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The transcontinental trek was often brutal and deadly, but German American painter Albert Bierstadt captures the majestic sights of the frontier.

In the first half of the 19th century, most white Americans viewed the westward march of settlement as a source of hope and energy. "Americans go west ward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure, and hope of freedom," said Henry David Thoreau.

The lands over the Allegheny Mountains that became Ohio and Kentucky, the farmlands of the Old Southwest, the fertile prairies of the Pacific coast, and the states of California, Ore were all imagined as part of the West.

Waves of people moved west after the 1840s.

Even if it meant displacing Indians in the process, people persevered to fulfill their "manifest destiny" and subdue the entire continent. 4.3 million people traveled across the Mississippi River and across the Great Plains to the Pacific coast by 1860.

The pioneers moved West for economic reasons. trappers, farmers, miners, merchants, clerks, hunters, ranchers, teachers, household servants, and prostitutes headed West to seek their fortunes.

A Texas woman said that making money was their main object. Others converted to Christianity. The West was not empty. Others were there before the migration. The Native American and Hispanic inhabitants of the region were swept aside as U.S. presidents encouraged the nation's continental expansion.

Many Southerners viewed the new territories as a source of cheap land that could be used to grow cotton. The governments of new western territories and states were wanted by the southerners. I would spread the blessings of slavery. The addition of western lands made it a point of debate.

The provision in the U.S. Constitution that counted slaves in determining the number of congressional seats for each state gave Southerners disproportionate political power. Most of the first sixteen presidents were from the South, and Southerners held most of the leadership positions in Congress. The influence of the south in Congress waned as the Midwest and Northeast grew. The South was worried that they would soon be outnumbered in a Congress that would vote to eliminate slavery.

The name of the nation's aggressive expansion was given by the New York newspaper editor in 1845.

The United States had a God given mission to extend its Christian republic and capitalist civilization from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The opportunity to bring liberty and prosperity to native peoples was taken for granted by American ideals and institutions. Territorial growth and the expansion of slavery were offered a moral justi fication by this notion of manifest. manifest destiny was a cluster of flimsy rationalizations and racist attitudes justifying the conquest of weaker peoples.

Whites from the Upper South and the Midwest were the majority of western pioneers.

Discuss the experience of a typical settler on the trails.

Gold was discovered in California in 1848, which made it an attractive destination.

Most went overland. 350,000 men, women, and children trekked to California or Oregon in the 19th century, while many others settled in Colorado, Texas, and Arkansas.

Thousands of people made the six- month journey each year, but many died along the way due to hunger, disease, or violence. There were 30,000 pio neers along the Oregon Trail in 1849 because of the lure of gold in California. By 1850, the peak year along the trail, the annual count had risen to over 50,000.

More than 300,000 Native Americans lived west of the Mississippi River when the great migration began.

They represented more than 200 nations, each with its own language, religion, cultural practices, and system of governance. Some were mainly farmers while others were hunters.

The Indians' survival was at risk due to the influx of white settlers and hunters. Federal officials were unable to force Indian leaders to sell their lands. After the discovery of gold in California, a wave of white expansion flowed all the way to the west coast.

George Catlin painted a picture of a hunter and a buffalo.

American settlers encountered Spanish-speaking peoples as they traveled across Indian lands.

Whites were prejudiced towards Hispanics just as much as they were towards Indians and African Americans. The common bias among white expansionists is that they don't want the people of Mexico, either as citizens or as subjects.

In the northernmost provinces of Mexico, Spanish colonization efforts were less successful in Arizona and Texas than in New Mexico and Florida. Spanish attempts to establish Catholic mis sions were defeated by the Apaches in Arizona and the Comanches in Texas. In New Mexico, the Hispanic population exceeded 20,000 by 1790.

In 1807, French forces led by Napoleon invaded Spain and killed the king, causing confusion throughout Spain's colonial possessions in the Western Hemisphere. The poorly orga nized uprising failed to convince Indians and Hispanics to revolt against Spanish rule in Mexico.

Mexican creoles tried to liberate themselves again in 1820. Mexico became an independent republic after the last Spanish officials withdrew. It struggled to develop an effective economy.

