1.
"Fire Eaters": refers to a group of extremist pro-slavery politicians from the South who urged the separation of southern states into a new nation, which became known as the Confederate States of America.
2.
Abraham Lincoln: One of the most skillful politicians in Republican party. Lawyer. Tried to gain national exposure by debates with Stephen A. Douglas. The Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted much attention. Lincoln's attacks on slavery made him nationally known. He felt slavery was morally wrong, but was not an abolitionist. He felt there was not an alternative to slavery and blacks were not prepared to live on equal terms as whites. Won presidency in November election.
3.
Bleeding Kansas: Was a sequence of violent events involving Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" elements that took place in Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri between roughly 1854 and 1858 attempting to influence whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state.
4.
Charles Sumner: gave a speech in may 1856 called " the Crime Against Kansas" militant opponent of slavery, beat with a cane by Preston Brooks after the speech, collapsed unconscious and couldn't return to senate for 4 years, symbol throughout the north.
5.
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty: 1850- Treaty between U.S. and Great Britain agreeing that neither country would try to obtain exclusive rights to the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Revoked by the U.S. in 1881.
6.
Compromise of 1850: California was admitted as a free state, Texas received financial compensation for relinquishing claim to lands West of the Rio Grande river, the territory of New Mexico was organized with popular sovereignty, the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C., and the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. It temporarily defused sectional tensions in the United States, postponing the secession crisis and the American Civil War. Also repealed the Missouri Compromise.
7.
Constitutional Union Party: 1860 election; it was a middle of the road group that feared for the Union- consisted mostly of Whigs and Know-Nothings, met in Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee as candidate for presidency-the slogan for this candidate was "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the laws."
8.
Crittenden Compromise: 1860 - attempt to prevent Civil War by Senator Crittenden - offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36ยบ30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves - defeated by Republicans.
9.
Daniel Webster: Famous American politician and orator, leader of the Whig Party, originally pro-North, supported the Compromise of 1850 and subsequently lost favor from his constituency. Opposed the financial policy of Jackson and many of the principles of finance he spoke about were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System. Would later push for a strong union.
10.
Dred Scott Decision: A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that Scott had no right to sue in federal court because african americans were not citizens; slaves were property and the property rights of their owners were protected in all states; congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in any territory, and the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional; slavery supporters rejoiced antislavery peole were stunned
11.
Franklin Pierce: an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States. Pierce's popularity in the North declined sharply after he came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the Missouri Compromise and reopening the question of the expansion of slavery in the West.
12.
Free Soil Party: Formed in 1847 - 1848, dedicated to opposing slavery in newly acquired territories such as Oregon and ceded Mexican territory on the grounds that such land should be used for whites.
13.
Freeport Doctrine: Doctrine developed by Stephen Douglas during the Lincoln-Douglas that said the exclusion of slavery in a territory should be determined by popular sovereignty not by the Supreme Court's ruling. It was unpopular with Southerners, and thus cost him the election.
14.
Gadsen Purchase: Purchase made by the United States from Mexico in 1853 for $10 million by president Franklin Pierce. This was in order to build a railroad through that region.
15.
Harpers Ferry Raid: Occurred in 1859. John Brown of Kansas attempted to create a major revolt among the slaves. He wanted to ride down the river and provide the slaves with arms from the North, but he failed to get the slaves organized. Brown was captured. The effects of Harper's Ferry Raid were as such: the South saw the act as one of treason and were encouraged to separate from the North, and Brown became a martyr to the northern abolitionist cause.
16.
Harriet Tubman: American abolitionist. Born a slave on a Maryland plantation, she escaped to the North in 1849 and became the most renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom.
17.
Harriett Beecher Stowe: Author of a book called Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was a novel that vividly described slavery. It was a best seller and people think it was a big contribution to the Civil War and to Britain not helping the south during the civil war.
18.
Henry Clay: Distinguished senator from Kentucky, who ran for president five times until his death in 1852. He was a strong supporter of the American System, a war hawk for the War of 1812, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and known as "The Great Compromiser." Vouched for the Missouri Compromise and outlined the Compromise of 1850 with five main points. Died before it was passed however.
19.
James Buchanan: The 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He tried to maintain a balance between proslavery and antislavery factions, but his moderate views angered radicals in both North and South, and he was unable to forestall the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860.
20.
John Brown: violent abolitionist who murdered slaveholders in Kansas and Missouri (1856-1858) before his raid at Harpers Ferry (1859), hoping to incite a slave rebellion; he failed and was executed, but his martyrdom by northern abolitionists frightened the South.
21.
John C. Calhoun: The 7th Vice President of the United States and a leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. He was an advocate of slavery, states' rights, limited government, and nullification, and of the fugitive slave laws.
22.
Kansas-Nebraska Act: created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed the settlers to decide whether or not to have slavery within those territories through popular sovereignty.
23.
Lecompton Constitution: Pro-slave constitution that got voted in for Kansas after anti-slaveryites boycotted the election. Was supported at first by president James Buchanan, but eventually was overthrown and kansas made a free state.
24.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates: 1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, not the Supreme court. (Freeport Doctrine), led the south to stop support douglas and caused him to lose the election.
25.
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.
26.
Millard Fillmore: Successor of President Zachary Taylor after his death on July 9th 1850. He helped pass the Compromise of 1850 by gaining the support of Northern Whigs for the compromise.
27.
Ostend Manifesto: Originally, Pierce offered Spain 120 Million for cuba, which they denied, but a declaration (1854) issued from Ostend, Belgium, by the U.S. ministers to England, France, and Spain, stating that the U.S. would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain did not sell it to the U.S.
28.
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
29.
Pottawatomie Creek Massacre: In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers killed five pro-slavery settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas
30.
Roger Taney: 5th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1836 to 1864, presided over the Dred Scott case.
31.
Self-Determination: the freedom of a people to decide under what form of government they wish to live
32.
Southern Nationalism: idea that the south would develop into its own country in response to Lincoln's presidency (the last straw), its how they became the confederates
33.
Stephen A. Douglas: Politician from illinois who supported popular sovereignty and basically destroyed his political career with the freeport doctrine in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. strongly supported the compromise of 1850. Ran against Lincoln, Bell, and Breckenridge in the 1860 presidential election on a popular sovereignty platform for slavery, also authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and heightened the slavery debate.
34.
Uncle Tom's Cabin: Novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe about a slave who's ordered to be beaten to death by two other slaves. Showed northerners and foreigners the horrors of slavery while southerners attack it as an exaggeration, it was also a cause of the Civil War.
35.
Underground Railroad: a system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North, even to Canada.
36.
William H. Seward: antislaveryite from New York, he stated that on the issue of slavery, there was a higher law than the Constitution. A Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
37.
Zachary Taylor: military hero of Mexican War and the last Whig elected president (1848); his sudden death in July 1850 allowed supporters of the Compromise of 1850 to get the measures through Congress. VP Millard Fillmore
