Presidents & Events…

1. Presidents & Events…

2. Zachary Taylor #12 • Whig • 1849-1850 • Vice President: Millard Fillmore • Policed the frontiers against Indians • Won major victories in the Mexican-American War

3. California Gold Rush • Gold-seekers • "forty-niners" • 300,000 people came to California • Resulted in attacks on Native Americans • Removed from their lands

4. Zachary Taylor #12 • Important accomplishments: • Had a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery • After participating in ceremonies at the Washington Monument on a blistering July 4, Taylor fell ill; within five days he was dead • Interesting facts: • Last President to own slaves while in office (owned 100)

5. Millard Fillmore #13 • Whig • 1850-1853 • Vice President: None

6. Compromise of 1850 • Four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War • Reduced sectional conflict 1. Admit California as a free state2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico4. Place Federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives5. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia

8. Millard Fillmore #13 • Important Accomplishments: • Supported the Compromise of 1850, which he signed, including the Fugitive Slave Act (Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce)

9. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe • Published in 1852 • Depicts the reality of slavery • Simon Legree is a cruel slave owner • Tom is a noble, long-suffering slave

10. Franklin Pierce #14 • Democrat • 1853-1857 • Vice President: William King for 6 weeks

11. Kansas-Nebraska Act • Repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West • Allowed settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory • Promoted a transcontinental railroad with a link from Illinois to California

13. Bloody Kansas • Pro-slavery settlers came to Kansas mainly from neighboring Missouri • Abolitionist settlers, known as "Jayhawkers" moved from the East • John Brown and his sons fought against slavery by murdering five pro-slavery farmers • Hostilities between the factions reached a high damaging to President Pierce • Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state

15. Gadsden Purchase • Pierce sent James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a southern railroad • Purchased the area now comprising southern Arizona and part of southern New Mexico for $10 million, commonly known as the Gadsden Purchase • Known as the greatest success of the Pierce presidency

16. Franklin Pierce #14 • Important Accomplishments: • Kansas-Nebraska Act • Repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West • Sent James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a southern railroad • Purchased the area for $10,000,000 (now southern Arizona and part of southern New Mexico) • Interesting Facts: • Two months before he took office, he and his wife saw their eleven-year-old son killed when their train was wrecked • Placed his hand on a law book rather than on a Bible • “Bleeding Kansas" • Enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act

17. James Buchanan #15 • Democrat • 1857-1861 • Vice President: • John Breckinridge

18. Dred Scott v. Sandford • Held that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the territories, and that people of African descent (both slave and free) were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens • Had no right to sue in federal court • Chief Justice Taney had hoped to settle the growing controversy surrounding slavery in the United States, but it had the opposite effect

19. Raid on Harper’s Ferry • An attempt by the white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt • 16 white men, 3 free blacks, 1 freed slave, and 1 fugitive slave • Seized United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia • Action inside the engine house happened very quickly. In three minutes, all of the raiders still alive were taken prisoner and the action was over • Brown was found guilty of treason and hanged

20. James Buchanan #15 • Important Accomplishments: • None • Interesting Facts: • Only President never married • Dred Scott decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to deprive persons of their property rights in slaves in the territories • Denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them • Policy of inactivity • Raid on Harper’s Ferry • Considered the worst President in history

21. Election 0f 1860 • The United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners • In 1860, these issues broke the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions • Republican Party secured enough electoral votes to put Abraham Lincoln in the White House without support from the South

22. Abraham Lincoln #16 • Republican • 1861-1865 • Vice President: • Hannibal Hamlin - first term • Andrew Johnson

23. Secession • Before Lincoln's inauguration, seven Southern states seceded and formed the Confederacy • South Carolina • Mississippi • Florida • Alabama • Georgia • Louisiana • Texas

24. Confederate States of America Formed • Four more states joined in secession after Lincoln’s inauguration • Confederate President Jefferson Davis