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U.S. History
Mr. Mintzes
Westward Expansion Before the Civil War
The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National
Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our
disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history of
any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. On the contrary, our national birth was the
beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past
and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development of the natural rights of man, in
moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of
futurity.
America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminiscences of battle fields, but in
defence of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, of the rights of conscience, the rights of personal enfranchisement.
Our annals describe no scenes of horrid carnage, where men were led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another,
dupes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in the human form called heroes. We have had patriots to defend
our homes, our liberties, but no aspirants to crowns or thrones; nor have the American people ever suffered themselves
to be led on by wicked ambition to depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that a human being might
be placed on a seat of supremacy.
We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive
future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds,
beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress,
and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march?
John L. O'Sullivan on “Manifest Destiny,” 1839
According to O’Sullivan, what is different about America’s history?
What is O’Sullivan’s vision of America’s future?
The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was the major route for immigrants traveling from the settlements on the edge of
the eastern United States to the promised land of Oregon. It extended 2170 miles from its eastern
departure points of St. Joseph, Westport, and Independence, Missouri, to its final destination in the
Willamette Valley of present day Oregon. Much of its eastern segment followed the valleys of the
Platte and North Platte Rivers.
Some immigrants were bound for California instead of Oregon. They turned southward from the
Oregon Trail in what is now eastern Idaho and followed the California Trail through the Great
Basin and across the Sierra Nevada into California.
More than 350,000 people made the trek westward between 1841 and 1867. Their numbers swelled
from a trickle in 1841 to almost 50,000 in 1852. They endured rugged country, searing heat, violent
prairie storms, accidents, and the ravages of cholera. Their reward was the fertile farming country,
the rich forests, and the mild climate of the fabled Oregon country.
After gold was discovered in California in 1848, gold-seekers joined the westward bound pioneers.
They left the Oregon Trail and followed the California Trail on to the gold fields. After 1847,
Mormon pioneers also joined the throng, headed not for Oregon or California, but for their
settlement near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Mormon Trail began at Omaha or Council Bluffs,
and followed the North side of the Platte and North Platte Rivers until it passed Fort Laramie.
There it crossed the river and joined the Oregon Trail for some distance before veering South into
the Great Basin of Utah.
Fort Laramie (and before it Fort John) was a major stop for immigrants traveling westward along
the Oregon Trail. It was a re-supply point where they could pause to replenish their supplies, repair
their wagons, and perhaps even trade for fresh draft animals with which to continue their journey. It
was here that the pioneers often had to decide which of their cherished possessions might have to
be left behind in order that their oxen or mules could handle the rougher trail.
Congress created the Oregon Territory in August of 1848. So many pioneers made the trek from
the “east” in such a short period of time that Oregon was eligible for statehood. Oregon was
admitted to the Union in 1859 as the 33rd state.
The Mormon Trail
The Mormon Church was organized by Joseph Smith in 1830 in the town of Fayette, New York.
After moving to Ohio and Missouri, the church settled in Nauvoo, Illinois where, between 1839 and
1846, the Mormon citizens built an attractive and economically successful community. Political and
religious pressure from their neighbors, however, forced them to leave Illinois in 1846.
This time they decided to found a new community far to the West, near the Great Salt Lake. At that
time Utah was part of Mexico, so it was the intention of the Mormons to leave the United States and
establish their community outside the U.S. where they could practice their religion freely. The U.S.
annexed Utah after the Mexican War (Treaty of Hidalgo), so the Mormans found themselves back
inside the borders of the United States.
After assembling in their Winter Quarters, in what is now Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs
Iowa, they set out on the long trail to Salt Lake. A small group, led by Brigham Young, made the
trek in 1847. About 30,000 others followed over the next twenty years.
The Mormon trail followed the North banks of the Platte and North Platte Rivers, unlike the
Oregon Trail which followed the South banks. West of Fort Laramie, however, the two trails united
and followed the same track until the Mormon Trail turned southwestward toward the Great Salt
Lake.
The early Mormon pioneers were mindful of those that would follow them on the trail to Utah.
They planted crops and built homes near the Salt Lake, and traveled back along the trail to assist
those that would follow them. They also made improvements to the trail, including the Mormon
Ferry across the North Platte River near the present day town of Casper, Wyoming.
The California Trail
The California Trail carried over 250,000 gold-seekers and farmers to the gold fields and rich
farmlands of the Golden State during the 1840s and 1850s, the greatest mass migration in American
history. The general route began at various jumping off points along the Missouri River and
stretched to various points in California, Oregon , and the Sierra Nevada. The specific route that
emigrants and forty-niners used depended on their starting point in Missouri, their final destination
in California, the condition of their wagons and livestock, and yearly changes in water and forage
along the different routes. The trail passes through the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming , Idaho, Utah , Nevada , Oregon , and California.
Early settlers began to use the trail in the 1840's, the first of which was John Bidwell, who led the
1841 Bidwell-Bartleson Party. In 1842, a member of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party returned to
Missouri on the Humboldt River Route. Among them was a man named Joseph Chiles, who would
lead another party to California in 1843 and play an important part in the subsequent opening of
more segments of the California Trail. Throughout the 1840's settlers would develop short cuts on
the route to California. One such short cut, called the Hastings Route, ran south of the main route.
This "new" route would spell the death of many of those in the infamous Donner Party.
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at
Sutter's Mill in Coloma. Initially publicized by Sam Brannan, news of the discovery soon spread,
resulting in some 300,000 people coming to California from the rest of the United States and
abroad.
These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing ship and in covered
wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the
newly-arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush also attracted tens of thousands from Latin America,
Europe, Australia and Asia. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds
using simple techniques, such as panning, and later developed more sophisticated methods of gold
recovery that were adopted around the world. Gold, worth billions of today's dollars, was recovered
leading to great wealth for a few, many, however, returned home with little more than they started
with.
The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet of tents to a
boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built. A system of laws and a
government were created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850 only one year
after the discover of Gold, and only two years after California was acquired from Mexico in the
Mexican War. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service
and railroads were built. The business of agriculture, California's next major growth field, was started
on a wide scale throughout the state. However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native
Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional lands, and gold mining caused environmental
harm.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:
Americans moved west for a variety of reasons. Why did the various groups migrate to the west?
1.
The Oregon pioneers
2.
The Mormans
3.
The “Forty-niners” (not the NFL team)
4.
What were the positive impacts on the United States of the migration westward?
5.
What were the negative impacts of the migration westward on the indigenous people of the
west and on the country in general?