The Way Out WestThe Way Out West

Ch. 9 & 10Ch. 9 & 10

• Manifest Destiny- Doctrine (1845), that the expansion of white Americans across the continent was inevitable and ordained by God.

• Population in 1800 = 5.3 million

• Population in 1850 = more than 23 million

Crowded EastCrowded East

Manifest DestinyManifest Destiny

• Manifest Destiny distinguished by its explicitly racial component.

• Caucasian Anglo-Saxon Americans (descendants of ancient Germanic tribes) were considered the foremost race of the world.

• Doctrine served as a self serving justification for the expansion out West.

Black Hawk WarBlack Hawk War

• 4 month rebellion• Started in Illinois and spread to Wisconsin Territory.• Illinois militia slaughtered 200 Sauk and Fox people.• Sauk and Fox tribes were forcibly removed from their

land and placed west of the Mississippi.

Fort Laramie TreatyFort Laramie Treaty

• The Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, Crow, and other tribes joined U.S. representatives in swearing “to maintain good faith and friendship in all their mutual intercourse, and to make an effective and lasting peace.”

• Treaty provided various Native American groups with control of the central plains, a 400 mile wide swath of flat land east of the Rocky Mountain that stretched the Arkansas Rover north to Canada.

• Native Americans promise not to attack settlers and agreed to allow the construction of government forts and roads.

• In return, the Native Americans wanted the government to honor the agreed-upon boundaries and to make yearly payments to the tribes.

• Claims clubs – groups of local settlers on the nineteenth century frontier who banded together to prevent the price of the of their land claims from being bid up by outsiders at public land auctions.

• Claim clubs were essentially designed to "do what politicians refused to do: Make land available to needy settlers." Their general purpose was to protect the first settlers to arrive on unclaimed lands, particularly in their rights to speculate and cultivate.

• Commercialization of Agriculture– New technology production– Commercialization of agriculture contributed

to growth of eastern manufacturing– West became a market for eastern factory

goods.

Frontier of the Plain IndiansFrontier of the Plain Indians

• Oregon Trail – more than two thousand miles that carried American settlers from the Midwest to the new settlements in Oregon, Utah, and California.

• First large overlanders group left Missouri in 1842.

• Most overlanders were young farm families.

• 90,000 people attempted the trip; 5,000 people died.

• Covered about 15 miles a day.

• Total trip was about 2,000 miles.

The Donner PartyThe Donner Party

• Group of American pioneers (87 people in total) that attempted to get to California in 1842.

• After splitting up from the rest of the group, the Donner Party got snowed in around the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846-1847.

• In an effort to survive, the pioneers had to make a choice…become cannibals or die.

• In the end, seven people survived (2 men and 5 women), who finally reached the western side of the mountains on January 18, 1847.

The Mormon MigrationThe Mormon Migration

• Religious community that played a major role in expanding out west.

• Started in upstate New York in 1827

– Joseph Smith (prophet)• Received a special message

from God in a book “written upon golden plates” buried in a hillside.

• Translated the Book of Mormon; established the Mormon Church.

• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Fayette, New York, in 1830.

• An anti-Mormon mob killed Joseph Smith and his brother.

• New Mormon leader – Brigham Young

• Stopped near Salt Lake City• Mormons awarded plots of

land to each family according to its size but established common ownership of two critical resources.

– Water– Timberland

The Mexican BorderlandsThe Mexican Borderlands

• Spain divided the Southwest into four main groups.– Indians (full blooded Native Americans who

retained their own languages and customs)– Mestizos (racially mixed; Spanish and Indian)– Criollos, American born whites of Spanish

ancestry– Spaniards

• Spanish wanted to Christianize and civilize the Indians.

• Largest concentration (300,000) of Indians was in California.

• The Paiutes in Owens Valley perfected a system for irrigating wild grasses.

• The Yumans along the Colorado River practiced full scale agriculture (maize, wheat, beans, tobacco, and melons.

• The Pueblos (Arizona and New Mexico), incorporated the Catholic God and rituals into their polytheistic religion.

Other Mexican Borderland TribesOther Mexican Borderland Tribes

• Navajos, Apaches, Comanches, and Kiowas

• The Comanches were the most feared tribe by all nomadic people.

Americanization of TexasAmericanization of Texas

• Mexican government encouraged Americans to settle in Texas by offering huge land grants in return for promises to accept Mexican citizenship, convert to Catholicism, and obey authorities in Mexico City.

• Empresarios – agents who received a land grant from the Spanish or Mexican government in return for organizing settlements.

• Stephen F. Austin founded first American colony in Texas.

