Knowt
Chapter 14: Union Expanded and Challenged (1835–1860)
Important Keywords
Manifest Destiny: Concept popularized in the 1840s that the US's God-given mission was to expand westward.
Mexican-American War: A war between Mexico and the United States over Texas gave the US the northern part of Texas and New Mexico and California.
Compromise of 1850: This measure allowed California to join the Union as a free state but strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, temporarily easing North-South tensions.
Fugitive Slave Act: Commissioners were given more money if the accused was found to be a runaway than if he/she was not.
Many northern state legislatures attempted to circumvent this law.
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): Compromise that allowed Kansas and Nebraska settlers to vote on joining the Union as free or slave states.
Kansas was plagued by violence and confusion as "settlers" arrived months before the vote to influence it.
Dred Scott case: Critical Supreme Court ruling that slaves were property and could not sue in court.
The ruling also stated that Congress had no legal right to ban slavery in any territory.
Key Timeline
1836: Texas territory rebels against Mexico; independent republic of Texas created
1841: Beginning of expansion into Oregon territory
1844: James K. Polk elected president
1845: Texas becomes a state of the United States
1846: Oregon Treaty with Britain gives most of Oregon to United States
War with Mexico begins
Wilmot Proviso passed
1848: Gold discovered in California; beginning of California Gold Rush
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Formation of Free-Soil party
Zachary Taylor elected president
1850: Passage of Compromise
1852: Franklin Pierce elected president
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
Formation of the Republican party
1856: Democrat James Buchanan elected president
“Bleeding Kansas”
1857: Dred Scott decision announced
1858: Lincoln-Douglas debates
Freeport Doctrine issued by Stephen Douglas
1859: Harper’s Ferry raid of John Brown
1860: Abraham Lincoln elected president
South Carolina secedes from the Union (December)
Manifest Destiny
In the 1840s, the age-old American urge to push against the line of the frontier became a clearly articulated ideology.
In 1845, the journalist John O’Sullivan coined the term Manifest Destiny.
He called for the United States “to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”
In the 1830s, Americans began traveling west on the Oregon Trail to the Williamette Valley.
Eastern settlers were drawn by tales of rich soil, abundant wildlife, and a healthy climate.
In the early 1840s, "Oregon Fever" was discussed.
American expansionists chanted "Fifty-four Forty or Fight" to claim Oregon.
President James K. Polk chose diplomacy over war with Britain.
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 gave the US most of Oregon.
The Alamo and Texas Independence
In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, but political instability ensued.
Mexican officials encouraged American settlers to become Mexican citizens and convert to Catholicism in exchange for large land grants.
By 1836, there were 30,000 American settlers in Texas.
On March 2, 1836, the rebels declared Texan independence, and General Antonio López de Santa Anna led an army into Texas.
On March 6, his troops defeated a 180-250-man Alamo garrison, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.
On April 21, Houston’s army surprised and routed Santa Anna’s command at San Jacinto.
Santa Anna was captured and ordered all Mexican troops out of Texas.
Sam Houston led the Lone Star Republic after Texas declared independence.
Mexico, which refused to recognize Texas's independence, would also clash with Texas's admission to the Union.
President Andrew Jackson sympathized with the Texans, but he didn't want to hurt his protégé Martin Van Buren's chances in the fall election.
He only recognized the Lone Star Republic diplomatically.
The American annexation of Texas remained a political nonstarter until 1844.
President John Tyler and his Southern secretary of state, John C. Calhoun, negotiated a treaty to admit Texas as a slave state.
Until the election of 1844, their efforts proved unavailing in the Senate.
Expansion and the Election of 1844
The election of 1844 proved to be the political high tide of Manifest Destiny.
James K. Polk won the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
He was the first American dark horse to win a major party nomination after being nominated at the Democratic convention.
Polk was hardly a political nonentity.
He was a protégé of Andrew Jackson and served as Speaker of the House and Tennessee governor.
Polk warmly embraced American expansionism.
He wanted Texas and Oregon Territory annexed.
Polk's nomination also showed Southern Democrats' growing power.
Polk signed the 1846 Walker Tariff, which lowered import tariffs, angering Northern manufacturers.
