2.3 Manifest Destiny

Reading Objectives

1. Describe the issues surrounding the War with Mexico and the statehood of Texas and California.
2. Evaluate how the Fugitive Slave Act and the transcontinental railroad heightened sectional tensions.
3. Analyze the significance of the Dred Scott decision and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
4. Explain how the election of Abraham Lincoln as president led to the secession of the South.

Pushing West

• 1830’s to 1860’s – move west through the Louisiana Territory to California and Oregon Territory.
• MANIFST DESTINY: the nation should span from coast to coast.
• 1848 – gold is discovered in CA
• People came from all over to strike it rich
• Chaos & disorder ensued
• To settle down, CA applies to be a state
• Again, there is conflict over slavery
• CA brought in as free state and add’l laws created to appease the South
• known as the Compromise of 1850

Fugitive Slave Act

• Part of the Compromise of 1850
• Said that a slave owner only had to point out an alleged runaway to have them taken into custody.
• Slaves couldn’t testify, and judges got more $ to rule on the owner’s side.
• Opposed by the North for moral reasons
• Underground Railroad: network of abolitionists that helped slaves flee north

Conflict in the Midwest

• Transcontinental railway: new transportation from coast to coast
• Problem? It would cut through unsettled territory, and new states would need to be created.
• A plan proposed to divide the land into 2 states: Nebraska and Kansas.
• The question? Whether they would be slave states.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Part of Missouri compromise would be repealed. Nebraska would be a free state and Kansas a slave state
• Trouble in Kansas: after a ton of illegal pro-slavery voters affected the gov’t, the antislavery settlers started their own gov’t.
• Called “Bleeding Kansas” – it was a territorial civil war
• Broke up Whigs

More Political Drama

• Whigs, democrats, & others form the Republican Party: wanted to keep slavery out of new territories
• American Party gained support based on their anti-Catholic stance; eventually split over K-N Act.
• James Buchanan, a Democrat, wins the 1856 election

Dred Scott v Sanford

• Scott: a slave that said that because he had been living in the north he should be free
• Case was heard by Supreme Court, who ruled against Scott, saying that banning slavery was unconstitutional.
• Conflict increased after this. Kansas was urged to become a state but the 2 gov’ts fought over what kind of state. Took 4 years to come to an agreement and become a state

Harper's Ferry

• John Brown: violent abolitionist
• Murdered 5 people to get back at a pro-slavery group in Kansas
• Plotted an insurrection (rebellion) against slaveholders
• Tried to raid Harper’s Ferry arsenal, was captured and sentenced to death
• Seen as a martyr to north, a sign of the north’s plotting against them in the south
• A sign of the “evil” republicans

The Union Dissolves

• Southerners saw the Republicans as being against them
• Angry that the North was allowing people to get weapons and attack them

1860 Election Conventions

• Democrats met in South Carolina to choose a candidate. They were divided, ended up w/ 2: Stephen Douglas and John C Breckinridge
• People worried about succession formed new party: Constitutional Union Party. (John Bell – candidate)
• Republicans’ goal: win the north. Chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate

1860 Election

• Lincoln won all the northern states except New Jersey
• A divided vote among the Democrats caused Lincoln to win, even though he didn’t win a single southern state
• Right after his election, South Carolina voted to secede (Dec 1860)
• By Feb, Mississippi, Florida,alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas also seceded
• As a result, Lincoln didn’t take office until March while Buchanan tried to work things out.

Crittenden's Compromise

• Proposed by John J Crittenden
• Guarantee slavery where it already existed
• Reinstate the Missouri Compromise and stretch it all the way to California
• Republicans voted against it

Birth of the Confederacy

• Feb 8, 1861: delegates from the 7 states met and declared a new nation: the Confederate States of America
• Based their gov’t on the constitution but made changes
• 6 year president terms
• Strong states rights and independence
• Guaranteed slavery
• President: Jefferson Davis
• They called for the rest of the south to join them