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 influ- enced 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 ef- forts 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 189 190 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 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.