Expansionism & Sectionalism

Historical Context

  • U.S. became more connected to the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in western hemisphere

  • Enthusiasm for expansionism strengthened by economic & security interests; resulted in acquisition of new territories

  • 1840s → slavery became center of American politics as country grew

  • 1850s → issue of slavery weakened Whigs & Democrats, new Republican party dedicated to containing slavery

U.S Expands Westward

  • Manifest Destiny becomes new ideology for America

    • belief that U.S. would own all land between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

  • 1840 → about 7 million Americans (40% of population) lived west (past Applachian Mts)

    • after Lewis and Clark, most of these people left the east in search of economic opportunities

  • Like Jefferson, many of these pioneers associated Westward Migration with land ownership, farming and freedom

  • 1843 → 1,000 pioneers took Oregon Trail looking for opportunities

The Oregon Trail

  • Settlers followed Oregon Trail to firtle lands of Oregon

  • Dangerous journey of 2,000 miles

  • Emigrants faced many hardships (hunger, disease, harsh weather)

  • Donner Party

    • got lost in Sierra Nevada Mts. on their way to California

    • had to resort to cannibalism

Control Over Texas

  • Settler began migrating into Texas territory after Louisiana Purchase

  • Moses and Stephen Austin got permission from Spain and eventually Mexico to settle in area. Land was abundant and firtle. Mexico welcomed Americans and offered cheap land grants under the following conditions:

    • they had to become Mexican citizens

    • needed to convert to Roman Catholicism

    • they had to accept Mexican Constitution, which banned slavery

  • By 1835, over 30,000 settlers entered and settled in Texas, but did not hold up to agreement

    • settlers remained Protestant, brought enslaved Africans to work on the farms

  • General Santa Anna grabs control in Mexico City

    • favored authoritarian government run by military

    • Texans rebelled against his rule & took over the garrisons at Goliad & San Antonio and by 1836 declared independence

    • Santa Anna led his troops to Texas and engaged Texans at the Alamo in San Antonio

      • battle lasted 12 days

      • Santa Anna kept no prisoners, slaughtered all defenders

      • Santa Anna marched on Goliad and executed all who surrendered there also

    • Sam Houston led remaining Texans and drew Santa Anna into a trap

      • they crushed Mexican army at battle of San Jacinto screaming “Remember the Alamo!!”

      • Mexican loses:

        • 630 killed

        • 208 wounded

        • 730 captured, including Santa Anna himself

      • Texan loses:

        • 9 killed

        • 32 wounded

  • Fearing execution, Santa Anna signs a peace treaty

    • formally recognizes Texan independence

  • Republic of Texas officially established with Sam Houston as president and Stephen Austin as Secretary of State

Additional Land Acquisition

  • In 1844, expansionist president elected, James Polk

    • Polk favored slavery and was a Jacksonian Democrat

    • pushed for expansion of U.S.

  • During Polk’s presidency, he appealed to Congress to make Texas part of the Union

    • Texans had been asking to be admitted into U.S., but U.S. wanted to avoid conflict with Mexico

      • 1845 → Congress approved Texas as 28th state

  • Oregon Compromise

    • during 1844 campaign, Polk promised to acquire Oregon, even if we had to fight the British again

    • Polk realized U.S. couldn’t fight Mexico and Britain at the same time

    • 1846 → Polk compromised with British splitting the territory at the 49th parallel

The Mexican-American War

  • Apr. 25, 1846 - Feb. 2, 1848

  • Annexation of Texas upset Mexico

  • U.S. and Mexican troops had confrontations along disputed Texas border

    • Abraham Lincoln (new congressman at the time), makes waves and gains fame because of opposition of the war

    • true cause was desire for expansion of U.S.

