Territorial Expansion II, 1840-1861 Manifest Destiny:

First proclaimed in the 1840s by journalist John L. O’Sullivan, it is the idea that the U.S. has a God-given right to expand across North America and eventually to dominate the Western Hemisphere. It was the argument used whenever the U.S. wanted to take over new territory from Spain, England, or the Indian tribes.

Campaign slogan of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler, the Whig party ticket in 1840. Harrison was from Ohio and a staunch economic nationalist (like leader Henry Clay) but unlike Clay was also a war hero and so the popular choice. Tyler, a Virginian, was added to balance the ticket despite the fact that he opposed the American System and had joined the party only because he hated Jackson. Because of Jackson’s popularity with the “common man,” Whigs played up Harrison’s supposed humble beginnings in what was known as the “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” campaign. They suggested that he had been born in a log cabin and was a man of the people. They built portable log cabins to take to political events. Calling Van Buren “Van Ruin,” and chanting “Van! Van! Is a Used-up Man!” Harrison died only a month into office in 1841.

“Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too”:

Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842): President Harrison's death made John Tyler POTUS. Not a true Whig, he was unsuccessful in domestic politics and so focused on foreign policy. His Secretary of State Daniel Webster settled a dispute with England along the border with British North America (later Canada). The treaty granted the U.S. nearly 60% of the disputed land in Maine and Upstate New York, as well as in Minnesota where the border jutted up from the 49th Parallel to give the U.S. access to what later proved to be a region rich in iron-ore, the Mesabi Range.

“Fifty-four Forty or Fight” / “Re-Occupation of Oregon, Re-Annexation of Texas”: Slogans of Democratic candidate James K. Polk in 1844. Capitalizing on the nationalist sentiment building out of the conflict with Mexico, Polk insisted that Britain give up its claim to the Oregon Country or face war with America. The Oregon Country (Idaho, Washington, and Oregon) had become an important center for the profitable fur trade after John Jacob Astor founded Astoria in 1808. Upon winning the election, the Polk Administration negotiated a settlement with the British without war. Neither side really wanted to go to war over the region. The Oregon Treaty, ratified in June 1846, extended the boundary between Canada and the U.S. along the 49th Parallel from the Lake of the Woods all the way to the Pacific. Congress organized the Oregon Territory in 1848

Texas and the Mexican War

Six Flags Over Texas: After the Louisiana Purchase, many Americans moved to the eastern part of the Mexican state of Texas to grow cotton. By 1830, Mexico, alarmed at number of immigrants (about 20,000 whites and 1,000 black slaves), sent troops to block further settlement. The action failed. In 1835, the “Anglos” (or “Gringos”) numbered about 30,000 and decided that they wanted independence from Mexico. Texans rebelled and declared independence. The Mexican Army, under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, annihilated the rebels at the Alamo (a San Antonio mission) in early 1836, but was defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto. Captured by Sam Houston's troops, Santa Anna bought his freedom by granting Texan independence.

SAN JACINTOThe Texan army

launchesa final surprise attack

and conquers the Mexican

forces. The Texans yell“Remember the Alamo”and “Remember Goliad”as they kill and capturehundreds of Mexicans,including Santa Anna.

GONZALESAs the battles begin,

the Texan army has itsfirst victory against

the poorly led Mexicanarmy at this military

outpost. Santa Anna thenreorganizes and rebuilds

the Mexican army.

ALAMOThe newly reorganizedMexican army stormsthe Spanish mission,

the Alamo. The Texansfight the Mexicans butare eventually overrun.

GOLIADThe Mexican army next

overwhelms Texan troopsin the town of Goliad andexecutes 300 Texans by

firing squad.

BATTLES FOR TEXAS INDEPENDENCE

After the war, Texans voted overwhelmingly in favor of annexation, to become part of the U.S. The U.S. delayed annexation because northerners opposed slavery in Texas. In the 1844 election, Polk made annexation of Texas a central campaign pledge. When Polk won, John Tyler presented Congress with a resolution to annex the territory. Congress passed it. Mexico, meanwhile, officially recognized Texan independence on the condition that it not be annexed. Despite Mexico’s demand, popular opinion in Texas favored annexation. Congress annexed Texas in 1845.

Sam Houston

Davy Crockett at the Alamo

Mexican War: Annexing Texas joined a long list of grievances Mexico had with the U.S., including years of American intrigue trying to take over the Mexican province of California. It also opened up a border dispute in Texas. Mexicans claimed it should be the Nueces River, while Americans insisted on the Rio Grande. President Polk pushed the issue. In 1846, Mexican forces skirmished with U.S. troops on the north side of the Rio Grande. Polk declared it an invasion and demanded Congress declare war. U.S. forces led by Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott quickly defeated the Mexicans, notably at Monterey and Buena Vista (1847), forced Mexico to sue for peace.