The painting depicts a white man sailing down the river with his Native American son, not an uncommon sight in western America.

The Santa Fe Trail was used by thousands of Americans to travel from Missouri to New Mexico. The trek wasn't for the faint hearted.

In 1847 alone, marauding Indians killed forty- seven Americans, destroyed 330 wagons, and stole 6,500 horses, cattle, and oxen.

The Far Northwest consisted of Nebraska, Washington, and Oregon. The Canadian province of British Columbia was included in the Oregon Country. Both Great Britain and the United States claimed the area. By the Convention of 1818, the two nations agreed to "joint occupation" of the Oregon Country.

The fur trade inspired a group of men to live in the wilderness. The first American to enter California from the east was the fur trapper Jedediah Smith, who left the Great Salt Lake in Utah and crossed the Mojave Desert.

After the federal government promised 160 acres of free land to anyone who worked on the property for four years, the nation swept. Some pioneers wanted to escape debts, dull lives or bad marriages.

Tens of thousands moved West. Many never made it to Oregon.

In 1841 and 1842, the first wagon trains made the long trip across half the continent, and in 1843 the movement became a mass migration. The pioneers walked 2,000 miles. After the valley in Pennsylvania where they were first built, all their food and worldly goods were packed in wagons. Teams of four mules or oxen pulled the sturdy, canvas- covered wagons, whose ends were higher than the sides to keep cargo from falling out when traveling up mountain ridges. The wagons could be floated across streams and rivers if the wheels were wide enough.

wagon trains were like mobile commu nities according to one pioneer. After breakfast was over, the men rounded up the cattle, took down the tents, and yoked the oxen to the wagons, as the women were supposed to rise at daylight. They found that Oregon required backbreaking work to create self sustaining homesteads. Women worked as hard as men. Sarah said she is a very old woman.

The wagon trains followed the Oregon Trail west from Independence, Missouri, along the winding North Platte River into what is now Wyoming, through South Pass to Fort Bridger, then down the Snake River through Idaho to the Columbia River. They traveled through the mountains to get to the Wil amette Valley.

Migrants tore through Native American lands as they traveled along the Oregon Trail. Nations like the Arapaho were forced to split into northern and southern branches after Buffalo disappeared. When negotiating treaties with the Native Americans, the federal government insisted that they be relocated far from the Oregon Trail, which eventually led to the Union Pacific Railroad.

The sunburned settlers bumped and jostled their way across rugged trails, mountains, and plains blackened by vast herds of buffaloes.

Many Indians served as guides, advisers, or traders on the Oregon Trail. As the number of pioneers grew, disputes with Indians over land and water increased, but never to the degree depicted in novels, films, and television shows.

The long journey west, usually five to six months, was an exodus of hardship during the hot summers and cold winters. The wagons broke down, oxen died, and diseases took their tol.

The mortal threats along the trail were revealed in the diary of Amelia Knight, who set out for Oregon with her husband and seven children. A calf died before breakfast. One of our oxen fell to his death in the yoke. I couldn't help but cry.

Women on the Overland Trails cooked and washed their children and gathered buffalo dung to use as fuel as their wagons crossed the treeless plains.

There were many deaths due to contaminated water and food. There were one grave every eighty yards along the trail.

The same division of labor was used back East.

Men tended the horses and cattle, while women cooked, washed, sewed, and monitored the children. The demands of the western trails made the distinctions disappear. Women were gathering buffalo dung for fuel, driving wagons, helping to build makeshift bridges, pitch ing tents, and participating in other "unladylike" tasks.

Social ten sions were provoked by the hard labor of the trail. In the West, divorces soared.

Many migrants were devastated by the struggle to establish new lives. The Malick family left Illinois in the 19th century to start a farm in Oregon. The father, George Malick, and three of the older children died soon afterwards. Malick wrote a letter to her relatives in Illinois.

California had a pow erful magnet. Spain sent a naval expedition to settle the region in 1769 because they were worried about Russian seal traders moving south along the Pacific coast from Alaska. The Franciscan friars established a Catholic mission in San Diego.

