The Impending Crisis Chapter 13. Territorial Growth An uneasy peace in the sectional conflict between the South and the North held until the 1840s when

The Impending Crisis Chapter 13

Territorial Growth An uneasy peace in the sectional conflict between the South and the North held until the 1840s when western expansion and slavery intersected The nationalism that helped unify the country also inspired territorial growth, and that ultimately tore the nation apart

Questions to Consider How did the idea of Manifest Destiny influence the settlement of the West? For what reasons did pioneers travel to the West?

Looking Westward Westward expansion characterized settlement since Americas very beginnings In the 1840s, that movement gained momentum and adopted an ideological justification, known as Manifest Destiny This vision of a territorial empire embodied pride in the American democratic experiment and ideals of social perfection, while it overlooked the displacement and genocide of Native Americans

American Progress By John Gast

Manifest Destiny In 1845, editor John L. OSullivan called the movement to gain new territory Manifest Destiny, and imbued it with a religious sanction; others pointed to the burden of the American race to fulfill the democratic promise The movement grew in the 1840s, partly fueled by the new penny press Others, such as Henry Clay, feared its consequences because the slavery question would be reopened

Question to Consider How did American settlement of the Southwest causes tensions with Mexico?

Americans in Texas Americans moved into Texas in the 1820s, encouraged by the Mexican government (who had won its independence from Spain in 1821) and lured by fertile lands suitable for cotton cultivation In 1830 there were twice as many Americans as Mexicans in Texas Missourian Stephen F. Austin established the first legal settlement in 1822, and by 1835 there were over 30,000 Americans in Texas Settlers were exempt from paying taxes for 10 years with a requirement to become Mexican citizens, abide by Mexican law, & convert to Roman Catholicism.

Question to Consider How did Texas gain its independence?

San Jacinto Many of the American settlers were dissatisfied with Mexican rule, and the discontent grew after General Santa Anna seized power and attempted to exert more autocratic control over the Mexican provinces Increasing conflict led American settlers living in Texas to declare independence from Mexico in 1836 The Mexican forces were ruthless in subduing the rebellion and had several military successes including the Alamo (RP) However, a force led by General Sam Houston captured Santa Anna, defeated his army at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, and forced Santa Anna to accept an independent Texas

Primary Source

Americas Forgotten War

Debate & Discussion Click here & select TIMELINEMAP to checkout a very cool interactive.

Opposition to Annexation Houston sought annexation by the United States, but Northern politicians, as well as President Andrew Jackson, fearing sectional calamity with the addition of more slave territory, opposed the plan Texas would remain the independent Lone Star Republic until alliances between Texas and European nations spurred Americans to reopen the question in 1844

Oregon The Oregon Territory, a vast territory including parts of presentday British Colombia, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, had been jointly administered by both the United States and Great Britain since the 1818 Transcontinental Treaty Until 1820 there was little interest in the area except among fur traders such as John Jacob Astor

Oregon Territory

Settler/Indian Conflict However, efforts to convert the Indians and counteract Canadas Catholic influence attracted American evangelicals Two of the most famous missionaries were Narcissa and Marcus Whitman, whose efforts were largely unsuccessful; they were killed by hostile Indians in 1847 By the 1840s numerous settlements had been established and many urged America to take possession of Oregon

Westward Migration Migration happened in waves and generally in times of economic prosperity Settlers moved west for a variety of reasons, but many hoped for economic advancement Southerners went to Texas, but most western migrants came from the Old Northwest, and some had moved several times before settling permanently in the West

Oregon Trail The main westward route was the 2,000mile Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to either California or the Oregon coast Over 300,000 traveled the trails between 1840 and 1860. A typical trip took about 6 months. Contrary to myth and belief, Indians were more helpful than harmful to those on the trail, and despite its hardships, the death rate was not much higher than in the United States as a whole

Trails West

Life on the Trail Most migrated in family groups and attempted to recreate patterns of life that they left on the trail Women not only walked much of the day, they also were responsible for domestic tasks when the travel day ended Overland travel was a collective experience, with families and often communities moving together

