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THE FRUITS OF MANIFEST DESTINY. 1840s: Slavery moved to the center stage of American politics. It did so not in the moral language or with the immediatist program of abolitionism, but as a result of the nation’s territorial expansion.
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1840s: Slavery moved to the center stage of American politics. It did so not in the moral language or with the immediatist program of abolitionism, but as a result of the nation’s territorial expansion. By 1840: With the completion of Indian removal, virtually all the land east of the Mississippi was in white hands. The depression that began in 1837 sparked a large migration of settlers further west. CONTINENTAL EXPANSION
CONTINENTAL EXPANSION • 1800-1840: Some 5,000 emigrants made the difficult 2,000 mile journey by wagon train to Oregon from jumping off places on the banks of the Missouri River. • 1860: Nearly 300,000 men, women, and children had braved disease, starvation, the Rocky Mts., and occasional Indian attacks to travel overland to Oregon and California.
CONTINENTAL EXPANSION • 1840s: The USA and GB administered Oregon, and Utah was part of Mexico. • This did not stop Americans from settling in either region. • National boundaries meant little to those who moved west. • The era witnessed an intensification of the old belief that God intended the American nation to reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean = Manifest Destiny.
THE MORMONS’ PLIGHT • Another migration brought thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, to modern-day Utah.
THE MORMONS’ PLIGHT • The Mormons were founded in the 1820s by Joseph Smith, a young farmer in upstate NY. • He claimed to have been led by an angel to a set of golden plates covered with strange writing.
THE MORMONS’ PLIGHT • He translated the book as The Book of Mormon. • He claimed that his church descended from the lost tribes of Israel.
THE MORMONS’ PLIGHT • The absolute authority Smith exercised over his followers, as well as the refusal of the Mormons to separate church and state, alarmed many neighbors. • Even more outrageous to the general community was the Mormon practice of polygamy – a repudiation of traditional Christian teaching and 19th century morality.
THE MORMONS’ PLIGHT • Mobs drove Smith and his followers out of NY, OH and MS. • 1839: They settled in Illinois where they hoped to await the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. • 1844: Smith was arrested on the charge of inciting a riot that destroyed an anti-Mormon newspaper. • While in jail, he was murdered by a group of intruders.
THE MORMONS’ PLIGHT • Smith’s successor was Brigham Young. • He led over 10,000 followers across the Great Plains and Rocky Mts., to the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, seeking a refuge where they could practice their faith undistrubed.
THE MEXICAN FRONTIER • The settlement of Oregon did not directly raise the issue of slavery. • But the nation’s acquisition of Mexico did.
1821: When Mexico achieved its independence from Spain, it was nearly as large as the US and its population of 6.5 million was about 2/3 that of its northern neighbor Mexico’s northern provinces – CA, NM, and TX – however were isolated and sparsely settled outposts surrounded by Indian country. NM’s population at the time of Mexican independence consisted of around 30,000 persons of Spanish origin, 10,000 Pueblo Indians and an “indeterminate number” of “wild’ Indians. 1821: With the opening of the Santa Fe Trail, NM’s commerce with the US eclipsed trade with the rest of Mexico. THE MEXICAN FRONTIER
THE MEXICAN FRONTIER • 1821: CA’s non-Indian population of 3.200 was vastly outnumbered by about 20,000 Indians living and working on land owned by religious missions and by 150,000 members of unsubded tribes in the interior.
THE MEXICAN FRONTIER • 1834: The Mexican govt., dissolved the great mission holdings and emancipated Indians working for the Friars. • Most of the land ended up in the hands of a new class of Mexican cattle ranchers, the Californios. • They referred to themselves as “people capable of reason” as opposed to indios, whom they called “people without reason.” • The area also attracted a small number of American newcomers.
