Chapter 13: the Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

Chapter 13 The Crisis of the Union 1844–1860

Teaching Resources proclaimed the independence of Texas on March 2, 1826, and adopted a constitution Chapter Instructional Objectives legalizing slavery. 5. Vowing to put down the rebellion, Santa After you have taught this chapter, your students Anna’s army wiped out the war party’s should be able to answer the following questions: rebel garrison that was defending the 1. How did western expansion become inextricably Alamo and then captured Goliad. linked with sectional identity during the 1840s? 6. Hundreds of American adventurers influenced by press reports and lured by offers 2. How and why did southerners change their posi- of land grants flocked to Texas to join the tion on slavery—first claiming it was a “necessary rebel army. Led by General Sam Houston, evil,” then defending it as a “positive good”? the war party routed the Mexicans in the 3. Why did the United States fight the war with Mex- Battle of San Jacinto. ico? What was the larger impact of this war? 7. The Mexican government abandoned efforts to reconquer Texas, but refused to ac- 4. How and why did divisions within American soci- cept its status as an independent republic. ety during the 1850s bring the Second Party Sys- 8. Texans quickly voted for annexation to the tem to an end? United States, but Presidents Jackson and 5. What choices were available to Americans in the Van Buren refused to act on the issue, election of 1860, and why was Abraham Lincoln’s knowing that adding Texas as a slave state victory significant? would divide the Democratic Party and the nation and almost certainly lead to Chapter Annotated Outline war with Mexico. B. The Push to the Pacific I. Manifest Destiny: South and North 1. In 1845 John L. O’Sullivan coined the A. The Independence of Texas phrase Manifest Destiny; he felt that 1. The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 guaran- Americans had a right to develop the entire teed Spanish sovereignty over Texas. continent as they saw fit, which implied a 2. After winning independence from Spain sense of cultural and racial superiority. in 1821, the Mexican government, short 2. The Oregon country stretched along the on population and cash for settling the re- Pacific coast from the border with Mexi- gion, encouraged settlement by Mexicans can California to the border with Russian and by migrants from the United States. Alaska and was claimed by both Great 3. As the Mexican government asserted Britain and the United States. greater political control over Texas in the 3. “Oregon fever” raged in 1843 as thou- mid-1830s, the Americans split into two sands, lured by reports of fine harbors, groups: the “peace party,” led by Stephen mild climate, and fertile soil, journeyed Austin, wanted more autonomy for the for months across the continent to the province, and the “war party” wanted in- Willamette Valley. dependence from Mexico. 4. By 1860 about 350,000 Americans had 4. After provoking a rebellion, the war party braved the Oregon Trail; many died en

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route from disease and exposure, although II. War, Expansion, and Slavery, 1846–1850 relatively few died from Indian attacks. A. The War with Mexico, 1846–1848 5. Some pioneers left the Oregon Trail and 1. President Polk saw Texas as just the begin- traveled south along the California Trail, ning; he wanted American control over all settling along the Sacramento River in the Mexican territory between Texas and the Mexican province of California. Pacific Ocean and was prepared to go to 6. To promote California’s development, the war to get it. Mexican government took over the Cali- 2. Mexico was determined to retain its terri- fornia missions and liberated the 20,000 tories, and when the Texas Republic ac- Indians who worked on them, many of cepted American statehood in 1845, Mex- whom intermarried with mestizos and ico broke off diplomatic relations with the worked as laborers and cowboys on large United States. cattle ranches. 3. To intimidate the Mexican government, 7. The rise of cattle ranching created a new Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to society and economy as agents from New occupy the disputed lands between the England firms assimilated to Mexican life Nueces River and the Rio Grande. and married into the families of the Cali- 4. Polk also sent John Slidell to Mexico City fornios. on a secret diplomatic initiative to secure 8. Many American migrants in California Mexican acceptance of the Rio Grande had no desire to assimilate into Mexican boundary and to buy Mexico and Califor- society and hoped for eventual annexation nia; Mexican officials refused to see him. to the United States; however, at that time 5. Polk’s alternative plan was to foment a American settlers in California were too revolution in California that, as in Texas, few. would lead to an independent republic C. The Fateful Election of 1844 and a request for annexation. 1. The election of 1844 determined the 6. In October 1845, at Polk’s request, American government’s western policy. Thomas O. Larkin encouraged the leading 2. To thwart rumored British schemes of Mexican residents of Monterey, California, North American expansion, southern ex- to declare independence and support pansionists demanded the immediate an- peaceful annexation. nexation of Texas. 7. Polk also ordered naval commanders to 3. “Oregon fever” and Manifest Destiny were seize California’s coastal towns in case of also altering the political and diplomatic war, and dispatched Captain John C. Fré- landscape in the North. Responding to mont’s heavily armed troops deep into “Oregon conventions” that called for an Mexican territory. end to joint occupation of the region, in 8. Hoping to incite an armed Mexican re- 1843 a bipartisan national convention de- sponse, Polk ordered General Taylor to the manded that the United States seize Ore- Rio Grande; when a clash occurred, Polk gon all the way to 54°40' north latitude. blamed the Mexicans for the bloodshed 4. Texas and Oregon became the central is- and called for war. sues in the election of 1844; Democrats 9. Ignoring Whig pleas for a negotiated set- selected James K. Polk, a slave owner and tlement, the Democratic majority in Con- expansionist who favored annexation of gress voted for war with Mexico. both Texas and Oregon. 10. To avoid simultaneous war with Britain, 5. The Whigs nominated Henry Clay, who the president accepted a British proposal again championed his American System of to divide the Oregon Country at the forty- internal improvements, high tariffs, and ninth parallel. national banking that begrudgingly sup- 11. By the end of 1846, the United States con- ported the annexation of Texas. trolled much of northeastern Mexico, and 6. Polk’s strategy of linking the issues of American forces secured control of Cali- Texas and Oregon was successful; immedi- fornia in 1847. ately after Polk’s victory, Democrats in 12. Santa Anna went on the offensive, attack- Congress approved annexation of Texas by ing Zachary Taylor’s units at Buena Vista a joint resolution to bring it into the in 1847, and only superior artillery en- Union. abled a narrow American victory. Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 191

