Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis
Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis
I. Looking Westward
A. Manifest Destiny
• America was destined, by God, to expand its boundaries over the continent of North America
• Many arguments for expansion was an explicitly racial justification
o Americans defended westward expansion by citing the superiority of the “American Race”
• Indians, Mexicans and others were unfit to be part of “American” community
o Movement to spread both a political system and a racially defined society
• Henry Clay and other politicians feared expansion would reopen the controversy of slavery and threaten the stability of the Union
B. Americans in Texas
• The US renounced its claims to Texas in 1819
• In the early 1820s, Mexican govt. encouraged American immigration into Texas
o Hoped to strengthen economy and increase tax revenues
• Stephen F. Austin established the first legal American settlement in Texas in 1822
• Austin and others were effective in recruiting American immigrants and created centers of powers in the region to compete w/ the Mexican govt.
• By 1835, over 30,000 Americans had settled in Texas
C. Tensions between the US and Mexico
• In the mid-1830’s, General Santa Anna seized power as a dictator & imposed a conservative and autocratic regime
• New law increased powers of federal govt. at the expense of the state govts.
• Mexicans even imprisoned Austin in Mexico City claiming he was encouraging revolts
• In 1836, American settlers defiantly proclaimed their independence from Mexico
• Santa Anna led a large army into Texas & Mexican forces annihilated US garrison at the Alamo
• On April 23, 1836 Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto and took Santa Anna prisoner
o Santa Anna, under pressure from his captors, signed a treaty giving Texas independence
• President Jackson feared annexation might cause a sectional controversy and a war with Mexico
• The Texas question became the central issue in the election of 1844
D. Oregon
• Both Britain and the US claimed sovereignty in the region, known as “joint occupation”
• American interest grew in the 1820’s and 1830’s — a target for evangelical efforts
• White American began emigrating in the early 1840’s and soon outnumbered the British
• Measles spread through the Cayuse and in 1847 they attacked and killed 13 whites
• By the mid 1840’s American immigration had spread up and down the Pacific Coast
E. The Westward Migration
• Hundred of thousands migrated between 1840 and 1860, but largest number of migrants came from the Old NW in search of opportunity
• Groups headed for areas where mining and lumbering was the principal economic activity
• Those heading for farming regions traveled mainly as families
• Migrants harbored different visions of what new life would bring: Hoped for quick riches, acquired property for farming & speculation and others hoped to establish themselves as merchants
• Vast majority of migrants looked for economic opportunities
F. Life on the Trial
• Generally gathered in Iowa & Missouri, joined a wagon train, and set off with their belongings
• The major route west was the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail
• Other migrations moved along the Santa Fe Trail, from Independence, MO to NM
• Migrants faced considerable hardships; mountain and diverse terrain and epidemic diseases
• Conflicts between migrants and Indians created widespread fear
o More Indians than white people died in those conflicts
• Almost everyone walked the great majority of the time, to lighten the load for the horses
• Many expeditions consisted of friends, neighbors, or relatives who moved west together
II. Expansion and War
• In the 1840s, expansionist pressures helped push the US into a war that became a triumph for the advocates of Manifest Destiny
A. The Democrats and Expansion
• Nominated a strong supporter of annexation the previously unheralded James K. Polk
• Democratic platform, “that the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the earliest practical period are great American measures.”
• Polk entered office with a clear set of goals and plans pertaining to them
• For the annexation of Texas, the president had won congressional approval
• Loose talk of war on both sides - US took form of the bellicose slogan “Fifty-four forty or fight!”
