The Nashville Convention was a convention of delegates from the Southern States of America at Nashville, Tennessee in June, 1850, suggested by the Mississippi State Convention of the previous year. The convention was called to consider the slavery question and the encroachments of Northern abolitionists. It did not meet with universal approval. The Wilmotproviso and the Missouri Compromise were disapproved of, but resolutions of open resistance advanced by Texas, South Carolina and Mississippi were voted down. The convention met again in November, and again moderate resolutions were adopted. Research Nashville Convention
The term popular sovereignty originated in America about the time of the acquisition of additional territory from Mexico in 1848. A suggestion was made of a middle course between the Wilmot Proviso, which prohibited the introduction of slavery into newly acquired or organized territories, and the positive permission of slavery under federal legislative enactment; namely, the question was to be settled by the inhabitants of the territories. The Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854 purported to enforce the popular sovereignty idea. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 decided against it. The Democratic National Convention of 1856 approved of non-interference by Congress. with slavery in the Territories. Douglas, of Illinois, was an ardentadvocate of this policy, and he vainly defended it against the Dred Scott decision. The popular sovereignty idea disappeared with the outbreak of the rebellion. It was called in derision " squatter sovereignty". Research Popular Sovereignty
The Wilmot Proviso was an American anti-slavery proposal. On August the 8th, 1846, President Polk of America, in a special message to Congress, requested 'money for the adjustment of a boundary with Mexico', that is, for the purchase of Mexican territory outside of Texas. A bill appropriating $2,000,000 was at once introduced into the House. David Wilmot, a Democrat, of Pennsylvania, proposed as an amendment the since famous 'Wilmot Proviso', which 'provided that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted'. The bill thus amended passed the House, but failed in the Senate. On January the 4th, 1847, a bill appropriating $3,000,000 instead of $2,000,000 was proposed by Preston King. It passed the House with the proviso attached, but the latter was dropped in the Senate. For a number of years the Wilmot Proviso was brought up and debated whenever new territories were to be organized. It was discussed in the case of Oregon, California, Utah and New Mexico, but was not finally established until June the 9th, 1861, when Congress passed an act prohibiting 'slavery in any territories of the United States now existing, or which may be hereafter formed or acquired'. Research Wilmot Proviso
Whig was a nickname applied to the Covenanters in Scotland and later generally to the Presbyterian party in Scotland and the opponents of the monarchy in England. In the early 19th century the term was replaced with ' liberal'.
In the United States, the name of Whigs was taken by the party which furthered the Revolution, because their principles were but the application to America of those principles which the Whigs of England had advocated, and had secured through the Revolution of 1688. In 1834 the name was revived. The Federal party had virtually come to an end about 1817. Henceforth all American politicians were simply Republicans. But, as will usually happen in such cases, a divergence of views developed itself within the party. Adams and Clay and their followers, on the one hand, advocated a policy of protection and federal internal improvements and a broad or loose construction of the Constitution. Others, on the other hand, construing the Constitution strictly, opposed these things; these found a leader in Jackson. The former took the name of National Republicans. Adams was their candidate in 1828. After his defeat their chief leader was Clay, whom they nominated for President in 1831.
Their opposition to Jackson drew to them various elements and, as opponents of executive usurpation, the coalition took the old name of Whigs in 1834. The Whig body always formed rather a coalition than a party. They were united in opposition to Jackson, but the Northern Whigs favoured the US Bank, a protective tariff, etc., while the Southern Whigs were strict constructionists.
In the election of 1836 these various elements supported various candidates. In that of 1840 they united upon the available Harrison, and triumphantly elected him and Tyler in a campaign of unthinking enthusiasm. Harrison died, and the Whigs quarreled violently with Tyler.
In 1844 they nominated their real leader, Clay, who narrowly missed election. The annexation of Texas and the Mexican War and the Wilmotproviso now brought slavery to the front as the leading issue of politics. This was fatal to the Whigs, for it was sure to divide the Northern and the Southern Whigs. In 1848 they preserved themselves temporarily by passing over Clay and Webster and nominating a military candidate, Taylor. He was elected. But when similar tactics were tried in 1852 with Scott, the party was decisively defeated. It was disintegrating because of its inability to maintain any opinion on slavery.
The Northern Whigs became Free-soilers, and by 1856, Republicans; the Southern, Democrats. Many Whigs went temporarily into the American-party. A small portion of them formed the Constitutional Union Party which nominated Bell and Everett in 1860. Parties became sectional, and the Whig party ceased to exist. Its chief leaders were, beside those mentioned, in the North, Winthrop, Choate, Seward, Weed and Greeley; in the South, Mangum, Berrien, Forsyth, Stephens, Toombs, Prentiss and Crittenden; in the West, McLean, Giddings, Ewing and Corwin. Research Whig
The East India Company was an incorporated company trading with India and the East Indies. East India Companies were founded in the 17th and 18th centuries by many European countries, the most important being the British East India Company with a close rival in the Dutch East India Company.
The British East India Company was a great English company, originally simply a trading association, which played an important part in the history of Hindustan. It was formed in 1599 in London, with a subscribed capital of about 30,000 pounds, for the purpose of trade with the East Indies. A charterwas granted to it by Queen Elizabeth I on the 31st of December, 1600 1000, for fifteen years, renewable for a similar period. In this charter the company was styled, ' The Governor and Company of the Merchants of London trading- into the East Indies.' The first voyages resulted in large profits.conferring the monopoly of trade with the East Indies.
In 1609 the charter was renewed by James I, and made perpetual, reserving power to the crown to recall it at three years' notice. Additional power was granted to the Company of seizing and confiscating ships and goods of contraband traders, either in the British dominions or in any of the places where they were authorized to trade.
