Chapter 15 Terms

1. John Brown- white American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States.
2. John C. Calhoun- a leading American politician and political theorist during the first half of the 19th century.
3. Zachary Taylor- 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general.
4. Henry Clay- encouraged United States participation in the War of 1812.
5. Stephen Douglas- an American politician from Brandon, Vermont and the designer of the Kansas–Nebraska Act.
6. Franklin Pierce- 14th President of the United States, Genial and well-spoken, Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation.
7. John C. Fremont- an American military officer, explorer, and politician who became the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States
8. James Buchanan- 15th President of the United States, serving immediately prior to the American Civil War.
9. Charles Summer- was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War working to destroy the Confederacy, free all the slaves and keep on good terms with Europe.
10. Abraham Lincoln- the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis.
11. Jefferson Davis- an American soldier and politician who was the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). He took personal charge of the Confederate war plans but was unable to find a strategy to defeat the more populous and industrialized Union.
12. Millard Fillmore- 13th President of the United States, the last Whig president, and the last president not to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties.
13. Impact of Mexican American War on slavery issue- While driven by economic ambitions and a sense that the United States was “destined” to span the entire continent, the war also raised the issue of how acquisition of such a large territory would affect the balance between slave and free states.
14. Wilmot Proviso- banned slavery in any territory to be acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War; or, in the future, including the area later known as the Mexican Cession
15. Missouri Compromise- a federal statute in the United States that regulated slavery in the country's western territories. The compromise, devised by Henry Clay, was agreed to by the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress and passed as a law in 1820.
16. Popular sovereignty- the principle that the authority of the government is created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives (Rule by the People), who are the source of all political power.
17. Free soil Party- minor but influential political party in the pre-Civil War period of American history that opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories.
18. Compromise of 1850- an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
19. Fugitive Slave Act -It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and those officials and citizens of Free states had to cooperate in this law.
20. Uncle Tom’s Cabin- Book by Harriet Stowe talking about slave life and the struggles. It sold 300,000 copies