American History Lecture Five

Reminders on exam or homework questions:

• Understand the question first. Students are missing points for not completely understanding the question. Pause a moment after you read a question. Read it twice. Ask yourself, what is the point of the question?

• Skip the toughest questions and answer the other questions first. But when the answer sheet is separate from the exam, be sure to leave a gap in your answer sheet for the skipped question.

• When stuck, use a source other than the lecture. On your written homework, you may use extra resources although the answers are almost always in the lecture.

Tips in learning history:

• Beware of over-reliance on authority. Unless we're talking about the Bible, authority is not always going to be correct. Every book contains mistakes or fails to explain a concept well, and it's beneficial to read many sources, because some authors will cover what others miss or explain a concept better.

• Learn history in small pieces. I cannot grade all the papers in this course at one time, or even in one day. After about an hour or two, I burn out. But by grading in 45 minute periods each day, it is very enjoyable. The material is easier to digest. Could you eat one and only one meal each day? No, we eat three meals so the food is easier to digest that way. Same with learning history. 45 minutes each day for 5 days will be much easier than over 4 hours in one day. You'll retain the material much better if you spread it out.

• Avoid procrastination! Don't wait until the last minute to begin your homework. Set a goal for yourself, such as answering three questions each day until you are done. Answering a few questions at a time doesn't take long, but trying to finish homework in one sitting when you are tired is difficult and produces poor results.

Now consider the following riddle about history: Consider this sequence: 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, ??, ??, ??, ??. What goes in the question marks? The answer is below.

Why are there so many 1's as we approach the Civil War? Imagine riding the raging bull at the rodeo. It's hard to stay on beyond a few seconds. Before the Civil War, the United States was like the bull, and it was nearly impossible for a president to be reelected amid that turmoil. No president could ride the raging bull of a divided country for more more than one term as the Civil War approached.

Review

This week, practice memorizing all of the presidents we have learned about. Which ones have we covered so far?

Last week we learned about Andrew Jackson, who represented the common man. He was a "Democrat". The masses elected their military hero. The Whig Party arose just to oppose Jackson.

In accordance with his image as a common man, Jackson was against a national bank. His military background caused him to be cruel to the Indians, heightening conflict there.

Although Jackson was a Democrat, which was then the main party in the South, Jackson's stance toward the South opposed nullification and secession.

Martin Van Buren

After Jackson had served as President for two terms, his vice president, Martin Van Buren was elected in 1836. Van Buren was the only person of non-British (or non-Irish) descent ever to become president. Then there was the financial panic of 1837, perhaps due to Jackson’s refusal to allow a national bank. This hurt Van Buren's popularity.

In the election of 1840, the anti-Jackson Whig party very was clever. Van Buren was no military hero, and he had been hurt by the economic problems. Historians say that the outcome in virtually every presidential election can be predicted by looking at how the economy is doing. When the economy is struggling, the incumbent loses. When the economy is thriving, the incumbent wins. Van Buren was hurt by a poor economy, with many voters out-of-work. Watch out for all those farmers on election day!

Whigs won in 1840 with a slick campaign strategy. They picked a military hero, William Harrison, who had beaten the Indians in Ohio at Tippecanoe, as their nominee. They chose John Tyler, a Virginian, as their Vice Presidential candidate. Then the Whigs used clever slogans. Van Buren was “Van, van the used up man!” (think the economy). The Whig candidates were “Tippecanoe and Tyler too!” Since military heroes had been successful as Democrats, the Whigs tried running a military hero of their own.

Harrison, however, insisted on participating in his inauguration in frigid weather, without a coat or hat. He caught pneumonia and died a month later. The first succession of VP to President then occurred, as Tyler took office. He ruled like a Democrat, vetoing a national bank. The Whigs were angry once again. Tyler was just a one-termer. In fact, every president from Van Buren until the Civil War served only one term.

The Alamo

America was still expanding, and eventually this caused conflict with Mexico, which became free from Spain in 1821. Texas (an area much larger than the modern state) was Mexico's territory.

Mexico began to "steal" America citizens, by giving them land when they became Mexican citizens and encouraged their friends to do the same. Thousands of settlers from the United States became Mexican citizens.

