Terms & Names: Chapter 13

John Tyler: "Tippecanoe and Tyler too..." VP to Harrison, President when he died. Handled Texas annexation issue.

Liberty Party: 1840s early abolitionists, mostly northern Whigs, andidate John P. Hale supported Wilmot Proviso concept, later smooshed into Free Soil Party.

Manifest Destiny: belief that US should take over entirety of North American territory from Atlantic to Pacific.



Santa Fe Trail: transportation route through southwestern North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Used primarily for a military road.

Lewis Cass: advocate of "popular sovereignty" and nominee in election of 1848

Oregon Fever: sentiment of Mississippi Valley in 1842/43 with mass exodus of regular families.

"Fifty-four Forty or Fight!": principle perpetuated by Polk, that US boundaries should extend northward, into Canada, up to modern-day Alaska's southern border.

Oregon Trail: path by which Missouri was connected to new Oregon Territory; traversed by pioneers west.

Mormon migration: patriarchical society persecuted in East, NY, Ohio, Missouri, and Illionis where they were outed because of Joseph Smith, their founder and leader's, sanction of polygamy. Were then led to Salt Lake basin by new leader, Brigham Young.

Joseph Smith: leader, founder and supposed prophet of the Mormon faith. Sanctioned polygamy.

Brigham Young: led Mormon exodus to Salt Lake Basin, kept up polygamy, faced federal wrath.

Great American Desert: used by pioneers to describe the high plains west of the Rocky mountains.

Conscience Whigs: whigs who opposed slavery. Significant-- couldn't morally support Zach Taylor in 1848 election

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna: Mexican General during Texas deal, captured and dishonored at Battle of the Alamo

Sam Houston: elected first president of the newly independent Texas in 1836.

Winfield Scott: appointed by Polk as General of US forces in Mexican War following Taylor, for the third phase of the war, campaign to attack Mexico city, this angered Taylor. Eventually Scott won the war by capturing port of Vera Cruz in February 1847.

Rio Grande: river that would eventually become the state division between New Mexico and Texas. Means Big River...

Battle of Buena Vista: the decisive victory for US forces under Scott in the Mexican port city in 1847.

John C. Fremont: first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States and first presidential candidate from a major party to run on a platform in opposition to slavery.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: 1847 peace treaty ending the Mexican-American war, US got California, New Mexico, Texas to the Rio Grande, in exchange for $15 million.

Anthony Burns: arrested and tried, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 1854, found guilty.

Free Soil Party: comprised of mostly northern Abolitionists, existed only during 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, to be largely absorbed by the Republican party.

Wilmot Proviso: proposed by David Wilmot, a pennsylvania democrat, an ammendment to the 1850 compromise, to outlaw slavery in any new state acquired from the former Mexican territory. House passed it, senate rejected. The voting was along sectional lines, proving a two-party system couldn't deal with slavery.

Compromise of 1850: series of bills balanced the interests of the slave states of the South and the free states to the north. California was admitted as a free state; Texas got money for giving land up to Rio Grande; the Territory of New Mexico (including present-day Arizona and a portion of southern Nevada) was organized without any specific prohibition of slavery; no slave trade in DC; all US citizens were supposed to help with escaped slaves.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: all Americans were supposed to help with escaped slaves.

Daniel Webster: negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty that established the definitive eastern border between the United States and Canada, into keeping the union whole, and was super eloquent.

Stephen A. Douglas: Illinois Republican vied against Lincoln for 1860 Republican Presidential nomination.

Popular Sovereignty: idea that individual voting populations in territories should determine fate of slavery in their own particular regions. Supported by Lewis Cass, a candidate in the 1848 election.

Uncle Tom's Cabin: book written about the strife of slavery, and its ripping apart families. Serialized in 1852. Responded to with pro-slavery novels, none were ever as popular.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, daughter of clergyman.

Personal Liberty Laws: series of laws passed by several U.S. states in the North in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Ostend Manifesto: secret document written in 1854 by U.S. diplomats at Ostend, Belgium, describing a plan to acquire Cuba from Spain, aka filibustering of Cuba.

Filibustering: sentiment of many southerners in 1850s to acquire Central American countries for purposes of instating slavery, and thus using as political pons.

William Walker: the grey eyed man of destiny, went to Nicaragua a bunch of times, and got kicked out a bunch of times, and was eventually caught and executed.

Prigg v. Pennsylvania: determined Fugitive Slave Law was to be solely enforced by the US government.

James K. Polk: notable foreign policy success, split NW with Britain at 49th parallel, led Mexican American War.

Zachary Taylor: defeated the Democratic nominee, Lewis Cass in 1848 election, urged expansion, passed Compromise of 1850.

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