[Sidenote: Oregon.]
[Sidenote: Joint occupation by United States and Great Britain.]
338. The Oregon Question.--It was not only in the Southwest that boundaries were disputed; in the Northwest also there was a long controversy which was settled while Polk was President. Oregon was the name given to the whole region, between Spanish and Mexican California and the Russian Alaska. The United States and Great Britain each claimed to have the best right to Oregon. As they could not agree as to their claims, they decided to occupy the region jointly. As time went on American settlers and missionaries began to go over the mountains to Oregon. In 1847 seven thousand Americans were living in the Northwest.
[Sidenote: "All Oregon or none."]
[Sidenote: Division of Oregon, 1846.]
339. The Oregon Treaty, 1846.--The matter was now taken up in earnest. "All Oregon or none," "Fifty-four forty or fight," became popular cries. The United States gave notice of the ending of the joint occupation. The British government suggested that Oregon should be divided between the two nations. In 1818 he boundary between the United States and British North America had been fixed as the forty-ninth parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. It was now proposed to continue this line to the Pacific. The British government, however, insisted that the western end of the line should follow the channel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland so as to make that island entirely British. The Mexican War was now coming on. It would hardly do to have two wars at one time. So the United States gave way and a treaty was signed in 1846. Instead of "all Oregon," the United States received about one-half. But it was a splendid region and included not merely the present state of Oregon, but all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the forty-second and the forty-ninth parallels of latitude.
CHAPTER 33
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
[Sidenote: Should Oregon and Mexican cessions be free soil?]
[Sidenote: The Wilmot Proviso. McMaster, 324.]
340. The Wilmot Proviso, 1846.--What should be done with Oregon and with the immense territory received from Mexico? Should it be free soil or should it be slave soil? To understand the history of the dispute which arose out of this question we must go back a bit and study the Wilmot Proviso. Even before the Mexican War was fairly begun, this question came before Congress. Every one admitted that Texas must be a slave state. Most people were agreed that Oregon would be free soil. For it was too far north for negroes to thrive. But what should be done with California and with New Mexico? David Wilmot of Pennsylvania thought that they should be free soil. He was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1846 he moved to add to a bill giving the President money to purchase land from Mexico a proviso that none of the territory to be acquired at the national expense should be open to slavery. This proviso was finally defeated. But the matter was one on which people held very strong opinions, and the question became the most important issue in the election of 1848.
[Illustration: ZACHARY TAYLOR.]
[Sidenote: Candidates for the presidency, 1848.]
[Sidenote: "Squatter sovereignty."]
[Sidenote: Free Soil party. McMaster, 334-335.]
[Sidenote: Taylor and Fillmore elected.]
341. Taylor elected President, 1848.--Three candidates contested the election of 1848. First there was Lewis Cass of Michigan, the Democratic candidate. He was in favor of "squatter sovereignty," that is, allowing the people of each territory to have slavery or not as they chose. The Whig candidate was General Taylor, the victor of Buena Vista.
The Whigs put forth no statement of principles. The third candidate was Martin Van Buren, already once President. Although a Democrat, he did not favor the extension of slavery. He was nominated by Democrats who did not believe in "squatter sovereignty," and by a new party which called itself the Free Soil party. The abolitionists or Liberty party also nominated a candidate, but he withdrew in favor of Van Buren. The Whigs had nominated Millard Fillmore of New York for Vice-President. He attracted to the Whig ticket a good many votes in New York. Van Buren also drew a good many votes from the Democrats. In this way New York was carried for Taylor and Fillmore. This decided the election, and the Whig candidates were chosen.
[Illustration: THE SITE OF SAN FRANCISCO IN 1847. From an original drawing.]
[Sidenote: Discovery of gold in California, 1848.]
[Sidenote: The "rush" to California, 1849. McMaster, 337-338; Source-Book, 276-279.]
342. California.--Before the treaty of peace with Mexico was ratified, even before it was signed, gold was discovered in California.
Reports of the discovery soon reached the towns on the western seacoast.
At once men left whatever they were doing and hastened to the hills to dig for gold. Months later rumors of this discovery began to reach the eastern part of the United States. At first people paid little attention to them. But when President Polk said that gold had been found, people began to think that it must be true. Soon hundreds of gold-seekers started for California. Then thousands became eager to go. These first comers were called the Forty-Niners, because most of them came in the year 1849. By the end of that year there were eighty thousand immigrants in California.
[Sidenote: California constitutional convention, 1849.]
[Sidenote: Slavery forbidden.]
343. California seeks Admission to the Union.--There were eighty thousand white people in California, and they had almost no government of any kind. So in November, 1849, they held a convention, drew up a constitution, and demanded admission the Union as a state. The peculiar thing about this constitution was that it forbade slavery in California.
