APUSH ch 13

Fugitive Slave Act

part of the Compromise of 1850; a law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders. resisted by Nortrherners

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

a novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral, made northerners more skeptical of slavery

Ostend Manifesto

a confidential 1854 dispatch to the U.S.State Department from American diplomats meeting in Ostend, Belgium, suggesting that the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain refused to sell it to the U.S. When word of the document leaked, Northerners seethed at this "slaveholders plot" to extend slavery

Matthew Perry

A commodore in the American navy. He forced Japan into opening its doors to trade, thus brining western influence to Japan while showing American might. influenced by the idea of manifest destiny

Election of 1852

BETWEEN: Franklin Pierce (Democrat) and Winfield Scott; RESULTS: WHIG party splits over nomination Fillmore v. Scott; Antislavery North vs. Southern Whigs that disliked Winfield Scott; Doomed Whig Party – Democratic party united under Pierce! Leads to formation of sectional parties instead of national parties. VICTOR: Franklin Pierce (Democrat)

popular sovereignty

The concept that political power rests with the people who can create, alter, and abolish government. People express themselves through voting and free participation in government. main ideal of Stephen Douglass

Cotton vs. Conscience Whigs

Cotton Whigs: a faction of the whig party in the North whose ties to textile manufacturing led them to de-emphasize slavery. Conscience Whigs: whigs in the north that were morally against slavery, were a big part in forming the Republican Party, (Sumner was a big part of this)

Franklin Pierce

Democratic candidate for President in 1852 and the fourteenth president of the US. He made the Gadsden Purchase, which opened the Northwest for settlement, and passed the unpopular Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

a compromise law in 1854 that suspended the Missouri Compromise and left it to voters in Kansas and Nebraska to determine whether they would be slave or free states. the law exacerbated sectional tensions when voters can to blows over the question of slavery in Kansas. It was very controversial, supported by President Pierce and not supported by Douglass

Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase was the 1853 treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico parts of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. Southerners wanted this land in order to build southern transcontinental railroad, it also showed the American belief in Manifest Destiny. The heated debate over this issue in the Senate demonstrates the prevalence of sectional disagreement.

"Appeal of the Independent Democrats"

a manifesto issued in January, 1854, in response to the introduction into the United States Senate of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The Appeal was written by Senator Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. It was written to counteract the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and keep the Missouri Compromise intact

American Party or Know-Nothing Party

a former political party active in the 1850s to keep power out of the hands of immigrants and Roman Catholics (called nativists)

Republican Party

began in the 1850s, dedicated to keeping slavery out of the territories, but they championed a wider range of issues, including the further development of national roads, more liberal land distribution in the West, and increased protective tariffs. Comprised of Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers, in defiance to the Slave Powers

Bleeding Kansas

nickname given to the Kansas territory because of the bloody violence there between those who wished it to enter the Union as a free state and those who fought for slavery in the territory ("border ruffians"

border ruffians

pro-slavery Missourians who traveled in armed groups to vote in Kansas’ election during the mid-1850’s, in order to make it a pro-slavery government

Charles Sumner

radical Republican who gave a powerful antislavery speech entitled ”The Crime Against Kansas” in congress, against the slave power, insults Andrew Butler and subsequently gets caned by Preston Brooks

Election of 1856

Democrats nominated Buchanan, Republicans nominated Fremont, and Know-Nothings chose Fillmore. Buchanan won due to his support of popular sovereignty

John Fremont

American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the United States Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. First Presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform of opposition to slavery (lost election of 1856).

Dred Scott Case

1857; a slave who sued the U.S. for his freedom after living in free territories. Supreme Court case which ruled that slaves are not citizens but are property, affirmed that property cannot be interfered with by Congress, slaves do not become free if they travel to free territories or states, fueled abolitionist movement, hailed as victory for the south

LeCompton Constitution

pro-slavery constitution suggested for Kansas’ admission to the union, it was resoundingly rejected. Led to increased sectional tensions

Panic of 1857

Economic downturn caused by overspeculation of western lands, railroads, gold in California, grain. Mostly affected northerners, who called for higher tariffs and free homesteads. didn’t affect Southerners, giving them a sense of superiority and assurance that a slave economy works

Freeport Doctrine

Stated that exclusion of slavery in a territory (where it was legal) could be determined by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that would protect slave property. Stated by Stephen Douglass during the Lincoln-Douglass debates, eventually led to his loss in the 1860 presidential election

John Brown’s Raid

1859; Brown, with 18 assistants, seized a federal arsenal in Virgina , was eventually captured and sentenced to hanging. This event epitemized the depth and passion of sectional feelings. Brown, because of his insistence on racial equality and dignified bearing after his capture, became a martyr in the north

John Breckinridge

a southern Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1860, believing that Congress had a duty to protect slavery

John Bell

Presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party in 1860. He drew votes away from the Democrats, helping Lincoln win.

Crittenden Compromise

1860 – attempt to prevent Civil War by Senator Crittenden, offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30′ line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves – defeated by Republicans