Manifest Destiny umasd

Manifest Destiny The United States 1840-1850 • • • • • • Harrison Administration Man without a party The Texas Question Manifest Destiny Mexican-American War Compromise of 1850 Harrison Administration • William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren, 1840 • Harrison is Inaugurated March 4, 1841 • Henry Clay and the Whigs are excited. 3rd National Bank? • Harrison dies April 4, 1841 • John Tyler first Vice President to ascend to the Presidency. Is he President or Acting President? A Man Without a Party • Tyler a Whig? • John Tyler v Henry Clay • 3rd National Bank, passes congress twice, Tyler vetoed each of the bills. • Clay was upset. “President Tyler! I demand a bank now! Tyler responded. Then sir understand this- that you and I were born in the same district; that we have fed upon the same food and have breathed the same natural air. Go you now, then, Mr. Clay, to your end of the country as you shall think proper. So help me God, I shall do mine at this end of it, as I shall think proper.” A Man Without a Party • • • • • The Whigs remove Tyler from the party. Members of Tyler’s cabinet resign Does not seek re-election. Annexation of Texas. April of ’44 Tyler approves treaty to annex Texas, but Congress rejected it • Congress passes a joint resolution, and Tyler signs off on it three days before his term expires. Election of 1844 • James Knox Polk, Democrat, Tennessee • Henry Clay, Whig, Kentucky Democratic Platform • Annex Texas, Occupy Oregon, no Fed money for internal improvements, Bank of U.S. Whig Platform • Regulated currency, high tariff, one term presidency, restrictions on the Presidential veto Campaign, 1844 • Clay against the annexation of Texas, alienates Southern voters, interpreted as an attempt to prevent the spread of slavery. • Third party candidate James Birney, ME, Liberty/Abolitionist Party, takes votes from a slave owning Henry Clay. New York goes to Polk. • Polk announces if elected he will not seek a second term. Election of 1844, Results Polk Dem 1,337,243 50% 170 15 Clay Whig 1,299,068 48% 105 11 Birney Abol/Liberty 62,300 2% 0 0 Manifest Destiny • [Foreign attempts aimed at] limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions. John Louis O’Sullivan, Democratic Review, 1839 • This continent was intended by Providence as a vast theater on which to work out the grand experiment of Republican government, under the auspices of the AngloSaxon race. Congressman, 1845 Polk Administration • Oregon- “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” • Great Britain and the United States both have claims to Oregon. 42nd – 54th parallel. • Polk compromises agrees on the 49th Parallel. • Map link Texas and the U.S. Border • Texas- annexed by Tyler, joint-resolution, U.S.Mexican relations suffer. • Where is the Mexican/Texas Border? • Mexico- Southwest border is the Nueces River • United States- Southwest border is the Rio Grande. Mexican-American War • Polk sends John Slidell to Mexico, purchase California, New Mexico, and up to the Rio Grande • April 1846 Polk sends American troops under the direction of Zachary Taylor to the disputed territory • 24 April 1846 Mexican troops engage with an American Patrol and kill 11 American Soldiers. • “Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil.” Polk, War Message, 11 May 1846 • House 174 - 14, Senate 40 – 2 • Protest against the war. Mexican-American War • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 1848 1. Border between the United States and Mexico would be fixed at the Rio Grande. 2. Mexico relinquished all or part of modern California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. 3. The United States paid $15 million for the territory 4. The U.S. agreed to assume all claims logged against Mexico by American Citizens. Mexican-American War • Results 1. More than 500,000 square miles of territory 2. Mexico half its former size. 3. Mexican Resentment for the United States 4. Slavery Question Election of 1848 • Whigs Nominate Zachary Taylor, no experience in politics, Military Experience • Democrats- Lewis Cass, Michigan • Campaign- Slavery dominated the campaign, Wilmot Proviso, Taylor owned over 100 slaves, didn’t comment on the issue. Cass favored “squatter sovereignty”, warned against federal interference in slavery. Election of 1848 • Free Soil Party, Martin Van Buren, took enough votes away from the Democrats to tip New York and the Election to Taylor. • First election in which voting took place nationwide on the same day. • 72.7% of eligible voters participated. Taylor Cass Van Buren Whig 1,360,101 Democrat 1,220,544 Free Soil 291,263 47% 163 43% 127 10% 0 15 15 0 Slavery Question, New Territory • Wilmot Proviso, ban slavery in the Mexican Cession territory. Passes the House twice. • John C. Calhoun opposes the Wilmot Proviso, unconstitutional. Congress has the right to protect the property rights of citizens, that included the slave owners right to carry their property across into new territory. • California applies for statehood, FREE STATE California • 15 Free States, 15 Slave States in 1849 • John C. Calhoun- fights for California as a slave state, preserve Southern influence in national affairs. Northern aggression against the South; destroyed the rights of citizens, states. Creates amore consolidated Federal government. • William Seward- Moral argument v Constitution, shouldn’t compromise. Compromise of 1850 • Henry Clay 1. California admitted to the Union as a Free State 2. Divide the remaining portion of the Mexican Cession Territory into two parts, New Mexico and Utah. Citizens in these territories to decide on slavery by a vote, popular sovereignty. 3. Slave trade in Washington D.C. was abolished 4. New Fugitive Slave Act • Opposed by Zachary Taylor, Dies in office July 9, 1850. Fugitive Slave Law • Required the federal government to take an active role in the return of slaves to their masters. • Suspected fugitives were denied a right to trial or to defend themselves at a judicial proceeding. • Free African-Americans in the North were sometimes returned to Southerners who claimed that they had lost slaves. • Those participating in the Underground Railroad would face stiff criminal and civil penalties. Taylor Administration • Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 1850 U.S. and G.B. 1. Canal across Central America was to be neutral 2. Neither side was to erect or maintain any fortifications at the canal 3. Neither side was to occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume, or exercise dominion over…any part of Central America. • Slavery issue • Died in Office, July 9, 1850 Millard Fillmore • • • • Compromise of 1850 Commodore Mathew C. Perry’s Mission to Japan California was admitted to the Union Lost party nomination when he approved the Fugitive Slave Law, did not run in 1852.