Homework Essay Outline Question
“The US prefers to settle conflicts
with other nations by negotiating
rather than going to war.”
Assess the validity of this
statement in the 1840’s
Manifest Destiny
 The phrase, coined by John O’Sullivan, expressed the popular
belief that the US had a divine mission to extend its power
and civilization across the breadth of North America
 Peaked in the 1840’s under the Presidency of James K. Polk
 Driven by the forces of: Nationalism, racism, population
increase, technological advances, and rapid economic
development
 Not all of America was united behind this movement,
especially Northerners that believed the root of this drive was
the Southern ambition to spread slavery into western lands.
“Manifest Destiny”
 First coined by newspaper editor, John
O’Sullivan in 1845.
 ".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and
to possess the whole of the continent which Providence
has given us for the development of the great experiment of
liberty and federaltive development of self-government
entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the
space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of
its principle and destiny of growth."
 A myth of the West as a land of romance and
adventure emerged.
JOHN GAST’S - "AMERICAN PROGRESS," (1872)
“Manifest Destiny”:
TOM
Texas
Oregon
Mexico
Overland Immigration to the
West
 Between 1840 and
1860, more than
250,000 people made
the trek westward.
John Jacob Astor,
American Fur
Company, richest
man in America when
he died in 1848, drew
Mountain men to the
region
The Oregon Trail – Albert
Bierstadt, 1869
Trails Westward
The Doomed Donner Party
CANNIBALISM ! !
James Reed & Wife
Margaret
Breen
Patrick
Breen
John
Breen
 Of the 83 members of the
Donner Party, only 45
survived to get to
California!
"Mrs. Murphy said here yesterday that she thought she would
commence on Milton and eat him. I do not think she has done so yet; it is
distressing.“- Patrick Breen
Texas
Background:
 Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821
 Mexico encouraged US settlers to migrate to Texas
 Granted large tracts of land to settlers
 To grow their economy
 To prevent Native American attacks
 Stephen Austin established a colony between the
Colorado and Brazos Rivers that grew to 22,000
people, including 2,000 slaves by 1834
 In exchange the Americans had to agree to obey
Mexican laws and customs
Culture Clash
Country
Mexico
US
Religion
Catholic
Protestant
Language
Spanish
English
Work Ethic
Laid back culture
based on communal
values
Settlement Pattern
Mission Systemthinly populated
Belief in government
Elite rule
Energetic,
competitive, $
driven work world,
Protestant Work
Ethic
Settle in large
numbers and
multiply
Common people
have a voice in
government
Pioneers did not accept Mexican ways
Americans want fertile land for cotton production and to expand
slavery
 By 1835 Americans had overrun Texas
 Texas’s population included 45,000 Anglos, 5,000 African American
slaves, 12,000 Native Americans, and only 3,500 Tejanos
 1833 General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power to
become dictator of Mexico
 Santa Anna tightened the clamps on the Americans in Texas
 He saw the writing on the wall: “Our children will be begging the
Americans for bread crumbs”
 Santa Anna passed laws to outlaw slavery, American immigration,
and take away self-government, to collect taxes on imports, and put
all power in his hands. This caused the Americans to rebel and try to
break away from Mexican control

Key Figures in Texas
Independence, 1836
Sam Houston
(1793-1863)
Steven Austin
(1793-1836)
Texas Declaration of
Independence
Texas Revolution 1835-1836
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
The Alamo
Around 190 Texans versus 4,000 Mexican soldiers
These brave people gave their lives up so that Sam
Houston had time to raise and prepare an army to
combat Santa Anna
San Jacinto
Santa Anna captured and forced to sign the Treaty of
Velasco giving Texas its independence
Remember the Alamo!
Davey Crockett’s Last Stand
The Republic of Texas
For 9 years Texas was its own independent
country, the Republic of Texas, or the Lone
Star Republic
Annexation Debate:
 People worried if the US acquired Texas it will cause a war
with Mexico
 Andrew Jackson did not even recognize Texas as a country
until his last days in office in 1837
 Texas was not annexed until 1845 during the presidency of
James Polk
 The annexation of Texas caused the Mexican-American
War, which eventually caused The Civil War
Election 1844
What
about
Oregon?
The Oregon Dispute: 54’ 40º
 By the mid-1840s,
“Oregon Fever” was
spurred on by the
promise of free land.
or Fight!
1846- 5,000 US settlers vs.
