Chapter 13 House Divided

Manifest Destiny

A term coined by journalist John L. O’Sullivan in 1845, expressing the widespread belief that God had divinely ordained the United States to expand across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean.

Texas Annexation

In the 1820s and 1830s, American settlers moved into Texas (then part of Mexico). Led by Sam Houston, Texas rebels defeated Mexican forces in 1836, establishing the independent Republic of Texas.

The Election of 1844

James K. Polk, a dark-horse Democrat and committed expansionist, won the presidency on a platform demanding the annexation of Texas and the occupation of the entire Oregon Territory ("Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!").

The Mexican-American War (1846–1848)

• Origins: President Polk attempted to purchase California and New Mexico from Mexico. When Mexico refused, Polk dispatched troops led by General Zachary Taylor into disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, provoking a military clash.

• Opposing Views: While the war was wildly popular in the South and West, Northern Whigs and abolitionists opposed it, calling it an unconstitutional "war of aggression" designed to extend the "Slave Power." (A young Congressman named Abraham Lincoln introduced his famous "Spot Resolutions," demanding to know the exact spot on American soil where blood was shed).

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Ended the war and confirmed the annexation of Texas while ceding California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah to the U.S. (the Mexican Cession) for $15 million.

The Wilmot Proviso (1846)

Congressman David Wilmot proposed banning slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico. Though passed repeatedly in the House, it was consistently blocked in the Senate, exposing deep sectional divisions that transcended traditional party lines.

The Compromise of 1850

• California admitted as a free state.

• Slave trade abolished in Washington, D.C. (though slavery remained legal there).

• A strict, aggressive new Fugitive Slave Act.

• Popular sovereignty applied to the rest of the Mexican Cession (Utah and New Mexico territories).

The California Gold Rush (1849)

Caused a massive population boom, prompting California to draft a free-state constitution

The Fugitive Slave Act

Required federal marshals and ordinary citizens to assist in capturing alleged runaways, denied accused individuals a jury trial or the right to testify, and overrode state "personal liberty laws."

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

Which humanized the plight of enslaved people for millions of Northern readers.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois proposed organizing the Kansas and Nebraska territories to facilitate a transcontinental railroad.

• To gain Southern support, Douglas’s bill repealed the Missouri Compromise line of 1836 and applied popular sovereignty—allowing voters in the territories to decide whether to permit slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act Consequences

• Outraged Northern free-soilers and anti-slavery Democrats.

• Destroyed the Whig Party and split the Democratic Party along regional lines.

• "Bleeding Kansas"

Bleeding Kansas

A violent civil war erupted in Kansas as pro-slavery "border ruffians" from Missouri and anti-slavery free-soilers (including militant abolitionist John Brown) flooded the territory to influence elections.

The Know-Nothing Party (American Party)

A nativist movement that emerged in the early 1850s, capitalizing on anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment caused by Irish and German immigration.

The Republican Party

Formed in 1854 by former Northern Whigs, Anti-Slavery Democrats, and Free Soilers.

Core Ideology ("Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men")

"The Bleeding Sumner" Incident (1856)

South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks brutally beat abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner unconscious with a cane on the Senate floor after Sumner delivered a speech insulting pro-slavery senators.

The Dred Scott Decision (1857)

• Enslaved and free Black Americans were not citizens and "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

• Residence in a free state did not make a slave free.

• The U.S. Constitution did not give Congress the power to prohibit slavery in any territory, rendering the Missouri Compromise and popular sovereignty unconstitutional.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas. Lincoln argued that the nation could not endure half-slave and half-free

Douglas defended popular sovereignty with his Freeport Doctrine. Douglas won the Senate seat, but the debates launched Lincoln into national prominence.

John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)

Radical abolitionist John Brown led an armed raid on a federal armory in Virginia, hoping to trigger a armed slave insurrection. The raid failed, and Brown was executed. Northerners viewed him as a martyr, while Southerners saw his actions as proof that the North was actively plotting armed slave uprisings.

The Election of 1860

• The Democratic Party split into Northern (Stephen Douglas) and Southern (John C. Breckinridge) factions.

• The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, running on a platform opposing the expansion of slavery, supporting protective tariffs, and backing a transcontinental railroad.

• Outcome: Lincoln won the presidency without carrying a single Southern state, capturing a clear Electoral College majority.

Lower South Secedes

Viewing Lincoln's election as a threat to slavery, South Carolina seceded in December 1860. Within weeks, six other Deep South states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) followed, forming the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as president.

Crittenden Compromise Fails

A last-ditch effort to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific failed after Lincoln refused to accept any proposal that permitted the expansion of slavery.

Fort Sumter (April 1861)

On April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery opened fire on the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, South Carolina. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion, prompting four states of the Upper South (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas) to secede. The Civil War had begun.