In 1844, Whig presidential nominee Henry Clay ran for a third time.
Clay opposed expansionism to appease all factions.
He hoped his long political career and popularity would win.
Clay’s hopes would be frustrated by political abolitionism.
In 1844, the new anti-slavery Liberty party nominated James Birney for president.
The Liberty party's presence on the ballot likely cost Clay New York's electoral votes and the election, despite its low support.
Polk’s expansionism proved popular enough for him to win a close election.
John Tyler, the outgoing president, used an unusual joint resolution of Congress to annex Texas before Polk's inauguration in March 1845.
Polk successfully negotiated the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain after taking office.
Polk's efforts to acquire more Mexican land would not end peacefully.
The Mexican War
Polk wanted to achieve his expansionist goals with Mexico through diplomacy.
He wanted the Mexicans to accept the Rio Grande River as Texas' southern border instead of the Nueces River.
Polk wanted San Francisco's great harbor and all of California Territory for Pacific Ocean trade.
In October 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico with a proposal to buy the territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers for $5 million, California for $25 million, and Mexican lands between Texas and California for $5 million.
The Mexican government refused to see Slidell.
It attacked Polk's provocative Rio Grande River army under General Zachary Taylor.
In April 1846, Mexican troops attacked a patrol of American soldiers.
This began hostilities between Mexico and the United States.
Once Polk learned of the outbreak of fighting, he asked Congress for a declaration of war.
The United States declared war against Mexico on May 13, 1846.
The Mexican War was controversial, and it was opposed by many Americans.
Whigs believed Polk forced the war on Mexico without fully exploring diplomatic options.
Many Northerners believed Southern Democrats were waging war to expand slavery.
General Taylor defeated Mexican forces along the Rio Grande and invaded Northern Mexico.
He defeated a Mexican counterattack at Buena Vista.
In California, the United States fomented an uprising of American settlers.
On July 4, 1846, the rebels declared California independent as the Bear Flag Republic, backed by a small army under John C. Fremont.
Polk's Mexican lands were conquered by American troops.
Territorially satisfied, Polk was ready to make peace.
The Mexicans spurned his overtures, refusing to submit.
Polk sent General Winfield Scott to Vera Cruz to force a Mexican surrender.
On March 8, 1847, Scott oversaw the first major amphibious landing in American military history.
Scott abandoned his lines of communication and supply and marched into the heart of Mexico.
On September 13, 1847, Scott's army took Mexico City.
Though Mexican partisans harassed American troops, this ended the war.
Political Consequences of the Mexican War
On February 2, 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War.
The US paid Mexico $15 million for Texas north of the Rio Grande, New Mexico, and California.
The US also agreed to pay all American claims against Mexico.
The spoils of the Mexican War increased the United States' territory by one-third, even though some Americans criticized the treaty for being too lenient with the Mexicans.
Much of the dream of Manifest Destiny had been realized.
The US became a continental nation.
Slavery inevitably expanded with American territory. In 1846, Pennsylvania Democratic representative David Wilmot sparked a political uproar.
Southerners protested the Wilmot Proviso, which passed the House four times but failed in the Senate.
Wilmot's amendment stoked sectional tensions over slavery.
Northerners argued that slavery should not be introduced where it had been illegal under Mexican rule.
Northerners opposed reintroducing slavery in Mexico.
John C. Calhoun persuasively argued that an institution legal in many American states could not be prohibited in federal territories shared by all states.
President Polk tried to compromise by extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1848, both major parties avoided discussing slavery.
The Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor to repeat their war hero strategy.
The Democrats nominated Michigan senator Lewis Cass because they had no famous general.
Liberty party members and dissident Whigs and Democrats formed the Free-Soil party to oppose western slavery.
Martin Van Buren, a former president, received 10% of the vote after accepting the Free-Soil nomination.
Taylor won the election due to his military charisma.
The Political Crisis of 1850
In January 1848, gold was discovered in California.
Over 80,000 "forty-niners" arrived in California during the "Gold Rush" within a year.
By late 1849, California and New Mexico had enough settlers to petition for statehood.
Both territories drafted anti-slavery constitutions.
President Taylor encouraged Californians and was willing to admit them as a free state.
