Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict 1840-1848

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Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict
1840-1848

• Chapter 13

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Newcomers and Natives

• Immigration Statistics
• 1840-1860 4.2 million
• 1845-1854 3 million
• Largest influx in US history (pop. proportion)
• Mainly Irish, German
• ¾ Irish or German
• Reasons for Expectations
• Religious freedom
• Mormons, Quakers
• Economic opportunity
• American Utopia

• Reality
• Embarkation
• Process difficult
• Expensive
• swindlers
• Farming problems
• Lacked capital
• Different that European Farming
• Reality
• Lived in cities
• Worked in factories

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Patterns

• Germans
• Cotton trade in New Orleans
• Settled Upper Miss., Ohio River Valley
• Didnt support slavery
• Wide range of social classes/occupations
• Skilled tradesmen
• Easily found jobs
• 25 farmers
• Culture
• Common language
• German unity
• Lots of voluntary associations
• Diversity promoted solidarity
• Economically self-sufficient
• Resentment
• Economic success
• clannishness

• Irish
• Boarded at Liverpool
• Coffin ships
• No for farming
• Physically weak
• Clustered in NE, NY, PA, NJ
• 2 surges
• 1815s War of 1812
• 1845-1850s Potato Famine
• Bottom of workforce
• Mainly factories
• Domestic servants
• Conflict
• Free blacks
• Whites
• Norwegians
• Wisconsin
• farmers

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Unrest in America

• Anti-Catholicism
• Irish immigration revived anti-catholic
  sentiments
• Nativism
• Societies
• American Republicans
• United Order of Americans
• Order of Star Spangled Banner (know-nothings)
• Fed on fear and discontent
• Scared of popery
• Threats to protestant jobs
• Irish were hard-drinking and half-civilized

• Labor Protest
• George Henry Evans
• National Reform Association
• Vote yourself a farm
• neo-Jeffersonian
• Answer to wage-slavery
• Appealed only to artisans
• Labor Unions
• Irish supported them
• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)
• Mass. Supreme courts
• Trade unions not illegal
• Tensions
• Ethnic and religious issues

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Immigrant Politics

• Immigrants starting to become politically active
• Supported Democrats
• Feared for jobs
• More sympathetic to working class
• Values of Whigs threatened immigrants
• Importance of National issues

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The West and Beyond

• The Far West
• Adams-Onis Treaty 1819
• Oregon still vague
• Western Trade
• Trading centers on west coast
• 1790s-1820s exchange of goods
• 1820s- Hudson Bay Company
• Beaver Trade- Colorado, Utah
• Santa Fe Trail
• Trade with Mexico from St. Louis
• Panic of 1837- needed silver
• Growing tensions
• Land/religion

• American Settlement of Texas to 1835
• 1820- US settlements in Eastern Texas
• Welcoming
• Mexico encouraged settlement
• Protection against Indians
• Mission had failed
• Empresarios- Stephen Austin
• Reversal
• Closed Texas and forbid slavery
• More white farmers than Mexicans
• Concerns
• Santa Anna

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Remember the Alamo

• Texas Revolution
• 1836
• Stephen Austin
• Santa Anna invades 1835
• 1836- San Antonio
• The Alamo
• 187 die
• Sam Houston
• Remember the Alamo
• Lone Star Republic established 1836
• American Settlement in Cali, New Mexico, and
  Oregon
• Increased immigration
• American culture, not native

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Mormons

• Movement westward
• Persecution
• Death of Joseph Smith in Missouri
• Brigham Young leads Mormons
• to desert
• Little persecution
• Not really inhabited
• By 1846 12,000 in Utah
• Developed irrigation system
• Annexed to US 1850
• Mormon War1857

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Politics of Expansion

• Whig Ascendency
• William Henry Harrison 1840
• Controlled House and Senate
• Henry Clays American System
• Repealed Independent Treasury
• Protective tariffs
• Tyler dashes hopes of Whigs
• Disaster for Whigs
• Vetoed
• National bank- 1841
• Banking bill
• Postponing of tariff reduction

• Should US annex Texas?
• 1840-42 main issue still economy

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Expansion

• Texas
• Issue of Slavery
• 1843
• Propaganda campaign for annexation of Texas
• 1844
• President Tyler, John C. Calhoun send treaty to
  congress for annexation
• Defeated in Senate
• 1845 Congress approves joint resolution to admit
  Texas as a state

• Maine
• 1842
• Daniel Webster
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty

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Election of 1844

• Nominees
• Democrats
• Martin Van Buren
• Opposed slavery
• Whigs
• Henry Clay
• Proslavery, proannexation
• The Dark Horse
• James K. Polk, Tennessee
• fifty-four forty or fight!
• Appealed to westerners and southerners
• Results
• Polk wins electoral
• VERY close popular vote
• Quickly confirms expansionism with inaugural
  address

