Download Chapter 10 Review

Chapter 10 Review
American History
Wilmot Proviso:
1. An amendment to a military appropriation bill introduced by David Wilmot of
Pennsylvania.
a. It proposed that slavery or indentured servitude not be allowed in any of the
territory acquired from the war with Mexico.
i. California
ii. New Mexico
iii. Utah
b. Regional divisions were evident in Congress over the amendment.
i. Northerners:
1. Most were for the passage of the Proviso.
2. Feared the addition of slavery in the new territories would give
the South more Congressional power.
3. Slavery would deny economic opportunities to free workers.
ii. Southerners:
1. Opposed the Proviso’s passage.
2. Compromises were introduced by John C. Calhoun of South
Carolina.
a. Supported slavery in the new territories.
3. Some argued Constitutional issues were being ignored.
4. Felt the Proviso undermined the Constitutional right to own
property.
a. Slaves were property.
5. Feared free states would then control Congress.
c. The House of Representatives approved the Wilmot Proviso.
d. The Senate rejected the Wilmot Proviso.
Secession:
1. Southerners in Congress began talking of leaving the Union after
the election of 1860.
a. Having a president elected without winning a single southern state helped
confirm their sense of political powerlessness.
b. Divisions over territories and slavery issues were also a factor in the discussion
of leaving the Union.
i.
Northerners demanding slave trade
stopped in Washington D.C.
ii.
Border disputes over Texas claims over
parts of New Mexico.
iii. California entering the Union as a free
state.
iv. Believed that Northerners were ignoring
the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
2. If secession occurred, the United States would become two separate nations.
a.
b.
c.
In early 1860, delegates from seven southern states voted to secede from the
United States.
In early 1861, the Confederate States of America’s constitution was drafted.
Secessionists justified their position with the doctrine of states’ rights.
i. Asserting that since individual states had come together to form one
Union, a state had the right to withdraw from that Union.
Compromise of 1850:
1. Presented by Henry Clay.
2. A series of resolutions intending to settle the disputes over
slavery and new free states entering the Union.
3. The slavery issue precipitated the drafting of the Compromise.
4. Resolutions proposed:
a. For the North:
i. California enters the Union as a free state.
ii. Abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
iii. Paying Texas $10 million to abandon its claim to the eastern portion of
the New Mexico Territory.
b. For the South:
i. Proposed that the New Mexico Territory be organized into two
territories.
1. New Mexico
2. Utah
ii. These two new territories would decide on the slavery issue on the basis
of Popular Sovereignty.
iii. Proposed Congress pass a stronger fugitive slave law.
1. Force states and local officials, and private citizens to help
federal officials in the capture and return of runaway slaves.
5. Clay’s compromise was debated for months.
a. John C. Calhoun had a speech read in the Senate on March 4, 1850.
i. Declared that the time for compromise had passed.
ii. The only way to avoid a civil war was to allow slavery to exist in the
territories.
6. Daniel Webster, a Whig leader, spoke three days later.
a. Supported Clay’s compromise efforts.
b. His speech was not popular with Northern Whigs and Democrats.
i. Did not believe the Constitution protected slavery
ii. Stated that people were morally bound to a law higher than the
constitution.
iii. They opposed stricter fugitive slave legislation and continued to urge
Congress to ban slavery from the territories.
7. The Compromise was pushed through Congress by Senator Stephen Douglas.
a. He broad the Compromise into individual proposals and presented them to
Congress that way.
i. California was admitted as a free state to the Union in September of 1850.
ii. Other issues were passed by September 20, 1850.
8. The Compromise of 1850 was hailed as a triumph for national unity by some Americans.
a. Voting record indicated a deep sectional division was very evident.
9.
b. The issue of slavery remained unsolved.
The Compromise began to crumble mainly because of the Fugitive Slave Act.
Fugitive Slave Act:
1. Passed as part of the Compromise of 1850.
2. This law made it a federal crime to help runaway slaves and
authorized the arrest of escaped slaves.
a. This included states where slavery was illegal.
b. A $1,000 fine and six months in prison for assisting
alleged runaway slaves.
3. The new law also alleged fugitives were not entitled to any
rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
a. No right to legal council
b. No rights to a trial by jury.
c. Had no right to testify in their own defense.
4. Federal commissions would receive $10 fee for those alleged
fugitives that were returned to slavery.
5.