In doing this, he roused the anger of many Southerners.
Much of California lay below the extended Missouri Compromise line.
Western territories and Senate power seemed to be slipping away from the South.
Southerners demanded a secession convention.
John C. Calhoun spoke for many Southerners when he declared, “I trust we shall persist in our resistance until restoration of all our rights or disunion, one or the other, is the consequence.”
Henry Clay criticized the talk of Southern secession.
Clay, known as the "great pacificator" for the Compromise of 1820, sought another compromise to keep the Union together.
He crafted resolutions to give Northern and Southern legislators victories to take home to their constituents.
The Compromise of 1850 granted California statehood, allowed New Mexico and Utah residents to choose slavery, ended slave trading in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.
Clay's compromise could not pass as an omnibus bill due to President Taylor's opposition and congressmen's unwillingness to vote for sections that went against their sectional interests.
Following Taylor’s unexpected death, his successor Millard Fillmore expressed support for the compromise.
Senator Stephen Douglas, an Illinois Democrat, led the compromise through Congress with moderate Southern Whigs and Northern Democrats.
Aftermath of the Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 temporarily unified sections. However, deep Northern-Southern differences simmered.
The South lost Senate power when California joined the Union.
Extremist pro-slavery advocates worried more after Minnesota and Oregon joined the Union.
In the North, the Fugitive Slave Act expanded the federal government's role in capturing runaway slaves.
The new federal system discriminated against black people by denying escaped slaves due process.
Northerners who were caught helping escaped slaves were heavily fined.
The Fugitive Slave Act inflamed Northern abolitionist sentiment, hurting Southern interests.
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe powerfully depicted slavery's evils.
Stowe's novel sold almost 275,000 copies in a year, solidifying Northern antislavery sentiment.
In the election of 1852, the major political parties hoped that the slavery issue had been laid to rest.
The Whigs nominated yet another war hero, General Winfield Scott.
The Democrats turned to another dark horse candidate, Franklin Pierce.
The strength of the Democratic Party carried Pierce to victory.
Franklin Pierce in the White House
Pierce reverted to the expansionist policies of James K. Polk.
His administration negotiated the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico to help build a transcontinental railroad through the South.
To establish trade and diplomatic relations with Japan, Pierce sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry's naval expedition.
By buying Cuba from Spain, the president fueled Northern suspicions of his Southern sympathies.
After this failed, his administration considered occupying the island militarily.
Southern desire to open new lands to slavery drove talk of acquiring Cuba and privately run expeditions to seize territory in Central America.
Following its failure in 1852, the Whig Party fell apart. Many Whigs joined the anti-immigrant American or Know-Nothing Party.
In the 1840s, large numbers of Irish and German immigrants entered the US, sparking nativism.
The Know-Nothings hated immigrants' Roman Catholicism.
The Know-Nothing Party briefly restricted immigration and prevented recent immigrants from voting.
When slavery returned to the forefront of politics, the KnowNothing Party died out.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen A. Douglas reignited sectional conflict because of his dream of running a transcontinental railroad from Chicago to California.
To do this, the territories of Kansas and Nebraska had to be politically organized.
According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise, slavery was banned in these territories.
Douglas needed Southern support to begin the process of organizing Kansas and Nebraska.
This support required abandoning the Missouri Compromise and letting Kansans and Nebraskans decide if they wanted slavery.
Douglas embraced the bargain and became a spokesman for popular sovereignty in the territories.
In 1854, President Pierce signed Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act into law.
The immediate result was a political uproar in the North.
Northerners saw the bill as an outrageous attempt to bring slavery to free territory.
Free-Soilers, former Whigs, and defecting Democrats founded the Republican party.
The new party strongly opposed western slavery, drawing strength from the North and West.
The Know-Nothings were quickly eclipsed by the Republican Party.
Bleeding Kansas
There was never any realistic prospect that Nebraska would become a slave state.
Kansas, with its long border with Missouri, was another story.
Elections in Kansas were scheduled for 1855.
Slavery supporters and opponents sent settlers into the territory knowing this.
Missourians who crossed the border to vote illegally helped the proslavery side win.
