What it do, A-Push people? Today we are going to break down the period from 1848 to 1854. If you're using the American pageant, that is chapter 18, but those other books, those other chapters, will also be covered in this lecture. So, following the Mexican-American War, there's a free soil movement developing in the United States. And really, following this war, the issue of slavery in the territories becomes the key. cause of sectional tension.
We get all this land following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and there are Americans who say, and they join the Free Soil Party, which is formed in 1848, there should be no slavery allowed in that area. And their slogan is free soil, free labor, and free men. And they are opposed to slavery in new land out in the West. So for example, California, Nevada, and other areas.
Now before you go think, oh these dudes are abolitionists, They're not. They want to keep the West an opportunity for whites only. They're not against slavery in the South.
They just want that land out West to be for free white male laborers. So it's not necessarily slavery as a moral issue. Now, in the South's mind, they see any attempt to restrict the expansion of slavery as a violation of their constitutional rights.
So the big question is, What are we going to do with all this land? And in 1848, you have an election. The Whigs pick Zachary Taylor, the war hero.
They take no position on the issue of slavery in the election. The Democrats pick Louis Cass, and their whole platform on slavery is popular sovereignty. And basically, people in the territory should decide whether or not to allow slavery.
The Free Soil Party does run a candidate, the former Democrat, Martin Van Buren, and they are... posed to the extension of slavery in the territories, kind of like the Wilmot Proviso position. And Zachary Taylor wins the election.
He's a war hero, so the nation kind of picks him. But something happens. And that's something that happens is California, or in California, gold is discovered in 1848 near Sutter's Mill.
And tons and tons of people, you know, the 49ers rush into... California territory. They're near San Francisco. In fact, you get by 1849 something like a hundred thousand settlers coming into California.
And gold paves the way for economic growth. And with economic growth becomes a problem. And the problem is sectional tension between the north and the south over California.
Because in 1849, California creates a constitution banning slavery and ask Congress for admission as a free state. And it's really the gold rush that accelerates this process towards statehood. Now, there is a crisis over Mexican secession as a result.
And really what happens is, until California, if you look at that map, there was an equal balance of power. You had 15 free states and 15 slave states. And if California enters the Union as a free state, this is going to throw the whole thing off. And Southerners, keep in mind, are increasingly defensive over the institution of slavery.
They saw the Talmadge Amendment as an attempt to try to ban slavery in Missouri. They saw the Wilmot Proviso of trying to keep slavery out of all of the Mexican territory. And now you have, at the same time, the Underground Railroad's been going on. People like Harriet Tubman had been coming to...
free slaves and taking them up north, and Southerners are putting their foot down. And you actually have, once California demands admission into the Union as a free state, threats of secession amongst some Southerners. In fact, the most radical Southerners are known as the Fire Eaters, and they actually talk of openly leaving the Union.
They plan to meet in Nashville, Tennessee to withdraw from the Union of the United States. Because they see their political future as disappearing if California enters the Union. Could there be another compromise is the question. Remember, we compromised once with Missouri. We compromised another time with the nullification issue.
And luckily, fortunately, you have these two political leaders, Henry Clay, the great compromiser, and Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat, who calms the situation down with compromise. And that is the Compromise of 1850. And the Compromise of 1850 has a number of parts to it. First, California will be admitted as a free state. So the Northerners get that. The two territories will be set up, Utah and New Mexico, and the issue of slavery will be left to popular sovereignty.
The people in those territories will decide whether or not slavery will be allowed. Slavery will be restricted, or rather the slave trade would be... banned in Washington, D.C. There would be a tougher fugitive slave law for the South. They really wanted this. They felt that the runaway slaves were not being sent back by Northerners.
So they request and get in the Compromise of 1850 a very tough new fugitive slave law. And then finally, there's a border dispute between New Mexico and Texas, and Texas agrees to give that land to New Mexico. Now, Zachary Taylor dies during this political crisis over California, and his vice president, Millard Fillmore, becomes the president. So Millard Fillmore calls the Compromise of 1850 the final settlement of sectional division, and oh, how wrong you will be, Millard Fillmore. And here's why.
Things calm down briefly, but it's really the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that kind of causes increased tensions. And the reason why is going to be the Fugitive Slave Act turned the North into a hunting ground for fugitive slaves. Southerners can go North looking for runaways from many, many years ago.
Northerners who assisted runaways could be arrested. And slaves were forbidden from a jury trial. They could not testify in court. And for many Northerners, for the first time, they are forced to deal with the issue of slaveries. right in their own backyard.
In fact, not only do you see them having to deal with the Fugitive Slave Act, many Northerners for the first time resist the institution of slavery. And moderate Northerners are suddenly sympathetic to the abolitionist movement. And there's a growth of the abolitionist movement in the North. It's not a majority of people, but Northerners increasingly are concerned.
You have increased support for the Underground Railroad. helping slaves reach the North or Canada. You have personal liberty laws being passed in different northern states, which would not allow the use of local jails for housing of fugitive slaves.
You have vigilance committees set up, which had the goal of protecting fugitive slaves from slave catchers. In fact, one famous example is Anthony Burns, a runaway slave living in Boston. He is arrested.
And eventually an angry mob comes to his defense and federal troops are sent into the city of Boston. So Northerners are resisting and Southerners are outraged. In fact, in the 1850s, you're going to see the nation becoming more and more polarized.
And it's really going to be this issue of slavery, mainly in the territories, but also, as you can see, a result of the Fugitive Slave Law. Now in 1852, there's another election. The Democrats pick Franklin Pierce and he wins the election. The Whig party is a mess. They are truly divided over the issue of slavery because Northerners support the Fugitive Slave Act.
Northern Whigs especially and Southern Whigs don't. And what occurs is any attempts to expand the nation begins to be a challenge more and more frequently. The debate over slavery slowed any attempts.
at national expansion, this idea of manifest destiny. Free soilers are going to be suspicious of any expansion under Franklin Pierce. For instance, when a group of southerners plan to try to buy Cuba from Spain and turn it into a slave state, news of that plan is leaked to the press, and free soilers and other northerners denounce this plan because they see... they increasingly fear that the South was attempting to create a slave empire.
And so any attempts to acquire Cuba are immediately condemned by the North. Although most attempts at expansion fail under President Pierce, the U.S. does agree to purchase a strip of land for $10 million from Mexico in 1853. And make sure you know this is called the Gadsden Purchase. And we buy this land in that darkish blue in the red circle. from Mexico in order to allow for the building of a future transcontinental railroad route.
The big event that you need to know about is the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. And what happens is Stephen Douglas, a northern Democrat from the state of Illinois, right here on the map, wants to secure a railroad route through his home state of Illinois out to the west. He also wants to encourage western settlement. But southerners aren't going to approve any railroad route in this area because it would be north of 3630. which means it would not have slavery allowed. So in order to win Southern approval, he introduces a bill into Congress called the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and it would set up two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and the issue of slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty. And what happens in the country is a huge political firestorm, because this act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 because it's saying that potentially slavery can go north of 3630. And Northerners oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act in huge numbers.
The Whig Party falls apart, the Republican Party is formed, and the reason why, for Northerners, this act opened up slavery to an area that previously it was closed off to. That's going to do it. In another lecture, we'll take a look at the impact of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
But for now, it's goodbye. If you haven't done so, subscribe to Joe's Production. If you haven't told the homies, tell them about it. Click like on the video, post your questions, and peace.