13. General Winfield Scott’s troops seized 2. The influx of settlers revived the national Mexico City in September 1847; Santa debate over free soil; in November 1849 Anna was overthrown and the new Mexi- Californians ratified a state constitution can government agreed to make peace. that prohibited slavery. B. A Divisive Victory 3. The admission of California as a state 1. “Conscience Whigs”viewed the Mexican threatened the carefully maintained bal- War as a conspiracy to add new slave ance of slave states versus nonslave states states in the West, and Polk’s expansionist in the Senate. policy split the Democrats into sectional 4. Southern leaders decided to block Califor- factions. nia’s entry unless the federal government 2. The Wilmot Proviso (1846) was intended guaranteed the future of slavery. to prohibit slavery in any new territories 5. John C. Calhoun warned of possible seces- acquired from Mexico; the Senate killed sion by slave states and advanced the doc- the proviso. trine that Congress had no constitutional 3. To reunite Democrats before the election, authority to regulate slavery in the territo- Polk and Buchanan abandoned their ex- ries. pansionist hopes for Mexico and agreed to 6. Many southerners and some northern take only California and New Mexico. Democrats were willing to extend the Mis- 4. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo souri Compromise line to the Pacific (1848) the United States agreed to pay Ocean, guaranteeing slave owners some Mexico $15 million for Texas north of the western territory. Rio Grande, New Mexico, and California. 7. A third choice, squatter (popular) sover- 5. Many northerners joined a new “free- eignty, placed decisions about slavery in soil” movement,viewing slavery as a the hands of local settlers and their terri- threat to republicanism and the yeoman torial governments. farmers (and not, as the Liberty Party be- 8. Antislavery advocates were unwilling to lieved, a sin against the natural rights of accept any plan for California that might African Americans). involve the expansion of slavery in the ter- 6. The Wilmot Proviso’s call for free soil was ritories and urged federal authorities to the first antislavery proposal to attract restrict slavery within its existing bound- broad popular support. Frederick Doug- aries and then extinguish it completely. lass, the foremost black abolitionist, en- 9. Whigs and Democrats desperately sought dorsed the free-soil movement, and began a compromise to preserve the Union; to lecture for William Lloyd Garrison’s Whigs organized the Compromise of American Anti-Slavery Society. 1850. 7. Democrats nominated Lewis Cass as their 10. The Compromise included a Fugitive presidential candidate for the election of Slave Act to mollify the South, it admitted 1848; Cass was an avid expansionist who California as a free state and abolished the proposed squatter sovereignty and was de- slave trade in Washington, D.C., to mollify liberately vague on the issue of slavery in the North, and it organized the rest of the the West. lands acquired from Mexico into the terri- 8. The Free-Soilers nominated Martin Van tories of New Mexico and Utah on the Buren for president; the Whigs nominated basis of popular sovereignty. General Zachary Taylor, a slave owner 11. The Compromise averted a secession crisis who had not taken a position on slavery in 1850, but resulted in special conventions in the territories. in the South; in exchange for support of 9. Taylor and his running mate Millard Fill- the Compromise, moderate southern more won the election, but the electoral politicians agreed to support secession in margin was thin because of the Free-Soil the future if Congress abolished slavery ticket taking New York’s vote. anywhere or refused to grant statehood to C. 1850: Crisis and Compromise a territory with a proslavery constitution. 1. In 1848 flakes of gold were found in the III. The End of the Second Party System, 1850–1858 Sierra Nevada foothills, and by 1849 A. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act “forty-niners” were pouring into Califor- 1. Under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, nia in search of gold. federal magistrates in the northern states 192 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

determined the status of alleged runaway northern Louisiana Purchase into two ter- slaves. The law denied accused blacks a ritories, Kansas and Nebraska, and voided jury trial and even the right to testify and the Missouri Compromise line by opening it allowed the reenslavement of about two the area to slavery through the principle of hundred fugitives (as well as some free popular sovereignty. northern blacks). 2. The Kansas-Nebraska Act barely passed in 2. The plight of runaway slaves and the ap- 1854 through the use of patronage and pearance of slave catchers aroused popular persuasion by President Pierce, and hostility in the North and Midwest, and proved to be the end of the Second Party free blacks and abolitionists defied the System. new law. 3. Antislavery northern Whigs and Anti- 3. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Nebraska Democrats formed a new party, (1852), which evoked sympathy for slaves the Republicans; the party stood for oppo- and outrage against slavery throughout sition to slavery and a celebration of the the North, increased northern opposition moral virtues of a society based on “the to the act. middling classes.” 4. Northern legislatures enacted personal 4. The American, or “Know-Nothing” Party, liberty laws, and in Ableman v. Booth had its origins in the anti-immigrant and (1857), the Wisconsin Supreme Court said anti-Catholic organizations of the 1840s. the act violated the Constitution. It hoped to unite native-born Protestants 5. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1859 upheld against the “alien menace” of Irish and the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave German Catholics, prohibit further im- Act, but by then the act had become a migration, and institute literacy tests for “dead letter.” voting. B. The Political System in Decline 5. In 1855 the Pierce administration recog- 1. The conflict over slavery split both major nized the territorial legislature in Lecomp- political parties along sectional lines and ton, Kansas, which had adopted proslavery stymied creative political leadership. legislation. 2. The Whig Party chose General Winfield 6. Free-Soilers rejected the legitimacy of the Scott, but many southern Whigs refused territorial government; proslavery and to support Scott because northern Whigs antislavery sides turned to violence, in- refused to support slavery. cluding the “Pottawatomie massacre,” led 3. Democrats were divided at their conven- by John Brown. tion and no candidate could secure the D. Buchanan’s Failed Presidency necessary two-thirds majority, so they set- 1. The Republican Party counted on anger tled on a compromise nominee, Franklin over “Bleeding Kansas” to boost its for- Pierce. tunes and nominated Colonel James C. 4. The Democrats swept the election, and Frémont, a Free-Soiler, as its presidential their party was reunited; conversely, the candidate. Whig Party split into sectional wings and 2. The American Party split into sectional it would never again wage a national cam- factions, the northern faction endorsed paign. Frémont and the southern faction nomi- 5. Pierce pursued an expansionist foreign nated Millard Fillmore. policy to assist northern merchants, se- 3. The Democrats reaffirmed their support cured railroad rights in northern Mexico for popular sovereignty and the Kansas- with the Gadsden Purchase, and tried to Nebraska Act and nominated James seize Cuba, issuing the Ostend Manifesto Buchanan. (1854). 4. James Buchanan won, and the Republi- 6. Opposition to the manifesto forced Pierce cans replaced the Whigs as the second to halt efforts to take Cuba, but it revived major party. the northern fears of a “Slave Power” con- 5. Republicans had no support in the South, spiracy. however; if they were to win in the next C. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Rise of presidential election, it might prompt the New Parties southern states to withdraw from the 1. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, constructed by Union. It appeared up to President Democrat Stephen Douglas, divided the Buchanan to devise a way of protecting Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 193

