Essay
• In Ramon Eduardo Ruiz’s MANIFEST DESTINY AND
THE MEXICAN WAR: Explain the various American
Interpretations of MD and the reasons why
Americans believed in this idea.
• What contradictions were evident in this
Westward expansion and the War with Mexico
that resulted in US of most of the continent.
Include the political issues that were involved in
this timeframe.
• Your essay must reflect this reading.
The Second Party System
The Whigs
The Whig/Democrat Thing……
The Whigs
The Democrats
Martin Van Buren
1839-1843 Depression
Election of 1840
Harrison/Tyler
Manifest Destiny and Expansionism
•
•
•
•
•
•
Manifest Destiny
Texas
Oregon
Election of 1844
Polk/Clay/Birney
----Texas becomes a state.
The Mexican War
•
•
•
•
Election of 1844>>>>>> Polk
Zachary Taylor
April 24 1864---US Invasion
The War in Short: Col. Stephen Kearny Capt.
John C. Fremont Gen. Z. Taylor Gen. Winfield
Scott
• Result: Treaty of Hildalgo (FEB 1848)……..
• As for Oregon…..
Reaction to Territorial Gain
• “Slave Power Conspiracy”
• August 1846—Wilmot Proviso
• State Sovereignty
Election of 1848
• Democrats >>>Lewis Cass and Gen. William
Butler>>>>Polk said once was enough
• Whigs>>>Gen Zachary Taylor and
Congressman Millard Fillmore
• Free-Soil Party (MVB)
• Voting breakdown
Compromise of 1850
•
•
•
•
•
California----Gold Rush 1849
Clay and Stephen A Douglass
5 Basic aspect to the Deal
Not really a decision as it was an evasion
2 Problems: popular sovereignty?
Fugitive Slave Act
• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852
• Underground Railroad
The Election of 1852 and the Collapse
of the Compromise
•
•
•
•
Dems/Franklin Pierce v. Whig Winfield Scott
Pierce Wins because of sectional strife
FSA and its enforcement
Other notes on the collapse.