  • Congress, pushed by Polk, declares war on Mexico

    • U.S. is much better prepared and industrialized than Mexico

    • Mexico lost every battle during first summer

    • U.S. took control of California and Mexico

    • A little over a year and a half later, U.S. marched into Mexico and took control of Mexico City

      • Mexico surrendered

  • Mexico Cession - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

    • U.S. and Mexico sign a peace treaty

    • U.S. gives Mexico $15 million and leaves Mexico City

    • Rio Grande is now southern border of Texas

    • Wilmot Proviso - David Wilmot of Pennsylvania attempted to add an amendment to a treaty banning slavery from Mexican acquired territory. It didn’t work

Gadsen Purchase

  • U.S. wanted to build railroad in the Rocky Mountains

  • 1853 → U.S. purchased 29,000 mi2 in Southern Arizona and New Mexico

  • U.S. paid $10 million for land

California Gold Rush

  • 1849 → gold is discovered in hills of California

    • just under 5 years, over 200,000 people flocked to the state

  • August 1848 → 4,000 gold miners were in the area, within a year about 80,000 “forty-niners” had arrived at California goldfields

  • An estimated $2 billion in gold was extracted, but few of the prospectors struck rich

  • Towns and cities sprung up all over and businesses grew

  • Gold rush was credited with hastening statehood for California in 1850

Battle over Slavery & States Rights

  • Differences between North & South threatned the existence of the nation

  • Population

    • North- 12.5 million

    • South- 9 million

  • North was much more industrialized than the South

Northern Prespective on Slavery

  • Northerners who wanted to end slavery argued that Congress had power over newly acquired territories

  • Northwest Ordinance (1787) banned slavery North of Ohio River

  • Missouri Compromise

  • These acts revealed that Congress had power over slavery

Southern Prespective on Slavery

  • Southerners argued that constitutional recognition & protection of slavery meant Congress didn’t have power to prevent extension of slavery

  • Argued that Congress had duty to protect slavery in the South

Constitutional Debates: Slavery

  • Western expansion caused controversy over whether or not new states should allow slavery

  • Until Civil War, U.S. Constitution indirectly acknowledged slavery in 3 ways:

    • 3/5 Compromise

    • Ban on importation of slaves (1808)

    • Fugitive slave clause

  • These compromises were made so Southern States would ratify constitution

Congressional Compromises to Avoid Conflict

  • Missouri Compromise (1820)

  • Compromise of 1850

    • California admitted as free state

    • Popular sovereignty used in territories acquired from Mexico

    • Fugitive Slave Act was passed

Compromise of 1850

  • Enough people had moved to California within one year of gold rush for it to be made into a state

    • admitted as a free state

  • Other states (Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, etc.) would choose whether they wanted to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty = giving the residents to choose on issues in their state

New Fugitive Slave Act

  • Builds off of old one

  • Mandated northern civilians to take part in slave hunts

  • Results in wide protests & pushed northerners closer to abolition

  • Impacts

    • Canada becomes new destinaiton for escaped slaves

    • Harriet Beecher writes Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852

      • instant best seller

    • abolitionists defend captured freemen in their trials

Ostend Manifesto

  • 1854 → leaked documents from discussions by slaveholding politicians were released by antislavery factions in the House

  • They concerned annexation of Cuba through purchase ot invasion, as a slave state

  • Cuba was one of the few countries which still allowed slavery

  • Further radicalized abolitionism and cemented fear amongst abolitionists that slavery was taking control of every aspect of the country

Kansas - Nebraska Act (1854)

  • Unorganized territory is divided into two parts

    • Kansas- popular sovreignty

    • Nebraska- popular sovreignty

  • Nullified Missouri Compromise by allowing slavery above 36’30’ line

Bleeding Kansas

  • Pro-slavery & anti-slavery activists tried to set up seperate governments

  • May 1856 → pro-slavery ruffians attacked Antislavery town of Lawrence, KA

    • burned a hotel

    • looted houses

    • destroyed local newspaper presses

  • John Brown retaliated

    • abolitionist

    • he & his sons went to Kansas to assist antislavery forces

    • they executed 5 pro-slavery settlers

  • Violent outbreaks continued around Lawrence

    • newspapers refered to these events as Bleeding Kansas

  • Effects:

    • 55 people killed

    • Congress further divided

    • seen as a preview of the conflict to come

International Initiatives

  • Japan

    • President Filmore sent Commodore Matthew Perry to open trade with war ships

    • Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) - trade agreement with a modern western power

