James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History
Eighth Edition
America: A Concise History
Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 13
Expansion, War, and Sectional Crisis
1844–1860
Modified – Teddi Baker
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s



1. Identify the symbols
of westward expansion
in John Gast’s
American Progress.
2. How does this
painting illustrate the
notion of Manifest
Destiny?
3. In your opinion, does
this painting depict
“progress”? Why or
why not?
A. The
Push to the Destiny:
Pacific
I. Manifest
South and North
1. Oregon– Region claimed by both Britain and U.S.,
which agreed to allow people of both nations to settle;
in 1840s, American interest increased with reports of
excellent harbors and fertile soil; “Oregon fever” began;
Americans headed to the region with wagons, oxen,
cattle; thousands migrated on the Oregon Trail to settle
there and in California; 34,000+ died of disease and
exposure during the 2,000-mile journey; approx. 10,000
migrants settled in the Willamette Valley; settlers
restricted voting to white men.
 2.
California – About 3,000 migrants settled in the
Mexican province of California during the 1840s;
Mexico granted land to the settlers to raise cattle;
New England businesses sent agents to the area to
buy leather for shoes/boots, and they then married
the daughters of elite Mexican ranchers
(Californios); Thomas Larkin was one of many
agents who did not want to assimilate but instead
annex California for the United States.
I. Manifest Destiny: South and North
B. The Plains Indians
1. The Great Plains – Vast sea of wild grasses that
stretched from Texas north to Saskatchewan in
Canada, and west from the Missouri River to the Rocky
Mountains; home to nomadic people who hunted
buffalo; tribes included Pawnees, Mandans, Apaches,
Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, and Arapahos;
desired European horses, weakened by European
diseases; smallpox epidemic 1779–1781 killed
approximately half the Plains Indians; others were killed
by European weapons.

2. The Lakota Sioux – Traded for guns and
ammunition with French, Spanish, and
Americans; were buffalo hunters; nomadic
lifestyle enable them to avoid major outbreaks
of disease; by the 1830s, the Lakotas were the
dominant tribe in the central and northern
plains; became very prosperous selling buffalo
hides to American Fur Company and Missouri
Fur Company; herds were declining and Sioux
did not understand the market system well
enough to demand proper prices; by the 1860s,
the number of buffalo herds had declined
significantly.



1. Describe this painting—
who does it include?
Where does it take place?
2. Describe the Comanche
leader and his followers.
How does the painting
present the Indians as they
meet the American soldiers
in this painting?
3. What does the painting
suggest about how the
American soldiers
responded to the
Comanches at this point of
their meeting?
I. Manifest Destiny: South and North
C. The Fateful Election of 1844
1. “Oregon conventions” ” – Election significantly
altered U.S. policy in the West; southerners
wanted Texas annexed to keep the British from
making gains in North America; in 1843,
Americans in Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes
states organized conventions at which
Democrats and Whigs called for U.S. control of
entire Oregon Country, from Spanish California
to Russian Alaska (which began at 54°40’ north
latitude); southerners renewed called for
annexation of Texas.

