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:– St. Louis– New York– Chicago– Cincinnati– Milwaukee– Detroit– San Francisco

The Germans• 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 native-born, 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 present-day

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 Adams-Onis

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 president-

dictator 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, 1840-1846

• 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 Mexican-American 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 Mexican-American 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 Mexican-American 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 Mexican-American 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