Looking Westward

Manifest Destiny

An ideology that greatly contributed to the new wave of western expansion was Manifest Destiny. As the US gained more territory, pushing all the way to the Pacific coast, a new wave of white settlement emerged. However, politicians such as Henry Clay warned that territorial expansion would reopen the painful controversy over slavery.

• Manifest Destiny: the idea that America was destined by God and by history to expand its boundaries over a vast area

Americans in Texas

The United States had offered to buy the territory of Texas twice before, but Mexico still held onto this territory for a while. In an attempt to attract white settlers, Mexico enacted a colonization law that offered cheap land and a four-year exemption from taxes to any American who moved to Texas. Many flocked with the goal of setting up cotton plantations.

• Stephen F. Austin: a young immigrant from Missouri who established the first legal American settlement in Texas in 1822, competed with the Mexican government

• Antonio López de Santa Anna: general of Mexico, seized power as a dictator in the mid 1830s, led battle against American settlers in Texas

• Alamo: mission in San Antonio, site of a famous battle between General Santa Anna and American settlers

• Sam Houston: General on American frontier in Texas, defeated the Mexican army and took Santa Anna prisoner in Battle of San Jacinto, led to Texas’s independence from Mexico

• Tejanos: Mexican residents of Texas

Oregon

Control of “Oregon country” was a major political issue in the 1840s. Britain and the US has both claimed sovereignty of the area. They agreed through the 1818 treaty that allowed citizens of both countries access to the territory, which continued for 20 years. Many American settlements sprung up during this period, and new settlers urged the US to take possession of Oregon into the country.

The Westward Migration

Between 1840-1860, large amounts of white and Black Americans migrated to the westernmost regions of the continent. They migrated for a number reasons, new land, mining and lumber opportunities, and agricultural pursuits. Migrants usually gathered at a major depot in Iowa or Missouri to join a wagon trail where they would tow all their belongings and livestock in long wagon trails connecting multiple families on the journey.

• Oregon Trail: a major 2,000 mile route west, stretching from Independence MO to northern Oregon trails or southern California trails, known for being an arduous journey that was fatal for many migrants

Expansion and War

The Democrats and Expansion

The nominations for the election in 1844 became heavily influenced on parties views of annexation of Western territories and the issue of slavery. Henry Clay was nominated for the Whigs, while the Democrats passed over Martin Van Buren for James K. Polk. What secured Polk’s spot was his outspoken support for the “reoccupation of Oregon” and the “re-annexation of Texas,” appealing to both northern and southern expansionists, winning him the presidency.

• James K. Polk: President from 1844-1848 for the Democrat party, a strong supporter of far western expansion and made swift actions to claim Texas and Oregon for the states

The Southwest and California

Mexican-American relations grew worse as a result of the annexation of Texas as a state in 1845. Boundary disputes of where the border was between the two countries also pushed Polk to send General Zachary Taylor to quash any fighting. Increased American settlement and development in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as California was cause for further conflict.

The Mexican War

Polk attempted to buy off the Mexican territory, but was met with fierce disapproval from Mexico. Polk then ordered Taylor’s army in Texas to move farther into the region to claim their territory. Once Mexican troops found and clashed with them, Congress declared war. Polk wasn’t able to secure victory as fast or easily as he had hoped. Other American officials captured Santa Fe, and almost the entirety of California as well. Eventually, the American military took control of the capital, Mexico City, and was able to negotiate a peach treaty with Mexico’s new government.

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: treaty between Mexico and the US, negotiated by Nicholas Trist, where Mexico agreed to cede California and New Mexico to the US and acknowledge the Rio Grande river as the boundary of Texas

The Sectional Debate

Slavery and the Territories

Slavery was a huge issue relating to annexation and western expansion, and many abolitionists saw the move to expand south and annex new territories as policies to increase slavery’s grasp as an institution in the US. Many amendments and proposals were introduced to attempt to figure out where slavery should be permitted, or if it should be allowed at all.

• Wilmot Proviso: proposed by David Wilmot, an amendment to the appropriation bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico

• popular sovereignty: a plan that would allow the people of each territory in the US decide the status of slavery there

• Zachary Taylor: General in the Mexican War, war hero, nominated for the presidency by the Whigs in 1848 even though he lacked political experience

• Free-Soil Party: a new party that was formed on the basis of opposing slavery in new territories and states, nominated Martin Van Buren for the 1848 election

Consider the Source: Wilmot Proviso (1846)

An amendment proposed by David Wilmot, it passed the House twice but was rejected by the Senate and mainly pro-slavery congressmen. The Proviso was short yet controversial, as it prohibited any new territories from allowing slavery permanently.

