Manifest Destiny

• reflected American nationalism and pride
• same type of idealistic vision of social perfection that fueled reform energy
• America was destined - by God and by history - to expand its boundaries over a vast area
• The idea was spread through the new "penny press" and nationalist politicians
• Henry Clay and other politicians warned that expansion would reopen controversy over slavery and destabilize the Union

Texas

• 1820s Mexico encouraged US migration into Texas to help its economy and for tax purposes
• US population in Texas doubled by 1830
• Empresarios such as Stephen F. Austin got huge land grants in exchange for encouraging US immigration to Texas, these wealth landowners created a power center that competed with the Mexican government
• Friction between the Mexican government and US settlers grew as they created stronger bonds with the US and as they pushed to legalize slavery in Texas
• Instability in Mexico brought Santa Ana to power - he increased the power of the federal government at the expense of the states (many Texans felt this was directed at them)
• 1836 US settlers declare independence from Mexico and get defeated at the Alamo
• General Sam Houston kept a small army together and eventually defeated the Mexican Army and took Santa Ana hostage
• As a hostage Santa Ana signed a treaty giving Texas independence
• Texas blocked from statehood by Presidents Jackson, Van Buren, and Harrison many because of the slavery issue
• Tyler convinced Texas to apply for statehood again in 1844 but the bill was defeated by Northern Senators
• Texas became a state in 1845 after the election of James K. Polk, Tyler was able to convince Congress that Polk's election was a mandate for the annexation of Texas
• Mexico broke diplomatic relations with the US after Texas became a state
• Dispute broke out over the Texas border

Oregon

• Oregon country consisted of modern day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming, and half of British Columbia
• Both Britain and US claimed sovereignty in the region
• 1818 treaty authorized joint occupation
• US interest grew as Protestant missionaries encouraged white immigration to the area
• Polk resolved the Oregon dispute peacefully with British (despite calls for "Fifty-four forty or fight) and divided the territory at the 49th parallel

Westward Movement

• largest # of migrants came from current day Midwest region
• most traveled in family groups (until the early 1850s with the Gold Rush)
• most settlers were relatively young, had migrated before, and weren't poor
• some wanted land for farming or speculation, some came to be merchants, some had religious motives, and still other were attempting to escape disease in the East --> majority were simply looking for economic opportunities
• the major route was the Oregon Trail
• overland migrants faced a long, hard journey but the death rate was only slightly higher than that for average US population
• most journeys lasted 5-6 month (May to November) and struggled to cross the Rockies before snowfall began
• very few expeditions experienced Indian attacks, Indians were usually more helpful than dangerous
• most travelers found the journey a highly collective experience
• Oregon Trail Interpretive Center - uses living history interpretations and exhibits that immerse visitors in the dreams, desires and adventures of those who made the journey west
  
• America's West - Development and History - from the Frontier and Pioneer days of the Wild West, to today's Modern West
  
• Donner Online - cooperative learning activity with links for exploring the Oregon Trail and the fate of the Donner Party
  
• Transcontinental Railroad - from the Museum of the City of San Francisco
  
• Battle of Little Big Horn - archaeology and history
  

Mexican-American War

• Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to Texas (some say to protect Texas others to provoke Mexico)
• Some say Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked American soldiers
• However it started Polk told Congress" War exists by the act of Mexico herself" and Congress declared War
• US forces were generally successful in the campaign but victory was not quick and the War wasn't very popular
• Taylor captures Monterrey in Sept. 1846
• Summer 1846 Bear Flag Revolution in California: a small army under Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, a well armed exploring party led by John C. Fremont, US settlers, and the US Navy rebelled against Mexican rule
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (or Trist Treaty) Mexico would cede California and New Mexico to the US and acknowledge the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas

California Gold Rush

• gold is discovered in CA and the non-Indian CA population increase 20x in 4 years
• atmosphere of crazed excitement and greed
• 49ers threw caution to the winds and abandoned jobs, homes, families, etc. to seek a fortune
• gold attracted some of the 1st Chinese immigrants who believed they could get rich quick and go back to China
• gold rush created a labor shortage in CA as workers left the job in search of gold --> created an opportunity for those who needed work especially Chinese immigrants
• conflicts over gold intersected with racial and ethnic tensions to make the territory an unusually turbulent place
• California Gold Rush - a page dedicated to the Gold Rush
  
