Manifest Destiny & The American Empire

1836-1848

Ideology of Manifest Destiny

• John L. O’Sullivan• Control of North

American continent• Protestant Christianity

– Providence

• Racism– Anti-Catholic– Inferiority of Mexicans– Native Americans

• Doc. 78

Anglo Infiltration in Mexican California

• New England trade• Sea otter pelts (soft

gold)• 20 year period-

decimated otter population

• Californio free-trade– Hide & tallow

• Pacific Rim

Hide & Tallow• Tallow is fat• Hides– shoes, harnesses,

saddles, drive belts

• Tallow– fat from cattle used as

industrial lubricant– candles

Anglo American Capitalism• 300% profit• Racial stereotypes of

Mexican California• Literature circulated

back East– Promoted expansion

• Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast

The Texas Question

• Anglo settlement (1820s)

• Anglo Colonization– Moses & Stephen Austin– 200 families– Slavery & cotton

• “Becoming Mexican”• “Illegal Aliens”• Coahuila-Texas State

Colonization Law (1825)

Tejas & Tejanos

• Mexican Tejas• Jose Antonio Navarro• Mexico & Anti-slavery– Mexican Constitution of

1824

• Indentured Labor• King Cotton & East

Texas

Texas Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836)

• Justifying Independence– Criticism of General

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

– Dissolves Congress– State Catholicism

• Freedom of conscience

• Lone Star Republic (1836-1845)

The Battle of the Alamo (April 1836)

• Santa Anna marches on Texas– Failed negotiations

• Americans defeated– Remember the Alamo!– Goliad Executions (342)

• Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836)– Texas Independence

recognized

The Lone Star Republic, 1836-45• Problem of annexation• John C. Calhoun

– East Texas • U.S. gives illegal aid to

Texas Republic– Prevent Mexico from

reclaiming Texas• 1840 census

– 35,000 (Americans)– 4,000 (Mexicans)– 12,000 (slaves)– 40,000 (Indians)

Southwestern Expansion, 1845-185315

Mexico: The Battle for North America (1999)

• Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna• James K. Polk• Annexation of Texas• Nueces River• Rio Grande• Mexican vs. U.S. army

The Divided UnionFailed Compromise & The

Road to War

The Political Crisis of North & South• Economic Policy &

Trade Protection– Northern Industry &

Southern Agriculture• Nullification Crisis

(1833)• “Tariff of

Abominations”– “Artificial intrusions”

• John C. Calhoun vs. Andrew Jackson

John C. Calhoun, A Disquisition on Government (1845)

• Two modes of “community”

1. Numerical majority– Absolute (North)– 13,527,000

2. Concurrent majority– Constitutional (South)– 9,612,000

• Negative Liberty & the Constitution – Doc. 60

The Wilmot Proviso, 1846-50

• “Mexico will poison us”– Ralph Waldo Emerson

• All land acquired from Mexico free-territory– Sectional conflict

• “Free-soilers”• “the cause & rights of

the free white man”– David Wilmot

• Failure

Compromise (Armistice) of 1850

• Henry Clay1. California (1850)- free

state2. Utah & New Mexico-

popular sovereignty3. Slave trade abolished in

District of Columbia4. Stringent new fugitive

slave law

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)• Duty to return slaves– Southern honor: duty to return property

• Federal Commissioners– Northern blacks couldn’t protest abduction– Financial interest to return slaves to master

• Felony to assist escaped slaves• Impress Northerners– Northerners as slave catchers

Northern interpretations of Fugitive Slave Act

• Slave power conspiracy– Nationalize slavery– Rule of law

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)– Escaped slaves– Northern white middle

class women– Moral protectors of

children being sold

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

• Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas

• Repealed Missouri Compromise Line– Railroad development– Chicago (Nature’s

Metropolis)• Opposition

– Northern Whigs become Republicans

– Free-soil, anti-slavery, & abolitionists

– Southern Whigs join Democrats

“Bleeding Kansas”

• Open competition– Popular sovereignty

• Southern advantage– Missouri

• “Border ruffians”• Lawrence, Kansas

(spring ’56)• John Brown’s revenge

attack

“Bleeding Sumner”

• Charles Sumner from MA– Abolitionist, anti-slavery

• Slave owners-right of sexual exploitation

• Preston Brooks (SC)• Duel?• Caning of Charles

Sumner