Sectional-Conflict

Free Soil Party Splits Democratic Vote, Demonstrating Slavery's Destruction of Party Unity

1848-11-07 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

The 1848 presidential election takes place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War and intense debates over the extension of slavery into the Mexican Cession. After both the Whig Party and the Democratic Party nominate presidential candidates who are unwilling to rule out the extension of …

Martin Van Buren Free Soil Party Democratic Party Whig Party Lewis Cass +1 more free-soil-party antislavery political-realignment sectional-conflict slavery-expansion

Wilmot Proviso Triggers Sectional Crisis Over Slavery in Conquered Mexican Territory

1846-08-08 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

On August 8, 1846, amidst the Mexican-American War, Democratic Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduces an amendment to President James Polk’s $2 million appropriation bill for purchasing territory from Mexico, boldly declaring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude …

David Wilmot James K. Polk U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate Northern Democrats +1 more wilmot-proviso slavery-expansion sectional-conflict mexican-american-war territorial-expansion +1 more

Texas Annexed as Slave State Despite Nine Years of Antislavery Opposition

1845-03-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Congress admits Texas to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845, following a nine-year political struggle that delayed annexation due to opposition from antislavery forces. The annexation represents a clear victory for Slave Power expansion: Texas arrives as a vast slave-holding region …

James K. Polk John Tyler John C. Calhoun U.S. Congress Mexico +1 more slavery-expansion texas-annexation manifest-destiny sectional-conflict institutional-corruption +1 more

Tariff of Abominations Imposes 45% Import Taxes, Triggering Nullification Crisis and Sectional Conflict

1828-05-19 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

Congress passes and President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828, an extraordinarily high protective tariff setting a 38% tax on some imported goods and a 45% tax on certain imported raw materials—the highest rates in American history to that point. The tariff seeks to protect Northern …

U.S. Congress John C. Calhoun Andrew Jackson Southern planters Northern manufacturers sectional-conflict nullification economic-extraction regional-exploitation slave-power

Tariff of 1816 Establishes Protectionism as Core of American System Economic Policy

1816-04-27 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

Congress passes the Tariff of 1816, the first explicitly protective tariff in American history, taxing imported goods at a remarkable 25% rate to protect emerging domestic industries from cheap British goods flooding American markets after the War of 1812. The tariff represents the first pillar of …

Henry Clay U.S. Congress Northern manufacturers Southern planters economic-policy sectional-conflict protectionism american-system regional-extraction