But Mexico was quite lax in controlling its territory in Texas, and the settlers revolted in 1836. They declared that Texas was independent from Mexico and drafted their own constitution.

In the famous Battle of the Alamo, a few thousand soldiers from Mexico defeated just 165 Texans at the Alamo. This battle became famous, as did the cry "Remember the Alamo!".

Shortly thereafter, Texas wrote a formal declaration of independence. Eager to gain land and fame, many Americans moved to Texas and helped defeat the Mexicans. Thus, Texas became the independent "Lone Star Republic".

Many of the citizens in Texas wished to become part of the United States, and Andrew Jackson, who was president at the time, also supported the annexation of Texas. Nevertheless, politics prevented Texas from being annexed.

The Whigs did not want to annex Texas, and Jackson was afraid that if he annexed Texas, his successor, Martin Van Buren, would not be elected. Abolitionists were also upset because Texas would be another slave state - its constitution permitted slavery.

In the end, Tyler was the first president to attempt to annex Texas. Unfortunately, he ruined his chances by declaring that slavery would be good for Texas. When the treaty came to the Senate, it did not pass.

1840s: Social Movements, Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion

The 1840s was a decade of expansion and social change for the growing United States. Counting California, which joined the Union in 1850, five new states were added to the United States: Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin and California. This included the two largest states in area in the continental United States (California and Texas), and what are now three of the four largest in population (California, Texas and Florida). The nation as we know it today was taking shape.

A widespread belief in "Manifest Destiny" was driving this growth. Manifest Destiny was the concept that westward expansion was part of God's plan for the United States to spread out over the continent. They believed that exploration and expansion was a mission from God.

In 1842, the United States resolved some minor disputes with Canada (still a British colony) over the location of the border. Known as the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, this resolved the location of the northern border of Maine, agreed on the location of the border in the Great Lakes (and shared use of those Lakes), and affirmed the use of the 49 degrees latitude as the border in the west. Daniel Webster, then the Secretary of State (who otherwise was a prominent Senator), signed the Treaty for the United States and the U.S. Senate ratified it as required by the Constitution.

Settlers began to move westward in large groups, traveling on the Oregon Trail. Beginning in 1843, Americans became fascinated with the Oregon territory, and 1000 pioneers traveled all the way from Missouri to Willamette Valley (a trip that took 4 to 6 months then). The Oregon Trail stretched for 2000 miles and many settlers spent six months traveling along it. Missionaries traveled in order to minister to the Indians far and wide.

Others went westward in a search for gold, and the "gold rush" that began in 1848 and hit a fever pitch in 1849 attracted many to California (the football team the "San Francisco 49ers" is named after those settlers).

Half of the Oregon territory, which included the current states of Oregon and Washington, was controlled by the British. In 1846 the Oregon Treaty settled the disputes between America and Britain, giving most of Oregon to the United States.

Along with the expansion and migration came great social change. Utopian communities thrived in the 1840s to pursue idealistic societies, often based on common religious beliefs and sharing homes and property. Examples were the Shakers, the Oneida Community, Brook Farm and the Rappites:

• The Shakers, whose formal name was the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, believed in communal living (people sharing each other's homes and property), productive labor, celibacy, pacifism, simplicity, and ritualistic dancing and shaking during services. It was founded by an Englishwoman in 1758, split off from the Quakers in 1772, and grew to 6,000 members in America before the Civil War. The Shakers rejected slavery and other American values, and had thriving communities in Enfield, Connecticut and in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, stand as two noteworthy examples of Shaker communities. Other Shaker communities existed in Kentucky, New Hampshire, New York (New Lebanon), and Maine (New Glochester), where Shakers survive to this day!

