Chapter 14: Union Expanded and Challenged (1835–1860)

Manifest Destiny

Concept popularized in the 1840s that the US's God-given mission was to expand westward

Mexican-American War

A war between Mexico and the United States over Texas gave the US the northern part of Texas and New Mexico and California

Compromise of 1850

This measure allowed California to join the Union as a free state but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, temporarily easing North-South tensions

Fugitive Slave Act

Commissioners were given more money if the accused was found to be a runaway than if he/she was not

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Compromise that allowed Kansas and Nebraska settlers to vote on joining the Union as free or slave states

Dred Scott case

Critical Supreme Court ruling that slaves were property and could not sue in court

1836

Texas territory rebels against Mexico; independent republic of Texas created

1841

Beginning of expansion into Oregon territory

1844

James K. Polk elected president

1845

Texas becomes a state of the United States

1846

Oregon Treaty with Britain gives most of Oregon to United States

1846

War with Mexico begins

1846

Wilmot Proviso passed

1

Zachary Taylor elected president

1848

Formation of Free-Soil party

1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1848

Gold discovered in California; beginning of California Gold Rush

1850

Passage of Compromise

1852

Franklin Pierce elected president

1852

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published

1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

1854

Formation of the Republican party

1856

Democrat James Buchanan elected president

1857

Dred Scott decision announced

1858

Lincoln-Douglas debates

1858

Freeport Doctrine issued by Stephen Douglas

1859

Harpers Ferry raid of John Brown

1860

Abraham Lincoln elected president

1860

South Carolina secedes from the Union (December)

1821

Mexico gained independence from Spain, but political instability ensued.

Catholicism

Mexican officials encouraged American settlers to become Mexican citizens and convert to __________ in exchange for large land grants.

1836

There were 30,000 American settlers in Texas.

Texan independence

On March 2, 1836, the rebels declared ________, and General Antonio López de Santa Anna led an army into Texas.

General Antonio López de Santa Anna

On March 2, 1836, the rebels declared Texan independence, and ___________ led an army into Texas.

March 2, 1836

Texan independence

March 6

De Santa Anna’s troops defeated a 180-250-man Alamo garrison, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.

April 21

Houston’s army surprised and routed Santa Anna’s command at San Jacinto.

**Lone Star Republic**

Sam Houston led the **___________** after Texas declared independence. Mexico, which refused to recognize Texas's independence, would also clash with Texas's admission to the Union.

Martin Van Buren

President Andrew Jackson sympathized with the Texans, but he didn't want to hurt his protégé __________'s chances in the fall election.

**John C. Calhoun**

The American annexation of Texas remained a political nonstarter until 1844. President John Tyler and his Southern secretary of state, _________, negotiated a treaty to admit Texas as a slave state.

James K. Polk

He was the first American dark horse to win a major party nomination after being nominated at the Democratic convention. He was a protégé of Andrew Jackson and served as Speaker of the House and Tennessee governor. He wanted Texas and Oregon Territory annexed.

Walker Tariff

Polk signed the 1846 _____, which lowered import tariffs, angering Northern manufacturers.

**James Birney**

In 1844, the new anti-slavery Liberty party nominated **_________** for president. The Liberty party's presence on the ballot likely cost Clay New York's electoral votes and the election, despite its low support.

March 1845

John Tyler, the outgoing president, used an unusual joint resolution of Congress to annex Texas before Polk's inauguration in __________.

**Rio Grande River**

Polk wanted to achieve his expansionist goals with Mexico through diplomacy. He wanted the Mexicans to accept the ___________ as Texas' southern border instead of the Nueces River.

Pacific Ocean

Polk wanted San Francisco's great harbor and all of California Territory for _______ trade.

John Slidell

In October 1845, Polk sent diplomat _____ to Mexico with a proposal to buy the territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers for $5 million, California for $25 million, and Mexican lands between Texas and California for $5 million.

May 13, 1846

The United States declared war against Mexico

July 4, 1846

Bear Flag Republic

Bear Flag Republic

On July 4, 1846, the rebels declared California independent as the _________, backed by a small army under John C. Fremont.

March 8, 1847

Scott oversaw the first major amphibious landing in American military history.

September 13, 1847

Scott's army took Mexico City. Though Mexican partisans harassed American troops, this ended the war.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

On February 2, 1848, Mexico signed the __________, ending the Mexican War.