free soil in the West and slavery in the lost his bid for reelection, and for a while South. he withdrew from politics in order to de- 6. In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856), the U.S. vote his time to law. Supreme Court opined that a slave’s resi- 6. Lincoln returned to politics after the pas- dence in a free state did not make him a sage of Stephen Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska free man and that African Americans were Act; he attacked the doctrine of popular not citizens and could not sue in a federal sovereignty and said he would leave slavery court. where it existed but not extend it into the 7. Chief Justice Taney declared the provi- territories. sions of the Northwest Ordinance and the 7. Lincoln abandoned the Whig Party and Missouri Compromise that prohibited joined the Republicans; he soon emerged slavery had never been constitutional, and as their leader in Illinois. that Congress could not give to territorial 8. In Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech, he governments any powers that Congress it- predicted a constitutional crisis over self did not possess. slavery. 8. Taney thereby endorsed Calhoun’s inter- 9. In the 1858 duel for the U.S. Senate, pretation of popular sovereignty: only Stephen Douglas declared his support for when settlers wrote a constitution and re- white supremacy, and Lincoln, put on the quested statehood could they prohibit defensive by Douglas, advocated economic slavery. opportunity for blacks but not equal po- 9. The Democrat-dominated Supreme Court litical rights. had declared the Republicans’ antislavery 10. Douglas’s “Freeport Doctrine” asserted that platform to be unconstitutional; Republi- settlers could exclude slavery by not adopt- cans countered by accusing the Supreme ing local legislation to protect it; this upset Court and President Buchanan of partici- proslavery advocates and abolitionists. pating in the “Slave Power” conspiracy. 11. Douglas was elected to the Senate, but Lin- 10. In 1858 Buchanan recommended the ad- coln had established a national reputation. mission of Kansas as a slave state; by pur- B. The Union Under Siege suing a proslavery agenda—first with Dred 1. Southern Democrats divided into two Scott and then in Kansas—he had helped groups: the “Moderates” (Southern Rights to split his party and the nation. Democrats) pursued protection of slavery IV. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Triumph, in the territories, and the “Radicals” ac- 1858–1860 tively promoted secession. A. Lincoln’s Political Career 2. In October 1859 John Brown led a raid 1. Abraham Lincoln came from an impover- that temporarily seized the federal arsenal ished yeoman farming family in Illinois; at Harpers Ferry, Virginia; his purpose was in 1831 he rejected the farmer’s life and to supply the arms for a slave rebellion became a store clerk. and establish a separate African American 2. Lincoln was an ambitious man: he was ad- state in the South. mitted to the bar in 1837, married the 3. Brown was charged with treason, sen- more socially prominent Mary Todd in tenced to death, and hanged. He was a 1842, and served four terms as a Whig in martyr to abolitionists, which horrified the Illinois assembly. southerners. 3. In 1846 Lincoln won election to Congress, 4. In 1860 northern Democrats rejected Jef- where he had to take a stand on the issue ferson Davis’s program to protect slavery in of slavery; he felt that slavery was unjust the territories, so the delegates from eight but did not believe that the federal gov- southern states quit the meeting and nomi- ernment had the constitutional authority nated as their candidate John C. Breckin- to tamper with it. ridge of Kentucky. Northern and western 4. Lincoln argued that prohibiting the ex- delegates nominated Stephen Douglas. pansion of slavery, gradual emancipation, 5. The Republicans chose Lincoln as their and the colonization of freed slaves were candidate for his moderate position on the only practical ways to address the slavery, his appealing egalitarian image, issue. and his important Midwest political base. 5. Both abolitionists and proslavery activists 6. The fourth candidate was John Bell, a derided Lincoln’s pragmatic policies, he former Tennessee Whig, who was the 194 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

