Wilmot Proviso- A plan that some northerners wanted to prohibit slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession. .
2. Sectionalism- A devotion to the interests of one region instead of to the country as a whole "over the issue of slavery. .
3. Popular sovereignty- would allow voters in a territory to decide whether they wanted to ban or permit slavery. They would make their decision by electing antislavery or pro-slavery representatives to their territorial legislatures. Based on the will of the majority, these legislatures then pass laws to prohibit or promote slavery.
4. Free-Soil Party- This political party formed when the Whigs and democrats refused to address the slavery issue. They endorsed the Wilmot Proviso and elected Martin Van Buren of New York as their candidate.
5. Henry Clay- He helped out with the slavery problems of the Mexican Cession. He was one of the original debaters of the Missouri Compromise so he was very experienced and trustworthy. He was very good and addressed all issues fairly and evenly.
6. Daniel Webster- He was a strong supporter of Clay's plan, and he emphasized the fact that he spoke, not as a Massachusetts man or a northerner, but as an American. Clay's plan was eventually successful.
7. Compromise of 1850- Agreement proposed by Henry Clay that allowed California to enter the Union as a free state and divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into two territories where slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty; also settled land claims between Texas and New Mexico, abolished the slave trade in Washington, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.
8. Fugitive Slave Act- Law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of the escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders.
9. Anthony Burns- He was a fugitive slave suspect whose case actually caused spilled blood. At a courthouse during his hearing, a group of abolitionists stormed and ended up killing a deputy marshal, but didn't get close enough to rescue Burns.
