Antebellum Expansion
Unit VA
AP United States History
Fundamental Questions
► Analyze
American expansionism as a cause
of sectional tension and conflict.
► Analyze how the national political system
may have contributed to the cause of the
Civil War.
Democracy in America (1840)
►
Impressed with American notion
of equality
 More social mobility than Europe
 Success achievable for those willing
and able
►
“I sought for the greatness and genius of
America in her commodious harbors and her
ample rivers, and it was not there . . . in her
fertile fields and boundless forests and it
was not there . . . in her rich mines and her
vast world commerce, and it was not there .
. . in her democratic Congress and her
matchless Constitution, and it was not
there. Not until I went into the churches of
America and heard her pulpits aflame with
righteousness did I understand the secret of
her genius and power. America is great
because she is good, and if America ever
ceases to be good, she will cease to be
great.”
Manifest Destiny
► “Away,
away with these cobweb tissues of
the rights of discovery, exploration,
settlement,… [The American claim] is by the
right of our manifest destiny to
overspread and to possess the whole of the
continent which Providence has given us for
the development of the great experiment of
liberty…”
► - John L. Sullivan, Democratic Review, 1845
American Progress
Overland Trails
Result of Manifest Destiny
Texas Revolution
►
American settlement
 Fueled by Manifest Destiny
 Encouraged by Mexican government
►
Texas Revolution (1836)
 Santa Anna’s policies
 The Alamo (Feb-Mar 1836)
 Battle of San Jacinto (Apr 21, 1836)
Second Party System (1828-1854)
►
Democrats:
 States’ rights
 Limited
government
 Laissez-faire
 Expansionism
 Pro-slavery
 Equal opportunity
 South and West
 Yeoman farmers,
working class,
southern planters,
immigrants
►
►
 issue party concerned
about Freemasons
 promoted economic
nationalism and social
conservatism
►
Liberty Party:
 abolitionist party
Andrew Jackson
Whigs:
 American System
 Strong federal
government
 Mixed on slavery
 Social conservatives
 New England
 Upper and middle
class professionals,
evangelical
Protestants
Anti-Masonic Party:
Henry Clay
►
Free Soil Party:
 Prevent expansion of
slavery
Taney Court
► Chief
Justice Roger Taney
 Appointed by Andrew
Jackson
 Slave owner
► Ideology
 States’ rights
 Limited government
► Major
Cases
 Charles River Bridge v.
Warren Bridge (1837)
 Scott v. Sandford (1857)
 Ex parte Merryman (1861)
Election of 1840
►
William Henry Harrison (W)


►
“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”
“Log Cabin and Hard Cider”
Martin Van Buren (D)

Suffers from Panic of 1837
Sectionalist Presidents
William Henry Harrison (W) (1841)
►
Campaign
 A war hero and hero of the
common man
►
Reality
 Wealthy plantation and slave
owner
►
Administration
 Intended to re-establish and
promote American System
policies
 Lasts one month after contracting
pneumonia
 John Tyler assumes presidency
Sectionalist Presidents
John Tyler (W) (1841-1845)
►
“His Accidency”
 Assumes full presidential powers
►
A Democrat in Whig Clothing
 Slave owner from Virginia
 Rejects American System policies
 Passionately pursues Texas
annexation
►
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
(1842)
 Settles boundary disputes with
Great Britain
Election of 1844
►
James K. Polk (D)
 Darkhorse
candidate
 Expansion platform
►
Henry Clay (W)
 Avoided direct
expansionist
rhetoric
Sectionalist Presidents
James K. Polk (D) (1845-1849)
►
►
Jacksonian Democrat, slave
owner, and ardent expansionist
Agenda




►
Independent national treasury
Lower tariffs
Oregon
California
Oregon
 “54’ 40 or Fight!”
 49th Parallel
►
Mexican-American War (1848)
 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
 Mexican Cession
Oregon Country
Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
Thornton Affair (4/24/1846)
► War Plan and Execution
►




