Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict1840-1848

Where did your family come from and when did they arrive in America?

Immigration • Between 1815 and 1860 5 million European immigrants came

to the United States• 3 million of these came between 1845 and 1854• Irish were the most numerous followed by the Germans• Smaller groups continued to migrate from England, Scotland

and Wales, and a growing number came from Scandinavia and Holland.

• By 1860- ¾ of the 4.1 million foreign born Americans were either Irish or German

1st grade me. I am part German and part Irish (with some English thrown in!)

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Why come to America? • Religious freedom- Mormon missionaries attract settlers from

poor English slums, Quakers from Norway• Better their economic conditions • Utopia for poor people? • Farming was a lot different in America (isolated farmers rather

than in farming communities) than in Europe and few immigrants had the capital needed to start a farm

• Consequently, most immigrants settled in cities

The Irish • Most Irish immigrants before 1840 came over from lumber ships

heading from Liverpool to NE and settled in urban areas of N England, NY, PA, and NJ (not enough capital to become farmers)

• Between 1815 and the mid-1820s most Irish who came over were Protestants, but soon most of them were Catholics drawn from the poorer classes

• Up to a million Irish immigrants came to America between 1815 and 1844.

• Then the Potato Famine hit (probably killed 1 million) and saw 1.8 immigrants come over the next 10 years.

• Irish often saw themselves in competition with free blacks for jobs at the bottom of the economic rungs

• Led to animosity toward blacks and a hatred of abolitionists

Irish Women• Domestic servants • Compared to other immigrants, high number of Irish women

entered workforce• 1840’s- Irish women replacing and displacing native born

women in textile mills in Lowell and Waltham• Many became working widows (husbands working on canals

and RR) • Most of the Germans coming over were men, more than ½ of

Irish were women, most of whom were single

Potato Famine Memorial in Dublin, Ireland

The Germans• Germans on the other hand left on ships engaged in the

cotton trade with New Orleans• Instead of settling in the South (deterred by slavery, the

oppressive climate, and lack of economic opportunity) they settled in the Midwest

• Upper Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys, especially in IL, OH, WI, MO

• United by common language and lived in tight communities (diverse jobs within German neighborhoods meant they could stay together)

Famous German Immigrants

Germans and Irish • By 1860 Germans and Irish formed more than 60% of the

population of St. Louis and nearly half the population of NYC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Detroit, and San Francisco.

• They were 1/3 of New Orleans, Baltimore, and Boston • Less likely to pursue agriculture in America than if they had

stayed in Europe• Fast growing cities = intense demand for labor of people with

strong backs and willingness to work for low wages • Irish= built the canals and RR that connected cities

Ten thousand Micks, they swung their pricksTo build the New CanalBut the choleray was stronger’n they.An twice it killed them awl.

-song about the fate of thousands of Irishmen who died of cholera while building a canal in New Orleans

Nativism(anti-immigrant) • Surge of Irish immigrants fueled anti-Catholicism. • Belief in conspiracies to destroy republican government by

flooding America with Catholics (Samuel F.B. Morse believed it)

• Many native born Americans after the Panic of 1837 saw Catholic immigrants as a threat to their jobs

• Lyman Beecher A Plea for the West- Catholics being sent to West to dominate the region

• By the 1840s Protestants began organizing a political backlash to the Catholic immigration in the form of nativist societies.

• Eventually grew into actual political parties like the Know Nothing (American) Party in the 1850s.

• Most Catholics were drawn to the Democratic party, due to its policies that championed the lower classes, the anti-Catholicism of the Whigs and their emphasis on temperance

Nativist Parties• American Republicans • United Order of the Americans• The Order of the Star Spangled Banner • Know Nothing (American) Party • Members, when asked about their nativist organizations, were

supposed to reply that they knew nothing, hence the name. As its membership and importance grew in the 1850s, the group slowly shed its clandestine character and took the official name American Party. As a national political entity, it called for restrictions on immigration, the exclusion of the foreign-born from voting or holding public office in the United States, and for a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship.