• Brook Farm was a Utopian community based on "transcendentalism", which was a philosophy started by Immanuel Kant in the late 1700s that emphasized man's ability to "transcend" experience and pursue a lifestyle of simple living, self-reliance, and rejection of industrialization. This movement took inspiration from Ralph Waldo Emerson, was the leading American proponent of this philosophy (without himself living in a Utopian community), and his friend Henry David Thoreau, who did spend some time living in simplicity on "Walden's Pond," except when he went over to Emerson's house to enjoy a good meal and better surroundings! Brook Farm itself was located in Suffolk County, Massachusetts and was led by a former Unitarian minister. The community provided to all members, their children and family dependents, housing, fuel, wages, clothing and food, and had schools at all levels before college. The project ended in failure due to financial difficulties and even a bitter lawsuit by investors attempting to recover their money. The community never exceeded 120 persons, making it smaller than most homeschooling communities today.

The Rappites: The Harmony Society, also called the Rappites, were similar to the Shakers in certain beliefs. Named after their founder, Johann Georg Rapp, the Rappites immigrated from Württemburg, Germany, to the United States in 1803, seeking religious freedom. Establishing a colony in Butler County, Pennsylvania, called Harmony, the Rappites held that the Bible was humanity's sole authority. They also advanced celibacy and lead a communal life without individual possessions, and believed that the harmony of male and female elements in humanity would be reestablished by their efforts. Under the guidance of Frederick Rapp, George Rapp's adopted son, the economy of Harmony grew from one of subsistence agriculture to gradual diversified manufacturing. By 1814 the Society boasted 700 members, a town of about 130 brick, frame, and log houses, and numerous factories and processing plants. Their manufactured products, particularly textiles and woolens, gained a widespread reputation for excellence, as did their wines and whisky. The Harmony Society soon outgrew its markets, and after selling all their holdings to a Mennonite group for $100,000 they moved to a new location on the Wabash River in Indiana. Here again they built a prosperous community, New Harmony (now a National Historic Landmark), only to sell it to Robert Owen, a social reformer from New Lanark, Scotland, and his financial partner, William Maclure, in 1825. The Harmonists next returned to Pennsylvania and built their final home at Economy (now called Old Economy and recognized as a National Historic Landmark), in Ambridge on the Ohio River. The Harmonists reached their peak of prosperity in 1866, but the practice of celibacy and several schisms thinned the Society's ranks, and the community was finally dissolved in 1905. The surviving buildings of the first settlement in Harmony, with their sturdy, simple brick dwellings, the Great House with its arched wine cellar, and the imposing cemetery and original town plan are today a National Historic Landmark named the Harmony Historic District.

[photo] Oneida Community Mansion House, Madison County, New York Photograph courtesy of Oneida Ltd. The Oneida Community: The founder and leader of the communal Oneida Community, John Humphreys Noyes, was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1811. Noyes joined the Andover Theological Seminary in November, 1831. Transferring to Yale Theological College at New Haven, he became involved with the nascent abolitionist movement. In 1833 he founded the New Haven Anti-Slavery society and the New Haven Free Church, where he preached his radical belief which laid great emphasis on the ideal of perfection being attainable in this life. His followers became known as Perfectionists. However, Noyes's belief in "complex marriage" alienated many of the townspeople in Putney, New York, where he was living, and he left in 1847. Perfectionists practicing "complex marriage" considered themselves married to the group, not a single partner. Noyes moved his community to the town of Oneida, in Madison County, New York. At Oneida, the group practiced "Bible Communism." The skills of the artisan members were channeled into broom manufacturing, shoe manufacturing, flour processing, lumber milling and trap manufacturing. The Perfectionists in Oneida held communal property, meals and arrangements for the rearing and education of children. They built the Oneida Community Mansion House, a rambling U-shaped, brick, Victorian building which began housing the community in the early 1850s. The Oneida Community Mansion House is now listed as a National Historic Landmark. In 1874 there were 270 members of the Oneida Community. Misunderstanding of the community, allied with traditional points of view, inspired a 1879 meeting of ministers in Syracuse, New York, to condemn the settlement. Eventual unrest hit Noyes' followers, and Noyes fled to Canada on June 29 1879. "Complex marriage" ended two days later. The experiment in their communal utopia ended in January of 1881 when the Oneida community was reconstituted as a joint stock corporation.

