas-Nebraska scheme required repeal of the Missouri Compromise 43.

One of S D’s mistakes in proposing the K-N Act was underestimating the depth of northern opposition to the spread of slavery 44. The new Free Soil Party in 1848 found major support from those who favored high tariffs, had wanted all of Oregon up to the 54 40’ line, condemned slavery as immoral, wanted to keep slavery out of the territories, and believed that slavery harmed white labor 45. In 1850, the South was deeply worried because the Underground Railroad was carrying away hundreds of slaves each year and California sought admission as a free state 46.

Southerners insisted that the first transcontinental railroad should run through the Southwest because construction would be less difficult there and the railroad would pass through already organized territory of the United States 47. The impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to enrage the antislavery abolitionists, and lessen the prospects for future compromises between North and South 48. The consequences of the K-N Act included the splitting of the Democratic Party and demise of the Whig party

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