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Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict. 1840-1848. Where did your family come from and when did they arrive in America?. Immigration. Between 1815 and 1860 5 million European immigrants came to the United States 3 million of these came between 1845 and 1854
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Where did your family come from and when did they arrive in America?
Immigration • Between 1815 and 1860 5 million European immigrants came to the United States • 3 million of these came between 1845 and 1854 • Irish were the most numerous followed by the Germans • Smaller groups continued to migrate from England, Scotland and Wales, and a growing number came from Scandinavia and Holland. • By 1860- ¾ of the 4.1 million foreign born Americans were either Irish or German
1st grade me. I am part German and part Irish (with some English thrown in!)
Why come to America? • Religious freedom- Mormon missionaries attract settlers from poor English slums, Quakers from Norway • Better their economic conditions • Utopia for poor people? • Farming was a lot different in America (isolated farmers rather than in farming communities) than in Europe and few immigrants had the capital needed to start a farm • Consequently, most immigrants settled in cities
The Irish • Most Irish immigrants before 1840 came over from lumber ships heading from Liverpool to NE and settled in urban areas of N England, NY, PA, and NJ (not enough capital to become farmers) • Between 1815 and the mid-1820s most Irish who came over were Protestants, but soon most of them were Catholics drawn from the poorer classes • Up to a million Irish immigrants came to America between 1815 and 1844. • Then the Potato Famine hit (probably killed 1 million) and saw 1.8 immigrants come over the next 10 years. • Irish often saw themselves in competition with free blacks for jobs at the bottom of the economic rungs • Led to animosity toward blacks and a hatred of abolitionists
Irish Women • Domestic servants • Compared to other immigrants, high number of Irish women entered workforce • 1840’s- Irish women replacing and displacing native born women in textile mills in Lowell and Waltham • Many became working widows (husbands working on canals and RR) • Most of the Germans coming over were men, more than ½ of Irish were women, most of whom were single
The Germans • Germans on the other hand left on ships engaged in the cotton trade with New Orleans • Instead of settling in the South (deterred by slavery, the oppressive climate, and lack of economic opportunity) they settled in the Midwest • Upper Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys, especially in IL, OH, WI, MO • United by common language and lived in tight communities (diverse jobs within German neighborhoods meant they could stay together)
Germans and Irish • By 1860 Germans and Irish formed more than 60% of the population of St. Louis and nearly half the population of NYC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Detroit, and San Francisco. • They were 1/3 of New Orleans, Baltimore, and Boston • Less likely to pursue agriculture in America than if they had stayed in Europe • Fast growing cities = intense demand for labor of people with strong backs and willingness to work for low wages • Irish= built the canals and RR that connected cities
Ten thousand Micks, they swung their pricks To build the New Canal But the choleray was stronger’n they. An twice it killed them awl. -song about the fate of thousands of Irishmen who died of cholera while building a canal in New Orleans
Nativism(anti-immigrant) • Surge of Irish immigrants fueled anti-Catholicism. • Belief in conspiracies to destroy republican government by flooding America with Catholics (Samuel F.B. Morse believed it) • Many native born Americans after the Panic of 1837 saw Catholic immigrants as a threat to their jobs • Lyman Beecher A Plea for the West- Catholics being sent to West to dominate the region • By the 1840s Protestants began organizing a political backlash to the Catholic immigration in the form of nativist societies. • Eventually grew into actual political parties like the Know Nothing (American) Party in the 1850s. • Most Catholics were drawn to the Democratic party, due to its policies that championed the lower classes, the anti-Catholicism of the Whigs and their emphasis on temperance
Nativist Parties • American Republicans • United Order of the Americans • The Order of the Star Spangled Banner • Know Nothing (American) Party • Members, when asked about their nativist organizations, were supposed to reply that they knew nothing, hence the name. As its membership and importance grew in the 1850s, the group slowly shed its clandestine character and took the official name American Party. As a national political entity, it called for restrictions on immigration, the exclusion of the foreign-born from voting or holding public office in the United States, and for a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship.