The Demise of the 19th-Century Utopian Colonies: Numerous religious and social communal groups developed in the nineteenth century. By the end of the century even Theosophical colonies, based off Madame Blavatasky's merging of eastern and western mysticism, had cropped up in such places as Point Loma and Temple Home, near San Diego, California. Other groups included the Zoarites in Ohio, the Moravians of North Carolina, and the followers of German-born Wilhelm Keil, a Methodist minister heavily influenced by the pietist movement, who founded colonies in Bethel, Missouri, and Aurora, Oregon. Yet of all these utopian groups only the Amana Inspirationists developed and built a network of seven villages set in an agricultural region (see essays on Amana History). They managed to survive by modifying their system into two distinct organizations, one secular and one spiritual. The Inspirationists of Amana founded their communities with an agricultural basis as did other communal groups in the United States. Both men and women labored, although in Amana women's work did not include trades and the ministry as it did in the Shaker communities.

[photo] Amana's past and future meet at the Amana General Store in South Amana, now Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts Photograph by Blanche H. Schroer, National Park Service While the 20th century witnessed further experiments in communal living, the great wave which founded the 19th-century religious and secular utopian communities had begun to subside. Some of the 19th-century groups were established and depended on the strength of their leaders, those which survived into the 20th century had to alter their way of life significantly, as traditional rural life evolved due to the industrial, economic and scientific progress in the larger society. General causes relating to the demise of these utopian colonies have to be explained individually, as each utopian community faced different circumstances. Overall, the conflict that many of these agrarian or small craft communities faced in an increasingly industrialized world may have contributed to their demise, as did external hostility manifested in the larger, surrounding society, often seen in inflammatory newspaper articles attacking the utopian experiments. Generally, most analysts of utopian experiments, from Charles Nordhoff to Arthur Bestor, Jr., have found that religious utopian colonies possessed a longer life then their secular counterparts.

Women's Rights/Seneca Falls "1848: 1st ""women's rights"" convention: called for women right to vote and drafted Declaration of Sentiments"

Liberty Party "1840-8: (NY) 1st anti-slavery party, later joined antislavery Whigs, Dems to form stronger Free-Soil party."

Mormon Church "1830: Joseph Smith founds in Western NY, went to OH; 1844 largest town in IL; 1847 to Utah, majority there"

Commonwealth v. Hunt 1842: Mass. Sup. Ct. held it was legal for workers to organize a union and to strike; this was union victory

Seventh Day Adventist Church "1844: stresses second coming of Christ, Saturday Sabbath, Bible, part of great second awakening"

Elizabeth Blackwell "1849: first women to receive a medical degree in America, from Geneva College in NY; English-born"

James K. Polk and War with Mexico

The Democrats officially won back the presidency with James Polk. The issue of Texas had become so important to Americans, that Polk won on a platform of annexing Texas to the United States.

Looking at Polk and the issues he worked on will tell you a good deal about America during the 1840s. The South was gaining more and more influence and power. Many people were working against slavery, and formed the Liberty party. This anti-slavery sentiment did not waver and continued to grow toward the Civil War. Manifest Destiny was important, and Polk's support of westward expansion helped him to win the election.

Only nine months after his inauguration, Texas became part of the Union.

Polk, a Democrat supported by the South, wanted more southern territory. In the Slidell Mission, Polk sent an attorney to Mexico to negotiate the border with Texas. He also hoped to buy New Mexico and California. But the Mission failed.

So Polk initiated (debated) a way to ignite a war with Mexico by sending Zachary Taylor down with some soldiers to stand close to the border of Mexico in 1846. He encouraged settlers to move closer and closer to the border.

The Mexicans eventually attacked, and Polk worked up the American people into a frenzy by saying that the Mexicans shed American blood on our soil!

The Whigs opposed the war, hoping the conflict would have end peacefully.

America's troops were strong, and managed to incite a rebellion in California, which was Mexico's territory. When American troops entered Mexico, they easily defeated the opposition. But the Mexicans still refused to negotiate, so Polk sent an army to occupy Mexico City. Again, Mexico would not enter into a treaty for peace, and the wars with Mexico continued for several years.

In the end, Polk also worked himself to death, dying just a few months after leaving office. He used to see every visitor that came to the White House!

Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore

Zachary Taylor was a a general during the Mexican war and a member of the Whig party. He was elected as president in 1848. He encouraged New Mexico and California to become part of the Union as free states. After just one year in office, he died.

Taylor's vice president, Millard Fillmore succeeded him. Fillmore was an average American who had succeeded through hard work. He played a key part in passing the Compromise of 1950.

The Compromise of 1950 admitted California as a state, and established that the South had the right to bring slaves into the United State's South West Territories. The Compromise also abolished the slave trade in DC, although slavery itself was allowed to continue.

Fillmore negotiated with Texas and gave the new state 10 million dollars to pay off its debts. In return, Texas accepted a more restrictive western boundary.

Anti-slavery Sentiments Rise

But real leaders were arising outside of the presidency: Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Douglas was the Jacksonian Democrat, while Lincoln was initially the anti-Jackson Whig. Everything between President Jackson (1836) and the Civil War (1861) can be understood through the eyes of Douglas and Lincoln. Both were from Illinois, a state that was ideologically in the middle between the North and the South.

Illinois was a key state because it was just across the Mississippi river from Missouri, which was a slave state under the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

Elijah Lovejoy was a pastor in St. Louis, and in 1837, he started a newspaper called the St. Louis Observer which published articles against slavery. The opposition to his paper was so great that he had to move to Alton, Illinois. There, he kept publishing articles against slavery.

But the opposition didn't cease, and Lovejoy's printing press was thrown into the river three times! The Ohio Anti-Slavery Society gave him a new printing press, and local slave owners decided to destroy it. A mob came over from St. Louis and Lovejoy was killed trying to protect his press. This violence shocked the North.

Franklin Pierce

After the negotiations in the Compromise of 1850, divisive conflict seemed to lull. Although Pierce tried hard to prevent further conflict from breaking out, his policies turned out to be quite divisive.

Historians remember the Kansas-Nebraska Act as the single largest step toward the Civil War. The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West.

"Bleeding Kansas"

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in a reaction and opposition to the concept of “popular sovereignty” pushed into law by Douglas in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. “Popular sovereignty” meant that each new territory should make its own decision, by popular vote, whether to allow slavery. The new Republican Party took its name from Jefferson’s Republican Party, because like Jefferson the new Republican Party opposed slavery in the new territories. The Party brought in Whigs and members of the small “Free Soil Party,” which had been based on the Wilmot Proviso (which passed the House but not the Senate). The Wilmot Proviso stated that none of the territory acquired from Mexico should be opened to slavery.

Almost immediately after enactment of popular sovereignty in the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), it was put to the test in 1855 in Kansas. Civil war in Kansas broke out between free and slave forces. In early 1856, pro-slavery forces burned down the “Free State Hotel” and destroyed the offices and presses of antislavery newspapers. A man was killed. In retaliation, the fanatical white John Brown took four of his sons and two others and went to Pottawatomie in Kansas and executed 5 pro-slavery colonists.

In the “Crime against Kansas” speech, abolitionists senator from Massachusetts Charles Sumner described the slave oligarchy and insulted and humiliated the absent and elderly Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. In retaliation, Butler’s nephew, Preston Butler, who was a congressman, went into Sumner’s chambers and beat him senseless with a cane. It took Sumner many years to recover. Preston Butler immediately resigned but was such a hero to the South that he was unanimously reelected by his district.

By the end of his administration, Pierce could claim "a peaceful condition of things in Kansas." But, the Democrats refused to renominate him, turning to the less controversial Buchanan. Pierce returned to New Hampshire, leaving his successor to face the rising fury of the sectional whirlwind. He died in 1869.

Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln

Illinois became the breeding ground for politicians to debate the slavery issue. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were both highly prominent.

They were opposites in every possible way. Lincoln was very tall, while Douglas was very short. Lincoln had lots of dark hair, Douglas had thinning gray hair. Lincoln was initially a Whig, Douglas was a Democrat. Lincoln was a wealthy attorney for the powerful Railroads. Douglas was a government attorney for the State. Both were extremely ambitious, constantly running for public office. Both were smarter than most in politics, and both were good public speakers (unlike, for example, Jefferson, who avoided public speaking). Truth be told, Douglas was really the better speaker: more compelling in style, and funnier.