• California Gold Rush Country - take a virtual tour or discover how 49ers made their way West
  

Compromise of 1850

• bills provisions:
  • admission of CA as a free state
  • formation of territorial governments in the rest of the lands acquired from Mexico (without restrictions on slavery)
  • abolition of the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in Wash DC
  • a new and more effective fugitive slave law
• first phase of the debate - the old men
  • Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster
  • Argued for or against the compromise on the basis of broad ideals
• second phase of the debate - the young men
  • William H. Seward believed the ideals of Union were less important than eliminating slavery
  • Jefferson Davis believed that the slavery issue was less one of principles and ideals than one of economic self-interest
  • Stephen Douglas Illinois Senator was a spokesman for the economic needs Illinois
  • Broke up the "omnibus bill" Clay presented into separate measures
• compromise wasn't a widespread agreement on common national ideals but a victory of self-interest

Kansas-Nebraska Controversy

• support for building a transcontinental railroad was growing but should the route be a Southern route or Northern route?
• A proposed Southern route would have to pass through Mexican territory which led to the Gadsen Purchase to purchase that territory
• A proposed Northern route would run through Indian territory so a huge new territory called Nebraska was proposed by Stephen Douglas
• status of slavery in the territory would be determined by popular sovereignty
• an additional clause repealed the antislavery provision of the Missouri Compromise
• later divided the territory in two - Kansas and Nebraska
• no piece of legislation in US history produced so many immediate, sweeping, and ominous consequences
• it divided and destroyed the Whig party
• spurred the creation of a new party: Republicans
• 1855 elections in Kansas (1500 legal voters) had 6000 ballots cast( pro slavery forces from Missouri crossed the border)
• New legislature of Kansas passed legislation making slavery legal but free-staters adopted their own constitution
• President Pierce supported the pro-slavery territory legislature and later a federal marshal arrested most of the free-state leaders
• Pottawatomie Massacre: John Brown responded by murdering 5 pro-slavery settlers and leaving their mutilated bodies to discourage other supporters from entering Kansas
• Senator Charles Sumner (MA) attacks (verbally) Senator Andrew P. Butler(SC) and gets attacked physically by Butler's nephew Preston Brooks - Sumner becomes a hero in the North and Brooks a hero in the South
• Not until the closing months of Buchanan's administration in 1861 did Kansas enter the Union - as a free state

Free-Soil

• deep hostility had its basis in the two sections' differing economic and territorial interests and the hardening of ideas in the N and S
• each section was concerned with ensuring that its vision of America's future would be the dominant one
• Northern free-soil point of view
  • slavery was dangerous not because of what it did to blacks but because of what it threatened to do to whites
  • believed in values of individualism and progress which they felt were threatened by elitist Southern slave owners
  • believed that there was a conspiracy to extend slavery throughout the nation
• Southern point of view
  • Nat Turner uprising in 1831 terrified whites
  • Expansion of cotton industry made slavery important economically
  • South prepared a racist "intellectual" argument to justify slavery
  • Believed that it was the only way the two races could live together and essential to the Southern economy so therefore essential to the prosperity of the nation
  • Believed that North was abandoning US values and replacing them with a spirit of greed, debauchery, and destructiveness

  Dred Scott Decision

  • Dred Scott v. Sanford - Missouri slave whose owner had moved to the North sued for freedom on the grounds that residence in a free territory had made him a free man
  • State Supreme Court decided against him but his Sanford died and ownership was transferred to his widow's brother who was a NY abolitionist
  • Case taken to the Supreme Court because now it was a case between citizens of different states
  • The case was no longer to determine Scott's fate but to force a federal decision on the slavery issue
  • Justice Roger Taney ruled against Scott arguing that he was not a US citizen and had no rights, he further ruled that he was property and the 5th amendment prohibited Congress from taking property without "due process"
  • President Buchanan timidly endorsed the Dred Scott decision