Life on the Trail

Election of 1844 Pressure from the increasing number of white settlers west of the Mississippi eventually pushed America to war with Mexico The main issue of the election of 1844 was expansion, and Democrat James K. Polk ran on that platform against Whig Henry Clay By combining the annexation of Texas and Oregon under one umbrella, Polk hoped to attract both Northerners and Southerners, and he won the election

President James K. Polk

Compromise over Oregon By the time Polk took office Congress had already approved the annexation of Texas Polk proposed that Oregon be annexed at 54 40 north latitude When Britain rejected his offer America considered a military solution as expressed in the slogan Fiftyfour forty or fight! Neither country wanted war, so Britain accepted Polks terms in 1846

Oregon Treaty (1846)

Question to Consider What resulted from the annexation of Texas & the war with Mexico?

Texas Boundary in Dispute Tensions were developing over the boundary with Mexico in the wake of the Texas annexation Mexico had broken diplomatic ties with Washington after annexation and claimed the Nueces River as the boundary of Texas America claimed more territory with Rio Grande as the boundary

Boundary Dispute

New Mexico & California Polk sent a small army commanded by General Zachary Taylor to defend Texas Polk was also interested in the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and California; both areas had substantial populations of white settlers Polk sent secret instructions to seize those territories if war should break out

The Mexican War Having made preparations for war, Polk sent envoy John Slidell to arrange for a purchase of the territories When Mexico rejected the offer, Polk ordered troops across the Nueces River to the Rio Grande Although it is not clear what actually happened, the United States claimed that Mexico attacked the American troops, and in 1846, Congress declared war There was considerable opposition to the war, which mounted alongside costs and casualties

Mexican-American War

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo An American force under General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City, the government fell, and a new government expressed a willingness to negotiate In New Mexico Stephen W. Kearny captured Santa Fe and California In 1848 Congress ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in which Mexico ceded California and New Mexico to the United States and accepted the Rio Grande as the border of Texas The United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million and accept any financial claims settlers held against the Mexican government The vast new territory held great promise but also created some troubling issues for the United States

American Southwest

Questions to Consider The idea of Manifest Destiny was realized as a result of the war with Mexico. What new problem did the additional territories cause for the United States? How did western expansion cause the North & South to confront the issue of slavery?

Wilmot Proviso Polk accomplished his goals of expanding United States territory however, each section of the country came to believe he did so to its detriment In 1846, with the Mexican War raging, Pennsylvanian David Wilmot proposed the prohibition of slavery from any territory that was acquired from Mexico The Wilmot Proviso was countered by other proposals regarding slavery, such as extending the Missouri Compromise Line to the West Coast or squatter or popular sovereignty (A plan to allow the residents of each territory to decide for themselves the issue of slavery)

Election of 1848 The election of 1848 produced the Free Soil Party, which supported the Wilmot Proviso. Some Free-Soilers condemned slavery as immoral, but many wanted to preserve the western territories for white farmers. Military hero and Whig Zachary Taylor won a narrow victory, but the existence of this new party signaled the inability of the existing party system to deal with the issue of slavery

President Zachary Taylor

The California Gold Rush

The discovery of gold in California at Sutters Mill in 1848 started a migration that increased Californias population from 14,000 to over 220,000 in slightly less than four years Overwhelmingly male and ambitious, the 49ers created a volatile society The lure of gold drew people form China, Europe, South America, and Mexico to California Although relatively few found fortunes in the gold fields, many remained in California on farms and in cities, and this sharpened the national crisis over slavery

Question to Consider How did the Gold Rush affect the issue of slavery?

