Slavery in the territories

1. The Wilmot Proviso
2. Calhoun's resolutions in reaction to the Proviso
3. Other proposals to deal with slavery in the territories
1. Extension of the Missouri Compromise line
2. Popular, or squatter, sovereignty
4. Controversy over admission of Oregon as a free territory
5. Slavery debate and the 1848 presidential election
1. Cass for popular sovereignty
2. Whigs shun Clay for Taylor
3. Formation of Free Soil party
1. Three elements form the coalition
2. Cotton vs. Conscience Whigs
3. Van Buren nominated
4. Victory for Taylor in close race

The push for California statehood

1. California gold rush
2. The mining frontier
3. Zachary Taylor as president
4. Taylor calls for admission of California as a free state

The Compromise of 1850

1. Southern outrage and secession threats
2. Clay's compromise package of eight resolutions
3. Calhoun's response
4. Webster's plea for union
5. Seward's response for the abolitionists
6. The Committee of Thirteen
7. Taylor's death
8. Fillmore supports the Clay compromise
9. The Douglas strategy of six (later five) separate bills
10. Terms of the Compromise
11. Reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law
1. Terms of the law
2. Uncle Tom's Cabin

The election of 1852

1. The Democrats turn to Franklin Pierce
2. Free Soilers promote John P. Hale
3. Whigs turn to Winfield Scott and his martial glory
4. Pierce the victor

Foreign adventures

1. Efforts to expand southward
1. Early efforts to capture Cuba
2. The Ostend Manifesto
2. Achievements of American diplomacy in the Pacific
1. Opening of China to Americans
2. Perry's expedition to Japan
3. The Gadsden Purchase of 1853

The Kansas-Nebraska Crisis

1. Development
1. Ideas for a transcontinental railroad
2. Douglas's Nebraska bill leads to repeal of the Missouri Compromise
3. Douglas's motives
4. Douglas's tragic miscalculations
2. Northern reactions to the extension of slavery
1. Protests
2. Final passage of the Nebraska bill
3. Trial and return to slavery of Anthony Burns
4. Break-up of the Whigs
3. The "battle" for Kansas
1. Efforts to promote settlement of Kansas by Free Soilers and pro-slavery forces
2. The official pro-slavery government
3. The counter-government in Topeka
4. Violence in Lawrence and Pottawatomie
5. The Sumner-Butler-Brooks clash in Congress

The election of 1856

1. The American and Whig parties nominate Fillmore
2. The Republicans choose John Frémont as their first presidential candidate
3. The Democrats nominate James Buchanan
4. The campaign and Buchanan's election
5. Buchanan's background and perspective

The Dred Scott decision

1. Nature of the case
2. Analysis of the court's decision
3. Southern demands for a federal slave code

Movements for Kansas statehood

1. Governor Walker's efforts
2. The Lecompton Constitution
3. Buchanan's support for Lecompton
4. Defeat of the proposal
5. Postponement of Kansas statehood

Panic of 1857

1. Causes and nature of the economic reversal
2. Sectional reactions to the economic problems
3. Hard times inspire "prayer-meeting" revivals

The Lincoln-Douglas senatorial contest in Illinois

1. The candidates and their situation
2. Lincoln opposed to slavery but not an abolitionist
3. The setting of the debates
4. The Freeport Doctrine
5. Douglas's efforts to bait Lincoln on race
6. Results of the election

Further sectional problems at the end of the decade

1. John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry
2. The effects of Brown's raid and martyrdom

The election of 1860

1. The Democratic convention eventually nominates Douglas
2. The southern Democrats nominate Breckenridge
3. The Republican convention nominates Lincoln and adopts a platform
4. The Constitutional Union party formed to support Bell and preservation of the Union
5. Nature of the campaign
6. Outcome of the election

Secession begins

1. South Carolina is first to secede
2. Six more Deep South states leave the Union
3. Buchanan's non-reactions to secession
4. Problems of federal property in the seceded South
5. Last efforts to compromise
1. Crittenden's proposal
2. Response of Lincoln and the Republicans

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