3. Manifest Destiny
What is it?
• The driving force (one component) behind America’s
expansion to the west (specifically the Pacific Coast)
• Was not an official government policy
• Promoted heavily in newspapers, posters, and other
propaganda
• John O’Sullivan first uses the term in a newspaper in 1845
• “manifest destiny to overspread the continent”
• Regarding the annexation of Texas
• Says America was “chosen” to lead the continent out of
wilderness
• Americans were “chosen” to establish civilization
4. Manifest Destiny
What caused it?
• Myth of the Chosen Nation – God chose the Americans to
establish democracy from sea to shining sea
• The Louisiana Purchase – over 1/3 of the continent is gained
by Jefferson’s legislation
• Government saw the appeal of potential land bringing more
political power to the growing nation
• Land Availability + Politics + Religion = Manifest Destiny
5. Manifest Destiny
What it meant to the country
• Through physical expansion to the west, the United States
would be set on a course to become a political and social
superpower
• Manifest Destiny adds fuel to the fire of expansion
• Advertising potential for great wealth in minerals in the West
• Promoting programs to help the downtrodden acquire and keep
land in the West (if they paid their way)
6. Manifest Destiny
Results
• Many Easterners head to the West in search of riches and a
new start
• Most believing they were helping the US achieve Manifest
Destiny and it was God’s chosen path for them
• Manifest Destiny expands to foreign policy
• Becomes the driving force behind the Mexican-American War
• Later, the Spanish-American War (after we achieve “sea to
shining sea”
• Today, becomes intertwined with globalization
• We must spread democracy throughout the world
7. The Texas Revolution
Texas under Mexican Rule
• Texas was the first part of Mexico to be settle by significant numbers of
Americans
• Moses Austin (father of Stephen F. Austin)
• Due to the influx of Americans, Mexico felt that it was losing its control
over Texas
• To make matters worse, Stephen F. Austin calls American settlers to
demand greater autonomy from Mexico
• The goal was independence
• 1830 – Mexico annuls existing land contracts and barred future
emigration from the United States
• General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna sent an army to Texas to impose
central authority
• Texan rebels, inspired by the U.S. Revolutionary War form a provisional
government
• Their intent was to declare independence from Mexico
10. The Texas Revolution
Battle of the Alamo
• Roughly 250 Texas built reinforcements inside the Alamo
• Santa Anna decides to launch an attack on the mission after
a 12 day siege
• Only 2 Texans survive; 180 to 240 Texans dead; 400-600
Mexicans dead
• This is a pivotal point in the Texas Revolution as Santa
Anna’s perceived cruelty inspired Texans to band together to
defeat the Mexicans
11. The Texas Revolution
Battle of San Jacinto
• The decisive battle of the Texas Revolution
• Santa Anna v. Sam Houston
• Battle in present-day Harris County
• Rallying cries, “Remember the Alamo,” and “Remember
Goliad”
• Combat lasted less than 20 minutes; slaughter of Mexicans
carried on for several more hours
• 630 Mexicans killed, over 700 captured; 280 wounded
12. The Road to the Mexican War
Election of 1844
•Whig Candidate: Henry Clay
•Democrat Candidate: James K. Polk
•Texas Annexation was a key issue
•Issue of slavery in Texas
•Why does John Tyler (incumbent) not run?
•Tries to run on an independent platform
•Alienates himself from Whig party, Whigs kick
him out in 1841
•Was William Henry Harrison’s VP
•Harrison dies in office, he becomes Pres.
James K. Polk (Dem.)
John Tyler (Whig)William Henry Harrison (Whig)
13. Road to the Mexican War
Election of 1844
Results
• James Polk wins (friend of Andrew Jackson, Tennessee
slaveholder)
• He supported Texas annexation (even though it was Tyler’s idea)
• Supported “reoccupation” of Oregon
Polk’s Goals
• Reduce tariffs
• Reestablish the Independent Treasury System
• Settle the Oregon dispute (“Fifty-four Forty or Fight!!”)
• Make California a state
14. Road to the Mexican War
Oregon Territory Controversy
• Democrats wanted Polk to be as uncompromising on Oregon
as he was on Texas annexation
• “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” – U.S. should be prepared to go to
war with Britain (again) if they were unwilling to move their
border north to the 54, 40 degree boundary (near Russian-
owned Alaska at this point)
• Polk decides to be diplomatic and settles on the 49th parallel
(where Washington and Vancouver, B.C. still separate the
two countries today)
• Bottom line: Manifest Destiny was attempting to claim British
territory in the Northwest
15.
16. The Mexican War
Oregon obtained, now on to Mexico!
