Period 5 Expansion, Division, & Civil War Part 1

Mormons

In 1844, reeling from the murder of their founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, and facing continued mob violence in their settlement in Illinois, thousands of Latter Day Saints (better known as Mormons) threw their support behind a new leader, Brigham Young.

Two years later, Young led the Mormons on their great trek westward through the wilderness some 1,300 miles to the Rocky Mountains—a rite of passage they saw as necessary in order to find their promised land.

By 1896, when Utah was granted statehood, the church had more than 250,000 members, most living in Utah.

James K. Polk

A Democrat and heavily supported Manifest Destiny! He had the most land annexed than any other presidency: Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

Period 5; 1845 - 1849

Manifest Destiny

• John O’Sullivan, 1845

• Long-standing American belief in the God-given mission to lead the world in the transition to democracy.

• Written criticizing opposition to the annexation of Texas.

Annexation of Texas

The Annexation of Texas, a pivotal event in U.S. history, involved the Republic of Texas being admitted to the Union as the 28th state in December 1845. This action was followed by the formal transfer of power in February 1846, ending the Republic of Texas.

Annexation of Oregon

The annexation of Oregon refers to the 1846 Treaty of Oregon, which resolved the boundary dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the Oregon Territory. The treaty established the 49th parallel as the border between the two nations, effectively granting the U.S. control over the present-day states of Oregon and Washington, as well as parts of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

Zachary Taylor

A Whig member and also a war hero in the Mexican American War. He opposed secession and vowed to personally lead a military attack against any state who threatened to secede from the Union.

Period 5; 1845 - 1849

Gold Rush

• 1849 (49ers)

• Discovery of gold in the Sacramento Valley.

• Thousands of prospective gold miners traveled to California.

• By the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was 100,000, compared to the pre-1848 figure of less than 1,000.

• $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted.

Japan

Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open their harbors for trade.

It was clear that Commodore Perry could impose his demands by force. The Japanese had no navy with which to defend themselves, and thus they had to agree to the demands. Perry's small squadron itself was not enough to force the massive changes that then took place in Japan, but the Japanese knew that his ships were just the beginning of Western interest in their islands.

Causes of the Mexican American War

• Texas annexation

  • Texas gained its independence in 1836.  

  • Tyler with Polk’s support annexed Texas in 1845.

• John Slidell, U.S. minister to Mexico

  • Settlement of boundary dispute.

  • Acquisition of California and New Mexico.

  • Mexico refused to accept Slidell’s credentials and meet with him.

• Boundary dispute, was the boundary the nueces River or the rio Grande?

  • In 1846 General Zachary Taylor led American troops to the disputed zone at the Rio Grande.  

  • Mexican cavalry attacked the group of U.S. soldiers.

    • “American blood shed on American soil”

Mexican American War

• U.S. troops led by Gen. Winfield Scott landed in Veracruz and took over the city. 

• They then began marching toward Mexico City, essentially following the same route that Hernán Cortés followed when he invaded the Aztec empire. 

• The Mexicans resisted at Cerro Gordo and elsewhere, but were bested each time. 

• In September 1847, Scott successfully laid siege to Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle.

Effects of the Mexican American War

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

  • Signed on February 2, 1848, ended the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States. 

  • Mexico relinquished all claims to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as the southern boundary with the United States 

  • Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico. This was known as the Mexican Cession and included present-day Arizona and New Mexico and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. 

    • In return, the United States paid Mexico $15 million and agreed to settle all claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico.

Wilmot Proviso

Fearing the addition of a pro-slave territory, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot proposed the Wilmot Proviso.

It proposed the banning of slavery in land gained from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. 

Although the measure was blocked in the southern-dominated Senate, it enflamed the growing controversy over slavery, and its underlying principle helped bring about the formation of the Republican Party in 1854.

Millard Fillmore

Vice President for Taylor and was succeeded to presidency, had no VP. He was a Whig and was the last president who wasn’t associated with democratic or republican parties.

Whig party disintegrated, Fillmore refused to join the Republican party, but did join the Know Nothing Party (anti-immigrant/anti-Catholic).

Period 5; 1850 - 1853

Missouri Compromise

Admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery from the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands located north of the 36º 30’ parallel.

Any curtailment was an attack on the whole.

Free Soil Movement/Party

Instead of openly supporting abolishing slavery where it already existed, they tried to appeal to northern voters by focusing on stopping its expansion, arguing that it was a threat to free labor and the economic livelihoods of white workers that needed to be contained.

Popular Sovereignty

• Popular sovereignty emerged as a compromise strategy for determining whether a Western territory would permit or prohibit slavery. 

