Transcript 1840 – 1877ish Review

1840-1877 Review
Major Domestic Events:
1848- Mexican War/Cession
1849- Wilmot Proviso
1850- Compromise of 1850
1852- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1854- Kansas/Nebraska Act
1854- Bleeding Kansas
1856- Caning of Sumner
1857- Panic of 1857
1859- Harper’s Ferry
1860- Election of 1860
1861- Secession
Major Foreign Events:
France retakes Mexico
Confederate efforts to court Britain and France through ‘cotton
diplomacy’
If the time period is 1845-1861:
•The things you MUST write about
• The Wilmot Proviso rents open the division of North and South,
demonstrating the sharp divisions
• The Panic of 1857 shows that the South feels economically ‘decoupled’
from the North and that trade with Europe will sustain their economy. (We
don’t need the North!!)
• The thing you CAN write about:
• Trace the development of North/South conflict from tariffs to bank wars to
acquisition of land to the election of 1860
Sectionalism
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Industrial Northeast
Agricultural Northwest
Agricultural South
The Western Frontier
American Indians
Immigration & Nativists
White Society
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Merchants
Businessmen
Aristocracy
Farmers
Poor Whites
Mountain People
City People
Code of Chivalry
Education
Territorial Expansion
• Dispute in Maine (Aroostock War) a conflict over the border between Canada led to the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
• Dispute in Oregon – this was the birth of manifest destiny in 1844. Americans believed
that the entirety of the territory belonged to the US including Mexico’s California, plus
there was a push to annex Texas.
• The election of 1844 led to James K. Polk and the “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” slogan as it
pertained to western expansion in the disputed territories. Oregon would be divided to
reflect it’s current alignment with the 49th parallel. Texas was additionally annexed.
• War with Mexico with from 1846-1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
provided for the following:
• Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas
• Mexico ceded the provinces of California and New Mexico to the US
• The US paid Mexico $15M for loss of territory
• The Wilmot Proviso was an attempt to outlaw future slavery in acquired lands from Mexico
• Ostend Manifesto was an attempt to purchase Cuba from Spain
• Gadsden Purchase allowed for Pierce to purchase $10M of land from Mexico for the railroads
Settling the West
• Fur traders
• Overland trails and harsh conditions
• Mining towns
• Farming frontiers and Indians
• Urban frontier centers of San Francisco and Denver due to gold/silver
• Railroad dominance
• Barbed wire
• Panic of 1857 – bust to the boom period of expansion. Prices in the Midwest
dropped significantly and employment rose in the north. The south was barley
effected and as such treated the panic as a regional victory.
The Union in Peril
• Free-Soil movement continued to fuel the abolitionist movements
• The fundamental concept of ‘popular sovereignty’ would be challenged several
times from the late 1840s to the start of the Civil War. This led to the
Compromise of 1850. The gold rush of 1849 allowed for a mass influx of
migration and settlement into the recently acquired lands from Mexico. Due to a
crisis over admission of slave states versus free, and threats of secession, Henry
Clay orchestrated the following compromise:
• California would join the Union as free
• The Utah and New Mexico territories would decide their eventual state’s position on free
or slave with popular sovereignty
• Washington D.C. banned the slave trade
• The Fugitive Slave Law was adopted and enforced (Dred Scot case)
• Due to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law movements such as the Underground Railroad
(Tubman and Truth) developed. Additionally, books on slavery became popular to the point
that Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Impending Crisis of the South were banned in parts of the
South.
In Peril cont..
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) – in an effort to expand the railroad to support
westward settlement Stephen A. Douglass created a plan that would divide the
Nebraska Territory into separate territories of Kansas and Nebraska, thus allowing
for Southern expansion of slavery in to the Kansas territory.
• In essence the K-N Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and sparked violent
movements amongst Abolitionists and pro-slavery supporters. The North was
sending anti-slavery families to settle Kansas at the same time that slavery was
expanding. The violence that erupted was referred to “Bleeding Kansas”. Most
noted was John Brown and his raids.
• The caning of Senator Sumner in 1856 only fueled the political tensions that
existed in Congress. Congressman Brooks defended South Carolina Senator
Andrew Butler from the verbal attacks from Sumner. Although censured for his
beating of Sumner, Brooks received numerous replacement canes from southern
sympathizers.
Other Issues
• Nativists who targeted the rise in Catholic immigrants from Germany and Ireland
formed the Know-Nothing Party (American Party).
• In 1854 the Free-Soilers and antislavery Whigs and Democrats formed the
Republican party as a direct response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
• Lecompton Constitution was an attempt to legitimize the government at
Lecompton, Kansas and admit it as a slave state.
• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) – the Supreme Court declared the Missouri
Compromise as unconstitutional as it did not address slavery in Wisconsin and
other Northern territories. Additionally slaves were viewed as property as the
original intent of the Constitution had outlined.
• Lincoln-Douglass debates in 1858 for the US Senate allowed for Lincoln to
emerge as a moderate political candidate for the Republican nomination to the
presidency in 1860.
Road to Secession
• John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry – reignited Southern claims of hostile
Abolitionists in 1859 to spark slave revolts. Brown and his followers were
captured by General Robert E. Lee
• Breakup of the Democratic party which in 1860 was the last hope for coalition
and compromise. The Northern candidate was Douglass, the Southern was VP
Breckinridge. Both platforms continued the dogma already present about
popular sovereignty versus slave expansion
• Lincoln’s nomination by the Republican party was actually met with a warning
from the South that if he was elected then they would secede.
• Former Whigs, Know-Nothings, and moderate Democrats formed the
Constitutional Union party on a platform to preserve the Union. Their candidate
was John Bell. (in the election they carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee)
• Results for the election = Secession
• Crittenden Compromise was an attempt to guarantee slavery in all territories below 36*30*
The Civil War (1861-1865)