I. Background A. At this time, the Mexican American War had just ended and the US had an equal number of free and slave states. The war ended in 1848. If you remember right, the Mexican American War left America with, through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Mexican Cession), the former Mexican provinces of California and Mexico. Mexico would also, in subsequence of the treaty, recognize the Rio Grande as the Southern Border of Mexico. In return, the US would pay Mexico 15 million and assume claims of Mexican citizens against Americans.
B. The vast territory acquired from this war threatened to upset the balance of free states and slave states.
II. Finding a Compromise A. The …show more content…
Made of Free-soilers and antislavery Democrats and Whigs
C. Platform of 1854 called for a repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act/Fugitive Slave law.
D. Bleeding Kansas helps to unite the Republicans and bolsters them to national political affluence.
E. From 1854-1860, the party became the second largest political party next to the democrats. 1. As it was primarily a northern or sectional party, its success threatened the South.
XII. The Crisis in Kansas A. In the wake of the Kansas Nebraska Act, an organization known as the New England Immigrant Aid Company, sent antislavery settlers into Kansas in order to stifle escalation attempts to turn Kansas into a slave state. 1. Unfortunately they arrive slowly. 2. The bulk of the settlers came from Missouri or elsewhere in the Midwest. 3. Kansas soon becomes a battleground for antislavery.
B. Border ruffians 1. Led by Sen. David R. Atchison 2. Come to Kansas to vote illegally in the first election for a territorial legislature. a. Because the votes were illegal, a cloud of fraudulence thereafter hung over the proslavery legislature subsequently established at Lecompton,