►
John Fremont in California
Stephen Kearny in New Mexico
Zachary Taylor in Texas
Winfield Scott in Veracruz and
Mexico City
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
(1848)
 Rio Grande as Texas border
 Mexican Cession
►
►
$15 million and assumption of
claims against Mexico
Wilmot Proviso
 Prohibit slavery in Mexican
Cession lands
 Failed to pass Senate
Election of 1848
►
Zachary Taylor (W)
 Slave owner
 War hero
Lewis Cass (D)
► Martin van Buren (FSP)
►
►
Sutter’s Mill
California Gold Rush
 January 24, 1848
►
►
►
Massive migration to California
Forty-Niners
San Francisco
 5,000 in 1848
 25,000 in 1850
Compromise of 1850
►
Parameters
 Admit California as free
state
 Mexican Cession
►
Popular sovereignty
 Reinforced Fugitive Slave
Law
 Texas boundary and debt
disputes
 Slave trade abolished in D.C.
►
“I trust we shall persist in our
resistance [to the admission of
California] until the restoration
of all our rights, or disunion,
one or the other is the
consequence. We have borne
the wrongs and insults of the
North long enough.” - John C.
Calhoun
Fugitive Slave Law
► Enforcement
of capturing
and returning escaped
slaves
► Slaves flee to Canada
► Right to trial by jury denied
► Special Commission
 $10 for those finding for
slaveholder
 $5 for those finding for
fugitive
Underground Railroad
►
Mostly run by free blacks
and fugitive slaves
 Harriet Tubman
►
Abolitionists and white
supporters
 Few white families in
South assisted
 Slave catchers
knowledge
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
► Harriet
Beacher Stowe
► Bestselling novel
► Adapted as a play
► Fuels abolitionist guilt
and rhetoric in
Northern free states
Slavery and Literature
Anti-Slavery Arguments
►
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Pro-Slavery Arguments
►
 Harriet Beecher Stowe
 Moral and emotional argument
against slavery
►
Impending Crisis of the South
(1857)
 Hinton Helper
 Empirical analysis of economic
impact of slavery on the South
 “Freesoilers and abolitionists
are the only true friends of the
South; slaveholders and slavebreeders are downright
enemies of their own section.
Anti-slavery men are working
for the Union and for the good
of the whole world; proslavery
men are working for the
disunion of the States, and for
the good of nothing except
themselves."
Sociology for the South (1854)
 George Fitzhugh
 Capitalism and liberalism
virtually enslaved the lower
classes
►
Cannibals All! (1857)
 George Fitzhugh
 "the unrestricted exploitation
of so-called free society is
more oppressive to the laborer
than domestic slavery."
Sectionalist Presidents
Zachary Taylor (W) (1849-1850)
►
►
►
War hero of Mexican-American War
States’ rights, but no secession
Views on Slavery
 Slave owner
 No expansion of slavery
 Refused to sign Compromise of 1850
►
Died after a year in office
Sectionalist Presidents
Millard Fillmore (W) (1850-1853)
►
►
►
►
Assumes the presidency after Taylor’s
death
Anti-slave moderate
Signs Compromise of 1850
Perry Expedition to Japan (1853-1854)
The Death of Compromising?
► The
Great Triumvirate was no more by 1852
► A new generation of sectional and ambitious
politicians assume leadership roles
William Seward (W, R)
Stephen Douglas (D)
Jefferson Davis (D)
Election of 1852
►
Franklin Pierce (D)
 “Doughface”
►
Winfield Scott (W)
Sectionalist Presidents
Franklin Pierce (D) (1853-1857)
►
►
Jackson Democrat from New Hampshire
Doughface





Supported Compromise of 1850
Gadsden Purchase
Ostend Manifesto (1854)
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
William Walker and Nicaragua
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
►
►
Stephen Douglas and
Chicago
Parameters
 Separate Nebraska
Territory into Nebraska
and Kansas
 Each territory voted for
slavery based on
popular sovereignty
►
Impact
 Douglas won his railroad
and Southern support
 Virtually repealed the
Missouri Compromise
 Ended the Whig Party
and Second Party
System
Bleeding Kansas (1854-1861)
►
Kansas Territory settled
by two groups


►
A virtual civil war
between anti-slave and
pro-slave local
governments


►
A Tragic Prelude, John Steuart Curry, 1937
Free-Soilers
Border Ruffians
Sacking of Lawrence
Pottawatomie Massacre
Pierce and federal
government barely
addressed the issue
Brooks-Sumner Incident
May 22, 1856
►
Senator Charles Sumner (R)
(MA)

►
‘Crime Against Kansas’ Speech
Rep. Preston Brooks (D) (SC)
 Becomes a Southern hero
The Republican Party
► Makeup
 Disillusioned Northern
Democrats
 Frustrated Conscience Whigs
 Free Soil Party members
► Platform:
 Increasingly against expansion
of slavery
 Protective tariffs
 Homestead Act/sale of federal
lands
 Funding for transcontinental
railroad
Scott v. Sandford (1857)
►
►
►
►
►
“[Blacks] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order,
and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and
so far unfit that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
" . . . We think they [people of African ancestry] are . . . not included, and were not intended
to be included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of
the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the
United States. . . ."
“For if they were so received, and entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, it
would exempt them from the operation of the special laws and from the police regulations
which they considered to be necessary for their own safety. It would give to persons of the
negro race, who were recognized as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter
every other State whenever they pleased...to go where they pleased at every hour of the day
or night without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for which a white
man would be punished; and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in
private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings
upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. And all of this would
be done in the face of the subject race of the same color, both free and slaves, and inevitably
producing discontent and insubordination among them, and endangering the peace and
safety of the State.”
“. . . [T]he rights of private property have been guarded with . . . care. Thus the rights of
property are united with the rights of person, and placed on the same ground by the fifth
amendment to the Constitution, which provides that no person shall be deprived of life,
liberty, and property, without due process of law. And an act of Congress which deprives a
citizen of the United States of his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or
brought his property into a particular Territory of the United States, and who had committed
no offence against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law.”
“Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of the court that the act of Congress which
prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the
United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and
is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free
by being carried into this territory; even if they had been carried there by the owner, with the
intention of becoming a permanent resident.”
Election of 1856
►
James Buchanan (D)
 “Doughface”
►
John Fremont (R)
 Election results
establish Republican
Party as legitimate
national party
►
Millard Fillmore (KNP)
Sectionalist Presidents
James Buchanan (D) (1857-1861)
► “Doughface”
 Supported KansasNebraska Act
 Involved himself in Dred
Scott decision
 Lecompton Constitution
(Kansas)
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
►
Freeport Doctrine
 Dred Scott decision and
popular sovereignty
►
“A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I
believe this government
cannot endure,
permanently half slave and
half free.”
John Brown and Harpers Ferry (1859)
►
"I, John Brown, am now quite certain
that the crimes of this guilty land will
never be purged away but with blood. I
had, as I now think, vainly flattered
myself that without very much
bloodshed it might be done."
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln (R)
► Stephen Douglas (D)
►
►
►

Northern Democrats

Southern Democrats

Coalition of Cotton Whigs
and Know-Nothing
John Breckinridge (D)
John Bell (CU)
Union vs. Confederacy
Free and Slave States (1789-1861)