Transcript Chapter 13

Chapter 13
Immigration, Expansion, and
Sectional Conflict
1840-1848
Introduction
• Between 1845 and 1847, Brigham Young led some
20,000 Mormons into the Great Salt Lake Valley
(then part of Mexico).
• The Mormons chose this remote desert area in
hopes of isolating themselves from non-Mormom
fellow Americans who were persecuting them.
• However, great numbers of their countrymen were
also relentlessly pushing westward
Introduction (cont.)
• In the 1840’s, many American believed it was
the “manifest destiny” of the U.S.A. to possess
North America from coast to coast
• Acting on that belief, the administration of
James K. Polk between 1845 and 1849:
– Annexed Texas
– Divided the Oregon Territory with GB
– Fought the Mexican War
• Resulting in the conquest of CA and NM
Introduction (cont.)
• Also in the 1840’s and 1850’s a rising tide of new
immigrants entered the country
• Expansion and immigration were linked
• The overwhelming Democratic Party leaders saw the
acquisition of more land and a return to a republic of
self-sufficient farmers
– A way of relieving growing class, ethnic, and sectional
conflicts
– Adding OR would please the North
– Adding TX would please the South
Introduction (cont.)
• In fact, westward expansion had the
opposition effect
• It sharpened sectional strife
• Split the Democratic Party
• Set the nation on the path to the Civil War
Introduction (cont.)
• 1.) How did immigration in the 1840’s influence the
balance of power between the Whig and Democratic
Parties
• 2.) What economic and political forces fed westward
expansion during the 1840’s
• 3.) How did westward expansion threaten war with
Britain and Mexico
• 4.) How did the outcome of the Mexican-American
War intensify intersectional conflict?
Newcomers and Natives
• Introduction
– Between 1840 and 1860
• 4.2 million immigrants entered the U.S.A.
• 2 biggest groups came from Ireland and the German
states
Expectations and Realities
• Immigrants came in the hope of improving their
economic condition
• Few of the Irish immigrants possessed enough capital
to acquire farms
– Instead they settled heavily in northeastern cities
– They took jobs in construction and railroad building
• Germans and Scandinavians tended to concentrate in
IL, OH, WI, MO
– More entered farming than the Irish
– Drawn to cities too
Expectations and Realities (cont.)
• By 1860
• Irish and Germans accounted for about 50% of the
populations in the following cities:
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St. Louis
New York
Chicago
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
Detroit
San Francisco
The Germans
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Very diverse group of immigrants
People of different social classes and religions
Bound together by their common language
Often times settled in German neighborhoods
They prospered and built many ethnic institutions:
– German-language newspapers
– Voluntary associations
– Schools
• Native-born Americans criticized them for being
clannish
The Irish
• Between 1815 and 1844 almost 1 million Irish
entered the U.S.A.
– Most were Catholic, poor, and seeking greater economic
opportunity
• From 1845-1855
– Roughly 2 million arrived
– Overwhelming Catholic
– Fleeing from the potato famine in Ireland
• They usually entered the urban work force at the
bottom
– Competed for jobs with equally poor blacks
The Irish (cont.)
• The competition for jobs between the Irish
and poor blacks led to animosity between the
2 groups
– Made most Irish hostile to abolition and
abolitionists
• Those Irish who rose to the level of skilled and
semi-skilled workers competed against nativeborn, white, Protestant mechanics
– Caused another level of hostilities
– Ethnic and religious
Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and
Labor Protest
• Know-Nothing Party
• A.k.a. American Party
– Mostly white, Protestant, native-born workers
– anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant
– Ohio History link on Know Nothing Party
– Played a significant political role in the 1850’s
Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and
Labor Protest (cont.)
• Labor also responded to low wages and job
competition by advocating land reform
– Including free 160-acre homesteads in the West for all who
wanted them
• Formed unions and waged strikes
• Unions won a few gains
• Their growth was limited by:
– govt. and employer opposition
– The deep splits along ethnic and religious lines in the
antebellum working class
Immigrant Politics
• Almost all Irish and German immigrants became
supporters of the Democratic Party
• Antiprivilege party
• More sympathetic to the common man than the
Whigs
• They also resented Whig connections with the
temperance movement and nativism
• The Irish suspected the northern Whigs of antislavery
views
– Irish feared economic competition from emancipated
slaves
– They wanted no part of abolitionism
The West and Beyond
• The Far West
– In the 1820’s, 1830’s, and 1840’s, TX and presentday southwestern regions of the U.S.A. belonged
to Mexico
• After independence Mexico claimed all Spanish
territories in the West
– Oregon Territory
• OR, WA, ID, parts of WY, MT, and Canada
• Ceded to the United States from Spain in the AdamsOnis Treaty
• Under joint occupation by GB and U.S.A.
