Transcript Chapter 13 US EVx

Homework:
The Source Reader:
“Great Nation of Futurity”
“Against the Mexican War”
“Spot Resolutions”
“Land of Opportunity”
Between 1815 and 1860, 5 million European
immigrants came to America; 3 million of which
between 1845 and 1856. Reasons to emigrate
were:
Religious freedom
Utopia for the poor
Land of plenty
Issues and Patterns of Immigration
 Irregular sailing
schedules
 Cargo ships, not
passenger ships
 Difference in farming
(America v. Europe)
 Poor immigrants
crowed the urban ports
of entry
 Geographic
concentrations
characterized most
immigrant groups
German and Irish Immigrants
Cities attracted the most immigrants as compared
to farms. By 1860, these two groups formed
more than 60% of the population of St. Louis;
half the population of New York, Chicago,
Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Detroit, and San
Francisco; and over a third of New Orleans,
Baltimore, and Boston.
The Germans
Second largest immigrant groups
Did not share a common country, but did share
a common language
Religious beliefs (Catholic, Protestants, Jews,
and “free thinkers”)
Spanned a wide range of social classes and
occupations
Americans admired Germans industriousness,
however, resented their self-sufficiency
Contributions of the Germans
The Germans will not be a major political force,
because of their “clannishness,” but they did
contribute to American culture:
Conestoga Wagons
Kentucky Rifle
Christmas Trees
Bier (Beer)
Kindergartens
Music (Polka)
Levi jeans
The Irish
 Largest group to immigrate to America
 Between 1815 and the mid-1820s, most
were Protestant, small landowners, and
merchants. From the mid-1820s to the
1840s they became poorer, mostly
Catholic, and were tenant farmers
 All arrivals during and after the 1840s,
were in search of low paying jobs.
 Irish women disproportionately needed
to find work, typically in domestic
occupations
 Had a harsh life in America, but many
were able to go up the social latter
 Constantly conflicted with two groups;
free blacks and white, native-born skilled
workers.
The “Black Forties”
In the mid-1840s, a potato
famine, the Great Famine, hit
Ireland. Without support from
their overlords, the British,
one million perished. About
1.8 million Irish, who could
muster the fee, fled to the
United States. Too poor to
buy land, many gathered in
Northern cities,
predominately in Boston and
New York.
Ancient Order of the Hibernians
An Irish semisecret society, who acted in
opposition to British control in Ireland, served as
a benevolent organization for downtrodden Irish
immigrants in the United States.
Nativism
The policy of protecting the interests of native-born
or established inhabitants against those of
immigrants. With the surge of immigrants,
particularly the Catholic Irish, in the 1840s and
1850s, many Americans feared a that America
would lose influence to European values and
traditions.
Reactions to Nativism
A Plea for the West and Awful Disclosures
Anti-Immigrant Societies: American
Republican Party, United Order of Americans,
Order of the Star Spangled Banner
American or “Know-Nothing” Party
“Bible Riots”
George Henry Evans and the National Reform
Association
Labor Unions and Commonwealth v. Hunt
Immigrants and the Democrats
 Very few immigrants were political refugees,
except ten thousand “Forty-Eighters,” but they
realized that political action meant jobs
 Democrats came off as more of an antiaristocratic party, sympathetic to the common
man
 Abolitionism was tied with the Whigs, which
Irish opposed
 Both Germans and Irish hated temperance Whigs
who were also anti-Catholics
 Whigs supported public education, which both
groups opposed.
The Far West
Oregon Country and renewed joint occupation
California and Californios
Santa Fe Trail
Beaver trade in Colorado and Utah
American relations with Mexico
Mexico and its control of its Northern
provinces
“Secularized missions” and Indian resistance
Stephen Austin and the empresarios
Texas Revolution
American immigration and Mexican regulation
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
The Alamo and Goliad
Sam Houston, Battle of San Jacinto
Lone Star Republic or Texas Republic
“Tyler Too” and the Whigs
 John Tyler took the Presidency
when William Henry Harrison died
a month into office
 Became a Whig because of the
Nullification Crisis, but was a firm
states’ rights advocate
 Passed a bill ending the
Independent Treasury
 Vetoed Clay’s “Fiscal Bank”
 Vetoed Clay’s “Fiscal
Corporation”
 Vetoed a tariff that would have
distributed funds to all the states
 Signed the Black Tariff of 1842
 Whigs lose the House of
Representatives in 1842
Tyler Saving His Presidency
 Being thrown out of his party and seeking a
second term, Tyler looked to foreign affairs for
success
 The Aroostook War and the Webster-Ashburton
Treaty
 Annexation of Texas
Election of 1844
 Neither party nominated Tyler, and he
dropped out after testing being an
independent
 Whigs nominated Henry Clay
 Martin Van Buren was the early
leader for the Democrats, but was
neutralized by the running of Lewis
Cass. Democrats eventually went with
the “dark-horse,” James K. Polk
 Polk won because of Clay’s
“straddling the fence” on the Texas
issue, Clay’s pro-Temperance and
pro-Protestant vice-presidential
nominee, and the nomination of
James G. Birney as the Liberty Party
candidate
James K. Polk
Nicknamed “Young Hickory”
during the election, Polk came
into the presidency with a fourpoint program: reduce the
tariff, reestablish the
independent treasury, acquire
California, and settle the
Oregon dispute.