nominee of the compromise-seeking Con- “free soil, free labor, free men,” which subse- stitutional Union Party. quently became the program of the Republican 7. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the Party. (402) popular vote but won a majority in the popular sovereignty The republican principle that ul- electoral college by carrying every northern timate power resides in the hands of the electorate. and western state except New Jersey; Doug- Popular sovereignty dictates that voters directly or las won electoral votes only in Missouri indirectly (through their elected representatives) and New Jersey; Breckinridge captured ratify the constitutions of their state and national every state in the Deep South as well as governments and amendments to those funda- Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina; mental laws. During the 1850s the U.S. Congress John Bell carried the Upper South states. applied the principle to western lands by enacting 8. The Republicans had united the North- legislation that gave residents there the authority east, the Midwest, and the Far West be- to determine the status of slavery in their own ter- hind free soil and had seized national ritories. (406) power; to many southerners it seemed their constitutional order of slavery was personal-liberty laws Laws enacted in many northern an order now under siege. states to protect free blacks and fugitive slaves from southern slave catchers. Early laws required a Key Terms formal hearing before a local court. When these kinds of provisions were declared unconstitu- Manifest Destiny A term coined by John L. O’Sullivan tional by the Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsyl- in 1845 to describe the idea that Euro-Americans vania (1842), new laws prohibited state officials were fated by God to settle the North American from helping slave catchers. (407) continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Adding geographical and secular dimensions to the Second Great Awakening, Manifest Destiny Lecture Strategies implied that the spread of American republican 1. Write a lecture that explores the life and career of institutions and Protestant churches across the James K. Polk as a representative expansionist. Ex- continent was part of God’s plan for the world. In plain why he was willing to compromise on Ore- the late nineteenth century, the focus of the policy gon but went to war with Mexico. Discuss Polk’s expanded to include overseas expansion. (392) leadership as a wartime president. Was he guilty of Great American Desert The name given to the unnecessarily provoking war? Consider this action drought-stricken Great Plains by Euro-Americans as a precedent for future presidents. Emphasize in the early nineteenth century. Believing the re- the initially overwhelming public support for the gion was unfit for cultivation or agriculture, Con- war. Describe the experiences of U.S. troops dur- gress designated the Great Plains as permanent In- ing the invasion of Mexico. Explain how changes dian country in 1834. (392) in public opinion came about, resulting in Polk’s considerable decline in popularity by 1848. conscience Whigs Whig politicians who opposed the Mexican War (1846–1848) on moral grounds. 2. Write a lecture that analyzes the historical nature They maintained that the purpose of the war was of Manifest Destiny, showing how the areas in- to expand and perpetuate slavery. They feared that tended for American expansion changed over time the addition of more slave states would ensure the from including all of North America to including South’s control of the national government and all the areas now part of the United States. Ask undermine a society of yeomen farmers and “free whether the westward movement was a matter of labor” in the North. (401) expansion or conquest. What was the impact of expansion on the environment and the Native free-soil movement A political movement of the American population? You might select California 1840s that opposed the expansion of slavery. Mo- as a suitable case study. tivating its members—mostly white yeomen farmers—was their belief that slavery benefited 3. Write a lecture that examines the War against “aristocratic men.” They wanted farm families to Mexico from the perspective of the Mexican peo- settle the western territories and install democratic ple. How did the actions of American citizens in republican values and institutions there. The the 1830s and 1840s look from Mexico’s point of short-lived Free-Soil Party (1848–1854) stood for view? Discuss the Mexican War from the perspec- Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 195

tive of the Mexican government. What alternatives proved that the southerners’ goal was to make slav- did it have? Raise the topic of Pierce’s actions with ery legal throughout the country. regard to Cuba, pointing out similarities in the 8. While southerners vilified abolitionists, many United States’ actions toward Mexico. Discuss northerners lionized them. Write a lecture that whether a style in diplomatic relations with non- discusses John Brown’s motives and actions, not- industrial countries had already been set. ing that most of his victims were not slaveholders. 4. Historians have long debated the causes of the Explore evidence that Brown was a fanatic. Was his Civil War. Write a lecture discussing the events of extremism justifiable in the defense of liberty? Ex- the 1850s, and explore how economics, the politi- plore the commitment among northern religious cal structure and leadership of the time, and slav- leaders to abolitionism. Discuss the practicality of ery caused the war. Explain how the increasingly Brown’s goals at Harpers Ferry. Explore Brown’s industrial North competed with the agricultural, long-term effects on the North and the South. plantation South. Explore evidence of poor leadership among politicians pushed by fanatics in both the North and the South. Finally, discuss the Reviewing the Text debate over slavery as a cause of the war. These questions are from the textbook and follow each 5. Write a lecture that focuses on the question of main section of the narrative. They are provided in the slavery in the national territories. As background, Computerized Test Bank with suggested responses, for review the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and dis- your convenience. cuss congressional plans to extend it across the Mexican cession. Explain how territorial acquisi- Manifest Destiny: South and North tion from the Mexican War forced the issue onto (pp. 392–398) the national agenda. Expand on the arguments over the Wilmot Proviso. Explain the Compromise 1. Both elected officials and private individuals of 1850 and show how the generation of political shaped America’s western policy. Which group leaders that included Clay was committed to com- was more important? Why? promise. Explain why the organization of Kansas • Elected officials, like James K. Polk and Sam and Nebraska into territories was necessary. Ex- Houston, were the most important because they plore the effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, em- worked in high political circles that controlled phasizing the horror that “Bleeding Kansas” be- the economy, armed forces, and government came for the nation. Conclude with the Dred Scott systems that shaped the larger parameters of decision and its answer to the question of slavery western policy. in the territories. 6. Write a lecture that discusses American schemes to 2. How did western expansion become linked with expand into Latin America in the 1850s. Explore the sectional conflict between the North and the President Pierce’s attempts to distract public at- South? Why, after two decades of hesitation, did tention from slavery by playing up those schemes. politicians support territorial expansion in the Explain southern interest in Latin America for the 1840s? purpose of expanding plantation agriculture and •Western expansion created an ongoing split be- slavery. Examine the filibuster movement through tween North and South after the War of 1812 case studies on Nicaragua and Cuba. over the idea of whether or not new states 7. Write a lecture that focuses on the Dred Scott case, should allow slavery. Slavery created two distinct covering Scott’s personal story and the impact of economic systems in the United States between the case on the nation. Emphasize Buchanan’s con- North and South. The Missouri Compromise of nivance with the Supreme Court. Discuss Chief 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas Justice Taney’s arguments that African Americans Nebraska Act of 1854 were all failed attempts at were not citizens and that neither Congress nor resolving the intersection of western expansion territorial governments could prohibit slavery in and the slavery issue. the territories. Discuss the constitutional validity of •Politicians supported western expansion in part Taney’s points. Review Taney’s statements in light based on the ideology of Manifest Destiny con- of his background as a Jacksonian Democrat. Ex- gealing in the United States during the 1840s. plain why Abraham Lincoln believed that this case The Texas Independence movement, fears of 196 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

