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After the Missouri Compromise in 1820, political disagreements arose with the outbreak of the War with Mexico in 1846.To prevent that, Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed a bill, known as the Wilmont Proviso.
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The new party opposed slavery into the western territories. The main slogan was “free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.”
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Northerners and Southerners disputed whether the territories wrested from Mexico should be opened to slavery, and some Southerners even threatened secession. Standing firm, Zachary Taylor was prepared to hold the Union together by armed force rather than by compromise.
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In 1850 California wanted to be admitted to the Union. The Missouri Compromise cut California in half. Congressmen argued if California should enter as a slave state or a free state.
Henry Clay, the man who worked out the Missouri Compromise came out of retirement to work on another compromise. The mew agreement was called the compromise of 1850. In this compromise Northern California entered the Union as a free state. -
The 1850 law to help slaveholders recapture runaway slaves was called the Fugitive Slave Act. People accused of being fugitives under this law could be held without an arrest warrant. They also had no right to jury trial.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s cabin in 1852. It dramatically portrayed the moral issues of slavery. In fact, a play based on the book increased the popularity of drama as well as abolitionism. It was about a respected older slave named Uncle Tom. He had 3 owners, which 2 of them where nice and the 3 was cruel. It also included a dangerous escape of a slave named Eliza and her baby across the Ohio River.
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Douglass hoped, Southerners applauded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and supported the bill. Even though the bill angered opponents of slavery, it passed. It became known as the Kansas- Nebraska Act.
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The republicans needed a strong presidential candidate in 1856 to strengthen their young party. They nominated John C. Fremont. Young and handsome, Fremont was a national hero for his explorations in the West, which earned him the nickname the “Pathfinder.”
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On May 19, 1856, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts had delivered a fiery speech condemning those who proposed extending slavery into the Kansas territory. Many of his attacks were aimed at senators from the South including Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Three days after the speech was delivered Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina (a relative of Senator Butler) entered the Senate Chamber where he found Senator Sumner working at his desk. Declaring the speech a "libel on South Carolina
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The Democrats nominated James Buchanan to run for presidency in 1856. A minister to Great Britain, he had been in England since 1853 and had spoken neither for nor against the Kansas- Nebraska Act. He took advantage of his absence and said little about slavery and claimed that his goal was to maintain the Union. He appealed to Southerners, to many in the upper South and the border states, and to Northerners who were afraid that Fremont’s election could tear the nation apart.
