Sectionalism and Civil War

• Westward Migration (1840-1860)


  • Migration as white families until Gold Rush in California (single white men)
  • Quick riches
  • Moderate priced land
  • Missionaries
• Oregon Trail


  • 5-6 month durations
  • Mountainous and desert terrain
  • Plagues (Cholera)
• Indians served as guides and there were few conflicts
• Traditional gender roles amidst life on the trail; friends, neighbors, relatives
• James Polk: '"That the reoccupation of Oregon and the annexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures"'
• American and Britain 59th parallel treaty compromise for Oregon
• Increasing border tensions between Mexico and America over California and New Mexico. Polk sought to acquire both.
• President Polk sought to solve the sectional debate over whether the newly acquired Mexican territory should be open to slavery
• Free Soil Party


  Short-lived political party in the US active from 1848 to 1854, focused on opposing the expansion of slavery into western territories
• Manifest Destiny


  Ideology for Westward expansion, part of nationalism of mid-19th century, racial justification for expansion
• Henry Clay was afraid that expansion would lead to the controversy of slavery coming back and threaten the stability of the union
• Mexicans encouraged American immigration to Texas in order to strengthen the economy of the territory and increase tax revenues
• American population in Texas increased immensely due to intermediaries who attracted settlers to land suitable for cotton production
• Tensions grew which led to Santa Anna and his army to come into Mexico and settle the rebellion. Mexican forces managed to do so, but later the rebellions defeated Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto.
• Support and opposition of Texas annexation

  • Expansionists
  • Northerners against large slave territory
  • Andrew Jackson believed it would worsen sectionalism and cause war with Mexico
• American interest grew for missionaries in Oregon but they had little success in converting Indians. As a result, they encouraged more white settlers as retribution.
• Nueces Line


  What the Mexicans had always believe to be the border between Texas and Mexico established by the Nueces River
• Polk attempted to be diplomatic by sending a minster, John Slidell, to negotiate peace by giving money to the Mexicans but they refused
• This mission failed because Mexican Troops crossed Rio Grande and attacked White troops which led to the Mexican War
• Controversies around the Mexican American War

  • Draining resources
  • Moral crime
  • Too much presidential power
• Zachary Taylor: major general
• People like Henry David Thoreau opposed due to the unnecessary casualties
• America seized capital and new Mexican government said they were willing to negotiate a treaty
• During the Bear Flag Revolt, American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California as an independent republic.
• Mexico ceded California and New Mexico and acknowledged Rio Grande as the border to Texas
• America paid $15 million to Mexico
• Polk unhappy with Trist (treaty negotiator) because he wanted more territory in Mexico
• Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico
• Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War.
• Wilmot Proviso showed increasing sectionalism
• James Marshall found traces of gold in the foothills of Sierra Nevada and news quickly got out
• Non-indian population in California doubled between 1848-1852
• Forty-niners: flocked to California during the Gold Rush; men; left families, farm, jobs in order to pursue the gold
• Due to the decreasing labor force of Forty-niners, many Chinese immigrants found jobs
• Many few Forty-niners actually found gold
• Lots of racial diversity in California (Chinese, Mexicans, etc.) as a result
• Some tensions and racism
• Compromise of 1850


  Five bills that attempted to resolve disputes over slavery in new territories added to the US after the Mexican-American War
• Southern states began to threaten secession
• Stephen Douglas encouraged all the measures in the bill to be passed separately and as a result, all of the components of the compromise were approved by the president eventually