mcgraw hill, chapter 13 summery

chapter 13:
The Impending Crisis

CHAPTER SUMMARY
Between 1845 and 1860 the United States continued to experience the rapid changes that had
characterized it since its founding. Foremost during this period was the headlong push all along
its western borders. National public policy was notable for its aggressive confrontations over
land disputes with Mexico and Britain. The American public, now firm in the conviction that it
was their duty as well as their destiny to expand, backed the nation’s claims for new lands. And
as if to validate their beliefs, hundreds of thousands of Americans migrated throughout the West.
While the reckless frenzy for gold in California after 1849 created powerful images of this
period, the miners were an exception to the typical migrants who came west with their families
to plow and to stay.
Yet, in this expansion were planted the seeds for disunion and finally civil war. Slavery,
the issue that had always divided the nation, became a central part of just about every major
development in the West. Should slaves work in the gold fields? Which lands will be free and
which will be slave? Where should a transcontinental railroad be built? Out of the slave South or
the free North? With little time to analyze what was happening, much less to propose long-range
solutions, emotion seemed to replace reason as the slave debate grew loud and acrimonious. At
stake was the future of the nation. Many northerners had become convinced that the expansion of
slavery was not simply the South’s determination to preserve its “peculiar institution.” They
believed it threatened the nation’s democratic foundation. If an expanded slave society gave the
South permanent control of the federal government, they believed, the result would be economic
stagnation, unemployment, and financial ruin. Therefore, it had to be overcome.
The South, for its part, was convinced of the legality of slavery and the superiority of the
southern way of life. Therefore, southerners had no qualms about fighting back. By combining
their power in the Democratic Party, which often controlled both the Congress and the White
House, with their supporters on the Supreme Court, the slave states enjoyed many political
successes. But still they remained watchful and fearful. Throughout the 1850s attacks on slavery
intensified, as did the southern defense of it. Compromises gave way to inflexible ideologies.
Nationalism began to take a backseat to regionalism. Bloodshed and violence increased. The
United States was coming apart. The Republican Party came into existence in 1854 committed to
free soil in the territories and an end to slave expansion. The Republicans took advantage of the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act to capture a majority of northern states in the election of
1856. Four years later the Republicans under Abraham Lincoln would capture the White Rouse.
Secession was suddenly a looming reality.

OBJECTIVES
A thorough study of Chapter 13 should enable the student to understand:

1. The ideas and motives of Manifest Destiny and its influence on the western movement

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2. The origin of the republic of Texas and the controversy surrounding its annexation by the
United States

3. The reasons why the United States declared war on Mexico, and how the ensuing war was
fought to a successful conclusion

4. The rise of free soil and the impact of the Wilmot Proviso on the growing sectional
controversy

5. The role of slavery in the West as it affected the nation

6. The components of the Compromise of 1850, the debate over its terms, and its reception by
Americans, north and south

7. The role of the major political parties (and the death of the Whigs) during the sectional
controversies of the 1850s

8. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, Senator Stephen Douglas’s role in its passage, and its impact on
the sectional crisis

9. The impact of the Dred Scott decision on sectional attitudes and on the prestige of the
Supreme Court

10. The key differences between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, the reasons for
Lincoln’s defeat in Illinois in 1858 and his victory nationally in 1860, and the effect of that
victory on the sectional crisis

MAIN THEMES
1. The ideas and means by which America and Americans moved west during this period
2. How the question of slave expansion deepened divisions between North and South

3. How the related issues of slavery and slave expansion reshaped the American political
landscape
4. How the Republican Party rose to prominence so rapidly and the consequences of that rise to
prominence

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What was the concept of Manifest Destiny? Was it a self-serving belief system or did it have
a sincere intent? What impact did this concept have on Native Americans? On Mexico? How
did the implementation of this concept change the culture of the United States?

2. If you had been a member of Congress in 1846, how would you have voted on the question
of war with Mexico? Explain the reasons for your decision.

3. Write a brief synopsis of the causes, conduct, and results of the Mexican War from a Mexican
point of view.

4. Compare and contrast the various proposals offered to deal with the issue of the expansion of
slavery into the territories. Was any permanent compromise possible? Analyze the concept of
“popular sovereignty” as a possible solution to this problem.

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5. Evaluate the Compromise of 1850 as a solution to the problem of sectional differences. Why
did it prove to be only a temporary solution?