European claims of the Pacific Northwest, and Party system was unable to contain the debate, the discovery of gold in California combined to further destabilizing the compromise. motivate politicians to create a continental nation with west coast ports to trade with Asia. 2. What did Stephen Douglas try to accomplish with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Was that act any War, Expansion, and Slavery, 1846–1850 more successful than the Compromise of 1850? (pp. 398–406) Explain your answer. •Douglas wanted to resolve sectional disputes, 1. Why did President Polk go to war with Mexico? politically organize the Louisiana Purchase lands Why did the war become so divisive in Congress? into new territories, earn a fortune and higher •Polk went to war with Mexico to obtain Mexican political office by facilitating a transcontinental land for capitalist production, to create a conti- railroad from Chicago to San Francisco, and ex- nental nation with trading ports near Asia, and to tinguish Native American land claims. fulfill a Christian and Manifest Destiny ideology. •The act was no more successful than the 1850 •The war became divisive in Congress initially Compromise, as the North and South were because of the Wilmot Proviso’s focus on ban- morally polarized on the issue and now willing ning slavery from any new territories acquired to use violence for their causes, and both sides from Mexico. This act alienated southerners were politically determined to remake the act who wanted to extend slavery to new lands as a and avoid any compromises. Its basis in popular positive good and to fulfill popular sovereignty. sovereignty doomed the act because of the vagueness of the policy. 2. What issues were resolved by the Compromise of 1850? Who benefited more from its terms, the 3. What were the main constitutional arguments ad- North or the South? Why? vanced during the debate over slavery in the territories? Which of those arguments influenced Chief •The Compromise of 1850 resolved the issue of Justice Taney’s opinion in Dred Scott ? whether or not to legally allow slavery in new lands acquired from Mexico. Results included •The main constitutional arguments were as fol- California entering as a free state, a new Fugitive lows: states have the right to secede from the Slave Act, abolishing the slave trade (but not Union; Congress has no right to regulate slavery slavery) in the District of Columbia, organizing in the territories; extend the Missouri Compro- the remaining lands acquired from Mexico into mise line to the Pacific Ocean; follow squatter or the territories of New Mexico and Utah, and popular sovereignty; and Congress should re- leaving the decision to allow or prohibit slavery strict slavery within its existing boundaries and to the local population (popular sovereignty). then extinguish it completely. •The South benefited more because slavery re- •Taney argued that Congress and territorial gov- mained legal in the nation’s capital, the federal ernments had no authority to prohibit slavery in government would increase its use of force to re- a territory, and that slave owners could take their turn escaped slaves to their white masters, and property into a territory and own it. Taney en- the remaining lands taken from Mexico could dorsed the principle of popular sovereignty: set- decide for themselves if they wanted slavery. The tlers could write a constitution, request state- North, however, could claim that it had put lim- hood, and then decide if slavery would be legal. itations on slavery, indicating a slow death to the institution over time. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Triumph, 1858–1860 (pp. 414–419) The End of the Second Party System, 1850–1858 (pp. 406–414) 1. How did Lincoln’s position on slavery differ from that of Stephen Douglas? 1. Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail? • Lincoln believed that the Slave Power was dan- •The Compromise failed because antislavery gerous and warned that the proslavery Supreme northerners refused to accept its provision for Court might soon declare that the Constitution returning fugitive slaves and slavery’s erosion of does not permit a state to exclude slavery from free labor in the west. Proslavery southerners its borders. Lincoln feared the spread of slavery also plotted to extend slavery into the West, the to new states and territories made possible by Caribbean, and Central America. The Second the Dred Scott decision of 1857. Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 197