The Franciscans built twenty northward missions in the next fifty years, taking a day's journey from San Diego to San Fran cisco. The property was divided among the Indians. The missions were larger and more influential in California.

Most of the Native Americans living along the California coast were controlled by Spanish Catholic missionaries by the 19th century. Indians werelured into coastal missions by the friars with gifts or religious rituals. Once inside the missions, the Indians were stripped of their cultural heritage and became Catholics.

The California Catholic missions were fortresses, fortresses, schools, shops, farms, and outposts of Spanish rule. Most of the labor was provided by Indians.

The community was summoned to prayer by the ringing of a bel at dawn. Work did not end until an hour before sunset. The majority of Indian men worked in the fields. Everyone was expected to help in the fields during the harvest season. Indian laborers got clothing, food, housing, and religious instruction instead of wages.

Rebellious Native Americans were whipped or imprisoned, and mission Indians died at an alarming rate. The labor regimen took a high toll on the patients. The Native American population along the California coast went from 72,000 in 1769 to 18,000 in 1821. Saving souls costs lives.

The Spanish missions fell into disuse after Mexican independence. The planters who ruled over the Lower South were similar to the gentlemen who owned the largest ranches in the province.

When Mexico gained its independence in 1821, Spanish speaking Cali fornians staged ten revolts against Mexican governors.

John A. Sutter was a Swiss set tler who founded a colony of European emigrants.

Local Indians and whites from America and Europe built a fort eighteen feet tall to protect the settlers and their workshops at the junction of the American and Sacramento rivers. Located at the end of the California Trail at the end of the Oregon Trail, Sutter's Fort was completed in 1843.

The wilderness empire was created by Sutter. He put Indians to work making wool blankets and hats, cultivating vast acres of wheat and corn, and raising huge herds of cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses.

While he paid his Indian workers, he whipped, jailed, and even cut the throats of those who disobeyed his orders. The American migrants learned to speak Spanish, often embraced Catholicism, won Mexican citizenship, found Spanish or Native American spouses, and participated in local politics.

The most tragic story of pioneers traveling to California was the party headed by George Donner, a prosperous sixty- two- year- old farmer.

In April 1846, a train of seventy- four other settlers and twenty- three wagons left Springfield, Illinois for the Oregon Trail.

The Great Salt Lake is depicted in the Utah engraving from the 1800s. The group of inadequate pioneers struggled in the snow on a trail.

Discipline broke down as their challenges mounted. One was mur dered for his gold, another was banished after killing a man in self-defense, and a third was left behind to die.

The Donner party had to backtrack and lose three weeks in the process. The early September snow slowed their progress. The desert leading to the Great Salt Lake was very dry.

They lost more than 100 oxen and had to abandon several wagons. Time was their greatest loss.

The last barrier in the Sierra Nevada before the party could reach the capital was a two- week- long storm that trapped them in two separate camps. Half of the pioneers were marooned by twenty feet of snow, with only enough food to last through the end of the month. Seventeen of the strongest members decided to cross the pass on their own, but were trapped by more snow. Eight more died of exposure and starvation after two turned back.

The pioneers killed two Indian guides and ate them. Before he died, Bil y Graves told his daughters to eat his corpse. The daughters saw no other choice after they were appalled at first. Two other members of the party were eaten when they died. Seven of the "Forlorn Hope" group made it to the valley.

The survivors boiled hides and bones after slaughtering and eating the last of the livestock. When a rescue party reached them two months later, they discovered that thirteen people had died and cannibalism had become commonplace. "Bodies of men, women, and children, with half the flesh torn from them, lay on every side," the newspaper reported.

The forty- seven survivors were led over the pass by the rescuers, but George Donner, too weak and distressed to walk, stayed behind to die. His wife remained with him.

Hundreds of thousands of pioneers found the Far West irresistible despite the dangers of the overland crossing. The most enthusiastic champion of American settle ment in Mexican California and the Far West was a junior army officer who became America's most famous explorer.

Born and raised in the South, Fremont developed a strong love for the outdoors.