The United States in 1840
Far Western Trade
• Fur trappers and traders
– 1st Americans to enter the Far West
– Some sailed around South America
– Others blazed overland trails
• Santa Fe
• Oregon Trail
• Introduced eastern manufactured goods in exchange
for beaver pelts or Mexican silver
• Set up encampments and trading posts
• Spurred the interest of pioneer farmers with their
tales of favorable climate and fertile soil in the Far
West
The American Settlement of Texas
to 1835
• In the 1820’s the Mexican govt. gave generous
land grants to Americans
– encouraged their settlement in TX
• a way to guard against Indian attacks
• hasten the economic development of the province
• Many American came
– Mostly from southern states
• In the 1830’s, Mexican govt. attempted to end
American immigration and prohibit slavery in
TX
The American Settlement of Texas
to 1835 (cont.)
• Its efforts antagonized the Americans but
failed to stop the flood of immigrants
• By 1836 the American population in TX was
30,000 free and 5,000 slaves
The American Settlement of
Texas to 1835 (cont.)
• Santa Anna
– New presidentdictator of Mexico
– 1834
– Started to tighten his
hold on TX
– The Americans in the
province rebelled
The Texas Revolution, 1836
• Fall of 1835
• Santa Anna led an
army into TX to
suppress the uprising
• The Mexicans
defeated the
Americans at the
Alamo and at Goliad
The Battle of the Alamo
The Texas Revolution, 1836
(cont.)
• In April 1836
• Sam Houston
– Led the American route
against the Mexicans at
San Jacinto
– Took Santa Anna prisoner
• Forced him to sign a
treaty granting TX
independence
– The Mexican govt. later
refused to ratify the treaty
• But TX remained
independent
American Settlements in CA, NM,
and OR
• The Mexicans also initially welcomed
American colonists to CA
• By the 1840’s a growing number were settling
in the Sacramento Valley
– They lived apart from the Mexicans
American Settlements in CA, NM,
and OR (cont.)
• In the 1830’s, American missionaries entered
Oregon’s Willamette Valley to attempt to
convert the Indians there
• The missionaries’ glowing reports of the
territory’s climate and resources aroused keen
interest back in the U.S.A.
The Overland Trails
• In the 1840’s, 14,000 Americans joined wagon
trains on the overland trails (or the OR and CA
trails)
• Headed for OR or CA
• Problems:
• Faulty maps and guidebooks
• Fears of Indian attacks
• Other real and imagined dangers
The Overland Trails (cont.)
• The British could not effectively settle OR at all
• Mexican numbers in CA were small and
scattered
The Politics of Expansion, 18401846
• Introduction
– At the start of 1840’s, western expansion was not
an important political issue
– Only after politicians failed to deal effectively with
troubling economic issues did some of these
leaders seize on expansion as a primary goal
The Whig Ascendancy
• The Whig Party won
the election of 1840
– William Henry
Harrison
• The Party planned to
enact Clay’s American
system of a new
national bank,
protective tariffs, and
federal aid for
internal
improvements
The Whig Ascendancy (cont.)
• Harrison died after only 1 month in the White
House
• VP was John Tyler
• Tyler was a states’ rights Virginian
• Vetoed all the economic measures Congress
passed
• Created tension in the Whig party
Tyler and the Annexation of
Texas
• Tyler supported the
U.S. annexation of
Texas
• Appointed John C.
Calhoun as his
secretary of state
• Draw up a treaty with
Mexico to annex TX
Tyler and the Annexation of Texas
(cont.)
• Calhoun wrote undiplomatically that one
reason for annexation was to provide more
territory for the expansion and protection of
slavery
– This added fuel to already existing northern
suspicions that acquiring TX was part of a
southern conspiracy to expand slavery
• The Senate rejected Tyler and Calhoun’s
annexation treaty
The Election of 1844
• Whigs nominated
Henry Clay
• Democrats
nominated James
Polk
• Major issue of
annexation of TX
The Election of 1844 (cont.)
• Henry Clay waved on annexation
– First opposed it as sectionally divisive
• Then softened his opposition
• Finally opposed it again
– His shifts lost southern votes to Democrats and northern
antislavery votes to the Liberty
• James Polk
– Expansionist
– Called for admitting TX immediately
• Many Irish and other recent immigrants voted for
Polk
– They disliked the Whigs’ association with nativism,
temperance, and anti-Catholicism
• Polk won in a close election
The Election of 1844 (cont.)
Manifest Destiny, 1845
• Expansionism had become a popular cause by the
1840’s
• Many expansionists said it was “manifest destiny” to
the U.S.A. to spread its experiment in liberty and
self-govt. from coast to coast
– John L. O’Sullivan developed the phrase of “manifest
destiny”
• Expansionists eyed the excellent harbors of CA and
OR
– Natural outlets for American trade with Asia
Manifest Destiny, 1845 (cont.)
