Post on 14-Dec-2015
Day 60: Renewing the Sectional StruggleBaltimore Polytechnic Institute
December 11, 2012A/A.P. U.S. History
Mr. Green
Objectives: Indicate how the Whig party’s disintegration over slavery signaled
the end of nonsectional political parties.Describe how the Pierce administration, as well as private American
adventurers, pursued numerous overseas and expansionist ventures primarily designed to expand slavery.
Describe Americans’ first ventures into China and Japan in the 1850s and their diplomatic, economic, cultural, and religious consequences.
Describe the nature and purpose of Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act, and explain why it fiercely rekindled the slavery controversy that the Compromise of 1850 had been designed to settle.
AP FocusNot content with the land gained from Mexico, southerners look to
Central America and the Caribbean for possible slave states. Central America is also seen as an ideal location for a canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, a project a future generation will undertake.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, orchestrated by Senator Stephen A. Douglas for political as well as personal reasons, further polarizes the nation. Northerners conclude that, with popular sovereignty, there will be no limitations placed on the expansion of slavery.
Renewing the Sectional Struggle
CHAPTER THEMESIn the 1850s, American
expansionism in the West and the Caribbean was extremely controversial because it was tied to the slavery question.
Commercial interests guided American foreign policy in Asia and contributed to sectional tension within the United States, as regions tried to secure the terminus to a transcontinental railroad.
Chapter Focus
Mexican War Chart-due todayElection Charts 1852 & 1856, 1860 &1864
Work on for next weekDecades Chart 1850’s-for next week
Announcements
Identify the components of the Compromise of 1850.
How will this impact future slavery questions?
Evaluate the effectiveness of the Compromise of 1850.
Drill
Election of 1852DemocratsFranklin PierceNew HampshireWeak/IndecisiveServed in Mexican WarEndorsed: Compromise
of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law
254 Electoral Votes
WhigsWinfield ScottAblest general of his
generationPraised Compromise of
1850, Fugitive Slave Law
Split on slavery42 Electoral VotesMarked the end of the
Whigs
Defeat and Doom for the Whigs
Central America a concern after the gold rush and Mexican War
The dream of a continuous Atlantic to Pacific transportation route aroused debate
Britain seized San Juan del Norte (Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast)
Caused a treaty between the U.S. and New Granada(Columbia)U.S. the right of transit across the Isthmus by maintaining the “perfect neutrality” of the route for free trade
Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1855 though the Panamanian jungle
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty-U.S. and Britain would not seek exclusive control over a future Isthmain waterway
Expansionist Stirrings South of the Border
Southern slavocrats wanted to push slavery south into Central America by acquiring land.
William Walker-tried to take Baja California Took Nicaragua and installed himself as President
U.S. withdrew recognition and he was executed in 1860 by a Honduran firing squad
Cuba another enticing slavery acquisitionPolk offered $100 million to Spain
1850-1851 feeble takeovers ended in disasterSpain took American Steamer Black Warrior in 1854Ostend Manifesto-$120 million for Cuba. If not, and the
continued Spanish ownership endangered American interests, the U.S. would be right in forcefully taking the land
On to Central America
Caleb Cushing sent by President Tyler in early 1844
Signed the Treaty of Wanghia-1st formal diplomatic treaty between the U.S. and China
Matthew C. Perry sent by President FillmoreUsed grace and fear to finalize the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854
The Allure of Asia
Transportation to newly acquired lands imperative to keep them in the union
All sorts of solutions….even camelsRailroads the only solutionWhere to build this railroad??? The South? The
North?Best routes south of the Mexican BorderSecretary of War Jefferson Davis arranged James
Gadsden, a railroad man to negotiate with Santa Anna
Purchased a small area for $10 million
Pacific Railroad Promoters/Gadsden Purchase
Stephen Douglass envisioned a line of settlements across the continent
He also owned Chicago real estate and railroad stock.
Proposed the Nebraska Territory be sliced into 2-Kansas and Nebraska
Utilized popular sovereignty to decide slaveryFlew in face of Missouri Compromise
Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Scheme