CHAPTER 13
	MANIFEST DESTINY: AN EMPIRE FOR LIBERTY--OR SLAVERY?
			Mormon's burying their dead in Wyoming, 1856.
			STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
			a.3 Polk's version of Manifest Destiny   Brigham Young a.11-12 Election of 1844 b.4 Wilmot Proviso c.1 Election of 1848 c.2 Free Soil Party d.1 California Gold Rush e.2 William Walker   X-word solution
	[a.3]		POLK'S VERSION OF MANIFEST DESTINY
	The conventional version		Manifest Destiny meant different things for different people. John L. Sullivan articulated the reason for American expansion. Sullivan trumpeted that as a result of population increase and God's particular endorsement of the spread of American civilization, that the United States was destined to fill the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
	Polk's more specific aims		Historian Norman Graebner says the Polk administration (1844-1848) represented another, more restrained, Manifest Destiny. In Empire on the Pacific (1955), Graebner contends Polk was after specific objectives, namley 3 ports on the Pacific Ocean:
			The Strait of Juan de Fuca (present day Seattle) San Francisco Bay San Diego Bay
	A commercial empire on the Pacific		These ports would give the US access to an empire with a window on the Pacific Ocean. Polk's limited goals made settlement of the Oregon Country question easier. The US lost Vancouver Island but received in exchange Puget Sound, the mouth of the Columbia River, and the 49 parallel as the US-Canadian boundary. The compromise also averted war between the US and GB.
	[a.11-12]		ELECTION OF 1844
	Two Democratic candidates		The election of 1844 was important because it split the Democratic party, signaling the end of the 2nd 2-party system and preparing the way for the formation of the Republican party. Two candidates sought the democratic nomination for president: Martin van Buren (northern Democrat) John C. Calhoun (southern democrat)
	Polk unites country on expansionist platform		Van Buren misread the popular "manifest destiny" spirit of expansion, and John C. Calhoun had overplayed the slave issue and state's rights. The indecision created a gap wide enough for the first "dark horse" president in American history to come through--Senator James K. Polk of Tennessee. Polk won the election by a margin of 170-105 electoral votes. James Birney of the Liberty Party (anti-slavery expansion) siphoned off votes from Clay (the Whig candidate), who would have won.
			Polk won the election on the following promise: annex Texas settle with Great Britain over the Oregon Country.
	Renegade Democrats refuse to accept slavery expansion		As events turned out, the US won the Mexican Cession as well in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War. Avery Craven, author of Coming of the Civil War, contends that the election of 1844 irreparably split the democratic party by dividing it between a proslavery southern wing and an anti-slavery northern wing. Several "Barnburners"--those northern democrats who left the party in 1844 because they could not accept the blatant slavery expansion Polk represented--showed up again in the formation of the Republican Party in 1852.
	Break-up of political system		Michael Holt, author of The Political Crisis of the 1850's, contends that the Civil War was caused by a breakdown of the American political system. When the democratic part split into two wings, no national party remained that could oppose the anti-slavery plank of the Republican party. For the South this meant war, as there was no way to safeguard southern rights within a nation divided politically between two competing sections, North and South.
	[b.4]		WILMOT PROVISO, 1847
	Victory over Mexico brought problems to US		It wasn't just slavery that concerned Americans of the 1840's, it was the issue of slavery and expansion. The controversy over the war with Mexico linked slavery and expansion into one explosive issue. Senator David Wilmot, a northern democrat, introduced a bill stating that "neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall exist in [any territory gained by war from Mexico]." The northern dominated House passed the bill, but the southern dominated Senate defeated it. The debate over the Wilmot Proviso demonstrated 3 things:
	What the Proviso demonstrated		That the 1844 election had split the democratic party. Northern democrats voted for the bill, southern democrats voted against it. The northern Whig party feared that slave labor in the new former Mexican territory would degrade free labor. That there was enough expansionist sentiment in the nation to arouse enthusiasm for a war of expansion against Mexico despite House opposition to the bill.
	[c.1]		ELECTION OF 1848
			The election of 1848 underscored the growing importance of slavery in national election. The following lists the candidates and their platforms:
	Candidates and platforms		LEWIS CASS (Democrat) no Federal interference with slavery in the west championed "popular sovereignty" (let the settlers decide what they want)
			ZACHARY TAYLOR (Whig) Taylor rode to popularity due to his generalship during the Mexican-American War. His party chose to ignore the question of slavery.
			MARTIN van BUREN (Free Soil Party) No slavery in the western territories. The party attracted disgruntled Whigs and Democrats who had backed the Wilmot Proviso.
