Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICT

Southerners urged that all the ments, advanced a complicated and

lands acquired from Mexico should carefully balanced plan . His old

be thrown open to slave holders . Massachusetts rival, Daniel Web-

Antislavery Northerners demanded ster, supported it . Illinois Demo-

that all the new regions be closed cratic Senator Stephen A . Douglas,

to slavery . One group of moderates the leading advocate of popular

suggested that the Missouri Com- sovereignty, did much of the work

promise line be extended to the Pa- in guiding it through Congress .

cific with free states north of it and

The Compromise of 1850 con-

slave states to the south . Another tained the fol owing provisions: (1)

group proposed that the question California was admitted to the Union

be left to “popular sovereignty .” The as a free state; (2) the remainder of the government should permit settlers to Mexican cession was divided into the

enter the new territory with or with- two territories of New Mexico and

out slaves as they pleased . When the Utah and organized without mention

time came to organize the region of slavery; (3) the claim of Texas to a

into states, the people themselves portion of New Mexico was satisfied

could decide .

by a payment of $10 mil ion; (4) new

Despite the vitality of the aboli- legislation (the Fugitive Slave Act)

tionist movement, most Northerners was passed to apprehend runaway

were unwilling to challenge the exis- slaves and return them to their mas-

tence of slavery in the South . Many, ters; and (5) the buying and sel ing of however, were against its expansion . slaves (but not slavery) was abolished

In 1848 nearly 300,000 men voted in the District of Columbia .

for the candidates of a new Free Soil

The country breathed a sigh of

Party, which declared that the best relief . For the next three years, the

policy was “to limit, localize, and compromise seemed to settle near-

discourage slavery .” In the immedi- ly all differences . The new Fugitive

ate aftermath of the war with Mex- Slave Law, however, was an imme-

ico, however, popular sovereignty diate source of tension . It deeply

had considerable appeal .

offended many Northerners, who

In January 1848 the discovery refused to have any part in catch-

of gold in California precipitated a ing slaves . Some actively and vio-

headlong rush of settlers, more than lently obstructed its enforcement .

80,000 in the single year of 1849 . The Underground Railroad became

Congress had to determine the sta- more efficient and daring than ever .

tus of this new region quickly in

order to establish an organized gov-

A DIVIDED NATION

ernment . The venerable Kentucky

Senator Henry Clay, who twice During the 1850s, the issue of slav-

before in times of crisis had come ery severed the political bonds that

forward with compromise arrange- had held the United States together .

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

It ate away at the country’s two great then have three free-soil neighbors

political parties, the Whigs and the (Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas) and

Democrats, destroying the first and might be forced to become a free

irrevocably dividing the second . It state as well . Their congressional

produced weak presidents whose

delegation, backed by Southerners,

irresolution mirrored that of their blocked all efforts to organize the

parties . It eventual y discredited even region .

the Supreme Court .

At this point, Stephen A . Doug-

The moral fervor of abolition- las enraged all free-soil supporters .

ist feeling grew steadily . In 1852, Douglas argued that the Compro-

Harriet Beecher Stowe published mise of 1850, having left Utah and

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel pro- New Mexico free to resolve the slav-

voked by the passage of the Fugitive ery issue for themselves, superseded

Slave Law . More than 300,000 cop- the Missouri Compromise . His plan

ies were sold the first year . Presses called for two territories, Kansas

ran day and night to keep up with and Nebraska . It permitted settlers

the demand . Although sentimental to carry slaves into them and even-

and full of stereotypes, Uncle Tom’s tually to determine whether they Cabin portrayed with undeniable should enter the Union as free or

force the cruelty of slavery and pos- slave states .

ited a fundamental conflict between

Douglas’s opponents accused him

free and slave societies . It inspired of currying favor with the South in

widespread enthusiasm for the an- order to gain the presidency in 1856 .

tislavery cause, appealing as it did The free-soil movement, which had

to basic human emotions — in- seemed to be in decline, reemerged

dignation at injustice and pity for with greater momentum than ever .

the helpless individuals exposed to Yet in May 1854, Douglas’s plan in

ruthless exploitation .

the form of the Kansas-Nebraska

In 1854 the issue of slavery in Act passed Congress to be signed by

the territories was renewed and the President Franklin Pierce . Southern

quarrel became more bitter . The re- enthusiasts celebrated with cannon

gion that now comprises Kansas and fire . But when Douglas subsequently

Nebraska was being rapidly settled, visited Chicago to speak in his own

increasing pressure for the establish- defense, the ships in the harbor low-

ment of territorial, and eventually, ered their flags to half-mast, the

state governments .

church bells tolled for an hour, and a

Under terms of the Missouri crowd of 10,000 hooted so loudly that

Compromise of 1820, the entire re- he could not make himself heard .

gion was closed to slavery . Dominant

The immediate results of Douglas’s

slave-holding elements in Missouri ill-starred measure were momen-

objected to letting Kansas become a tous . The Whig Party, which had

free territory, for their state would straddled the question of slavery ex-

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