  Civil War

  • South Carolina secedes Dec. 1860 followed by six other Southern states and form Confederate States of America (four more join in 1861)
  • Seceding states seize all federal property
  • Critenden Compromise - constitutional amendments to guarantee the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states, Reestablish Missouri Compromise line (failed)
  • South attacks Fort Sumter signals the official beginning of the war
  • Northern advantages
    • population double that of the South (4x nonslave population)
    • advanced industrial system capable of manufacturing all of their own materials for war
    • better transportation system, especially railroads
  • Southern advantages
    • fighting a defensive war (didn't have to win, only had to not lose)
    • home field advantage
    • North had to use long lines of communication
    • Its population was more committed to the war than the North
    • Dependence of English and French textile industry on Southern cotton
  • war provided a major stimulus to both industry and agriculture in the North
  • North financed the war by levying taxes, issuing paper currency, and borrowing
  • "greenbacks" or paper currency cause inflation (80% in the North) and the value fluctuated with the success of the Northern army
  • largest source of financing for the North was loans
  • South relied primarily on paper money to finance the war and that created hyper-inflation (9000%)
  • both the South and North had to raise their armies from scratch
  • North and South instituted drafts that could be avoided if you had $$$ (draft riots in the North)
  • Abraham Lincoln ignored the Constitution when he felt it necessary his biggest offense was suspending the right of habeas corpus (right to a speedy trial)
  • Opposition to the war in the North considerable Peace Democrats or "Copperheads" opposed the war
  • Emancipation of slaves was not originally a war aim of the North although as the war progressed it became one (a reason to justify enormous sacrifices of the struggle)
  • Emancipation Proclamation 1863 freed slaves only in the South
  • 13th Amendment in 1865 abolished slavery as an institution in the US
  • war thrust women into new and often unfamiliar roles
  • many women joined the nursing profession at this time and changed it from male dominated to female dominated
  • Southern government was very similar to Northern except its constitution acknowledged sovereignty of individual state and specifically sanctioned slavery
  • States rights had become such a cult among many white Southerners that they resisted virtually all efforts to exert national authority, even those necessary to win the war
  • Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederate States
  • The war devastated the South's economy destroyed farmland, towns, cities, and railroads as the war continued food was scarce and there were major food riots
  • Lincoln went through many generals of which only Grant took decisive action
  • The North attempted to blockade the South and later in the war tightened the blockade by seizing ports
  • Merrimac (or Virginia) vs. Monitor was the first battle of ironclads
  • French and English sympathies were with the South at the beginning of the war for financial reasons (cotton) , political (wanted to see the US weakened), and social (South's defense of aristocracy)
  • Both were reluctant to side with the South unless it looked likely that they would win
  • The North was mad that E&F claimed neutrality because it implied that the two sides were equal & that this was more than a domestic insurrection
  • 618,000 Americans died in the course of the Civil War
  • First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) was a victory for the South and a severe blow to Union morale (this would not be a short war)
  • Part of the Union strategy was to split the South in two along the Mississippi River
  • Battle of Shiloh gave the Union control of a hub of several important railroads and took control of a large part of the Miss. River
  • Union General McClellan was reluctant to commit his troops to battle
  • Second Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas) ended a Union effort to capture Richmond and put Lee on the offensive again
  • Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the war it was technically a Union victory but McClellan had squandered an opportunity to destroy much of the Confederate army
  • Battle of Vicksburg the Union controls the Miss. and divides the South in two
  • Battle of Gettysburg severally weakens Conf. Forces and ends Southern attempts to attack on Union soil
  • General Ulysses S. Grant believed in using the North's advantage in troops and material resources to overwhelm the South
  • Sherman's March to the Sea cut a sixty-mile-wide path of destruction across Georgia and was designed to deprive South of war materials and break its will
  • Robert E. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, VA
  • Virtual Antebellum Richmond - take a virtual tour of Richmond before the Civil War
    
  • Secession Era Editorials Project - editorials from US Newspapers
    
  • Millard Fillmore - a biography from the White House.gov
    
  • Franklin Pierce - a biography from the White House.gov
    
  • James Buchanan - a biography from the White House.gov
    
  • General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson - a short biography
    
  • Battle of Gettysburg - a lot of information and resources related to the battle
    
  • US Civil War Center - "To locate, index, and / or make available all appropriate private and public data regarding the Civil War."
    
  • The American Civil War Homepage - a ton of links to aid in the study of the Civil War
    The Civil War Home Page - links, letters, photos and more
    
  • US Civil War
    
  • American Civil War - Civil War Timeline, State Battle Maps, Alphabetic Battle Listing, and more!
    
