1. A House Divided, 1840–1861 Norton Media Library Chapter 13 Eric Foner

2. I. Statue of Freedom

3. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny
Continental Expansion
In the 1840s, slavery moved to the center stage of American politics
Territorial expansion
Oregon and California
The Mormons’ Plight
The Mormons had been founded in the 1820s by Joseph Smith
The absolute authority Smith exercised over his followers, and the refusal of the Mormons to separate church and state, alarmed many neighbors
polygamy
Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, led his followers to Utah

4. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny (con’t)
The Mexican Frontier
Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821
Northern frontier was California, New Mexico, and Texas
California’s non-Indian population in 1821 was vastly outnumbered by Indians
Californios versus Indios
The Texas Revolt
The first part of Mexico to be settled by significant numbers of Americans was Texas
Moses Austin

5. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny (con’t)
Alarmed that its grip on the area was weakening, the Mexican government in 1830 annulled existing land contracts and barred future emigration from the United States
Stephen Austin led the call from American settlers demanding greater autonomy within Mexico
General Antonio López de Santa Anna sent an army in 1835 to impose central authority
Rebels formed a provisional government that soon called for Texan independence
The Alamo
Sam Houston
Texas desired annexation into the United States, but neither Jackson nor Van Buren acted on that

6. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny (con’t)
Polk and Expansion
The issue of Texas annexation was linked to slavery and affected the nominations of presidential candidates
Clay and Van Buren
James Polk, a Tennessee slaveholder and friend of Jackson, received the Democratic nomination
supported Texas annexation
supported “reoccupation” of all of Oregon
Polk had four clearly defined goals
reduce the tariff
reestablish the independent treasury system
settle the Oregon dispute
bring California into the Union
Polk initiated war with Mexico to get California

7. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny (con’t)
The Mexican-American War
Although the majority of Americans supported the war, a vocal minority feared the only aim of the war was to acquire new land for the expansion of slavery
Henry David Thoreau’s On Civil Disobedience
Combat took place on three fronts
California and the “bear flag republic”
General Stephen Kearney and Sante Fe
Winfield Scott and Central Mexico
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848

8. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny (con’t)
Race and Manifest Destiny
A region that for centuries had been united was suddenly split in two, dividing families and severing trade routes
“Male citizens” were guaranteed American rights
Indians were described as “savage tribes”
The spirit of manifest destiny gave a new stridency to ideas about racial superiority
“Race” in the mid-nineteenth century was an amorphous notion involving color, culture, national origin, class, and religion

9. II. Fruits of Manifest Destiny (con’t)
Redefining Race
Mexico had abolished slavery and declared persons of Spanish, Indian, and African origin equal before the law
The Texas constitution adopted after independence not only included protections for slavery but denied civil rights to Indians and persons of African origin
Gold Rush California
California’s gold rush population was incredibly diverse
The explosive population growth and fierce competition for gold worsened conflicts among California’s many racial and ethnic groups
The boundaries of freedom in California were tightly drawn
The Indians were particularly hurt

10. III. A Dose of Arsenic The Wilmot Proviso
Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania in 1846 proposed a resolution prohibiting slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico
In 1848, opponents of slavery’s expansion organized the Free Soil Party
Martin Van Buren

11. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
The Free Soil Appeal
The free soil position had a popular appeal in the North because it would limit southern power in the federal government
Wage earners of the North also favored the free soil movement
The Free Soil platform of 1848 called both for barring slavery from western territories and for the federal government to provide homesteads to settlers without cost

12. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
The South and the Expansion of Slavery
To single out slavery as the one form of property barred from the West would be an affront to the South and its distinctive way of life
The admission of new free states would overturn the delicate political balance between the sections and make the South a permanent minority

13. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
Crisis and Compromise
1848 was a year of revolution in Europe, only to be suppressed by counter-revolution
With the slavery issue appearing more and more ominous, established party leaders moved to resolve differences between the sections
The Compromise of 1850

14. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
The Great Debate
Powerful leaders spoke for and against compromise
Daniel Webster
John Calhoun
William Seward
President Taylor died in office and Millard Fillmore secured the adoption of the Compromise

15. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
The Fugitive Slave Issue
The Fugitive Slave Act allowed special federal commissioners to determine the fate of alleged fugitives without benefit of a jury trial or even testimony by the accused individual
In a series of dramatic confrontations, fugitives, aided by abolitionist allies, violently resisted recapture
The fugitive slave law also led several thousand northern blacks to flee to safety in Canada

16. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Franklin Pierce won the 1852 presidential race
Stephen Douglas saw himself as the new leader of the Senate after the deaths of Calhoun, Clay, and Webster
Douglas introduced a bill for statehood for Nebraska and Kansas so that a transcontinental railroad could be constructed
Slavery would be settled by popular sovereignty
The Appeal of the Independent Democrats was issued by antislavery congressmen

