INTRODUCTION

1. INTRODUCTION • In 1846, the U.S. attacked Mexico, won an easy victory, and stripped her of her northern provinces • Fifteen years later, the U.S. went to war again—but this time it was American against American • The issue of slavery ultimately proved to be immune to the American spirit of compromise • It would destroy the Whig Party, inflame sectional fears and hatreds, and finally lead to a bloody civil war • Which did end slavery but which also cost 600,000 American lives

2. MANIFEST DESTINY • Powerful surge of expansionist energy during the early 1840s • Western third of continental U.S. in foreign hands • British claimed Pacific Northwest • Mexico controlled the Southwest • From Texas to California • At the same time, much of best land within American borders was being taken up by expanding population • Made wide open spaces of the Southwest and Far west more and more attractive to Americans

3. U.S. obtained Pacific Northwest from Great Britain in 1845 through a combination of threats and compromise Dealings with Mexico were not as tranquil

4. MEXICO • Won independence from Spain in 1821 • But remained socially and economically underdeveloped • Had population less than 50% of the U.S. • Had tradition of unstable government • Population of northern provinces was only one percent of total population • And few had much loyalty to Mexico

5. TEXAS • Especially troublesome were people who lived in Texas • Most were Americans who had moved their after 1820 at request of Mexico • In order to help settle and develop the almost empty province • But they often defied efforts of Mexico to govern them

6. SANTA ANNA • General Santa Anna proclaimed himself dictator of Mexico in 1834 • Tried to crack down on Texas settlers • Included was a prohibition on slavery within the province • In response, the Texans rose up in rebellion in order to break free of Mexican rule

7. WAR OF INDEPENDENCE • Texans suffered several serious defeats • Alamo (1836) • But they won the crucial battle of San Jacinto and achieved their independence • Forced Santa Anna to sign treaty which set southern border of Texas at the Rio Grande • 150 miles south of the old border of the province of Texas, which had been the Nueces River • Mexican Congress therefore refused to ratify treaty

8. TEXAS STATEHOOD • Texas was not admitted into the Union as a state for 9 years (until 1845) • Mexico continued to insist that Texas was a rebellious province and objected vehemently to Rio Grande boundary • Successive presidential administrations hesitated to take an action that might provoke war • Texas could have easily been divided into 3 or 4 new slave states • Northern congressmen did not like this possibility and dragged their feat on the issue of Texas statehood

9. JAMES A. POLK • Democrat James Polk had swore during the campaign of 1844 to make Texas a state, regardless of what Mexico thought about it • Once elected, he ordered army to guard Rio Grande • After they became involved in a skirmish with Mexican troops, he demanded Congress declare war • Because “Mexico had passed the boundary of the U.S. and shed American blood on American soil” • A lie

10. MEXICAN WAR • Polk had provoked war not just to get an enlarged Texas • But also to take over the entire Southwest • Within a few month, the American army had driven Mexican forces from the entire region • Then General Winfield Scott invaded Mexico itself and captured Mexico City • In 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo • Ceded entire northern half of Mexico to U.S. in exchange for 15 million dollars

11. WILMONT PROVISO • Most of the territory acquired from Mexico was south of the Missouri Compromise line and therefore open to slavery • This upset many northern congressmen • David Wilmont of PA introduced bill in 1846 which excluded slavery in all former Mexican territory • “Wilmont Proviso” • Passed by House three times during the next four years but failed in the Senate each time David Wilmont

12. REPERCUSSIONS • Wilmont Proviso never passed Congress • But in the repeated votes on the bill, party discipline broke down and sectional loyalties asserted themselves • Wilmont was a Democrat and northern Democrats and northern Whigs voted with him • Southern Democrats and southern Whigs voted against the bill • Congressmen voted on the Wilmont Proviso according to whether they were from the North or South • Not according which party they belonged to • The country was lining up North vs. South over the issue of slavery

13. Compromise of 1850 Temporarily settled issue of slavery in territory won from Mexico Engineered by Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois Boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico settled Slave trade prohibited in Washington D.C. California admitted as free state Rest of territory acquired from Mexico open to slavery Fugitive Slave Law A black person accused of being a runaway would be denied trial by jury Status would be decided by a federal judge on the basis of an affidavit presented by individual who claimed to be the owner

14. WHIGS IN TROUBLE • Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both died in 1852 • Whigs lost 20% of their seats in the congressional election of 1852 • Whig presidential candidate, Winfield Scott, only carried four states in election of 1852

15. REASONS I • Southerners felt Whigs were not committed to the protection of slavery • Because Henry Clay was responsible for Compromise of 1850 • Northerners felt Whigs were too soft on the issue of slavery

16. ABOLITIONISTS • In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin • First American novel to focus on the plight of slaves • Convinced millions of northern readers, who had previously been apathetic about the issue, that slavery was utterly evil and had to be abolished • These people especially abhorred the Fugitive Slave Law • Blamed the Whigs for this evil law • Because Whig leaders had engineered Compromise of 1850

17. WHIGS LOSE NORTHERN SUPPORT • Disaffected northern Whigs first went to the “Free Soil Party” • And later to the Republican Party • Both were pledged to the total abolition of slavery in the U.S. • Whigs could not win for losing • And the ultimate cause for their problems was their most notable political achievement • The Compromise of 1850 Free Soil Party poster

18. Authored by Democrat Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois to get eastern terminus of transcontinental rail line for Chicago Dispute about where eastern terminus would be located Chicago or St. Louis in North? Or Memphis or New Orleans in South?

19. KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT • Douglas introduced bill in 1854 to organize Indian land into territory of Nebraska • And thereby answer objections that a route from Chicago would go through unsettled Indian territory • To get support of southern congressmen, he then modified bill with two clauses • Repeal of the anti-slavery clause of the Missouri Compromise • Division of Nebraska Territory into two smaller territories • Kansas and Nebraska • Both of whom could become slave states if they wanted to • Bill was supported by all Southern and some Northern Congressmen and passed in May 1854

20. SECTIONAL DIVISION OF PARTIES • Kansas-Nebraska Act finished off the Whigs • Northerners claimed Douglas had been tool of powerful southern slaveowners • Northerners left Democratic Party and joined with ex-Whigs and Free-Soilers to create new Republican Party • Dedicated to abolition of slavery and opposed to Kansas-Nebraska Act • Remaining Southern Whigs joined the Democrats • Viewed as more sympathetic to slavery • American political party system clearly split over slavery with appearance of pro-slavery Democratic Party and anti-slavery Republican Party

21. BLOODY KANSAS • Political squabbles between pro and anti-slavery men degenerated into violence • Group of pro-slavery men burn down the anti-slavery town of Lawrence • John Brown retaliates by attacking the pro-slavery settlement of Pottawatomie and killing five settlers • Virtual civil war erupts • Symbolizes the growing hostility between North and South in the nation as a whole

22. VIOLENCE IN THE SENATE • Senator Charles Sumner of MA fiercely denounces Senator Andrew Butler of SC in May 1856 • Attacked by Representative Preston Brooks with cane • Sumner was partially paralyzed and retired from Senate for 4 years • Brooks censured by House and resigned his seat • But was re-elected in November • Demonstrated that Americans were so agitated by issue of slavery that they could no longer settle their differences by normal political processes

23. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1856 Democrats nominated James C. Buchanan • From Pennsylvania • Adopted program that supported Kansas-Nebraska Act • Republicans nominated John C. Fremont • Denounced Kansas-Nebraska Act • Buchanan won but it was a close election • Hard fought campaign aggravated hostility between North and South

24. DRED SCOTT • Missouri slave who had belonged to an army doctor • Had taken Scott to posts in Illinois and Minnesota where slavery was illegal • Sued in Missouri courts on grounds that he had resided in free states and was therefore a free man • Missouri courts ruled against him so his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court

25. CONTROVERSIAL DECISION • Supreme Court ruled that no black person could qualify as a citizen of any state because the Constitution did not grant them any rights • Also ruled that blacks were property and either the Federal or state governments could deprive a person of his property • Made any law that prohibited slavery in a certain region null and void • Southerners elated by decision • Northerners denounced the decision • Argued that Supreme Court was made up of a bunch of political hacks who didn’t know what they were doing • Republicans vowed to reverse the decision if they ever won the presidency

26. SENATORIAL ELECTION OF ILLINOIS (1858) • Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas against relatively unknown Republican named Abraham Lincoln • To improve national name recognition, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates • Lincoln/Douglas Debates

27. LINCOLN/DOUGLAS DEBATES • Debates drew huge crowds, were widely covered by national press, and made Lincoln a national figure • Douglas accused Lincoln of promoting war between North and South, interfering with slavery where it already existed, and advocating equality between the races • Lincoln denied charges and accused Douglas of conspiring to extend slavery into western territories and that he did not regard slavery as morally wrong

28. LINCOLN AND SLAVERY • Lincoln was opposed to slavery on moral, political, and economic grounds • Believed that it contradicted the American ideal of democracy • But he was also opposed to the abolitionists • His plan was not to abolish slavery but to keep it contained in the South where he believed it would eventually wither away • Lincoln lost election but he gained a national reputation as an opponent to slavery

29. JOHN BROWN • John Brown devised scheme to capture mountain fort in Virginia and launch raids to liberate nearby slaves • Then create a freed slave army, set up an independent Negro Republic, and eventually free all slaves in the South • Planned to ignite a general slave insurrection

30. HARPER’S FERRY • Brown launched raid on town of Harper’s Ferry to capture federal arsenal there in October 1859 • Brown and 18 followers quickly attacked by state militia • 10 killed in ensuing battle • The remainder, including Brown, convicted of treason and executed • Brown’s raid convinced Southerners that their region was unsafe in the Union and that the Republicans were responsible for Brown

31. Democrats split into two factions Northern faction nominated Stephen A. Douglas and Southern faction nominated John C. Breckinridge Lincoln adopts reclusive strategy in which he did not give any speeches or issue written statements of his views Lincoln won easily—mainly because the Democrats were so badly divided Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln on third ballot

32. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union Followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas All seceded before Lincoln was even sworn in as president

33. APPROACHING CRISIS • Seceding states met in Montgomery, AL and formed new southern nation • Confederate States of America • Buchanan refused to act decisively • Denied that southern states had right to secede but claimed that federal government did not have authority to force them back into the union • Seceding states began to confiscate federal property within their borders • South Carolina demanded Fort Sumter • Buchanan refused and sent unarmed merchant ship to supply it • Fired on by shore batteries and turned back

34. WAR • Nothing had been resolved by the time Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861 • Lincoln laid down strong principles • No state could leave the Union when it felt like it • Federal government would not give up property to seceding states • Ordered new supply ship to Fort Sumter • General P.G. Beauregard demands that commander Major Robert Anderson, surrender • Anderson refuses and Confederates bombarded fort for 2 days • Anderson surrenders on April 14

35. Lincoln calls on the states to furnish troops for the army in order to restore the Union • In response, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina secede • Mountain counties in northwestern Virginia refused to go along with rest of state and set up pro-Union government • Became state of West Virginia in 1863 • Four slave states remain in Union • Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri