Ch 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle (1848-1854)
How the South's attempts to reshape the Senate failed
A) The Election of 1848 Marks the Whigs’ Final Victory
1. Dems & Whigs = bond of nat’l union b/c not sectional & both silent on slavery issue
Antislaveryites & pro-tariff industrialists, but also called for fed aid for internal improvement
3. Free soil (Van Buren, tho won no states, diverted enough Dem votes to throw election to Taylor) + wartime popularity--> Taylor’s victory (Whig’s last victory)
B) How the CA Gold Rush led to the Compromise of 1850
1. Issues that called for compromise
-John C Calhoun: “Great Nullifier”; rejected Clay’s compromises not enough safeguards for S. rights
-Daniel Webster: All reasonable concessions to S, but slavery can’t profitably exist in Mex Cession
-William Seward: Young senator who rejected concessions b/c slavery violated God’s moral law, an even “higher law” than the Constitution
A) The Election of 1848 Marks the Whigs’ Final Victory
1. Dems & Whigs = bond of nat’l union b/c not sectional & both silent on slavery issue
- Dems--Gen. Lewis Cass—Despite party’s silence, he was reputed father of popular sovereignty (sovereign ppl of a territory, under principles of Const, should determine status of slavery)
- Whigs--Gen. Zachary Taylor—never held civil office or voted—held slaves but opposed extension of slavery into western territories
Antislaveryites & pro-tariff industrialists, but also called for fed aid for internal improvement
3. Free soil (Van Buren, tho won no states, diverted enough Dem votes to throw election to Taylor) + wartime popularity--> Taylor’s victory (Whig’s last victory)
B) How the CA Gold Rush led to the Compromise of 1850
1. Issues that called for compromise
- CA citizens applied to Cong for admission as free state
- TX claimed additional land (which fed govt proposed to detach) & threatened to capture Santa Fe
- Abolish slavery in District of Columbia (b/w slaveholding MD & VA)
- Increase in runaway slaves (ineffective fugitive slave law)
- Old Guard put Union above all else whereas Young Guard was morals above Union (irrational)
-John C Calhoun: “Great Nullifier”; rejected Clay’s compromises not enough safeguards for S. rights
-Daniel Webster: All reasonable concessions to S, but slavery can’t profitably exist in Mex Cession
-William Seward: Young senator who rejected concessions b/c slavery violated God’s moral law, an even “higher law” than the Constitution
- Pres Taylor, influenced by men like “Higher Law” Seward, was determined to veto any compro-mise passed & lead an army into TX. If he had, the S would have joined TXàCivil War in 1850.
4. Getting the Compromise Measures Approved
-federal commissioners would receive $5 if fugitive fred, $10 if not (isn’t this bribery?)
-anyone who aided slaves fined/jailed, even required to join slave catchers
-By 1860, the northern states had many more miles of railroad, steel production, modern factories, and population. The North was better able to supply, equip, and man its armed forces, an advantage that would prove decisive in the later stages of the war.
C) Election of 1852: Defeat for the Whigs Herald the End of National Parties
1. Dems & Whigs—both supported Compromise f 1850 & Fugitive Slave Law
3. Whig’s Legacy: won 2 pres elections (1840 Harrison, 1848 Taylor) both with war heroes, but greatest contribution=preserve Union thru electoral strength in S & leaders like Henry Clay & Daniel Webster.
D) Rivalry w. Brit & Southern Expansionists
1. Ams looked to Cent Am for Atl-Pac transportation rt. Control of it=control over all maritime nations
E) New TerritoriesàTranscontinental Railroadà Kansas-Nebraska Actà Republican Party.
- Taylor died--> Millard Fillmore (presiding officer in Senate) gladly signed compromise measures
- Acceptance gradually crystallized in North (Unionist) & South (economic prosperity)
- Representation: CA as free state + NM & UT land not suitable for slavery
- TX was paid $10 mn, but was modest sum in comparison to vast tract of free soil torn from it
- Fugitive Slave Law 1850 united N in spirit of antagonism agst South. MA made it penal offense for state official to enforce it & others passed personal liberty laws to hamper enforcement of it.
