Download Directed Reading: The 1840s!

LET’S TRAVEL BACK TO THE 1840s . . .
What would we see?
We are at the point of trying to decipher the history of the 1840s. Keep in mind what we
discussed concerning MANIFEST DESTINY and the ELECTION OF 1840. Let’s pick up the story
with the “Young Hickory” – James K. Polk. To James K. Polk (elected in 1844), of course,
Texas was necessary for US expansion.
1.
The scoop on Polk and the Election of 1844.
 Polk was a Jacksonian Democrat and known as the “Young Hickory”
 He had 4 particular goals as President: To lower the tariff, restore the
Independent Treasury System, acquire California, and settle the Oregon
question. Daniel Walker Howe says this of Polk:
“Judged by these objectives, Polk is probably the most successful president the US has ever had.
He stayed focused on these goals and achieved them all, two in foreign policy and two in
domestic, while serving only a single term. Texas did not appear as a goal, for the incoming
president regarded its annexation, while not yet implemented, as a fait accompli.” (p. 708)
Robert Kagan says this of Polk:
“His (Polk’s) election in 1844 is often regarded as a popular referendum on manifest destiny.
Between 1845 and 1848 the United States under Polk’s leadership expanded by more than one
million square miles and laid claim to every inch of territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific north
of the Rio Grande and south of the 49th parallel.”
2. Fast Forward: The Mexican War (1846-1848)
 The fundamental causes of this war: US desire for California and
boundary disputes with Mexico in southern Texas
 The immediate causes? Polk dispatched troops under Zachary Taylor
(remember that name!) to the disputed southern region. In April of 1846,
Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked Taylor. 16 Americans were
killed. Polk: “Despite all our efforts to avoid a clash, hostilities have been forced
upon us by the shedding of American blood on American soil.” (controversial
statement, akin to our rationale for war in Iraq in 2003?).
 Congress declares war on Mexico on 13 May of 1846. Did we provoke this war?
Abe Lincoln: “Show me the spot on American soil where American blood was
shed” (Lincoln was a one-term Whig Congressman from Illinois, nothing notable
about him at this point in our story!)
 Pertinent features of this war? Fighting in two areas (Mexico and California); a
distinctly regional war – much more involvement by southerners; a training
ground for Civil War officers (i.e. Grant and Lee); not a spectacular victory for
Americans – we were fighting a weak and disorganized adversary.

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CONSEQUENCES?
By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo we gained half of
Mexico’s territory; payment of $15 million to Mexico; 13,000 Americans killed in
the war, mostly from disease; we increased our nation’s territory by 2/3 (more
than the Louisiana Purchase territory!); and a REOPENING OF THE SLAVERY
QUESTION! (the big one!) Once again, a commentary from Robert Kagan:
“Polk’s war against Mexico and his acquisition of the Southwest thus ‘triggered the release of
forces of sectional dissension’ that had long simmered just beneath the surface of American
society. His decision to fight in Mexico upset the uneasy balance that had existed between North
and South since 1820 . . . After 1846, as the national parties gradually dissolved into sectional
parties, the specter of sectional conflict doomed all attempts at compromise over the new
territorial questions created by Polk’s expansionism.” (227 in Dangerous Nation)
3. The Discovery of gold in California?
 James Marshall discovered gold in the Sacramento Valley in January of 1848
 Polk “mentioned” this in his 1848 State of the Union Message
 “Gold Fever” grips the country. 50-100,000 go west in the first year, introducing
a huge population into the American west – not an agricultural movement as
other migrations had been and therefore “freakish.”
 A great example of CONTINGENCY in history, when put in the context of
everything else happening right then!
4. 1848-1851: SUMMARY OF THE FOUR VIEWS OF SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES
 Extend the Missouri Compromise Line to the Pacific (moderate view #1)
 Follow popular sovereignty in the new areas (moderate view #2)
 Full adoption of the Wilmot Proviso banning slavery from the territories
(northern view)
 Slavery should be protected in all new territories (southern view)
5. THE ELECTION OF 1848
Between 1848 and 1861, the extension of slavery issue dominated American politics. The roots
of the Civil War were planted during this period, if not much earlier. The election of 1848 is a
good place to start understanding this.
TWO IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS!
1. David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed an amendment
ELECTION OF 1848 –WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?
to an appropriations bill submitted by Polk in 1846 at the
CASS (DEMOCRAT) POP SOV
THREE CANDIDATES TAYLOR (WHIG) – “SILENT”
outset of the Mexican War. It stipulated that no slavery
VAN BUREN (FREE-SOILER) OPPOSED
be allowed in areas gained from Mexico in the war.
2. The “Free-Soilers” foreshadowed the Republican Party
THE “FREE-SOILERS?”
Anti-Polk Democrats (“Wilmot Dems”)
which was formed in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854. Keep in
Anti-Slavery Whigs (“Conscience”Whigs)
Liberty Party leftovers
mind that Wisconsin (the “grand old badger state”) came
Eastern Workingmen
into the Union in 1848, the same year as this momentous
(FORESHADOWING A NEW PARTY)
election. The Free Soil Movement was strong in our
ELECTION RESULTS?
TAYLOR BY AN EYELASH!
state!!!!!
(very divided electorate)
AND NOW, IT IS TIME TO
UNDERSTAND THE COMPROMISE
OF 1850!
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