Chapter 13
The Tyler Presidency
I am John Tyler. I became
president after the death of
William Henry Harrison.
Because I speak softly and am
courteous, some believe I am weak
The Tyler Presidency
I am stubborn and proud and not
very imaginative. I disagree with
the Whigs on several issues and
I am a state’s rights Southerner
The Tyler Presidency
I am willing to
cooperate with
Congress and its
leader, Henry Clay,
but I will not be his
puppet!
I wanted to be
president! It was
my turn!
The Tyler Presidency
As leader of Congress, I
have pushed through a bill
to establish a new Bank of
the United States
I veto that Bill!
The Tyler Presidency
After Tyler’s veto, his entire
cabinet resigned in protest
We Quit!!!!
The Tyler Presidency
All except Tyler’s Secretary of
state, Daniel Webster
I’m staying
because I have
other plans
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
• The border between the US (especially Maine) and Canada
was in dispute since the peace treaty of 1783
• 1842- Britain sent Lord Ashburton to the US to settle that
and other disputes
• Ashburton and Webster quickly came to agreement- the
British needed only territory for a road- but Massachusetts
and Maine wanted every acre in dispute
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
• At the time of the revolution, Ben
Franklin had marked the
boundary in red on a map now
lost
• Webster had someone mark the
British version of the boundary in
red on an old map and convinced
the states that they better agree
to the new treaty or they would
lose land
• In fact, the British owned a copy
of the original map that showed
all of the territory belonged to
America
Continental Expansion
• Large migration of settlers to
Oregon and California
• Oregon jointly administered by
Great Britain and US and
California a Spanish territory
• National boundaries meant
little to settlers
• Manifest Destiny – belief that
God intended US to reach from
Atlantic to Pacific
Texas
• 1821 Mexican Revolution –
Mexico became
independent from Spain
• Small number of non-Indian
settlers (Tejanos) living in
Spanish Texas
• Spanish accepted offer from
Moses Austin to colonize it
w/Americans
• Mexico required American
settlers to become Mexican
citizens, Catholic, and
prohibited slavery
Texas
• Americans w/Tejano elite agitated
for more autonomy
• Mexican ruler, General Santa
Anna, moved into Texas w/army
to exert control – sparked revolt
• Battle of San Jacinto – General
Houston defeated Santa Anna and
declared Texas independent
• Houston elected first president of
Republic of Texas – called for
union w/US
• Not wanting war, issue ducked by
Presidents Jackson and Van Buren
Texas
• American settlers continued
pouring into Texas
• President Tyler revived issue of
Texas statehood to secure
Southern support for renomination in 1844 election
• Calhoun (SecState) hoped Texas
would strengthen slavery and if
divided into several states would
add to South’s power in Congress
• Both Clay (Whig) and Van Buren
(Democrat) worked to keep Texas
– and slavery – out
President John Tyler
Tyler Presidency
Texas
• Polk received Democratic
nomination for president / won
Election of 1844
• Polk
 Tennessee slaveholder
 Backed Texas annexation
 Backed American occupation of
Oregon (54 40’ or Fight)
 First “Dark Horse” candidate
 Defeated Henry Clay in 1844
Election by 2% (Votes for Clay
sucked out by 3rd Abolition Party)
The Mexican War
• 1845 - Texas annexed by US
days before inauguration of
Polk
• Polk’s Goals as President
 Reduce the tariff
 Reestablish an independent
Treasury system
 Settle disputed Oregon question
– “54’ 40’” or Fight!”
