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Franklin Peirce was the president at the time.

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Some northerners wanted to outlaw slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession.

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The California gold rush caused such rapid population growth that California applied to join the Union as a state instead of as a territory.

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Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky had helped to settle the Missouri crisis of

1819–20 and the nullification crisis of 1832–33 by proposing compromises.

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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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Abolitionists in the North used the stories of fugitive slaves like James Hamlet and Anthony Burns to gain sympathy for their cause.

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In his inaugural address, President Pierce expressed his hope that the slavery issue had been put to rest

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By early 1856 Kansas had two opposing governments, and the population was angry.

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Democrat Stephen Douglas had predicted that the Kansas Nebraska Act would raise a storm.

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How and Why Political Parties CHANGE [AP Gov Review, Unit 5 Topic 4 (5.4)]

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Just two days after Buchanan became president, the Supreme Court issued

a historic ruling about slavery.

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The Dred Scott Decision: Crash Course Black American History #16

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In 1858 Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Senate.

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Lincoln's Breakthrough at the Lincoln-Douglas Debates | Abraham Lincoln

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In 1858 John Brown tried to start an uprising. He wanted to

attack the federal arsenal in Virginia and seize weapons there.

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In this climate of distrust, Americans prepared for another presidential

election in 1860.