Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy

1841 - 1848

Harrison & Tyler

Harrison contracted pneumonia & died after serving

only 4 weeks (Curse of Tecumseh)

Shortest administration

John Tyler – “Accidental President”

Closet Democrat

At odds with the Whig party his

whole administration

Whig’s Plan for Gov’t

Whig’s “secret platform” – strongly nationalistic

Financial reform - wanted to end the

independent treasury system (Tyler signed it)

& create a “Fiscal Bank” (Tyler vetoed it)

Proposed a “Fiscal Corporation” (vetoed by Tyler)

Whig Tariff

Tyler’s view on the tariff

Tyler agreed that money needed to be collected for the

national treasury.

However, he did not agree that the money made off the

sale of western land should be split among the states.

Whigs response

Remove the dollar-distribution & reduce tariff

Tyler signs tariff

Whigs Respond to Tyler

Whigs formally expelled Tyler from the party

Some attempts to impeach him in the House

Entire cabinet, except Sec of State Webster, resigned

Death threats were common

Problems with England

Bitter feelings between US & Britain

2 wars & Jacksonian Democracy

British travelers looked down on Americans

“Third War with England”

Fought in the papers & with ink

Money

Americans borrow lots of money from Britain and

defaulted on their loans

Problems Continue

Canadian Insurrection (1837)

Americans furnished military supplies & volunteered

Never had a lot of support

Caroline Incident (1837)

American steamer carrying supplies to the insurgents across the Niagara River

Attacked on the NY shore by British & set on fire

McLeod claimed to have taken part/ later found to be untrue

Creole (1841)

British officials in Bahamas offered asylum to 130 Virginia slaves who had rebelled & captured the American ship

Land Disputes in Maine

British want to build a road from Halifax to Quebec

Road would go through disputed territory

Land claimed by both Maine & Britain

Disputed land – Aroostook River Valley

“Aroostook War”

1842 – London sent Lord Ashburton to meet with Sec.

Webster to work out a compromise

Webster-Ashburton Treaty

(1842)

Map p. 374

British got less land but did receive land for

Halifax-Quebec route

British actually surrendered 6,500 square miles

Caroline affair was also worked out with “an

exchange of diplomatic notes”

The Lone Star Republic

Viewed as a province in revolt by Mexico

Plans were made to reconquer Texas in the future

Texas began negotiations with England & France

Hoping to become a protectorate of either

Britain was very interested

Check expansion of America / challenge Monroe Doctrine

British abolitionists wanted to end slavery in Texas

Free-trade area

Cotton-producing area – help relieve British dependence

on South

Texas Becomes a State

Texas became a major issue in the presidential election

of 1844

Polk (D) & Clay (W)/ Polk wins

Lame-duck President Tyler interprets Democratic

victory as a “mandate” to acquire Texas

Joint resolution (only a simple majority of Congress

required for approval)/ approved 3 days before Tyler

leaves office

Texas becomes 28th state in 1845

Oregon Country

Sprawled west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean,

and north of California to the line of 54°40’

(present southern tip of Alaska panhandle)

Claimed at one time or another by: Spain, Russia,

Britain, and the US

Spain dropped out – Florida Treaty of 1819

Russia retreated because of treaties with US & Britain

British Claims to Oregon

Strong claims especially portion north of the

Columbia River

Claims based on

Prior discovery

Exploration

Treaty rights

Actual occupation

Hudson’s Bay Company – trading profitably with the

Indians for furs

American Claims to Oregon

Claims based on

Exploration – Lewis & Clark / Capt. Robert Gray

Occupation

Presence of missionaries & other settlers

Scattered American & British pioneers live

peacefully side by side

America & Britain

Treaty of 1818 – joint occupation of Oregon

US wanted to divide domain at the 49th parallel

Britain wanted the Columbia River

Oregon Fever – hundreds of pioneers came to Oregon

(Oregon Trail)

By 1846 – 5000 Americans had settled south of the

Columbia River

British – 700 settlers north of the Columbia River

Actually only a small segment was disputed territory

Election of 1844

Henry Clay (W)

Probably most popular

man in US

105 electoral votes

1,300,097 pop. votes

James K. Polk (D)

Speaker of the House

Gov. of Tennessee

170 electoral votes

1,338,464 pop. votes

Manifest Destiny

Belief that Almighty God had “manifestly”

destined the American people for a hemispheric

career.

