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Brinkley, Chapter 13 Notes
Manifest Destiny
Brinkley
Manifest Destiny reflected:
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* Growing pride that characterized American nationalism
* Idealistic vision of social perfection
The Impending Crisis
* America was destined by God and by history to expand its
boundaries
"Penny Press" spread ideas of Manifest Destiny throughout the nation.
Advocates of Manifest Destiny envisioned
a vast new "empire of liberty" that
included Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and
Pacific islands.
Henry Clay and others warned that
territorial expansion would reopen the
controversy over slavery.
Americans in Texas
Stephen Austin established the 1st American settlement in TX in
1822. Austin created centers of power in the region that competed
with the Mexican gov't.
1824 - Mexican government offered cheap land and a 4 year
exemption from taxes to any American willing to move into TX.
Thousands flocked there with slaves to establish cotton plantations.
1830 Mexico barred any further American settlement w/ little avail.
Friction between American settlers and
the Mexican government grew in the
1830s when instability in Mexico drove
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
to seize power as a dictator.
Fighting between Americans and Mexicans in TX began in 1835. In 1836 Americans in TX
proclaimed their independence from Mexico.
Santa Anna led a large army into TX, where American soldiers were divided into several
factions. Mexican forces annihilated the American garrison at the Alamo. Among the
dead was former Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett.
Americans in Texas
After the Alamo, General Sam Houston kept a small force together and defeated the
Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto and took Santa Anna prisoner. Under pressure,
Santa Anna signed a peace treaty giving Texas their independence.
Mexicans in Texas (Tejanos) fought with the Americans. After the
war ended, their position was difficult, Americans did not trust
them, fearing they were agents for the Mexican government.
Many were driven out of Texas back to Mexico. Most of those
who stayed were politically and economically inferior.
Sam Houston immediately asked for
admission to the US. President Jackson,
feared adding a large new slave state to
the Union would increase sectional
tensions.
Blocked annexation and delayed recognizing Texas until 1837. Another attempt
for statehood occurred in 1847 but was defeated by northern senators.
Democrats and Expansion
Election of 1844 - Henry Clay (Whig) tried to avoid
taking a stand on the controversial issue of annexing TX.
Democrats nominated James K. Polk to run against Clay.
Polk won because he supported annexing TX & OR.
Democrats appealed to both northern and southern
expansionists. Before President Tyler left office, he saw
Polk's victory as a mandate and admitted TX into the
Union in 1845.
Polk resolved the OR question. Tried to compromise with British
minister in DC over the US-Canadian border at the 49th parallel.
Immediately rejected, but after some talk in both nations over a
possible war, compromise was struck at the 49th parallel.
As soon as the US admitted TX into
the union the Mexican government
broke diplomatic relations with the
US. Then, a boundary dispute
emerged. TX claimed the Rio
Grande River as their southern
border. Mexico claimed the border
was the Nueces River.
Americans were also increasing their
interest in NM and CA. Americans
traded with Mexicans and Indians
in those regions. Polk was
committed to acquiring both
territories.
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Brinkley, Chapter 13 Notes
The Mexican War
Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to TX to protect against a
possible Mexican invasion. He also sent secret instructions to
the commander of the Pacific naval squadron to seize ports if
Mexico declared war and sent messages to Americans in NM
& CA the US would support them if Mexico attacked them.
Polk dispatched a special minister to Mexico to try to buy off the
Mexicans. The offer was rejected so Polk ordered Taylor's troops
to move across the Nueces River to the Rio Grande River. There
was stalemate for a few months until finally some Mexican
troops crossed the River and attacked American soldiers. On
May 13, 1846 Congress declared war.
The Wilmot Proviso
The Sectional Debate
August 1846, Polk asked Congress for money to purchase peace with Mexico.
Representative David Wilmot of PA, an antislavery Democrat, introduced an
amendment to the appropriation bill prohibiting slavery in any territory
acquired from Mexico. Passed the House but failed in the Senate. It led to the
growing sectional debate.
As the sectional debate intensified, Polk supported a proposal to extend the MO Compromise
line through the new territories to the Pacific Ocean. Others supported a plan called "popular
sovereignty" which would allow the people of each territory to decide the status of slavery there.
Popular Sovereignty was supported by Democrat Lewis Cass of Michigan.
1848 campaign - both Democrats and Whigs tried to
avoid the slavery question.
Whigs accused Polk of staging the attack at the Rio Grande River and forcing the US into war.
As the public became more aware of the charges and the financial and human cost of the war,
support waned. Victory did not come quickly.
Polk wanted to run again, but the Democrats
chose Lewis Cass. The Whigs chose Zachary
Taylor, hero of the Mexican War.
