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Chapter 13 The Impending Crisis
Looking Westward • Manifest Destiny was one of the factors driving white Americans to look to the west - rested on the idea that America was destined by God and by history to expand its boundaries over a vast area, by the end of the 1840s the U.S. had acquired more than 1 million square miles to get to its current boundary
Looking Westward • John L. O'Sullivan gave the movement its name, reflected the belief in the superiority of the "American race" (white people of northern European origins), some envisioned a vast new "empire of liberty" that would include Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Pacific islands
Looking Westward • Supporters of Manifest Destiny argued that Indians, Mexicans and other races in the western regions were racially unfit to be part of an “American” community, the idea of Manifest Destiny was a movement to spread both a political system and a racially defined society
Looking Westward • Henry Clay feared that territorial expansion would reopen controversy over slavery and threaten the stability of the Union, but most Americans supported expansion, especially into Texas and Oregon
Looking Westward • In the early 1820’s the Mexican government began to encourage American immigration into Texas hoping to strengthen the economy, increase tax revenue (an 1824 law promised the settlers cheap land and a four-year exemption from taxes), and by 1830 7,000 Americans were living in Texas, more than double the number of Mexicans living there, and most of these Americans were southern planters who brought slaves with them and planted cotton
Looking Westward • Stephen F. Austin established the first legal American settlement in Texas and was effective in recruiting American immigrants, by 1835, after failed bans on immigration, there were 30,000 Americans living in Texas
Looking Westward • General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power as dictator, imposed a more conservative and autocratic regime, imprisoned Austin claiming that he was encouraging revolts among his fellow Americans
Looking Westward • Sporadic fighting between Americans and Mexicans in Texas began in 1835 and escalated due to debates over slavery, then in 1836, American settlers proclaimed their independence from Mexico, American soldiers could not even agree who their commanders were, Mexican forces annihilated an American garrison at the Alamo mission in San Antonio
Looking Westward • By 1836 Americans were fleeing east toward Louisiana to escape Santa Anna's army, at the Battle of San Jacinto Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army - Santa Ana (a captive at the time) signed a treaty giving Texas its independence
Looking Westward • Sam Houston hoped to join the Union, citizens in the North opposed acquiring new slave territory, Andrew Jackson feared annexation would cause a dangerous sectional controversy and delayed recognizing the new republic until 1837
Looking Westward • Texas began to seek money and support from Europe, England and France quickly recognized Texas and formed trade treaties with Texas
Looking Westward • Texas reapplied for statehood in 1844, but Secretary of State Calhoun presented an annexation treaty that appeared as if its only purpose was to extend slavery, Northern senators rebelled and defeated the treaty and it quickly became the issue of the election of 1844
Looking Westward • Both Britain and U.S. claimed sovereignty over the Oregon Country (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming), and agreed on "joint occupation", mostly populated by fur traders headquartered in Astoria
Looking Westward • 1820's and 1830's missionaries were motivated by a desire to counter Catholic missionaries from Canada, and the appearance of 4 Nez Pierce and Flathead Indians in St. Louis in 1831, began to extend their westward missionary efforts
Looking Westward • In the 1840's, significant numbers of white Americans began emigrating to Oregon - devastated the Indian population through measles epidemics, eventually outnumbering the British, leading to Manifest Destiny advocates urging the U.S. government to take control of the territory
Looking Westward • Great Migration Westward was an arduous journey that hundreds of thousands took in search of new opportunities, most traveled in family groups (until the gold rush in 1849 that brought large numbers of single men) most were relatively prosperous and the primary method of transport was a covered wagon
Looking Westward • Men looked to make money in mining and lumbering, families looked to start farms, some hoped to strike it rich after the 1848 discovery of gold in California, others hoped to make money off of land speculation, some tried to become merchants to serve the new communities of the West, still others came on religious missions or tried to escape the epidemics plaguing the cities back east
Looking Westward • Most migrants (about 300,000 between 1840 and 1860) traveled west along the great overland trails that started in Independence, Missouri, St. Joseph, Missouri, or Council Bluffs, Iowa in wagon trains carrying their belongings with them in covered wagons with livestock trailing behind
Looking Westward • The main route west was the Oregon Trail which stretched from Independence, Missouri across the Great Plains through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains into Oregon or south along the California Trail to the Northern California coast, still other migrants went south from Independence, Missouri along the Santa Fe Trail into New Mexico
Looking Westward • Most journeys lasted 5 or 6 months and there was considerable pressure to get through the Rockies before the snows began, which was not easy considering that most wagon trains averaged about 15 miles a day
Looking Westward • Thousands of migrants died on trails of cholera during the epidemics of the early 1850s, while fewer than 400 migrants (1 tenth of 1%) died in conflicts with the Native tribes, in fact Indians were often more helpful than dangerous to the migrants often serving as guides/aides, and there was an extensive trade in horses, clothing and fresh food between the migrants and the natives