He was commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Topographical Corps after attending the College of Charleston. While becoming versed in geology, bot any, ornithology, and zoology, Fremont excelled at surveying, mapmaking, and woodcraft.

The daughter of a powerful Missouri senator was courted by Fremont in 1841. As a result of his explorations in the Far West, John Charles Fremont became a national hero.

In 1842, a man who believed he was a man of God set out from Kansas City with two dozen soldiers to map the eastern half of the Oregon Trail. They drew maps and collected plant and animal specimen.

Henry Wadsworth Long, the nation's most popular poet, said that "Fremont has touched my imagination" after reading about the expedition.

The South Pass section of the Oregon Trail is one of the more difficult parts of the trail to map. After going down the Snake River to the Columbia River, the expedition would make its way south through the Sierra Nevada to Sutter's Fort.

The first group to cross the snow and ice covered Sierra Nevada in the winter was from Fremont. Massive migrations to Utah, Oregon, and California were spurred by his report of the expedition and the maps it generated.

Fremont surprised his superior officers when he launched a military expedition on his own. Sixty- two heavily armed sol diers, sailors, scientists, hunters, and frontiersmen were headed west from St. Louis on another mysterious expedition in August 1845.

In December, the explorers went down the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and headed southward through the Central Valley of Mexican- controlled California. The Mexican authorities were told that his men were civilians. The United States intended to take control of California from Mex ico after receiving secret instructions from the President. The Americans living there were ordered to organize a "spontaneous" uprising.

Mexican officials ordered Fremont to leave. He came up with a way to return. To cover his efforts to spark a revolution among the English speaking Californians, he resigned from the army so that he could become a private citizen.

The band of soldiers started stirring unrest. The Republic of California was claimed by American settlers on June 14, 1846. A version of the California state flag featuring a bear and star was hoisted by them. On June 25, the soldiers and their leader marched into Sonoma. When news of the Mexican- American War broke, California was in American control.

Texas, an area of rich soil, lush prairie grass, plentiful timber, and abundant wildlife, was the focus of the American passion for new western land. The United States twice offered to buy Texas, but the Mexican government refused. Mexicans were frightened and angry by the idea of Yankees on their soil. Some 3,000 Anglo- Americans were living in Texas in 1823.

Some pioneers were captured in this 1850 photograph.

The Mexican government legalized American immigration if the settlers converted to Catholicism and did not bring slaves.

Americans who rushed to settle in Austin's Anglo "colony" in east Texas received 177 free acres and had access to thousands of acres of common pasture for ranching.

The Anglos were drawn to the fertile, inexpensive lands in the river valleys. Some planters brought slaves with them despite the law against it. The settlers were amazed by the abundance of food sources. An American said that eastern Texas was alive with all kinds of game. We only have to go a few miles into the swamp. There were more buffalo than cattle.

The enslaved blacks were brought to grow and harvest cotton.

You know that the Anglo- Saxons are greedy for territory. The Nordics have made their homes with us, but their hearts are with their native land. We are always in civil wars and revolutions, we are weak, and they know it. Texas may be taken from us by the United States.

Mexican officials banned further emigration from the United States in April 1830 because they were worried about the intentions of Americans living in Texas. Americans who viewed Mexicans with contempt continued to come as illegal immigrants. Texas is a slave country.

Tensions between Mexican leaders and Texians grew because of a changing political situation.

American settlers decided that the Mexican ruler had to go after Santa Anna imprisoned Austin for inciting rebellion. Austin called for Texans to revolt after he was released from jail. He wanted Texas to become an American territory promoting slavery and then become a new state.

Austin said so.

The outgunned Texas reb els were led by three colorful explorers with checkered pasts.

The "bowie knife" was used by Bowie, a ruthless slave trader and land speculator. He claimed that he had never lost a fight. He was shot twice, stabbed, and impaled by a sword before killing his opponent with his knife in his most famous brawl.

A million acres of land was owned by the man who migrated from Louisiana to Texas in the 19th century. He married a Mexican woman, became a Mexican citizen, and learned Spanish, but a cholera epidemic killed his wife and two children, as well as his in- laws.