• Many new settlers ignored Mexican Law, especially the Emancipation Proclamation of 1829, which forbade slavery in the Republic of Mexico.

• In 1830, Mexican government levied the first taxes on the Americans, prohibiting the importation of slaves and closed the international border to additional immigration.

• Tejanos – persons of Spanish or Mexican decent born in Texas.

• Mexicans were viewed as mongrelized race of black people.

• Americans viewed Catholicism as a superstitious religion and ignored all legal requirements to accept the Catholic faith.

• When General Santa Anna was elected president of Mexico in 1833, he ended any hope of Texas becoming an autonomous state.

• Mexican troops and rebellious Texans began to fight.

The AlamoThe Alamo

• Franciscan mission and fort at San Antonio, Texas, that was the location of the 1836 siege and massacre of Texans by Mexican troops.

• Army of four thousand annihilated the 187 defenders of the Alamo.

• A few weeks later at Goliad, another three hundred Texans were killed after the agreed to surrender.

• While trying to flee General Santa Anna was captured and forced to sign a treaty recognizing Texas as an independent republic with a border on the south and west of the Rio Grande.

• However, the Mexican Congress rejected the treaty and the border dispute continued.

The Push into California and the The Push into California and the SouthwestSouthwest

• Mexican rule in California was weak.

• Californios – Californians of Spanish descent

• Government initiated program of economic development to help strengthen its control over the region.

• Centerpiece of Mexican program– Secularization of millions– Opening up landholdings of the Catholic Church to private

ownership– Releasing the Indians from bondage

• Santa Fe Trail – 780 mile trail opened by American merchants from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico for trading purposes following Mexico’s liberalization of the formerly restrictive trading policies of Spain.

• American imports were paid by gold, silver, and fur.

Politics, Expansion and WarPolitics, Expansion and War

• James K. Polk was now president and wanted to expand the United States by adding California and New Mexico.

• April 1846, war broke out between the United States and Mexico.

• Mexican Cessation of 1848 – addition of half a million sq. miles to the United States after winning the war with Mexico in 1846.

The Mexican WarThe Mexican War

• Polk refused to budge on the American claim that the Rio Grande was the border between Mexico and Texas.

• Mexico claimed that the border was the Nueces River, which was 100 miles north of the Rio Grande.

• With the Rio Grande as the border Texas would be more than double the size.

• Polk sought a war that would give United States control of California.

• Mexico fought bravely, but could not match American Military; they lacked leadership, modern artillery, and navel capacity to fight off American advances.

• Taos Revolt – Uprising of Pueblo Indians in New Mexico that broke out in January 1847 over the imposition of American rule during the Mexican War; the revolt was crushed within a few weeks.

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848): Mexico gave up claim to Texas north of Rio Grande, Alta California, and New Mexico. (present day Arizona, Utah, and Nevada)

Politics of SectionalismPolitics of Sectionalism

• Slavery in the Territories– Outright exclusion– Extension of the Missouri Compromise line to

the Pacific– Popular sovereignty (allow residents to make

their own decision).– Protection of the property of slaveholders

(meaning their right to own slaves) even if a few in the territory.

• Wilmot Proviso- Amendment offered by Pennsylvania Democrat David Wilmot in 1846, which stated “ as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico.

• Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any of the said territory.

Election of 1848Election of 1848

• Democratic Candidate Lewis Cass argued that territorial residents should decide slavery issue.

• Popular sovereignty – solution for slavery that territorial residents, not Congress would decide on slavery issue.

• Whig nominee Zachary Taylor remained silent on the slavery issue.

• Taylor’s election gave the country first president who was from the “Lower South.”

Compromise of 1850Compromise of 1850

• GOLD, GOLD, GOLD, was discovered in California!

• Four Thousand people rushed from the North (Forty Niners), including free blacks and slaves to mine gold fields.

• Compromise of 1850 – Four step compromise which…– Admit California a free state– Allow residents of the New Mexico and Utah

territories to decide slavery issues themselves.– End the slave trade in the District of Columbia.– Pass a new fugitive slave law to enforce the

constitutional provision stating that a person “held to Service or Labor in one state…escaping into another…shall be delivered upon Claim of the party to whom such Service or Labor may be due.”

• Fugitive Slave Act – required authorities in the north to assist Southern slave catchers and return runaway slaves to their owners.

• Frederick Douglas brought together the National Black Convention in Rochester, NY IN 1853, where he established a national council.

Uncle Tom’s CabinUncle Tom’s Cabin

• Anti-slave newspaper

• Became a book in 1852, which sold 300,000 copies in its first year.

• Highlighted the hypocrisy of white Northerners who were quick to perceive evil in the South, but were too blind to discriminate against blacks in the North.