  • China

    • Treaty of Wanghia (1844) - first diplomatic treaty between U.S. and China

    • Treaty of Tainjin (1858) - opened more ports in China

    • Chinese Education Mission - brought Chinese male students to U.S. to study

Immigration from China

  • Prospects of “striking it rich” gold mining brought in migrant workers from all around the world

  • Major change in western demographics as Chinese immigration increased to mine for gold

  • Although finding real gold was rare, it was common for poor Chinese to immigrate to mine for riches

  • Chinese-American population increased

    • 4,000 in 1850

    • 34,000 in 1860

    • 63,000 in 1870

Chinese-American Population

  • Chinatown- areas withing cities with large amount of Chinese or Chinese decendants

    • first Chinatown in San Francisco in 1840s

Nativist Responses to Chinese-American Immigrants

  • Contempary with rise of Irish & German immigrants on east, massive rise of Chinese in west led to nativist responses

  • Nativism- the rejection and persecution of immigrant populations in favor of citizens & those born in the country

    • faced by Chinese-Americans in west & Irish-Americans in east

  • 1870 → Congress passed Neutralization Act

    • made it 60,000+ Chinese here couldn’t become citizens

    • 1882 → enough support for ban of Chinese immigration led to Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited all immigration from China until 1940s

Immigrant Settlement

  • More land from Louisiana Purchase & their internal improvements made it eaiser for many immigrants to settle

  • New economic opportunities attraced Asians & Europeans

Political Response

  • Nativist party, known as Know Nothing Party till 1855 and American Party after, sprang up in response to wave of immigration

    • supported women’s rights & protection of American citizens while persecuting immigrant populations

    • believed in temperance

    • one of the original inspirations for the KKK

    • death of the Whig Party led to influx of members of “American” party

Republican Party (G.O.P.)

  • Sectional divide had created several factions within anti-slavery

  • Originally, Whigs offered some representation for abolitionism, but was limited to keeping slavery in the south and not spreading it

  • Whigs began to split since some members were more proslavery

    • formed Free Soil Party → made it their mission to contain slavery where it currently is

      • party was absorbed by GOP in 1854

  • Northern Democrats believed slavery was vile, but states should be up to choose to be a free or slave state

  • Most famous early members: Abraham Lincoln & Charles Summer (one who got beat with cane)

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

  • Dred Scott v. Sanford

  • Dred Scott was slave from Missouri

    • his master had taken him to free state of Illinois

    • lived most of his life on free soil

    • sued for his freedom stating that he was brought into free territory and became free

  • Supreme Court ruled against him

    • argued that he’s not a citizen, he’s property

John Brown Raid (1859)

  • John Brown and 21 other men attacked arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA

    • hoped to get local slaves to rebel

    • plan: get weapons and arm local slaves

  • His effort failed

    • few people joined him

    • local, armed residents surrounded him

    • was arrested and hanged

  • Reactions

    • North: looked at him as martyr

    • South: villafied him

Lincoln & Douglas

  • Two Illinois politicians

  • Lincoln

    • made name for himself argued against Mexican War

    • young Republican leader; reentered politics in 1855 w/ failed senate run

  • Douglas

    • leading figure for democratic party

    • made name for himself through promotion of popular sovereignty

  • Two men faced off in senate run in Illinois in 1858 - Douglas won

    • first politicians to publicly debate

Election of 1860

  • Douglas and Lincoln both hoped to win White House in 1860 - southern states were living in a different reality

  • John Bell - canidate whose main concern was protecting the Union of North & South

  • South didn’t like canidates, so a fourth slave owning canidate was added - John Breckenridge

  • Lincoln’s name wouldn’t appear on Southern states’ ballots

  • Lincoln won

The South Secedes

  • Beginning in S. Carolina, a series of Southern states began to leave the Union

    • S. Carolina’s legislature meets & dissolves their ties to the Union in Dec. 1860, 3 months before Lincoln’s inaguration

  • Southern states feared that Lincoln would free the slaves

    • however, he had no intention to do so, only to stop the spread of slavery

  • Once these states seceded, Lincoln focused on preserving the Union by any means necessary