The California Gold Rush

When news of traces of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada spread, a phenomenon known as the Gold Rush was incurred. Hundreds of thousands of people began flocking to California in hopes of striking it rich and finding gold. However, gold was scarce compared to the amount of people looking for it in the area. The gold rush attracted many white men from the east, as well as Chinese immigrants. In the end, while gold was found and some people did gain sizable wealth, most were unlucky. The aftereffects of this caused California’s settlements to boom with industrial, agricultural, and economic growth. California also had a diverse population, with white Americans, Europeans, Chinese, Mexican, South Americans, free Black people, and slaves all residing in the territory.

• Forty-niners: California migrants who moved to find exploits during the gold rush on a whim, abandoning jobs, homes, families, and piling onto ships and flooding the overland trails

Rising Sectional Tensions

Zachary Taylor used statehood as a solution to the issue of slavery in the territories, so the state instead of the federal government would decide whether slavery would be prohibited or not. Taylor proposed California be admitted as a free state in 1849, which Congress had strong reservations about. The South in particular was worried California being admitted as a free state would upset the balance of free vs not free states, and also brought up the question of what the New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah territories would decide in the future.

The Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay spearheaded the effort to address all the current sectional issues in one Bill. It included the provisions to admit California as a free state, the formation of territorial governments in the lands acquired from Mexico without restrictions on slavery, the abolition of the slave trade but not slavery itself in DC, and a new and more effective fugitive slave law.

• Stephen A. Douglas: a democratic senator from Illinois, he proposed breaking up Clay’s Bill in order to gain support and pass legislation for certain sections that were more easily agreed upon

• Compromise of 1850: a Bill addressing the issues of new states, slavery in territories, and slavery in the capital, proposed by Henry Clay and passed in 1850

The Crises of the 1850s

The Uneasy Truce

Prior to the 1852 presidential election, Democrats chose New Hampshire politician Franklin Pierce as their candidate, while the Whigs chose the military hero General Winfield Scott. Whigs suffered massive defections from antislavery members who were angered by the party’s evasiveness on the issue. Most turned to the Free-Soil party, with its candidate John P. Hale. This resulted in Pierce’s victory of the election. Many northerners also turned to rioting and protesting the Fugitive Slave Act and all forms of slavery.

“Young America”

Pierce hoped to dampen sectional controversy by supporting a movement in the Democratic Party called “Young America.” The revolutions in Europe had prompted them to dream of a republican Europe with government based on the US’s model. They also dreamed of acquiring new territories in the Western Hemisphere. However, sectional debates over slave vs free territories and annexation made things tricky and caused further issues for Pierce’s presidency.

• “Young America:” its adherents saw the expansion of American democracy throughout the world as a way to divert attention from the controversies over slavery

Slavery, Railroads, and the West

By the 1850s, the line of substantial white settlement had moved beyond the boundaries of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota into the Great Plains, where new settlers were finding areas suitable for farming. This revived the sectional crisis on the issue of slavery in the territories. It also gave reason for more and more broad support for building a transcontinental railroad. Where it would start and end, however, was debated on. The North favored Chicago, while the South favored St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans.

• Gadsden Purchase: James Gadsden sent to make a small purchase of land in Mexico where the transcontinental railroad would pass through, further accentuating sectional rivalry as it added more slave territory

The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy

To propose a solution for where the transcontinental railroad would pass through, Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill in 1854 that would organize a huge new territory known as Nebraska, west of Iowa and Missouri from the still unorganized territory of the Louisiana Purchase. Many southerners were unhappy that this territory would eventually become a free state, so Douglas appeased to them by splitting it in half and creating both the Nebraska and Kansas territories, where the former would be free territory and the latter would allow slavery. This led to the destruction of the Whig Party, and eventually people who called themselves Anti-Nebraska Democrats and Anti-Nebraska Whigs formed a new organization known as the Republican party. They were swiftly able to win enough seats in Congress and establish themselves as a major force in American politics.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act: introduced by Douglas, it added organized territories of Kansas and Nebraska, split over the line of the Missouri compromise to appease both free and slave states

“Bleeding Kansas”

Kansas quickly became full of white settlers after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. Clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers ensued, even going so far as for the abolitionists to propose their own “free state” constitution. Many armed bands engaged in guerrilla warfare with some more interested in land claims or loot than slavery. After these events, it became known as “Bleeding Kansas,” and was a powerful symbol of the sectional controversy.