Mexican Cession: Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), ending the Mexican War, Mexico gave up its claims territories north of the Rio Grande in Texas and New Mexico. It also ceded territories west of the Rio Grande and above the Gila River in what would become California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

“Forty-Niners”: Nickname given to the more than 80,000 people who traveled to California in 1849 to strike it rich in the Gold Rush. Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, near Sacramento, California, in January 1848. With most of the rich claims taken and most of the gold gone, few “Forty-Niners” got rich.

Gadsden Purchase: One possible route of a transcontinental railroad would run from New Orleans to Los Angeles, but the link between El Paso and Los Angeles would have to run inconveniently north above the Gila River. Southerners pushed the U.S. to buy a section from Mexico for $10 million to provide a more direct route.

Ostend Manifesto: In the 1850s, Southerners sensed that slavery needed to expand to survive. Cuba seemed to be the right place. They convinced President Franklin Pierce to offer to pay Spain $130 million for Cuba. Spain turned it down. Southerners responded with the Ostend Manifesto—an ultimatum, telling Spain to sell Cuba or the U.S. would take it. When the public learned of the manifesto, the Pierce administration backed away from it. Similar misguided expansionism occurred when William Walker took control of Nicaragua. Both represent excesses of Manifest Destiny and show how desperate some Americans were to extend slavery.

The United States in 1860

North Carolina Competency Goal #4: The Great West and the Rise of the Debtor (1860-1896), evaluate the westward movement and assess the agricultural revolution’s effect on the nation

4.01 Compare and contrast the different groups of peoples who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced

4.02 Evaluate the impact that settlement in the West had on different groups of people and the environment

Trailblazers: The first whites to venture into the West in the 1830s and 40s. They “blazed trails,” such as the Oregon Trail, which thousands of others would follow. They made a living as fur trappers and traders with the Indians often in rugged mountain terrain. The most noted trailblazers were Kit Carson and Jim Bridger.

Transcontinental Railroad: The dream of connecting California to the rest of the country by rail began after California became part of the U.S. in 1848. But completing the task took the better part of a generation. In the 1850s, conflict arose in Congress over which route the railroad should take. Southerners persuaded the U.S. to make the Gadsden Purchase to improve the odds of a southern route. Secession made choice easy. In 1862, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, authorizing the Union Pacific to build a steel road west from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific to build east from Sacramento. In 1864, Congress provided land grants to the companies and secured government loans. Employing ex-soldiers and immigrant Irish “navvies,” the Union Pacific pushed quickly across the flat lands before slowing down in the Rocky Mountains. The Central Pacific, meanwhile, edged eastward through the Sierra Nevadas and into the Rockies. Most of its workers were Chinese “coolies.” The two railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah, and on May 10, 1869, Leland Stanford (a backer of the Central Pacific and Governor of California) drove a gold spike to mark the railroad's completion.

Several other transcontinental lines followed, including: the Southern Pacific (from New Orleans to Los Angeles and continuing up to Tacoma, WA); the Great Northern and Northern Pacific lines (from Duluth, MN, on Lake Superior to Tacoma).

Railroads played the central role in closing the frontier, bringing in new settlers, bringing the bison to near extinction, driving out Indians, transforming the West’s economy, and tying the country together. They spurred a steel industry, made millionaires out of many investors, and opened up opportunities for political corruption on a grand scale.

Decline of the American Bison

Homestead Act of 1862: This law represents how Republicans successfully governed during the war and how they, like the Whigs, intended to use the federal government to foster development. Under the act, a settler, for a small filing fee, received a quarter section of land (160 acres) in the West. If the homesteader occupied the land for five years, it was his. Thousands of Americans and immigrants took advantage of the law, but two-thirds of them failed to last the required five years. The abandoned lands were sucked up by the railroads.

Little House Books: Memoirs of Laura Ingalls Wilder, recounting her childhood on the prairies in Kansas and along Plum Creek in Minnesota. The books offer an excellent representation of hardships faced by homesteaders: living in sod homes (gaining settlers the nickname sodbusters), building working farms, dealing with Indians, existing on the edge of survival in an often inhospitable environment, and relying on family and neighbors, to carve a better life for themselves and create communities.

I got a hundred and sixty acres in the valleyGot a hundred and sixty acres of the bestGot an old stove there that'll cook three squareAnd a bunk where I can lay me down to rest.

Up at dawn to greet the sunI've forgotten what a care or worry meansHead for home when day is doneWith my pocket money jinglin' in my jeans.