  • A Nation Divided - from the History Place a chronological format
    
  • Abraham Lincoln Online - everything you'd ever want to know about #16
    
  • Civil War Information Archive - loads of Civil War stuff
    
  • Civil War Resources - from the Virginia Military Institute Archives
    
  • New World Slavery - from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
    
  • Pictures of the Civil War - from the National Archives and Records Administration
    

  Reconstruction

  • Reconstruction did not provide African Americans with either the legal protection or the material resources to assure them anything like real equality
  • R did create institutions and legal precedents that later became the basis of later efforts to win freedom and equality
  • Southern society was in disarray after the Civil War
  • The Freedmen's Bureau distributed food to millions of former slaves, established schools, offered assistance to poor whites, and made modest efforts to settle blacks on lands of their own but was far too small to effectively deal with problems facing the South
  • Democrats favored R process that would readmit former Confederate states to the Union quickly and painlessly (southern voters were mostly democrats)
  • Republicans were divided between Radical and Moderate Reconstructionists
  • RR led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner urged a course that would disenfranchise large #s of Southern whites, protect black civil rights, and confiscate property of those who aided the Confederacy
  • Moderates rejected most RR demands but wanted some concessions from the South on black rights
  • Lincoln favored a lenient Reconstruction policy
  • Lincoln plan: general amnesty to white Southerners, loyalty oath, once 10% took the oath state could set up a new government, extend suffrage to blacks who were educated, owned property, and had served in the Union army
  • Wade-Davis Bill: called for Pres. To appoint a provisional governor for each conquered state, majority must take loyalty oath before it could establish government, delegates to state constitutional convention were to be elected by voters who did fight vs. the US, required to abolish slavery, disenfranchise Confederate leaders, repudiate debts by state governments during the war --> Lincoln disposed of it with a pocket veto
  • John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln which makes Lincoln a martyr and produces fear in the North of a Southern conspiracy
  • Andrew Johnson was intemperate, tactless, resentful, and insecure
  • Johnson Plan: amnesty to Southerners who take an oath of allegiance otherwise similar to Wade-Davis bill
  • Establishment of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction 1867 marked the period of "congressional" or "radical" reconstruction developed 1st coherent plan for reconstruction
  • Black codes were established in the south to give whites control over former slaves
  • 14th Amendment established that if you were born in the US you were a US citizen
  • Congressional Radicals offered to readmit to the Union any state whose legislature ratified the 14th Amend. But only Tennessee did so
  • 15th Amendment forbade state and federal governments from denying suffrage to any citizen on account of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"
  • Tenure of Office Act forbade the president to remove civil officials from office (including his cabinet) without the consent of congress
  • Command of the Army Act prohibited the president from issuing military orders except through the commanding General of the Army (who could not be relieved or reassigned without the consent of the Senate)
  • Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Stanton and Congress used this opportunity to impeach him, he was acquitted by only one vote
  • Ex parte Milligan ruling by the Supreme Court held that military tribunals were unconstitutional in places were civil courts were functioning, this seemed to threaten military governments radicals were planning for the South, Radicals threatened the Court with legislation and the Court remained quiet on cases related to Reconstruction
  • Scalawags were former Whigs who had never felt in the Democratic Party or farmers who lived in remote areas where there had been little or no slavery (hoped that Republican party's program would help end their economic isolation)
  • Carpetbaggers were white men from the North, most of them veterans of the Union army who looked on the South as a new frontier
  • New state governments in the South dramatically improved education in the South (maybe the most important effect of Reconstruction)
  • Freedmen's Bureau failed to reform landownership in the South
  • Most former slaves became tenants of white landowners - they worked their own plots of land and paid their landlord a fixed rent of a share of the crop "sharecropping"
  • Crop-lien system: local country stores established credit for farmers, since they had no competition they had high interest rates, farmers were trapped into a cycle of debt which they could not escape, contributed to a general decline in the Southern agricultural economy
  • Ulysses S. Grant was a disastrous president, his administration was plagued by scandal, only bright spot was successes in foreign affairs (among which is Secretary of State Seward purchasing Alaska from Russia)
  • White southerners overturned reconstructionist regimes in the South, by the time Grant left office 7 Southern governments had been "redeemed", the "solid" democratic South emerged and the national government gave up attempts to control southern politics or improve the lot of blacks in Southern society
  • Secret societies like the KKK developed in the South which terrorized blacks
  • Plessy v. Ferguson - about separate seating assignment on railroad, established the "separate but equal" idea
  • Jim Crow laws institutionalized an elaborate system of segregation reaching almost every area of southern life, designed to disenfranchise blacks
  • Reconstructing a Nation - webnotes from an online college history course