•Douglas argued strongly for white supremacy both major political parties along sectional lines. and popular sovereignty and advocated the The Whigs were unable to absorb these divisions Freeport Doctrine, which suggested that a terri- and never again ran a national ticket. tory’s residents could exclude slavery simply by •The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 further di- not adopting a law to protect it. He also sup- vided and ruined the party, sending many anti- ported the Dred Scott decision. slavery members into the Republican ranks. The Democratic Party barely survived but lost the 2. Did the Republicans win the election of 1860, or election of 1860 to a dark-horse candidate from did the Democrats lose it? Explain your answer. a new third party. •The Democrats lost the election because of their 3. Some historians claim that the mistakes of a “Blun- inability as a party to take a firm stance on the dering Generation” of political leaders led, by 1860, spread of slavery to new states and territories. to the imminent breakup of the Union. Do you Southern Democrats divided into two groups: agree with their assessment? Why or why not? moderates and radicals. Northern Democrats rejected both groups. Southern Democrats held • Elected officials exert a strong force in shaping their own party convention in 1860 and nomi- the fate of millions of average citizens through nated the sitting Vice President Breckinridge; laws and policies passed in Congress. northern and Midwestern delegates met sepa- •The policies and decisions of James Buchanan rately and nominated Stephen Douglas. and Stephen Douglas are a case in point: Bu- chanan supported the southern proslavery position and was unwilling to use his office to fur- Chapter Writing Assignments ther compromise between North and South. Convinced that a final proslavery decision These questions appear at the end of Chapter 13 in the would end the fighting in Kansas, Buchanan textbook. They are provided in the Computerized Test pressured several federal judges to vote in tan- Bank with suggested responses, for your convenience. dem with their southern colleagues in the Dred 1. What were the links between the Mexican War of Scott case of 1856. He then added fuel to the fire 1846–1848 and Abraham Lincoln’s election as by recommending that Kansas be admitted as a president in 1860? slave state under a proslavery Lecompton legislature, despite public and official misgivings over • Links included the emergence of Lincoln during the legitimacy of the Lecompton government. the war as an antiwar Whig who championed •Douglas wanted desperately to become presi- free labor ideology. He later won election based dent of the United States and earn wealth from on the Republican slogan of “free soil, free labor, being the spokesmen for a transcontinental rail- freemen.” road, so pushed the idea of popular sovereignty • Lincoln was elected in 1860 because of an ongo- in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, resulting in violent ing ideological split between southern slave- outbreaks known as “Bleeding Kansas.” holding states and northern free states over the spread of slavery to new territories and states. Class Discussion Starters The War with Mexico in 1848 inflamed this debate, which Lincoln condemned as a young 1. What were the most important causes of the war Congressman, establishing himself as a strong with Mexico? voice for free labor. Possible answers • Lincoln’s election was made possible by a political vacuum created by the ideological differences be- a. Southerners desired to expand slavery. tween North and South over the spread of slavery. b. Americans wished to gain more land for settlers. 2. When and why did the Second Party System of Whigs and Democrats collapse? c. The majority of Americans believed in Manifest Destiny. •The Second Party System collapsed when many southern Whigs refused to support General d. American arrogance, including scorn for the Winfield Scott as a presidential candidate in Mexican government and the Catholic religion, 1852 because many northern Whigs refused to and a belief in American superiority also con- support slavery. The conflict over slavery split tributed to the war. 198 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

e. Mexico’s weakness made Texas a temptation for Possible answers opportunists. a. Slavery would never have been considered for 2. Was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo fair or un- Kansas, and bloodshed would not have oc- fair to Mexico? curred there. Possible answers b. Southerners would have been far more assertive a. Fair. After all, Mexico had lost the war, and the regarding expansion into Mexico and the United States could have taken even more land. Caribbean. b. Fair. The United States paid Mexico $15 million c. The Republican Party might not have been for land it had conquered and could have just formed. Even if it had been, it would not have seized. had to focus so strongly on prohibiting slavery in the territories. c. Unfair. The treaty was forced on a government installed by the conquering American troops. 6. What could President Buchanan have done to d. Unfair. The payment did not equal the value of prevent the Civil War? the lands seized, which constituted one-third of the area of Mexico. Possible answers a. Buchanan could have worked harder to keep 3. How do you think the Californios viewed the in- Democratic Party leaders in the North and flux of Americans in the 1840s and 1850s? South together in 1860, in which case the Possible answers Democrats probably would have won the presidency. a. Some probably felt foreigners were invading them. b. Buchanan could have extended the Missouri Compromise line. b. Ranchers and merchants saw opportunities to sell their products to the newcomers. c. The Civil War was inevitable, and there was nothing Buchanan could have done. c. Many old Californios decided to ally themselves with the Americans by marrying their daugh- ters to young American men. These sons-in-law 7. Which of the following was the most important helped the Californios adjust to American con- cause of the Civil War: economic differences, po- trol. litical failures, or slavery?

4. How do you explain northern attempts to circum- Possible answers vent the Fugitive Slave Act with personal liberty a. Southern economic interests included low tar- laws and denunciations of states’ rights theory? iffs, low taxes, expansion into Mexico, and close Possible answers ties to the British textile industry. Northern interests included high protective tariffs, taxes to a. Northern abolitionists believed in a law higher build transportation networks, and the growth than the Constitution. of the North’s manufacturing base. b. Northerners’ denunciations of states’ rights b. Democratic leaders such as Buchanan were were hypocritical. They believed in what was inept, and Republican leaders had decided best for the North at the moment. against making compromises that might have c. Northerners believed that southerners had used prevented the war. shady means to dominate the government and c. The issue of slavery continually forced politi- to get the Fugitive Slave Act passed. cians in the North and South into confronta- tions. 5. How might the events of the 1850s have been dif- ferent if Congress had extended the Missouri d. Slavery was the economic difference and the Compromise line instead of passing the Kansas- ethical difference, and politics broke down try- Nebraska Act? ing to protect it. Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 199