Many of the Forty-Niners were Southerners. But even they did not want slavery. The reason was that they wished to dig in the earth and win gold. They would not allow slave holders to work their mining claims with slave labor, for free white laborers had never been able to work alongside of negro slaves. So they did not want slavery in California.
[Sidenote: Divisions on the question of the extension of slavery.
McMaster, 335-336.]
344. A Divided Country.--This action of the people of California at once brought the question of slavery before the people. Many Southerners were eager to found a slave confederacy apart from the Union. Many abolitionists were eager to found a free republic in the North. Many Northerners, who loved the Union, thought that slavery should be confined to the states where it existed. They thought that slavery should not be permitted in the territories, which belonged to the people of the United States as a whole. They argued that if the territories could be kept free, the people of those territories, when they came to form state constitutions, would forbid slavery as the people of California had just done. They were probably right, and for this very reason the Southerners wished to have slavery in the territories. So strong was the feeling over these points that it seemed as if the Union would split into pieces.
[Sidenote: Taylor's policy.]
[Sidenote: California demands admission.]
345. President Taylor's Policy.--General Taylor was now President.
He was alarmed by the growing excitement. He determined to settle the matter at once before people could get any more excited. So he sent agents to California and to New Mexico to urge the people to demand admission to the Union at once. When Congress met in 1850, he stated that California demanded admission as a free state. The Southerners were angry. For they had thought that California would surely be a slave state.
[Sidenote: Clay's compromise scheme, 1850. McMaster, 339-341; Source-Book, 279-281.]
346. Clay's Compromise Plan.--Henry Clay now stepped forward to bring about a "union of hearts." His plan was to end all disputes between Northerners and Southerners by having the people of each section give way to the people of the other section. For example, the Southerners were to permit the admission of California as a free state, and to consent to the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. In return, the Northern
ers were to give way to the Southerners on all other points. They were to allow slavery in the District of Columbia. They were to consent to the organization of New Mexico and Utah as territories without any provision for or against slavery. Texas claimed that a part of the proposed Territory of New Mexico belonged to her. So Clay suggested that the United States should pay Texas for this land. Finally Clay proposed that Congress should pass a severe Fugitive Slave Act. It is easily seen that Clay's plan as a whole was distinctly favorable to the South. Few persons favored the passage of the whole scheme. But when votes were taken on each part separately, they all passed. In the midst of the excitement over this compromise President Taylor died, and Millard Fillmore, the Vice-President, became President.
[Illustration: MILLARD FILLMORE.]
[Sidenote: Art. IV, sec. 2.]
[Sidenote: Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.]
[Sidenote: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. McMaster, 341-343.]
[Sidenote: Results of passage of this act. Higginson, 281; Source-Book, 282-284.]
[Sidenote: The "Underground Railway." Source-Book, 260-263.]
347. The Fugitive Slave Act.--The Constitution provides that persons held to service in one state escaping into another state shall be delivered up upon claim of the person to whom such service may be due. Congress, in 1793, had passed an act to carry out this provision of the Constitution. But this law had seldom been enforced, because its enforcement had been left to the states, and public opinion in the North was opposed to the return of fugitive slaves. The law of 1850 gave the enforcement of the act to United States officials. The agents of slave owners claimed many persons as fugitives. But few were returned to the South. The important result of these attempts to enforce the law was to strengthen Northern public opinion against slavery. It led to redoubled efforts to help runaway slaves through the Northern states to Canada. A regular system was established. This was called the "Underground Railway." In short, instead of bringing about "a union of hearts," the Compromise of 1850 increased the ill feeling between the people of the two sections of the country.
[Sidenote: "Uncle Tom's Cabin."]
[Sidenote: Effects of this book.]
348. "Uncle Tom's Cabin."--It was at this time that Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In this story she set forth the pleasant side of slavery--the light-heartedness and kind-heartedness of the negroes. In it she also set forth the unpleasant side of slavery--the whipping of human beings, the selling of human beings, the hunting of human beings. Of course, there never was such a slave as Uncle Tom. The story is simply a wonderful picture of slavery as it appeared to a brilliant woman of the North. Hundreds of thousands of copies of this book were sold in the South as well as in the North.
Plays founded on the book were acted on the stage. Southern people when reading "Uncle Tom" thought little of the unpleasant things in it: they liked the pleasant things in it. Northern people laughed at the pretty pictures of plantation life: they were moved to tears by the tales of cruelty. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the Fugitive Slave Law convinced the people of the North that bounds must be set to the extension of slavery.
CHAPTER 34
THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1852.]
[Sidenote: Pierce elected President.]
349. Pierce elected President, 1852.--It was now Campaign time for a new election. The Whigs had been successful with two old soldiers, so they thought they would try again with another soldier and nominated General Winfield Scott, the conqueror of Mexico. The Democrats also nominated a soldier, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, who had been in northern Mexico with Taylor. The Democrats and Whigs both said that they would stand by the Compromise of 1850. But many voters thought that there would be less danger of excitement with a Democrat in the White House and voted for Pierce for that reason. They soon found that they were terribly mistaken in their belief.