• John Brown: a reverent abolitionist in Kansas, moved there to fight to make it a free state. he eventually murdered five pro-slavery settlers (Pottawatomie Massacre), and sparked more fights in Kansas

• Charles Sumner: a strong antislavery leader from Massachusetts, gave a speech titled “The Crime Against Kansas.” This led to him being beaten unconscious by a proslavery congressman, and further enflamed both the North and South

The Free-Soil Ideology

The two sections’ differing economic and territorial interests were seen as causing such deep hostility, along with the reflections of a hardening of ideas in both the North and the South. Northerners saw slavery as a system of coerced labor that made a mockery of core American values and beliefs, as well as just being morally wrong. At this point, they saw the South as the antithesis of democracy. These ideologies were essential to the heart of the new Republican Party.

The Pro-Slavery Argument

Comparatively, the South’s ideology could not be more different from the North’s at this time. For one, the expansion of the cotton economy in the Deep South made slavery unprecedentedly lucrative, and many white southerners saw the institution of slavery as “essential to our way of life.” Those who defended slavery argued it was good fro slaves because they enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in the North, and good for southern society because it was the only way the two races could live together in peace.

Buchanan and Depression

The presidential campaign of 1856 was a wild one. Democrats nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Republicans, in their first presidential contest, endorsed John C. Frémont. The Know-Nothing party was beginning to break apart, but still were able to nominate former president Millard Fillmore. Buchanan won a narrow victory over Frémont and Fillmore. However, Buchanan was seen as a weak and indecisive president, as was unable to take charge and prevent a depression or staunch sectional tensions in the first year of his presidency.

The Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott v. Sandford was a highly controversial and notorious case heard by the Supreme Court in 1857. The court was divided that it was unable to issue a single ruling on the case. Chief Justice Roger Taney, declared that the slave in question could not bring the suit to federal courts, as he was not a citizen. He ended up deciding in favor of Sandford, which appalled northerners and elated southerners.

• Dred Scott decision: Dred scott, a Missouri slave, owned by an army surgeon who took him into states where slavery was forbidden. Once the owner died, he sued on the ground that his residence in free territory had liberated him for slavery. The court ultimately decided he had no legal ability to sue as Black people could not be citizens

Deadlock Over Kansas

President Buchanan timidly endorsed the Dred Scott decision. Preceding this, controversy over Kansas and whether it would be admitted as a slave or free state pushed people over the edge. Both sides had resorted to fraud and violence, however it was clear that a majority of people in Kansas opposed slavery. Despite this, Buchanan pressured Congress to admit Kansas as a slave state. Not until the end of his presidency in 1861 was Kansas admitted into the Union as a free state.

The Emergence of Lincoln

Stephen A. Douglas ran against Abraham Lincoln in the congressional elections of 1858, bringing Lincoln to the public eye like never before. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, there was a basic difference on the issue of slavery. Douglas didn’t care as much on the moral position of the issue, while Lincoln had a fundamental view that stripping Black people of their rights also could lead to other races being stripped of theirs, and that the nation’s future rested on the spread of free labor. This reflected the central idea of the Republican Party and garnered supporters for him in the following years.

• Abraham Lincoln: a successful lawyer well-versed in state politics, became President of the US from 1861-1865, issued the Emancipation Proclamation and oversaw the Civil War, was murdered by Booth

John Brown’s Raid

In 1859, John Brown staged an even more dramatic episode than his previous one, where he and a group of eighteen followers attacked and seized control of a US arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. However, this did not incur and insurrection of slaves like Brown had hoped, and he had to surrender. Brown and his remaining followers were hanged.

• Harpers Ferry: site of a US arsenal in Virginia where John Brown’s Raid occurred

The Election of Lincoln

In 1860, Democrats were widely split between those who supported slavery and those who supported popular sovereignty. The party ended up nominating Stephen Douglas. Some southern Democrats decided to nominate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky instead. The Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln as their nominee. Lincoln was appealing because of his growing reputation for eloquence, as well as his firm but moderate position on slavery. Lincoln won the presidential election, however his party failed to win a majority in Congress. Many white southerners interpreted the election of Lincoln as the death knell to their power and influence on the Union. Shortly after Lincoln’s victory, the process of disunion began, which would quickly lead the prolonged and bloody Civil War.

Conclusion

Comprehension Questions

1. How were the boundary disputes over Oregon and Texas resolved? Why were the resolutions in the two cases so different?

2. How did Polk’s decisions and actions as president intensify the sectional conflict?

3. What was the issue at stake in “Bleeding Kansas,” and how did events in Kansas reflect the growing sectional division between the North and the South?

4. What was the Dred Scott decision? What was the decision’s impact on the sectional crisis?

5. How did the growing sectional crisis affect the nation’s major political parties?