Federal commissions would receive $5 fee for those alleged
Fugitives set free.
6. The law was vigorously opposed in the North.
a. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped create this opposition.
i. After reading this novel, many believed
the law was inhuman and needed to be
abolished.
b. Many Northerners believed the law made them
“tools” and “body-guards” for slave owners.
7. Several Northern states passed a “personal liberties law” in retaliation to the Fugitive
Slave Act.
a. Other Northerners took a direct action.
i. Angry mobs in New York and Massachusetts freed runaway slaves that
were in custody.
1. Helped them get to Canada.
Personal Liberty Laws:
1. Passed by nine Northern states in defiance to the Fugitive Slave Act.
a. Prevented state officials from enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.
b. Guaranteed runaway slaves legal assistance.
c. Forbid the imprisonment of runaway slaves.
d. Guaranteed runaway slaves a jury trial.
Underground Railroad:
1. Established by Northern Vigilance Committee.
a. Its purpose was to protect escaped slaves.
b. Develop safe-houses for runaway slaves on their journey North.
2. Many involved with the escape route were white.
a. Majority were black.
3. First step was to escape their slaveholders.
a. Relied on help from others to help with the escape.
i. At times the helpers would pretend to be a slave.
1. Go to a plantation disguised as a slave and guide the slaves
wanting to escape north.
4. Runaways and their guides generally traveled by night.
a. Hid during the day in organized safe-houses.
b. Generally managed to travel ten to twenty miles per night.
5. Messengers would travel to the next safe-house, also called “Stations”, to let the next
safe-house know people were coming.
6. Fugitives would use more than one method to travel North.
a. Boats
b. Trains
c. Wagons
d. Walking.
7. Great effort was made through donations to change a fugitive’s appearance from slave to
a free black by the Vigilance Committees.
a. Money
b. Food
c. Lodging
d. Clothing
e. Helped them find jobs
f. Provided them with letters of recommendations.
Popular Sovereignty:
1. Was introduced to quiet a debate about extending the
Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean.
a. Introduced by Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Lewis
Cass of Michigan.
i. They suggest that each new territory should
decide if slavery would be permitted.
1. Not liked by the hardliners.
2. Was introduced once again as part of the Compromise of
1850.
a. Again stated that the residents of the western
territories of New Mexico and Utah vote on if they
wanted to allow slavery or not.
b.
Both the Northern and Southern representatives liked the idea.
Economic Differences between the North and the South:
1. The Northern portion of the United States during this time
had become an industrial environment.
a. Economy now depended on industry more than
agriculture.
i. Textile factories
ii. Farming equipment
iii.
Production of weapons
2.
The Southern states continued to rely on “cash crops” and
slavery.
a. Slaves were necessary to help with all aspects
of bring the crops to harvest.
i. planting
ii. cultivating
iii. harvesting
iv. getting crops to market.
Daniel Webster:
1. A Congressional member belonging to the Whig Party.
2. He supported Henry Clay’s compromise measures.
a. Spoke before the Congress encouraging the passage of
Clay’s compromise.
i. Went against his northern members of Congress.
3. Like Henry Clay, he was trying to preserve the Union.
Stephen Douglas:
1. Senator from Illinois.
a. Assumed the responsibility to get Clay’s compromise passed through Congress.
i. The Compromise had already been rejected once by Congress.
2. Created a plan to get the Compromise passed.
a. Separated the resolutions and introduced them separately.
i. This allowed Congressmen to vote, veto or abstain to each separate
resolution.
1. Douglas’s idea prevented an all or nothing scenario.
3. He was against the Lecompton Constitution in Kansas.
a. Argued that Kansas voters should have the right to decide if more slaves should
be allowed in the territory.
b. His stand on the Lecompton Constitution cost him support in the South.
i. Believed he was siding with Republicans to stop slavery in new states
entering the Union.
ii. His principle of popular sovereignty was discredited.
4. Debated Republican Abraham Lincoln for his seat in the Senate and nicknames “Little
Giant”.
a. Involved in a series of seven debates through out Illinois. In
i. August and October of 1858.
b. Was challenged by Lincoln to explain how popular sovereignty was used to
settle the slavery issue in the new territories at a debate in Freeport, Illinois.
i. His response was that slavery could still be prohibited simple by local
governments refusing to pass local laws that would allow the slave
system to work.
ii. This argument became known as the Freeport Doctrine.
c. Douglas’s response to Lincoln’s question helped him win the Senate seat by a
narrow margin.
i. Hurt his bid to run for president in 1860.
