01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Lewis Cass, Free Soil Party, Wilmot Proviso
18 May 2018
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Chapter 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-
1854
1. The Popular Sovereignty Panacea
1. Each of the two great political parties was a vital bond of national unity, for
each enjoyed powerful support in both North and South; to politicians, the
wisest strategy seemed to be to sit on the lid of the slavery issue and
ignore it; the cover bobbed up and down in response to the agitation of
northern abolitionists and impassioned southern fire-eaters
2. Anxious Democrats were forced to seek a new stand-bearer in 1848;
President Polk, broken in health by overwork, had pledged himself to a
single term as president
1. The Democratic National Convention at Baltimore turned to an aging
leader, General Lewis Cass, a veteran of the War of 1812; although a
senator and diplomat, he was sour-visaged and somewhat
pompous—silent about issue of slavery in the territories
2. Although the Democratic party was silent, Cass was not silent; his
views on the extension of slavery were well known because he was
the reputed father of popular sovereignty—doctrine that stated that
the principles of the Constitution, should themselves determine the
status of slavery in their separate state
3. Popular sovereignty had a persuasive appeal; the public liked it because it
accorded with the democratic tradition of self-determination; politicians
liked it because it seemed a comfortable compromise between the
abolitionist bid for a band on slavery in the territories and southern
demands that Congress protect slavery in the territories
1. Popular sovereignty tossed the slavery problem into the laps of the
people in the various territories; advocates of the principle thus hoped
to dissolve the most stubborn national issue of the day into a series of
local issues (spread issue out)
2. Popular sovereignty had one fatal defect: it might serve to spread the
blight of slavery
2. Political Triumphs for General Taylor
1. The Whigs, meeting in Philadelphia, cashed in on the Taylor fever
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1. They nominated the honest Zachary Taylor, the Hero of Buena
Vista, who had never held civil office or even voted for president;
Henry Clay should logically have been nominated but Clay had made
too many speeches—and too many enemies
2. The Whigs eager to win at any cost, dodged troublesome issues and
merely extolled homespun virtues of their candidate—the frontier
fighter had not committed himself on the issue of slavery extension
but he did own slaves on his sugar plantation
3. Ardent antislavery men in the North, distrusting both Cass and Taylor,
organized the Free Soil party—aroused by the conspiracy of silence in
the Democratic and Whig platforms, the Free-Soilers made no bones
about their own stand—they came out for the Wilmot Proviso and
against slavery in the territories
4.
5. Going beyond other antislavery groups, they broadened appeal by
advocating federal aid for internal improvements and by urging free
government homesteads for settlers
2. The new party assembled a strange assortment of new fellows in the
same political bed
1. It attracted industrialists miffed at Polk’s reduction of protective tariffs;
it appealed to Democrats resentful of Polk’s settling for a part of
Oregon while insisting on all of Texas—a disparity that suggested a
menacing southern dominance among Democrats
2. It harbored many northerners who hatred was directed not so much at
slavery as at blacks and who gagged at the prospect of sharing the
newly acquired western territories with African Americans—it also
contained a large element of conscience Whigs, heavily influenced
by the abolitionist crusade, who condemned slavery
3. The Free-Soilers trotted out wizened former president Van Buren and
marched into the fray, shouting, Free soil, free speech, free labor,
and free men
4. Free-Soilers condemned slavery not so much for enslaving blacks but
for destroying the chances of free white workers to rise up from wage-
earning dependence to the esteemed status of self-employment (only
could be accomplished with free soil)
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5. As the first inclusive party organized around issue of slavery and
confined to a single section, the Free Soil party foreshadowed the
emergence of the Republican party
3. With the slavery issue officially shoved under the rug by the two major
parties, the politicians on both sides opened fire on personalities; the
amateurish Taylor had to be carefully watched, lest his pen puncture the
reputation won by his sword
1. His admirers puffed him up as a gallant knight and sloganized his
remark, allegedly uttered during the Battle of Buena Vista, General
Taylor never surrenders
2. Taylor’s wartime popularity pulled him though and Free-Soiler Van
Buren diverted enough Democratic strength from Cass in New York to
throw the election to Taylor
3. Californy Gold
1. President Taylor was a military square peg in a political round hole; he
would have been spared much turmoil if could have continued to sit on the
lid; but the discovery of gold in California, early in the year of 1848, blew
the cover off
1. A horde of adventurers poured into the valleys of California singing O
Susannah! and shouting Gold! Gold! Gold! began tearing at the
yellow-graveled streams and hills; a fortunate few of the bearded
miners struck it rich at the diggings
2. But the luckless many probably would have been money well ahead if
they had stayed at home unaffected by the gold fever which was
often followed by more deadly fevers—the most reliable profits were
made by those who mined the miners, notably by charging outrageous
rates for laundry and other personal services
2. The overnight inpouring of tens of thousands of people into the future
Golden State completely overwhelmed the one-horse government of
California—a distressingly high proportion of the newcomers were lawless
men, accompanied by virtue-less women
3. An outburst of crime inevitably resulted from the presence of so many
miscreants and outcasts; robbery, claim jumping, and murder were
commonplace and such violence was only partly discouraged by rough
vigilante justice (few hangings in San Francisco)
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Document Summary
Vista,(cid:1689) who had never held civil office or even voted for president; Taylor never surrenders(cid:1689: taylor"s wartime popularity pulled him though and free-soiler van. Golden state completely overwhelmed the one-horse government of. Union: sectional balance and the underground railroad, the south of 1850 was relatively well-off; it then enjoyed more than its share of the nation"s leadership and it had seated the war hero zachary. Texans were threatening to descend upon santa fe and seize what they regarded as rightfully theirs: many southerners were also angered by the nagging agitation in the. Guard from the north were yet to have their say; this was a group of newer leaders who, unlike the aging old guard, had not grown up with the. Tennessee and not only took a strong position in favor of slavery but condemned the compromise measures then being hammered out in.