2. “Fifty-four forty or fight!” – In April 1844, Tyler
administration wrote a treaty to annex Texas; Van
Buren and Clay (both running for president)
opposed because they did not want the Senate
to undertake debate on slavery; 1844 election
then centered on Texas and Oregon; James K.
Polk (D-TN) used the campaign slogan “Fifty-four
forty or fight” to show his support for claiming all of
Oregon to the Alaska border; Polk won; calls for
annexation of Texas increased; a joint resolution of
Congress brought it into the Union (28th state) in
December 1845.
II. War, Expansion, and Slavery,
1846–1850
A. The War with Mexico, 1846–1848
1. Polk’s Expansionist Program
2. American Military Successes
 2.
American Military Successes – Army led
by Gen. Zachary Taylor; end of 1846, U.S.
controlled most of northeast Mexico;
secured California early in 1847; fighting
continued with U.S. attacking Mexico City,
seizing the capital in September 1847 and
defeating Santa Anna.
II. War, Expansion, and Slavery,
1846–1850
B. A Divisive Victory
1. The Wilmot Proviso – Northern Whigs had opposed
the war on moral grounds; split Democrats across
sectional lines; Congressman David Wilmot (D-PA)
proposed that slavery be prohibited in any territory
obtained through the war with Mexico; Whigs and antislavery Democrats supported Wilmot; rejected by
Senate; expansionist fervor continued, but not without
hesitation by some who feared more war; in the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), U.S. paid Mexico $15
million in return for more than one-third of its territory;
agreements were reached on granting land in Oregon.
 2.
Free Soil – Fear increased of a “Slave
Power” conspiracy growing in the U.S. to
dominate national life; to thwart any such
plan, northerners started a “free-soil
movement” and organized the Free-Soil
Party; claimed slavery threatened
republicanism and Jeffersonian ideals.
 3.
The Election of 1848 – Polk did not run
for reelection; Whigs nominated Gen.
Taylor (LA slave owner) who did not
support expansion of slavery to the new
territories; Taylor won 47 percent of the
popular vote and an electoral majority.
II. War, Expansion, and Slavery,
1846–1850
C. California Gold and Racial Warfare
1. The Forty-NinersForty-Niners – In 1848,
gold was discovered in California; rush of
men, ships, and wagons to the West
began—more than 80,000 men by end of
1849; lived in cramped quarters amid
gambling, alcohol, and prostitution; ruthless
treatment of Indians, Mexicans, Chileans,
and Chinese; disease killed many; many
men were disillusioned by failure to find
wealth.

2. Racial Warfare and Land Rights – Indians
received no protection from what little law
enforcement existed in California; faced
disease; settlers murdered Indians to take their
land; creation of a slave-like trade among
whites taking Indians as labor; despite treaties
with Mexico, whites wanted to push
Californios off their land; many sold their land
to whites simply to leave the region; whites
who settled in the northern part of California
had more success with crops.
II. War, Expansion, and Slavery,
1846–1850
D. 1850: Crisis and Compromise
1. Constitutional Conflict– California ratified an
antislavery constitution, opening debate for
admission to Union; debate ensued about whether
California to be admitted free or slave; Senator
Stephen Douglas (D-IL) called for “popular
sovereignty,” which gave power of choice to the
people.
 2.
A Complex Compromise – Douglas
achieved passage of five law
“Compromise of 1850”: (1) new Fugitive
Slave Act, (2) California admitted as a
free state, (3) settled boundary dispute
between New Mexico and Texas in favor
of New Mexico, (4) abolished slave trade
in District of Columbia, (5) established
New Mexico and Utah with popular
sovereignty on the slavery issue.
III. The End of the Second Party
System, 1850–1858
A. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act
1. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850– Proved the
most controversial piece of the Compromise
of 1850; required federal judges in the North
to determine the status of alleged fugitive
slaves; denied blacks a jury trial or even the
right to testify; northerners almost
immediately resented the sight of slave
catchers in their states; abolitionists assisted
runaways.

2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) – Aided
opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act;
increased the northern public’s outrage to
slavery on moral grounds; sold millions of
copies and increased antislavery action in
Britain; northerners called for “personal-liberty
laws” to enhance their rights, including the
rights of fugitives in free states; the Wisconsin
Supreme Court ruled in Ableman v. Booth
(1857) that the Fugitive Slave Act was
unconstitutional because it violated the rights
of Wisconsin’s citizens.
III. The End of the Second Party
System, 1850–1858
B. The Whigs Disintegrate and New Parties Rise
1. Proslavery Initiatives– As president, Pierce
pursued an expansionist foreign policy; the
Gadsden Purchase of 1853 led to the building of
a transcontinental rail line from New Orleans to
California; supported covert military expeditions
to Cuba; criticized for aggressive diplomacy
 2.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act – Proposed
by Stephen Douglas, who wanted to
open Permanent Indian Territory by
allowing a transcontinental railroad that
linked Chicago to California; this act
repealed the Missouri Compromise,
formed the Kansas and Nebraska
territories, and organized region on basis
of popular sovereignty.

