www.Buschistory.net Topic 10The Territorial Expansion of the U.S.

Background of Missouri Compromise

•Stemmed from the Missouri Crisis, which began in 1819

•Missouri wanted to enter the Union as a slave state•This would upset the sectional balance of power in the Senate (Southerners were outnumbered 105-81 in House)

•Expansionist and sectionalist issue•Territory settled by Kentuckian and Tennessean slave-owners•Before the Compromise, the Ohio River was the dividing line between free and slave states because of the Northwest Ordinance (1787)•Henry Clay proposed the Missouri Compromise in 1820

•No slavery above the  36°30’ parallel•Missouri as a slave state, Maine as free

•Expansion of slavery raised constitutional issues•Slavery was a question of property to the South

Outcome and Years After•Missouri and Maine were admitted to the Union as proposed by Clay•Missouri was a slave state based on popular sovereignty, Maine was free to maintain the balance•The question of the expansion of slavery was not opened again until 1846 with the Mexican-American War•The Compromise of 1850 did not abide by the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery above the 36°30’ parallel – The Fugitive Slave act.•The Missouri Compromise (1820) was, in effect, repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and officially declared unconstitutional by the Dred Scott Decision (1857)

Missouri Compromise - 1820

Mexican American war

-The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Signed on 2 February 1848

-Northern provinces of California and New Mexico-Rio de Grande as the boundary of Texas-paid Mexico $15 million and assume $2 million in

individual claims against the nation-people became for further expansion into Mexico

(Polk among them).-Emerson warned that “The United States will

conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man swallows arsenic, which brings him down in turn. Mexico will poison us.”

-The second group was composed of southerners who realized that Mexicans could not be kept conquered.

-Bowing to these political protests, Polk accepted the treaty.

-Huge land grants-After the battles of San Antonio and San Jacinto

river, Texas declares independence-Mexican laws outraged American settlers-Texas didn't have the military strength to fight a

war

People

• James K Polk- president at the time; wanted the country to go to war with Mexico

• General Zachary Taylor-sent by James K. Polk to defend Texas in case of a Mexican invasion; later asked to raid the Rio Grande; captured Palo Alto in May of 1846 and Monterrey in September; won the battle at Buena Vista

• John Slidell- sent as a secret envoy by James K. Polk to Mexico to establish Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and Texas

• Colonel Stephen Kearny- sent by James K. Polk to New Mexico and California in 1846; captured Santa Fe

• General Scott- Captured Mexico City and ended the Mexican American War

Disputed Texas Border

Texas and Mexican Cession

The Compromise Of 1850• California (free), Texas (slave), New Mexico

(undecided- open to slavery by popular sovereignty), Utah (Not accepted into Union, until 1896; same as New Mexico)

• Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Stephen Douglas, Vice President Millard Fillmore and President Zachary Taylor

ContinuationPresident Zachary Taylor died in the middle of the

debate on July 9, 1850o Taylor demanded southern dissidents

compromiseo His Vice President adjusted the

compromise to the South’s liking(The New President [Fillmore] waspro-southern)The result:

o 15 Slave states o 16 Free States

The Compromise avoided the issue of slavery, but did not settle the issue.

Compromise of 1850

Kansas- Nebraska act of 1854Background: Created by Stephen A Douglas in 1854 , The Kansas - Nebraska Act was an idea to open up Indian reservation territory to settlers

to further expand the railroad system.

Douglas wanted to further the advancement of the transcontinental railroad and further his

chances of the presidency by making it end in his home state of Illinois.

The Kansas Nebraska Act – What a mess!

• BLEEDING KANSAS”.  • BORDER RUFFIANS FROM MISSOURI, A SLAVE STATE, RUSHED

INTO KANSAS  TO ENSURE IT WOULD BECOME A SLAVE STATE.

• FREE-SOILERS ALSO MADE A MOVE TO KANSAS TO MAKE IT A FREE STATE. - New England Emigrant Aid Society 

• IN THE 1855 ELECTION, MORE VOTES WERE CAST THAN THERE WERE PEOPLE IN THE TERRITORY!

•  THE TENSIONS BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS RESULTED IN A BLOODY CONFLICT.

•

Kansas Nebraska Act 1854

Summary of US Land Acquisitions