Polk relied on General Winfield Scott to bring the US to victory. Scott managed to capture
Mexico City just after a new gov't was installed. The new gov't negotiated a peace treaty.
Opponents of slavery were dissatisfied. The FreeSoil Party, arose out of their anger. Nominated
Martin Van Buren. Taylor won a narrow victory.
Polk sent a special presidential envoy to negotiate the peace. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(1848) - Mexico ceded CA and NM to the US. Mexico had to acknowledge the Rio Grande as
the official border. The US paid Mexico $15 million for the new territories.
Free Soil Ideology
The California Gold Rush
Emergence of Free-Soil Party signaled the inability of the existing parties to contain the political
passion of slavery & was an early sign of the coming collapse of the 2nd party system in the
1850s.
In the North, assumptions about the proper
structure of society came to center on the belief in
"free soil" and "free labor".
Author: Henry Clay
Taylor believed statehood could become the solution to the
issue of slavery in the territories.
The only way to stop the south was to stop
the spread of slavery and extend the nation's
democratic ideals. This ideology lay at the
heart of the Republican party as well.
The Compromise of 1850
* California was admitted as a free state.
* Slave trade abolished in DC
* New more effective fugitive slave law. (Fugitive Slave Act 1850)
As long as new lands remained territories, the federal gov't was
responsible for deciding the fate of slavery within them. But once
they became states their own gov'ts would be able to settle the
slavery question. At Taylor's urging, CA quickly adopted a
constitution prohibiting slavery, and in December 1849, Taylor
asked Congress to admit CA as a free state.
CA upset the balance of free and slave states at 15. The
admission of NM, OR and UT might upset the balance further.
The Crisis of the 1850s
* Territorial governments in land acquired from Mexico had no restrictions on slavery.
* North appalled by the Act
* Easier for slaveowners to catch and return fugitive slaves from the north
Compromise stalled in the Senate for 6
months. By July 1850 new leadership emerged
in the senate and the death of the most
powerful obstacle to the compromise that
forged the compromise - Zachary Taylor. Millard
Fillmore succeeded Taylor. Fillmore supported
the compromise and used his powers of
persuasion to swing northern Whigs into line.
Stephan A. Douglas proposed breaking up
Clay's Omnibus bill (proposed law that covers a
number of diverse or unrelated topics) into
pieces and allowing the legislature to vote on it
piece by piece.
The population in California
swelled. Conflicts over gold
intersected with racial and ethnic
tensions to make the territory an
unusually turbulent place.
The gold rush also attracted
some of the 1st Chinese migrants
to the US. Most Chinese were
poor but went to CA with
dreams of striking it rich.
Rising Sectional Tensions
According to northerners, the South was the
antithesis of democracy - a closed, static society,
in which slavery preserved an entrenched
aristocracy.
While the North was growing and prospering,
the South was stagnating, rejecting the values
of individualism and progress. To Northerners,
the South was extending slavery to destroy
northern capitalism and replace it with
aristocratic system of the South.
When Taylor took office, the pressure to resolve the question of slavery
in the far West had become more urgent as a result of the discovery of
gold in CA.
In 1852, both major parties endorsed
the Compromise of 1850 and both
nominated presidential candidates
unidentified with sectional passions.
Democrats chose Franklin Pierce of New
Hampshire and the Whigs chose Mexican
War hero General Winfield Scott.
The Whigs lost many members from the antislavery faction to the Free-Soil Party. The FreeSoil presidential candidate, John P. Hale repudiated the Compromise of 1850. Whig
divisions produced a democratic victory in 1852.
As a result, by mid-September
Congress enacted all the components of
the compromise.
Northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act intensified
quickly after 1850. Southerners watched with horror their
defiance of the Act.
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Brinkley, Chapter 13 Notes
Slavery, Railroads, and the West
The Kansas-Nebraska Controversy
Slavery in the territories fully revived the sectional crisis regarding RRs. In the Old NW,
prospective settlers wanting to move farther West (to MN and IA), urged the gov't to open
the area to them, provide territorial governments, and remove the Indians located there.
To have the Transcontinental Railroad pass through Chicago, Senator Stephen A. Douglas
introduced a bill to organize and open settlement in Nebraska. Douglas knew the South
would oppose the bill because it would create a new free state.
As the nation expanded west, broad support began to emerge for building a Transcontinental
RR. The problem was where to connect the railroad's eastern terminus to existing eastern RR
lines. Northerners favored Chicago. Southerners favored St. Louis, or New Orleans. Chicago
was chosen leading the south to believe the federal gov't favored northern development.