They would irresistibly spread their uplifting &

ennobling democratic institutions over at least the

entire continent, and possibly over South America

as well.

Polk as President

Methodical & hardworking

Unwilling to delegate authority

Four-Point Program

1. Lower tariff

2. Restoration of the independent treasury

3. Acquisition of California

4. Settlement of Oregon

Success for Polk?

Lower tariff

Sec of Treasury – Robert J. Walker proposed to reduce the

Tariff of 1842 (32% to 25%)

Supported by southerners/ Complaints from New England

& Middle States

Walker Tariff of 1846 – passed and raised a lot of revenue

Polk’s Points 2-3

Restoration of the independent treasury

Restored in 1846 ( dropped by the Whigs in 1841)

Oregon

Proposed compromise of 49° instead of 54° 40’

1846 – Britain proposed same compromise

Polk gave issue to Senate & Senate approved the

compromise

“Fifty-four forty or fight” did not happen

Mexico & California

Why California?

Bay & harbor/ Manifest Destiny

Population – Mixed

Indians, Spanish-Mexicans, & foreigners- mostly American

Polk wanted to buy CA

Diplomatic relations had been severed

Issue over boundary – Nueces River or Rio Grande

Texas in general

Let’s Make a Deal

Polk sends John Slidell to Mexico City in 1845

Instructed to offer $25 million for CA & territory to the

east

Mexicans would not permit Slidell to present his offer

American Blood on

American(?) Soil

Jan. 13, 1846 – Polk ordered 4000 men, under General

Zachary Taylor, to march from the Nueces River to the

Rio Grande

Polk expected Mexicans to attack

May 9, 1846 –Polk asked Congress for war

Reasons:

Unpaid claims ($3 million)

Slidell’s rejection

Polk really wanted Mexican troops to fire first

“Jimmy Polk’s War”

April 25, 1846 – Mexican troops crossed the Rio

Grande & attacked General Taylor’s command

16 Americans killed or wounded

Polk goes before Congress “American blood on the

American soil”

Congress voted for war

Congressman – Lincoln// “spot” where American blood had

been shed

Mexicans wanted to humiliate the “Bullies

of the North”

War with Mexico

Polk’s goal – capture California

Fight on a limited scale & then pull out

when we captured California

Santa Anna – made deal with US

Let him slip back into Mexico, he would sell his country

Polk agreed & Santa Anna betrayed him

Mexican – American War

1846 – General Stephen W. Kearny

Led his troops to Santa Fe

Easily captured & then headed for California

Captain John C. Frèmont – explorer

Collaborated with naval officers & with local Americans to

take California

California Bear Flag Republic

General Zachary Taylor

Taylor - fought his way across the Rio Grande into

Mexico

Feb. 22-23, 1847 -- Victorious over the Mexican forces

at Buena Vista

Became a war hero immediately

General Winfield Scott

Scott – suffered several disadvantages

Inadequate # of troops, expiring enlistments, more

numerous enemy, mountainous terrain, disease, &

political backing at home

Sept. 1847 – Mexico City

Most distinguished general in the country

Talks of Peace

Polk – anxious to end war with territorial gains

sent chief clerk of the State Dept. Nicholas P. Trist with

Scott’s invading army

Scott & Trist arranged an armistice with Santa Anna at a

cost of $10,000

Santa Anna pocketed money & continued with plans

Polk recalls Trist

Trist refuses to return

Works out treaty

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Feb. 2, 1848

Terms of Treaty

American title to Texas

Yielded the area stretching westward to Oregon & the ocean & embracing all of California

US paid $15 million & assume debt of $3.25 million

Treaty was approved by Senate

Results of the War

13,000 American lives lost/ mostly from disease

US increased by 1/3

Even greater than Louisiana Purchase

Stimulus to Manifest Destiny

Provided field experience for the Civil War

Robert E. Lee & Ulysses S. Grant

Justified existence of West Point

US viewed by Mexico as the “Colossus of the North Check out page 388 and the great metaphor

Slavery Issue

David Wilmot (PA) feared southern “slavocracy”

Proposed the Wilmot Proviso

slavery should not exist in any territory that was captured from

Mexico

Wilmot Proviso

Passed twice in the House, but not

the Senate

Symbolized the burning issue of slavery

in the territories

John C. Calhoun

“Mexico is to us the

forbidden fruit . . . the

penalty of eating it would

be to subject our institutions

to political death.”