Chapter 13: A House Divided (1840-1861)

13.1 John L. O’Sullivan, Manifest Destiny (1845)

Manifest Destiny and American Freedom

• John L. O’Sullivan sees that by expanding, there will be more land for the people of the country, and essentially more room to be able to industrialize crow crops
• “A sense of special openness*, of the* constant opportunity to pick up and move when the pursuit of happiness seemed to demand it, became a more and more central component of American Freedom“
  • This ideology came to dominate American thinking because people thought that all of the other states would end up like Texas by annexing Texas.
  • They thought this would happen because they did not want to stop at anything to get it. This led to continued conflict because the north and south states were in disagreement about slavery.
  • The North had abolished slavery, while the south was %%still for slavery%%

The essence of the Manifest Destiny

• John O’Sullivan coined the expression “Manifest Destiny“ which was based on the assumption that Americans had been chosen by going to civilize the world
  • It was then used by Lincoln and Wilson
• It was the belief that the US had the destiny to stretch the boundaries of America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean

13.2 A Protest against Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1852)

Asing against the Governor’s Proposal

• Asing argues that the governor’s proposal violates the Constitution and the principles of the Declaration of Independence
• Many have earned their naturalization and citizenship so his proposal violates the constitution when he says “none of the Asiatic class“ because Asing himself has benefits under their naturalization act to be in the U.S. and %%wants others to have the opportunity too%%

History of China as Criticism Against Chines Exclusion

• Asing argues that China had a long history as a civilized empire with advanced art, culture, industry, and science. Therefore, Chinese immigrants would therefore benefit the US
• He believes that immigration is what turned America from childhood to manhood and %%into a great nation on this earth%%

13.3 Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government“ (1849)

Relationship between government and freedom

• Thoreau does not feel that %%the government guarantees individual freedom in the best way%%
• He sees the government as proof that men can be opposed for the advantage of the government
• He believed that men should fight for freedom, even if their opinions were not the same as others

Justifying an Idividual Breaking the Law

• He says that unjust laws exist, and men should have every right to speak against the law and fight for their opinions %%even if the law punishes those who fight for freedom and justice%%
• He says it is worth being honest and not living in fear of being imprisoned

13.4 William Henry Seward, “The Irresponsible Conflict“ (1858)

Anti-Slavery beyond Moral Appeal

• Seward agrees with abolitionists that it is unconstitutional
• He makes a point that a country cannot survive being separated like the north and south
• He wants it one way or the other so that the nation can be unified and function more effectively
• At the time, however, the constitution of freedom was becoming a constitution of slavery

Seward’s Target Audience

• Seward is addressing his remarks to congress and the government to push and make the nation unified in that the country can prosper as one

13.5 Texas Declaration of Independence (1836)

Similarity to the American Declaration of Independence

• Texas Declaration of Independence was signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos, now commonly referred to as the “birthplace of Texas“
• Similar to the United States Declaration of Independence, this document focused on the rights of citizens to “life“ and “liberty“ but with an emphasis on the “property of the citizen“

Texas Revolutionaries and the Minorities

The Revolution transformed

• The Texas/Mexican border into a zone of conflict but it also %%enriched the Tejano communities throughout south Texas%% with a vibrant and activist edge, @@producing many of the leaders of the Mexican-American political movements@@ that would soon follow in the coming decades.
• The most immediate cause of the Texas Revolution was the refusal of many Texas, both Anglo and Mexican, to accept the governmental changes %%mandated by "Siete Leyes"%% which @@placed almost total power in the hands of the Mexican national government and Santa Anna@@%%.%%
• The United States and Mexico differ on the outskirt of Texas and Mexico. Congress proclaimed the battle in 1846.
• Troopers battled on three fronts.
  • 1847 - Americans caught Mexico
  • 1848 - Mexico marked the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Mexico consented to the addition of Texas and the Rio Grande as the outskirt between Texas and Mexico. Mexico additionally gave an enormous zone of land, the Mexican Cession, to the United States.

Texas revolutionaries toward Native Americans

• During the revolutionary period, Native American gatherings populated and controlled bits of Texas. Adding up to roughly 20,000, they far dwarfed the Anglo pioneers and Tejanos—locally conceived Mexicans living in Texas.
• Weight from Anglo settlements during the 1820s and 1830s prompted infringements on ancestral terrains and %%incessant assaults by the Comanche and different groups%%.
  • A few gatherings, for example, the Cherokees, were dynamic carefully with both Mexico and Anglo pilgrims and played the two sides during the Texas Revolution.
• Bits of gossip and proof of the agreement between the Cherokees and their Mexican partners drove Texans to fear an Indian uprising or a coalition with Mexico.
  • The Tonkawas, living along the Brazos and Colorado streams, aligned themselves with the Texans and filled in as aides and warriors against more unfriendly Indian gatherings.
  • Different clans, for example, the Wichita, be that as it may, attempted just to evade entrapments by creating an emergency.

Texas revolutionaries toward slavery

• When Anglo settlers were originally admitted to Mexican Texas, they were %%permitted to bring their black slaves from the Deep South%% with them.
• Indeed, had Mexican Texas been closed to slavery from the beginning, far fewer Southerners would have emigrated either because they could not bring their expensive property and manpower source with them or because of their political/racial views.
• Over the years, Mexico took repeated steps to limit or abolish slavery in Texas.
• Each step prompted a vociferous reaction from Anglos followed by a Mexican retreat in which the threatening change was repealed.
• Given the amount of capital many Anglos had invested in black slaves, Mexico's mercurial actions with respect to slavery were at the very least threatening.
• There were those by 1836 who felt the independent Republic of Texas in which slavery was firmly and for all time recognized and respected was preferable to Mexico with an uncertain future for slavery.
• Two and one half decades later Texans still felt so strongly about black slavery and %%attached to it for both economic and social reasons%% that they would @@secede from the United States and wage a civil war rather than see the institution imperiled@@.

13.6 The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

Douglas Vs. Lincoln on American Rights

• Lincoln strongly argued against slavery and called for its abolition
  • Lincoln, however, did not want to give blacks the right to vote nor to serve juries
  • He still believed they deserved rights
• Douglas thought %%ending slavery would result in war%%
  • Douglas believed that it was up to self-government

Douglas on the Anti-Slvary Criticism of the South

• Douglas’ name was soon to be identified with the so-called “popular sovereignty“ theory
  • Previously enunciated by Lewis Cass, by which each territory was left to decide for itself whether it should or should not have slavery
• Douglas thought each state could have the right to own slaves %%since the south’s economy was largely dependent on%% @@unpaid slave labor@@
  • There was nothing wrong with whites to own slaves

13.7 South Carolina Ordinance of Secession (1860)

Emphasis on the Growth of the Anti-slavery of the North

• Secessionists believed that Northern abolitionists sought to subvert the constitution %%which protected the right to property%%
• Secessionists considered enslaved people property
• The slavery institution was very important for the %%southern agricultural plantation economy%%
• The rise of the public opinion against slavery had made it very unreliable as the northerners were assisting slaves to run to Canada

Main Motivation for South Carolina’s Secession

• The declaration stated the primary reasoning behind South Carolina’s declaration of secession from the US
  • “The increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the Institution of Slavery“
• South Carolina wanted their own power separate from the union as stated %%because they weren’t willing to compromise%% or answer to the North