Douglas quickly became leader of the Illinois Democratic Party, and he was originally inspired by President Andrew Jackson. Douglas was elected at the young age of 22 to be the state’s top attorney. By age 28 he became an Illinois Supreme Court Justice; by age 29 he was elected to the House of Representatives in Congress. At age 34 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and won every reelection until he died in office. In the U.S. Senate, he became very powerful and earned the nickname “Little Giant.” His speeches would attract huge crowds in the galleries of the Senate. Politically, he was almost unbeatable.

As a Jacksonian Democrat, Douglas favored “manifest destiny” and acquiring as much property westward as possible. The Mexican War was a way to obtain more property, so he favored it in the mid-1840s.

At the same time, Abraham Lincoln was rising as a Whig in Illinois. In contrast to Douglas, Lincoln lost virtually every election he entered. But he kept trying, again and again. Unlike Douglas, Lincoln opposed the Mexican War because the Whigs saw it as a way for the South to gain more slave territory. Lincoln disputed the claim that Mexicans had shed American blood on American soil, and introduced the “Spot Resolutions” in Congress disputing where the bloodshed occurred.

Economic views: Lincoln sought economic unity (remember, he represented railroads); Douglas did not care as much, but also wanted to keep the country together.

Which person, Lincoln or Douglas, is going to be more sympathetic to slavery? Is either going to be entirely pro-slave or abolitionist?

Both Lincoln and Douglas looked for ways to avoid the coming Civil War. Many Americans, beginning with Jefferson, started to worry about how slavery was ripping the country apart. Jefferson used to wake up in a cold sweat with a nightmare of where the United States was headed.

Pre-Civil War Division

This is the toughest question of the entire course: Could the Civil War have been avoided? Historians just took a poll on the biggest presidential blunders. At the top of the list is the failure of President James Buchanan for keeping the Union together just prior to the Civil War. What do you think?

The Whig Party broke up over slavery: the northern, abolitionist Whigs founded the Republican Party, and the southern, pro-slavery Whigs (such as wealthy plantation owners) joined the Democratic Party.

James Buchanan

In 1857, the new Democratic President Buchanan deferred to popular sovereignty, and tried to get Kansas admitted as a slave state. The “Dred Scott” decision was the Supreme Court’s attempt to resolve it: the Court held that African-Americans have no rights in the United States. This was an outrageous, shocking decision. Northerners accused Buchanan of agreeing secretly with Supreme Court Justices to render a decision in favor of the South.

In 1858, Lincoln said in a speech before the Republican state convention: “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” quoting the Bible. He copied the application of this concept to slavery from many others who had used it previously.

The Election of 1860

Lincoln became the “Rail Candidate” for president in 1860 because he opposed slavery in the territories but accepted it (as the Constitution did) in the South. He “rode the rail” of that principle right to the White House. As a former attorney for the railroads, the image stuck to him.

Douglas lost the support of both the North and South due to his “Freeport Doctrine,” which was a position he took in a debate with Lincoln at Freeport, Illinois in their contest for U.S. Senate from Illinois (in which Lincoln won the popular vote, but Douglas was chosen by the Illinois legislature to be the Senator, as was the practice then). After the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that a slave is property who cannot be taken away from the slave owner, Lincoln asked Douglas, “Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?” In his answer, Douglas adopted a position in the middle between Lincoln’s view that slavery should not be allowed in territories and the Supreme Court’s view that slavery must be protected everywhere as property. Douglas said that the people in each territory can decide whether to allow slavery, and if they prohibited it then as a practical matter the slave owner could not keep a slave there. This angered the South and also further alienated Douglas from the North. Douglas could then win only one state, Missouri, in the presidential election of 1860. Lincoln coasted to victory in the presidential election. Why did the South think it could win the Civil War?

