The Whig party's nomination for the presidency in 1848. Died in office in 1850.

The freshman senator from New York who spoke against both secession and slavery , not using the power of compromise.

Taylor's vice president who took over as the 13th president of the US after Taylor's death

Elected president in the 1852 election as the second Democratic "dark horse." He was a pro-southern northerner who supported the Compromise of 1850 and especially the Fugitive Slave Law. He also supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act<br />

Hero of the war with Mexico, he was the Whig's candidate in the 1852 election whose defeat effectively ended the Whig party.

American adventurer who seized Nicaragua and opened it to slavery, but was overthrown by other South American governments and killed.

He was the naval leader who convinced the Japanese to sign the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1853 with the U.S.

The "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Repeatedly returned to the South to lead groups of slaves northward.

Considered the father of the Compromise of 1850.

A white abolitionist, woman who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.

A militant abolitionist that took radical extremes to make his views clear. In 1856, he led a group of his followers to Pottawattamie Creek and launched a bloody attack against pro-slavery men killing five people. He later led a raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, VA in a wild attempt to free slaves. He was captured and hanged but became a martyr and symbol of abolition.

Weak Democratic president elected in 1856. He divided his own party by using pro-slavery forces.

Verbally attacked the South in a speech in Congress and was attacked and badly injured by a Southern Congressman.

His bloody attack on Charles Sumner in Congress fueled sectional hatred.

The first Republican candidate for president. Ran in the 1856 election

A political leader of the nineteenth century, known for twice running against Abraham Lincoln — for a seat in the Senate from Illinois in 1858, which he won, and for the presidency in 1860, which he lost. He was a major supporter of popular sovereignty and the Compromise of 1850.

He was the vice-president elected in 1856. He was nominated for the presidential election of 1860 for the Southern Democrats. After the Democrats split, the Northern Democrats would no longer support him. Breckenridge favored the extension of slavery, but was not a secessionist. He won nearly all the Southern electoral votes in 1860.

Was nominated for the presidency in 1860 by the Constitutional Union Party. He was a compromise candidate.

Republicans chose him to run against Senator Douglas (a Democrat) in the senatorial elections of 1858. Although he lost the senate race that year, he came to be one of the most prominent northern politicians and emerged as a Republican nominee for president two years later. Although he won the presidential elections of 1860, he was a minority and sectional president (he was not allowed on the ballot in ten southern states). His victory gave South Carolina an excuse to secede from the Union and caused the South to completely break off from the North.

He was a Senator of Kentucky responsible for t a last-minute attempt to avoid conflict over slavery. He had two sons—one fought for each side during the Civil War illustrating the absurdity of the war.