Unit Five (1844-1877) Flashcards
Santa Fe Trail
Opened in 1821 to connect Santa Fe with Independence Missouri, leading to the incorporation of Mexico into the US sphere of influence and trade.
California
-Non-indian population 1821 was 3,200, outnumbered by 20,000 indians on religious missions and 150,000 tribe members. Mexican government hoped to attracted foreign settlers and decrease catholic influence in 1834 by dissolving great mission landholdings and emancipating indians working for friars.
-Land inherited by Californios, Mexican cattle ranchers who believed themselves to be capable of reason (compared to Indians) and required Indians to work for them.
Tejanos
the non-indian population of Spanish origin, numbered around 2000 when Mexico reached independence.
Stephen Austin
-Moses Austin offered colonization to the Spanish government, a plan which was continued by his son ______ in the 1820s selling small plots of land to American settlers and making them become Mexican citizens. _____ became leader of rebel party calling for authority.
-Spanish government annulled these land contracts and barred emigration in 1830 out of fear for loss of power
Texas Revolt
-Settlers and Tejanos(who enjoyed economic boost) fought for more autonomy in Mexico, an issue exacerbated by the American’s slaves is the abolition community. Mexico’s ruler, general Antonio López de Santa Anna sent an army to impose authority in 1835 which sparked the ____. Rebels formed a government and called for Texan independence, further angered on March 6, 1836 when General’s army stormed Alamo (mission compound) killing 187 rebel Americans and tejanos
-Battle of San Jacinto: Sam Houson (former TN governor) forced Santa Anna to recognized Texan independence and Houston was elected a President of Republic of Texas.
Republic of Texas
1837 texan congress called for union with US, which was not officialized, but nonetheless settlers came into the region, many with slabed and by 1845 the population was nearly 150,000.
Election of 1844/Annexation Debate
-In 1844 President John Tyler revived the annexation of TX in hopes of gaining southern support, and in April 1844 a letter from Calhoun was leaked linking slavery to TX annexation.
-Later Henry Clay and Van Buren agreed to reject immediate annexation to avoid war.
-Clay received Whig nomination, but Van Buren’s reputation was damaged by the annexation rejection and James K. Polk took his place as the Democratic candidate. Polk was a slaveholder with close ties to Jackson and called for a “reannexation” of Texas claiming it was part of the Lousiana Purchase.
-Polk beat Clay in a close election and in March of 1845 Congress declared TX part of US.
“54’ 40” or Fight”
Wanted “reoccupation of Oregon and ____ became a campaign slogan
Mexican War
-First American conflict on foreign soil inspired by manifest destiny which was supported by the majority, but some feared the it was an attempt to expand slavery.
-In June 1846, American insurrectionists proclaimed CA free from Mexican control and named Captain John C. Frémont, the ruler in hopes to incorporate into US, made bear flag.
US Navy sailed to Monterey and San Franciso to raise US flag ending the bear republic
600,000 volunteers fought on 3 fronts.
1.Bear Flag Republic
2.Santa Fe - Stephen W. Kearny occupied without resistance and moved southward to put down Mexican resistance
3.Central Mexico - Battle of Buena Vista: February 1847, Taylor defeated Santa Anna army, but Mexican government refused to negotiate, thus Polk sent Winfield Scott and forces to occupy the capital.
“Spot Resolutions”
Thoreau and Lincoln were against War. Lincoln who was elected to Congress in 1846 introduced a resolution questioning whether the war was justified wanting to know the spot where American blood had been shed in 1847
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
-1848, two governments confirmed the annexation of Texas and ceded CA, NM, AZ, Nevada, and Utah to US, in exchange for $15 million. Also granted male citizens all rights to protect the property of large Mexican land owners in CA, but fought against Indians.
-Gave US ½ million square miles of Mexican territory but severed trade routes and dividing families as about 100,000 Spanish-Indians and 150,000 inhabited the Cession.
Gadsden Purchase
Properties excluded from Mexican Cession that make up present day US including addition purchased land from Mexico in 1853 and Alaska from Russia in 1867.
“Western Borderland”
-Although Anglos (white settlers from East) and Tejanos fought together, Anglos began turning of tejanos in order to gain land and property, expelling them to Mexico.
-Tejanos also faced pressure to Americanize and many began sending kids to English speaking protestant schools, while other refused to convert from Catholicism. Often confined to unskilled agricultural and urban labor jobs.
-Area between Nueces River and Rio Grande was claimed by both US and Mexico but was controlled by the Comanche Indians, thus causing conflict, this way until 1870s.
