AP U.S. History Chapter 14 AMSCO and Enduring Vision Vocabulary Terms
Popular Sovereignty
A short lived political party, 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
Daniel Webster
Famous American politician and orator. he advocated renewal and opposed the financial policy of Jackson. Many of the principles of finance he spoke about were later incorporated in the Federal Reserve System. Would later push for a strong union.
Compromise of 1850
Forestalled the Civil War by instating the Fugitive Slave Act , banning slave trade in DC, admitting California as a free state, splitting up the Texas territory, and instating popular sovereignty in the Mexican Cession
Henry Clay's Omnibus Bill
Henry Clay was Whig who drafter the Compromise of 1850, The Omnibus Bill were the various bills it included combined into one larger bill that was part of the Compromise of 1850.
Millard Filmore
In 1850, President Taylor died suddenly and Vice President Millard Fillmore took the presidency. President Fillmore signed a series of compromises, including the Compromise of 1850.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
allowed government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave; all that was needed to take away someone's freedoms was word of a white person; northerners required to help capture runaways if requested, suspects had no right to trial
Personal-Liberty Laws
Pre-Civil War laws passed by Northern state governments to counteract the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Acts and to protect escaped slaves and free blacks settled in the North, by giving them the right to a jury trial.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book about a slave who is treated badly, in 1852. The book persuaded more people, particularly Northerners, to become anti-slavery.
American Party
Political organization that was created after the election of 1852 by the Know-Nothings, was organized to oppose the great wave of immigrants who entered the United States after 1846. They aimed to keep power out of Immigrant's and Roman-Catholic's hands.
Stephen A. Douglas
American politician from Illinois who developed the method of popular sovereignty as a way to settle slave state or free state. He helped passed the compromise of 1850 as well as giving the states the choice with popular sovereignty. He also wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Gadsden Purchase
Purchase of land from mexico in 1853 that established the present U.S.-mexico boundary
Filibustering
This is an attempt to obstruct a particular decision from being taken by using up the time available, typically through an extremely long speech. This would prevent the "opposing" party to pass an unfavorable law and ultimately force a compromise.
Ostend Manifesto
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.
"Bleeding Kansas"
Kansas was being disputed for free or slave soil during 1854-1857, by popular sovereignty. In 1857, there were enough free-soilers to overrule the slave-soilers. So many people were feuding that disagreements eventually led to killing in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces.
Lecompton Constitution
supported the existence of slavery in the proposed state and protected rights of slaveholders. It was rejected by Kansas, making Kansas an eventual free state.
Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a speech in 1856 called "The Crime Against Kansas", giving attention to Andrew P. Butler of SC who defended slavery. Summer called him the Don Quixote (look up Don Quixote by Cervantes if you don't know it. Quixote basically crusades for a nonexistent/lost cause) of slavery. This upset Butler's nephew Preston Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives from SC. Preston nearly killed Sumner several days after the speech by beating his head repeatedly with a cane. In the north Sumner became a martyr to the barbarism of the South, while in the South, Brooks became a hero. Many Southerners Preston's mailed him canes in support of what he did.
John C. Fremont
an American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States, and the first presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery.
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.
Roger B. Taney
Fifth Chief Justice, he was the first Roman Catholic to hold the job and was pro-slavery. He wrote the decision on the Dred Scot case.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
1857 Supreme Court decision that stated that slaves were not citizens; that living in a free state or territory, even for many years, did not free slaves; and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate
Freeport Doctorine
statement made by Stephen Douglas duing the Lincon-Douglas debates that pointed out how people could use popular sovereignty to determine if their state or territory should permit slavery
Raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown's (abolitionist who was hanged after leading an unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia) plan to take over a gun warehouse (federal arsenal) give out weapons to slaves and lead a revolt; effect- the north viewed Brown as a hero, and the south viewed Brown as a terrorist and created state militias to guard against further raids, greatly preparing the South for the upcoming Civil War
Panic of 1857
A notable sudden collapse in the economy caused by over speculation in railroads and lands, false banking practices, and a break in the flow of European capital to American investments as a result of the Crimean War. Since it did not effect the South as bad as the North, they gained a sense of superiority.
John C. Breckenridge
Southern democrat for election of 1860 favored states rights and slavery serevd as vice president under millard fillmore
Constitutional Union Party
also known as the "do-nothings" or "Old Gentlemen's" 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."
Crittenden Compromise
1860 - attempt to prevent Civil War by Senator Crittenden - offered a Constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in the territories south of the 36º30' line, noninterference by Congress with existing slavery, and compensation to the owners of fugitive slaves - defeated by Republicans
Jefferson Davis and the Confederate States of America
A republic formed in February of 1861 and composed of the eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States. Jefferson Davis was president from 1861-1865, the whole history of the States.
Pottawatomie Massacre
When John Brown (abolitionist) and followers murdered 5 pro-slavery settlers in Kansas then mutilated their bodies to scare other slave supporters and to keep slavery supporters from moving into Kansas.
Irrepressible Conflict
William H. Seward in an 1858 speech in which he predicted the collision of the socioeconomic institutions of the North and the South. This confrontation, Seward maintained, would determine whether the nation would be dominated by a system of free labor or slave labor. Abraham Lincoln posited the same idea in his 1858 "House Divided" speech. At the time, the use of the phrase did not include the assumption that the "irrepressible conflict" would necessarily find expression in violence or armed conflict.