A portrait of a young man representing the nativist ideal of the Know-Nothing party.-Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Nativist Fears• Protestants thought that since they were allowed to interpret

the Bible themselves (no need for a priest) they were more democratic

• Catholics were a threat to their jobs (willing to work for less) • Labor Unions were appealing • Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) – Massachusetts Supreme

Court ruled that labor unions were NOT illegal monopolies that restricted trade

Immigrants and Politics • Very few had ever cast a vote in any election • “Forty-Eighters”= about 10,000 German political refugees in 1848 • Irish and Germans identified with Democrats• Andrew Jackson had given the party an anti-aristocratic feel

(appealed to common people)• Whigs were linked to anti-slavery (competition for jobs) and

temperance• Whig public school reform seemed a challenge to Catholicism

and culture• Loved George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew

Jackson • BUS, tariff, and national expansion were now topics on

immigrants radars

The West and Beyond!

The American West Where is it? • 1840- West= area between Appalachian Mountains and the

Mississippi River-beyond that was the Great Plains• Adams-Onis Treaty (Transcontinental Treaty of 1819)- America

gave up claims to TX west of the Sabine River-Spain in control of TX, CA, NM (today would include NV, UT, AZ, parts of WY, CO)

• 1821-Mexico overthrows Spain and is now in charge of that area

• Adams-Onis also meant that Spain ceded claims of Oregon north of 42 parallel

• 1824-25- Russia abandoned claims to Oregon south of 54 40’ ̊�(southern boundary of Alaska)

• 1827- GB and USA agreed to joint occupation of this territory (included modern Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, parts of Canada)

Far Western Trade • The west was seen as a remote frontier, but in the early 19th

century there were trading centers on the west coast• Boston merchants would sail around South America and trade

coffee, tea, spices, clothing, anything, for furs, cattle, hides. • “California Banknotes” became the name for the cattle that

was used as a medium of exchange • During the 1820s trade developed between St. Louis and

Santa Fe along the Santa Fe Trail. This emerged out of the Panic of 1819.

• Beaver trade also was profitable in Colorado and Utah.• Americans in California and New Mexico assimilated into

Spanish culture

Please don’t take my fur!!!Boston merchants traded almost anything made in the USA for sea otter fur.

You wouldn’t kill me, WOOD you? Get it?!!!

Trappers rushed to CO and UT to hunt the American Beaver for its fur

Americans move West• Oregon attracted a lot of people because of its abundant

farmland. • Between 1840 and 1848 -11,500 emigrants went to Oregon,

and 2,700 went to California. • Britain could not effectively settle Oregon and the Mexicans

living in California were few and scattered

TEXAS INDEPENDENCE

American Settlement • During the 1820s Americans began settling in the eastern part of

Mexico. • Mexican government encouraged American colonization of Texas by

giving land grants to people to recruit American settlers (protection from Indians since Spain left)

• Spanish Mission System= staffed by Franciscan priests, convert Native Americans to Catholicism & settle them as farmers on the land- to protect the mission, forts (presidios) were built

• Mexico secularized the missions and handed out land grants to government officials and private ranchers who turned the Indians into forced laborers – they runaway and now there is lawlessness

• The most prominent empresario (land agent) was Stephen Austin, who brought over 300 families to Texas.

• Most of the American settlers were Southerners, often slave owners- problem!!! Mexico had emancipated its slaves in 1829

• By 1830 twice as many Americans as Mexicans were living in Texas

Stephen Austin

Mexican Reaction to Settlement

• In 1830 Mexico closed Texas to further immigration and forbade the importation of more slaves.

• Also mandated Roman Catholicism and placed high import taxes on American imports.

• But Americans kept coming (and their slaves). • By 1836 Texas contained 30,000 white Americans, 5,000 black

slaves, and 4,000 Mexicans.• In 1834 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna became Mexican

president and began clamping down on eastern Texas. • Americans in the province started to rebel.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

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Remember the Alamo!The Texas Revolution!

• Tejanos (Americans living in Texas) were supporters of Houston and didn’t want independence… at first

• Santa Anna invaded Texas in 1835 with an army of 4,000 men, initially defeating the Americans at the Alamo and Goliad- now Houston aligns with more radical Americans who want independence

• Americans in Texas declared their independence, creating the Lone Star Republic, and elected Sam Houston as their military leader and president.

• Santa Anna was successful at first, invading San Antonio, and the 200 Texan defenders retreating into the Alamo, an abandoned mission Davy Crockett is executed!

• Six weeks later Santa Anna was surprised at the San Jacinto River. • Shouting “Remember the Alamo” Houston’s army tore through Santa

Anna’s and captured him. • They forced him to sign the Treaty of Velasco, recognizing the

independence of Texas (Mexico never ratified the treaty)

Davy Crockett and The Alamo

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Lone Star Republic

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Reactions to Texas

• Andrew Jackson recognized the Republic of Texas on his last day of his presidency, but made no move to annex it out fear of starting a war with Mexico.

