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CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICTOUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYSoutherners urged that all thelands acquired from Mexico shouldbe thrown open to slave holders.Antislavery Northerners demandedthat all the new regions be closedto slavery. One group of moderatessuggested that the MissouriCompromise line be extended tothe Pacific with free states north ofit and slave states to the south. Anothergroup proposed that the questionbe left to “popular sovereignty.”The government should permit settlersto enter the new territory withor without slaves as they pleased.When the time came to organize theregion into states, the people themselvescould decide.Despite the vitality of the abolitionistmovement, most Northernerswere unwilling to challenge the existenceof slavery in the South. Many,however, were against its expansion.In 1848 nearly 300,000 men votedfor the candidates of a new Free SoilParty, which declared that the bestpolicy was “to limit, localize, anddiscourage slavery.” In the immediateaftermath of the war with Mexico,however, popular sovereigntyhad considerable appeal.In January 1848 the discoveryof gold in California precipitateda headlong rush of settlers, morethan 80,000 in the single year of1849. Congress had to determine thestatus of this new region quickly inorder to establish an organized government.The venerable KentuckySenator Henry Clay, who twicebefore in times of crisis had comeforward with compromise arrangements,advanced a complicated andcarefully balanced plan. His oldMassachusetts rival, Daniel Webster,supported it. Illinois DemocraticSenator Stephen A. Douglas, theleading advocate of popular sovereignty,did much of the work inguiding it through Congress.The Compromise of 1850 containedthe following provisions: (1)California was admitted to the Unionas a free state; (2) the remainder ofthe Mexican cession was divided intothe two territories of New Mexico andUtah and organized without mentionof slavery; (3) the claim of Texas to aportion of New Mexico was satisfiedby a payment of $10 million; (4) newlegislation (the Fugitive Slave Act)was passed to apprehend runawayslaves and return them to their masters;and (5) the buying and selling ofslaves (but not slavery) was abolishedin the District of Columbia.The country breathed a sigh ofrelief. For the next three years, thecompromise seemed to settle nearlyall differences. The new FugitiveSlave Law, however, was an immediatesource of tension. It deeplyoffended many Northerners, whorefused to have any part in catchingslaves. Some actively and violentlyobstructed its enforcement. The UndergroundRailroad became moreefficient and daring than ever.A DIVIDED NATIONDuring the 1850s, the issue of slaverysevered the political bonds thathad held the United States together.It ate away at the country’s two greatpolitical parties, the Whigs and theDemocrats, destroying the first andirrevocably dividing the second. Itproduced weak presidents whoseirresolution mirrored that of theirparties. It eventually discreditedeven the Supreme Court.The moral fervor of abolitionistfeeling grew steadily. In 1852,Harriet Beecher Stowe publishedUncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel provokedby the passage of the FugitiveSlave Law. More than 300,000 copieswere sold the first year. Pressesran day and night to keep up withthe demand. Although sentimentaland full of stereotypes, Uncle Tom’sCabin portrayed with undeniableforce the cruelty of slavery and positeda fundamental conflict betweenfree and slave societies. It inspiredwidespread enthusiasm for the antislaverycause, appealing as it didto basic human emotions — indignationat injustice and pity forthe helpless individuals exposed toruthless exploitation.In 1854 the issue of slavery inthe territories was renewed and thequarrel became more bitter. The regionthat now comprises Kansas andNebraska was being rapidly settled,increasing pressure for the establishmentof territorial, and eventually,state governments.Under terms of the MissouriCompromise of 1820, the entireregion was closed to slavery. Dominantslave-holding elements inMissouri objected to letting Kansasbecome a free territory, for theirstate would then have three free-soilneighbors (Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas)and might be forced to becomea free state as well. Their congressionaldelegation, backed by Southerners,blocked all efforts to organizethe region.At this point, Stephen A. Douglasenraged all free-soil supporters.Douglas argued that the Compromiseof 1850, having left Utah andNew Mexico free to resolve the slaveryissue for themselves, supersededthe Missouri Compromise. His plancalled for two territories, Kansasand Nebraska. It permitted settlersto carry slaves into them and eventuallyto determine whether theyshould enter the Union as free orslave states.Douglas’s opponents accused himof currying favor with the South inorder to gain the presidency in 1856.The free-soil movement, which hadseemed to be in decline, reemergedwith greater momentum than ever.Yet in May 1854, Douglas’s plan inthe form of the Kansas-NebraskaAct passed Congress to be signed byPresident Franklin Pierce. Southernenthusiasts celebrated with cannonfire. But when Douglas subsequentlyvisited Chicago to speak in his owndefense, the ships in the harbor loweredtheir flags to half-mast, thechurch bells tolled for an hour, and acrowd of 10,000 hooted so loudly thathe could not make himself heard.The immediate results of Douglas’sill-starred measure were momentous.The Whig Party, which hadstraddled the question of slavery ex-136137