After hearing of the Texas Revolution, he joined the volunteer army and commanded the Texas volunteers in the Alamo. The "regular army" soldiers were led by William Travis, a lawyer and teacher.

The legendary effort to defend the Alamo against the Mexican army was led by David Crockett, who was pictured fighting with his rifle over his head.

After leaving a failed marriage, a pregnant wife, a two- year- old son, and considerable debts in Alabama, he came to Texas, where he was rumored to have killed a man. He promised to redeem himself by doing something great and honorable in Texas. He refused to retreat from the Alamo.

The most famous American at the Alamo was David Crockett, a frontiersman who fought under Andrew Jackson and served in Congress as an anti- Jackson Whig.

After he arrived with his rifle, "Old Betsy," he learned that he would receive 4,000 acres for his service as a fighter. He was assigned to the garrison at the Alamo. The forty- nine- year- old was an expert at killing.

In the face of Santa Anna's growing power, the defenders of the Alamo shared a commitment to liberty. Santa Anna demanded that the Alamo surrender. The Mexican ultimatum was answered with cannon fire by the man who had taken over command.

The Mexicans launched a series of assaults against the outnumbered defenders. The Mexicans suffered heavy losses for twelve days.

The rebellion became a war for Texan independence because of the ferocious fighting at the Alamo. On March 2, 1836, delegates from all fifty- nine Texian towns met in the tiny vil age of Washington- on- the- Brazos, some 150 miles northeast of San Antonio. They drafted a constitution for the new Republic of Texas after signing a declaration of independence.

The defenders of the Alamo were woken at four o'clock in the morning by the sound of Mexican bugles playing "Deguello".

The Battle of the Alamo was fought in the dark. Santa Anna's men attacked from every direction. They broke through the battered northwal on the third try after being twice forced back.

There was a bullet between the eyes. In the end, all of the Texans who took the fight outside the Alamo were killed or wounded.

Seven Alamo defenders survived and were captured. Santa Anna ordered them to kill each other.

The battle was over by dawn. The survivors were a few women and children. More than 600 Mexicans died as a result of the victory. The Battle of the Alamo was a cry for revenge.

More than 300 Texians were murdered on Palm Sunday in 1836. There was a desire for revenge after the fall of the Alamo.

After his father died, Houston moved with his mother and siblings to Tennessee. Houston was grievously wounded in the fighting for Texas's independence.

He became a federal Indian agent, an attorney, a U.S. congressman, and a governor at the ripe age of thirty- four.

Houston became Jackson's surrogate son, leading many to believe that he might become the next president. Houston was an eccentric ruffian who had a charming and violent temper. He was chasing women.

After learning that William Stanbery, an anti- Jackson Ohio congressman, had questioned his integrity, Congressman Houston attacked him with a cane on a Washington, D.C. street. Stanbery pulled a pistol, put it in Houston's stomach, and then shot it, only to have it go off. Hous kicked Stanbery's groin after beating him about the head. The Speaker of the House ordered Houston to be put on trial in Congress after Stanbery filed charges. He was reprimanded and fined for assault.

There was controversy in Houston. After only two years as gover norship of Tennessee, he resigned due to the fact that his beautiful, younger wife had left him after their wedding and returned to her father's plantation.

Houston didn't reveal the cause of the dispute, but his family accused him of dishonoring her.

There were wild rumors about what happened on Houston's wedding night. Some claimed that Houston had been wounded in the Creek War and had been left scarred and impotent.

According to others, his bride confessed she was in love with someone else and only married him to please her family.

Houston wrote that his divorce had thrown him into an "agony of despair" over his "private afflictions" that ruined his political career and exiled him from Nashville society. Hous ton decided that suicide was his only option. An eagle swooped toward him as he was about to kill himself.

He was adopted by the Cherokee Nation after marrying a Cherokee woman.

Houston helped rival Indian tribes negotiate with the federal government. He moved to Texas at Jackson's request. He sent a secret report to the pres ident indicating that Texas was ripe for revolt from Mexico, which was in the middle of a civil war. Houston joined the rebellion.

