Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844-1860 Manifest Destiny: South and North - Manifest Destiny, that is, the right Americans believed they had to control and settle all the land from sea to shining sea, brought about a huge confrontation by changing the nation s boundaries. - This confrontation was about slavery, because slavery kept getting swept under the rug, and when new states were being added, both abolitionists and slave-supporting citizens wished for them to be added to their side. The Independence of Texas - By the 1830s, settlers were moving past the Mississippi River looking for land. - However, what they found, according to Major Stephen H. Long, was the Great American Desert. - Thus many settlers turned to the province of Texas. - Although Texas was occupied mostly by Indians and claimed by Spain, it was mostly used as a buffer zone between the Spanish and the United States. - And even though some American settlers settled there, the Spanish still claimed authority through the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, guaranteeing Spanish sovereignty. Austin Family: Texas Pioneers and Speculators - Moses Austin was an early winner of land grants from the Mexican government, and he used that land to sell to incoming settlers (both American and Mexican). - His son, Stephen Austin was even more aggressive and acquired 180,000 more acres of land. - Americans living in Texas didn t assimilate Mexican culture, and they even were even allowed to continue slavery after the Mexican government banned it. - However, as more and more Texans began wanting independence because of Mexico s President, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, increasingly strengthening Texas as a province of Mexico. - This provoked Americans because the large majority of Texan residents were American. - And on March 2, 1836, the American rebels proclaimed the independence of Texas and adopted a constitution that legalized slavery. Rebellion and War - President Santa Anna promised to put down the rebellion personally, and so he thought he did when he wiped out the rebel garrison defending the Alamo in San Antonio and when
he took control of Goliad. - However, he was mistaken, because American newspapers were romanticizing the deaths of the Alamo heroes, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, a surge of nationalism rose up, and thousands of Americans (under the promise of free land) swarmed to Texas to support the rebel army. - There were led by General Sam Houston. - Texas immediately sought to be annexed into the United States, but President Van Buren would not bring the issue before Congress, fearing that it could cause a war with Mexico, or even scarier, a war between the North and the South that led to the disintegration of the Union. The Path to the Pacific - The annexation of Texas became a more pressing issue in the 1840s, as expansionists in the South and the North developed continental ambitions. - The term Manifest Dynasty, coined by John O Sullivan who was a newspaper editor, captured these expansionist dreams. - Underneath the rhetoric of Manifest Dynasty, however, was a sense of American culture and racial superiority over Indians and Mexicans to the west. Oregon - The Oregon Country was claimed both by Great Britain and America, however, as word spread of a mild climate and fertile soil, Americans flocked to Oregon. - In 1842, a party of 100 farmers settled there. - By May of 1843, 1,000 more Americans had arrived. - And by May of 1845, another 5,000 people reached Oregon. - By 1860, almost 350,000 people had braved the Oregon Trail. - Over 34,000 had died, mostly from disease and exposure. - The trail was especially hard on women, who were delegated even more tasks then usual. California - Some pioneers ended up in the Mexican province of California, when they split from the Oregon Trail at the Snake River. - Many American settlers hoped to annex California like Texas was annexed, because they didn t want to assimilate into the Mexican culture that was so prevalent there.
- However, this wasn t likely to occur, because American residents were far outnumbered, 700 to 7,000. - Californios were the elite class of ranchers and landowners in California. The Fateful Election of 1844 - This election would determine what the outcomes of Oregon, California, and Texas would be. - Many northerners were calling for an expansion of Oregon, while almost all southerners were calling for the annexation of California and more importantly of Texas. - The Democrats selected Governor James K. Polk of TN to run of presidency. - He was known as Young Hickory. - He was the protégé of Andrew Jackson. - He called for the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas, claiming that both were already belonged to the United States. - Polk won the election, and Texas was annexed soon after. - On December 29, 1845, Texas joined the Union as the twenty-eighth state. War, Expansion, and Slavery - Polk was now hungry for more territory, and he was prepared to go to war to claim it. - However, during his presidency he ignored one crucial issue slavery. The War with Mexico, 1846-1848 - Mexico, since its independence, had not had a very prosperous economy (it sucked.) - This was because any surpluses or modest tax revenues they had were quickly devoured by foreign debts and a bloated bureaucracy. - However, the Mexican government was firm on preserving their nation s historical territories. - Thus, when Texas voted to enter the American Union on July 4, 1845, Mexico cut off diplomatic relations with the US.
