Nationalism, Sectionalism &
Expansion
1820s-1850
Nationalism v Sectionalism
• A new feeling in
America that the
interests of the US is
more important than
the world interests
• We have more pride
• One region, section, or
state is better than the
whole country
• North (Industrial)
• South (Agricultural)
• West
(Minerals/Ranching/
Agriculture)
McCulloch v Maryland
1819
• After the War of 1812, Madison created the
Bank of the US for the entire nation
• Private banks in states did not like this
• 1818 Maryland placed a tax on the Baltimore
National Bank and James McCulloch the bank
officer refused to pay it.
• Supreme Court ruled that Maryland’s tax on a
US Bank was unconstitutional and the US
Government was Supreme
Gibbons v Ogden 1824
• Two steamboat companies were rivals in New York
• Aaron Ogden received his permission from New York
• Thomas Gibbons received his permission and license
from the National Government
• Supreme Court ruled that National law was superior
to state law
• The National Government had the power to regulate
Commerce and trade between states
James Monroe 1817-1825
1816 Monroe was elected as president
Democrat-Republican
Era of Good Feelings & Nationalism
1818 Rush-Bagot Treaty with Britain created
border between Canada and US at 49th Parallel
• 1819 Adams-Onis Treaty with Spain: US acquired
Florida and firm boundary between Louisiana
Purchas land and Spain out West
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Monroe Doctrine
• Foreign Policy: American
wanted future land areas
protected (Pacific
Northwest)
• President Monroe and John
Quincy Adams declared
Americas or Western
Hemisphere (North, South
and Central) off-limits to
Europeans
• America would stay away
from European Affairs
Missouri Compromise 1820
• 1818 More settlers traveled West to Missouri
(mainly Southerners) 1/6 were African
Americans
• 22 states in the Union; half were free and half
supported slavery
• Agreement: Missouri admitted as a slave state
and Maine was admitted as a free state
• Sectionalism on the rise between North &
South
Missouri Compromise 1820
“Corrupt Deal”
• 1824 Election
• Andrew Jackson Democrat-Republics ran
against John Quincy Adams and lost
• Jackson won popular vote and no majority
vote in electoral college. House of Reps voted
• Adams received Henry Clay’s vote, won and
named Clay as Secretary of State
• Jackson thought that was corrupt
Age of Jackson
• President 1828-1835
• Democrat Party
• Fought in Am. Revolution and was a hero in War
of 1812
• 1820s requirements for voting better (less states
had property requirement to vote
• More poor could vote
• Spoils System-reward supporters with jobs in new
administration
Indian Removal Act 1830
• Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, Seminole and Creek were still
settled East of Mississippi
• White settlers needed more land and Indians
were in the way
Sequoyah
• 1821 Created a writing
system (help unite
people)
• Cherokee
• Civilized and adopted
many European white
aspects
• Built towns & wrote a
Constitution
Jackson’s Trail of Tears
• Congress passed and Jackson signed new law
to remove Indians from the Southeast
• Relocate the Five Nations to Indian Territory
Oklahoma
• US Army supervised and moved Indians West
• Seminole fought back and lost but never
completely left
• Cherokee sued the government and lost.
Marshall declared that they were not citizens
nor a foreign country
Trail of Tears
Worcester v Georgia 1832
• Austin Worcester was a friend of Cherokee
• Georgia was carrying out Indian Removal Act and
ordered Worcester to leave Cherokee land
• Justice Marshall ruled against Georgia denying them
the right to take Cherokee land
• Only Federal government can make treaties with
Indians
• Jackson was outraged and told Marshall to enforce that
decision
• Government officials signed treaty with Indians to
relocate “ Trail of Tears “
• US Army moved the Cherokee on a forced march which
killed over 25% of the Cherokee
The Second National
Bank of the US
Problems
• 1832 Election Issue
• Congress established the Second Bank of the US
in 1816 with a 20 year charter
• Purpose: Regulate state banks
• Jackson was opposed to this because he didn’t
think the US Constitution granted this and the
bank helped the rich Northern Industrial
Americans
Second Bank of US and Jackson
• Jackson believed that the 2ND US Bank would not
support the workers and farmers in the South
and West who needed the loans
• 1832 Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were
Republican Congressmen who challenged
Jackson’s reelection
• Jackson won!