Millard Fillmore:
1.
2.
Vice President under Zachary Taylor.
Became 13th president to the United States when Taylor died in
1850 of a stomach ailment.
3. Unlike Taylor, Fillmore favored Clay’s Compromise of 1850.
a. After the compromise became law he saw it as a “final
settlement” on sectionalism and slavery.
5. He was a member of the Know-Nothing Party
a. Supported by a diverse group in the 1856 elections.
i. Remaining Whigs
ii. Anti-immigrant population
iii. Anti-Catholic Know-Nothings
6. Election of 1856 placed Fillmore in third place with 8 electoral votes.
a. Buchanan won the election with 174 electoral votes
b. Second place went to Fremont with 114 electoral votes
Harriett Tubman:
1. Best known as a “Conductor” in the Underground Railroad.
a. Made nineteen trips in ten years from the South to the
North.
b. Helped over three hundred slaves to freedom.
c. Never lost one of her charges.
2. Born a slave in Maryland.
a. Worked as a house servant starting around the age
of five.
b. Sent to the fields to work at the age of twelve.
3. Married a free man.
a. John Tubman in 1844.
b. Fear of being sold in 1849 she ran away.
i. Went to Philadelphia.
c. Returned to Maryland a year later.
i. Helped her sister and her two children escape to the North.
ii. The next trip she helped her brother and tow other men escape
iii. Her third trip she went to get her husband.
1. He had already remarried
2. She brought others instead that wanted to reach freedom.
4. Devised techniques to make their trips successful.
a. Used Masters horses and buggies for the first leg of a journey.
b. Always left on a Saturday night.
i. Limited the possibility of runaways names being placed into the
newspapers until the following Monday.
ii. Headed back South if they ran into possible slave hunters.
iii. Carried a drug in case a baby crying might put them in danger along the
route.
iv. Carried a gun.
1. Threatened the slaves if they became too tired to go on or wanted
to turn back.
a. Told them “Die or be free!”
5. Rescued her 70 year old parents in 1860.
6.
7.
She was a confidant to John Brown.
a. He told her about his plans for the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia
She began taking part in anti-slavery meetings in the North.
Harriet Beecher Stowe:
1. The daughter of a protestant preacher.
a. She was one of seven children.
2. She worked as a teacher.
a. Published children geographical publications.
3. Married Calvin Stowe in 1836.
a. Helped support her family of seven children by
writing.
i. Local and religious periodicals.
ii. Poems
iii. Travel books
iv. Biographical sketches
v. Children’s books
iv.
Adult novels
4. Her first novel was “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
a. Began as a series in the Washington Anti-Slavery weekly the “National Era.”
b. Book was drawn from personal experiences
i. She was familiar with slavery
ii. The Underground Railroad crossed from Kentucky into Ohio.
iii. She was involved in the Anti-Slavery movement.
5. Wrote a “Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
a. It was the documentation of the realities the book was based on.
6. She published a second Anti-slavery novel in 1856.
a. “DRED”
Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
1. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852.
2. Story about the crudity of slavery.
a. Had more impact on the American people than any writing since Thomas Paine’s
“Common Sense.”
b. The story was simple
c. Showed that slavery was evil
d. Showed slavery damaged families.
i. Both black and white
3. Originally written as a series of magazine articles.
a. Came out in book form in the spring of 1852.
b. Sold approximately three hundred thousand copies in one year.
4. Reaction to the story was extreme.
a. In the North:
i. Increased the agitation to abolish the Fugitive Slave Law.
b. In the South:
i. They hated the book!
1. they felt it was an attack against the South as a whole, not just
slavery.
5.
ii. Felt they did not treat their slaves any worse than the factory owners in
the North treated their workers.
Southern writers responded to the novel with novels of their own.
a. “Aunt Eva’s” was an attempt to show the North that their slaves were happy.
i. Aunt Eva lived in a cabin with lace curtain and lived well as a slave.
b. Their attempts to change Northerners views could not change the fact that Aunt
Eva was still a slave.
Kansas-Nebraska Act:
1. Construction of the railroad required Congress to organize
the Unorganized territory of Nebraska into two organized
territories.
a. These were the lands from the Louisiana Purchase
west of Missouri and Iowa.
b. This also meant that the issue of slavery in the West
would be reopened.
2. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was introduced by Stephen Douglas in an attempt to quiet
congressional debate.
a. The plan organized the lands on the basis of popular sovereignty.
b. Motive was to get the railroads to start in his home base of Chicago.
i. He had a great deal of real estate.
3. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise.
a. This renewed southern hopes of expanding slavery.
b. Northerners were outraged.
i. Called Douglas a traitor to antislavery causes.
ii. Accused him of caving into southern pressures in his bid for the
presidency.
4. Some people opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act for economic reasons.
a. Allowing slavery would force out white workers.
i. Own the workers instead of paying them.
5. Act divided the Nebraska Territory.
a. Southern portion became the Kansas Territory.
b. Northern portion became Nebraska Territory.
c. Popular Sovereignty would answer the questions of slavery in both territories.
i. The next question was should this question be answered before the
territory had an official government or after.
1. A minor war broke out in Kansas over the issue.
John Brown:
1. An abolitionist in Kansas who decided to get revenge for the incident called “Sack of
Lawrence.”
a. Proslavery men went to Lawrence, Kansas looking for several Free-Soilers who
had been indicted for treason.
i. Felt they had a legal backing by the proslavery legislature to create
havoc.
1. Burned the hotel
2. destroyed several homes
3. smashed the new Free-Soil newspapers press.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
With his four sons and tow other men they rode to a small proslavery settlement at
Pottawatomie Creak.
a. Dragged five men out of their homes and killed them.
i. Brown claimed God had given him his support for the killings.
He disappeared for several years after the murders at Pottawatomie Creek.
Resurfaced again in 1859.
a. Decided to attack the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on the Virginia side of
the Potomac River.
i. He and his followers captured some arms and took several slaveholders
hostage and several slaves.
ii. Hoped the attack would encourage blacks in Virginia to revolt.
1. Dug in and waited for the rebellion news to get back to him.
Brown surrendered to federal troops from Washington D.C. after holding out for two
day.
a. Most of his men had been killed.
Placed on trial and found guilty of treason in Virginia.
a. He was hanged on December 2, 1859.
Bleeding Kansas:
1. The Kansas-Nebraska Act pitted antislavery and proslavery
groups against one another for control of the new territories.
2. New Englanders, in an effort to bolster the number of
antislavery settlers, formed the Emigrant Aid Company.
a. They helped antislavery families move to Kansas.
3. Proslavery groups urge southerners to migrate to the new
territories.
a. Missouri Senator David Atchinson challenged
proslavery groups to elect the first territorial
legislature.
i. Approximately 5,000 Missouri residence who favored slavery in the new
territory came into Kansas and voted illegally.
1. Voted in a proslavery legislature.
4. Antislavery settlers refused to accept the legislature as their
legal government.
a. Formed a Free State party and elected their own
legislature giving Kansas two governments.
5. With two governments in place the conflicts began.
a. Proslavery raiders from Missouri attacked
antislavery settlers in Kansas.
b. In May of 1856, a proslavery mob estimated at
700 burned the tow of Lawrence, Kansas.
c. In revenge, abolitionist John Brown and his
followers attacked a proslavery settlement along
Pottawatomie Creek.
i.
Dragged five men form their beds and
Brutally murdered them.
1. This massacre was coined by the newspapers as “Bleeding
Kansas.”
Dred Scott:
1. A slave of John Emerson, an army surgeon from Missouri.
a. Scott accompanied his owner to all his assigned posts.
i. Even in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin
before returning to Missouri.
2. Emerson died in 1846, and Scott was left to his son.
a. Scott sued for his freedom.
i. Based his argument on the fact that he had resided in the free state of
Illinois which entitled him his freedom.
3. Scott’s case reached the Supreme Court in 1857.
a. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney was one of five southerners on the Court.
i. He wrote the majority opinion against Scott.
ii. Declared Scott was not a citizen.
1. This meant he could not bring a suit into American courts.
2. He had no rights being a slave.
3. Ruled if Scott had had a legal right to bring the suit his claim
for freedom had no merit.
iii. Taney’s decision was based on the view that the Missouri
Compromise violated the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
1. Forbid Congress to deny the right to property without “due
process of law.”
a. Slaves were legally classified as property.
