1. Should the US annex Texas? Was the Mexican War in the national interest?
“manifest destiny”
Texan Rebellion: “The Alamo”
The Lone Star Republic
Texas Annexation
The Mexican War
Lincoln’s “spot resolutions”
The Wilmot Proviso
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

2. John Gast “American Progress”

6. The Wilmot Proviso
Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.

7. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

9. Problems of Sectional Balance in 1850
California statehood
Southern “fire-eaters” secessionists
Underground Railroad
Fugitive slave issues
Radical abolitionism

10. Which is the best way to deal with the issue of slavery
Which is the best way to deal with the issue of slavery? Congress-Compromise of 1850 People-Kansas-Nebraska Act Supreme Court-Dred Scott Decision Violence-John Brown

13. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852
Sold 300,000 copies in the first year
2,000,000 copies by 1862

14. After we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba far beyond its present value, and this shall have been refused, it will then be time to consider the question; does Cuba, in the possession of Spain, seriously endanger our internal peace and the existence of our cherished Union? Should this question be answered in the affirmative, then, by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain,
Ostend Manifesto

15. Gadsden Purchase

16. Kansas–Nebraska Act 1854

17. Birth of the Republican Party
Anti-slavery Whigs
Know Nothings
Free Soilers
Liberty Party

18. “Bleeding Kansas”

20. Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA) Congr. Preston Brooks (D-SC)
Sumner-Brooks
Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA)
Congr. Preston Brooks (D-SC)

21. Dred Scott Decision 1857
And an act of Congress which deprives a citizen of the United States of his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or brought his property into a particular territory of the United States, and who had committed no offense against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law.

22. The Decision Scott could not sue because slaves were not citizens
Congress did not have the power to deprive anyone of property without due process
The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it excluded slavery in northern territories

23. John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry
“Old John Brown has just been executed for treason against the state. We cannot object,” Lincoln reasoned, “even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right.”