To get Southerners to agree, Douglas
inserted a provision that the status of
slavery in the territory would be determined
by popular sovereignty. The region could
choose to open itself to slavery. When
southern Democrats demanded more,
Douglas agreed to an additional clause
explicitly repealing the MO Compromise.
The final form of the measure was known as
the Kansas - Nebraska Act. President Pierce
supported the bill.
Pierce's Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis of MS,
removed one obstacle to a southern route.
Surveys indicated that a railroad with a southern
terminus would have to pass through Mexican
territory. In 1853, Davis sent James Gadsden, a
southern railroad builder, to Mexico. He
persuaded the Mexican government to accept
$10 million in exchange for a strip of land that
today comprises parts of Arizona and New
Mexico. The Gadsden Purchase only fueled
sectional rivalry.
No piece of legislation in American history produced such sweeping consequences. The Whig
party was divided and destroyed. Many Northern Democrats left the party because of the
repeal of the MO Compromise. Spurred a new party that was sectional in composition. People
in both major parties who opposed Douglas's bill called themselves Anti-Nebraska Democrats
and Anti-Nebraska Whigs. In 1854, they formed a new organization - the Republican Party.
"Bleeding Kansas"
Southern "Chivalry"
Term coined by Horace Greeley to describe pro and anti slavery violence in Kansas in the 1850s.
White settlers moved into Kansas almost after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Spring 1855 - elections were held for territorial
legislatures. There were only about 1,500 legal voters in
Kansas by then, but thousands of Missourians ("Border
Ruffians") swelled the vote to over 6,000. Pro-slavery
forces elected a majority to the legislature that
immediately legalized slavery. They chose their governor
and petitioned for statehood.
Then, thousands of free-staters
swelled Kansas, established a
"shadow government" and
drafted the Topeka
Constitution supporting a free
Kansas.
Pierce denounced the free-staters as traitors and threw support of the federal gov't behind the proslavery territorial legislature.
A few months later, a pro-slavery federal marshal assembled a large group of mostly Missourians to
arrest the free-state leaders in Lawrence, Kansas. Scked the town burnt the "governor's" house, and
destroyed property.
The most fervent abolitionist, John Brown moved to KS to make it a free state. After the events in
Lawrence, Brown gathered 6 followers & murdered 5 pro-slavery settlers. Known as the Pottawatomie
Massacre.
Led to more civil strife in KS. Northerners & Southerners believes the events in KS illustrated and were
caused by the aggressive designs of the rival section. "Bleeding Kansas" became another powerful symbol
of the sectional controversy.
The Pro-Slavery Argument
In response to these pressures, a number of white southerners produced a new intellectual
defense of slavery. The Pro-Slavery Argument - anthology of views of white plantation owners.
John C. Calhoun Slavery was "a good - a positive good". It was
good for the slaves because they enjoyed better conditions than
industrial workers in the North. It was good for southern society
because it was the only way the two races could live together in
peace, and good for the entire country because the southern
economy, based on slavery, was the key to the prosperity of the
nation.
Another symbol soon appeared in the US Senate.
1856, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a
speech titled, "The Crime Against Kansas." He
drew particular attention to Senator Andrew P.
Butler of South Carolina who defended slavery.
The speech was perceived as vicious by Butler's
nephew, Preston Brooks, a member of the House
of Representatives. Several days after the speech,
Brooks approached Sumner at his desk in the
Senate chamber and beat him bloody with a cane.
The Pro-Slavery Argument
Pro-Slavery forces rose in the South due to:
The North called him a hero - a martyr
to the barbarism of the South. In the
South, Preston Brooks became a hero
too. He was censured by the House and
then resigned.
1. Nat Turner's uprising in 1831 that terrified White
Southerners.
2. The expansion of the cotton economy into the Deep
South.
3. Growth of the Garrisonian abolitionist movement that
attacked southern Whites.
Buchanan and Depression
1856 election - Democrats wanted a
candidate who was not related to
"Bleeding Kansas" and chose James
Buchanan.
Republicans endorsed a Whiggish
platform of internal improvements
that further encouraged the antislavery movement. Republicans
nominated John C. Fremont.
The Know-Nothing Party (almost dead) nominated Millard Fillmore.
Above all, southern apologists argued, slavery was good because it served as the basis for the
southern way of life - a way of life superior to any other in the United States. White
southerners looking at the North saw a spirit of greed, debauchery, and destructiveness.
Biological inferiority of African Americans who inherently unfit to take care of themselves,
let alone exercise the rights of citizenship.
