A People on the Move

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A People on the Move

• Visions of greatness and success, both national
  and personal, set America in motion in the 1840s
  and 1850s.

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I. The Vision

• Young America
• Aggressive foreign policy, territorial
  acquisition and rapid economic growth
• New technological advances celebrated
• Soaring ambition and aggressiveness
• John L. OSullivans Manifest Destiny (1845)

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II. The West Beckons

• The Myth and the Promise of the American West
• Stabilizing the Canadian border
• --Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842)
• Joint occupation of and continuing disputes over
  Oregon
• Flamboyant and Prosperous life on the Mexican
  frontier

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III. The Movement West

• Santa Fe Trail
• Oregon Trail
• --6 month trip
• --2000 miles long
• --300,000 travelers by 1860
• The Mormons
• --Joseph Smith and Brigham Young

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IV. Texas
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A. The Revolution

• Independence of Mexico (1821)
• American Settlement in Mexico during the 1820s
  and 1830s
• Texan desire for self-government
• The revolution begins (1835)

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B. Birth of a Republic

• Declaration of Independence (March, 1836)
• Santa Anna besieges the Alamo
• Sam Houstons Victory at the Battle of San Jacinto

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B. Birth of a Republic (cont.)

• Sam Houston elected the first president of the
  Republic of Texas
• Texan desire for immediate annexation by the U.S.
• Texas remains a republic for 10 years

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V. The Politics of Expansion

• The death of William Henry Harrison
• John Tyler President without a Party
• The Election of 1844
• Agreement to avoid the Texas annexation issue
• Polk vs. Clay

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Aggressive Expansion The Presidency of James K.
Polk (1845-1849)

• 5440 or Fight The Argument over Oregon
• Polks Diplomatic Bluff
• Polk passes treaty on to Congress so that he is
  not incriminated in the compromise

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VII. The Mexican War

• Polks provocation of Mexico
• Zachary Taylors Success in New Mexico
• John C. Fremont takes US troops into California
• Scotts drive on Mexico City after first US
  amphibious landing of troops in history

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VII. The Mexican War (cont.)

• Training ground for Civil War generals
• Nicholas Trist and Treaty Negotiations
• Land acquistions
• Cost and casualties
• Mexican War Firsts
• Why not annex all of Mexico?

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VIII. Internal Expansion

• Samuel Morses Telegraph (1844)
• California Gold Rush (1849)
• Early railroad technology
• Increase in miles of RR tracks after 1840

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VIII. Internal Expansion (cont.)

• The challenges of early railroad travel
• Railroad boom boosted industrial and economic
  growth
• Railroads increase US urbanization
• Influence of the railroad on early American
  culture
• -- Stay on track

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IX. Industrial Expansion

• New machinery and techniques impact factory
  production
• Factory production spreads to new industries
• Impact of factories on the American work place
• Increasing mechanization of American agriculture
• These trends are mutually reinforcing

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X. Immigrants on the Move
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A. Immigration to Antebellum America

• Need for cheap, unskilled labor pull factor
• Greatest influx of immigrants in US history
  1845-1855
• --New Yorks Castle Garden (1855)
• Irish Immigrants
• German Immigrants
• American response to this new immigration

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B. A New Working Class

• Willingness of Irish men to take unskilled, lower
  paying factory work
• Antebellum Labor militancy
• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) legalizes American
  Unions
• Most unions came and went with a single strike

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B. A New Working Class (cont)

• Workingmens Political Parties
• -- Loco Focos
• Subtle Labor Protests
• Emergence of a Permanent Working Class