CHAPTER 2, SECTION 4
Manifest Destiny and Crisis
“I must walk toward
Oregon, and not
Europe.
And that way the
nation is moving,
And I may say that
mankind progresses
from east to west.” –
Henry David Thoreau
Manifest Destiny
 Big Ideas:
 America’s quest for a continental nation meant
acquiring land already claimed by other nations.
 As new states emerged, the North and South wrangled
over the spread of slavery.
Manifest Destiny
 Manifest Destiny:
 Americans believed
that the United States
had a God-given right
to spread across the
whole continent.
Texas & Oregon
 Oregon:
 James K. Polk ran for
president on the promise to
annex Texas as well as the
Oregon Territory.
 Polk won, and in 1845
Congress voted to annex
Texas.
 Six months later, US &
Britain agreed to split the
Oregon Territory along the
49th parallel.
 The land gained from Britain
became Washington,
Oregon, & Idaho
War With Mexico
 Bullets started flying
between Mexican and US
soldiers when General
Zachary Taylor moved troops
into the disputed border with
Mexico. Congress responded
by declaring war.
 Polk sent General Kearney to
seize California.
 General Winfield Scott was
sent to take Mexico City.
“I, Stephen W. Kearny,
General of the Army of
the United States, have
taken possession of the
province of New Mexico.
Surrender absolutely. I
am your governor. Look
to me for protection.”
War With Mexico
 General Winfield Scott
(Old Fuss-n-Feathers)
captured Mexico City in
1847.
 The Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo gave the US more
than 500,000 square miles
of land in return for a
payment of $15 million
and the assumption of $3
million in Mexican debt.
Manifest Destiny
 Big Ideas:
 As new states emerged, sectionalism began to increase
between the North and South over which states would
be free-states and which would be slave-states.
 More Compromises were made to prevent the Union from
falling apart.
Slavery & Westward Expansion
 The Impact of War
With Mexico:
 Legislators from free
and slave states argued
over which territories
could become slave
states.
Slavery & Westward Expansion
 Senator Cass of
Michigan proposed a
compromise.
 Let the citizens of each
new territory decide for
themselves. This idea
came to be called the
popular sovereignty
solution.
Slavery & Westward Expansion
 Struggle for Compromise:
 In 1849 over 80,000 “Forty-
Niners” rushed to
California in search of
gold.
 Californians applied for
statehood as a free state.
 Once again the South
threatened to leave the
union.
The Fugitive Slave Act
 Henry Clay proposed the
Compromise of 1850.
 California would be a freestate and Congress passed a
law to help southerners
recover runaway slaves.
 The Fugitive Slave Act:
 Northerners were upset that
they were being forced to
allow slave-catchers in their
states, and abolitionists
vowed to defy the law.
The Fugitive Slave Act
 One of the ways the law
was defied was through
the Underground
Railroad which helped
slaves escape the
South.
 “Conductors” such as
Harriet Tubman
journeyed into slave
states to assist
escapees.
New Territorial Troubles
 Kansas-Nebraska Act:
 The proposed
transcontinental railroad was
set to pass through the
Nebraska Territory, but it was
north of the Missouri
Compromise line. So
Southerners would not
approve of the route.
 Again the South threatened to
secede.
 A new compromise was
reached: The KansasNebraska Act -
 The territory would be divided
into two states:
 Nebraska –free
 Kansas –slave
The Crisis Deepens
 Big Ideas:
 Opponents of slavery were tired of making
compromises.
 Some people responded to growing division with
violence while others sought a political solution.
“Has it come to this, that we must
speak with bated breath in the
presence of our Southern masters? ...
Are we to be chastised as they chastise
their slaves? Are we too, slaves, slaves
for life, a target for their brutal blows,
when we do not comport ourselves to
please them?” – William Cullen
Bryant: NY Evening Post,
The Crisis Deepens
 Northerners flooded into Kansas
creating an antislavery majority.
 Thousands of armed
Missourians marched into
Kansas to vote illegally and
succeeded in installing a
proslavery legislature.
 Both sides fought each other in
what was a preview of the Civil
War.
 The sides fought each other for
control earning the new state the
nickname “Bleeding Kansas.”
The Crisis Deepens
 Sectional Divisions Grow:
 Just days after Buchanan was
elected president, the
Supreme Court ruled that
Dred Scott, a captured
runaway slave, had no right
to sue for his freedom
because black people were
not citizens.
 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
also ruled that Congress did
not have the power to restrict
slavery, striking down the
Missouri Compromise.
“Any person descended
from Africans, whether
slave or free, is not a
citizen of the United
States, according to the
Constitution.” – Chief
Justice Taney
The Crisis Deepens
 John Brown’s Raid:
 John Brown was an
antislavery abolitionist who
chose to respond to injustice
with violence of his own.
 In 1859 Brown raided a
federal weapons arsenal in
Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
 His plan was to arm the slaves
of Virginia and begin an
insurrection.
 Colonel Robert E. Lee and a
contingent of US Marines
captured Brown before he
could carry out his plan.
The Crisis Deepens
 John Brown was sentenced to
death by a Virginia court.
 Northerners viewed John
Brown as a martyr for a noble
“He is Old Brown
cause.
no longer.
He is an angel of
 For Southerners, it was
light.” – Henry
proof that Northerners were David Thoreau
actively plotting to arm
slaves and murder slave
owners.
“Defend yourselves! The enemy
is at your door!” – Georgia
senator Robert Toombs