12/3/2015
1
MANIFEST DESTINY AND THE ROAD TO CIVIL WARChapter 13
1844-1865
Manifest Destiny
• Americans continued to move westward but many territories were not under American jurisdiction
• Oregon Trail: iconic story of manifest destiny
• Pioneers in Conestoga wagons defied the odds to make the journey
• California Gold Rush of 1849
• Discovery of gold in Sierra Nevada led to rapid settlement of western territory
12/3/2015
2
Texas Revolution and Annexation
• Texas was inundated by white settlers with the Mexican govt.’s approval• Revolution was a reaction to new restrictions under Santa Anna
• Abolished slavery and prohibited new Anglo immigrants
• Congress was against Texas becoming a state, but a compromise was made in 1845
Mexican-American War
• Mexican-American War: Began as disagreement over whether border was at the Nueces or Rio Grande
• American troops were sent into the disputed area and eventually invaded Mexico City
• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of 1848: Mexican cession given to U.S. for $15 million dollars
• Wilmot proviso: failed attempt to ban slavery in territories acquired from Mexico
12/3/2015
3
Interaction with Asia
• Commodore Matthew Perry was sent to open trade with Japan• Two ports were made accessible to American ships
• Gifts of miniature steam engine and telegraph helped Japan become industrialized nation quickly
• Chinese immigrants worked as laborers and miners in gold rush territories
Slavery in new territories
• Compromise of 1850: Diffused tension over slave v. free state admissions and strengthened Fugitive Slave Act
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): allowed each territory to vote on issue of slavery• Bleeding Kansas: Proslavery voters from Missouri crossed border to fraudulently vote in Kansas
12/3/2015
4
Dred Scott (1857)
• Scott was a slave who appealed to the supreme court for his freedom• Owner had moved into Illinois and Wisconsin, both free states
• Court determined that Scott was not a citizen and could not sue for his freedom• Further argued that the federal govt. could not prevent territories from allowing slavery
Sectional Breakdown
• Southerner Preston Brooks caned Northerner Charles Sumner on the floor of the senate after anti-slavery speech in 1856
• Harpers Ferry (1859): Abolitionist John Brown captured federal arsenal in hopes of starting a slave revolt
12/3/2015
5
Rise and Fall of Political Parties
• Free Soilers wanted to prohibit slavery in new territory and improve economic opportunities for white settlers
• American Party (aka Know-Nothings): Nativist and anti-Catholic
• Democrats split between north and south•
Rise of the Republican Party
• Glorified the North as home to progress, opportunity and freedom
• Politically unified the already economically unified Northeast and northwest
• Did not want to abolish slavery, but wanted to stop it from spreading
• Appealed to Whigs, Northern Democrats, Free Soil and Know Nothing Parties
12/3/2015
6
Election of 1860
• Abraham Lincoln was the Republican candidate
• Stephen Douglas for the Northern Democrats and John Breckinridge for the Southern democrats
• Vote was a clearly sectional split
• Breckinridge in the Deep south
• Lincoln in the North (except NJ)
• Douglas only won Missouri
Secession
• After Lincoln’s election southern states began to leave the union• Feared Republicans would end slavery and their way of life
• Confederate States of America formed before Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861
• Crittenden’s compromise might have prevented the civil war• Slavery would continue where it already existed
• Missouri Compromise line extended to the Pacific
12/3/2015
7
Ft. Sumter
• Union fort in Charleston, South Carolina’s harbor
• April 12, 1861
• Confederate president Jefferson Davis ordered his troops to fire on union forces
