Which 1854 book begins "When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods"?

In 1851, which fictional captain commanded the whaler Pequod? Which 1852 novel is subtitled "Life Among the Lowly"? Which 1852 American novel includes the line "Eliza made her desperate retreat across the river just in the dusk of twil… Which 1853 land deal brought the contiguous United States about to its present area? The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed which earlier agreement? In 1855, Matthew Maury published "The Physical Geography of the Sea", the first textbook of which science? Which U.S. president lived from 1856 to 1924? Which Kentuckian, whose middle name was Cabell, was vice president from 1857 to 1861?