• GB developed ties with Texas, who provided an alternative source of cotton.

• Political debate over whether to annex Texas… brings up the issue of slavery

Tippecanoe… is dead. • Whig in Executive Branch and Whig majority in Congress• Based policies off of American System• Repealed the Van Buren’s Independent Treasury, planned to

institute another sort-of BUS, revenue protective tariff (favor American industries but still allow foreign goods into USA) and use that revenue for internal improvements

• WHH dies in his first month in office: • President who has delivered the longest Inaugural address

(8,445 words). He died of pneumonia one month later, believed to have been brought on by prolonged exposure to bad weather at his March 4 Inauguration

And Tyler is now President• A disaster for the Whigs• A former Democrat who had broken with Jackson over

nullification• Vetoed a bill about a new national bank• Vetoed bills that would strengthen protective tariffs until he

needed revenue but did NOT distribute that revenue to the states

• 1842- Whigs lose control of House to Democrats and kept a slim majority in the Senate

Politics of Expansion • In 1842 Tyler’s secretary of state, Daniel Webster, concluded the

Webster-Ashburton, which settled a dispute over the border of Maine and Canada (popular in the North so he thought if he could get Texas he would gain Southern support and thus be reelected)

• The terms were pretty favorable to the US, but we gave up more than people in MA and ME.

• Webster forged a map supposing to be the map on which Ben Franklin, at the Treaty of Paris, drew with a red line the border between Maine and New Brunswick.

• The red line Webster drew was the same as what the Brits were asking for.

• Showed this to representatives of MA and ME as if to say, we better take this deal before they see this and demand the rest of the land they’re entitled to.

• The original map surfaced in England showing that the entire area belonged to the US.

Tyler goes after Texas • Tyler set his sights on annexing Texas, beginning a propaganda campaign (GB

has an interest in Mexico???)• Antislavery northerners saw the annexation of Texas as a conspiracy to spread

slavery into Mexico, Cuba and Central America • Tyler’s Secretary of State, Webster, resigned and was replaced by Abel Upshur

from Virginia. • Upshur got a treaty to annex Texas but died in a ship explosion before it was

voted on by Congress• Was replaced by John C. Calhoun, whose pro-slavery position threatened the

passing of an annexing treaty• Tyler and his new Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, submitted to Congress a

treaty annexing Texas. • Among the supporting docs was a letter from Calhoun defending slavery as

beneficial to blacks. • The treaty was defeated in the Senate, largely thanks to the efforts of Henry

Clay, the most powerful Whig and Martin Van Buren, the leading northern Democrat

Election of 1844• Tyler tried to run as an independent since no party wanted him- had to

drop out• Henry Clay runs for the Whigs (running mate was temperance loving

Presbyterian) • James G. Birney ran for Liberty Party (abolition of slavery) • Democrats split over the issue of Texas. • James K Polk became the dark horse compromise candidate.• “Who is James K. Polk?” – lost elections to be governor of TN but he

was a good campaigner• Polk supported annexation as a safety valve for slavery• Said that if Britain closed off Texas to slavery then slavery would

become explosive in the South and cause a race war in the North• Also ran on “54 40 or fight”• Polk won a close election, benefiting from a large turnout of Irish

voters.

He Polk’d Mexico into war with US

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Manifest Destiny• Election of 1844 showed that expansion was a national issue• California and Oregon on the radar with Texas- markets for

agricultural surplus; worried that cities and immigrants were shrinking opportunities for the common man

• Americans would continue to become farmers and the foundations of the Republic would remain secure

• Get the British out of Oregon- anti-British Irish immigrants • In 1845 John L O’Sullivan wrote of “our manifest destiny to

overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”

• Manifest= obvious Destiny= future

Polk and Oregon• America wanted the area up to 54 40 (between CA and AK)• GB ignored this threat until Polk elected • Polk knew US couldn’t get the entire area but used threats to

force GB to sign over the area up to the 49th parallel• April, 1846- GB gives up joint occupation of Oregon• Now, they have to go to war or negotiate.• Provisions of the negotiation: 49th parallel, GB retains all of

Vancouver Island, and keeps navigation rights on the Columbia River

MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR

• The further north you went the more opposition to Mr. Polk’s War grew

• Polk micromanaged the war and was threatened by Taylor and Scott’s political futures since both were Whigs