Classroom Activities •Northern whites took up arms to halt the spread of slavery to new states and prevent tyranny by 1. Reenact the Lincoln-Douglas debates in class by the planter class. Southern slaveholders and asking for volunteers for Lincoln and Douglas their supporters wanted to safeguard the civil teams. Form two groups and instruct them to cre- liberties of the constitution and their own pock- ate a list of talking points for their respective side. etbooks by making sure that slavery was legally As moderator you will ask a series of important allowed in new states. questions related to the themes of the chapter. Go •It was significant that both would fight in the beyond the actual content of the debates and ask Civil War because the later conflict was based on questions regarding modern times as well. the same ideological disagreements first played 2. Bring in an image of Manifest Destiny, such as the out on the bloody fields of Kansas in 1855. The painting American Progress by John Gast (1872). Civil War was an extension of Bloody Kansas. Place the image on an overhead and generate a discussion of American westward expansion based 3. Like most political or ideological doctrines, popu- on an intensive viewing of the image. As usual, ask lar sovereignty only works well in certain circum- students what is not shown in the image, and why stances. What were the conditions in Kansas be- that’s important for understanding particular de- tween 1854 and 1860 that made it virtually velopments of U.S. history. unworkable? Can you see any parallels with the ex- periment of popular sovereignty in Iraq since 2004? Explain your answer. Oral History Exercise •Popular sovereignty failed to work in Kansas because both sides flooded the state with new resi- •What are the oral stories of Native Americans re- dents sternly committed to their cause, resulting garding manifest destiny and American west- in the creation of two state governments. The ward expansion between 1820 and 1865? As the closeness of Missouri enabled proslavery men to instructor you can assign students to locate spe- cross the border, vote, and return home. Mean- cific passages on the Internet and from texts in while, abolitionists sent rifles to antislavery men the school library. Students can then answer a in Kansas. The debates between Democrats and series of questions that you prepare. Or you can Republicans in Congress over the Kansas- bring into class a range of examples and use Nebraska Act also gave hope to both sides by those to generate a discussion. This exercise also making the act appear to be doomed. works well as a research paper. •The following parallels between Kansas in 1854 and Iraq since 2004 could be made: both wit- nessed civilian deaths, guerilla warfare, strong Working with Documents ideological differences between opposing sides, COMPARING AMERICAN VOICES unsettled government structure, and political debate by Democrats and Republicans over how Civil War in Kansas (p. 412) to resolve the problem. 1. What do these letters suggest about the character of the armed conflict in Kansas? Just how bloody V OICES FROM ABROAD was it? Salomon de Rothschild: A French •Based on ideological differences, the conflict was Banker Analyzes the Election of 1860 bitter and included standoffs and near-battles, with minimal communication with the opposing and the Threat of Secession (p. 418) side. It was at times bloody, with abolitionists tar- 1. Do you agree with Salomon de Rothschild’s analy- geting pro-slavery advocates, and pro-slavery ad- sis of the motives of antislavery northern whites? vocates targeting abolitionists. Violence between groups hostile to one another claimed about 200 • One could agree with Rothschild’s argument lives in Kansas. that antislavery northern whites asserted hu- manitarian reasons and beliefs about the need 2. Why do you think Axalla Hoole and John Lawrie for absolute equality in society. took up arms? Is it significant that both of them • One could disagree about his assessment that the would go on to fight in the Civil War? “real sentiment” of antislavery northern whites 200 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

was their jealousy over the extra labor accessible freedom, and to characterize the westward ex- to the southern slave-owning aristocracy. pansion as a progressive and beneficial exercise in human achievement. 2. Is Rothschild correct about the role of tariffs in the •The significance of the “School Book” lies in its secession crisis? What happened to tariffs after the symbolism of the progressive uplift inherent to nullification crisis of the 1830s (see Chapter 10)? American values and westward expansion. Lady •Rothschild is correct. Northeastern states gener- Liberty will use the book to educate not only in- ated a significant portion of their economy from ferior and unproductive Indians and Mexicans, the industrial revolution, but needed strong pro- but an entire continent in the proper form of tection from the importation of cheaper Euro- capitalist pursuit. pean industrial goods. This protection came in the form of high tariffs on imported goods. But 2. The painting has three horizontal planes—fore- the South produced large amounts of wealth ground, middle ground, and background—and from slave-grown cotton, and could easily pur- each tells a separate story. What stages of social chase cheaper European goods directly without evolution are pictured in each plane? What sym- having to purchase the same goods at higher bols of progress does Gast employ? How is tech- prices to assist northeastern states. The secession nology depicted? What role does it play in the crisis stemmed in part from southern feelings of artist’s depiction of progress? economic alienation by the North. • Foreground: Pioneers and miners come out first •After the nullification crisis of the 1830s, tariffs to chase away Indians and create trails and infra- were reduced by a compromise measure be- structure for settlement, followed by farm fami- tween North and South initiated by President lies who subdue the land through capitalist pro- Andrew Jackson and Congress. By 1842 import duction and build houses. taxes had reverted to 1816 levels. • Middle ground: Lady Liberty leads the way with a schoolbook while Indians flee before the face 3. From what you have read in the text, is Roth- of industrial advancement in the form of trains schild’s speculation that New York City will secede and steamships. along with the South a realistic one? What argu- • Background: Steamships and covered wagons ment does he make? Why was he wrong? and a pony express rider frame a brilliantly •It was not realistic that New York City would lighted sky. leave the union, though strong proslavery senti- • Symbols of progress: Farmers plow land and build ment did exist in the Irish and Anglo American houses, there is a stagecoach mail system, and working-class community. Although, as Roth- the industrial revolution is depicted in the form schild suggests, the city’s economy was tied of trains, steamships, and telegraph. Lady Lib- closely with cotton exports from the South, it erty holds a book symbolizing the enlighten- was also a bastion of free territory and free labor ment of formal education. sentiment and was not dependent on the South • Technology serves as the selling point or justifica- for its economic growth. tion for the progressive character of American westward expansion: It brings people, democ- Reading American Pictures racy, and capitalist production to undeveloped people and lands. Visualizing “Manifest Destiny” (p. 396) 3. Gast also has divided the painting into two vertical 1. The painting is an allegory: The artist uses symbols planes. What do you think the transition from to depict America’s expansion to the Pacific. The lightness to darkness symbolizes? central symbol is the goddess Liberty; she floats • Darkness symbolizes the undeveloped and sav- westward, her forehead emblazoned with the “Star age nature of the West that is being tamed and of Empire.” Why do you think Gast chose Liberty brought into capitalist production through the to lead the republic to the West? What is the signif- efforts of Lady Liberty and her technology. U.S. icance of the “School Book” in her left hand? western expansion is characterized as progres- • Gast chose Liberty for several reasons: As a sym- sive in the painting through the use of brilliant bol of American democracy enlightening Indian sunlight, for an almost spiritual effect. Lady Lib- savages, as part of an ongoing use of white erty emerges from the light to bring advance- women as symbols of American democracy and ment to the dark West. Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 201

