Module 14 - HIS 210 - U.S. History through the Civil War - Textbook - LibGuides at Hostos Community College Library

Module 14: Post-Jacksonian Politics and the West

Learning Outcome

For students to understand the impetus for forming the Whig Party in 1834 and the groups that came together in the Whig coalition to oppose Andrew Jackson and the Democrats.
To understand how and why the federal government gave itself the right to colonize or otherwise acquire all of the territory that makes up the current continental United States by 1848.
Slavery will become an issue to be dealt with by the federal government really for the first time since 1820, but would then be the major factor reshaping national politics until 1861.

In John Gast’s American Progress (ca. 1872), the figure of Columbia, representing the United States and the spirit of democracy, makes her way westward, literally bringing light to the darkness as she advances.

Content

Introduction
Few nations ever expanded so quickly. Yet, this expansion led to debates about the fate of slavery in the West, creating tensions between North and South that ultimately led to the collapse of American democracy and a brutal civil war.
11.1 Lewis and Clark
Above all else, Jefferson wanted to exert U.S. control over the territory, an area already well known to French and British explorers. It was therefore vital for the United States to explore and map the land to pave the way for future White settlement.
11.2 The Missouri Crisis
The Missouri territory had been part of the Louisiana Purchase and was the first part of that vast acquisition to apply for statehood... When the status of the Missouri territory was taken up in earnest in the U.S. House of Representatives in early 1819, its admission to the Union proved to be no easy matter, since it brought to the surface a violent debate over whether slavery would be allowed in the new state.
11.3 Independence for Texas
Following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, American settlers immigrated to Texas in even larger numbers, intent on taking the land from the new and vulnerable Mexican nation in order to create a new American slave state.
11.4 The Mexican-American War, 1846–1848
Tensions between the United States and Mexico rapidly deteriorated in the 1840s as American expansionists eagerly eyed Mexican land to the west, including the lush northern Mexican province of California. Indeed, in 1842, a U.S. naval fleet, incorrectly believing war had broken out, seized Monterey, California, a part of Mexico.
11.5 Free or Slave Soil? The Dilemma of the West
. Increasingly, the South came to regard itself as under attack by radical northern abolitionists, and many northerners began to speak ominously of a southern drive to dominate American politics for the purpose of protecting slaveholders’ human property. As tensions mounted and both sides hurled accusations, national unity frayed.
John O’Sullivan Declares America’s Manifest Destiny, 1845
John Louis O’Sullivan, a popular editor and columnist, articulated the long-standing American belief in the God-given mission of the United States to lead the world in the transition to democracy. He called this America’s “manifest destiny.” This idea motivated wars of American expansion. He explained this idea in the following essay where he advocated adding Texas to the United States.

Attribution

U.S. History
Authors: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Sylvie Waskiewicz, Paul Vickery
Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction
Sections located at: 11 Introduction https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-introduction; 11.1 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-1-lewis-and-clark; 11.2 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-2-the-missouri-crisis; 11.3 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-3-independence-for-texas; 11.4 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-4-the-mexican-american-war-1846-1848; 11.5 https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-5-free-or-slave-soil-the-dilemma-of-the-west;
License: Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

John O'Sullivan Declares America's Manifest Destiny, 1845
Author: John O’Sullivan
Source: The American Yawp Reader, https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/manifest-destiny/john-osullivan-declares-americas-manifest-destiny-1845/
CC BY-SA 4.0

HIS 210 - U.S. History through the Civil War - Textbook

Attribution & Licensing

HIS 210 U.S. History through the Civil War

Module 14: Post-Jacksonian Politics and the West

Learning Outcome

Content

Attribution

HIS 210 - U.S. History through the Civil War - Textbook

HIS 210 U.S. History through the Civil War

Module 14: Post-Jacksonian Politics and the West

Learning Outcome

Content

Attribution

Learning Outcome