4. The Dred Scott Decision abolished the Missouri Compromise.
a. Taney’s ruling allowed slavery in all states and territories in the United States.
Abraham Lincoln:
1. Republican candidate the Senate in 1858 from Illinois.
a. Ran against Democrat Stephen Douglas.
2. Lincoln had less than one year of formal education.
a. Known for his intelligence and ambition at a
young age.
3. As a child his family moved from Kentucky to the Indiana
frontier.
a. Moved in part because of his families opposition to
slavery and because of a dispute over the families
land claim in Kentucky.
5. Moved to Illinois at the age of 21.
a. Moved to New Salem, Illinois the next year.
i. Worked at various jobs.
1. Served in the frontier militia
2. With a partner, owned a store for a short time.
3. Appointed postmaster and deputy surveyor.
6. Ran for the Illinois legislature in 1838 successfully.
a. A shrew politician
b. Became the Whig floor leader
7. Studied law while in the legislature by reading textbooks at home.
a. Moved to Springfield after being admitted to the bar.
i. Practiced law.
ii. Met his future wife, Mary Todd.
8. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 and only stayed for one term
before returning to Illinois...
a. As a member of Congress he opposed the Mexican War.
b. Opposed the slave trade in Washington D.C.
9. The conflict over slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act prompted Lincoln to get back
into public life in 1864.
a. Spoke publicly against the expansion of slavery.
i. At times on behalf of other candidates.
10. In 1858, he was selected as the newly formed Republican party’s candidate of the
Senate seat held by Stephen Douglas.
a. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates in order to get exposure
within the state.
i. Debates took place in August and September of 1858.
b. Lincoln during these debates attacked the Dred Scott decision.
c. At Freeport, Illinois he challenged Douglas to explain how popular
sovereignty was used to settle the slavery issue in the new territories.
i. Douglas’s response helped him get reelected.
11. Lincoln lost the election to Douglas.
a. Made a name for himself in politics.
b. Became the Republican candidate for president in 1860.
i. Won the election and be came President.
12. Lincoln’s win in the presidential election mobilized the Deep South into secession.
a. He believed that slavery should not be spread to the new territories.
b. He did not intend to abolish slavery where it already existed.
Freeport Doctrine:
1. The name given to Stephen Douglas’s response to Lincoln’s
challenge to explain how popular sovereignty was used to
settle the slavery issue in the new territories.
a.
The argument became known as the Freeport
Doctrine.
i.
Helped Douglas get reelected to his Senate seat.
ii.
Distanced himself from the Dred Scott decision which damaged
his standing with the southern slaveholders.
iii.
Hurt his opportunity for a bid to run for president.
Know-Nothing Party:
1. The party was formed in 1849.
a. It was a secret society of nativists.
i. Supported only native-born Protestants for public office.
2. Given the name Know-Nothing because when asked about the party the response was
“I know nothing.”
3. Worked together with the Republican Party in the election of 1854.
a. Joined to defeat the Democratic candidates.
4. Slave issue had split the Know-Nothing party by 1856.
a.
Many antislavery Know-Nothings joined the Republican Party.
Free-Soil Party:
1. This political party was formed by antislavery Whigs and Democrats in 1848.
a. They opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories.
2. The party demanded that Congress prohibit the expansion of slavery into the territories.
3. Party appealed to farmers, land reformers and some industrial workers in the North and
West for several reasons besides the slavery issue.
a. Supported free western homestead
b. Federal funding for internal improvements
4. Slogan was “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.”
a. Nominated former president Martin Van Buren for the election of 1848.
5. The election of 1848 did not bring a victory to the Free-Soil Party, receiving on 291,000
votes out of 2.9 million.
a. They won enough Democratic votes in key northern states to enable the Whig
candidate, Zachary Taylor to win the election.
b. Won several seats in the House of Representatives.
6. The Free-Soil party after the election of 1848 showed that the slavery question could no
longer be ignored.
7. In the election of 1852, some Free-Soilers returned to the Democratic Party.
a. They were convinced that Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce could hold the
South in check.
8. The election of 1854 brought together some Free-Soilers, Whigs, and Democrats together
to form the Republican Party.
9. The remaining Southern moderates that belonged to the Know-Nothings and Whigs
formed the Constitutional Union Party for the election of 1860.