• Jackson pulled the money out of the 2ND US Bank
and placed the money in state banks called “pet
banks”
• Another state’s rights issue (north v south
perspective)
Tariff Controversy 1816
• 1816 Congress placed a tariff on British
manufactured goods
• Raised the tariff twice 1824 & 1828
• Tariff welcomed by northern industrialists
because it helped Americans buy Americanmade goods (cheaper priced)
• Southerners opposed this tax because it
forced them to buy from the north and hurt
their main customer of cotton (Britain)
John C. Calhoun
• Vice President to Jackson and Southerner
• States could nullify or reject laws passed by
Congress if the laws violated the Constitution
• Issue helped further divide North & South
1830 Senate: The Hayne-Webster
Debate
Nullification of federal laws and states’ rights
Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina
Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts
Hayne: The federal government is a compact
or agreement among the states. Nullify was a
legal process to cancel a law
• Webster: The US was one nation “Liberty and
Union”
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The Nullification Crisis 1832
• Congress passed another tariff
• South Carolina declared null and void and
threatened to secede
• Calhoun resigned as Vice President and
became a Senator in SC
• President Jackson received approval from
Congress to use military force if needed
• Henry Clay resolved the issue and worked out
a compromise; lower tariff over ten years
Mexican War for Independence
1810-1821
• Treaty of Cordoba-Spain lost its colonial
holdings in North America August 24, 1821
• Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (Hero)
• Mexico was now an independent country
Mexican-American Conflict
• American settlers headed west and were
under Mexican government’s rules and
protection
• Tejanos or Texicans were Americans who
settled and mixed with Native and Spanish
descendants in the Mexico-Texas areas
• Mestizos-Spaniards who wanted
independence from Spain and born in Mexico
Texas War for Independence 18351836
• In 1836, Santa Anna took an army to San Antonio to
take a fort called the Alamo. Fewer than 200 Texans
and Tejanos met him. Most of them died in battle.
The few survivors who gave up were executed as
traitors of Mexico.
• Texans declared independence and formed the
Republic of Texas.
• Sam Houston led their army in a surprise attack at
San Jacinto
• Texans won, and captured Santa Anna.
• For his freedom, Santa Anna gave Texas its
independence.
• The Lone Star State
1836 Battle of the
Alamo
San Antonio, TX
Texas Annexation
• Texans elected Sam Houston as president and voted
to join the United States.
• Texas made slavery legal.
• President Van Buren was against annexation.
• Mexico wanted to keep Texas, and Van Buren feared
it would cause war. He also didn’t want to add a new
state to the Union that allowed slavery.
• People who wanted to annex Texas said it was the
manifest destiny of the United States to spread from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
• In 1845, James Polk became President. Congress
voted to annex Texas.
War with Mexico 1846-1848
• The United States and Mexico disagreed on the
border between Texas and Mexico.
• U.S. Congress declared war in 1846.
• Soldiers fought on three fronts. Americans captured
Mexico City in 1847.
• 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo. Mexico agreed to the annexation of Texas
and the Rio Grande as the border between Texas
and Mexico.
• Mexico also gave a large area of land, the Mexican
Cession, to the United States.