• Polk had a three part plan:• Clear Mexicans from Texas and occupy the Northern provinces of

Mexico• Take possession of California and New Mexico• March to Mexico City

Origins • Mexico owed $2 million to Americans citizens • Bitter memories of the Alamo and Goliad massacre• Issue of Texas- Mexico wants it back or at least keep it

independent of USA• Mexico viewed America with awe and aversion• Mexico had unstable government (changed Presidents 20

times between 1829 and 1844) • Worried if Mexico was seized they would be treated like slaves• 1845- Texas annexed• Polk agreed with Texans that their border is the Rio Grande• Mexico set the border at the Nueces River, 100 miles

northeast of Rio Grande (area between uninhabited but high-stakes)

Getting Ready for War• July 4, 1845- TX accepts annexation • Mexico readies for war• Polk sends American troops under General Zachary Taylor to

the edge of the disputed territory (Corpus Christi)• Polk also wanted CA- if we get Texas “the road to California

will be open to us”• November 1845- sent John Slidell to Mexico City to gain

Mexican recognition of annexation of TX at the Rio Grande• US would assume debt owed by Mexico to American citizens• Offer $25 million for CA and NM• Refused to see SlidellPolk sends Taylor to move to the Rio Grande hoping to provoke a Mexican attack

“AMERICAN BLOOD HAS BEEN SHED ON AMERICAN SOIL!”

Mexican forces had crossed the Rio Grande and ambushed two companies of Taylor’s troops

War with Mexico• May 11-Polk informs Congress that war “exists by the act of Mexico

herself” and asks for $10 million to fight the war• Whigs went on the attack: • Is the war justified? Was it really on American soil? Had we provoked

Mexico into war? Were we defending America? Was this imperialism? Was Polk undercutting Congress’ right to declare war?

• A freshman Whig Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln questioned whether the "spot" where blood had been shed was really U.S. soil. On December 22, 1847, he introduced the "Spot Resolutions. One of several congressional resolutions opposing the war, it was never acted upon by the full Congress. Lincoln's action temporarily earned him a derisive nickname, "spotty Lincoln," coined by one Illinois newspaper.

• Polk reminded the Whigs that Federalist opposition to the War of 1812 had wrecked the Federalist Party- don’t be unpatriotic!

The Spot Resolutions• Pages from the Resolution

War with Mexico• Most of Europe expected Mexico to win• Mexico had 4X larger army than USA• Mexico was fighting on home turf • America on offensive and Mexico had to defend• May 1846- “old Rough and Ready” Taylor routed Mexican

army in TX and pursed it into and captured Monterrey in September

• Taylor, weak on supplies, gave Mexico an 8-week armistice• Wanting to undercut Taylor’s popularity, Polk put General

Winfield Scott in charge of the offensive instead of Taylor• Actually tried to get Congress to make Thomas Hart Benton a

lieutenant general so as to have a Democrat in nominal control, but the Senate had the good sense to vote this down.

New Mexico• Spring 1846• Colonel Stephen Kearney marches to New Mexico and took it

without a shot• Governor of NM fled, saying “it is better to be thought brave

than to be so” • Sent troops to meet up with Taylor in Mexico

California• 1845- Polk had occupied CA ports in the event of war with

Mexico • John C. Fremont (GA born adventurer) – married to Thomas

Hart Benton’s daughter- dispatched to CA to “watch over the interests of the United States”

• June, 1846- seized Sonoma and declared CA the “Bear Flag Republic”

Original Flag raised in Sonoma, CA

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“The flag was designed by William Todd on a piece of new unbleached cotton. The star imitated the lone star of Texas. A grizzly bear represented the many bears seen in the state. The word, ‘California Republic’ was placed beneath the star and bear. The

Bear Flag was replaced by the American flag. It was adopted by the 1911 State Legislature as the State Flag. ”

Mexico City• * When you get the capital, you usually win the war• March 1847 -Winfield Scott lands and encounters Santa Anna• Robert E. Lee figures out a way around the Mexican forces and

move directly into Mexico City• Ulysses S. Grant took key fortresses• Scott takes the city on September 13, 1847• Battle of 11,000 US v. 25,000 Mexicans• US had better artillery, supplies and organization • US did suffer losses from Yellow Fever, caught venereal

diseases

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo• Mexico ceded Texas with Rio Grande boundary, New Mexico

and California• United States assumed the claims of American citizens against

the Mexican government and paid $15 million.