 Bring California into the Union
The Mexican War
• Congress enacted first two goals
• Agreement w/Britain divided
Oregon at 49th Parallel
• Offered to buy California from
Mexico – Mexico refused
• 1846 – Polk instigated war
w/Mexico by having US forces
move into disputed lands in Texas
(between Nueces and Rio Grande
Rivers)
• Mexican forces attacked US patrol
– Polk used incident to declare
war
The Mexican War
• War inspired by expansionist
fervor
• Many in North against war – saw
it as a war to expand slavery and
Southern power
• Critics included Henry David
Thoreau, Ulysses Grant, and
Abraham Lincoln
• War seen as illegitimate – preying
on a weak neighbor
• War conducted on three fronts:
California, New Mexico, and
Mexico
The Mexican War
• California initially taken over by
small group led by Captain John
Fremont – established “Bear Flag
Republic”
• US warships arrived in San
Francisco and Monterrey soon
after and claimed California for US
• General Stephen Kearny occupied
Santa Fe NM and helped put
down Mexican uprising in
California
The Mexican War
• Bulk of fighting took place in
Mexico
• General Zachary Taylor defeated
Mexicans under Santa Anna at
Battle of Buena Vista
• Mexico refused to capitulate
• US forces under General
Winfield Scott invaded Mexico
at Vera Cruz and in a series of
battles made their way to
Mexico City which was captured
and occupied
Attack by US volunteer infantry regiment the “Mississippi Rifles”
The Mexican War
• The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ended the war
• The treaty confirmed the
annexation of Texas with border
on the Rio Grande, and ceded
California, New Mexico, Arizona,
Nevada, and Utah (the Mexican
Cession) to the US for $15 million
• War not a notable part of US
history but remains a central
event in Mexico today where it is
referred to as “the
dismemberment”
US troops in Mexico City
Polk Presidency
The Gold Rush 1849
• Discovery of gold sparked huge
migration to California from the eastern
US, the Americas, Europe, and Asia
• Young males dominated the population
• Boom Towns – very little law
• Tensions rose between different ethnic
and racial groups
• “Foreign” miners were heavily taxed or
expelled by extralegal white groups
• Justice was often meted out by vigilance
committees
• California’s Indian population nearly
disappeared going from ~150,000 to
~30,000 by 1860
The Gold Rush 1849
• Surface gold removed via Placer
Mining
• Quartz Mining - Deep
underground mining owned by
corporations
• Most fortunes made by those who
supplied / fed & housed /
entertained miners
• Rights of Indians, Asians, and free
blacks severely restricted
• Spanish Californios viewed as
white
Opening Japan
Japanese depiction of American warship
• New California ports of San
Diego and San Francisco served
as jumping off points for Asian
trade
• 1853-1854 Commodore
Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo
Bay, sent by US to demand trade
treaty
• Japan, impressed by US power,
agreed – opened two ports to US
• Caused Japan to modernize and
Westernize and become Asian
military power
The Slavery Question
• Wilmot Proviso
 1846 PA Congressman David
Wilmot proposed resolution
prohibiting slavery in new
territories
 Sectional, not party, lines divided
US – passed in House but
defeated in Senate
 Brought issue of slavery to a
head
The Slavery Question
• Election of 1848
 Free Soil Party (anti-slavery)
nominated Martin Van Buren
 Democrats nominated Lewis Cass
who backed popular sovereignty
 Whigs nominated Mexican War hero
Zachary Taylor
 Taylor won election but Free Soil
Party showed anti-slavery sentiment
now beyond abolitionist fringe
 Northern migrants to West did not
want to be blocked by slave
plantations / economic competition
with slave labor
President Zachary Taylor
The Slavery Question
• “Free Soil” – not only abolitionist but
also referred to free homesteads to
settlers
• To white Southerners – barring
slavery violation of equal rights;
Southerners fought and died for new
lands
• New lands also attractive to
Southern planters whose lands
suffered from soil exhaustion
• “Slavery must expand or die”
• New non-slave states would upset
balance of power in Congress – make
South permanent minority
The Slavery Question
• 1850 - Slavery issue central issue
due to California’s request for
statehood as a free state
• South opposed
• Henry Clay’s proposal
(Compromise of 1850)
 California would enter Union as free
state
 Slave trade would be abolished in
capital
 Stringent new law regarding runaway
slaves would be passed
 Status of slavery in new territories to
be decided by local populations
The Slavery Question
• The Great Debate
 Daniel Webster announced
willingness to accept Fugitive Slave
Law to maintain Union
 Calhoun (through colleague)
rejected compromise – slavery must
be protected
 Some, like Wm Seward, called for
abolition of slavery
 President Taylor – strong nationalist
– called for admission of California
 Taylor died – replaced by Fillmore
who backed Clay’s compromise
 Stephen Douglas – Clay disciple
Daniel Webster