Race + Manifest Destiny
-During the 1840’s territorial expansion seemed to prove the superiority of the “Anglo-Saxon” race, and race became a popular notion involving color, culture, national origin, class, and religion.
-Link between American freedom and liberty loving qualities of Anglo-Saxon protestants as well as the triumphs of civilization became popularized
-Mexican abolition of slavery and declaration persons of Spanish, Indian, and African origin equal to the law was reversed by the Texas Constitution which revoked rights and protected slavery
-In some places “spanish” mexicans, especially those with social power were deemed white, but residents of New Mexico were deemed too Mexican thus NM was not a state until 1912
Gold Rush
-In January of 1848 gold was discovered by Swiss immigrant Johann A. Sutter at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and experienced/ inexperienced miners of from all over the world flocked to California causing the non-indian population to rise from 15000 to 360,000 in 1860.
-Mostly young men but women also ran restaurants and boardinghouses, and worked as laundresses, cooks, and prostitutes.
San Francisco
Center of Gold Rush where competition was strong causing white miners organize to expel “foreign miners” and state legislature imposed a tax of 20 dollars per month on foreign miners which drove many away and CA constitution limited voting and right to testify to only blacks and overran Indian communities, making many slaves.
“Committees of Vigilance”
1851 and 1856 took control of San Fransico neglecting courts and trying to execute those accused of crimes.
Matthew Perry
Commanded warship in 1853 and 1854 that sailed to Tokyo Harbor to successfully negotiate a trade treaty with Japan, who in 1854 opened 2 of their ports of America
-Townsend Harris, the first American consul later persuaded Japanese to open additional ports and established full diplomatic relations
Methodist and Baptist Split
-The acquisition of 1 million square miles of territory from the win over Mexico added to divisions, and in 1844 and 1845, the Methodist and Baptist evangelical churches divided by north and south.
-Foreshadows split of the two-party system
Wilmot Proviso
-New land reopened question of slavery’s expansion and in 1846 Congressman David Wilmot of PA propose the prohibition of slavery from all territory acquired from Mexico.
-Supported by all Northerners but opposed by all southerners causing it to fail in Senate.
Free Soil Party
Organized in 1848 to fight the expansion of slavery headed by Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams, while they did not win election it showed the spread of antislavery sentiment.
“Free soil”
-The call to bar slavery from western territories and for the federal government to provide free homesteads to settlers in the new territories, not as sympathy to slaves, but to advance white man.
-Prevents white men from having to compete with black labor.
Henry Clay
When California asked to be admitted into the union as a free state in 1850 southerners feared for an unbalance in Congress so ____ offered the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
-Allowed California to be admitted into the Union as a free state with the slave trade abolished in the nation’s capital, new laws to return fugitive slaves, and slavery status in Mexico being the decision of local inhabitants, and US paying of Texas’s debt.
-Compromise was eventually accepted with the help of Millard Fillmore believed by some to be a worth sectional peace, but some Southerners wanting slavery to be protected in all territory.
Seward’s “Higher Law”
William H. Seward of NY declared that the ____ of morality condemned slavery and therefore opposed the Compromise.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
-Allowed special federal commissioners to determine fate of alleged fugitives without jury or testimony, as well as federal agents to override local law and enforcement to obtain runaways. Prohibited the intervention of local authorities and required the assistance of local authorities when called upon by federal agents.
-Southerners supported this strongly even though they were usual defenders of state’s rights and autonomy, showing that they value security of slavery over consistency of values.
-Widened sectional divisions and reinvigorated the Underground Railroad (reaches Canada)
Stephen Douglas
Douglas, an Illinois senator and believer in western developments who wanted to extend the railroad through Kansas and Nebraska, offered the principle of popular sovereignty to provide a territorial government in order to establish railroad.
“The Great Triumvirate”
Calhoun, Clay, and Webster that all passed away between 1850 and 1852 leaving Douglas as senate head.
Popular Sovereignty
-Meant that status of slavery would be determined by the votes of local settlers, applied in hopes of reassuring southerners who feared sectional balance from organization of new territories.
-Believe by Douglas to embody local self-government and offered a middle ground.
Appeal of the Independent Democrats
-Douglas’s bill cause the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, leading 2 Ohio Congressmen named Joshua Giddings and Salmon P. Chase to write this appeal. Arraigned Douglas’s bill as a violation and a plot to convert free territory to the dreary inhabitance of master and slave.