Chorus:I´ve got a hundred and sixty acres full of sunshineGot a hundred and sixty million stars aboveGot an old paint hoss, I'm the guy who's bossOn the hundred and sixty acres that I love!

Up at dawn to greet the sunI´ve forgotten what a care or worry meansHead for home when day is doneWith my pocket money jinglin' in my jeans.

Chorus

Got an old paint hoss, I'm the guy who's bossOn the hundred and sixty acres that I love!

Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862: Like the Homestead Act, it represents how the Republicans pushed their agenda despite the war: in this case, to advance vocational and engineering education. Under the act, each eligible state received federal land to be used for public agricultural and mechanical colleges. A second Morrill Act was enacted in 1890 included the former Confederate states. States had to show that race was not a basis for admission, or create a separate land-grant college for persons of color. Some of the schools that resulted from the two versions of the law were: NC State, Texas A&M, and NC A&T.

Seward's Folly: After the Civil War, Republicans turned their attention to expansion. They believed it was time to consolidate the nation’s hold on the Pacific to ensure free access to markets in Asia. Secretary of State William H. Seward learned that the Russians wanted to sell Alaska. In March 1867, despite some calling Seward crazy for buying an “icebox,” Congress appropriated $7.2 million to buy the “Last Frontier.” When gold was discovered there in the 1890s, the purchase did not seem so crazy after all.

Comstock Lode: A vein of silver ore in Nevada, discovered by H.T.P. Comstock in 1859. Within twenty years, about $300 million was mined out of the lode. It was one of several silver deposits discovered in the Lake Tahoe region. The silver drew miners, speculators, and settlers to northern Nevada, which became a state in 1864.

The silver brought a tremendous amount of hard currency to the U.S. and influenced Populist economic reformers to call for abandonment of the gold standard for bimetallism in the 1890s.

Virginia City 1889

Chief Joseph

Sitting Bull

Geronimo

Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes, 1867: Even as the Civil War raged, whites fought Indians in the Nebraska and Dakota Territories. After the war, Congress looked for an end to the warfare.

The report recommended an Indian Peace Commission to secure frontier settlements and the safe building of western railroads. It advised Congress to come up with a plan to assimilate or “Americanize” the Indians, most probably by turning them into farmers. The report led to the Dawes Severalty Act: a law permitting the POTUS to divide lands of a tribe and give each head of a family 160 acres to farm. The government held the land for 25 years, after which the Indians got the land and became U.S. citizens.

The report led to several treaties with western tribes. For example, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Sioux promised not to harass settlers or railroads in return for reservation land, money, and a promise that the Black Hills (sacred land to the Sioux) would be closed to white settlement.

Neither side lived up to the Fort Laramie Treaty. Whites entered the Black Hills in search for gold, causing the Sioux to defend the land. Conflict escalated when Colonel George Armstrong Custer (“Yellow Hair”) led an expedition into the hills to confirm that gold had been discovered. To restore order, the U.S. declared that Indians not on the reservation would be deemed hostile. Sioux chief Sitting Bull and Cheyenne chief Crazy Horse amassed a huge force to resist. In June 1876, Custer attacked the Indians. The 210 cavalry soldiers were outnumbered by at least 3,500 Indian warriors. Custer and all his men were killed. When news of the battle reached the East, it outraged public opinion and caused white men to enlist to fight the Indians. Within a year, most of the Indians had moved to the reservation, but Sitting Bull fled to Canada and did not return until 1883.

Custer’s Last Stand:

Indian Resistance in the Northwest

The U.S. government took back most of the Nez Percé reservation land when gold miners and settlers came into the area. Fourteen years later (1877) they were ordered to abandon the last bit of that land to move into Idaho. Chief Joseph tried to take his people into Canada. Stopped by the U.S. Army forty miles from Canada, Chief Joseph surrendered, declaring “I shall fight no more . . . forever.”

Resistance in the Southwest

The Apache were moved to a reservation near Arizona’s Gila River. Geronimo, Goyathlay (“One Who Yawns”), a Bedonkohe Apache from western New Mexico, refused to go. He fled to Mexico with a small band of supporters and they skirmished with American and Mexican troops for about a decade. Geronimo was captured and sent to the reservation, but after a year of farming, he fled with 35 warriors and their families. The U.S. pursued them for a year. Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886. He was sent to prison in Florida and in 1894 was removed to Oklahoma where he became a rancher. He died in 1909. He is known as the last Apache to surrender and represented the effects of the Indian Wars and resistance in the Southwest.