• First promoted in the 1840s in response to debates over western expansion, popular sovereignty argued that in a democracy, residents of a territory, and not the federal government, should be allowed to decide on slavery within their borders.

Imbalance of free/slave states

• Mexican Cession 

  • A national dispute arose as to whether or not slavery would be permitted in the new western territories.

• Wilmot Proviso

  • Passed in the House, struck down by the Senate.

Compromise of 1850

Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, a leading statesman and member of the Whig Party known as “The Great Compromiser” for his work on the Missouri Compromise.

• Permitted slavery in Washington, D.C., but outlawed the slave trade.

• Added California to the Union as a “free state”

• Established Utah and New Mexico as territories that could decide via popular sovereignty if they would permit slavery.

• Defined new boundaries for the state of Texas following the Mexican-American War, removing its claims to parts of New Mexico but awarding the state $10 million in compensation.

• The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required citizens to assist in apprehending runaway slaves and denied enslaved people a right to trial by jury.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

The first Fugitive Slave Act was passed by Congress in 1793 and authorized local governments to seize and return people who had escaped slavery to their owners while imposing penalties on anyone who had attempted to help them gain their freedom. 

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled all citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves and denied enslaved people the right to a jury trial. It also increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1,000 ($40,000 in 2024) and six months in jail.

North Regional Differences

• Small farms, subsistence farming, food crops and livestock, slavery not profitable 

• Market revolution, factories, wage labor, Mill girls

• Low wages, long hours, unsafe working conditions, child labor

• Immigrants replaced mill girls, created a working class

• Large cities, crowded conditions

South Regional Differences

• Plantations, cash crops, tobacco, cotton, intended to make a profit

• Slave labor, 4 million by 1860, ⅓ of the total population of the south 

  • Rural society, few cities

Free Soilers Party

• The Free Soilers opposed slavery's expansion into any new territories or states. 

• They generally believed that the government could not end slavery where it already existed but that it could restrict slavery in new areas. 

• A principal reason for opposing slavery's expansion was a fear of competition with Southern slaveholders. Northerners who wanted to own land in the West feared that they would not be able to compete economically with slave labor. This led to the party's call for free labor. 

• Some abolitionists joined the Free Soil Party, but the majority of the party's members were not abolitionists. 

Franklin Pierce

He was the first president to put a Christmas tree in the White House, his secretary of war was Jefferson Davis, who later became the president of the confederate states.

• The Gadsden Purchase (Arizona and New Mexico)

• Provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad.

Period 5; 1853 - 1857

James Buchanan

Buchanan’s view on slavery were more or less that if left undisturbed the institution would eventually go away. He was likely personally opposed to slavery but believed it was a matter for states to decide and that it was protected under the Constitution.

He heavily supported Andrew Jackson and was outspoken against the Corrupt Bargain.

Period 5; 1857 - 1861

Kansas Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed in 1854, was a bill proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas that organized the Nebraska Territory and specifically created the Kansas and Nebraska territories. It is best known for repealing the Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery in those territories, and introducing the concept of popular sovereignty, allowing residents to vote on whether to permit slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

"Bleeding Kansas" refers to the period of intense violence and conflict in the Kansas Territory between 1854 and 1861, primarily due to the struggle over whether the territory would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state. The violence stemmed from the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed settlers to decide the issue of slavery through popular sovereignty.

The caning of Senator Charles Sumner

The attack was in retaliation for an invective-laden speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized slaveholders, including pro-slavery South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks. The caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks in 1856 was a pivotal event that significantly intensified the sectional tensions leading up to the Civil War. The incident symbolized the breakdown of civility and the rising hostility between the North and South over the issue of slavery, galvanizing support for both pro- and anti-slavery factions and pushing the nation closer to armed conflict.

Dread Scott Decision (Dred Scott V. Sandford)

The Dred Scott v. Sandford case stemmed from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the subsequent tension surrounding the expansion of slavery into new territories. Dred Scott, an enslaved man, sued for his freedom after residing in free territories, igniting a national debate about citizenship, property rights, and the constitutionality of slavery.

The Dred Scott v. Sandford decision had a profound and detrimental impact on American society, primarily by denying citizenship to enslaved people and invalidating the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery in certain territories

Whigs

In 1848, the Whig Party split among "Conscience Whigs," who demanded federal action to end slavery, and "Cotton Whigs," who advocated compromise with slavery to maintain the Union.

Republicans

• In 1854, opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would permit slavery in new U.S. territories by popular referendum, drove an antislavery coalition of Whigs, Free-Soilers, Americans and disgruntled Democrats to found the new Republican Party.

• The Republican goal was not to abolish slavery in the South right away, but rather to prevent its westward expansion, which they feared would lead to the domination of slaveholding interests in national politics.