Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict

1
Chapter 13

• Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict
• 1840-1848

2
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

3
Introduction (cont.)

• In the 1840s, 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

4
Introduction (cont.)

• Also in the 1840s and 1850s 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

5
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

6
Introduction (cont.)

• 1.) How did immigration in the 1840s influence
  the balance of power between the Whig and
  Democratic Parties
• 2.) What economic and political forces fed
  westward expansion during the 1840s
• 3.) How did westward expansion threaten war with
  Britain and Mexico
• 4.) How did the outcome of the Mexican-American
  War intensify intersectional conflict?

7
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

8
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

9
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

10
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

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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

12
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

13
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 1850s

14
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

15
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

16
The West and Beyond

• The Far West
• In the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s, 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.

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The United States in 1840
18
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

19
The American Settlement of Texas to 1835

• In the 1820s 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 1830s, Mexican govt. attempted to end
  American immigration and prohibit slavery in TX

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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

21
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

22
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

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The Battle of the Alamo
24
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

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American Settlements in CA, NM, and OR

• The Mexicans also initially welcomed American
  colonists to CA
• By the 1840s a growing number were settling in
  the Sacramento Valley
• They lived apart from the Mexicans

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American Settlements in CA, NM, and OR (cont.)

• In the 1830s, American missionaries entered
  Oregons Willamette Valley to attempt to convert
  the Indians there
• The missionaries glowing reports of the
  territorys climate and resources aroused keen
  interest back in the U.S.A.

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The Overland Trails

• In the 1840s, 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

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The Overland Trails (cont.)

• The British could not effectively settle OR at
  all
• Mexican numbers in CA were small and scattered

30
The Politics of Expansion, 1840-1846

• Introduction
• At the start of 1840s, 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

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The Whig Ascendancy

• The Whig Party won the election of 1840
• William Henry Harrison
• The Party planned to enact Clays American system
  of a new national bank, protective tariffs, and
  federal aid for internal improvements

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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

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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

34
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 Calhouns
  annexation treaty

35
The Election of 1844

• Whigs nominated Henry Clay
• Democrats nominated James Polk
• Major issue of annexation of TX

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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

37
The Election of 1844 (cont.)
38
Manifest Destiny, 1845

• Expansionism had become a popular cause by the
  1840s
• 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. OSullivan developed the phrase of
  manifest destiny
• Expansionists eyed the excellent harbors of CA
  and OR
• Natural outlets for American trade with Asia

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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

40
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

41
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)
• Polks support encouraged Texas to accept
  annexation on July 4, 1845

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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

43
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

44
The Origins of the Mexican-American War (cont.)

• When Mexican troops clashed with Taylors, Polk
  told Congress that Mexico had forced war with the
  U.S.

45
The Origins of the Mexican-American War (cont.)
46
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

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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

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The Wars 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

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The Wars 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

51
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

52
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

53
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

54
The Election of 1848 (cont.)
55
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

56
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
• CAs 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

57
Panning Gold, California
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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

59
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