Looking Westward • Life on the Trail – Men/Women, Walking, Collective Experience
Expansion and War • Election of 1844 - Henry Clay was the nominee of the Whigs, the Democrats passed over Martin Van Buren led by southerners who supported the annexation of Texas and instead nominated James K. Polk, who was in favor of reoccupation of both Oregon and Texas territory, James K. Polk won the Presidency “the re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures”
Expansion and War • Polk asserted the American claim to all of the Oregon country after the British rebuffed Polk’s compromise of dividing the territory at the 49th parallel, there was loose talk of war (54’40 or fight) but neither country wanted war
Expansion and War • In December 1845 Texas became a state under Polk's administration, and the British accepted Polk's proposal to divide the Oregon territory at the 49th parallel
Expansion and War • Mexican-American relations grew worse when a dispute developed over the boundary between Texas and Mexico, the Texans claimed the Rio Grande River as their western and southern border, Mexico argued that the border had always been the Nueces River, north of the Rio Grande
Expansion and War • In 1820 Mexico invited American settlers into New Mexico to help out the economic situation in that territory by the 1830’s it had become more American than Mexican, a flourishing commerce developed between Santa Fe and Independence, Missouri along the Santa Fe Trail
Expansion and War • In the Mexican province of California, white Americans gradually began to arrive (maritime traders, captains of whaling ships, merchants, and farmers)
Expansion and War • Polk began to dream of bringing California and New Mexico into the U.S., he dispatched troops under Zachary Taylor into Texas, and gave secret instructions to the commander of the Pacific naval squadron to seize the California ports if Mexico declared war and quietly informed Americans in California that the U.S. would respond sympathetically if the rebelled against Mexican authorities
Expansion and War • John Slidell was sent to try and buy off the Mexicans but they rejected his offer to purchase the disputed territory, so Polk ordered U.S. troops to move further south across the Nueces River to the Rio Grande River, according to disputed accounts Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande River and fired on U.S. troops.
Expansion and War • Polk went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war ("War exists by the act of Mexico herself”) and Congress declared war on May 13, 1846 by a vote of 40 to 2 in the Senate and a vote of 174 to 14 in the House of Representatives
Expansion and War • There were many opponents of the war in the United States; Whigs argued Polk deliberately maneuvered the country into the war, others argued that the war with Mexico was draining resources/attention away from the Pacific Northwest, and when Polk resolves the dispute with Britain, opponents claim he settled for less than he should have gotten
Expansion and War • Polk ordered Zachary Taylor to seize Monterrey and then to march on to Mexico City, in New Mexico a small army under Colonel Stephen W. Kearny captured Santa Fe without opposition and then marched toward California where a conflict was being waged between Americans under John C. Fremont and the Mexican army
Expansion and War • Bear Flag Revolution – Kearny brought the disparate American forces together and by autumn of 1846 completed the conquest of California
Expansion and War • Under Winfield Scott, the U.S. army landed at Vera Cruz and marched to Mexico City, a new Mexican government took power and agreed to negotiations with the US
Expansion and War • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War with Mexico agreeing to cede California and New Mexico to the US and acknowledged the Rio Grande River as the southern boundary of Texas, the U.S. was to pay $15 million in compensation for Mexican losses
The Sectional Debate • Wilmot Proviso – Representative David Wilmot (antislavery Democrat) introduced an amendment to the appropriations bill, prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico - passed the House failed in the Senate
The Sectional Debate • President Polk supported a proposal to extend the Missouri Compromise line through the new territories to the Pacific Coast, others supported a plan allowing “squatter sovereignty” (Popular Sovereignty) that would allow the people of each territory to decide the status of slavery there
The Sectional Debate • In the election of 1848 Whigs and Democrats tried to avoid the slavery question, the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor (Mexican war hero), while the Democrats nominated Lewis Cass
The Sectional Debate • The Free Soil Party emerged out of the discontent of the opponents of slavery, who found the choice of candidates unsatisfying, and nominated Martin Van Buren
The Sectional Debate • The emergence of the Free Soil party as an important political force (10% of the vote and 10 Congressmen elected) signaled the inability of the existing parties to contain the political passions slavery was creating - an important part of a process that would lead to the collapse of the second party system in the 1850's
The Sectional Debate • Zachary Taylor won the election of 1848 in a narrow victory over Van Buren
The Sectional Debate • In 1848 James Marshall found gold while working in John Sutter’s sawmills in the Sierra Nevada foothills and the gold rush was on, the population increased from 14,000 in 1848 to over 220,000 in 1852
The Sectional Debate • Forty-Niners abandoned farms, jobs, homes and families and moved west to California in search of Gold, mostly (95%) male led to a tremendously unstable society
The Sectional Debate • Chinese in California became free laborers and merchants looking for gold, or to profit from the economic opportunities the gold boom was creating, the Indians were not as fortunate and were virtually enslaved or killed by “Indian hunters” (the Indian population of California went from 150,000 in the early 1850s to 30,000 in 1870)