17. III. A Dose of Arsenic (con’t)
5. The Kansas-Nebraska bill became law, but shattered the Democratic party’s unity
Whigs collapsed
South was solidly Democratic
Republican Party emerged to prevent the further expansion of slavery

18. IV. The Rise of the Republican Party
The Northern Economy
The rise of the Republican party reflected underlying economic and social changes
Railroad network
By 1860, the North had become a complex, integrated economy
Two great areas of industrial production had arisen
Northeastern seaboard
Great Lakes region

19. IV. The Rise of the Republican Party (con’t)
The Growth of Immigration
Economic expansion fueled a demand for labor, which was met, in part, by increased immigration from abroad
Ireland and Germany
Settled in the northern states
Numerous factors inspired this massive flow of population across the Atlantic
European economic conditions
American political and religious freedoms
Refugees from disaster
Irish potato famine

20. IV. The Rise of the Republican Party (con’t)
The second largest group of immigrants, Germans, included a considerably larger number of skilled craftsmen than the Irish
The Rise and Fall of the Know-Nothings
While immigrants from England were easily absorbed, those from Ireland encountered intense hostility
Catholic Church
The Irish influx thoroughly alarmed many native-born Americans
“Nativists” claimed the Irish posed a threat to democratic institutions

21. IV. The Rise of the Republican Party (con’t)
Nativism emerged as a major political movement in 1854, with the sudden appearance of the American, or Know-Nothing Party
All European immigrants benefited from being white
suffrage
The Free Labor Ideology
Republicans managed to convince most northerners that the slave power posed a more immediate threat to their liberties and aspirations than “property” and immigration
Appeal rested on the idea of “free labor”

22. IV. The Rise of the Republican Party (con’t)
“Free labor” could not compete with “slave labor” and so slavery’s expansion had to be halted to ensure freedom for the white laborer
Republicans cried “freedom national”—meaning not abolition, but ending the federal government’s support of slavery
Republicans were not abolitionists

23. IV. The Rise of the Republican Party (con’t)
Bleeding Kansas and the Election of 1856
“Bleeding Kansas” seemed to discredit Douglas’s policy of leaving the decision of slavery up to the local population, thus aiding the Republicans
Civil War within Kansas
Charles Sumner
The election of 1856 demonstrated that parties had reoriented themselves along sectional lines

24. V. The Emergence of Lincoln
The Dred Scott Decision
After having lived in free territories, the slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom
The Supreme Court justices addressed three questions
Could a black person be a citizen and therefore sue in federal court?
Did residence in a free state make Scott free?
Did Congress possess the power to prohibit slavery in a territory?
Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice Roger A. Taney declared that only white persons could be citizens of the United States

25. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
Taney ruled that Congress possessed no power under the Constitution to bar slavery from a territory
The decision in effect declared unconstitutional the Republican platform of restricting slavery’s expansion
The Decision’s Aftermath
Rather than abandoning their opposition to the expansion of slavery, Republicans now viewed the Court as controlled by the slave power
Lecompton Constitution and Stephen Douglas

26. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
Lincoln and Slavery
In seeking reelection, Douglas faced an unexpectedly strong challenge from Abraham Lincoln
Although Lincoln hated slavery, he was willing to compromise with the South to preserve the Union
Lincoln’s speeches combined the moral fervor of the abolitionists with the respect for order and the Constitution of more conservative northerners

27. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign
Lincoln campaigned against Douglas for Illinois’s senate seat
The Lincoln-Douglas debates remain classics of American political oratory
To Lincoln, freedom meant opposition to slavery
Douglas argued that the essence of freedom lay in local self-government and individual self-determination
Lincoln shared many of the racial prejudices of his day
Douglas was reelected by a narrow margin

28. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
John Brown at Harpers Ferry
An armed assault by the abolitionist John Brown on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, further heightened sectional tensions
Brown had a long career of involvement in antislavery activities
Placed on trial for treason to the state of Virginia, Brown’s execution turned him into a martyr to much of the North

29. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
The Rise of Southern Nationalism
More and more southerners were speaking openly of southward expansion
Ostend Manifesto
William Walker and filibustering
By the late 1850s, southern leaders were bending every effort to strengthen the bonds of slavery
The Democratic Split
The Democratic party was split with its nomination of Douglas in 1860 and the southern Democrats’ nomination of John Breckinridge

30. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
The Nomination of Lincoln
Republicans nominated Lincoln over William Seward
Lincoln appealed to many voters
The party platform
denied the validity of the Dred Scott decision
opposed slavery’s expansion
added economic initiatives

31. V. The Emergence of Lincoln (con’t)
The Election of 1860
In effect, two presidential campaigns took place in 1860
The most striking thing about the election returns was their sectional character
Without a single vote in ten southern states, Lincoln was elected the nation’s sixteenth president