Polk s Expansionist Program - Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico to attempt to purchase some Mexican territory - This mission s goals were - Mexican recognition of the Rio Grande River as the Texas-Mexico border. - US would forgive American citizens claims against the Mexican government. - US would purchase the NM area for $5 million. - US would purchase CA for any price. - Predicting this mission s failure, Polk was relocating troops to strategic positions preparing for war all the while. - Also, to avoid a simultaneous war with Britain, Polk accepted the British proposal of splitting the Oregon Country at the forty-ninth parallel. American Military Successes - Why did American win? Because of the navy that America had, and the one that Mexico lakcked. - Good leadership; Generals Lee and Grant were involved, and so was future president Zachary Taylor. - The war ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. - Mexico gave up claims to TX above the Rio Grande River. - Mexico gave to the Union CA and NM. - The US gave Mexico $15 million for land, and $3.5 million for debts. A Divisive Victory - Initially, the War with Mexico sparked new patriotic support. - Soon, however, it divided the nation. - Some Whigs (i.e. Charles Francis Adams of MA) opposed the war from the beginning on moral grounds. - They were known as conscience Whigs, and they also warned of a southern conspiracy to add new slave states in the West. The Wilmot Proviso
- Polk s expansionist agenda split the Democrats into sectional factions. - In August of 1846, David Wilmot, a Democratic congressman from PA, suggested that to limit the spread of slavery, the US should prohibit slavery in any territories acquired from Mexico. - However, whilst the House of Representatives passed this proviso, the Senate killed it. - Many southerners wanted to take more territory from Mexico, however, these plans were eventually abandoned. Free Soil - To thwart any plan of a massive slave power conspiracy, thousands of ordinary northerners joined a new movement known as the free-soil movement. - The free-soilers quickly organized into a political party - They abandoned the Liberty Party s emphasis on the sinfulness of Slavery and the natural rights of African Americans. - Instead, they depicted slavery as a threat to republican liberties and white yeoman farming. - Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison denounced them, referring to the free-soil doctrine as racist whitemanism. Frederick Douglass: Political Abolitionist - Frederick Douglass, who was the most well-known black abolitionist supported the freesoil movement. - After escaping to the north and taking on the last name of Douglass, he began to speak publicly on the issue of slavery and he soon became a celebrity. - He sought to expel the southern states from the union, and wanted to use political means a government power to overthrow slavery. - Thus he supported the free-soil movement and its political strategy as the best option for beating the south and its mistress, slavery. The Election of 1848 - The conflict over slavery took a toll on both Polk and the Democratic Party Polk eventually refused to run for a second term and would die just three months after leaving office. - The democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of MI in lieu of Polk. - Cass was deliberately vague on slavery, proposing an idea known as squatter sovereignty
in which each territory would vote to determine its status as free or slave. - However, this failed to hold the Democracy together and eventually Whig nominee Zachary Taylor won the presidency. - His nickname was Old Rough and Ready, given to him during the Mexican War. - The Wilmot Proviso had fractured the Democratic Party in the North and changed the dynamics of national politics. 1850: Crisis and Compromise - Even before Taylor had taken office, events in CA triggered a new political crisis over slavery. - In January of 1848, John A. Sutter discovered flakes of gold when his mill was being built. - He tried to keep it a secret but word eventually got out. - When President Polk confirmed this discovery in December of 1848, the California Gold Rush was on. - In 1849 alone, 80,000 and some forty-niners had arrived in CA, whether by ship or by wagon. Statehood for California - This rapid influx of settlers revived the debate over slavery in the region. - Taylor urged the California government to apply for statehood quickly and as a free state. - When they did, and when Congress approved (with pressure from the President), it alarmed southern politicians because it prevented the expansion of slavery all the way to the Pacific. - Many southerners threatened secession; however, the majority just preferred a political strategy of resistance, in which they would refuse to accept CA s admission unless the federal government guaranteed the future of slavery. Constitutional Conflict - Southerners thought of a few solutions to their problems - Southerners, like John Calhoun for example, supported secession. - Other southerners had a more moderate approach in which the Missouri Compromise would either be extended or a new line would be drawn. - And lastly, squatter sovereignty was thrust into the national spotlight again as a
solution for the acquisition of new territories. - Antislavery advocates were unwilling to accept any plan for CA that might allow the expansion of slavery in the territories. - Instead, a few proposed the idea of containing slavery within its existing boundaries and then extinguishing it completely. A Complex Compromise - Standing on the brink of disaster and possibly the disintegration of the Union, a group of people (made up of; Millard Fillmore, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglass) secured the passage of 5 separate laws that were known collectively as the Compromise of 1850. 1. A new Fugitive Slave Act that enlisted federal magistrates in the task of returning runaway slaves. 2. The admittance of CA as a free state. 3. Resolved a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico in favor of NM. 4. Abolished the slave trade, but not slavery, in the District of Columbia. 5. Organized the rest of the lands acquired from Mexico into the territories of NM and UT and left the decision to allow or prohibit slavery in those vast areas to popular (squatter) sovereignty. - This compromise averted a secession crisis in 1850, but only barely. - Political wizardry had solved the immediate constitutional crisis, but the underlying issue of slavery remained unresolved. The End of the Second Party System - The architects of the Compromise of 1850 had expected it to last at least a generation; however, their hopes were quickly dashed. - Abolitionists from the North refused to accept the compromise, while proslavery southerners were plotting to extend slavery into the West, the Caribbean, and Central America. - The resulting disputes destroyed the Second Party System and deepened the crisis of the Union. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act - The Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial of the Compromise of 1850.
