Glossary

Daniel Webster

Webster, along with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, was one of the preeminent leaders of the second generation of American political life - the period extending from the War of 1812 to almost the eve of the Civil War.

Fugitive Slave Law

This law was the most divisive element in the Compromise of 1850. It permitted any black to be sent south solely on the affidavit of anyone claiming to be his or her owner. The law kindled widespread outrage in the North, and its enforcement was defiantly opposed.

Great Compromiser

Drawing on his reputation as the "Great Compromiser," Henry Clay fashioned a compromise in 1850 aimed at encouraging Northerners and Southerners to place national patriotism ahead of sectional loyalties. His proposal sparked a lengthy debate in Congress.

Know Nothing party

Vigorously opposed to immigrants and Catholics, this party, also known as the American party, crippled the Whig party, weakened the Democratic party, and made the political system of the 1850s incapable of resolving the growing crisis over slavery.

personal liberty laws

As a result of Prigg v. Pennsylvania, several states enacted "personal liberty" laws that forbade state officials from assisting in the return of runaway slaves and imprisoning the fugitives in state jails. Southerners responded by demanding the passage of an effective Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.

popular sovereignty

Two Democratic senators, Lewis Cass of Michigan and Stephen Douglas of Illinois, proposed to settle sectional controversies by adopting popular sovereignty, also known as squatter sovereignty. It declared that the people actually living in a territory should decide whether or not to allow slavery.

Prigg v. Pennsylvania

In this Supreme Court case in 1842, the Court ruled that state authorities could not be compelled to return fugitive slaves to the southern owners.

slave power

By the 1850s many Northerners believed a conspiracy theory that held that an aggressive southern slave power had seized control of the federal government and threatened to subvert republican ideals of liberty, equality, and self-rule.

Stephen A. Douglas

After the death of President Taylor in 1850, Douglas assumed the leadership in Congress in the fight for a compromise solution. He gained passage of each part of the compromise by introducing Clay's proposals one at a time and forming voting coalitions of Whigs and Democrats and Northerners and Southerners on each issue.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Reacting to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 published this novel, which was the single most powerful attack on slavery ever written. No novel has ever exerted a stronger influence on American public opinion.

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