-Helped convince millions of northerners that southerners aimed to extend slavery throughout the West and were not reasonable.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Douglas’s plan which resulted in the disunification of Democratic Party, the collapse of the Whig party (birth of Republican Party from northern Whigs), and Democratic becoming solely southern.
American/Know-Nothing Party
-A secret organization that responded to questions of existence with “I know nothing”. They reserved political office for native-born Americans and resisted the ‘aggressions” of Catholic Church and its involvement in the school system. Sometimes coupled with liquor restrictions.
-Represented nearly every state legislature member in MA 1854 election as well as mayors offices in Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco.
-Immigrants still succeeded in pushing blacks out of jobs and automatically being able to vote- shows how it was not time in the country that mattered, but skin color
“the Slave Power”
Republican Party managed to convince most northerners that “the Slave Power”, or the South’s proslavery political leadership, was the most immediate threat to liberties and aspirations.
“Free Labor”
Rest on idea of _____ that glorified the north as it offered laborers the opportunity to move up in status, thus having economic freedom, unlike the south because of slave labor.
Republican Party
Now contained anti-slavery Democrats, northern Whigs, Free Soilers, and Know-Nothings, who insisted that slavery must be kept out of Western territories so free labor could flourish.
“Freedom National”
Rallying cry that advocated not for abolition, but the end of federal government slavery support
“Bleeding Kansas”
-When Kansas held elections in 1854 and 1855, hundreds of proslavery Missourians crossed the border to cast fraudulent ballots, this was still recognized as legitimate by President Pierce. As a result, settlers from free states established a rival government and a sporadic civil war broke out in Kansas where 200 persons died, and in May 1856 a proslavery mob attacked a freesoil stronghold.
-Discredited Douglas’s policy of leaving decision of slavery up to local population.
Brooks v. Sumner
-SC representative Preston Brooks beat the antislavery MA senator Charles Sumner with a gold-tipped cane after the denunciation of “The Crime against Kansas”
-Showed inclination to violence
Election of 1856
-Republican Candidate John C. Frémont strongly opposed spread of slavery, Democratic James Buchanan was a minister to Great Britain and endorsed popular sovereignty, and Know-Nothings presented ex-president Millard Fillmore.
-Buchanan won the entire South along with Illinois, Indiana, and PA, making him victorious, and the pollings revealed the sectional lines of the election.
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
A case in the 1830s about a slave who accompanied his owner to and resided in the free state of Illinois and upon return sued for his freedom.
Roger Brooke Taney
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who declared in regards to the Dred Scott case that only white persons could be citizens of the United States thus Scott remained a slave in Illinois.
Lecompton Constitution
Drafted by a pro-southern convention in 1858 and utilized by Buchanan administration in an attempt to admit Kansas as a slave state.
Abraham Lincoln
Before running for president he served 4 times as a Whig in state legislature and once in Congress. Critique of slavery and its expansion and that a decision had to be made in regards to its existence in the country.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Debates held in seven Illinois towns over the definition of freedom and next steps for slavery. Lincoln argued that freedom meant the opposition of slavery while Douglas argued that freedom lay in local self-government and individual self-determination and that p
John Brown
Harpers Ferry, Virginia
Ostend Manifesto
Called United States to purchase or seize Cuba, where slavery was still legal, from Spain.
William Walker
“Fire-Eaters”
Southern nationalists who hoped to split the party and the county to form an independent southern confederacy.
Democratic Party
Constitutional Union Party
Election of 1860
Secession
Declaration of the Immediate Causes of Secession
Crittenden Compromise
Confederate States of America
Jefferson Davis
“Cornerstone Speech”
Fort Sumter, SC
“And the war came”
Union
The ____ contained a population of 22 million and dominated in manufacturing, railroad mileage, and financial resources. Passed a draft law second in 1865 and 2 million men served by 1865.
MORE RESOURCES
Confederacy
-The ____ numbered only 9 million, but in order to be defeated the Union had to invade and conquer a large territory. Passed first draft law in 1862 and by 12865 900,000 men had served.
-Slave holdings determined military ranking
Robert E. Lee
-Leading southern commander whose battle tactics aimed to weaken the North’s resolve causing them to abandon the conflict by fending off attacks and exacting defeats.
-Union struggled against him and had to shift their focus from capturing land and occupying territory to defeating the southern armies and making the defeat of slavery their target.
Army of Northern Virginia
Lead by Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee. Faced McClellan’s army of 100,000 men and emerged victorious at the second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862.
Seven Days’ Campaign
A series of engagements in June 1862 on the peninsula south of Richmond at which Lee forced McClellan to withdraw from Washington DC.