Sam Houston led his outnumbered troops on a long retreat to buy time while hoping that Santa Anna's army would make a mistake after learning of the Mexican vic tory at the Alamo. The Mexican general let his guard down. Houston's army of 900 screaming fighters caught Santa Anna's 1,600 troops napping near the San Jacinto River, about twenty five miles south east of the modern city of Houston. The Mexicans were surprised. General Santa Anna left his army leaderless that afternoon while he retreated to his tent with his mistress.

Houston's troops slaughtered fleeing Mexican soldiers for two hours after the battle ended. Hundreds of Mexicans were killed and captured.

Eleven men were lost by the Texians. Santa Anna was captured the next day. He bought his freedom when he signed a treaty with the Republic of Texas that made the Rio Grande the southern bound ary with Mexico. The Texas Revolution was done in seven weeks.

Sam Houston, the first president of the Lone Star Republic, legalized slavery, banned free blacks, and voted overwhelmingly for annexation to the United States in 1836. Texas became involved in the dispute over slavery.

There were powerful reasons why Texas should be part of the Union. Anti-slavery people disagreed.

Andrew Jackson wanted Texas to join the Union. Adding Texas as a slave state would cause a fight between North and South that would endanger the election of Martin Van Buren, his successor. Adding Texas to the Union would likely lead to a war with Mexico, which refused to recognize Santa Ana's granting of Texan independence.

Jackson delayed official recognition of the Republic of Texas until his last day in office. During his single term as president, Van Buren avoided all talk of Texas annexation.

When William Henry Harrison succeeded Martin Van Buren as president in 1841, he was the oldest man and the first Whig to win the office. The Whigs promoted federal government support for industrial development and economic growth, including high tariffs to deter foreign imports, and funding for roads, bridges, and canals.

Harrison was a military hero and won the election. He did not take public stances on controver sial issues during the campaign. Harrison served the shortest term of any president. Vice President John Tyler became president on April 4, 1841, one month after he died of pneumonia.

John Quincy Adams was a former president.

The Kentucky senator wanted to dominate the new president. Tyler wasn't willing to be dominated.

Clay was told to go back down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol and perform his duties after an argument in the White House.

At fifty- one, the youngest president to date, the tal, thin, slave- owning Virginian was a political mav erick.

He fathered the most children of any president. He was a man of charm and stubbornness.

Tyler had supported the Jeffersonian commitment to states' rights, strict construction of the Constitution, and opposition to national banks. He joined the Whigs after Jackson denounced South Carolina's attempt to overturn federal laws. Tyler believed that South Carolina had the right to leave the nation. He never embraced the Whigs. Henry Clay's celebrated program of economic nationalism (the American System), which called for high tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements, was opposed by the president.

Clay introduced a number of controversial resolutions when Congress met in a special session. He called for the repeal of the Independent Trea sury Act and the creation of another Bank of the United States, as well as reviving the distribution program whereby the money generated by federal land sales was given to the states, and urged that tariffs be raised on imported goods to hamper foreign competitors

Clay might have avoided a nasty dispute with Tyler over financial issues, but for once he lost his instinct for compromise because of his obsessive quest to be president. Clay's pet project, the new national bank, was vetoed by Tyler after he agreed to repeal the Independent Treasury Act.

He said that the president was left "solitary and alone" by the storm. There were fistfights between Whigs and Dem ocrats in Congress. Clay persuaded Tyler's entire cabinet to resign. Clay and Tyler had been fighting for three years.

Tyler grew more stubborn. He replaced the defectors in his cabinet with anti- Jackson Democrats who had become Whigs.

Tyler became a president without a party in 1842.

The economic depression began in the late 1830s. Unemployment soared as businesses shut down and bank failures mounted. Tyler refused to let the sputtering economy or an international crisis deter him from annexing more territory into the United States.

British authorities set 128 of them free after they sailed into Nassau.

In American history, it was the most successful slave revolt. The incident mushroomed into an international crisis after Southerners were enraged.

The British refused to return the slaves as American property.

