Transcript CH 13 MANIFEST DESTINY

Chapter 13
Manifest Destiny: An Empire for
Liberty– or Slavery?
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This romantic painting of America’s westward movement
epitomizes the spirit of Manifest Destiny
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Manifest Destiny
• John L. O’Sullivan - editor of United States
Magazine and Democratic Review - 1845
 “Our Manifest Destiny is to overspread the
continent allotted by Providence for the free
development of our yearly multiplying millions.”
 Jane McManus Storm Cazneau (The Mistress of
Manifest Destiny by Linda S. Hudson, 2001)
• Horace Greeley: “Go west, young man”
(editor of New York Tribune)
• Why did people move westward?
Overland Trails, 1846
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Texas
• Mexico won independence
from Spain in September 1821
 Both John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson tried to buy
Texas from Mexico
• Problems
 Protestants in a Catholic
country
 Slave owners in a country that
banned slavery
• Tejanos and American alliance
against central Mexican
government
Stephen F. Austin, a Missouri
businessman, was an early
leader of the Americans who
settled in Texas: Dec. 1821
• By 1830: 20,000 white settlers and 1,000
•
slaves
Republic of Texas 1836
 Antonio López de Santa Anna – Mexican dictator
(1834)
 “Remember the Alamo!”
The Alamo (San Antonio) became a symbol of Texas independence after
the Mexican army overran the old mission in 1836.
 Sam Houston
• Defeated Santa Anna at the San
Jacinto River
• First president of the Republic of Texas
 Texas annexation main issue in
election of 1844
• Whig Henry Clay – against
• Democratic nominee - “Dark horse”
James K. Polk: Pro-annexation and
“54’ 40” or fight”
• James Birney and the Liberty Party against
Acquisition of Texas and Oregon
• President John Tyler’s Joint Resolution
annexes Texas (requires only a majority
vote) – March 1845
• Texas enters the Union as the 28th state and
as a slave state: December 29, 1845 (Pres.
Polk)
 Florida entered the union in March 1845 = #27
• Mexico breaks off diplomatic relations with
U.S.
 Rio Grande vs. Nueces River as Texas border
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• “Fifty-four forty or fight!”
 Compromise at 49th parallel –
neither the United States nor
Britain wanted to go to war
 Oregon (#33) not admitted
until 1859
The Mexican War
• President Polk provoked a war with Mexico
in order to gain California and New Mexico
▪ Tried to buy New Mexico and California for $30
million
▪ Sent troops under Zachary Taylor to Rio Grande
▪ Sent letter to Monterey (capital of California)
implying the people could push to join the U.S.
▪ Sent naval squadron to patrol the gulf off the
coast of Mexico
• U.S. troops attacked on May 9
• “Mr. Polk’s War” declared May 13, 1846
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War Sentiment
• Whigs and many in Northeast considered it a
“wicked and disgraceful war”
• The Wilmot Proviso (August 8, 1846):
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever
exist in any part of said territory” – David Wilmot
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Military Campaigns of 1846
• General Zachary Taylor, “Rough and ready”,
won 2 small battles before invading Mexico
 Occupied Monterrey in Mexico (September)
• General Stephen Watts Kearny
 Used intimidation in New Mexico; occupied
Santa Fe without a fight
 Split his troops
 John C. Frémont
• “Bear-Flag Revolt”
Military Campaigns of 1847
• General Winfield Scott, “Old Fuss and
Feathers”
 Combined army-naval force took coastal fort at
Vera Cruz - March
• America’s first major amphibious operation
 Took Mexico City in September
 Marines planted American flag and occupied
“the halls of Montezuma”
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End of the Mexican War
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
negotiated by Nicholas Trist
 Mexico gave up all claims to Texas north of the
Rio Grande
 Ceded California and New Mexico to the U.S.
 U.S. paid Mexico $15 million and assumed
claims of American citizens against Mexico up to
$3 ¼ million
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
“Firsts” and the Mexican War
•
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First successful offensive war
First major amphibious operation
First occupation of an enemy capital
First that declared martial law on foreign soil
First that West Point graduates played a major role
First significant combat experience for junior officers
who would be leading generals in the Civil War
 Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant; Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson, George Pickett
• First reported by modern war correspondents
 George Wilkins Kendall: cofounder of New Orleans Picayune
 Jane McManus Storm Cazneau
Free and Slave States and Territories, 1848
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The Election of 1848
• Lewis Cass, Michigan Senator, Democratic nominee
 Middle-of-the-road candidate
 “popular sovereignty”
• Whigs nominate war hero Zachary Taylor
 Ironic since most Whigs were against the war and Taylor was a
slave-owner
• Free-Soilers: “conscience” Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats,
and Liberty Party
 Nominate Martin Van Buren: “No more slaves and no more slave
territories.”
• Liberty Party – John P. Hale
 Bar slavery from all territories
• Taylor wins with 47% of the popular vote
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Taylor’s Presidency
• Views more nationalistic than sectional
• Military man with a direct mind
• Did not support slavery in the new lands
• Supporter California and New Mexico (today’s
NM, AZ, NV, Utah, part of CO) becoming
states, skipping the territorial requirement
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• The Compromise of 1850
 Senate Debates- considered one of the greatest in our
history
• Clay proposed compromise between slavery and anti-slavery
• Calhoun (dying) threatens secession
• Daniel Webster, “The Great Orator”: Compromise and
conciliation
• William H. Seward: “higher law” speech
• Others involved: Jefferson Davis, Thomas Hart Benton, Stephen
A. Douglas
• Millard Fillmore replaces Taylor who died of cholera
 Supported compromise
• Stephen A. Douglas, “the Little Giant”, separated Clay’s ideas
into 5 parts
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• Provisions of the Compromise of 1850
 California admitted as a free state
 New Mexico territory (included Arizona and
Nevada) and Utah had no restrictions on slavery;
settlers would decide
 Texas-New Mexico border dispute settled in New
Mexico’s favor; Texas paid $10 million (which was
used to pay off debt to Mexico)
 Abolition of slave trade in D.C., but slavery still
permitted
 Fugitive Slave Law
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
• Slaves could be captured and returned
to owners many years after escape
• Authorized federal commissioners and marshals
to take fugitives and return them to owners
• Accused slave had no rights; denied trials
• Citizens could be required to help with
enforcement; violators could be imprisoned
• Some states passed anti-kidnapping laws
 Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
• Pennsylvania’s anti-kidnapping act unconstitutional
• Federal laws override state laws
• Federal responsibility to apprehend fugitives, not
states
• “Underground railroad”
Advertisement for runaway slave
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin: 1852
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Book was reaction against Fugitive Slave
•
•
Law
Central theme: breakup of slave families
Shapes Northern perceptions of slavery
for a generation
Filibustering
• Presidents Polk and Pierce (elected in 1852)
try to buy Cuba
• Filibusters are groups that tried to invade
Latin American countries to expand slavery
 Filibusters try to take Cuba
• Three attempts failed; about 250 Americans killed
• Ostend Manifesto (1854)
 Stated that Cuba was necessary to the United
States and if Spain did not sell it, the U.S. had
the right to take it
 Administration repudiated the document
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