Rising Sectional Tensions President Taylor saw statehood as the answer to the question of slavery in the territories and pushed for California to be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1849; he also suggested that New Mexico also should decide its status and become a state At the same time other sectional issues clouded the horizon Antislavery efforts to abolish slavery in Washington D.C. as well as Northern personal liberty laws prompted opposition from slavery forces, which called for stricter legal guarantees for the return of fugitive slaves Southern fears about the growing number of free states creating an imbalance in the Senate were foremost, and some Southern leaders began to consider secession as a solution

Clays Proposed Solution National leaders worked to craft a compromise to address several issues arising from the bid for Californias statehood in 1849 and 1850 Henry Clay proposed an bill that included: admission of California as a free state creation of territorial governments in the other lands acquired from Mexico with no restrictions on slavery abolition of the slave tradebut not slaveryin Washington a more stringent fugitive slave law A prolonged debate followed, ending with the defeat of the bill

Compromise of 1850 New leaders stepped in, and employing both pragmatism and selfinterest were able to achieve a compromise Upon the death of President Taylor, who opposed the measures, Senator Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois proposed each of Clays measures separately and crafted a series of deals that secured passage of each Unlike the Missouri Compromise twenty years earlier, the Compromise of 1850 was not based on common national ideals, but in sectional self-interest, and was therefore not longlived

Compromise of 1850

Question to Consider What was the Fugitive Slave Act? What were the results of the Fugitive Slave Act in the Northern states? The Fugitive Slave Act was meant to satisfy southerners in the slavery debate. What was an unintended consequence of the Fugitive Slave Act?

Election of 1852 An uneasy sectional truce amid economic prosperity descended upon the nation after 1850, but conflict emerged again in the 1852 election Democrat Franklin Pierce won mainly because antislavery Whigs defected to the Free Soil Party In office, Pierce stood aside and avoided the slavery issue while Northerners attempted to prevent the enforcement of the fugitive slave law. Alarmed Southerners saw their position in the Compromise of 1850 erode

President Franklin Pierce

Ostend Manifesto Hoping to divert attention from domestic controversy, Pierce looked to expand American ideals and influence abroad A proposal to annex Cuba by force outlined in the Ostend Manifesto and an attempt to annex Hawaii both fell to defeat at the hands of antislavery and proslavery forces in 1854

Web Activity "Bleeding Kansas"

Transcontinental Railroad & Slavery The issue of slavery in the territories became connected to the route for a transcontinental railroad Northerners and Southerners both pushed for the eastern terminus in their respective sections, and diplomat James Gadsden acquired land from Mexico suitable for a southern route

Kansas-Nebraska Act Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was vying for the railroad hub to be in Chicago He proposed a bill to organize the Nebraska territory to the west and allow the slavery question to be decided by the territorial legislature, or popular sovereignty To gain Southern support he amended the bill to include a repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the division of Nebraska into two territories, Nebraska and Kansas Called the KansasNebraska Act, it became law in 1854 with the support of all Southerners and Northern Democrats

Birth of the Republican Party However, this act had disastrous consequences for the party system The Democrats were badly divided along sectional lines, and the Whig Party had all but disappeared by 1856 In addition the KansasNebraska Act prompted the creation of the Republican Party, which rested entirely on Northern support The Republican Party gained significant support in the 1854 election

Bleeding Kansas Upon passage of the KansasNebraska Act both proand antislavery settlers poured into Kansas Proslavery forces formed a majority in the legislature and legalized slavery Antislavery settlers met at Topeka, adopted a constitution prohibiting slavery, and applied for statehood These settlers moved to Lawrence, and several months later, proslavery forces attacked and sacked the town

Pottawatomie Massacre In retaliation, an ardent abolitionist John Brown murdered five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek, and civil war erupted in Bleeding Kansas Violence was not limited to Kansas Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was attacked on the floor of the United States Senate by South Carolinian Preston Brooks after Sumner made a vicious speech, The Crime Against Kansas Both Sumner and Brooks became heroes in their respective sections of the country

Tragic Prelude

Free Soil Ideology The roots of the sectional hostility lay in deep economic and territorial difference of the American vision The North embraced a free soil and free labor ideology in which all citizens would have the opportunity to control their labor and property It claimed that slavery hurt all involved by denying both democracy and opportunity and that the Southern aristocratic society was stagnant and rejected progress In the Northern mind, a Southern conspiracy existed to expand slavery and close avenues to opportunity Republicans adhered to these principles and to a strong and powerful union

