Free Labor Ideology and the
Politics of the Mexican War
The Long March to Civil War Begins
Previous Conflict Over Territory:
Missouri Compromise, 1821
The major issues of the Second
Party System were …

A. Economic (Bank War)

B. Social (Temperance & Reform)

C. Slavery (Abolitionism, Cycle of
Distrust)
Lessons Learned from Missouri
Compromise Debates



Keep slavery out of national politics
(“Conspiracy of Silence”).
Make sure that each region has enough
land for future expansion.
Needed both northern and southern
support to win national elections.
Defining Free Labor Ideology
Definition: Set of ideals that celebrated
the North’s economic progress and the
ability of ordinary men to become
financially independent. These ideals
include the belief that slavery invariably
degraded free labor.
Glorification of Hard Work and
Economic Progress



Hard Work Always
Led to Economic
Mobility
Both Manual and
Mental Labor Good
Failure = Laziness,
Personal Failing
Yet Free Labor Reflected Fears of
Economic Change

Growth of Cities with Large Working
Class: Can These Workers Acquire
Independence?

Solution: WESTERN LAND
Tied to Manifest Destiny

Western Land Provided
Opportunity for All
“The public lands
[in the West] are
the safety valve of
our industrial and
social engine.”
Horace Greeley,
Editor, New York
Times
Free Labor’s Economic Critique
of Slavery

Slavery degraded free labor and bred
laziness.

South lacked economic vitality.

“Slave Power Conspiracy”
Recipe for Political Disaster:
South Wanted West as Well

Southerners needed fresh land for cotton.

Southerners worried about declining
political and economic influence.

Southern honor: insult to exclude slavery
from western territories.
James K. Polk and the Election
of 1844

Slaveholder from
Tennessee; Rabid
Expansionist

Elected in 1844 on
Expansionist Agenda
Polk Wanted to Annex Texas and
Goad Mexico into War
“Mexico Will Poison Us”



Popular War, but
Undercurrent of
Opposition
U. S. Acquired Huge
Territory
Northerners Feared
Spread of Slavery
Northerners Supported the
Wilmot Proviso



David Wilmot, PA
Democrat: No Slavery
in Newly Acquired
Territory
Huge Debate that
Deadlocks Nation
Nashville Convention
of 1850
Compromise of 1850
and Mexican War Controversy




California entered into
the Union as a free
state.
Utah and New Mexico:
Open to slavery via
popular vote.
Slave TRADE ended
in Washington, D.C.
Stronger Fugitive
Slave Act
New Fugitive Slave Act
Created More Controversy


New Law
Established
Federal
Commissioners
Northerners MUST
Return Fugitive
Slaves
Northern Interpretation of Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850
Single Biggest Event that Led
to New Republican Party and
War:
The Kansas Nebraska
Act
of 1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Repealed the MO Compromise
The Kansas-Neb Act Unleashes
“One Helluva Storm”

Mass public meetings
led to the Republican
party.

Northern Whigs
become Republicans.

Southern Whigs join
Democrats.