Republican Party:
1. The party was formed in 1854, and the name was revived from Thomas Jefferson’s party.
2. Formed from some Free-Soilers, antislavery Whigs and Democrats.
a. Purpose was to carry the message to the nation that a new antislavery party was
growing in the North.
b. Firmly opposed the expansion of slavery.
3. The party worked together with the Know-Nothings to defeat the Democratic candidates
in the 1854 election.
a. After the split of the Know-Nothing Party over slavery many joined the
Republican Party.
4. By 1854, the party was becoming a very powerful political party in the United States.
a. Chose John C. Fremont for their presidential candidate in 1856.
i. His campaign was hindered by the portal of the party as a sectionalist
party by the Democrats.
5. Lincoln joined the Republican Party and was selected in 1858 as the party’s candidate for
the United States Senate from Illinois.
a. Ran against Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas.
i. Lost the election.
6. Republican Party again nominated Lincoln as their candidate for the 1860 presidential
election.
a.
7.
Designed a platform to attract northern industrialists, wage earners and
midwestern farmers.
b. The party opposed slavery in the territories.
c. Called for free homestead for western settlers.
d. Federal support for internal improvements
e. Wanted the Transcontinental Railroad
f. Wanted tariffs to protect industry.
g. Supported a liberal immigration policy.
The Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860.
a. The party did not win one single southern state.
Horace Greely:
1. Founder and publisher for the New York Tribune.
2. An n abolitionist editor.
3. Advised Lincoln after the first Battle of Bull Run that he needed to do what was best for
the country.
a. If that meant making peace with the rebels on their own term do it.
4. Criticized Lincoln for not making slavery the central issue in the Civil War.
John C. Fremont:
1. An captain in the United States army during the Mexican War.
2. Explored California in 1845 and helped organize the revolt against Mexico.
3. Member of the newly formed Republican Party.
4. Ran for President as a Republican candidate in 1856.
a. Slavery in the territories was the main issue for the election.
b. Lost to Buchanan when the Republican Party was depicted as a sectional party
that was bent on destroying the Union.
c. Almost all his votes came from the North.
James Buchannan:
1. The 1856 Democratic candidate for president.
2. His campaign was pro popular sovereignty in all territories.
a. He himself did not have an opinion about the Kansas-Nebraska uproar.
3. He went out of his way during public debates not to offend anyone.
a. Purposefully stayed out of the slavery controversy.
i. He did detest slavery, but believed it was a matter for the courts to
decide.
4. Won the election of 1856.
5. Buchannan did little to stop the southern states from seceding form the Union after the
election of 1860.
a. Sat on a political fence between his leaving office and Lincoln taking the office.
b. He announced that no state had the right to secede but the federal government
had o power to hold them to the Union against their will.
6. Buchannan decided that he would let Lincoln deal with the problem.
a. He felt he was caught in a dilemma.
Franklin Pierce:
1. Democratic candidate from New Hampshire in the election of
1850.
a. He was nominated as a dark horse.
i. He was not well known outside his own state.
b. Convinced many people on both sides of the slavery
issue that he shared their views.
c. Convinced some Free-Soilers that he could hold the
South in check.
i. This brought some of them back to the party.
d. Elected over Winfield Scott.
2. He was the youngest man, at the age of 48, to become
President at that time.
3. He was well liked, considered friendly and sociable by both
Northerners and Southerners.
a. He did not have any control over them or members of Congress.
b. Tried to please extremists on both sides of the sectional controversy.
c. Was a weak leader.
d. Lost control over political events.
Nativism:
1. A policy of favoring native-born Americans over immigrants.
a. Some native-born Americans were upset by the new immigrants’ customs.
i. Beer gardens
ii. Germans clannishness
iii. Roman Catholicism
iv. Growing political power of the Irish.
2. Nativists viewed immigrants as politically corrupt and socially inferior.
a. Particularly the Irish.
3. Some Nativists urged the limiting of immigrants rights to vote and hold public offices.
a. Wanted to limit Irish political power because they believed the Pope was
directing their decisions.
4. Some Nativists formed as secret society in 1849, called the Order of the Star-Spangled
Banner.
a. Members swore to support only native-born Protestants for public elections.
b. Lobbied for a 21 year waiting period for naturalization
c. Fight the Catholic Church.
5. The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner soon organized into the political party called the
American Party.
a. Later became dubbed as the Know-Nothing Party.
i. When asked about their party their response was “I Know Nothing.”