[Sidenote: The Nebraska bill, 1854. Source-Book, 284-287.]
[Sidenote: Douglas asserts Compromise of 1820 to be repealed.]
350. Douglas's Nebraska Bill.--President Pierce began his term of office quietly enough. But in 1854 Senator Douglas of Illinois brought in a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska. It will be remembered that in 1820 Missouri had been admitted to the Union as a slave state.
In 1848 Iowa had been admitted as a free state. North of Iowa was the free Territory of Minnesota. Westward from Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota was an immense region without any government of any kind. It all lay north of the compromise line of 1820 (p. 222), and had been forever devoted to freedom by that compromise. But Douglas said that the Compromise of 1820 had been repealed by the Compromise of 1850. So he proposed that the settlers of Nebraska should say whether that territory should be free soil or slave soil, precisely as if the Compromise of 1820 had never been passed. Instantly there was a tremendous uproar.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN PIERCE.]
[Sidenote: The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854.]
[Sidenote: Antislavery senators attack the bill.]
[Sidenote: The Independent Democrats.]
351. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854.--Douglas now changed his bill so as to provide for the formation of two territories. One of these he named Kansas. It had nearly the same boundaries as the present state of Kansas, except that it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains. The other territory was named Nebraska. It included all the land north of Kansas and between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. The antislavery leaders in the North attacked the bill with great fury.
Chase of Ohio said that it was a violation of faith. Sumner of Massachusetts rejoiced in the fight, for he said men must now take sides for freedom or for slavery. Some, independent Democrats published "An Appeal." They asked their fellow-citizens to take their maps and see what an immense region Douglas had proposed to open to slavery. They denied that the Missouri Compromise had been repealed. Nevertheless, the bill passed Congress and was signed by President Pierce.
[Illustration: Territory opened to slavery.]
[Sidenote: Abraham Lincoln, Hero Tales, 325-335.]
[Sidenote: Aroused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act.]
352. Abraham Lincoln.--Born in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln went with his parents to Indiana and then to Illinois. As a boy he was very poor and had to work hard. But he lost no opportunity to read and to study.
At the plow or in the long evenings at home by the firelight he was ever thinking and studying. Growing to manhood he became a lawyer and served one term in Congress. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act aroused his indignation as nothing had ever aroused it before. He denied that any man had the right to govern another man, be he white or be he black, without that man's consent. He thought that blood would surely be shed before the slavery question would be settled in Kansas, and the first shedding of blood would be the beginning of the end of the Union.
[Sidenote: Seward's challenge to the Southerners. McMaster, 347-351.]
[Sidenote: The Sons of the South.]
[Sidenote: Fraudulent election. Source-Book, 287-289.]
353. Settlement of Kansas.--In the debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill Senator Seward of New York said to the Southerners: "Come on, then.... We will engage in competition for the soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is strong in numbers as it is in right." Seward spoke truly. The victory came to those opposed to the extension of slavery. But it was a long time in coming. As soon as the act was passed, armed "Sons of the South" crossed the frontier of Missouri and founded the town of Atchison. Then came large bands of armed settlers from the North and the East. They founded the towns of Lawrence and Topeka. An election was held. Hundreds of men poured over the boundary of Missouri, outvoted the free-soil settlers in Kansas, and then went home. The territorial legislature, chosen in this way, adopted the laws of Missouri, slave code and all, as the laws of Kansas. It seemed as if Kansas were lost to freedom.
[Sidenote: Free-state constitution.]
[Sidenote:
The Senate refuses to admit Kansas.]
354. The Topeka Convention.--The free-state voters now held a convention at Topeka. They drew up a constitution and applied to Congress for admission to the Union as the free state of Kansas. The free-state men and the slave-state men each elected a Delegate to Congress. The House of Representatives now took the matter up and appointed a committee of investigation. The committee reported in favor of the free-state men, and the House voted to admit Kansas as a free state. But the Senate would not consent to anything of the kind. The contest in Kansas went on and became more bitter every month.
[Sidenote: Origin of the Republican party. McMaster, 352-355.]
[Sidenote: Anti-Nebraska men.]
355. The Republican Party.--The most important result of the Kansas-Nebraska fight was the formation of the Republican party. It was made up of men from all the other parties who agreed in opposing Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska policy. Slowly they began to think of themselves as a party and to adopt the name of the old party of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe--Republican.
[Sidenote: Presidential candidates, 1856.]
[Sidenote: Buchanan.]
[Sidenote: Frémont.]
356. Buchanan elected President, 1856.--The Whigs and the Know-Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore for President and said nothing about slavery. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania for President and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for Vice-President.
A Short History of the United States by Channing Page 21
