CHAPTER 13. Sectional Debates

1 CHAPTER 13. Sectional Debates Objectives: o We will study the impact of the Wilmot Proviso on the Sectional controversy o We will study the methods used to enact the Compromise of 1850, and its reception by the American people o We will study the role of the major political parties in the widening Sectional split (Mat 5:29) And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

2 James Polk tried to be a president who transcended Sectional divisions. But his favor of territorial expansion in the Southwest, earned the anger and hatred of the North and Westerners a like Who felt that Polk favored the South in their expense. Slavery and the Territories: o While the Mexican War was still in progress in August of 1846, Polk asked Congress for $2 million for purchasing peace with Mexico. o Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, an antislavery Democrat introduced an amendment to the appropriation bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.

3 Slavery and the Territories: o The so-called Wilmot Proviso passed the House but failed the Senate. o It would be debated and voted over for years. o Southern Militants contended that all Americans had equal rights in the new territories, including the right to move their property, slaves there. Slavery and the Territories: o As the Sectional debate intensified, President Polk supported a proposal to extend the Missouri Compromise line through the new territories to the Pacific coast. o Banning slavery north of the line and permitting it south of the line.

4 Slavery and the Territories: o Other politicians supported a plan called popular sovereignty which would allow people of each territory acting through their legislature to decide the status of slavery there. o The debate over these various proposals dragged for many months and remained unresolved when Polk left office. Slavery and the Territories: o Polk in poor health, declined to run again. o The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass and the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, Mexican War Hero. o Both parties tried to avoid the slavery question.

5 Slavery and the Territories: o These candidates did not satisfy the opponents of slavery and formed a new party called the Free-Soil Party, which drew from the existing liberty party, and the antislavery wings of the Whig and Democratic parties that endorsed the Wilmot Proviso. o Its candidate was former president Martin Van Buren. Slavery and the Territories: o Taylor won, but the Free-soilers elected ten members to Congress. o The emergence of the Free-Soil party was an important political force like the emergence of the Know Nothing and Liberty Parties before, signaling the inability for existing parties to contain the political passions slavery was creating.

6 The California Gold Rush: o In January 1848, traces of gold was found in John Sutter's sawmills at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. o Word traveled fast to the rest of the and much of the rest of the world. o Almost immediately, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world came to California in a frantic search for gold. o California non-Indian population increased nearly twenty fold. The California Gold Rush: o Gold-rush migrants within the were known as Forty-Niners, who abandoned farms, jobs, homes, families, and with many carrying what they can on their backs to rush to California.

7 O The overwhelming majority of the Forty-niners were men and the society they created was volatile with the absence of women, children, and families. The California Gold Rush: o The gold rush also attracted some of the first Chinese migrants to the western o News of the discoveries created great excitement in China, especially in the poor areas where letters from Chinese already in CA and Americans visiting in China spread the word. The California Gold Rush: o Many young, adventurous, mostly men decided to go anyway even though it was difficult to get to CA believing that they could quickly become rich and then return to China.

8 O Emigration brokers loaned many migrants money for passage to CA which migrants would pay off out of their earnings there. o The migration was entirely voluntary. o The Chinese in California were free laborers, and merchants looking for gold, hoping to profit from other economic opportunities the gold boom was creating. The California Gold Rush: o The gold rush created a serious labor shortage in California as many male workers left their jobs and flocked to the gold fields. o Chinese would often fill the void but it also led to the exploitation of Indians that was essentially slavery.

9 O White vigilantes called Indian Hunters were already hunting down and killing thousands of Indians before the gold rush contributing to the decline of the Indian population. o A new state law also permitted the arrest of orphaned Indians and place them in indenture labor. The California Gold Rush: o The gold rush contributed to the growth of California. o There was substantial gold in the hills of Sierra Nevada and many people got rich from it. o But only a tiny fraction of the forty- niners found gold or managed to stake a claim to land.

10 O Some returned home disappointed. The California Gold Rush: o But many stayed and swelled both the agriculture and urban population of the territory. o By the 1850s, California's population which was diverse became even more so. o The gold rush had attracted not just White Americans, but also Europeans, Chinese, South Americans, Mexicans, free blacks, and slaves who accompanied southern migrants. The California Gold Rush: o Conflicts resulted that led to the vital need for a stable government. o The gold rush became another factor putting pressure on the to resolve the status not only of California but all the territories and slavery within them as well.