700 British
 People wanted war with
Britain over Oregon
Settled on 49’ parallel
because at war with Mexico
Made anti-slavery people
mad that the US was willing
to go to war for slave territory
in Texas, but not free land in
the North
The Bear Flag Republic
The Revolt  June 14,
1845
John C.
Frémont
The Slidell Mission: Nov., 1845
 Mexican recognition of the Rio
Grande River as the TX-US
border.
 US would forgive American
citizens’ claims against the Mexican
gov
 US would purchase the New
Mexico area for $5,000,000.
 US would buy California at any
price.
John Slidell
Mexico refused to see Slidell
Causes of the Mexican American War
 Rejection of the Slidell
Mission
 Annexation of Texas
 Boundary dispute, Rio
Grande River or Nueces
River
 Polk sent troops into
the disputed region
 Provoked war? Flag
Raising exercise?
The Mexican War (1846-1848)
General Zachary Taylor at
Palo Alto
“Old Rough and Ready”
The Bombardment of Vera
Cruz
General Scott Enters Mexico
City
“Old Fuss and Feathers”
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo,
1848
Nicholas Trist,
American Negotiator
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo,
1848
 Mexico gave up claims to Texas above the
Rio Grande River.
 Mexico ceded (forced to sell) the U. S.
California and New Mexico, ½ its territory.
 “We take nothing by conquest, thank
God!”
The Mexican Cession
The United States will
conquer Mexico, but it will be
as the man who swallows
arsenic, Mexico will poison
us
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Protests of the
War
Wilmot Proviso, 1846- No slavery
allowed in territory won in the war,
passed House, not the Senate
Provided, territory from that, as an
express and fundamental condition to
the acquisition of any the Republic of
Mexico by the United States, by virtue
of any treaty which may be negotiated
between them, and to the use by the
Executive of the moneys herein
appropriated, neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude shall ever exist
in any part of said territory, except for
crime, whereof the party shall first be
duly convicted.
Congr. David
Wilmot
(D-PA)
Significance
Wilmot Proviso brought slavery into
the forefront of American politics until
the Civil War
Threatened to split both Whigs and
Democrats along sectional lines
Why did it not
pass the Senate?
Free Soil Party
Free Soil!
Free Speech!
Free Labor!
Free Men!
Anti-slave members of the Liberty and Whig Parties
 Opposition to the extension of slavery in the new
territories
Supported the Wilmot Proviso
Precursor to the Republican Party
WHY?
The 1848 Presidential Election
Results
√
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Spot Resolution:
Whig politician Abraham Lincoln questioned whether the spot
on which the firing took place was actually in U.S. territory.
Henry David Thoreau
opposed the war
refused to pay a poll tax because did not want his money to
go to support a war to spread slavery
jailed for a few nights
Wrote Civil Disobedience in response
Claimed it was morally proper to refuse to follow morally
unjust laws
Long Term
Effects of the
MexicanAmerican War
Results of the Mexican War?
1. New territories were brought into the Union
which forced the explosive issue of SLAVERY to
the center of national politics.
 These new territories would upset the
balance of power between North and South.
 Mexican War caused the Civil War
2. Manifest Destiny was partially realized.
California Gold Rush, 1849
49er’s
Two Views of San Francisco,
Early 1850s
 Growth of Pacific
West, skipped over
the Great Plains
 Gold Rush led to California’s
rapid population growth and to
ask Congress for statehood as
a free state
“Fire-eaters” threatened
secession
Slavery in the
New
Territories?
Slave Trade
Banned In
Washington
DC
Tougher
Fugitive
Slave Law
California
Free State
Compromise
of 1850
Texas
Paid
10$ Million
Popular
Sovereignty in
New Territories
POP FCAT:
POPular Sovereignty
Fugitive Slave Law
California Free
Abolition slave trade DC
Texas Ten million
Compromise of
1850
Sunset of the Great Triumvirate
“Not as a
Massachusetts man,
nor as a Northern
man but as an
American..."