Political RealignmentPolitical Realignment

• Franklin Pierce becomes president at the age of 48.

• Ostend Manifesto – Pierce’s administration coveted Cuba– Claimed that Cuba naturally belonged in a family of

states with the United States– Public revelation of the manifesto produced criticism

and embarrassment for administration.

Kansas-Nebraska ActKansas-Nebraska Act

• Law passed in 1854 creating the Kansas and Nebraska Territories but leaving the issue of slavery open to the residents, which disregarded the agreement of the Missouri Compromise.

• This made it look like Nebraska was intended to be a free territory, while Kansas was intended for slavery.

Bleeding KansasBleeding Kansas

• Kansas became the first battle ground between those favoring the extension of slavery and those opposing it.

• In the spring of 1855, thousands of armed Missourians called “border ruffians”, voted illegally in Kansa, helping elect pro-slavery legislature.

• Furious anti-slavery settlers countered by holding a convention in Topeka and drafting their own constitution that excluded slavery.

• “Bleeding Kansas,” as newspapers dubbed the territory; became the scene of a territorial civil war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers.

• By the end of 1856, 200 people had died in the fighting and two million dollars’ worth of property had been destryoed

• Know-Nothing Party – anti-immigrant party formed from the wreckage of the Whig Party and some disaffected Northern Democrats in 1854.

• Republican Party – Formed in summer of 1854

– Formed from antislavery Conscience Whigs and Democrats disgusted with Pierce’s administration.

– Supporters of reform

– Opposed slavery; anti Southern sectional party

Dred Scott CaseDred Scott Case

• Slave owned by an army surgeon based in Missouri.

• He traveled with his master to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory before returning to Missouri.

• Upon his return, Scott sued his master’s widow for freedom, stating that the laws of Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory banned slavery.

• After countless appeals, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves could not be U.S. citizens and that Congress had no jurisdictions over slavery in the territories.

Lecompton ConstitutionLecompton Constitution

• Proslavery draft written in 1857 by Kansas territorial delegates who were elected under questionable circumstances.

• Was rejected by two governors, supported by President Buchanan, yet was defeated by Congress.

Panic of 1857Panic of 1857

• Banking crisis that caused a credit crunch in the North.

• It was less severe in the South, where high cotton prices spurred a quick recovery.

• Republican advantage

• Democrats did nothing as unemployment rose, starvation got worse and the number of homeless increased.

Lincoln-Douglas DebateLincoln-Douglas Debate• Series of debates in 1858 during the Illinois senatorial campaign during which

Douglas and Lincoln staked out their differences in opinions on the slavery issue.

• Freeport Doctrine – proclaimed by Steven Douglas during the Lincoln-Douglas debate.

• Slavery could possibly exist in a territory only if the people passed a law to protect it.

• Without such a law, slavery could not exist and slaves could not enter that territory.

North v. SouthNorth v. South

• South– More violent– Values = courtesy, honor, courage– More inclined to military service– Iliteracy rate 3x greater than north

• North– Overwhelming white population– Free wage labor– Factory/industry work

• Slavery accounted for most of the differences between the North and the South.

• Investment in land and black slaves limited the amount that cold be invested in manufacturing.

• Slavery contributed to the South’s material tradition and attitude toward public education.

John Brown’s RaidJohn Brown’s Raid

• New England abolitionist John Brown’s ill-fated attempt to free Virginia’s slaves with a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

• Brown was wounded.

• His men were either killed or captured.

• Brown was tried by the state of Virginia for treason and was sentences to be hanged.

Election of 1860Election of 1860

• Constitutional Union Party – National party formed in 1860 (mostly former Whigs), emphasizing allegiance to the Union and strict enforcement of all national legislation.

• Northern candidates – Lincoln & S. Douglas

• Southern candidates – Breckinridge & Bell

• Lincoln chose to say practically nothing during the election.

• Lincoln became the sixteenth president.

• Four days after Lincoln won the presidency, South Carolina legislature elected to secede from the Union.

• By February, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas left the Union.

• Confederate States of America – Nation proclaimed in Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861, after the seven states of the Lower South seceded from the Union.

• Lincoln did not take office officially until March 4, 1861, therefore Buchanan had to deal with the issues of the secession.

• Unfortunately, Buchanan failed to work with Congress in order to find a solution.

• Buchanan figured by waiting the situation out, the South would come to their senses.

• Lincoln was against the secession of the South, but vowed to keep federal order in his inaugural address.

• Fort Sumter located in Charleston, SC was where Lincoln attempted to provision federal troops in 1861, triggering hostile response from on-shore Confederate forces, starting the Civil War.