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
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 for
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 w
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 slav
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 Ame
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 M
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. Compri
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
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
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
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 hi
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 b
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 36�30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive sl