 Walker Tariff: lowered the a
tariff from 32% to 25%
 Recreated the independent
treasury in 1846
 The last two points proved to
be a larger challenge
Manifest Destiny
The belief that the United States was destined by
God to spread its “empire of liberty” across North
America. The principle served as justification for
nineteenth century American expansionism.
The Oregon Issue
 Despite promising to obtain all of Oregon during
the campaign, Polk knew that to accomplish that
feat, war with Britain was the only solution.
 To avoid war, Polk offered an extension of the
49th parallel to the Pacific, which Britain denied
 Britain wanted the Columbia River to be the
natural border.
 “Fifty-four forty or fight”
 April 1846, already engulfed in a war with
Mexico, Polk terminated the join occupation of
the region to force Britain into a treaty.
 Britain agreed to the 49th parallel and kept all of
Vancouver Island
Pushing Toward War
 Mexico owed US citizens $2 million, which it had not repaid
due to its political turmoil
 The election of Polk, on the promise of annexing Texas, gave
expansionist politicians the support to move forward. Texans
worried that annexation would mean further war in Texas.
 Polk enticed the Texans by proclaiming that the Rio Grande
was the natural border of southern Texas, when Mexico had
insisted it was the Nueces River, 100 miles north.
 Polk then stationed Zachary Taylor and a contingent of soldiers
in the disputed territory to provoke war.
 In early 1845, Mexico seemed to want to negotiate and, being
bogged down with negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Polk
sent Jon Slidell to negotiate a deal. The Mexican government
refused to see Slidell. Polk then ordered Taylor to take up
position just north of the Rio Grande
“American Blood Has Been Shed on
American Soil!”
After receiving no word on
Taylor’s status, Polk moved to
ask Congress for a declaration
of war on the basis of not
receiving Slidell and unpaid
debt. Just prior to his message,
Polk received a telegram
stating the the Mexican Army
had crossed the Rio Grande
and had a firefight with Taylor.
Polk immediately asked
Congress for $10 million to
fight the war.
“Conscience” Whigs
Despite the high-handedness of the reason for
war, many Whigs approved the appropriations
bill, not wanting to look like the Federalists
during the War of 1812. However, some antislavery Whigs protested the legality of the war
based on where the firefight had occurred.
War with Mexico
Zachary Taylor, Battle of Buena Vista
Winfield Scott, assault on Vera Cruz and
Mexico City
Stephan Kearny conquers New Mexico
John D. Sloat and David Stockton blockaded
California coast
John C. Fremont, the Bear Flag Republic
Nicholas Trist, treaty negotiations
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico recognized
the Rio Grande as
Texas’s border
United States
assumed Mexican
debts to American
citizens
United States paid
$15 million for
California and all the
land east to Texas
Expansion and Sectional Conflict
 To Polk, territorial expansion had nothing to do with
slavery, but the tradition of dispersing population
and retaining American agriculture and democratic
character. He believed the Missouri Compromise
solved the slavery dispute
 Many Northerners saw slavery in the territories as
disruptive that simply expanding a line could not
solve
 Abolitionists opposed any extension of slavery
 Northern Democrats feared that extension of slavery
into the territories would deter free laborers from
heading West
Wilmot Proviso
An amendment, proposed by
Democrat David Wilmot of
Pennsylvania and added to a
war appropriations bill, that
sought to prohibit slavery from
the territories acquired from
Mexico. It passed the House,
but stalled in the Senate. Polk
refused to endorse it and
southern Democrats believed
westward expansion of slavery
would lessen the chance of
slave revolts.
Other Foreign Affairs
Both Tyler and Polk embraced the idea of Manifest
Destiny and pursued these goals outside the borders of
the US:
 Treaty of Wanghia (1844) – signed by the US and China, it
assured the United States the same trading concessions granted
to other powers, greatly expanding America’s trade with the
Chinese.
 Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty (1848) – granted the US significant
transit rights over the Panamanian isthmus, as well as military
powers to suppress social conflicts and independence struggles
targeted against Colombia. In 1848, the US spent seven years
constructing a trans-isthmian Panama Railway because of the
California Gold Rush
Election of 1848
With the war with Mexico
officially over, the two main
parties of the US, the Democrats
and the Whigs, collectively held
the country together. Both sides
ardently chose not to speak of the
slavery issue during the election
of 1848. The Democrats
nominated General Lewis Cass,
veteran of the War of 1812. The
Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor,
“Old Rough and Ready.” Taylor
won by a narrow margin.
Popular Sovereignty
Also known as “squatter sovereignty,” the belief
that the will of the people would decide political
outcomes. General Cass was proclaimed the
father of the idea. Even though he fell silent
about slavery during the election of 1848, the
masses knew he favored this belief.
Free-Soil Party
A third party that emerged out of
a distrust of the Whig and
Democratic Parties. This party
was made up of:
 Supporters of the Wilmot Proviso
 Industrialists angry over Polk’s
reduction of the protective tariff
 Northern Democrats resentful of
Polk’s settling for part of Oregon
while insisting on all of Texas
 Northerners who were racist
toward African Americans
 Whigs who supported abolition
California Gold Rush
In early 1848, gold was
discovered in California.
For the next few years,
prospectors of all sorts
flocked to the region
hoping to strike it rich.
When few did, the lawless
territory burst into crime.
The law-abiding majority
scrambled to write up a
state constitution and by
1850, California applied
for statehood.