Development in the South

The South had a feeling of invincibility from its tremendous economy, which was based on high prices for “King Cotton” and other crops, such as tobacco and sugar cane. The South also felt that the North lacked a will to fight and, if it did, Britain and France would recognize and help the South due to their dependence on its exports like cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar cane. The South also had strategic advantages: controlled the mouth of the Mississippi and need only defend rather than conquer. The South considered its men in much better condition to fight. The South had better generals, and would have done far better had its generals like Stonewall Jackson not died in battle.

But the North benefited from the railroad system, heavy immigration and a much more balanced economy. Opposition to immigration in the 1850s had arisen in the North through the American (Know-Nothing) Party, but the greater numbers from the immigration ended up helping the North in the war. The North also had control of the United States Navy, which proved to be useful.

Antebellum State Admissions

1-11. Colonies ratifying the Constitution before George Washington became president
12. North Carolina: November 21, 1789
13. Rhode Island: May 29, 1790
14. Vermont: March 4, 1791
15. Kentucky: June 1, 1792
16. Tennessee: June 1, 1796
17. Ohio: March 1, 1803
18. Louisiana: April 30, 1812
19. Indiana: December 11, 1816
20. Mississippi: December 10, 1817
21. Illinois: December 3, 1818
22. Alabama: December 14, 1819
23. Maine: March 15, 1820
24. Missouri: August 10, 1821
25. Arkansas: June 15, 1836
26. Michigan: Jan 26, 1837
27. Florida: March 3, 1845
28. Texas: December 29, 1845
29. Iowa: December 28, 1846
30. Wisconsin: May 29, 1848
31. California: September 9, 1850
32. Minnesota: May 11, 1858
33. Oregon: February 14, 1859
34. Kansas: January 29, 1861

1840-1860

Make sure these are covered in lecture above; remove after incorporated above:

John Tyler "Whig Pres. 1841-45: estab. power of VP to succeed Pres., vetoed nat'l bank, Clay led resignation of most of his Cabinet; 1842 Tyler vetoed tariff, House sought impeachment, then 1st override of veto by Cong."

Webster-Ashburton Treaty "1842: US-Canada settles their border, as Am. Webster agrees with Brit. minister Ashburton re: boundary"

James Polk "Dem. Pres. 1844: ""dark horse"" nomination; loyal to Jackson; settled Oregon dispute, reduced tariffs; reestablished independ. treasury; fought War with Mexico; defeated Clay by supporting Texas annexation"

Manifest Destiny 1845: expansion of the U.S. to include all territory westward to the Pacific Ocean is considered inevitable

Texas enters Union Dec.1845 became State as Polk enforced agt between Tyler and Congress; boundary dispute causes war

Slidell Mission "1845: Polk sent this attorney to Mexico to negotiate border, buy NM and CA; failed, and we provoked war"

Oregon Treaty 1846: treaty with England that set boundary between US and BC

Wilmot Proviso 1846: Penns. David Wilmot introduced anti-slavery ban on land acquired from Mex.; Sen. Calhoun defeated

Iowa enters Union "1846: Iowa enters union, as a free state under the Missouri Comproise; highest % farmland of any state"

Mexican War 1846: war declared by Congress over Whig objection; lasted 2 yrs; US won and captured Mexico City

"""Spot Resolutions""" "Dec. 22, 1847: Whig Congressman Lincoln opposed Mexican War, disputing bloodshed ""spot"" in US"

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo "Feb. 1848: ends Mexican War: border set at Rio Grande River. US gets CA, NM, NV, WY, CO, TX for $15M"

Barnburners "1848: antislavery faction that split Dem Party, enabling Whigs to elect Taylor; loyal Dems were ""Hunkers"""

Zachary Taylor "Whig Pres. 1848: gen. in war,died after 1 year,encouraged both NM+CA to apply for admission as free st."