A portrait of a young man representing the nativist ideal of the Know-Nothing party.-Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Nativist Fears • Protestants thought that since they were allowed to interpret the Bible themselves (no need for a priest) they were more democratic • Catholics were a threat to their jobs (willing to work for less) • Labor Unions were appealing • Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) – Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that labor unions were NOT illegal monopolies that restricted trade
Immigrants and Politics • Very few had ever cast a vote in any election • “Forty-Eighters”= about 10,000 German political refugees in 1848 • Irish and Germans identified with Democrats • Andrew Jackson had given the party an anti-aristocratic feel (appealed to common people) • Whigs were linked to anti-slavery (competition for jobs) and temperance • Whig public school reform seemed a challenge to Catholicism and culture • Loved George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson • BUS, tariff, and national expansion were now topics on immigrants radars
The American West Where is it? • 1840- West= area between Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River-beyond that was the Great Plains • Adams-Onis Treaty (Transcontinental Treaty of 1819)- America gave up claims to TX west of the Sabine River-Spain in control of TX, CA, NM (today would include NV, UT, AZ, parts of WY, CO) • 1821-Mexico overthrows Spain and is now in charge of that area • Adams-Onis also meant that Spain ceded claims of Oregon north of 42 parallel • 1824-25- Russia abandoned claims to Oregon south of 54 ̊ 40’ (southern boundary of Alaska) • 1827- GB and USA agreed to joint occupation of this territory (included modern Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, parts of Canada)
Far Western Trade • The west was seen as a remote frontier, but in the early 19th century there were trading centers on the west coast • Boston merchants would sail around South America and trade coffee, tea, spices, clothing, anything, for furs, cattle, hides. • “California Banknotes” became the name for the cattle that was used as a medium of exchange • During the 1820s trade developed between St. Louis and Santa Fe along the Santa Fe Trail. This emerged out of the Panic of 1819. • Beaver trade also was profitable in Colorado and Utah. • Americans in California and New Mexico assimilated into Spanish culture
Please don’t take my fur!!! Boston merchants traded almost anything made in the USA for sea otter fur.
You wouldn’t kill me, WOOD you? Get it?!!! Trappers rushed to CO and UT to hunt the American Beaver for its fur
Americans move West • Oregon attracted a lot of people because of its abundant farmland. • Between 1840 and 1848 -11,500 emigrants went to Oregon, and 2,700 went to California. • Britain could not effectively settle Oregon and the Mexicans living in California were few and scattered
American Settlement • During the 1820s Americans began settling in the eastern part of Mexico. • Mexican government encouraged American colonization of Texas by giving land grants to people to recruit American settlers(protection from Indians since Spain left) • Spanish Mission System= staffed by Franciscan priests, convert Native Americans to Catholicism & settle them as farmers on the land- to protect the mission, forts (presidios) were built • Mexico secularized the missions and handed out land grants to government officials and private ranchers who turned the Indians into forced laborers – they runaway and now there is lawlessness • The most prominentempresario (land agent) was Stephen Austin, who brought over 300 families to Texas. • Most of the American settlers were Southerners, often slave owners- problem!!! Mexico had emancipated its slaves in 1829 • By 1830 twice as many Americans as Mexicans were living in Texas
In 1830 Mexico closed Texas to further immigration and forbade the importation of more slaves. • Also mandated Roman Catholicism and placed high import taxes on American imports. • But Americans kept coming (and their slaves). • By 1836 Texas contained 30,000 white Americans, 5,000 black slaves, and 4,000 Mexicans. • In 1834 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna became Mexican president and began clamping down on eastern Texas. • Americans in the province started to rebel. Mexican Reaction to Settlement
Tejanos (Americans living in Texas) were supporters of Houston and didn’t want independence… at first • Santa Anna invaded Texas in 1835 with an army of 4,000 men, initially defeating the Americans at the Alamo and Goliad- now Houston aligns with more radical Americans who want independence • Americans in Texas declared their independence, creating the Lone Star Republic, and elected Sam Houston as their military leader and president. • Santa Anna was successful at first, invading San Antonio, and the 200 Texan defenders retreating into the Alamo, an abandoned missionDavy Crockett is executed! • Six weeks later Santa Anna was surprised at the San Jacinto River. • Shouting “Remember the Alamo” Houston’s army tore through Santa Anna’s and captured him. • They forced him to sign the Treaty of Velasco, recognizing the independence of Texas (Mexico never ratified the treaty) Remember the Alamo! The Texas Revolution!
Andrew Jackson recognized the Republic of Texas on his last day of his presidency, but made no move to annex it out fear of starting a war with Mexico. • GB developed ties with Texas, who provided an alternative source of cotton. • Political debate over whether to annex Texas… brings up the issue of slavery Reactions to Texas
Tippecanoe… is dead. • Whig in Executive Branch and Whig majority in Congress • Based policies off of American System • Repealed the Van Buren’s Independent Treasury, planned to institute another sort-of BUS, revenue protective tariff (favor American industries but still allow foreign goods into USA) and use that revenue for internal improvements • WHH dies in his first month in office: • President who has delivered the longest Inaugural address (8,445 words). He died of pneumonia one month later, believed to have been brought on by prolonged exposure to bad weather at his March 4 Inauguration
And Tyler is now President • A disaster for the Whigs • A former Democrat who had broken with Jackson over nullification • Vetoed a bill about a new national bank • Vetoed bills that would strengthen protective tariffsuntil he needed revenue but did NOT distribute that revenue to the states • 1842- Whigs lose control of House to Democrats and kept a slim majority in the Senate
Politics of Expansion • In 1842 Tyler’s secretary of state, Daniel Webster, concluded the Webster-Ashburton, which settled a dispute over the border of Maine and Canada(popular in the North so he thought if he could get Texas he would gain Southern support and thus be reelected) • The terms were pretty favorable to the US, but we gave up more than people in MA and ME. • Webster forged a map supposing to be the map on which Ben Franklin, at the Treaty of Paris, drew with a red line the border between Maine and New Brunswick. • The red line Webster drew was the same as what the Brits were asking for. • Showed this to representatives of MA and ME as if to say, we better take this deal before they see this and demand the rest of the land they’re entitled to. • The original map surfaced in England showing that the entire area belonged to the US.