Buchanan won a slim victory. Depression struck the nation in 1857. In the North, the
depression strengthened the Republican Party because distressed manufacturers, workers, and
farmers came to believe that the hard times were the result of the unsound policies of the
Southern Democrats. They expressed their frustration by joining the Republican Party.
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Brinkley, Chapter 13 Notes
Deadlock over Kansas
The Dred Scott Decision
Buchanan tried to resolve the controversy over Kansas by supporting its admission to the
Union as a slave state.
President Buchanan timidly endorsed the Dred Scott decision of 1857
In response, the pro-slavery territorial legislature called for a
(2nd) constitutional convention. The free-state residents
refused to participate, claiming that the legislature
discriminated against in drawing district lines.
The ruling did nothing to challenge the right of an individual state
to prohibit slavery within its borders, but the statement that the
federal government was powerless to act on the issue was a drastic
and startling one.
As a result, pro-slavery forces won control of the convention,
which met in Lecompton. Created a constitution that
allowed slavery & refused to give voters a chance to reject it.
New legislature promptly submitted the Lecompton constitution to
the voters, who rejected it by more than 10,000 votes.
Stephen A. Douglas and other Democrats refused to support the
president's proposal, which died in the House of Representatives.
Both sides resorted to
fraud and violence, but
it was clear that the
majority of the people
in KS opposed slavery.
Buchanan, however,
pressured Congress to
admit Kansas under
the Lecompton
Constitution.
Southern whites were elated: the
highest court sanctioned part of
the extreme pro-slavery
argument. In the North, the
decision produced dismay.
April 1858 Congress approved a compromise: The
Lecompton constitution was submitted to the voters of
KS again. If approved, KS would be admitted to the
Union; if rejected, statehood would be postponed.
Again, KS voters decisively rejected the Lecompton
Kansas entered the Union in early 1861.
constitution.
The Emergence of Lincoln
The midterm elections of 1858 were especially important. Stephen
A. Douglas & Abraham Lincoln vied for the Senate seat in Illinois.
Lincoln was a successful lawyer who was involved in state politics.
Served several terms in the IL legislature and 1 term as Congressman.
He was not a national figure like Douglas so, Lincoln engaged
Douglas in a series of debates called the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
The debates attracted much attention.
At the heart of the debates was the issue of slavery. Lincoln believed if a nation could accept that
blacks were not entitled to basic human rights, he argued, then it could accept that other groups immigrant laborers, for example - could be deprived of rights too. If slavery were to extend into the
western territories, he argued, opportunities for poor white laborers to better their lots there would
be lost.
Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong, but he was not an abolitionist. He could not envision
an easy alternative to slavery in the areas where it already existed. He shared the prevailing view
among northern whites that the black race was not prepared to live on equal terms with whites.
He and his party would "arrest the further spread" of slavery.
John Brown's Raid
The battles in Congress were almost entirely overshadowed by John Brown's raid on a US
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown received private donations from prominent
abolitionists.
He believed that by capturing Harper's Ferry, he could lead a
slave insurrection into the South. The slave uprising did not
occur, and he was captured by US troops under the command
of Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried in a Virginia Court, found
guilty, and hanged.
No other single event did more than the Harpers Ferry raid
to convince white southerners that they could not live safely
in the Union. Many southerners wrongly believed
Republicans supported Brown's raid. They believed the North
was now committed to producing a slave insurrection.
They would not directly challenge it where it already existed but would trust that the institution
would gradually die out there of its own accord. Lincoln lost the election but his career was still
on the rise.
The Election of Lincoln
The Democratic Party was divided between southerners who demanded a strong endorsement
of slavery, and westerners who supported the idea of popular sovereignty.
When the party convention met in April in
Charleston, South Carolina and endorsed
popular sovereignty, delegates from eight
states in the lower South walked out.
The remaining
delegates could not
agree on a presidential
candidate and finally
adjourned after
agreeing to meet again
in Baltimore.
The Election of Lincoln
Republican leaders tried to broaden their base. Their platform included traditional Whig
measures such as a high tariff, internal improvements, a homestead bill, and a Pacific railroad
built with federal financial assistance.
It supported the right of each state
to decide the status of slavery
within its borders. But it also
insisted that neither Congress nor
territorial legislatures could legalize
slavery in the territories.
The decimated convention at Baltimore
nominated Stephen Douglas for president.
Southern democrats nominated John C.
Breckenridge of Kentucky.
Lincoln won the presidency with only about 2/5 of the popular vote. The Republicans failed
to win a majority in Congress. The election of LIncoln became the final signal to many white
southerners that their position in the Union was hopeless. And within a few weeks of Lincoln's
victory, secession and civil war began.
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