3. "Commanded" all good citizens, when summoned, to aid in the capture of the slave, or, if necessary, in his delivery to his owners. 4. Prescribed fine and imprisonment for anybody who harbored a fugitive slave or prevented his recapture. A. Free by Mexican law; not included in Compromise of 1850. B. Free by Compromise of 1820; given to Utah and so opened to slavery by Compromise of 1850. No sooner was this law enacted than the slave owners began to use it, and during the autumn of 1850 a host of "slave catchers" and "man hunters," as they were called, invaded the North, and negroes who had escaped twenty or thirty years before were hunted up and dragged back to slavery by the marshals of the United States. This so excited the free negroes and the people of the North, that on several occasions during 1851 they rose and rescued the slave from his captors. In New York a slave named Hamet, in Boston another named Shadrach, and in Syracuse another named Jerry, regained their liberty in this way. So strong was public feeling that Vermont in 1850 passed a "Personal Liberty Law," for the protection of negroes claimed as slaves.1 The North was now becoming strongly antislavery. It had long been opposed to the extension of slavery. It was now opposed to the very existence of slavery. How deep this feeling was, became apparent in the summer of 1852, when Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe published her story of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was not so much a picture of what slavery was, as of what it might be, and was so powerfully written that it stirred and aroused thousands of people in the North who, till then, had been quite indifferent. In a few months everybody was laughing and crying over "Topsy " and "Eva" and "Uncle Tom"; and of those who read it great numbers became abolitionists. SUMMARY 1. The Mexican state of Texas revolts and in 1837 becomes independent. 2. President Tyler secretly negotiates a treaty for the annexation of Texas to the United States, but this is defeated (1844). 3. Whitman's ride to what is now the state of Washington leads to the rapid settlement of the Oregon country. 4. The annexation of Texas and the occupation of the whole of Oregon become questions in the campaign of 1844. The Democrats carry the election, Texas is annexed, and the Oregon country is divided between Great Britain and the United States. 5. The question of the boundary of Texas brings on the Mexican War, and in 1848 another vast stretch of country is acquired. 6. The acquisition of this new territory, which was free soil, causes a struggle for the introduction of slavery into it. 7. The refusal of the Whigs and Democrats to take issue on slavery in the territories leads to the formation of the Free-soil party. 8. The discovery of gold in California, the rush of people thither, and the formation of a free state seeking admission into the Union force the question of slavery on Congress. 9. In 1850 an attempt is made to settle it by the "Compromise of 1850." 1 On the Compromise of 1850 read Rhodes's History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 104-189; Schurz's Life of Clay, Vol. II., Chap. 26. Do not fail to read the speeches of Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Seward; also Lodge's Life of Webster, pp. 264-332. For the rescue cases read Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Chap. 26. Texas annexed, August, 1845. Rio Grande asserted as boundary. 1845-46. Taylor sent to occupy the disputed territory. Attacked by Mexicans. 1846. 1846. War declared by the United States. The reoccupation of Oregon to 54° 40'. Our claims to Oregon. Colonization of Oregon. Notice served on Great Britain. The parallel of 49° extended to the Pacific. PEACE, 1848. Territory acquired from 42° to Gila River; from Rio Grande to the Pacific. Popular sovereignty 1848. The Democrats. Nothing in platform as to slavery in new territory. Defeated, 1848. Complaints of the South against the North: 1. Fugitive slaves. 2. Slavery in District of Columbia. 3. Territory acquired Free state of California, 1849. from Mexico to be 1. California a free state. 2. Popular sovereignty in territory acquired from Mexico. 3. No slave trade in District of Columbia. 4. Texas takes present boundaries. 5. Two new territories, Utah and New Mexico. 6. New fugitive-slave law. The Wilmot Proviso, 1846, 1847. The Free-soil party, 1848. Demand 1. California a free state. 2. No slavery in Dis- 3. No more slave states. CHAPTER XXV THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 1 384. Franklin Pierce, Fourteenth President. Although the struggle with slavery was thus growing more and more serious, the two great parties pretended to consider the question as finally settled. In 1852 the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce and William R. King, and declared in their platform that they would "abide by and adhere to " the Compromise of 1850, and would "resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question." The Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott, and declared that they approved the fugitive-slave law, and accepted the compromise measures of 1850 as "a settlement in principle" of the slavery question, and would do all they could to prevent any further discussion of it. Franklin Pierce So far as the Whigs were concerned, the question was settled; for the Northern people, angry at their acceptance of the Compromise of 1850 and the fugitive-slave law, refused to vote for Scott, and Pierce was elected.1 The Free-soilers had nominated John P. Hale and George W. Julian. 385. The Nebraska Bill. - Pierce was inaugurated March 4, 1853. He, too, believed that all questions relating to slavery were settled. But he had not been many months in office when the old quarrel was raging as bitterly as ever. In 1853 1 Pierce carried every state except Massachusetts, Vermont, Tennessee, and Kentucky. |