Indian religious movement that arose during the Indian Wars. It expressed a longing to restore the past: to return to a life free of hunger, disease, and persistent warring that existed before the whites came. In the Ghost Dance ceremony, Indians conjured their ancestors in spirit form to come into the dancers’ bodies and make them immortal. Indians who participated in the Ghost Dance wore special shirts made of buckskin that were supposed to protect them from bullets. Initially a non-violent experience involving dancing and taking peyote, it soon attracted militants, including Sitting Bull, who called on Indians to fight whites. Because of this, the U.S. outlawed the dance.

Ghost Dance:

In 1890, Sitting Bull was killed resisting arrest during a Ghost Dance ceremony that he was leading. His followers fled and were caught at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Some 200 Indians, including women and children, dressed in ghost shirts, were killed while resisting arrest. The Ghost Dance movement represents the last desperate gasp of the Plains Indians to defy white authority and preserve their culture. Wounded Knee ended the movement and the Indian Wars.

Open Range: As the West developed, cattle ranching became the main source of wealth in areas too dry for crops. With few clear property lines discernable in the vast open spaces, ranchers developed the open range allowing ranchers to drive their herds through any land in order to get to water. If a homesteader did not want cattle to tear up his land, he had to fence it off. Ranchers often opposed the homesteaders who cut irrigation ditches or built fences to cut off the cattle’s access to water, leading to the Range Wars.

Chisholm Trail: First marked by Jesse Chisholm and Joseph McCoy in 1864, the trail linked the cattle range lands around Red River Station, Texas, to the rail-head at Abilene, Kansas, (and later Wichita, KS). Between 1867 and 1886, about 7 million head of cattle were driven up the trail and then shipped by rail to meatpackers in Chicago or Kansas City. It was closed (as the West was closed) by barbed wire, by the Kansas Quarantine Act of 1885, and by a blizzard in 1886 that killed all the cattle in southwest Kansas.

Barbed wire: Invented by Joseph Glidden in 1874, its widespread use changed life on the Great Plains. The vast and undefined prairie yielded to range management, farming, and settlement. As ranchers and homesteaders fenced off land and water, cattlemen waged fierce range wars against the farmers. Control of the West gradually shifted from the open range to more clearly defined property rights.

Billy the Kid: Born William Bonny, "Billy the Kid" represents lawlessness and chaos in the Old West. In his twenty-one years, he shot dead some ten men. He met his own end when shot down by an old friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett, in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, in 1881.

“Buffalo Bill”: Born William F. Cody, he held almost every job there was to hold in the West, including Pony Express rider. He sold buffalo meat to railroad workers, earning his nickname. Between 1868 and 1872, he was a cavalry scout in the Indian Wars. To make ends meet when there was no scouting work to do, he performed riding, rope, and shooting tricks. In 1883, he formed the Wild West Show. Among its performers were Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley. The wildly popular show brought the American West to the courts of Europe and began the mythologizing of the West.

Exodusters and Buffalo Soldiers: Most blacks stayed in the South after the Civil War, but some moved west. Following Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, 20,000 blacks escaped racial oppression in the “redeemed” South to settle in Kansas. They called themselves the “exodusters,” hoping that the West would be a “Promised Land.” Other blacks went west to be in the cavalry. The military was segregated; so they formed a separate cavalry regiment. Because of their bravery in battle, the Indians called them Buffalo Soldiers.

“Sooners” -- Oklahoma Land Run of 1889: Despite promising that the “Indian Territory” would never be taken over, the U.S. proclaimed the land open for settlement in 1889. Indians were reassigned to reservations on even less-arable land. The government set April 22nd, 1889, as the day settlers could claim their land. 50,000 people lined up to race to the land. Some, known as “Sooners,” claimed land early and hid out on it until the race. The Land Run of 1889 led to the creation of Oklahoma Territory under the Organic Act of 1890 and to formation of the forty-sixth state of the Union--Oklahoma--in 1907.

Interpretations of the WestHelen Hunt Jackson: Author of A Century of Dishonor, she is counted among the “friends of the Indian.” Her book traced the story of U.S. treatment of the Indians and was highly critical of the violence. But she was strongly supportive of the Dawes Severalty Act, believing that turning the Indians into farmers was the most humane way to enable both whites and Indians to inhabit the West.

The “Frontier Thesis”: The 1890 Census marked the end of “the frontier” (the boundary between settled and unsettled land) as a category of living condition. In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner offered an analytical summary of the frontier experience in American life and history. His thesis argued that the availability of “free land” and America’s settlement westward into it “explain American development.” Americans were consistently “sivilizing” the frontier and the frontier forced America to adapt democratic institutions and politics that celebrated “rugged individualism,” openness, and opportunity. Although it left out important elements—the role of ethnicity, race, and gender, in particular—the thesis influenced generations of historians and provides an interesting and useful tool with which to analyze American history.