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CHAPTER FOURTEENTH.

FROM THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR TO THE OPENING OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR.

1848-1861.

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OLK was succeeded in office
by Zachary Taylor, the hero
of Buena Vista. In the
campaign of 1848, three dis-
tinct parties the Whigs,
the Democrats, and the
Free-soilers brought out
candidates. Taylor was
nominated by the Whigs;
General Lewis Cass of
Michigan, by the Demo-
crats;
and Martin Van
Buren, by the Free-soilers.
The last-named party, weak
as to numbers, held that

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Congress should prohibit the introduction of slavery into the territories. Taylor was elected, and he took his seat March 5, 1849. When sixteen months had elapsed, his administration was abruptly closed by his death, which occurred, after a brief illness, on the 9th of July, 1850. His last words were: "I have endeavored to do my duty. I am not afraid to die." The Vice President, Millard Fillmore of New York, now became chief magistrate.

QUESTIONS. 212. Who were candidates for the presidency in the election of 1848? Who was elected? When did Taylor die? Who then became President?

No sooner had the Mexican war closed, than difficulties began to arise respecting the newly-acquired territory. One question in dispute was regarding the boundary between Texas and New Mexico. The most exciting topic of congressional debate, however, was slavery. California, as we have seen, had suddenly acquired a population sufficient to entitle her to the privileges of a state. At the suggestion of Taylor, the Californians held a convention in September, 1849, and adopted a state constitution, which was ratified by the people with great unanimity. It was presumable, from the geographical position of California, that she would be a slave state; but it happened that the majority of her mixed population were in favor of free labor, and the newly-adopted constitution, therefore, excluded slavery. The bill to admit California without slavery met with violent opposition at Washington. Indeed, so bitter was the feeling against it, that great fears were entertained of disunion in case of its passage.

The discussion on the admission of California, and on other subjects directly or indirectly related to slavery, continued to agitate both Congress and the people at large for many months. At length, in January, 1850, Henry Clay, the great compromiser, introduced, in the Senate, a set of resolutions soon collectively named, by the newspapers, the Omnibus bill. The measures Clay proposed were, after long delays, substantially adopted, and were the means of postponing for ten years the final conflict between the North and the South.

By this compromise California was admitted to the Union as a free state; the boundary line between Texas and New Mexico was fixed four degrees east of Santa Fé; Utah and New Mexico were erected into territorial governments, free to introduce slavery or prohibit it as the people should decide; the slave trade was abolished in the District of Col

What subjects engrossed the attention of the government after the close of the Mexican war? When did California adopt a state constitution? What provision was made in it? How did Congress receive the application of California for admission into the Union? What was the Omnibus bill? When introduced? By whom?

umbia; and the fugitive slave law was passed, providing for the capture and delivery to their masters of runaway negroes who had escaped from the South to the North. The Abolitionists severely blamed Fillmore for signing the fugitive slave bill.

213. In the fall of 1852, the Democrats nominated, for President, Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire; the Whigs nominated Winfield Scott. Both candidates were pledged to the support of the Omnibus bill. The Freesoilers, now a formidable party, nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, famous for his early antagonism to slavery. Pierce was

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elected. He was a lawyer, had been in Congress both as representative and as senator, and had served in the Mexican war as a brigadier-general. Not long after his election, the United States bought of Mexico, for twenty million dollars, about twenty-seven thousand square miles of territory south of the Gila River. This transaction is known as the Gadsden purchase.

Stephen A. Douglas.

The great legislative event of Pierce's administration was the passage of the celebrated Kansas-Nebraska bill, brought before the Senate in 1853 by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, a man destined to play an important part on the

State the different things included in the compromise measures as adopted. 213. What political parties nominated candidates for the presidency in 1852? To what principles were the parties severally committed? Who was elected? When and by whom was the Kansas-Nebraska bill brought before Congress?

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