powerpoint portfolio 2 - notes

8/6/2019 PowerPoint Portfolio 2 - Notes

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POWER POINT PORTFOLIO 2 ² NOTES Below are notes that are intended to accompany the PowerPoint. Each particular item or animation thatoccurs on the screen is given its own box in the left-hand column. In the right are personal notes for the

speaker concerning each item.

M ANIFEST DESTINY

This PowerPoint utilizes animations and sounds to explain a narrative, the election of 1844. Text and pictures combined engage the viewer and serve as a reminder and clarification as to which players are involved in what way.

J AMES K. POLK

o ELECTION OF 1844

y WHIGS

HENRY CLAY R ather than stir the pot, and in order to avoid war with Mexico, declares that he will not annex TX

y DEMOCRATS

M ARTIN V AN BUREN To remove the TX issue, he like Clay promises notto annex it.

Despite winning a majority of votes at theDemocratic convention, he cannot garner thenecessary two-thirds to clinch the nomination

J AMES K. POLK In searching for a compromise candidate, Polk·sname is put forward. He pledges to annex not only

TX, but OR as well, thus winning bisectionalsupport.

î Y OUNG HICKORY Speaker of the House from TN, Jackson·s protégé who won Old Hickory·s support. It was said the´religion was his politics.µ

î N APOLEON OF THE S TUMP



y LIBERTY P ARTY Clay is forced to seek a moderate position on TX,saying that if he can obtain it peaceably, he will.

This only hurts his support among antislavery northerners who look to the small Liberty Party andthus give several states to Polk.

y POLK WINS "W ith a most emphatic by God, I do say it is adisgrace, a lasting disgrace to our God Almighty-God, d[am]n-raggedy-arse-hyena-made R epublic tohave elected over H. Clay that infernal poke of allpokes James K. Polk of Tenn." ² a Virginianunhappy with the result (Holt 195)

D ARK HORSE

y L AME DUCK T YLER

JOINT R ESOLUTION Joint resolution passes just before Tyler leavesoffice

A NNEXES TX ( J ANUARY 1845) A few days before leaving, Tyler (surprisingly) signsthe bill, thus stealing some of Polk·s lightning

MEXICO BREAKS OFF DIPLOMATIC

RELATIONS

THE R OAD TO DISUNION

W ith the use of animations this PowerPoint illustrates the complicated political realignment that occurred in the 1850s.

POLITICAL R EALIGNMENT

DEMOCRATS At the beginning of the 1850s, two partiesdominated national politics, the Democrats and the W higs. Both parties were bisectional, that is bothhad strong followings in the North and the South

WHIGS

K NOW NOTHINGS In the early 1850s this structure was first challengedby the rise of the American Party or the ´Know Nothingsµ a nativist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholicparty. W hile drawing significant numbers from bothmainstream parties, the Know Nothings tended to

appeal more traditionally anti-immigrant W higs.

{SPLIT NORTH AND SOUTH} This situation was further complicated by theslavery issue. As debate grew more intense, all threeparties developed strongly sectional northern andsouthern wings.

(NORTH A MERICANS) The American (Know Nothing) Party·s sectional



(SOUTH A MERICANS)divisions were referred to as North and South

Americans.

{NORTHERN DEMOCRATS SHRINK } Once the Democrat-sponsored Kansas-Nebraska Act opened previously free territory to slavery, theDemocrats were severely punished at the polls and

the northern Democratic party shrank.

{NORTHERN WHIGS WHIGS/NORTH

A MERICANS} The W higs however were unable to capitalize onthe Democrats· misfortune. Unwilling to risk party unity, the W higs refused to take an official stand onthe slavery issue, disillusioned party memberssought an alliance with the North Americanshoping to create an anti-slavery, anti-immigrantcoalition party.

FREE SOIL P ARTY Many other anti-slavery W higs and Democratshowever abandoned their parties altogether, and all

new third parties specifically committed to limiting the expansion of slavery began arising. The FreeSoil Party (which had been in existence since theelection of 1848) and the Anti-Nebraska Party wereat first the most prominent.

A NTI-NEBRASKA P ARTY

UNION PARTY , PEOPLE·S P ARTY , ET AL. Numerous other, smaller, more local parties under various names were also founded with similarpurposes.

R EPUBLICANS Eventually one name became the standard whichthe others adopted. The R epublicans hoped tohearken back to the days of Jefferson·s R epublicanParty and the original ideals of the Founders.

The name spread as did the organization, and soonthe many smaller parties had combined into a new ´nationalµ party, the R epublicans, which wasconfined entirely to the North.

{A NTI-NEBRASKA PARTIES R EPUBLICANS}

{NORTHERN WHIGS R EPUBLICANS} The last of the northern W higs were subsumed by the R epublicans, as were the northern Democratsand the Know Nothings leaving only vestigialnorthern Democratic and North American parties.

{NORTHERN DEMOCRATS R EPUBLICANS}

{WHIGS/NORTH A MERICANS R EPUBLICANS}

{SOUTHERN WHIGS SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS} Meanwhile in the South, the Kansas-Nebraska Act which had been the bane of the northernDemocrats was a great boon to southernDemocrats. W ith their support of this act, theDemocrats were perceived as the proslavery party,and their numbers swelled.

The W higs, who tried to remain agnostic aboutslavery in order to preserve bisectional unity, were

{SOUTHERN WHIGS WHIGS/SOUTH

A MERICANS}



instead rent asunder as southerners fled the party indroves to join the Democrats and the Know Nothings.

{WHIGS/SOUTH A MERICANS SOUTHERN

DEMOCRATS} As the immigration issue faded from the nationalscene, and the expansion of slavery became

evermore the dominating question in nationalpolitics, former W higs who had joined the Know Nothings eventually found themselves much totheir chagrin embracing the Democratic Party.

Thus by the end of the 1850s the dramatic shifts inthe political party structure had resolved in twomajor sectional parties divided along the Mason-Dixon lines. The major political bond connecting North and South³the party system³had beendivided, and now conflicts along party lines were defacto conflicts along regional lines.

powerpoint portfolio 2 - notes

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