Among the motives which had induced the Company to press for this renewal of their charter was the necessity they had experienced from the jealousy of the Dutch and Portuguese to send out vessels fitted not only for trade, but for defence and indeed attack. Accordingly Captain Best, who commanded the eighth expedition, attacked four Portuguese war galleons, convoying 200 sail of merchantmen, off Surat, and gained a complete victory, which so impressed the Great Mogul that he immediafiely made a treaty with Captain Best, giving the English full liberty to trade in his dominions. This treaty was concluded on the 6th of February 1613. It was followed at once by a resolution of the Company to trade on a joint-stock. 429,000 pounds was raised as capital, and apportioned in fitting out four voyages for 1613, 1614, 1615, 1617. In 1617-18 the Company was so enlarged as to include 954 proprietors, while a new joint-stock of 1,600,000 pounds was subscribed.
In 1619 a treaty was made with the Dutch, by which the two companies were to work in harmony for twenty years; but in 1629 the Dutch massacred the leading members of the English factory at Amboyna. In the feeble reigns of James and Charles I, however, the outrage remained unredressed, and the English Company, ill supported by the crown, was often reduced to great straits. Their trade, impeded by the Dutch, became unprofitable, and, to add to their difficulties, Charles I in 1635 gave a license to a rival company.
At length, under Oliver Cromwell, the Company received a new charter. A territorial footing had been acquired in Madras in 1640, to which settlement was given the control of all the factories in Bengal and the Coromandel coast, the supreme council in India still remaining at Surat. A new charter, granted by Charles II in 1660, enlarged the powers of the Company, giving it political and judicial authority in the factories and colonies established by it, with the right to appoint governors.
On the Revolution of 1688 the Company was involved in new difficulties, and in 1692 the Commons presented an address to the crown praying for their dissolution. At this time, by an accidental failure to pay a tax upon their stock, the Company formally forfeited their charter, and were compelled to accept its renewal with the important proviso of a reservation to the crown of the right to alter or modify its conditions. The maximum stock to be held by any individual was fixed at 10,000 pounds, every 1000 pounds of which was to give a vote, while the right of membership was thrown open to all British subjects.
The Scottish Parliament also sanctioned a company, but a war with Spain and the bitter opposition of the English Parliament made difficulties under which this company succumbed. Meantime the misconduct of the English company had so strengthened its enemies, that, in spite of all its opposition, a resolution in favour of the formation of a new company passed the House of Commons on 4th May, 1698, and
this company was actually constituted by Act 9 William III. cap. xliv. This act provided for the extinction of the old company, but an amalgamation was eventually arranged in 1708. The possessions of the old company at the time of amalgamation, upon which the valuation of 330,000 pounds was placed in 1700, included a large number of places in India, a footing having been by this time acquired in each if the three presidencies, besides possessions in Persia, Cochin-China., Sumatra, etc. The dividends of the Company rose rapidly after the amalgamation, and finally settled at 8 per cent; and it procured without difficulty, at various periods, a prolongation of its exclusive privileges until 1780, still with three years' notice.
In the meantime the French possessions had, as well as the English, been growing in power and importance in the East, and on the outbreak of the war of the Austrian Succession in 1741 commenced those struggles (Clive being the first great English leader) by which a mercantile company was led on to establish British supremacy over nearly the whole of India.
In 1766 the right of the Company to acquire territorial possessions formed a subject of parliamentary inquiry; and the question of the political rights of the Company being thus opened up, the ministry began to act on their view of it by sending out a crown plenipotentiary to India. A regulating act was passed in 1773 remodelling the powers of the Company, and placing it completely under the control of parliament, providing for the establishment by the crown of courts of judicature in India. The charter, which expired in 1780, was renewed until 1791. The renewal act provided that the Company, which was already bound to submit to the government all despatches received from India, should submit for approval all despatches proposed to be transmitted thither. In 1784 another act established a board, afterwards known as the board of control, to superintend, direct, and control all acts, operations, and concerns relating to the civil and military government or revenues of India. The board was to consist of a principal secretary of state, the chancellor of the exchequer, and four privy-councillors nominated by the crown. The directors of the Company were bound to submit all their papers except those referring to commercial matters to this board, and obey its instructions.
From this time the political power of the Company was little more than nominal. While the right of nominating the servants of the Company was still left to the directors, the absolute right of recall was vested in the crown. A subsequent declaratory bill regulated the power of the board of control to send out troops at the expense of the Company. In 1813 the charter was renewed on condition that the right of exclusive trade should be restricted to China, while the Indiatrade should be thrown open to all British subjects. A church establishment for India was also provided by this act. The appointment of governors-general, governors, and commanders-in-chief was no longer to be valid without the direct sanction of the crown. The renewal of the Company's charter in 1834 took place amid continued opposition to their mercantile, and even to their legislative privileges. It continued them in all their possessions except the island of St Helena, put an end to the exclusive right of trade with China, and enacted that the Company should with all convenient speed close their commercial business, and make sale of all their property not retained for government purposes; all their other property was to be held in trust for the crown, which was to take over their debts and guarantee their dividend out of the revenues of India. The stock was valued at 6,000,000 pounds, which was to bear interest at 10 per cent, and be redeemable after the 30th of April, 1874, on payment of 12,000,000 pounds. The Company was now fairly in liquidation, and on the outbreak of the mutiny of 1857 it was felt indispensable to vest the government of India directly in the crown, and this was accordingly done in 1858.
Henceforth the British East India Company existed only for the purpose of receiving payment of its capital, and of the dividends due upon capital until its repayment. Research East India Company
Abbreviations
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