Miscellaneous
This Supreme Court case ruled that African American slaves were property and therefore not citizens furthering enraging many abolitionists and Northerners alike.
What was the Dred Scott Decision?
Coined by the journalist John O'Sullivan, this term describes America's desire to settle the country from coast to coast.
What is Manifest Destiny?
This amendment introduced by a Northern Democrat following the Mexican American War, called for no new slavery territory/ states from land ceded by Mexico. It did not pass, but angered and frightened the Southern Delegation.
What is the Wilmot Proviso?
This was an attempt by President Polk to buy California and New Mexico from Mexico before hostilities broke out between the U.S. and Mexico.
What was the Slidell Mission?
Known as "Young Hickory", this President pushed for war with Mexico and supported the U.S.'s territorial expansionist efforts.
Who is James K. Polk?
The death of this man and Daniel Webster helped end the Whig Party.
Who is Henry Clay?
President Polk's cry to take all of the Oregon Territory to the Alaskan border.
What is "Fifty-four forty or fight!"
This Compromise negotiated by Henry Clay sought to bring California in as a free state, and allowed for Popular Sovereignty in the New Mexico Territory as well as instituted the Fugitive Slave Law.
What is the Compromise of 1850?
This compromise was effectively ended by the Kansas Nebraska Act.
What is the Missouri Compromise?
This President won the election in 1848 campaigning as a Whig and a war hero.
Who is Zachary Taylor ?
Kansas earned this name through the fighting between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups following the Kansas Nebraska Act.
What is Bleeding Kansas?
Name of gold miners that rushed to California to strike it rich.
Who were the 49ers?
President Pierce's attempt to either buy or seize Cuba from Spain and push for its entry into the U.S. as a slave state.
What was the Ostend Manifesto?
Lincoln was unable to win one electoral vote from this region during the Election of 1860.
What is the South?
This woman wrote one of the most widely read books of the 1850s, Uncle Tom's Cabin, that painted slavery in a negative light.
Who is Harriet Beecher Stowe?
This movement and political party was based on opposition to slavery in new territories due to economic concerns.
What is the Free Soil Party/ Movement?
Political Whigs that opposed the Mexican War on moral grounds arguing that the Polk was waging a war to strengthen the Southern cause.
Who were Conscience Whigs?
This purchase allowed the U.S. to buy land from Mexico in hopes of building a Southern railroad route from Los Angeles to New Orleans.
What is the Gadsden Purchase?
This political party was known as nativist and disliked foreign immigrants, particularly Irish Catholics and Germans.
What was the American, or Know Nothing Party?
This abolitionist led an attack on Harper's Ferry in 1858 attempting to incite a slave rebellion, alarming Southerners.
Who is John Brown?
This man was a senator from Illinois that was known for pushing the Kansas Nebraska Act in a bid for building a transcontinental railroad, but also for his famed debates with Abraham Lincoln during his run for the Senate.
Who is Stephen Douglas?
This act passed in 1854 allowing for Popular Sovereignty in the Nebraska Territory, and was pushed through by Stephen Douglas to appease the Southern Dems in hopes of building a transcontinental railroad.
What is the Kansas Nebraska Act?
These laws were passed by Northern states to prohibit the return of runaway slaves, and effectively counter the Fugitive Slave Act.
What are Personal Liberty Laws?
This doctrine was proposed by Stephen Douglas during the Lincoln v. Douglas debates, effectively splitting Northern and Southern Democrats.
What was the Freeport Doctrine?
This Illinois Congressman and Whig became the Republican candidate for President in 1860, which effectively pushed the South towards secession from the union.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?