- Many northern states enacted personal-liberty laws in which legal rights of residents, including slaves, were increased. - The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled this act unconstitutional and voided it within WI. - However, the federal Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act. - But by this time, fugitive slaves were nearly impossible to catch and as Frederick Douglass had hoped, the act had become a dead letter. The Political System in Decline - The election of 1852 saw the end of the Whig party and the reunification of the Democratic party through the nomination and election of Franklin Pierce of NH. - Some of Pierce s policies and pursuits were - He pursued an expansionist foreign agenda. - Controversially sent covert operations into the Caribbean to attempt to take control over Cuba and other islands there. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Rise of the New Parties - In 1854, a new struggle over westward expansion deepened sectional divisions. - Midwestern residents were demanding settlement of the future Kansas-Nebraska territory. - Stephen A. Douglass, an IL Senator led this charge, and proposed this bill. - He eventually amended it so that there were two states formed and that both would vote on their own status as a slave or a free state. - KS voted free. - NE voted slave. - The measure squeaked through because President Pierce used patronage and persuasion to get a couple dozen members of the House and the Senate to change votes. The Republican and American Parties - The Kansas-Nebraska Act completed the dissolution of the Whig Party and nearly destroyed the Democratic Party as well. - A new party was formed from a strange coalition of Free-Soilers, Democrats, and Whigs, and it was known as the Republican Party. - This new Republican Party faced strong competition from the American, or Know-
Nothing, Party. - This party was somewhat of a secret organization, in which Nativism was a large part of their political platform. Bleeding Kansas - This phrase refers to what occurred in Kansas when popular (squatter) sovereignty was attempted for the first time. - In May of 1856, both sides (the Abolitionists and those for slavery) turned to violence. - This term was coined by Horace Greeley of the Ney York Tribune. Buchanan s Failed Presidency - The Election of 1856 was dominated by the violence in KS. - The newly formed Republican Party used this to bolster their popularity. The Election of 1856 - The American Party initially entered this election with high hopes, but they soon split up on the issue of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. - The Democrats reaffirmed their support for popular sovereignty and the KS-NE Act and nominated James Buchanan of PA. - Buchanan won the election handily, but the Republican Party had now officially replaced the Whigs as the second major party. - Buchanan was given the task of defusing the passions of the past decade and devising ways of protecting both free soil in the West and slavery in the South. Dred Scott: Petitioner for Freedom - Dred Scott was an enslaved African American who moved from a slave state to a free state and thus argued for his freedom. - The Federal Supreme Court ruled against him however, in a 7-2 vote, in which many of the justices were pressured by President Buchanan. - In one single stroke, the Federal Supreme Court declared the Republicans antislavery platform to be unconstitutional, which did not sit well at all with Republicans. - By pursuing a proslavery agenda first in the Dred Scott decision and then in Kansans Buchanan effectively widened the split in his party and in the nation.
Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Triumph - The Union s crisis intensified as the Democratic Party fragmented along sectional lines and the Republicans gained support in the North and the Midwest. - Abraham Lincoln was the only Republican leader to emerge whose policies and temperament may have saved the union. - However, with the prospect of his election, southern secessionists renewed their threats (which they had been making since 1850) of leaving the Union. Lincoln s Political Career - Lincoln rejected his father s life of subsistence farming and sought to enter the middle class. - He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1837. Abraham Lincoln: Ambitious Politician - His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest. - Lincoln admired Henry Clay, and joined the Whig party. - However, when the Whigs disintegrated, he became a Republican. - In 1846, he was elected to a Congress that was bitterly divided over the Wilmot Proviso. - When he wasn t reelected, he stepped out of political life for a while and started a successful legal practice representing railroads and manufacturers. - Lincoln returned to politics after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which he thoroughly opposed. - His new stance on slavery was that if [America] was going to uphold its republican ideals, it must eventually cut out slavery like a cancer. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates - Lincoln soon joined the Republicans and ran once again for election to the IL senate. - He gave a famous House Divided speech, saying that - A house divided against itself cannot stand, and he predicted a crisis: I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become all one thing, or all the other. - They took part in a series of seven debates which garnered national interest, but in the end, Douglas narrowly defeated Lincoln.
The Union Under Siege - The debates with Douglas gave Lincoln national recognition, and established the Republican Party as a formidable political force. - Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and various state legislatures. The Rise of Radicalism - Shaken by this advance of the Republicans, southern Democrats split into two factions moderates and fire-eaters. - The moderates, such as Senator Jefferson Davis of MI, sought to win ironclad political commitments to protect slavery. - The fire-eaters, such as Robert Barnwell Rhett of SC and William Lowndes Yancey of AL, actively promoted the secession of the southern states. - Democrats split here, with Northern Democrats no longer actively supporting slavery in the south. - Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas for president, whilst Southern Democrats separately nominated John C. Breckinridge. The Election of 1860 - With the Democrats divided, the Republicans sensed victory. - And although Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln only won 40% of the popular vote, he won a majority in the Electoral College by carrying every northern and western state except NJ. - The Republicans had successfully united voters in the Northeast, the Midwest, and California and Oregon. - To many southerners, it seemed time to think carefully about the meaning of Lincoln s words in 1858 that the Union must become all one thing, or all the other.