Wilmot Provision
• Goal was to banned slavery in
territory gained from Mexico
• Congressman David Wilmot
• Failed to pass many times in
Senate
• Tried one last time to add to
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ending MexicanAmerican War and failed
• Sectionalism attitudes
1854 Gadsden • 29,670 sq. miles
Purchase
• James Gadsden
ambassador to Mexico
• President Franklin Pierce
agreed
• $10 Million
• Need for flat land to build
Southern
transcontinental railroad
access for commerce
Webster-Ashburton Treaty 1842
• Britain and the US finally solved the Canada-US
border disputes
• Reaffirmed the 1783 US/Canada border at the
49th parallel up to the Rocky Mountains
• Called for the end of the slave trade on the ocean
as Britain abolished slavery in colonies in 1834
• Share the Great Lakes
Oregon Trail
• 1830-1869 over 400,000 American
settlers, ranchers, businessmen, farmers,
miners and others traveled West using
the Conestoga Wagons
• Missouri to Oregon City (Pacific
Northwest)
• Future states covered: Kansas, Nebraska,
Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon (Hwy 80)
• System of roads, bridges and ferries used
to move wagons Westward
Oregon Trail 1830-1870
Santa Fe Trail
• 1821-1880
• International highway used by
American and Mexican traders
• 1846 Mexican-American War
• Commercial and military
transportation route to the
American Southwest
• 1850-1870s Gold/Silver, fur
trappers, and stagecoach lines
• Land route from Oklahoma,
Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and
New Mexico
• 1880 Railroad reached Santa Fe,
NM
http://www.nps.gov/safe/historyculture/index.htm
54 40 or Fight
• 1844 American expansion/Manifest
Destiny attitude helped shape
another land dispute
• US claimed entire Oregon Territory
which included Oregon,
Washington area up to Russian
Alaska
• Britain was ready for a third war
with America
• 1846 Oregon Treaty created current
boundary of 49th Parallel
Election of 1844
• Democrat James Knox Polk beat Whig
Henry Clay
• Last election held on different dates (Nov.Dec)
• Foreign policy was the key issue and Polk
wanted expansion
• Texas Annexation priority
• Manifest Destiny:
1845 Manifest Destiny
• John O’Sullivan wrote
• Like the Massachusetts Puritans who hoped
to build a "city upon a hill, "courageous
pioneers believed that America had a divine
obligation to stretch the boundaries of their
noble republic to the Pacific Ocean.
• The religious fervor spawned by the Second
Great Awakening created another incentive
for the drive west.
Manifest Destiny 1845
• A symbol of Manifest
Destiny, the figure
"Columbia" moves
across the land in
advance of settlers,
replacing darkness with
light and ignorance
with civilization.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/29.asp
American Economic Motives
• Economic motives were paramount for others.
The fur trade had been dominated by European
trading companies since colonial times.
• German immigrant John Jacob Astor was one of
the first American entrepreneurs to challenge the
Europeans. He became a millionaire in the
process. The desire for more land brought
aspiring homesteaders to the frontier. When gold
was discovered in California in 1848, the number
of migrants increased even more.
American Superiority Attitudes
• At the heart of manifest destiny was the
pervasive belief in American cultural and racial
superiority. Native Americans had long been
perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize"
them had been widespread since the days of
John Smith and MILES STANDISH. The
Hispanics who ruled Texas and the lucrative
ports of California were also seen as
"backward."
California 49ers
• Gold nuggets found in the Sacramento Valley 1948
• January 24, 1848 James Marshall found gold flakes
while working at Sutter’s Mill
• Days later, Mexican-American War over and California
became US property
• News spread and many prospective gold miners
traveled to California 1849
• Over 100,000 immigrants came by land and sea
• Over $2 Billion in gold and silver was extracted
• Gold Rush Peaked by 1852
California Admitted as 34th state 1850
• Throughout 1849, people
around the United States
(mostly men) borrowed
money, mortgaged their
property or spent their life
savings to make the arduous
journey to California.
• In pursuit of the kind of
wealth they had never
dreamed of, they left their
families and hometowns
Horace Greeley 1865
• Washington is not a place to live in. The rents
are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting
and the morals are deplorable. Go West,
young man, go West and grow up with the
country.
Emmanuel Leutze, “Westward the Course of Empire”(1861)
America by 1850
• 10 Years of Growth