Unresolved
Issues…
Students will examine the impact of
Texas Annexation.
Scope: Compromise of 1850
Regional Option 3: United States
Civil War: causes, course and
effects
Very quickly
 How
did the US transform from 1803-1848?
 What major issue was making the
transformation very difficult?
 What important government agency was
in upheaval over the issue?
 How did this agency deal with the issue in
1820?
 Did it work?
Texas in 1835-36


Most were US Southerners that migrated to
the region.
Mexico had asked three things from the Texas
immigrants:




No Slaves
Convert to Catholicism
Begin speaking Spanish
The Texans did none of these things resulting
in Santa Anna’s decision to confront Texans.
Results…
 Texans
became independent from
Mexico after the Battle of San Jacinto.
 Santa Anna and his forces were captured
in a decisive battle that forced Santa
Anna to acknowledge Texas
independence.
 The Mexican government did not ratify
Santa Anna’s treaty with the Texans.
Annexation in 1836
 Most
Texans wanted to join the United
States.
 Which
region of the US do you think
wanted to annex Texas? Which region
did not?
 Answer completely, and incorporate the
outcome of the 1820 Missouri
Compromise.
Presidential Race 1844
 President
Polk was elected to the
Presidency promising to annex Texas.
 He was supported by Southerners and
Westerners.
 Outgoing President Tyler wanted to leave
a legacy so he finally agreed to Texas
Annexation prior to Polk taking office.
 Texas is officially annexed in1845 after
being independent for 10 years.
US v. Mexico
 Major



issues
The US annexed Texas while Mexico still
claimed the region.
US grievances over $2 million dollars in
damages that the Mexican government
owed citizens of the US.
President Polk’s intention to claim California
and New Mexico as well.
 Polk
offered $30 million for the area in 1845
Border Dispute
Was it a war of aggression???




President Polk sent troops to patrol the area
north of the Rio Grande.
Mexican troops ambushed a US scouting
party killing or wounding sixteen soldiers.
Polk requests a war declaration from the
Congress, and Congress affirmed his request.
How do you think Southerners reacted to the
news that Congress had declared war?
Northerners?
War and the aftermath
 The
Mexican-American War lasted from
1846-1848.
 13,000 US casualties
11,000 from disease
 2,000 from battle
US troops decisively beat Mexican forces.
Held Mexico City
Negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo.

•
•
•
Aftermath
 The
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
 New territories acquired were modern
day California, New Mexico, Nevada,
Utah, Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado
 Two-fifths of the current US
 Paid $15 million to Mexico and assumed
$3.25 million in debts that Mexico owed US
citizens.
What major issue is going to
result from the acquisition of
this new land?
Wilmot Proviso




Democrat from Pennsylvania, David Wilmot,
proposed that slavery should be excluded
from any territories acquired from Mexico.
Not an abolitionist
Resented President Polk’s pro-slavery agenda.
President Polk had promised to take all of the
Oregon Territory, but ended up negotiating a
treaty with Britain that only took lands up to
the 49th Parallel.
Wilmot Proviso




Why would northerners be
concerned over the taking
part of the Oregon
Territory?
The answer lies in the
outcome of the MexicanAmerican War.
Voting on the Proviso
passed the House of
Representatives by a 83-64
vote.
Completely sectional vote.
Not one Southerner voted
for the Proviso.
I am just an Omnibus Bill…
 School
House Rock
Henry Clay in 1850



Congress and the
executive branch were
in conflict over how to
organize the Mexican
Cession Territories.
Fearful that the situation
could escalate into
armed conflict,
Congressman Henry
Clay from Kentucky
offered an Omnibus Bill.
Omnibus Bill is a
package of unrelated
proposed laws.
Proposed Compromise of 1850





1. California as a free state
2. Utah and New Mexico to be organized as
territories with no mention or restriction on
slavery.
3. The domestic slave-trade would end in the
District of Columbia-Washington D.C.
4. A strengthened Fugitive Slave Act
5. Texas would give up claims to disputed
territory in New Mexico, and the Federal
Congress would assume $10 million in Texas
debt.
Senator from South Carolina
John C. Calhoun in Opposition


Senator Calhoun felt
like the Federal
government was not
acting as a common
agent.
That in acting outside
of that designated role
they were violating the
US Constitution and
that secession was a
viable option for the
South.
Calhoun on slavery

“I hold that in the present state of civilisations’,
the relation now existing in the slave holding
states between the two [races] is, instead of
evil, a good-a positive good.”

Calhoun’s argued that the Federal
government could not prohibit slavery
anywhere without an amendment because
“private property” was protected by the 5th
Amendment.
Debate lasted for months
 Compromise
was attempted by Daniel
Webster and Clay, but Southern and
Northern extremists refused to
compromise.


Southern “Fire-eaters”
Northern Abolitionist
Senator Stephen Douglas
 Democratic
Senator from Illinois stepped
in as the leader of Clay’s bill late in the
summer of 1850 after the Omnibus Bill had
been defeated.
 Douglas broke the Omnibus Bill down into
separate pieces of proposed legislation.
 The Compromise of 1850 was passed in
1850 through moderate support.
Who Won????