Tyler goes after Texas • Tyler set his sights on annexing Texas, beginning a propaganda campaign(GB has an interest in Mexico???) • Antislavery northerners saw the annexation of Texas as a conspiracy to spread slavery into Mexico, Cuba and Central America • Tyler’s Secretary of State, Webster, resigned and was replaced by Abel Upshur from Virginia. • Upshur got a treaty to annex Texas but died in a ship explosion before it was voted on by Congress • Was replaced by John C. Calhoun, whose pro-slavery position threatened the passing of an annexing treaty • Tyler and his new Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, submitted to Congress a treaty annexing Texas. • Among the supporting docs was a letter from Calhoun defending slavery as beneficial to blacks. • The treaty was defeated in the Senate, largely thanks to the efforts of Henry Clay, the most powerful Whig and Martin Van Buren, the leading northern Democrat
Election of 1844 • Tyler tried to run as an independent since no party wanted him- had to drop out • Henry Clay runs for the Whigs (running mate was temperance loving Presbyterian) • James G. Birney ran for Liberty Party (abolition of slavery) • Democrats split over the issue of Texas. • James K Polk became the dark horse compromise candidate. • “Who is James K. Polk?” – lost elections to be governor of TN but he was a good campaigner • Polk supported annexation as a safety valve for slavery • Said that if Britain closed off Texas to slavery then slavery would become explosive in the South and cause a race war in the North • Also ran on “54 40 or fight” • Polk won a close election, benefiting from a large turnout of Irish voters.
Manifest Destiny • Election of 1844 showed that expansion was a national issue • California and Oregon on the radar with Texas- markets for agricultural surplus; worried that cities and immigrants were shrinking opportunities for the common man • Americans would continue to become farmers and the foundations of the Republic would remain secure • Get the British out of Oregon- anti-British Irish immigrants • In 1845 John L O’Sullivan wrote of “our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.” • Manifest= obviousDestiny= future
Polk and Oregon • America wanted the area up to 54 40 (between CA and AK) • GB ignored this threat until Polk elected • Polk knew US couldn’t get the entire area but used threats to force GB to sign over the area up to the 49th parallel • April, 1846- GB gives up joint occupation of Oregon • Now, they have to go to war or negotiate. • Provisions of the negotiation: 49th parallel, GB retains all of Vancouver Island, and keeps navigation rights on the Columbia River
The further north you went the more opposition to Mr. Polk’s War grew • Polk micromanaged the war and was threatened by Taylor and Scott’s political futures since both were Whigs • Polk had a three part plan: • Clear Mexicans from Texas and occupy the Northern provinces of Mexico • Take possession of California and New Mexico • March to Mexico City
Origins • Mexico owed $2 million to Americans citizens • Bitter memories of the Alamo and Goliad massacre • Issue of Texas- Mexico wants it back or at least keep it independent of USA • Mexico viewed America with awe and aversion • Mexico had unstable government (changed Presidents 20 times between 1829 and 1844) • Worried if Mexico was seized they would be treated like slaves • 1845- Texas annexed • Polk agreed with Texans that their border is the Rio Grande • Mexico set the border at the Nueces River, 100 miles northeast of Rio Grande (area between uninhabited but high-stakes)
Getting Ready for War • July 4, 1845- TX accepts annexation • Mexico readies for war • Polk sends American troops under General Zachary Taylor to the edge of the disputed territory (Corpus Christi) • Polk also wanted CA- if we get Texas “the road to California will be open to us” • November 1845- sent John Slidell to Mexico City to gain Mexican recognition of annexation of TX at the Rio Grande • US would assume debt owed by Mexico to American citizens • Offer $25 million for CA and NM • Refused to see Slidell Polk sends Taylor to move to the Rio Grande hoping to provoke a Mexican attack
Mexican forces had crossed the Rio Grande and ambushed two companies of Taylor’s troops “American blood has been shed on american soil!”
War with Mexico • May 11-Polk informs Congress that war “exists by the act of Mexico herself” and asks for $10 million to fight the war • Whigs went on the attack: • Is the war justified? Was it really on American soil? Had we provoked Mexico into war? Were we defending America? Was this imperialism? Was Polk undercutting Congress’ right to declare war? • A freshman Whig Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincolnquestioned whether the "spot" where blood had been shed was really U.S. soil. On December 22, 1847, he introduced the "Spot Resolutions. One of several congressional resolutions opposing the war, it was never acted upon by the full Congress. Lincoln's action temporarily earned him a derisive nickname, "spotty Lincoln," coined by one Illinois newspaper. • Polk reminded the Whigs that Federalist opposition to the War of 1812 had wrecked the Federalist Party- don’t be unpatriotic!