• In 1864, the Senate approved a treaty that fixed the boundary at the 49th parallel
B. The Southwest and California
• Mexican-American relations grew worse over boundary dispute between Texas and Mexico
o Texans claimed the Rio Grande
• Polk sent army under Gen. Zachary Taylor to Texas to protect against a possible Mexican invasion
• Part of the area in dispute was NM - flourishing commerce soon developed between Santa Fe and Independence, MO
• Americans were also increasing their interest in California
• Gradually, white Americans began to arrive
o First maritime traders, then merchants, and finally pioneering farmers
• President Polk committed himself to acquiring both New Mexico and California for the U.S
C. The Mexican War
• Polk dispatched John Slidell to buy off the Mexicans, but Mexican leaders rejected Slidell’s offer
• Polk ordered Taylor’s army in Texas to move across the Nueces River, to the Rio Grande
• Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked a unit of American soldiers
• Congress declared war by votes of 40-2 in the Senate and 174-14 in the House
• The war had many opponents in the U.S:
o Whig critics charged that Polk had deliberately maneuvered the country into the conflict
o Many argued that the hostilities with Mexico were draining resources and attention away from the more important issues of the Pacific Northwest
• Taylor captured Monterrey in September 1846, but he let the Mexican garrison evacuate without pursuit
• Polk ordered other offensives against New Mexico and California
• Col. Stephen W. Kearney captured Santa Fe with no opposition, then proceeded to California, where he joined John C. Fremont and the American navy: the so-called Bear Flag Revolution
o By the autumn of 1846 he had completed the conquest of California
• General Winfield Scott launched a bold new campaign
• Scott advanced towards Mexico City & never lost a battle before finally seizing the Mexican capital
• February 2, 1848 - agreement w/ Mexican govt. on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
o Mexico agreed to cede California and NM to the US
• America gained vast new territory, but it also acquired a new set of troubling and diverse issues
III. The Sectional Debate
• Polk gradually earned the enmity of northerners and westerners alike, who believed in his policies and favored the South at their expense
A. Slavery and the Territories
• Wilmot Proviso: amendment to the bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico
o Bill passed in the House, but failed in the Senate
o Southern militants contended that all Americans had equal rights in the new territories, including the right to move their “property” (slaves)
• Others supported a plan known as the “squatter sovereignty,” and later “popular sovereignty”
o Allowed the people of each territory to decide the status of slavery there
• The presidential campaign of 1848, Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, opponents of slavery found the choice of candidates unsatisfying
o Out of their discontent emerged the new Free-Soil Party, its candidate Martin Van Buren
• The emergence of the Soil-Party as an important political force, signaled the inability of the existing parties to contain the political passions slavery was creating
o Led to the collapse of the second party system in the 1850s
B. The California Gold Rush
• James Marshall found traces of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s
• Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world began flocking to California
• California migrants (a.k.a Forty-niners) threw caution to the wind
o Abandoned farms, jobs, homes, families; piled onto ships and flooded the overland trails
• Gold rush also attracted some of the first Chinese migrants to the western U.S
• Chinese were free laborers & merchants, hoping to profit from other economic opportunities the gold boom was creating
• Gold rush created serious labor shortage, led to exploitation of Indians that resembled slavery
• By early 1850s, CA, which had always been a diverse population, had become remarkably heterogeneous
• Conflicts over gold intersected with racial and ethnic tensions to make the territory an unusually turbulent place
• Rush became another factor putting pressure on the US, to resolve the status of the territories- and of slavery within them
C. The Compromise of 1850
• Henry Clay believed that no compromise could last unless it settled all the issues in dispute between the sections
• Among the bill’s provisions were:
o Admission of California as a free state
o Formation of territorial govts. in lands acquired from Mexico, w/out restrictions on slavery
o Abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia
o New and more effective fugitive slave law
• Calhoun insisted that the North grant the South equal rights in the territories, that it agree to observe the laws concerning fugitive slaves
• Daniel Webster delivered an eloquent address in the Senate, trying to rally northern moderates to support Clay’s compromise
• William H. Seward of NY staunchly opposed the proposed compromise
o Ideals of Union were to him less important than the issue of eliminating slavery
o Slavery issue was less one of principles and ideals than one of the economic self-interest
o Stephen A. Douglas was a spokesman for the economic needs of his section and especially for the construction of railroads
▪ His career was devoted to sectional gain and personal self-promotion
• On July 9, 1850, Taylor suddenly died and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore of NY
• Fillmore supported compromise & used powers of persuasion to swing northern Whigs into line
• Compromise of 1850 was not a product of widespread agreement, rather a victory of self-interest
IV. The Crises of the 1850’s
A. The Uneasy Truce
• Franklin Pierce attempted to maintain party-and national-harmony by avoiding divisive issues, and particularly by avoiding the issues of slavery
• Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act intensified quickly after 1850
o Mobs formed in some northern cities to prevent enforcement of the law
o Several northern states also passed their own laws barring deportation of fugitive slaves
B. “Young America”
• Seized Cuba, the Ostend Manifesto enraged antislavery northerners, who charged the administration with conspiring to bring a new slave state into the Union
C. Slavery, Railroads, and the West
