Westward Movement
 By


1850-no stopping expansion
Quadrupling of size and population
More than ½ the population lived west of
original 13 states
Manifest Destiny
 Term
coined by John O’Sullivan to
describe westward movement
 Belief that America destined to control the
lands from Coast to Coast

Young America movement
• Combination of pride, missionary zeal and racist
attitudes
Oregon Country
 1st
major movement
 Land jointly occupied with British
 Oregon Fever (1833)

Starts as missionary movement
 Oregon


Trail
By 1869, 350,000 migrated
Demanded government protection
• Chain of forts

4-6 month trip—grueling trip
Mormons
 Not
all ventured to Oregon
 Mormons chose to settle in arid west



Site near Salt Lake City
After years of attack seeking freedom and
isolation
Deseret—1,000 miles from U.S. territory
Roots of Mormonism
 Product
of religious reforms of 1830’s in
Upstate New York

Joseph Smith
 Non-Mormons


branded group heretics
Resented communal element/polygamy
Attitudes toward Blacks and Indians
 Driven
from NY-Ohio-Missouri-Illinois
 Nauvoo, ILL—community of 15,000
 Smith killed by mob
Movement west
 New
Leader—Brigham Young
 1846-12,000 go west
 Find spot at Great Salt Lake


Irrigation system
Cooperative labor
 In
1850, Deseret annexed by U.S. as Utah
territory

Tension between Mormons and government
Texas
 In
SW-Anglos confronted Spanish
frontiersmen
 Mexican province of Texas attracted
settlers

Stephen Austin’s family given huge tract of
land
• 10 cents per acre
• 1000’s of southern farmers poured in
• By 1835—30,000 Americans

Mexican government knows it has problem
Texas Rebellion
 Texans


resent Mexican control
Want input in local affairs
Want slavery
 Republic

of Texas-
Opposed by Santa Anna
 Ultimately
want to join the United States
as slave state

Initially refused due to slavery issue
Politics of Expansion
 Nothing
automatic about territorial
expansion
 Impact both Tyler and Polk Administrations
 Polk able to gain control of Oregon
Country


“54-40 or fight”
Settles for less but gains land peacefully.
Mexican War
 1845—Annexation
of Texas seriously
effected the relationship between U.S. and
Mexico.
 President Polk very interested in admitting
other Mexican Provinces with American
settlers


New Mexico
California
• Offers to purchase—rejected by Mexico
Mexican War
 U.S.

provokes conflict
Wants land
 War
divides the nation
 War lasted much longer than expectedMexicans refused to surrender
 Forced to attack and capture Mexico City
 U.S. gains 500,000 square miles
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
 Gave

U.S. what it wanted.
Great California ports
 Americans
not interested in the rest of
Mexico.

Racist attitudes
Results of War
 Divided

the American public
Fear that war was to spread slavery and
influence of the south
 Reopens
sectional wounds
 Wilmot Proviso (1846)


Amendment to appropriations bill to prevent
slavery in territory gained in the war
Territory only open to whites
Wilmot Proviso
 Frames


debates for next 15 years
Northerners unite to support
Southerners unite to oppose
 Polk
naively hoped expansion would
strengthen bonds of union-WRONG!!!

Violent debate erupts every time slavery
discussed
Problem
 Constitution
did not deal with slavery in
future states.


Congress has right to regulate
Missouri Compromise-attempt
• Line sought to settle future cases
• ?—Mexican cession

Northerners unwilling to see California & New Mexico
slave states
California
 Discovery
of gold near Sacramento
 Massive population influx
 Demands political organization
 What to do with Territories?
 Reflects sectional distrust—neither side
wants to give in
Compromise of 1850
 Put




together by Henry Clay
California—free state
Rest of territory open to slavery
Abolishes slave trade in Washington DC
Fugitive slave laws enforced.
 Provided
short term peace
 No national support for any part of deal
Free Soil Movement
 Anti-slavery
movement
 Desire for western lands

Promise of economic betterment
• Want free homesteads

Avoid competition with slave plantations
 Unlike
abolitionists, appealed to racism
 Southerners resented suggestion of
exclusion fro new territories.
Fugitive Slave Law
 Special
federal commissioners determine
status

No right to defend oneself
 Series
of violent confrontations
 Southerners often accused the North of
reneging on a promise
 Of 332 blacks put on trial under the law,
about 300 were returned to slavery
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 Novel
by Harriet Beecher Stowe creates a
firestorm




