Key Terms

• Know Nothing Party


  Anti-immigrant party headed by former President Fillmore in the election of 1856
• Constitutional Union Party


  A compromise party in the election of 1850 looking to appease Northerners and Southerners
• Kansas-Nebraska Act


  Legislation that created new territories and enraged many by repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820
• Manifest Destiny


  The widespread American belief that God had ordained the United States to occupy all of North America
• Oregon Treaty


  Resolved the dispute between Britain and the U.S. over land in 1846 and set the border at the 49th parallel
• Slidell Mission


  The United States‘ offer to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for 25 million dollars
• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildalgo


  Treaty ending the Mexican-American War, acquiring about half of Mexico and payment of several million dollars in compensation
• Wilmot Proviso


  Controversial proposal which passed the House, but not the Senate, stipulating that enslavement should be forbidden in the territory acquired from Mexico
• Underground Railrlad


  The informal network that conducted freedom seekers from the South to Canada
• Compromise of 1850


  A series of agreements between North and South that temporarily ignored the slavery controversy and led to a short-lived era of national good feelings
• Fugitive Slave Act


  The provision of the Compromise of 1850 that required all freedom seekers, upon capture, to be returned to the enslaver and that citizens of free states had to cooperate
• Bleeding Kansas


  Term that described the prairie territory where a small-scale civil war erupted between Jayhawkers and Border Ruffians in 1856
• Ostend Manifesto


  Document that threatened war with Spain to gain control of Cuba seen as an attempt to acquire enslaved territory
• Caning of Sumner


  Involved violence in the United States Senate and a bloody beating of a Senator with a cane
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin


  Influential book depicting enslavement’s vicious treatment that created strong opposition to slavery
• The Impending Crisis of the South


  A southern book that argued how reliance on enslavement weakened Southern economy (while also asserting white supremacy)
• Dried Scott Decision

  Ruled that Blacks had no civil or human rights, and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories because slaves were private property
• Harper’s Ferry


  Site of a federal arsenal where a militant abolitionist attempted to start a slave rebellion
• Crittenden Proposal


  A last-ditch effort to save the union by providing guarantees for slavery in the territories
• Harriet Tubman


  Prominent conductor of the Underground Railroad believed to have helped over 300 people find freedom
• Peculiar Institution


  Southern justification of enslavement as unique to only those in Southern society
• Gadsden Purchase


  1863 treaty in which the United States bought from Mexico partys of what is now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico
• Popular Sovereignty


  Principle that people living in a territory should decided if a region should be free or enslaved
• Treaty of Kanagawa


  Agreement that established a diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Japan and open up U.S. trade to Japan