• Expansionists argued that acquiring additional
fertile soil would safeguard the U.S. future as a
democratic republic of self-sufficient farmers
– Combat the social stratification and class strife
that accompanied industrialization and
urbanization
• These ideas, carried in the penny press,
strongly appealed to struggling immigrants in
the cities
Polk and Oregon
• Polk wanted OR during the 1844 campaign
• Manifest Destiny placed OR in its sights
• Neither GB or U.S.A. wanted a war over OR
– They settled for a compromise treaty
• Split OR at the 49th parallel
• Senate ratified the treaty in 1846
The Mexican-American War and Its
Aftermath, 1846-1848
• The Origins of the Mexican-American War
– In Feb. 1845, Congress passed a joint resolution to
annex TX
• Mexico never recognized the independence of TX
– TX claimed that its southern boundary was the Rio
Grande
– Mexico contented that it was the Nueces River
(100 miles to the northeast)
– Polk’s support encouraged Texas to accept
annexation on July 4, 1845
The Origins of the MexicanAmerican War (cont.)
• Polk also wanted to
gain CA and NM
• He sent John Slidell
to Mexico with an
offer to buy them for
$25 million
• Mexico refused
The Origins of the MexicanAmerican War (cont.)
• Polk ordered
American troops into
the disputed region
south of the Nueces
River
• Led by Zachary Taylor
• Polk hoped to
provoke a war that
would give the U.S. a
chance to seize CA
and NM
The Origins of the MexicanAmerican War (cont.)
• When Mexican troops clashed with Taylor’s,
Polk told Congress that Mexico had forced war
with the U.S.
The Origins of the MexicanAmerican War (cont.)
The Mexican-American War
• Feb. 1847
• Taylor defeated a Mexican army at the Battle
of Buena Vista
• Colonel Stephen Kearny
– took NM
• Commodores John D. Sloat and David Stockon
and army officers Kearny and John C. Fremont
– Took CA
– combined naval and land assaults
The Mexican-American War (cont.)
• General Winfield Scott
– Captured Mexico City
• Mexico surrendered Sept. 1847
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
– Mexico accepted the Rio Grande boundary
– Mexico Ceded to U.S.A. almost all of the present-day U.S.
southwest region
– U.S.A. paid $15 million
– U.S.A. promised to pay claims of U.S. citizens against
Mexico
The War’s Effects on Sectional
Conflict
• Patriotism was generated by the war
• Sectional conflict grew though between 1846
and 1848
• The Polk administration angered the North
and West by lowering tariffs and vetoing
federal aid for internal improvements
The War’s Effects on Sectional
Conflict (cont.)
• Most important, arguments began over the
expansion of slavery in the Mexican cession
– Northern Democrats worried that the western
expansion of slavery would close out
opportunities for free laborers in the West and
worsen class antagonism in the East
The Wilmot Proviso
• 1846
• David Wilmot
– Northern Democratic
• Tacked on an appropriations bill an amendment that
would bar slavery from the new territory acquired
from Mexico
• Passed the House but not the Senate
• Extremist southerners led by Calhoun claimed it was
unconstitutional for Congress to forbid slavery in any
territory
The Election of 1848
• Whigs nominated
Zachary Taylor
• Democrats nominated
Lewis Cass
– Tried to solve the sectional
controversy by proposing
popular sovereignty which
would give settlers who
lived in a territory the
right to decide whether to
permit slavery
The Election of 1848 (cont.)
• Free-Soil Party
– A faction of
Democrats called
Barnburners joined
antislavery
“conscience” Whigs
and Liberty Party
abolitionists
– Nominated Martin
Van Buren
– Opposed to any
further spread of
slavery
The Election of 1848 (cont.)
The Election of 1848 (cont.)
• Taylor won the election
– A military hero
– position on slavery was unknown
• The good showing of the Free-Soilers in the
North demonstrated the popular appeal of
keeping slavery out of the West and using it as
a place of opportunity for poor white men
The California Gold Rush
• Just before the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, an American carpenter living in CA
discovered gold near Sacramento
• The news quickly reached the east
• Produced a rush of prospectors
• CA’s population surged
• The weak military govt. proved unequal to containing
the violence and disorder of the gold fields and
mining boomtowns
• Californians demanded a civilian state govt.
• This brought to a head the issue of slavery in CA and
the rest of the Mexican cession
Panning Gold, California
Conclusion
• After winning the 1840 election, the Whigs
were unable to enact their platform of
national banking and protective tariffs
because of the death of Pres. William H.
Harrison.
– His replacement VP John Tyler, espoused
Democratic not Whig views
• In the 1844 election, the ardently expansionist
Democrat James Polk was elected President
Conclusion (cont.)
• Polk during his one term, nearly led the U.S.A.
into a war against Britain and did fight Mexico.
• The issue of the spread of slavery into the
territories taken from Mexico fanned sectional
strife and split the Democrats
• Many northern Democrats joined others in
1848 to create the Free-Soil Party