6. Why did the South perceive the Wilmot Proviso to be a threat? What does the proviso tell
you about the North’s attitude toward slavery? Was the real issue the abolition of slavery, or
was it something else? Examine the proviso, its implications, and the southern response.

7. Why did most northerners come to believe that slavery was dangerous because of what it did
to whites (as opposed to blacks)? How did this belief shape the northern attack on slavery?
How did southerners go about defending their institution? What are some examples of the
increasing inflexibility in the positions taken by both sides on the slave issue?

8. What did both sides find in the controversy over Kansas to support the charges against their
adversaries? What did Kansas come to mean to the nation? Why was the Kansas-Nebraska
Act both an opportunity and a problem for Stephen Douglas?

9. Trace the career of Senator Stephen A. Douglas during the 1850s. Did he do more to prevent
or to cause the Civil War?

10. It has been argued that a “blundering generation” of politicians brought on the Civil War. Do
you agree? Why or why not? In short, had the conflict between North and South become
“irrepressible” by 1860?

11. Adopt the point of view of a northerner and a southerner and explain the events of the 1850s
from your point of view. Which event(s) did the most to increase your distrust of the other
section and why?

MAP EXERCISES
1. Locate Oregon, showing the northern limit of the American claim, the southern limit of the
British claim, and the principal forts and settlements.

2. Identify the primary area in dispute, the areas that went to Great Britain and to the United
States in 1846, and the 1846 treaty line.

3. Locate Texas, annexed in 1845.

4. Identify the area disputed between Texas and Mexico, later by the United States and Mexico,
ceded to the United States in 1848.

5. Identify additional territory ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848.

6. Locate the boundary established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848.

7. Locate the Gadsden Purchase.

8. Identify the free states and territories, and the slave states and territories, after the
Compromise of 1850.

9. Identify the area where the decision on slavery was left to the territories.

10. Locate the states carried by Lincoln, Breckinridge, Bell, and Douglas in 1860.

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INTERPRETATIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON MAPS AND TEXT
1. Note the settlements in the Oregon Territory. How did they influence where the treaty line
was drawn in 1846?

2. What geographic obstacles would the American army have to overcome if it hoped to win the
war with Mexico? How did the American army command use the geography of Mexico to its
advantage, and how was it able to overcome the obstacles it faced?

3. Considering the land ceded to the United States by Mexico, which section of the country
seems to have gained the most from the Mexican War?

4. In light of the way the plantation system worked and the physical nature of the land ceded to
the United States by Mexico, in which regions did it seem that slavery might expand? Which
regions seemed environmentally hostile to slavery?

5. Study the areas that remained open to slavery after the Compromise of 1850. As far as the
expansion of the institution is concerned, did the South gain or lose from the Compromise?
What evidence do you find to support John C. Calhoun’s fear that the South would be
relegated to permanent minority status?

6. How had the knowledge of land west of the Mississippi River changed since the early 1800s,
and what impact did this have on settlement patterns? In light of these changes, how would
the population be expected to expand in the next few decades, and what impact would this
have on the balance between slave and free states in the Senate?

7. Note the states voting for Lincoln and for Breckinridge. What does this pattern suggest about
the possibility of compromise on the issues that deeply divided the nation?

8. Note the states that voted for John Bell. What factors worked to his advantage? Why might
these states have been more willing to accept a compromise candidate?

9. What happened to Douglas in 1860? Assess his strength in the popular vote against the
electoral votes he received and explain what happened. How does this result suggest that
supporters of a compromise between the sections might have been stronger than first
appears?

ESSAY QUESTIONS
These questions are based on the preceding map exercises. They are designed to test students’
knowledge of the geography of the area discussed in this chapter and of its historical
development. Careful reading of the text will help students answer these questions.

1. What impact did the Mexican War have on the tensions between the North and the South?

2. Why was the Wilmot Proviso seen as such a threat to the South, yet was so popular in the
North?

3. Why were southerners so ready to support the Kansas-Nebraska Act? What does this
readiness suggest about the nation’s increased knowledge of western geography and the
changing attitude toward the “natural limits of slavery”?

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4. In the conditions under which the West would be settled, and the efforts made to fill in our
“natural boundaries,” what evidence do you find to indicate that the South held considerable
power in the national government, despite its minority status?