Henry Clay
Stephen Douglas
Taylor Presidency
The Slavery Question
• The Fugitive Slave Issue
 Allowed federal commissioners to
decide fate of alleged fugitives
w/out trial or even testimony
 Prohibited local authorities from
interfering w/capture of fugitives
 Irony Alert – South wanted new
federal law to override state laws
 Slave chasers operated in all
states
 Many in North actively aided
fugitives in escapes / migration to
Canada
Fillmore Presidency
The Slavery Question
• Election of 1852 – Democrat Franklin
Pierce won
• Clay, Calhoun, and Webster all dead
– Stephen Douglas now leader of
Senate
• Douglas wanted transcontinental
railroad built in either Kansas or
Nebraska Territories – needed to be
states
• South against admission of free
states
• Douglas proposed popular
sovereignty – let new states decide
President Franklin Pierce
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Slavery prohibited under terms of
Missouri Compromise – Compromise
repealed
• Repeal caused immense anti-South
reaction in North and caused split in
Democratic Party
• Kansas-Nebraska Act passed – US
torn between slavery and antislavery
• Whig Party collapsed and South
became solidly Democratic
• Disgruntled Democrats and Northern
Whigs joined to form Republican
Party
The Northern Economy
• Explosive economic growth in
North
• Railroad construction went from
5,000 miles in 1848 to 30,000 by
1860
• Railroads linked coastal cities
w/Western farming & commercial
centers
• Mississippi lost importance as
goods shipped to east via rail
instead of down river
• Socioeconomic ties strengthened
between the East and West
The Know-Nothings
• Know-Nothing Party
 Joined with nativists
 Party anti-Catholic but also
anti-slavery in some regions
 Swept elections in several
cities
 Against Kansas-Nebraska
Act
 Demands for limitations in
immigration failed due to
white male suffrage –
immigrants could vote
The Republicans
• Republican Party
 Coalition between anti-slavery
Democrats, Northern Whigs, Free
Soilers, and Know-Nothings
opposed to expansion of slavery
 Party advocated “Free Labor”
 Goal of upward mobility was
endangered by slavery
 Republicans against expansion of
slavery but not abolitionist – but
two systems in US not
compatible w/each other
The Republican mascot – the elephant
Bleeding Kansas
• Kansas became a battleground
• Both sides refused to let the
Kansans to work out the issuethey began a movement of
settlers into the territory
• In 1854 an election was held to
pick a territorial delegate to
Congress. A large band of proslavery Missourians crossed the
border and helped elect a proslavery man
Bleeding Kansas
• In March 1855, 5,000 “border
ruffians” again crossed into Kansas
and elected a territorial legislature.
There were only 2905 eligible voters
but over 6,000 votes were cast
• The legislature promptly enacted a
slave code and made laws against
abolitionism
• Anti-slavery forces refused to
recognize the new laws and
established their own legislature
• By January 1857 there were two
governments in Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
• President Pierce denounced the freestate government which encouraged
the pro-slavery settlers
• May 1856- 800 pro-slavery settlers
sacked the town of Lawrence- a
center of abolition
• An abolition extremist, John Brown,
murdered an equal number of proslavery men in another small
community in retaliation
Abolitionist radical John Brown
Bleeding Kansas
• The violence perpetrated by
both sides caused an explosion
of violence as marauding
bands attacked homesteads
after first determining their
positions on slavery
• Brown escaped capture but
was forced to flee Kansas
• Republicans, eager to
propagandize the situation,
filled newspapers with
exaggerated stories of
“bleeding Kansas”
The sack of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery raiders
Bleeding Kansas
• The Democrats were also at fault
by making a mockery of the
Kansas elections
• The main responsibility lay with
President Pierce. He should have
remained neutral but openly
sided with the South
• When the first territorial governor
complained to the president
about the manner in which the
first territorial legislature was
elected, he replaced him with a
pro-Southern man
President
Franklin
Pierce
Pierce Presidency
President Buchanan
• The Republican Party now
dominated the North
• For the 1856 Election, it
nominated John Fremont a
hero of the War with Mexico.
He was popular, a war hero,
with little political experience
• The campaign slogan was:
“Free soil, free speech, and
Fremont”
President Buchanan
• The Democrats cast aside Pierce, but
did not dare nominate Douglas who
now had many enemies in the North
• They settled on James Buchanan
who had served as minister to Great
Britain during the Kansas crisis and
was therefore not “tainted”
• A third party, the American Party,
nominated Millard Fillmore
• Fremont won 11 of 16 Northern
states
• Buchanan won entire South and key
Northern states
President James Buchanan
President Buchanan
• Buchanan - First Gay
President?