	Results		Taylor won the election, thanks to the help of the Free Soilers who deprived Lewis Cass of New York's electoral vote. The Free Soilers failed to win a single electoral vote, but they did get 14% of the Popular Vote. The Free Soiler would one day wind up in the Republican Party during the 1850's
	[c.2]		FREE SOIL PARTY
	no slavery		The Free Soil Party merged with the Liberty Party in 1848. Their title clearly states their platform: no extension of slavery outside the boundaries of the Wilmot Proviso. Whigs attracted to the party nailed an internal improvements plank to the official platform. The party's campaign slogan was, "Free Soil, free speech, free labor, and free men."
			Many Free Soilers had bolted the democratic party during the 1844 election of James K. Polk.
	its affect on national politics		In the 1848 election, the Free Soil candidate, Martin van Buren, and Democratic candidate Lewis Cass, hotly debated the extension of slavery. The Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican-American War, avoided the subject. He rode into the presidency that year based on his popularity, even though most Whigs had opposed the war. The Free Soil Party showed how much slavery was affecting the nation's politics. In 1854 the Free Soil party merged with the newly founded Republican Party.
			Morris, Encyclopedia of American History, 209, and Foner and Garraty, The Reader's Companion to American History, 336.
	[d.1]		CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH (1849)
	The lure of gold		The American West held many attraction for those willing to make the incredible journey by the immigrant roads or the long sea route. Land, religious freedom, the "lure of place," and wood resources were just a few of the reasons Americans streamed westward. Mineral resources also attracted a multitude of prospectors. The discovery of GOLD near Sacramento, CA triggered one of the great human rushes in history. Thousands of adventurers liquidated their assets in the east to "strike it rich" on the American River.
	Gold strikes and explosive growth		Like the fur trade until 1836, gold played a major role in the development of the West. Capital (cash) flowed to sparsely populated regions, accelerating the growth of cities far faster than would have occurred naturally. In the case of the California Gold Rush the influx of miners helped populate newly acquired California. By 1852, 250,000 Americans lived in California, a place that counted only 500 in 1846. Combined with the port of San Francisco, the future economic power of California became plainly evident. Other "gold rushes" in the West: 1859 Colorado 1859 Nevada 1860 Idaho 1862 Montana 1876 Black Hills, South Dakota 1892 Cripple Creek, Colorado 1897 Klondike, Alaska
	[e.2]		WILLIAM WALKER, 1824-1860
	Extension of Manifest Destiny		Military adventurer who led filibustering expedition to Nicaragua in 1855. This case exemplifies US expansionist and interventionist tendencies during the era of Manifest Destiny.
	Fate of the "Grey eyed man of destiny"		After Walker landed in Nicaragua, he set himself up as a the dictator. The North decried his escapade as a sinister plot to extend slavery, a charge not without foundation as the South cheered his exploits. Ironically, Walker was financed by Accessory Transit Company, A NY based firm that Conrneilus Vanderbilt took over shortly after Walker arrived in Nicaragua. Vanderbilt organized surrounding republics and encouraged them to depose Walker. They did. Vanderbilt's ousting of Walker shows how much power big business had in US foreign policy in those days. In 1857 Walker landed in Honduras. This time he was captured, court-marshalled, and executed.
			Richard Morris, Encyclopedia of American History, (1953), 219.
			XWORD SOLUTIONS
			ACROSS DOWN 1. NUECES 2. ETHER 4. GUADALUPE 3. SULLIVAN 7. PLATTE 4. GUT 9. EPA 5. DRAIN 11. ORE 6. TOOMBS 13. INDEPENDENCE 8. TAD 16. TEXAS 10. PACIFIC 17. ROOF 12. DEMOCRATIC 18. SF 14. POLK 20. SIX 15. MEXICO 21. STAR 19. STOWE 26. OREGON 22. CALIFORNIA 27. WITH 23. WEST 28. WILMOT 24. POLYGAMY 30. CASS 25. ARMS 32. MG 29. KEARNY 34. POLITICAL 31. SECTIONAL 36. TACK 32. MC 33. PET 38. FORTYNINTH 35. TOO 40. RIO 37. SHEAR 41. TAYLOR 39. RHR 43. FAMINE 42. ELK 44. WALKER 43. FE 45. FUGITIVE 44. WE 46. GOLD
			RELATED WWW SITES
			Mormon History Resource Page Rebuilding the Nauvoo Temple Mormon History Mormon Pioneer Trail National Park Service Strangites Heritage Gateway (Mormon Trail, pioneers, etc.) Oregon Trail Treks Texas State Library and Historical Commission: Flags of Texas