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Manifest Destiny

• John O Sullivan
• Invoked God, divine mission
• Superiority of white culture
• Called on Americans to resist foreign powers
  limiting out destiny
• Pushed by
• Nationalism
• Population increase
• Rapid economic development
• Technological advances
• Reform ideals
• Solutions
• To agricultural issues
• Preserve identity, values
• Anti-factories
• Jeffersons worries void

• Polk and Oregon
• US claimed based on
• Discovery of Columbia River
• Lewis and Clark expedition
• Fur trade established by Astor
• Oregon Fever
• Threats
• British
• Claim- Sir Francis Drake 1579
• All or nothing
• 49th parallel
• Negotiations
• Come discontent
• Ratification
• 1846, Senate
• Pushed by war in Mexico

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Oregon Trail

• Overland Trails
• -4 month journey -Difficult travel
• -Donner party, 1846 -Increased cooperation
• -1841 wagon trains begin -1843 over 1,000

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Mexican- American War

• Origins
• Failure of Mexico to pay 2 million in debt
• Animosity
• Mexican fears of US domination
• 1845
• Senate ratifies Annexation
• Polks actions
• Supports Texans claims to Rio Grande River
• Moved Troops to Corpus Christi, under Zachary
  Taylor
• Wants California

• War
• Negotiations
• John Slidell
• Government too weak
• Santa Anna troops attack
• Polk declares war
• Opposition
• John C. Calhoun, Whigs
• War of 1812, patriots
• Expectations
• Mexico would win
• Army 4X larger than US army
• US didnt expect Mexicans to fight

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Mexican-American War

• Leaders
• Zachary old rough and ready Taylor
• Buena Vista victory, 1847
• Col. Stephen Kearny
• New Mexico, California
• Gen. Winfield Scott
• Took over for Taylor
• Vera Cruz, Mexico City victories, 1847
• John D. Sloat
• New Mexico, California
• John C. Fremont
• California rebellion
• Bear-flag Republic, 1846

• Success
• Mexico City 1847
• Led by Scott
• Heroes
• Robert E. Lee
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Advantages
• Santa Annas mistakes
• Superior artillery, military organization
• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
• 1848
• Mexico paid 15 million
• Ratified 1848, senate
• Opposition Whigs, Democrats

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Problems on the horizon

• Sectional conflict
• Polk restored Independent Treasury
• Jacksonian policies
• Tariff of 1846
• Slashes duties
• Vetoes Rivers and Harbors Bill 1846
• Slavery debate
• Wilmot Proviso
• 1847
• No slavery in new territories
• Defeated in senate (passed house 2X)

• Provisos Problems
• Brings up discussion of slavery again
• Free-Labor party emerges
• Calhoun questions constitutionality of
  prohibiting slavery in new territories
• Northerners defend by quoting Land Ordinance of
  1787 and Missouri Compromise

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Manifest Destiny to the South

• Ostend Manifesto
• Polk offered to buy Cuba from Spain for 100
  million dollars
• Spain refused
• 1852- secret treaty to buy Spain
• Too much anger in US, Northerners think
  pro-slavery
• Walker Expedition
• William Walker led group into Baja California in
  1853
• unsuccessful
• Tried to take Nicaragua 1855
• Recognized by US

• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty 1850
• Ambition to build canal in Central America
• Treaty b/w Great Britain and U.S.
• Neither nation would take exclusive control of
  canal and route in Central America
• Gadsden Purchase
• 1853
• Southwest
• Arizona, New Mexico border
• Land for railroad
• 10 million dollars

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Election of 1848

• Problems for the Whigs
• Polks Policies successful
• Independent treasury
• Low tarrifs
• Problems for Democrats
• Wilmot Proviso
• Nominees
• Democrats
• Lewis Cass
• Squatter Sovereignty
• Whigs
• Zachary Taylor
• War hero with no platform
• Southern slaveholder

• Major Issue
• Slavery
• Barnburners- NY
• Conscience Whigs
• Free Soil Party
• Free trade, free labor, free speech, free men
• Nominate Martin Van Buren
• Outcome
• Taylor victorious
• Free Soil party has strong grass-roots showing
• Sends message to Democrats and Whigs

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Gold Rush

• 1848
• John Marshall discovers Gold in Sierra Nevada
  mts.
• 9 days before Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
• Technological Developments
• Hydraulic mining operations
• Consequences
• Population of California
• 1848 15,000
• 1852 250,000
• Culture clash
• Diverse mix of cultures, people
• Chinese discrimination
• Slavery
• Should California allow it?
• Violence
• Committees of vigilance
• Crowding, disease, fire, rowdiness

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Gold Rush 1849
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