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At their first nominating convention, the Republicans chose explorer John C. Frémont as their candidate.

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They nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Buchanan had a great deal of political experience as Polk’s secretary of state.

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Congress also reacted to the violence of the Sack of Lawrence. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts criticized pro-slavery people in Kansas and personally insulted Andrew Pickens Butler, a pro-slavery senator from South Carolina.

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The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner: US History Review

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.” On the night of May 24, 1856, along Pottawatomie Creek, Brown and his men killed five pro-slavery men in Kansas in what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre .

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The Pottawatomie Massacre: The Event that Caused the American Civil War - Life of John Brown Ep: 1

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In January 1854 Douglas introduced what became the Kansas-Nebraska Act ,

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Sound Smart: The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 | History

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1852. It became clear that none of them would win a majority of votes. Frustrated delegates at the Democratic National Convention turned to Franklin Pierce

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American President #14: Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

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Fiction also informed people about the evils of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the antislavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe,

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The newly passed Fugitive Slave Act made it a crime to help runaway slaves and allowed officials to arrest those slaves in free areas.

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The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793: Crash Course Black American History #10

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A compromise was enacted that year and seemed to settle most disputes between free and slave states. It achieved the majority of Clay’s propos-als. With the Compromise of 1850, California was able to enter the Union

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Sound Smart: Compromise of 1850 | History

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the Free-Soil Party, which supported the Wilmot Proviso.

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the Wilmot Proviso spurred a debate that showed growing sectionalism , or favoring the interests of one section or region over the interests of the entire country.

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Sectionalism and "The Slave Power Conspiracy" | US History Lesson

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part one free and one enslaved. Some leaders, including Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, encouraged popular sovereignty, the idea that political power belongs to the peo-ple, who should decide on banning or allowing slavery.

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David Wilmot offered the Wilmot Proviso, a document stating that “neither slav-ery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of [the] territory.”