• Polk tries diplomacy again
• Send an agent to buy California, New Mexico, most of Arizona,
and the Rio Grande border of Texas for $25 million
• They didn’t take it; government was way too unstable
• Mexico also felt that they still owned Texas and the U.S. was
plotting to take all of Mexico eventually
• Thornton Affair
• Detachment of U.S. troops scouted near the Rio Grande border
(near present-day Brownsville)
• Skirmish with Mexican troops; 11 U.S. troops die
• Gives the U.S. a reason to declare war though the
circumstances behind the attack are still uncertain
17. The Mexican War
• Declaring War
• Polk uses the Thornton Affair and Mexico’s refusal to sell
their land as a cause for war
• Exaggerates and says the Mexicans were actively attacking
American soil
• War declared on 13 May 1846
• Polarization on the War
• Whigs (North and South) vehemently denounce the war; see
Manifest Destiny causing unnecessary expansion with a
racist undertone
• Democrats (especially Southerners) support the war; see the
merits of Manifest Destiny
18. The Mexican War
Fighting the War on Three Fronts (1846-1848)
• Santa Fe
• Led by General Stephen Kerney
• Goal was to move through NM, AZ, and the Sonoran desert to
meet up with troops in California
• California
• Kerney brings his troops through NM and AZ; arrives in
California in late 1846
• Finally defeats the Mexicans near Los Angeles in January 1847
• Central Mexico
• Polk send General Zachary Taylor, finally occupies Mexico City
in September 1847
20. The Mexican War
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Land north of the Rio Grade, California, and everything in
between up for grabs
• Mexico sells this land for $15 million (with a lot of influence from
U.S. military)
• U.S. gain of 1.2 million square miles
Why Not Take All of Mexico?
• Americans tired of expansion into Latin America
• Manifest Destiny took on a selective, racist mentality
• Americans came to believe Mexicans were inferior and did not
want to include them as citizens
23. Migration to the West
California Gold Rush
• Explosive population growth and fierce competition
• Only worsened ethnic and racial conflicts
• Indians, Asians, and blacks all denied basic rights
• Thousands of Indian children, declared orphans, were bought
and sold as slaves
• Gold discovered in late 1840s, U.S. government claimed “unlimited
amounts”
• Most migrants came around 1849 (hence the San Francisco
49ers)
• Migrants also came from Asia
• By the early 1850s, gold mining became a corporate business
• Companies buying entire streams and valleys
24. Migration to the West
Transportation and Communication
• Railroads grew exponentially during the 1840s
• By 1860, railroads covered the North
• The South struggled to keep up
• Railway developments coincided with iron developments
(backed by great financial support)
• Clipper Ship
• Small, fast ship with big sails and a small hull
• Only way to travel to California before the trans-
continental RR
• Telegraph
• Telegraph lines began to follow the paths of railroads
26. Migration to the West
Immigration
• 1840s – Immigrants from Ireland come to the United States
(1/4 of their population)
• Most were poor and took on very low paying jobs; some
moved to the west
• Immigrants from Germany also came
• Creates tension in the United States regarding immigration
due to the significant influx of immigrants
27. Crisis and Compromise
Wilmot Proviso
• During the Mexican War, David Wilmot (Penn.) proposes a resolution prohibiting slavery
in all territory acquired from Mexico
• Measure fails due to no Congressional action
• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo is acted upon instead (allowing slavery)
The Free Soil Party
• After the end of the Mexican War, opponent of slavery expansion band together to form
the Free Soil Party
• The party had appeal in the North because it would limit southern power in the federal
government
• Their platform advocated for:
• Barring slavery from the west
• Providing homesteads to settlers in the west free of cost
• Southerners were outraged at the “Free-Soilers” singling out slavery
• Once again, the admission of free states would disrupt the balance of free/slave states
• Crisis begins again as California is admitted to the Union as a free state
28. Crisis and Compromise
Compromise of 1850
• Extended debate in Congress over California coming in as a free
state
• Series of five bills
• California admitted as a free state
• Slave trade was abolished
• Territories of New Mexico and Utah organized under popular sovereignty
(let the people decide whether to be a free or slave state)
• Fugitive Slave Act is passed (assists in return of runaway slaves)
• Texas gives up western land to pay off Republic of Texas debt ($10
million given to TX)
• This bill essentially postpones the Civil War for another decade
• Henry Clay was important in formulating the compromise
• He dies in 1852
29. Crisis and Compromise
• Gadsden Purchase (1853)
• U.S. gave Mexico $15 million for the remainder of AZ and NM
• Americans look to Cuba and the Philippines for international
expansion
• Spain not happy about this
• Postpones another international war until 1898
30. Crisis and Compromise
Know-Nothing Party
• An appeal to nativism due to the
influx of immigrants (Irish and
German)
• Several fraternities form to advocate
against immigration
• Order of the Star-Spangled Banner
• A cohesive group formed with the “Know-
Nothings”
• When asked about their party, they would always say, “I
know nothing”
• Grass roots movement (power flowed up
from the bottom)
• Promotion of Protestantism over Catholicism
• Many Democrats and Whigs defected from
their parties to join the Know-Nothing and
Free-Soil parties
31. Crisis and Compromise
The Whig Party’s Demise
• Franklin Pierce is elected in 1852
(Dem.)