3. The American and Republican Parties –
Northern Whigs and “anti-Nebraska
Democrats” joined Free-Soilers and
abolitionists in the new Republican Party;
party leadership was staunchly antislavery
(argued that slavery degraded manual labor
and drove down wages of free whites);
advocated republican liberty and individual
enterprise; faced strong competition from the
American or Know-Nothing Party (antiimmigrant and anti-Catholic).

4. Bleeding Kansas – Thousands migrated to
Kansas to settle, supporting both sides of the
political debate; Missouri residents crossed the
border to elect a proslavery government;
most Kansas residents supported free soil;
violence erupted; to avenge the sack of
Lawrence by a proslavery force of seven
hundred strong, abolitionist John Brown led a
free-state militia that murdered five proslavery
settlers; these attacks started a guerrilla war in
Kansas that took nearly two hundred lives.
III. The End of the Second Party
C. Buchanan’s
Failed Presidency
System, 1850–1858
1. The Election of 1856– Republicans denounced
Kansas-Nebraska Act and nominated John
Frémont (free-soiler); American Party split over
slavery; James Buchanan (D-PA) won a three-way
race; Democrats were now the only national party;
Republicans split over sectional issues.
 2.
Dred Scott: Petitioner for Freedom – In
1856, Dred Scott had lived with his master
in the free state of Illinois and in part of
Wisconsin Territory where slavery was
prohibited; argued that he was free as a
result; seven of the nine justices declared
that Scott was still a slave, but they
disagreed on the legal rationale;

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (a slave owner from
MD) argued that since slaves were not citizens,
they had no right to sue in federal court, that
Congress could not prevent a person from
“taking” his property into new territories, that the
Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise
were not constitutional, and that Congress could
not give to territorial governments any powers that
it did not possess; Republicans accused Taney
and Buchanan of being part of the Slave Power
conspiracy; Buchanan recommended Kansas be
admitted as a slave state and resumed
negotiations to buy Cuba.
IV. Abraham Lincoln and the
Republican
1858–1860
A. Lincoln’s
Political Triumph,
Career
1. An Ambitious Politician1. An Ambitious Politician –
Born in Kentucky, lived in Indiana and Illinois; became a
store clerk, read Shakespeare, and studied law; had
volatile relationship with wife, Mary; joined the Whig
Party; elected to Congress in 1846; opposed the
spread of slavery; advocated gradual emancipation and
colonization of freed blacks in Africa; was viewed as
moderate; lost reelection bid; withdrew from politics and
prospered as a lawyer; returned to the political fray
because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
 2.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates – Lincoln
quickly emerged as the leading
Republican in Illinois; ran against Douglas
for Senate in 1858; gave famous “House
Divided” speech about slavery dividing
the nation; during series of seven debates,
Douglas supported white supremacy;
Lincoln advocated economic opportunity
for black Americans but not political
rights; Douglas won.
IV. Abraham Lincoln and the
Republican
Triumph,
B. The
Union Under
Siege 1858–1860
1. The Rise of Radicalism1. The Rise of Radicalism –
Southern Democrats divided in 1858 into moderates
(defended “southern rights” and ironclad protection for
slavery) and fire-eaters (repudiated the Union and
actively promoted secession). In October 1859, John
Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers
Ferry, Virginia, hoping to arm slaves and start a
rebellion; Republicans condemned Brown; Democrats
blamed his actions on the Republicans; northern and
southern Democrats split at the party’s convention.
 2.
The Election of 1860 – Republicans
chose Lincoln as candidate; courted
white voters with a free-soil platform that
opposed both slavery and racial equality.
The Republican strategy worked and
Lincoln was elected.
 1.
Describe this image.
Who are the people
presented, and what
are they doing?
 2. What symbols did
the artist use in this
cartoon to illustrate the
different candidates’
political agendas?
 3. What is the
cartoonist’s view of the
election? Which
candidate does he
support, and which
does he think will win?