 Never married - lived for
several years w/ Sen. Rufus
King (inseparable)
 King referred to as “Mrs.
Buchanan” and “Aunt Nancy”
 Surviving letters show
romantic bond
"
The Dred Scott Decision
• Scott was slave to Dr. John Emerson –
accompanied him to Illinois (free
state) before returning to Missouri
• Scott sued for freedom – residence
on free soil had made him free
• SCOTUS ruled that
 As a slave, he could not sue
 A state could not deprive a man of his
property – therefore slavery was legal in
all states
 Effectively threw out all prior
restrictions
 Popular sovereignty not an issue – all
slavery legal
Dred Scott
Lincoln versus Douglas
• Stephen Douglas running for
reelection to Senate
• Challenger was Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln against expansion of
slavery – believed blacks had
rights to the “fruits of their labor”
• Lincoln – Douglas debates
• Lincoln lost election but split in
Democratic Party resulted in many
Republican victories elsewhere
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
John Brown
• Long career in anti-slavery
activities
• Killed pro-slavery settlers to
avenge sack of Lawrence KS
• October 1859 – seized US arsenal
at Harper’s Ferry VA hoping to
start slave revolt
• Most of his men killed – Brown
wounded & arrested
• Brown put on trial for treason –
became hero and martyr for
abolitionists and North in general
John Brown at his trial for treason
Southern Nationalism
Slave prices around 1860
• High price of slaves made it
impossible for sons of planters and
upwardly mobile small farmers to
become planters
• South increasingly saw itself as
better off by themselves
• Planters charged that Northerners
made money off the backs of the
Southern planters
• Planters wanted to expand into the
Caribbean and Central and South
America
• Some called for reopening the
international slave trade
Southern Nationalism
• “Fire-eaters” hoped to establish
an independent Southern
Confederacy
• Democratic convention
nominated Douglas for
president after walk-out by
“Fire-eaters”
• Southern Democrats
nominated their own man –
John Breckinridge
Edmund Ruffin – Fire Eater – Fired first shot at Fort
Sumter
The Election of 1860
• Lincoln nominated by
Republican Party
• Party Platform
 Denied validity of Dred Scott
Decision
 Opposed expansion of slavery
into Territories
 Free homesteads in West
 Protective Tariff
 Government financial assistance
in building Transcontinental
Railroad
Abraham Lincoln
The Election of 1860
• Campaign split between North
and South
• North
 Douglas (D)
 Lincoln (R) – Republicans NOT a
national party
• South
 Douglas (D) – Northern party
 Breckinridge (D) – Southern party
 John Bell (I) – Constitutional Union
Party; Unionist former Whigs
The Election of 1860
• Lincoln
 40% of national vote
 180 electoral votes (clear majority)
 Not a single Southern vote
• Douglas
 Carried Missouri
 Second in popular votes
• Breckinridge – carried most
Southern states
• Bell – carried 3 Upper South
states
Secession
• Irony Alert – secession rather than
accept (possibly permanent)
minority status
• First to secede was South Carolina
– most radical
• Other Deep South states followed
• President Buchanan paralyzed –
did nothing
• Compromises offered – extension
of Missouri Compromise line to
Pacific
• Lincoln refused any expansion of
slavery
Buchanan Presidency
Secession
• Southern states formed a confederacy
where states had more power than their
central government
• Jefferson Davis – President of the
Confederacy
• Lincoln thought war not inevitable –
eight slave states did not secede
• Many Unionists in Southern states (even
those that had seceded)
• Lincoln avoided any action that would
cause further secession – would not
take back US forts, arsenals, customs
houses already seized by South but
would retain any still in Union hands
Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederacy
Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Secession
• Lincoln strove to ensure the
South, not the Federal
government, would fire the
first shot in a civil war
• Lincoln informed SC that Fort
Sumter in Charleston Harbor
was to be resupplied
• SC fired on the fort and it
surrendered 14 April 1861
• Lincoln proclaimed Southern
states in revolt – called for
75,000 volunteers
Fort Sumter – Charleston Harbor
Secession
• Within weeks of the
surrender of Fort Sumter,
VA, NC, TN, and AR seceded
from the Union
• The Civil War had begun