Unit 9: Westward
Expansion
Lesson 2: The Missouri Compromise
& Indian Removal


Different regions of the
country had maintained
different interests &
priorities since colonial
times
In the early 1800s, 3
distinct sections
developed in the U.S.:
The North, the South, &
the West



Geography, economics,
& history all contributed to
the distinct ways of life in
these sections
As divisions grew deeper,
many people started to
wonder if sectionalism
would divide the country
Sectionalism: rivalry
based on the special
interests of different
areas
How does this all connect to
Westward Expansion?


Movement westward led
to a serious clash
between sectional
interests in 1819
That was when the
Missouri Territory
asked Congress to make
them a state
So this is a problem because???

Most Missouri settlers
had come from
Kentucky & Tennessee,
where slavery was
allowed

They therefore believed
that slavery
should be legal in the
new state of Missouri
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At the time, the population
of the North was slightly
larger than the population of
the South
The North had 105
representatives in the
House, while the South had
81

Thus, the majority in the
House of Reps disagreed with
Missouri’s proposal that it be
admitted as a slave state

Despite greater Northern
representation in the House,
representation in the Senate
was balanced

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There were 12 free states &
12 slave states, each with 2
senators
Whichever way Missouri was
admitted, this balance
would swing in favor
of one side or the
other

Bitter debates in Congress
perpetuated many people’s
fear that these sectional
differences might split the
country in 2

Henry Clay proposed
the Missouri
Compromise, the
purpose of which was
to prevent the US from
splitting into 2 countries


The Compromise passed by a
very narrow margin, and only
because Maine also requested
to become a state
What was the Missouri
Compromise?

Clay proposed that
Maine enter the Union
as a free state

Missouri could then
enter as a slave state,
and power would still
be balanced in the
Senate
 Now that’s balance!

The Compromise also
settled the question of
slavery in the rest of the
Louisiana Territory

Slavery would not be
allowed north of the 36
30’ parallel, which was
a line of latitude that ran
west from the southern
border of Missouri
It all sounds good! But the Missouri
Compromise was only a temporary fix

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Why is that?
Americans would
continue to move west,
bringing their different
ways of life with them

Could we really remain
one united country when
half of the people
believed in slavery, and
the other half in free or
hired labor?
Another issue that arose as a result of Westward
Expansion involved the Native Americans

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When Andrew Jackson
became President in
1828, the gov’t already
had a long-standing
policy of
supporting white settlers
who moved onto Native
American lands
“Why?” you ask

The gov’t wanted the
fertile farmlands of
the Southeast

Jackson agreed with this
policy, believing very
strongly that Natives
should give up their
lands to settlers and
move west of the
Mississippi River, into
Indian Territory
(present-day Oklahoma)

When Jackson became
President, only about
120,000 Native Americans
remained east of the
Mississippi River

Still, Southern cotton planters
wanted those lands
and pressured Native
American leaders to
move west

In 1830, Jackson
convinced his
supporters in Congress
to pass the Indian
Removal Act:
 provided federal
gov’t funds to remove
Native Americans
from the eastern U.S.
More specifically, the act…

authorized the President to
negotiate treaties to buy
tribal lands in the east in
exchange for lands in the
west, outside the existing
U.S. borders

President Jackson said:
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Most of the Native American
tribes, though they did so
reluctantly,
moved west in
response to this
1830 Act
One exception:
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The Cherokee Nation
was the one group of
Native Americans that
was able to hold off
signing the treaties until
1838
In that year, they too
agreed to move west

That fall, Cherokee
leader John Ross led his
people on a forced
march to Indian
Territory
 Thousands died as a
result of severe
weather on the Great
Plains
One observer wrote:
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“Even aged females…were traveling with
heavy burdens attached to their backs,
sometimes on frozen ground with no covering
on their feet.”

By the time John Ross
arrived in Indian
Territory, about 1/8 of
his people had died,
including his wife
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The Cherokee called this
journey, “The Trail
Where They Cried,”
which history now
knows as
“The Trail of Tears”

The Trail of Tears was a
controversial part of
Andrew Jackson’s
otherwise respected
presidency
 Jackson is actually
seen as one of our
“greatest presidents”
Why?

He was the first
“citizen-president”
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He represented the
common man, & won the
1828 election by a
landslide
A lot of his support came
from farmers in the
South & people from
the new Western
states
What did Jackson believe in?

One strong belief of his
was that the wealthy
should not have too
much power in gov’t
(makes sense if he
represented & supported
the common man)

He was also a major
supporter of preserving
the union

Huh?
Preserving the Union

His belief in this was
made very clear through
the “Nullification
Crisis” of 1828-1832

Long story short, South
Carolina didn’t like a
Federal law that put
high tariffs/taxes on
goods imported from
Europe

South Carolina believed that
a state had the right to
nullify (declare void)
any Federal law that
went against the state’s
interests

Why would Jackson disagree
with this?
He said:
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Ultimately, he

denied
South Carolina their
request
What else did Jackson do?

He significantly reduced the
national debt

He tried to abolish the
Electoral College

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The first attempt to do
bodily harm to a president
was against him
What is believed to be the
first attempt to kill a
sitting president was
against him