• Transcontinental railroad had become part of the struggle between the North and South
• Northerners favored Chicago while Southerners supported St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans
• In 1853, Davis sent James Gadsden to Mexico, where he persuaded the Mexican govt. to accept $10 million in exchange for a strip of land that today comprises part of Arizona and New Mexico
o Gadsden purchase only accentuated the sectional rivalry
D. The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy
• Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill in January 1854 to organize a huge new territory, Nebraska
• To make the measure acceptable to southerners, Douglas inserted a provision that the status of slavery in the territory would be determined by “popular sovereignty”
o In theory , the region could choose to open itself to slavery
o Douglas agreed to an additional clause explicitly repealing the MO Compromise
o Agreed to divide the area into two territories - Nebraska and Kansas
▪ KS was more likely to become a slave state
• President Pierce supported the bill, and it became law in May 1854
• No legislation in US history produced so many immediate, sweeping & ominous consequences
o It divided and destroyed the Whig Party and divided the northern Democrats
o Most important, it spurred the creation of a new party, the Republican Party
E. “Bleeding Kansas”
• White settlers from both the North and South began moving into the area
• Pro-slavery forces elected a majority to the legislature, immediately legalized slavery
• Free-staters elected their own delegates, adopted a constitution excluding delegates
o Chose their own governor and legislature and petitioned Congress for statehood
o Pres. Pierce denounced them as traitors, threw the full support of the federal govt. behind pro-slavery territorial legislature
• Pro-slavery posse, consisting mostly of Missourians sacked Lawrence, burned the “governor’s” house and destroyed several printing presses
• Among the most fervent abolitionists in Kansas was John Brown who considered himself an instrument of God’s will to destroy slavery
• Gathered six followers and murdered five pro-slavery settlers, known as the Pottawatomie Massacre
• Bleeding Kansas became a symbol of the sectional controversy
F. Free-Soil Ideology
• Tensions were reflections of the two sections’ differing economic and territorial interests, also reflections of a hardening of ideas in both North and South
• South was engaged in a conspiracy to extend throughout the nation and thus destroy northern capitalism, and replace it with the aristocratic system of the South
o Only solution to “slave power conspiracy” was to fight the spread of slavery and extend the nation’s democratic ideals to all sections of the country
G. The Pro-Slavery Argument
• Result of many things: Nat Turner uprising in 1831, expanded cotton economy into the Deep South, and the Garrisonian abolitionist movement
• In The Pro-Slavery Argument, Calhoun stated slavery was good for the slaves, because they enjoyed better conditions than industrial workers in the North
• The defense of slavery rested on arguments about biological inferiority of African-Americans
H. Buchanan and Depression
• Buchanan won a narrow victory over Fremont and Fillmore
• A painfully timid and indecisive president at a critical moment in history
• In the year Buchanan took office, a financial panic stuck the country, followed by a depression that lasted several years
I. Dred Scott Decision
• Supreme Court projected itself into sectional controversy w/ its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford
• Federal courts claimed Scott had no standing to sue - he was not a citizen, but private property
• Supreme Court was so divided that is was unable to issue a single ruling on the case
• Chief Justice Robert Taney declared that Scott could not bring a suit in the federal courts because he was not a citizen
• Slaves were property and the Fifth Amendment prohibited Congress from taking property without “due process of law”
• Consequently, Congress possessed no authority to pass a law depriving persons of their slave property in the territories
o Missouri Compromise, therefore, had always been unconstitutional
• The statement that the federal govt. was powerless to act on the issue was drastic and startling
o Southern whites were elated, but northerners expressed widespread dismay
J. Deadlock over Kansas
• Majority of people of Kansas opposed slavery
• In 1861, after several southern states had already withdrawn from the Union, Kansas entered the Union-as a free state
K. The Emergence of Lincoln
• Lincoln-Douglas debates attracted enormous crowds and received wide attention
• Lincoln’s increasingly eloquent and passionate attacks on slavery
• Douglas had no moral position and Lincoln’s opposition to slavery was more fundamental
• Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong, but was not an abolitionist
• He would arrest the further spread of slavery – preventing expansion into the territories
• Lincoln lost the election but emerged w/ a growing following in and beyond the state
L. John Brown’s Raid
• JB made plans to seize a mountain fortress in VA and foment a slave insurrection in the South
• He and 18 followers attacked and seized control of US arsenal in Harpers Ferry, VA
• He found himself besieged in the arsenal by citizens, local militia and US troops under the command of Robert E. Lee
o Convinced white southerners that they couldn’t live safely in the Union
M. Election of Lincoln
• Presidential election of 1860 had the most momentous consequences of any in American history
• Democratic Party nominated Stephen Douglas
• Disenchanted southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckenridge of KY
• Conservative ex-Whigs formed the Constitutional Union Party w/ John Bell, TN. as their candidate
• Republican convention chose Abraham Lincoln as their nominee
o Appealing for reputation of eloquence and firm but moderate position on slavery
• Lincoln won presidency w/ majority of electoral votes but only 2/5 of fragmented popular vote
• Election of Lincoln became the final signal to many white southerners that their position in the Union was hopeless
• Within a few weeks of Lincoln’s victory, the process of disunion began
o Quickly led to a prolonged and bloody war between two groups of Americans
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