POLITICAL CRISIS OF THE 1850S

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POLITICAL CRISIS OF THE 1850S
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President Zachary Taylor

• Personality Traits
• Politically Inept
• Inexperienced
• Ill-Informed
• Simplistic Solutions Proposed to Complex Problems

President Zachary Taylor
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California

• Problems with the New Territory California
• Gold Rush (1848-49)
• Huge Influx of People
• Qualified for State-hood

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Getting to California
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Prospectors
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Historical Photograph of Prospectors
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Taylors Ill-Judged Response

• Taylor Misjudged Situation
• Californians Drafted a Constitution Banning
  Slavery
• New Mexicos Residents Drafted a Constitution
  Banning Slavery

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Political Crisis, 1850

• Californias Admission as a Free State Threatened
  Sectional Balance in Senate
• Daniel Webster and Henry Clay Both Endorsed a
  Compromise

Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
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Provisions of the Compromise of 1850

• California
• Popular Sovereignty
• District of Columbia
• New Fugitive Slave Act
• Significance

Henry Clay in Senate, 1850
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Aftermath of the Compromise

• Controversy Over New Fugitive Slave Act

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Recapturing Fugitive Slaves
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The Abolitionist Response

• Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin (1852)
• Best Seller
• Plot
• Importance

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Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Stephen Douglas

• Presidential Ambitions
• Nationalistic Program
• Transcontinental Railroad
• Strategic Role of Kansas and Nebraska
• Southern Opposition

Stephen Douglas
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Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Douglas Concession to South Repeal of Missouri
  Compromise
• Provisions of Act
• Significance
• Intense Northern Opposition

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Collapse of 2nd Party System

• Formation of Republican Party (1854)
• Slavery and Western Expansion
• Purely Sectional Party

Republican Party Poster, 1856
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Election of 1856