• Known as a “doughface” Democrat
• Northern Democrat with Southern
sympathies
• Ushers in the end for the Whigs
• Whig Party falls apart due to members
defecting to the Northern Democrats,
Know-Nothings, and Free-Soil parties
• By the end of the decade, a
combination of these three parties
would form the Republican Party (the
one we know today)
32. Crisis and Compromise
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• After the deaths of Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, Stephen A.
Douglas saw himself as the new leader of the Senate
• Introduces a bill for statehood for Nebraska and Kansas
• Had business interests in railroads
• Wanted a transcontinental line to go through there
• Strong advocate of popular sovereignty
• Lincoln-Douglas debates over the Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Kansas-Nebraska act does the following:
• Throws out the Missouri Compromise
• Throws out the Compromise of 1850
• Let the free/slave state issue be left to popular sovereignty
• Results:
• Divides the nation completely
• Civil war is inevitable
33.
34. Crisis and Compromise
Rise of the Republican Party
• The party reflected economic and social
changes within the country
• Booming business in the North due to railroads
• Society dealing with a complex, industrial society
• Free Labor ideology
• Free labor could not compete with slave labor, so expansion of
slavery had to stop to ensure freedom for the white laborer
• They were trying to appeal to immigrants especially
• “Slave Power conspiracy”
• Republicans began to charge Southern
Democrats of a conspiracy to nationalize slavery
through measures such as the Kansas-Nebraska
Act
• Lincoln takes on Douglas, President James Buchanan, and Chief
Justice Roger Taney as proponents of this conspiracy in his famous,
“House Divided” speech
• This did not mean all Republicans were
abolitionists though
35. Crisis and Compromise
Bleeding Kansas
• Civil war breaks out in Kansas over slavery (popular
sovereignty at work)
• Notable abolitionist John Brown led numerous offensives
against proslavery settlements in 1856
• The violence spread to the U.S. Senate
• Preston Smith Brooks (D-South Carolina) cane whipped Charles
Sumner (R-Massachusetts) in retaliation for a derogatory
speech Sumner made about the violence and Southerners in
general
• Republicans use this as a means to discredit Stephen
Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
36.
37. Crisis and Compromise
Dred Scott v. Sanford
• Dred Scott, a slave that lived in five territories sued for his freedom
• Supreme Court heard the case and asked these questions:
• Could a black person be a citizen and sue in court?
• Did residence in a free state make Scott free?
• Did Congress possess the power to prohibit slavery in a territory?
• Chief Justice Roger Taney declares that:
• Only white persons could be citizens in the U.S.
• Congress possessed no power to bar slavery form a territory
• Slaves cannot be taken away from their owners without due process of the law
• Scott’s case is thrown out because he cannot sue
• This poses a serious threat to the Republican’s platform to restrict
the expansion of slavery
• Really heats up the “Slave Power Conspiracy” theory
38. Descent into War
John Brown’s Raid
• John Brown, an abolitionist that had
reactionary tendencies plans an
armed slave revolt on the federal
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
• The assault was stopped by U.S. Marines
under Col. Robert E. Lee
• Brown was captured, tried, and executed in
December 1859
• John Wilkes Booth (future assassin of
President Lincoln) witnessed the execution
• This event greatly upsets the South
• Causes more sectional division between the
North and South
• Also bolsters Southern Nationalism
39. Descent into War
The Election of 1860
• Arguably the most important election
in American History
• Abraham Lincoln, Republican
nominee
• Democrats were split, Southern
Democrats walked out of the 1860
Democratic National Convention
• Southern Democrats nominated John Breckinridge of
Kentucky
• Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas
• Lincoln wins in a landslide with the
Democrats split
• Does not receive a single vote in ten southern states
• Republican party platform:
• Deny the validity of Dred Scott v. Sanford
• Oppose slavery’s expansion
• More economic incentives
40. Descent into War
The Secession Crisis
• Begins as soon as Lincoln is elected president
• Rather than be a minority, Deep South leaders call
for regional independence
• By the time Lincoln takes the oath of office, seven
states secede from the Union
• From South Carolina to Texas
• Leaving president James Buchanan said a state
could not leave the Union
• But he didn’t believe the U.S. could use force against them
41. And the War Came
Lincoln’s Response
• Believed the secession issue would collapse from within
• Issued this warning: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow
countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil
war”
The Confederate States of America
• Formed on 4 March 1861
• Elected Jefferson Davis as President
• Rather reluctant to become president
• Loved the United States
• Was torn over the constitutionality of slavery