Shocked by Fugitive Slave Law
Not a writer nor abolitionist
Little direct knowledge of slavery
Made slavery personal “Gave slavery a face”
 Moved
active
many Northerners from sideline to
Kansas-Nebraska Issue






Peace of 1850 short-lived
Stephen Douglas proposed bill to organize
territory west of Iowa and Missouri
Railroad development
Sought to avoid controversy by proposing
admission based on Popular Sovereignty
Reality--Devastates sectional harmony
Destroys two party system


Whig Party collapses
Sectionalism reigns
Republican Party
 Outgrowth
of anti-K-N sentiment
 Opposed to expansion of slavery in
territories-free soil ideals
 Not abolitionists
 Builds party quickly-by 1856 ready on
national level

Major alternative to Democrats in the North
Bleeding Kansas
 Kansas


Proslavery Missourians corrupt election
Free-soilers establish rival government
 Civil


elections
War breaks out
Proslavery attack on Lawrence
John Brown attack
 Discredits
idea of popular sovereignty
Brooks-Sumner Incident
 Reflects
loss of civility in Congress
 Preston Brooks beat Charles Sumner with
cane on US Senate floor.


Sumner made rude remarks about Preston’s
uncle, S.C. Senator
Sumner seriously injured-3 years to recover
 South
and North take very different views
of the incident
Election of 1856
 Republicans
chose John C. Fremont
 Democrats run James Buchanan
 Fremont outpolled Buchanan in the North
 Buchanan won South and key states of
Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania
 Showed how parties had re-oriented on
sectional lines
Results to South
 Discomforting



at best
New Party with novice candidate came very
close to winning.
Swing of just a couple states with give
Republicans the White House
Incomprehensible to South
Dred Scott
 Major
Supreme Court Decision
 Roger Taney—Chief Justice



Congress could not deny the right to take
property (slaves) into territories
Slave was not citizen
Slavery could not be excluded from the
territories.
Kansas-LeCompton Constitution
 Buchanan
supports pro-slavery minority
legislature

Despite clear signs of free-soil majority
 Splits

Democrats in Congress
Stephen Douglas breaks with President
Panic of 1857
 Economic
recession that strikes growing
new industries of the North hard
 Relatively mild impact on Southern states

Cotton exports not impacted
 South
believes it has superior economic
system
 King Cotton globally important
Lincoln –Douglas Debates
 Lincoln
challenges Douglas to debate
 One major issue—should slavery be
excluded from territories
 7 sites in state
 Lincoln gains national profile
 Douglas wins election
John Brown’s Raid
 Radical,
possibly insane, abolitionist
 Seized federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry

Arm slaves, set up stronghold in Virginia
 Fails—Robert
E. Lee
 Brown tried for treason
 South sees no difference between Brown
and Republicans.
Democratic Convention of 1860
 Charleston,
SC
 Struggle over platform—proslavery plank
loses
 Convention splits
 South nominates John Breckenridge
 North nominates Stephen Douglas
Lincoln and Bell
 Republicans
nominate Abraham Lincoln
 Remains of Southern Whigs nominate
John Bell
Election of 1860
 No
candidate generated a national
following


Lincoln vs. Douglas
Breckenridge vs. Bell
 False
impressions
 Lincoln not on ballot in 9 Southern states
Secession of Deep South
 Dec
1860-S.C. leaves union
 Followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas
 Convention—Montgomery, Alabama
 Jefferson Davis-president
 Determined, decisive minority seized
control
Buchanan’s failure
 In
period between November and March,
President Buchanan does nothing.
 Crittenden Proposal—last gasp at
compromise
New President
 Initially
did not see war as inevitable
 Walked tightrope—tried to be conciliatory

Avoid alienating border states
First Shot
 South


fires first shot over Ft. Sumter
Charleston harbor
Forced to surrender
 Lincoln
declares insurrection exists in
South and calls up 75,000 troops
 Virginia, N. Carolina, Tennessee and
Arkansas join Confederacy
Tale of the Tape
 Almost
all comparisons favored the North
 Population 22 million vs. 9 million
 Industrial production, railroad mileage and
financial resources the North far
outstripped the south.
Burden of the North
 To

restore union, it had a major task
Invade and conquer an area larger than
Western Europe.
 Confederate

troops were highly motivated
Defending homes and families
 Southern
armies could lose most of the
battles and still win the war.