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Period: to
Causes of the Civil War
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Missouri Compromise
Legislation passed by Congress in 1820 by which Maine entered the Union as a free state, Missouri entered the Union as a slave state, and slavery was prohibited north of the southern borderof Missouri. -
Nullification
Some southerners believed so strongly in states' rights that they argued states have the power of nullification- the right to determine if a law passed by Congress is constitutional or not. (If a state believs that a federal law violates the U.S. Constitution, then it can declare such law "null and void" within that state. -
Compromise of 1850
legislation passed by Congress by which California entered the Union as a free state, slave trading was ended in the District of Columbia, Texas gave up its claims to New Mexico in exchange for money, residents of the territories of New Mexico and Utah would be able to determine whether they wanted slavery, and a stronger Fugitive Slave Act was enacted. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
legislation that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and that contained a clause on popular sovereignty that negated the Compromise of 1850. (There were two main groups in the new territories: Free soil and Proslavery) -
Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott was a slave taken to the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin then back to Missouri where he filed a lawsuit saying he was free since he had lived in a free state but when the Supreme Court ruled on the case, the justices said Scott could not sue because he was a slave and slaves were not considered citizens -
Election of 1860
When the Deomocrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, for the national convention in 1860, a fight over the party platform brought matters to a head; so, the northern Democrats voted for Stephen Douglas, the southern Democrats voted for John Breclemrodge, and the Republicans voted for Abraham Lincoln.