5. What does the election of 1860 indicate about the way the nation had divided? Why did the
various candidates and parties receive the support they did, and what did the division
revealed in the election suggest about the future of the Union?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tyler Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the
1850s (1992)
Charles Blue, Charles Sumner and the Conscience of the North (1994)
David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1956)
Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case (1978)
David Alan Johnson, Founding the Far West: California, Oregon, and Nevada, 1840-1890
(1992)
Susan Lee Johnson, Roaring Camps: The Social World of the Gold Rush (2000)
Paul D. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History, 1835-1836
(1992)
Laura Maffly-Kipp, Religion and Society in Frontier California (1994)
James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988)
Stephen Oates, To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of John Brown (1970)
David Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War (1973)
Leonard L. Richards, The Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860
(2000)
Malcolm Rorabaugh, Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American Nation (1997)
Kenneth Stampp, America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (1990)
Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny (1995)
John D. Unruh, The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West,
1840-1860 (1979)
Richard White, It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A History of the American West
(1991)
Gerald Wolff, The Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1977)

For Internet resources, practice questions, references to additional books and films, and more,
see this book’s Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/unfinishednation4.

GENERAL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTERS 9–13
These questions are designed to help students bring together ideas from several chapters and see
how the chapters relate to one another. Some questions will also help students explore how
changes in the landscape and in geopolitical conditions are significant to understanding
American history.

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1. In the 1790s, two political parties emerged to struggle for control of the new government. By
the 1830s, these two parties had disappeared, in name at least, and in their place were other
parties competing for the same prize. What had taken place during this time? Write an essay
in which you explain the rise, fall, and reorganization of the two original parties, being sure
to consider not only what happened to them as organizations but also what happened to the
programs they endorsed.

2. If any one force dominated the era just studied, it was nationalism. Almost every aspect of
American life was influenced by it. The question, however, is what created this outpouring of
national feeling, and what was its effect? Write an essay in which you examine domestic
developments in the United States (political, economic, intellectual) during the period
between 1800 and 1840. From this examination, determine what convinced Americans that
their nation was destined to be great and how this conviction affected the government’s
domestic policies.

3. During this period, the West emerged as a major factor in the political and economic
development of the United States. What influence did this section have? Consider the growth
of American political institutions and attitudes, along with the expansion of the nation’s
economy between 1820 and 1860. From the standpoint of the West, determine how that
section shaped, or tried to shape, what took place. Also, examine how the Northeast and
Southeast reacted to the growth of the western regions.

4. How did new technology influence the development of the West? How were these new
technologies often interrelated? How was the image of the West altered by technology for
Americans in other parts of the country?

5. What technological changes occurred during the first half of the nineteenth century that
indicate the United States was developing into a mass-market society?

6. Trace the progress of medical care during the first half of the nineteenth century. What
aspects of medicine improved? Stayed the same? Worsened?

7. Between 1830 and 1860, the South was able to block most legislation it felt was not in its
best interest, despite having a minority of the population. How was this accomplished?
Explain how southern politicians protected the “southern way of life” from the will of the
majority. What effect did this effort to preserve the “southern way of life” have on the two-
party system?

8. Describe the effects of new technology on slavery. What impact did new farm machinery
have on slaves and slavery? Did some inventions improve or worsen the lives of slaves?

9. Trace the course of American antislavery attitudes between 1830 and 1860. How did the
movement evolve from one characterized by radical reformers with little support to one
supported by most northerners? What changes in philosophy and action were necessary for
the antislavery forces to accomplish this goal?

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10. What factors created the reform movement of the years 1820 to 1860? How did this
movement reflect Americans’ image of themselves, and what effect did it have on American
politics?

11. What happened to the Whigs? Examine the evolution of the Whig Party, and determine why
it was never able to effectively challenge the Democrats’ supremacy. What happened to party
members, north and south, when the national party disappeared?

12. How did the election of 1860 reflect the sectional divisions in the United States? How did it
also suggest that some elements were willing to compromise on the issues that divided the
nation?

13. By 1850, what image did Americans have of themselves and their nation? How had this
image changed since 1800? What national leaders, ideas, events, or significant changes in
society had made major effects on the changing national self-image?

14. In the first half of the nineteenth century, there are many examples of Americans who desired
to live and act differently from their fellow citizens. What were the complaints with
American society that motivated the many efforts at creating a “counter-culture” America,
and what long-term influence did these efforts have on mainstream American culture?

15. By 1850 we were a far more diverse nation than we had been when the century began.
Discuss the movements and events that helped to effect this change. What tensions did this
produce in American society?