February 2, 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

$15 million

The US paid Mexico __________ for Texas north of the Rio Grande, New Mexico, and California.

David Wilmot

In 1846, Pennsylvania Democratic representative _________ sparked a political uproar. He added a slavery ban to a military appropriations bill.

John C. Calhoun

________ persuasively argued that an institution legal in many American states could not be prohibited in federal territories shared by all states.

Missouri

President Polk tried to compromise by extending the __________ Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean.

General Zachary Taylor

In 1848, the Whigs nominated __________ to repeat their war hero strategy.

Lewis Cass

In 1848, The Democrats nominated Michigan senator __________ because they had no famous general.

Free-Soil

Liberty party members and dissident Whigs and Democrats formed the _________ party to oppose western slavery.

**Gold Rush**

In January 1848, gold was discovered in California. Over 80,000 "forty-niners" arrived in California during the "__________" within a year.

John C. Calhoun

He spoke for many Southerners when he declared, “*I trust we shall persist in our resistance until restoration of all our rights or disunion, one or the other, is the consequence.*”

Henry Clay

The Great Pacificator

Compromise of 1850

The _________ granted California statehood, allowed New Mexico and Utah residents to choose slavery, ended slave trading in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.

Fugitive Slave Act

The Compromise of 1850 granted California statehood, allowed New Mexico and Utah residents to choose slavery, ended slave trading in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the _________.

**Stephen Douglas**

Following Taylor’s unexpected death, his successor **Millard Fillmore** expressed support for the compromise. Senator __________, an Illinois Democrat, led the compromise through Congress with moderate Southern Whigs and Northern Democrats.

**black people**

In the North, the *Fugitive Slave Act* expanded the federal government's role in capturing runaway slaves. The new federal system discriminated against ________ by denying escaped slaves due process.

Fugitive Slave Act

Thisinflamed *Northern abolitionist sentiment*, hurting Southern interests.

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

A novel written by *Harriet Beecher Stowe* that powerfully depicted slavery's evils.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Author

General **Winfield Scott**

In the election of 1852, The *Whigs* nominated yet another war hero, ___________.

Franklin Pierce

In the election of 1852, The *Democrats* turned to another dark horse candidate, __________.

James K. Polk

Pierce reverted to the expansionist policies of __________.

Gadsden Purchase

Pierce’s administration negotiated the ___________ from Mexico to help build a transcontinental railroad through the South.

Know-Nothing Party

Following its failure in 1852, the Whig Party fell apart. Many Whigs joined the anti-immigrant American or _________.

Stephen A. Douglas

He reignited sectional conflict because of his dream of running a transcontinental railroad from Chicago to California.

1854

President Pierce signed Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act into law.

1854-1859

Bleeding Kansas

James Buchanan

He won the 1856 Presidential Election.

John Brown

In retaliation, the fiercely antislavery fanatic ________ led a gang that *butchered five proslavery settlers*.

Dred Scott

He was a slave in Missouri who went to court and sued for his freedom.

**African Americans**

In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott was still a slave. The Court majority declared \*\*__________\*\*inherently inferior and unfit for citizenship.

Lecompton Constitution

Buchanan urged Congress to recognize Kansas as a slave state despite the illegality of the ___________ and a growing majority of free-soil settlers.

Abraham Lincoln

In 1858, Stephen A. Douglas ran for reelection to the Senate. He was opposed by _______, the candidate of the Republican party.

Freeport Doctrine

At the Freeport, Illinois debate, Lincoln asked Douglas how he could continue to promote popular sovereignty after Dred Scott. Douglas replied with what came to be known as the ______.

**John Brown**

**He** returned to the East to lead a slave uprising. He persuaded a few wealthy Northern abolitionists to fund his scheme.

**Harpers Ferry**

On October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 followers attacked the federal arsenal at **__________**, Virginia. He hoped to use the rifles that he captured there to arm slaves.

Colonel Robert E. Lee

Brown and his men were quickly surrounded and then captured by federal troops led by ____________.

Henry David Thoreau

He called Brown “the bravest and most human man in all the country.”

December 20, 1860

South Carolina led the way in seceding from the Union on ________.

Confederate States of America

In February 1861, representatives from the seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama. They formed the ___________.

Jefferson Davis

He was elected Confederate president at Montgomery.