-federal commissioners would receive $5 if fugitive fred, $10 if not (isn’t this bribery?)
-anyone who aided slaves fined/jailed, even required to join slave catchers
- By postponing secession a decade, the Compromise of 1850 won the Civil War for the Union.
-By 1860, the northern states had many more miles of railroad, steel production, modern factories, and population. The North was better able to supply, equip, and man its armed forces, an advantage that would prove decisive in the later stages of the war.
C) Election of 1852: Defeat for the Whigs Herald the End of National Parties
1. Dems & Whigs—both supported Compromise f 1850 & Fugitive Slave Law
- Dems-Franklin Pierce: unrenowned lawyer-politician whose platform revived Dem’s commitment to territorial expansion as pursued by Pres Polk
- Whigs-Winfield Scott: ablest Am general in his generation, but haughtiness repelled the masses; Whig party hopelessly slit into N (hated platform) & S factions (hated candidate).
3. Whig’s Legacy: won 2 pres elections (1840 Harrison, 1848 Taylor) both with war heroes, but greatest contribution=preserve Union thru electoral strength in S & leaders like Henry Clay & Daniel Webster.
D) Rivalry w. Brit & Southern Expansionists
1. Ams looked to Cent Am for Atl-Pac transportation rt. Control of it=control over all maritime nations
- Increasing Brit encroachmt in Cent Amà Treaty b/w US & New Granada (pres-day Colombia)
- Clayton-Bulwer Treaty w. Brit (1850)—neither to fortify/exclusively control any future waterways.
- Am adventurer William Walker installed himself as president of Nicaragua in 1856 & legalized slavery, but was overthrown by coalition of Central Am nations in 1860.
- Pierce’s $100mn offer for Cuba rejected--> S’ers descended on Cuba, fail--> Sp seized Am steamerà Sec of State instructed ministers in Sp, Brit, Fr to prepare confidential recommendatns for acquisitn of Cuba-->Ostend Manifesto: If Sp didn’t accept $120mn for Cuba, Am would seize Cuba on grounds that Sp’s continued ownership of it endangered Am interests--> hwvr, plan leaked out, N’ers, angered by FSLaw/other gains for slavery, foiled the plan.
- Brit defeated China in Opium War & gained free access to 5 treaty ports & control of HK
- Pres Tyler dispatched Caleb Cushing--> Treaty of Wanghia—1st formal diplomatic US-Ch agreemt secured most favored nation status & extraterritoriality--> US-Ch trade flourished & missionaries proselytizedà Am now aligned w. W pwrs that chronically menaced Ch’s cultural integrity.
- Pres Fillmore dispatched warships to Jp commanded by Commodore Perry, who persuaded Jp to sign Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) which provided for proper treatmt of shipwrecked sailors, coaling rights in Jp, and establishment of consular relation--> end of Jp’s 2-century isolation
E) New TerritoriesàTranscontinental Railroadà Kansas-Nebraska Actà Republican Party.
- OR/CA might break awayà trans RR, but should it start in N/S? S’ers knew RR expands trade prospects, but MexCess too mt, all possible rts end in N. Any rt w. SE terminus would go into Mex territory.
- Sec of War Jefferson Davis had James Gadsden (minister to Mex) negotiate treaty in 1853, which ceded to US the Gadsden Purchase for $10mnàenabled S to claim coveted RR w. even greater insistence: not mountainous, TX already state & NM (w. GP) formally organized territory.
- Hwvr, N replied that if organized territory were the test, then NE should be organizedà S disliked this for why should it help create new free-soil state & facilitate a northern railroad?
- Stephen Douglass longed to break N-S deadlock, so proposed KS-NE Act: NE territory be split into 2 states & status on slavery be decided by popular sovereignty (KS assumed to be free while NE slave).
- KS-NE Act wrecked MO Comp 1820 (no slavery above 36°30’) & 1850 Comp which n’ern opinion repealed indirectly
- It shattered Dem party while Republican party sprang up as mighty moral protest agst gains of slavery; consisted of Whigs, Dems, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, foes of KS-NE Act; 2nd major political party—and a sectional one at that.
- At long last the dreaded sectional rift had appeared. The Union was in dire peril.
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