• Some rabid expansionists in the Senate denounced the treaty because it failed to include all of Mexico

• Most expansionists did not want Mexico due to their large population of mixed Spanish and Indian population

• Ratified in the Senate March 10, 1848

War’s effects on Sectionalism• Polk

• passed the Tariff of 1846, slashing duties, and established an independent treasury. Also vetoed the Rivers and Harbors Bill of 1846.

• expansion would serve the interests of the nation by dispersing its population and retaining its democratic and agricultural character

• Slavery did not come into play in his thinking at all.• A pure expansionist through and through. • Supported simply extending the 36-30 line toward California (Missouri Compromise Line) to

settle slavery issued• Antislavery Whigs still constituted a minority of their party• More threatening to Polk were northern Democrats who feared that the expansion of

slavery into California and New Mexico would threaten free laborers from settling in these territories.

• Polk had hurt Democratic unity by lowering tariffs so low and he angered western Democrats by vetoing federal aid for internal improvement.

• In their minds, moving slavery into these territories would stall the migration of free labor and would aggravate social tensions such as class strife and labor protest.

• David Wilmot, a young Democratic congressman from PA, became the spokesperson for these views.

Wilmot Proviso• 1846 -Wilmot proposed an amendment to an appropriations bill for

the upcoming negotiations with Mexico over Texas, NM, and California, stipulating that slavery be banned from any territory gained from these negotiations.

• Passed in the House but stalled in the Senate. • There was an implicit agreement when Northern Democrats

supported annexation of TX that TX would be the last slave state. So, would be Texas slave, NM and California free.

• Wilmot Proviso had strong support from the North but Southern Democrats opposed it.

• Many Southerners thought the expansion of slavery to the west would lessen the chances of a slave revolt.

• Polk also refused to endorse it. • Raised a constitutional argument over whether the government had

the power to deny someone the right to own slaves.

Constitutional? • Calhoun introduced resolutions saying that Congress had no

right to bar slavery from any territory. In a sense he was saying that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

• Northerners said that the Constitution gave Congress the power to make laws regarding the property of the USA

Election 1848• Zachary Taylor, a Whig, was able to win election in 1848 due to

the Wilmot Proviso. The WP made the Whigs appealing to the South (since the WP had originated in the Democratic Party) and Taylor was a slaveholder from LA. Also was a national hero.

• If Democrats supported either the position of Wilmot or Calhoun, the party would split.

• Needed to find some middle ground (Polk declined to run for reelection)

• They nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan, who announced the doctrine of squatter sovereignty or “popular sovereignty”

• popular sovereignty= let the people of a territory decide by voting if they want slavery or not

• An ambiguous enough policy to appeal to both northerners and southerners.

Old Rough and Ready

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Free Soil Party• A faction of the Democrats who supported the WP broke off

and combined forces with the Liberty Party and formed the Free-Soil Party.

• They nominated Martin Van Buren. • The success of the Free Soil party possibly cost the Whigs the

election (nearly 300,000 voters, or about 10 percent of the electorate) and showed that opposition to the spread of slavery had a lot more support than the staunch abolitionism of the Liberty Party.

California Gold Rush• Nine days before the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe

Hidalgo an American named James Marshall discovered gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills in California (John Sutter’s Mill), spawning a frantic gold rush.

• Tried to keep it a secret but word soon spread. Stores closed, newspapers shut down, soldiers abandoned their barracks. By the end of 1848 nuggets and gold dust worth $6 million had been gathered.

• Population of California grew from around 15,000 in 1848 to 250,000 in 1852.

• In 1849, some 25,000 Americans made their way to California by ship, 55,000 by land

• “Forty-niners”

It all makes sense now…

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Consequences of the Gold Rush• Racial conflict between Americans, Hispanics and Chinese. • And the issue of slavery in California became a much more practical

issue, because of the question of bringing slave labor in to work in the gold mines.

• Spanish population was reduced to a minority almost overnight. • There were 150,000 Indians in California prior to the gold rush. In

1860 there were 35,000.• Few miners found fortunes. • In 1848 the average miner found about an ounce of gold a day,

worth $20, about 20 times what a laborer back east made in a day. But the average take declined to $6 a day by 1852 due to the influx of miners.

• Mining became more mechanized and the biggest profits went to mining companies.

• Led to an increase in cities and surrounding industries.