Gold in California "Jan. 1849, Polk announced that gold had been found in California. This set off the Gold Rush (“the 49ers"")"

Millard Fillmore Whig VP became pres. in 1850 when Pres. Taylor died; Fillmore enabled Compromise of 1850 to pass

Compromise of 1850 "admitted CA as free and S had right to bring slaves in SW territories,slave trade abolished in DC,not slavery" enacted tougher federal fugitive slave laws and strictly enforced them: Clay pushed it through Senate TX got $10M to pay off its debt in return for accepting a narrower western boundary

Fugitive Slave Act amends Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 to appoint federal commissioners to catch slaves without due process

Minnesota and Oregon join US Minnesota admitted in 1858; Oregon was admitted in 1859

Economy of South in 1850s "prosperous, based on ""King Cotton"" and high prices, created feeling of invincibility against North"

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty 1850: U.S. agrees w/ Britain that neither nation would obtain exclusive control over an interoceanic canal

Clipper ships "1850s: newly designed ships, long, fast, white-winged, enhanced shipping & incr. trade in port cities"

German and Irish immigration "1850 Census: 10% of 23 M population was foreign born, mostly from Germany and Ireland"

Perry/Japan 1852-53: send by Pres. Fillmore to negotiate treaty with Japan to open borders to trade; successful

Ostend Manifesto "1854: govt plan that if Spain refused to sell Cuba, then US take by force(N outraged by slaveholder's plot)"

Transatlantic cable/telegraph "1858: first cable across ocean, high voltage damaged it; 1866 better one was completed and it lasted"

"""Uncle Tom's Cabin""" "1852: Harriet Beacher Stowe wrote it, criticizes slavery w/ a compelling novel"

Know-Nothing (American) Party "anti-immigration, anti-Catholic, popular in the 1850s, adopted each local region's view of slavery"

Franklin Pierce "1852: Democratic, proslavery, dark horse nominee, won because the Whigs collapsed over slavery issue"

Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854: Sen. Douglas obtained its passage; historians consider it the greatest single step towards Civil War; this Act replaced Missouri Compromise with ""popular sovereignty"" for new territories, causing mini-wars"

Republican Party "1854: founded to stop expansion of slavery, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Fugitive Slave Law, & slavery in DC"

early leaders of Republican Party abolitionists Charles Sumner & George Julian; Free-Soilers Salmon Chase; conservative Whigs also

Ostend Manifesto 1854: future Pres Buchanan tells Spain sell Cuba to US or lose it by force; caused negative feelings & failed

"""Bleeding Kansas""" 1850s: term used by Horace Greeley to describe the fight between pro and anti slavery people in Kansas

John Brown's attack 1856: led an attack that killed 5 proslavery settlers in Kansas (Pottawatomie Creek)

Brooks-Sumner incident "1856: abolitionist Sen. Sumner humiliates Sen. Butler, whose nephew responds by beating w/ cane "

James Buchanan "1856: Dem. Pres., had been overseas during bitter slavery disputes; accused of causing Dred Scott decision"

Panic of 1857 "Aug. 1857: New York City branch of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co. failed, caused financial panic"

Dred Scott v. Sanford "1857: blacks have no rights and cannot sue, and Congress cannot free slaves (""property"") from slaveowners"

Lecompton Constitution "part of Kansas constitution(proslavery), rejected by Congress and then by Kansas referendum"

Lincoln-Douglas Debates 1858: debates over future of U.S. during the Senate race in Illinois which Douglas won by vote of legislature

"Freeport Doctrine (Freeport, IL)" "1858: Lincoln asks Douglas if, after Dred Scott case, a territory can exclude slavery before becoming state; Douglas answered ""yes"", consistent with his ""popular sovereignty,"" caused South to turn against Douglas"

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry 1859: attempted to spark slave rebellion in VA; feds caught and tried and executed him

1860 Repub. Platform "broad coalition: incl. Wilmot Proviso, rejected territor. power to estab. slavery; but backed state power"

Abraham Lincoln "Pres. 1860, 64, tried to save union, issued Emancip. Proclam.; switched from Whig to Republican in 1856"

Copperheads "Northern ""Peace"" or pacifist Democrats who opposed Lincoln's war efforts against seceded South"

The Confederate States of America "Feb. 1861, in Montgomery AL, VA, NC,SC,GA,MS,TN; similar to Const. but w/ ""line item"" veto for Pres."

Fort Sumter "1861: Confederacy seeks surrender of Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C.; shots fired"