Unit Five

1. Unit Five The Road to War

2. EQ: Which economic, social, and political events contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War? • Video Clip

3. Runaway slaves

4. Southerners believed they had the right to go North and recapture runaway slaves • Article 4 section 2 of the Constitution, any person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime

5. Northern citizens thought differently • They gave shelter to runaways and helped them escape

6. Victory in the Mexican War • US victory in the war with Mexico made the slave issue more troublesome-led to greater sectional division • The victory added new land for settlement • Territorial expansion brought the issue of slavery in the territories to national attention • Should slavery expand westward? • Southerners asked for new laws to help them recapture runaway slaves in free territories

7. Polk’s Viewpoint

8. Polk, Southern Democrat and a slaveholder • Slavery in the Southwest not an issue • The dry climate not conducive to growing the types of crops that made slavery profitable • There was heated debate in Congress about the issue • Polk could not dismiss the slave issue, was afraid it would divide the Democratic Party and possibly divide the Union

9. Wilmot Proviso

10. August 1846, Representative David Wilmot, (D), Pa. • Proposed an addition to a military spending bill • Wilmot Proviso, any territory gained from Mexico would not allow slavery or involuntary servitude • Wilmot and a group of Northern Democrats felt Polk was pro-Southern

11. 1. Polk supported a new tariff that helped the South at the expense of the Northern manufacturers • 2. Polk had compromised on the Oregon Territory with the British where slavery was likely to be banned • 3. Polk had gone to war with Mexico for land Southerners would occupy

12. The Wilmot Proviso upset Southerners, no slavery in the new territories would threaten slavery everywhere • The Proviso passed the House with a coalition of Northern Democrats and Whigs • The Senate refused to vote on it

13. Calhoun Resolutions • Senator John C. Calhoun from SC presented a series of resolutions (Calhoun Resolutions) to counter the Wilmot Proviso • The Senate refused to consider them • Calhoun argued: • The states owned the territories of the US in common • Congress had no right to ban slavery in the territories

14. Calhoun warned of political revolution, anarchy, and civil war if the North did not address Southern concerns

15. Popular Sovereignty

16. Slavery divided the nation along sectional lines- North against the South • Moderates in Congress looked for a way to settle the issue without Congressional involvement • Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan: • The citizens of each new territory would be allowed to decide for themselves if they wanted to permit slavery or not = popular sovereignty

17. Popular sovereignty was a popular idea in Congress • It would remove slavery as a national issue • It was more democratic, the people would decide • Abolitionists argued it denied African Americans their right not to be enslaved • Northerners in the Midwest supported popular sovereignty

18. They felt most settlers in the new territories would come from the North and would ban slavery in their states

19. Conscience Whigs

20. 1848 election the Whigs nominated Zachery Taylor, this split the Whig Party in the North • Northern Whigs called Conscience Whigs opposed slavery • They believed Taylor would expand slavery westward

21. Cotton Whigs

22. Other Northern Whigs supported Taylor, voted with Southern Whigs • They were tied to the Northern cloth manufacturers who needed Southern cotton • Known as Cotton Whigs

23. Liberty Party/Free Soil Party

24. Conscience Whigs quit the party with Taylor’s nomination • Joined with anti-slavery Democrats from New York who were angry over the nomination of Lewis Cass over Martin Van Buren • Joined with abolitionists to form the Liberty Party • They then formed the Free Soil Party

25. Opposed to slavery in the Western territories • Some Free Soilers against slavery, felt it was immoral, most wanted to keep western land for white farmers • If slavery expanded west, it would be hard for free men to find work • Party slogan; “Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men”

26. The Election of 1848

27. Lewis Cass, Democrat • Zachery Taylor, Whig • Martin Van Buren, Free Soil • Cass, popular sovereignty • Van Buren, against slavery in the territories • Taylor avoided the slave issue • Election day, Free Soilers split the Whig vote, and the Democratic vote in New York, allowed Taylor to win

28. California

29. January, 1948, carpenter James Marshall found small flakes of gold in the millrace at Sutter’s Mill • Marshall and the remainder of John Sutter’s employees were panning for gold in California streams • News of the gold strike did not reach the east coast until the Fall of 1848 • The excitement and adventure associated with the Mexican-American War now directed towards California- the new El Dorado

30. Thousands left farms and jobs to head west by land and sea to make their fortunes • Called “forty-niners”- the year the Gold Rush began in earnest • Miners came from all over America and the world • Changed a quiet ranching area into a teaming and tumultuous community searching for riches in California rivers and streams • 80% of the “forty-niners” were Americans- came from every state • Gold Rush was an eye-opening expansion of their horizons for most who had only known hometown people

31. Second largest group were from Mexico and the west coast of Latin America • The rest came from Europe and Asia • Presence of Chinese miners surprised many Americans • Chinese in California in 1849 and 1850, • 1852 over 20,000 Chinese arrived in San Francisco to share the wealth of the “Gum Sam” (Golden Mountain) • Most Chinese, like Americans, came on a temporary basis- return home as soon as they made some money

32. Most of the Chinese miners were like American miners- they were males who left wives at home • Chinese miners dressed in blue cotton shirts, baggy pants, and broad-rimmed hats • Hard working Chinese miners were commonplace in the mine fields • Creation of “China Towns” added to threat of economic competition- brought American hostility

33. Special tax on foreign miners in 1852 and in the 1870s- slowed Chinese immigration sharply • 1849, beginning of Gold Rush- San Francisco, major port of entry and supply point came to life • Settlement of 1,000 in 1848- grew to a city of 35,000 in 1850 • Real money was made in California not panning for gold but feeding, clothing, housing, provisioning, and entertaining miners