4. In the background on the far right stands New York • Gold, Greed, and Genocide (2002, Project Under- City,with the great Brooklyn Bridge (which was still ground, 30 minutes) being built in 1872) spanning the East River. Far off Produced by the nonprofit group Project Un- to the left you can see the Pacific Ocean. Why did derground, this hard-hitting documentary traces Gast include these elements in the painting? the impact of the gold rush on the Indians and the environment of California to the present day. • Gast included references to both coasts to emphasize the continental scope of the new United States and the importance of commerce and Literature urban growth to develop the western portion of •Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (New the nation. York:Signet Classics, 1981) One of the most important books of the Electronic Media nineteenth century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is essen- tial for helping students to understand the abo- Web Sites litionist viewpoint and the causes of the Civil War. • “Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive” •Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/ (New York: Signet Classics, 2000) An extremely rich site that places the novel A first-hand account by a Yankee in Mexican in its literary and cultural context. See also “Har- California. riet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin” at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA97/riedy/hbs .html Additional Bedford/St. Martin’s • The California Gold Rush Resources for Chapter 13 www.museumca.org/goldrush This site is based on exhibits originating at FOR INSTRUCTORS the Oakland Museum, and is one of the best lo- cations for Gold Rush art and other visual doc- Transparencies uments. The following maps and images from Chapter 13 are • The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 available as full-color acetates: http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/debates.htm • War News from Mexico, 1848 This National Park Service site provides a •Map 13.1 American Settlements and the Texas map of Illinois indicating where the debates oc- War of Independence curred, and contains links to the text of the de- •Map 13.2 Territorial Conflict in Oregon, 1819– bates. 1846 •Map 13.3 Routes to the West, 1835–1860 Films • American Progress,John Gast •Map 13.4 The Mexican War, 1846–1848 • U.S.-Mexican War: 1846–1848 (2000, PBS docu- •Map 13.5 The Mexican Cession, 1848 mentary, 4 hours) •Map 13.6 The California Gold Rush, 1849–1857 The documentary examines the cause, •Map 13.7 The Compromise of 1850 and the development, and aftermath of the conflict. Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 A companion Web site (www.pbs.org/kera/ •Map 13.8 Political Realignment, 1848–1860 usmexicanwar/index_flash.html) views the war from both American and Mexican perspectives Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM and draws on the expertise of historians from both countries. A section for educators provides The following maps, figures, and images from Chapter lesson plans, a timeline, primary source materials, 13, as well as a chapter outline, are available on disc in and other links. both PowerPoint and jpeg formats: • The West (2000, PBS documentary, 6 hours) •Map 13.1 American Settlements and the Texas Directed by Ken Burns and Stephen Ives, the War of Independence documentary also has an accompanying and •Map 13.2 Territorial Conflict in Oregon, 1819– useful Web site at www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/. 1846 202 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860

•Map 13.3 Routes to the West, 1835–1860 5. Salmon P. Chase, Defining the Constitutional •Map 13.4 The Mexican War, 1846–1848 Limits of Slavery (1850) •Map 13.5 The Mexican Cession, 1848 6. John C. Calhoun, A Discourse on the Constitution •Map 13.6 The California Gold Rush, 1849–1857 (1850) •Map 13.7 The Compromise of 1850 and the 7. Frederick Grimke, The Right of Secession (1856) Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 8. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 •Map 13.8 Political Realignment, 1848–1860 9. Fulfilling a Constitutional Duty with Alacrity • War News from Mexico, 1848 (1850) •“The Father of Texas” 10. Opposing Accounts of the Rescue of a Fugitive •Assault on the Alamo (1851) • American Progress,John Gast 11. Charles Sumner, The Crime Against Kansas (1856) 12. The Dred Scott Decision (1857) Using the Bedford Series with 13. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) America’s History,Sixth Edition 14. The Trial of John Brown (1859) 15. John A. Copeland, Jr., Letter to His Parents (1859) Available online at bedfordstmartins.com/usingseries, this guide offers practical suggestions for incorporat- ing volumes from the Bedford Series in History and Online Study Guide at Culture into the U.S. History Survey. Relevant titles for bedfordstmartins.com/henretta Chapter 13 include The Online Study Guide helps students synthesize the • NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS,AN material from the text as well as practice the skills his- AMERICAN SLAVE,WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,Second Edi- torians use to make sense of the past. The following tion, Edited with an Introduction by David W. map, visual, and documents activities are available for Blight, Yale University Chapter 13: • The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents,by Peter Duus, Stanford Univer- Map Activity sity •Map 13.7 The Compromise of 1850 and the • THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER and Related Doc- Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 uments, Edited with an Introduction by Kenneth S. Greenburg, Suffolk University • Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old Visual Activity South, A Brief History with Documents,by Paul •Reading American Pictures: Visualizing “Manifest Finkelman, Albany Law School Destiny” • DRED SCOTT V.SANDFORD: A Brief History with Doc- uments,by Paul Finkelman, Albany Law School Reading Historical Documents Activities

FOR STUDENTS •Comparing American Voices: Civil Warfare in Kansas Documents to Accompany America’s History •Voices From Abroad: Salomon de Rothschild: A French Baker Analyzes the Implications of the Elec- The following documents and illustrations are avail- tion of 1860 and the Threat of Secession able in Chapter 13 of the companion reader by Melvin Yazawa, University of New Mexico: Critical Thinking Modules at 1. John L. O’Sullivan, Texas, California, and Manifest bedfordstmartins.com/historymodules Destiny (1845) These online modules invite students to interpret 2. Thomas Oliver Larkin, The Importance of Cali- maps, audio, visual, and textual sources centered on fornia (1845) events covered in the U.S. history survey. Relevant 3. The Great Prize Fight (1844) modules for Chapter 13 include 4. Carlos Maria de Bustamante, The American In- vasion of Mexico (1847) •The Rise of Sectional Politics, 1848–1860