The Pro-Slavery Argument Southern response tended to focus on slavery as a peculiar institution, by which they meant to emphasize the paternalistic aspects of the institution Beginning in 1832, Thomas Dew proclaimed slavery as a positive good rather than the earlier apology of it as a necessary evil It put slaves in a better position than Northern wage slaves and was a system in which the two races could live together in peace Even more central was slaverys role as the basis for the orderly and civilized Southern way of life In this view biologically inferior slaves fit in a hierarchical social order that provided security for all

Election of 1856 The presidential election of 1856 took place in the turmoil of this sectional discontent Multiple candidates again divided the electorate Democrat James Buchanan of Pennsylvania won a close contest, defeating Republican John C. Fremont, who opposed the KansasNebraska Act and the expansion of slavery in the territories but supported internal improvements, and Know Nothing candidate Millard Fillmore Buchanan proved to be a weak and indecisive president He was plagued by an economic depression throughout his term of office

Question to Consider How did the Dred Scott Decision contribute to the growing split between North & South?

The Dred Scott Decision The Supreme Court enflamed sectional conflict when in 1857 the Court issued its decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford Scott, a slave taken to free territories, sued for his freedom, arguing that residence in a free state liberated him from slavery Scott who was once owned by an army surgeon had been taken from Missouri to Illinois and then into Wisconsin, which prohibited slavery The Court, headed by Roger Taney of Maryland, decided that blacks were not citizens and had no right to sue in the courts Further, the Court declared that Congress had no authority to deprive citizens of slave property and therefore the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional The case proved a spectacular victory for proslavery advocates

Deadlock over Kansas Tensions in Kansas continued to simmer, and Buchanan endorsed Kansass admission as a slave state Slavery was legal under the Lecompton Constitution, but Kansas voters had twice rejected this constitution Kansas entered the Union in 1861 as a free state, after the Civil War had begun

Lincoln-Douglas Debates In 1858 the senate campaign between Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln placed both candidates in the national spotlight Douglas was already a national figure, and even though Lincoln lost the contest, Lincolns fame spread as a result The two engaged in a series of debates that centered on the issue of slavery Douglas took no moral stand on slavery and maintained the position of popular sovereignty for slavery in the territories Lincoln argued that he was not an abolitionist but that he opposed slaverys expansion into the territories According to Lincoln, American democratic principles rested on the principle of free labor

John Browns Raid John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hardened lines between the sections to the breaking point The fanatic abolitionist overpowered the arsenal there, planning to arm slaves and lead a rebellion His plan was thwarted by troops under the command of Robert E. Lee Brown, along with six of his followers, was executed for treason His actions provided positive proof to Southerners that there was a Northern conspiracy afoot to end slavery

The Election of Lincoln The presidential election of 1860 again demonstrated the continuing breakdown of the political party system in America After several attempts and two conventions, the Democrats nominated two candidates Northerners chose Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Southerners chose John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky Conservative former Whigs nominated Tennessees John Bell, putting the Union above all else, and Republicans nominated Lincoln with a platform supporting measures to gain as wide a base as possible but opposing the expansion of slavery in the territories In 1860 Lincoln won a majority in the electoral college but only 40 percent of the popular vote, all from Northern states The message to many Southerners was unmistakable, and very soon after the election, the process of disunion began

The Nation Divided The strong forces promoting nationalism throughout the nineteenth century were eventually eclipsed by the central issue of slavery Although slavery was essentially an economic issue, it became a social, moral, and political issue When parties no longer had national constituencies or consensus, the political system broke down Each section came to consider the other the enemy, and national unity collapsed

Documents

The Impending Crisis Chapter 13. Territorial Growth An uneasy peace in the sectional conflict between the South and the North held until the 1840s when