34. First to figure this out was a German Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss- sold tough work pants to miners- name became synonymous with the product (Levi’s) • Jerusha Marshall opened a 20 room boardinghouse in San Francisco- wrote to eastern relatives “ Never was there a better field for making money than now presents itself in this place…..We are satisfied to dig our gold in San Francisco.” • San Francisco became a major American city

35. White population of California went from an estimated pre-Gold Rush number of 11,000 to over 100,000 by 1852The population increased so much that the California Territory applied for statehood • End of 1849 over 80,000 forty-niners in California searching for gold • Mining towns appeared overnight • Chaos and violence • To keep order in California a strong government was needed • California admitted to the Union as a state in 1850

36. Mining Camps • Most mining camps boomed instantly, unlike San Francisco most were empty in a few years • Famous camps; Poker Flat, Angels Camp, Whiskey Bar, Placerville, Mariposa • Usually dirty, miners lived in tents of shacks- not willing to take time from mining to build decent places to live • Cooked meals of beans, bread, and bacon • If they had money they bought meals at expensive restaurants and boardinghouses- table may be no more than a plank over two flour barrels

37. Miner’s life- cheerless, uncomfortable, unhealthy- especially during long, rainy winter months • Few distractions, except saloon and gambling hall • Most miners young, unmarried, and unsuccessful • Same percentage struck it rich in California • Gold deposits accessible with pick and shovel (placer mining) soon were gone • Deeper deposits required capital and machinery (corporate mining) • Some areas in the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada were a half a mile deep in the ground

38. Miners who stayed in California had to give up status of independent miner and become a wage earner for large mining companies • Like San Francisco, most reliable way to earn money in the mining camps was to supply miners • Mining communities had; saloonkeepers, gamblers, prostitutes, merchants, and restauranteurs • Theses business people were transient like the miners- ready to move with the news of a new gold strike

39. Most of the women in early mining camps were prostitutes- some grew rich or married respectably • Most young women died of drugs, venereal disease, or violence • Other women were hardworking wives of miners and made good money doing domestic work- kept boardinghouses, cooked, washed clothes • Wives of professional men also took advantage of the monetary opportunity and kept boardinghouses

40. Some women made $100 per week washing clothes • French girls charged an ounce of gold just to sit next to a customer • Swiss women with on organ grinder made $4,000 in a few months • Women made up 3% of the population- about 800 women to 30,000 miners • Married American women reminded miners of home, mothers, sisters, and wives- treated like queens • 1849 California Constitution allowed married women the right to own property separate from their • Husbands • Women had rights and economic opportunities in the Gold Rush West that women back East did not enjoy

41. Beef $10.00 per lb. $279.81 per lb. • Butter $20.00 per lb. $559.63 per lb. • Cheese $25.00 per lb. $699.53 per lb. • Coffee beans $0.15 per lb. $4.20 per lb. • Crackers, in tins $0.15 per tin $4.20 per box • Eggs $3.00 each $83.94 each • Flour $13.00 per bag $363.76 per bag • Oranges $0.15 each $4.20 each • Rice $8.00 per lb. $223.85 per lb. • Optional • Boots $6.00 per pair $167.89 per pair • Flannel shirts $1.50 each $41.97 each • Blanket $5.00 each $139.91 each • Shovel $36.00 each $1007.33

42. Little effort made to build communities- too busy looking for gold • Violence in the mining towns/camps was a problem • Racial discrimination- especially among Chinese, Mexicans, and African Americans was common • Miners had their claims jumped • Thieves would rob miners of their gold, kill them, or run them off and then file own claim to victims strike

43. Some miners used to law to take the claims of other miners- take advantage of high tax on foreign miners • Most mining camps were temporary • Gold played out, people moved- left ghost towns • Mid 1850s immediate effects of the Gold Rush were over • California was left with a large population • Growing agriculture and corporate mining industries

44. Gold Rush left California a population that was larger and more affluent, in the case of San Francisco- more culturally sophisticated than any other newly settled territories • Population of California was more culturally diverse than the rest of the nation; Chinese, Mexican, and European immigrants remained after the gold was gone • The “lesser races” were kept in a subordinate position • Gold rush destroyed the foothill landscape • Led to the virtual extermination of California Indians

45. Many Californios were legally deprived of their land grants • Increase in racial animosity- especially for Chinese • Lack of stable communities and worsening racial tensions; started in California and followed “rushes” in Colorado, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, Arizona, and Alaska

46. The California Debate • Congress was urged to create territorial governments for California and New Mexico • Congress divided over sectional lines, could not decide whether or not to allow slavery in the territories • Taylor to avoid a fight in Congress let the people of California make their own decision • The population of California great enough to apply for admission as a free state in December 1849, the Gold Rush forced national decision making on the slave issue

47. California admitted as a free state • The slaveholding states a minority in the Senate • The South was fearful of losing political power • This would open the door to limits on slavery and state’s rights • Talk of secession begins

48. Henry Clay’s Solution

49. 1850, Senator Henry Clay attempts to find a compromise to let California in as a state • Clay, “The Great Compromiser”, Missouri Compromise, nullification crisis, proposed 8 resolutions to solve the problem • The resolutions were grouped in pairs, this offered concessions on both sides

50. 1. California admitted as a free state but organized the remainder of the Mexican Cession without restrictions to slavery • 2. Settled the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico in the favor of New Mexico, but compensated Texas, the federal government would take on the debts of Texas, this gained Southern support, many Southerners held Texas bonds