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Henry Clay introduced omnibus bill
Daniel Webster’s 7th of March Speech
His support turned the North toward
compromise
John C. Calhoun dying
President Taylor threatened to veto the bill, died
Stephen Douglas broke up the bill and got it
passed and President Millard Fillmore signed it
into law
Cuba
 President Polk offered to buy it from Spain for
$100 Million, but Spain refused to sell
 Several times Southerners led small expeditions
to conquer the island, but failed
 Ostend Manifesto: President Pierce in 1854
secretly sent negotiators to buy Cuba, but that
plan was leaked to the press. Pierce dropped
the plan because of the antislavery backlash
Expansionist Young America in the
1850s
America attempted Filibuster (unauthorized
military) raids into Latin America, William Walker
ruled Nicaragua for awhile
Gadsden Purchase, 1853bought to complete a Transcontinental RR
Please label:
•-Treaty of
Paris, 1783
(Rev War)
•Louisiana
Purchase, 1803
TJ
•Florida, Adams
Onis Treaty,
1819
•Texas
Annexation,
1845
•Oregon Treaty,
1846
•Mexican
Cession, 1848
•Gadsden
Purchase, 1853
Class Work
At your seats, recreate this map
 Make sure you label the (1) event and (2) year that US
acquired the territory on your map

Antebellum Immigration: 18201860: Irish & Germans
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Massive immigration of Irish and Germans in 1840s and 1850s (Irish
provided cheap labor; Germans became successful farmers in
Midwest)
About 4.78 million immigrants came to America from 1830 to 1860,
with 1.5 million being German and 1.9 million being Irish. In 1860, ¾
of foreign born immigrants to America were from Ireland or Germany.
There were no federal regulations regarding immigration at all.
Few immigrate to the South- immigrants usually start at the bottom of
society and you could not start lower than slaves (or freedman and
sharecropping after the war) in the South.
Chinese immigration in the West provided labor for mining and
railroad building.
Irish
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Canal building 1820s and 1830s
Potato Famine 1845-49, regarded in as first refugee population
Railroad laborers in the East in 1850’s-1890’s
Irish women were called “Biddies” (Bridgets) and the Irish men “Paddies” (Patricks)
Irish immigrants settled mainly in cities (Boston, NYC, Baltimore, & Philadelphia) of
the Northeast and many became Democrats. Political machines begin to form and
court their vote, like Tammany Hall in New York. By the next generation after the
Civil War Irish began to control these cities.
Create gangs in these cities to protect their interests, 5-points region of NYC
Economics-Irish worked for low wages in menial jobs; used as strikebreakers opposed
by labor unions.
Seen as lawless and disruptive. In Ireland, they saw the law as a tool of their enemy
the rich British landlords to oppress them. Thus, to the Irish, flouting the law was
seen as a manly activity.
Religion-Irish were Roman Catholic; most Americans were protestant. Catholic
Church grew from 16 dioceses and 700 churches in 1830 to 45 dioceses and 3,000
churches in 1860. Led to tensions in cities over education and the use of the King
James Bible and the founding of a large number of Catholic parochial schools.
British Misrule, Passive Genocide:
Jonathan Swift's "Modest
"Between 1845 and 1850, more than a
Proposal," about eating Irish babies million Irish people starved to death
to reduce the surplus population
while massive quantities of food were
being exported from their country,"
Germans
Political Revolution (1848) leads many to flee to America
 Germans mainly settled in farmland in Midwest
 (Wisconsin, Missouri) also in Texas.
 Many agricultural communities were established with nearly all
German populations
 Established schools, churches, newspapers, theaters,
gymnasiums, beer halls, and kindergartens.
 German artisans and intellectuals settled in cities.
 Germans were mainly Protestant (some Catholics and Jews).
 Germans had a high rate of assimilation into American society.
 Opposed Whig temperance campaigns

Nativist Reaction (Native
Americans)
Whig Reformers Neal Dow, Maine Law, 12 state laws passed
in all, but many were weakened or repealed
Temperance
 Irish and German immigrants viewed
temperance as the business class meddling in
their lives, while many successful native-born
embraced the evangelical minded reform
Know-Nothings (American Party)
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Located mainly in urban New England
At first secret fraternal societies, like the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner
founded in NYC in 1849
Membership was as high as 1.5 million
Did well in local elections, controlled Massachusetts Politics, won governor’s
office and state and congressional legislators
Samuel Morse (Morse Code) , inventor of the telegraph , was the intellectual
founder (and financier) of the Know-Nothing movement.
Rabid anti-catholic and wrote extensively on the subject, warned of the dangers
of Catholicism and the Pope on the Republic, Foreign Conspiracy against the
Liberties of the United States, 1834
Ran former President Millard Fillmore in 1856 and won 21% of the vote
Declined because of falling immigration rates, sectional tensions over slavery in
Kansas, Also elected officials were not professional politicians and not skilled at
using power. The Know-Nothings did nothing and voters looked elsewhere, like
the Republican Party.
Compare the expansionist foreign
policies of Thomas Jefferson and
James Polk. To what extent did their
policies strengthen the US?
Group essay
How did territorial expansion affect
national unity between 1800 and
1860.