THE TEXAS REVOLT The first of Mexico to be settled by significant numbers of Americans was TX, whose non-Indian population of Spanish origins (Tejanos) numbered about 2,000 when Mexico became independent.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • In order to develop the region, the Mexican govt., accepted an offer from Moses Austin, a CT born farmer, to colonize it with Americans.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • 1820: Austin received a large land grant. • When he died his son Stephen continued the plan, reselling land in smaller plots to American settlers at .12 per acre.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • 1830: The population of Americans had reached around 7,000, considerably exceeding the number of Tejanos. • Alarmed that its grip on the area was weakening, the Mexican govt., annulled existing land contracts and barred future emigration from the USA. • Led by Stephen Austin, American settlers demanded greater autonomy within Mexico.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • The issue of slavery further exacerbated matters. • Mexico had abolised slavery, but local authorities allowed American settlers to bring their slaves with them.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • 1835: When Mexico’s ruler General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna sent an army to impose central authority, the Americans believed he was coming to free the slaves. • His appearance sparked a chaotic revolt in TX. • The rebels formed a provisional govt., and called for Texan independence.
THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO • March 13, 1836: Santa Anna’s army stormed the Alamo, a mission compound in San Antonio, killing its 187 American and Tejano defenders. • “Remember the Alamo” became the Texans rallying cry.
THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO • April 1836: At the Battle of San Jacinto, Sam Houston, a former gov. of TN, routed Santa Anna’s army and forced him to recognize Texan independence. • Houston was elected the first president of the Republic of Texas.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • 1837: The TX Congress called for union with the USA. • But fearing the political disputes certain to result from an attempt to add another slave state, Presidents Jackson and Van Buren shelved the question.
THE TEXAS REVOLT • Settlers from the USA poured into the region. • Many were slaveowners taking up fertile cotton land. • 1845: The population of TX reached nearly 150,000.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • Texas annexation remained on the political backburner until President John Tyler revived it in hopes of rescuing his failed administration and securing southern support for re-nomination in 1844.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • April 1844: A letter by John C. Calhoun, Tyler’s Sec. of State, was leaked to the press. • It linked the idea of absorbing TX directly to the goal of strengthening slavery in the USA. • Some Southern leaders hoped that TX could be divided into several states, thus enhancing the South’s power in Congress.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • Later that month, Clay and Martin Van Buren, the prospective Whig and Democratic candidates for president met at Clay’s KY plantation. • They agreed to issue letters rejecting immediate annexation of TX on the grounds that it might provoke war with Mexico.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • Clay and Van Buren were reacting to the issue of slavery in the traditional manner – by trying to keep it out of national politics. • Clay went on to receive the Whig nomination. • Van Buren failed in his bid to gain the Democratic nomination.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • The Democrats nominated little-known James K. Polk, a former gov., of TN. • His main assets were his support for annexation and his close association with Andrew Jackson, still the party’s most popular figure.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • Polk was a slaveholder. • He owned substantial cotton plantations in TN and MS, where conditions were so brutal that only half of the slave children lived to the age of 15, and adults frequently ran away.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • The Democratic platform called for annexation of TX and reoccupation of Oregon. • “Fifty-four forty of fight” –American control of Oregon all the way to its northern boundary became a popular slogan.
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • Polk was the first “dark-horse” candidate for president. • Polk defeated Clay in an extremely close election. • Polk’s margin in the popular vote was less than 2%
THE ELECTION OF 1844 • Had not James G. Birney, running as the Liberty Party candidate, received 16,000 votes in NY, mostly from anti-slavery Whigs, Clay would have been elected president. • March 1845: Only days before Polk’s inauguration, Congress declared TX part of the USA.
POLK AS PRESIDENT • Polk may have been virtually unknown, but he assumed the presidency with a clearly defined set of goals: • To reduce the tariff • Reestablish the independent treasury • Settle the dispute over the ownership of Oregon • Bring CA into the Union.
POLK AS PRESIDENT • Congress soon enacted the first two goals, and the third was accomplished in an agreement with GB dividing OR at the 49th parallel. • Many Northerners were bitterly disappointed by this compromise, considering it a betrayal of Polk’s campaign promise not to give up any part of Oregon without a fight.
POLK AS PRESIDENT • Acquiring CA proved more difficult. • Polk dispatched an emissary to Mexico offering to purchase the region, but the Mexican govt., refused to negotiations.
POLK AS PRESIDENT • Spring 1846: Polk was planning for military action. • April 1846: American soldiers under Zachary Taylor moved into the region between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, land claimed by both countries on the disputed border between TX and Mexico.