Kansas' "Lecompton Constitution" legalized slavery.
Outraged antislavery settlers elected a legislature and wrote a constitution banning slavery.
Kansas was in conflict with two legislatures and two constitutions.
The differences between the two sides escalated into bloodshed.
In 1856, a band of proslavery gunmen shot up or burned much of Lawrence, Kansas, a community founded by abolitionists.
In retaliation, the fiercely antislavery fanatic John Brown led a gang that butchered five proslavery settlers.
The ongoing violence led newspapermen to term the stricken territory “Bleeding Kansas.”
In the 1856 presidential election, Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican John C. Fremont and KnowNothing former president Millard Fillmore.
Buchanan won 45 percent of the popular vote and only because of "Solid South" support.
The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri who went to court and sued for his freedom.
Scott lived in free Illinois and Wisconsin for several years with his master.
In 1856, the Supreme Court heard Scott's claim that living in free territory freed him.
In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott was still a slave.
The Court majority declared African Americans inherently inferior and unfit for citizenship.
It also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories because it violated constitutional property rights.
The Dred Scott decision further inflamed sectional tensions.
Southerners felt vindicated by the Supreme Court's territorial slavery ruling.
Northerners were furious at the prospect of a panel of mostly Southern judges justifying slavery across the Union.
President Buchanan proved just as politically tone-deaf as the Supreme Court.
He urged Congress to recognize Kansas as a slave state despite the illegality of the Lecompton Constitution and a growing majority of free-soil settlers.
In 1861, Kansas became a free state after Congress rejected his proposal.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In 1858, Stephen A. Douglas ran for reelection to the Senate. He was opposed by Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the Republican party.
Lincoln had been an admirer of Henry Clay and a longtime Whig.
He opposed the Mexican War while in Congress in the 1840s.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act and Dred Scott decision reintroduced Lincoln to politics.
Douglas's debates with Lincoln were well-publicized due to his political stature.
These debates became a landmark of political oratory.
They all centered on the issue of slavery and the territories.
At the Freeport, Illinois debate, Lincoln asked Douglas how he could continue to promote popular sovereignty after Dred Scott. Douglas replied with what came to be known as the Freeport Doctrine.
He believed that a territory's people could abolish slavery by enacting laws that made slave ownership difficult.
Douglas retained his Senate seat in the fall because Illinois voters supported him, but the South hated him.
Lincoln's debate performance made him a Republican leader.
John Brown and Harpers Ferry
John Brown returned to the East to lead a slave uprising.
He persuaded a few wealthy Northern abolitionists to fund his scheme.
On October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 followers attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
He hoped to use the rifles that he captured there to arm slaves.
Brown’s raid proved to be a fiasco.
He and his men were quickly surrounded and then captured by federal troops led by Colonel Robert E. Lee.
Brown was convicted of treason and publically hanged.
Some Northerners saw Brown as a martyr.
Henry David Thoreau called him “the bravest and most human man in all the country.”
Southerners were appalled by this sympathy for a man they regarded as a terrorist.
The Election of 1860
As the 1860 presidential election approached, the Democratic Party split by section.
Stephen A. Douglas led the nomination, but Southern Democrats couldn't forgive him for the Freeport Doctrine.
Southerners left the Democratic convention and nominated John C. Breckinridge.
Douglas advocated popular sovereignty in the election, while Breckinridge supported slavery in all territories.
The Democratic split persuaded Tennessee Whig John Bell to run as the Constitutional Union party's candidate, appealing to sectional moderates.
Republicans benefited from the political divide. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee.
He assured Southerners that slavery would not be harmed in the slave states but strongly opposed introducing slavery to the western territories.
Lincoln won the Electoral College and all Northern and Western states with 40% of the popular vote.
The election of Abraham Lincoln was a Southern nightmare come true.
Lincoln led a party that won few Southern votes.
Southerners faced a party opposed to slavery controlling Congress and the presidency.
South Carolina led the way in seceding from the Union on December 20, 1860.
Within six weeks, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana followed.
In February 1861, representatives from the seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama. They formed the Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis was elected Confederate president at Montgomery.
Davis's military and war secretary experience helped him.
Few expected the Union to break up peacefully.