32. VI. The Impending Crisis
The Secession Movement
Rather than accept permanent minority status in a nation governed by their opponents, Deep South political leaders boldly struck for their region’s independence
In the months that followed Lincoln’s election, seven states stretching from South Carolina to Texas seceded from the Union

33. VI. The Impending Crisis (con’t)
The Secession Crisis
President Buchanan denied that a state could secede, but also insisted that the federal government had no right to use force against it
The Crittenden plan was rejected by Lincoln
The Confederate States of America was formed on March 4, 1861
Jefferson Davis as president

34. VI. The Impending Crisis (con’t)
And the War Came
In time, Lincoln believed, secession might collapse from within
Lincoln also issued a veiled warning: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war”
After the South fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to suppress the insurrection

35. The Trans-Mississippi West, 1840s • pg. 461

36. The Mexican War, 1846–1848 • pg. 465
The Mexican War, 1846–1848

37. Gold-Rush California • pg. 469

38. Continental Expansion through 1853 • pg. 471

39. The Compromise of 1850 • pg. 475
The Compromise of 1850

40. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 • pg. 477

41. The Railroad Network, 1850s • pg. 478

42. The Presidential Election of 1856 • pg. 485

43. The Presidential Election of 1860 • pg. 495

44. Table 13.1 • pg. 480

45. Table 13.2 • pg. 481

46. fig13_02a.jpg
Page 459 (left): The original design for Thomas Crawford’s Statue of Freedom for the dome of the Capitol building. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis of Mississippi insisted that the liberty cap in the first design, a symbol of the emancipated slave in ancient Rome, be replaced.
Credit: Reproduced from the collections of the Library of Congress.

47. fig13_03.jpg
Page 460: A rare photograph of wagons on their way to Oregon during the 1840s.
Credit: National Archives and Records Administration 57-HS-277.

48. fig13_05.jpg
Page 462: A flag carried at the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas revolt of 1836 portrays a female figure displaying the rallying cry “Liberty or Death.”
Credit: Courtesy of the State Preservation Board, Austin, Texas, photographer F. Thomson, Post 1990, CHA , post conservation.

49. fig13_07.jpg
Page 466: As depicted in this 1853 engraving, Los Angeles was a tiny community when it became part of the United States as a result of the Mexican War.
Credit: I.N. Phelps Stokes Collection, Mirriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

50. fig13_09.jpg
Page 468: A photograph of a Chinese immigrant carrying equipment used in California gold mining.
Credit: Nevada Historical Society.

51. fig13_10.jpg
Page 470: A poster offering passage to the California gold region from New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Credit: Bettmann/Corbis.

52. fig13_11.jpg
Page 473: The Hurly-Burly Pot, an 1850 cartoon based loosely on the witches’ scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, criticizing northern and southern sectionalists said to be endangering the Union. From left to right, the figures are David Wilmot, who proposed the Proviso banning slavery from territory acquired from Mexico, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and New York antislavery newspaper editor Horace Greeley.
Credit: Reproduced from the Collection of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ

53. fig13_12.jpg
Page 474: An 1855 broadside depicting the life of Anthony Burns, a runaway slave captured in Boston and returned to the South in 1854 by federal officials enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.
Credit: Corbis.

54. fig13_16.jpg
Page 486: Liberty, the Fair Maid of Kansas, in the Hands of the “Border Ruffians,” a cartoon blaming the Democratic Party for violence in Kansas in Leading Democrats surround the maid of liberty—from left to right, Secretary of State William L. Marcy, Democratic presidential candidate James Buchanan, President Franklin Pierce, Lewis Cass, the party’s candidate for president in 1848, and Stephen A. Douglas, author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, shown scalping an Indian.
Credit: Reproduced from the Collections of the Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, LC-USZ

55. fig13_18.jpg
Page 488: Dred and Harriet Scott, as pictured in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, June 27, 1857, three months after the Supreme Court ruled that they must remain in slavery.
Credit: Reproduced from the Collection of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ

56. fig13_22.jpg
Page 496: An 1860 engraving of a mass meeting in Savannah, Georgia, shortly after Lincoln’s election as president, which called for the state to secede from the Union. The banner on the obelisk at the center reads, “Our Motto State’s Rights, Equality of the States, Don’t Tread on Me”—the last a slogan from the American Revolution.
Credit: Reproduced from the Collection of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC

57. fig13_26.jpg
Page 500: Young Girl with Portrait of George Washington. A patriotic photograph from
around Ten years later it was not clear whether the nation Washington helped to create could survive.
Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of I.N. Phelps Stokes, Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, ( ) Photograph, all rights reserved, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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59. Give Me Liberty! An American History
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This concludes the Norton Media Library
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Give Me Liberty!
An American History by
Eric Foner