The United States might lose a war, but Tyler andWebster didn't risk it. This upset the southern slaveholders. "Tyler at the head of affairs and such an unprincipled and cowardice Sec. were the things that James Henry Hammond lashed out at.

The British government decided to send Alexander Bar ing, Lord Ashburton, to meet with Webster, who believed that good relations with Britain were essential for the American economy. The meetings produced a treaty that provided for joint naval patrols off Africa to fight the slave trade. The northeastern U.S. boundary with British Canada was resolved by the treaty.

It didn't do anything to return the freed slaves. England paid $110,000 to the slaves' former owners in the early 19th century. The secretary of state resigned in May of 1843.

John Tyler wanted to annex the Republic of Texas when he was president.

Texas leaders have been frustrated that they have not been welcomed into the United States, so Tyler's efforts to recruit senators to approve an annexation treaty exhilarated them. Sam Houston wanted to expand the Republic of Texas to the Pacific coast. With little money, a rising debt, and continuing tensions with Mexico, this was mostly talk.

There was no infrastructure in the Lone Star Republic. The rickety republic had two choices, one of which was annexing to the United States and the other being closer economic ties to Great Britain.

Texas offered 1,280 acres of land to each white family, attracting thousands of Americans.

The population of the capital of the Republic of Texas was less than a thousand.

President Tyler boarded the U.S.S. with a group of 300 people. Eight people, including the secretary of state and the secretary of the navy, were killed when one of the cannons on the ship exploded. More than a dozen people were wounded. Tyler, who was below deck at the time of the accident, rushed to see what had happened. I have lost a lot.

Tyler reorganized his cabinet after the accident by naming southern Democrats to key positions. John C. Calhoun was appointed secretary of state because he wanted South Carolina to annex Texas as a slave state.

On April 12, 1844, Tyler submitted a treaty of annexation to the Senate for approval. The United States would assume all of Texas' debts in exchange for becoming an American territory.

The treaty was undermined by the writing of the Brit ish ambassador what he thought was a confidential letter in which he declared that blacks were inferior to whites and better off enslaved than free. Western Expansion 1830-1848 was essential to the peace, safety, and prosperity of the South. Adding Texas was necessary to keep the South in the Union. The Senate voted down the annexation treaty on June 8, 1844.

Both political parties wanted to keep the Texas issue out of the presidential campaign. Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Martin Van Buren, the leading candidates for each party's nom ination, agreed that adding Texas to the Union would be a mistake.

He dropped out of the race after realizing he had little sup port.

Andrew Jack son abandoned Van Buren because he opposed the annexation of Texas. They nominated James K. Polk, the former Speaker of the House. Polk was also an expansionist. He hated Whigs and was a loyal Democrat. He was the first "dark horse" to win a major party nomination. The Democrats' platform called for the annexation of Texas and declared that the United States had a "clear and unquestionable claim" to all the Oregon Country.

The 1844 election was one of the most significant in history. Clay, the Whig candidate, was forced to change his position on Texas at the last minute because of the Democrats' win ning strategy.

Clay's waffling shifted more anti- slavery votes to the new Liberty party, which increased its count in the presiden tial election from about 7,000 in 1840 to more than 62,000 in 1844. The crucial state of New York was given to Polk by the Liberty party in the western part of the state.

Clay would have won the election if he had carried New York. Polk won a narrow national plurality of 38,000 popular votes, but with a clear majority of the electoral college. Clay lost his third and last election. He didn't understand how he had lost to Polk.

James K. Polk had surprised people his entire career. He was the oldest of ten children and graduated first in his class at the University of North Carolina. Polk became a planter and a successful lawyer in Tennessee. He was Speaker of the House for four years and governor for two years.

Polk was America's youngest president. He was called "Young Hickory" because of his admiration for Andrew Jackson. He believed that efforts by the federal government to promote economic growth helped some people and hurt others. He opposed tariffs, a national bank, and federal funding of roads.

Polk's work ethic was his greatest virtue. He rarely took a vacation and worked from dawn to dusk. Polk died three months after leaving office.

Polk took the oath of office as president.

The resolution was opposed by most Whigs. Tyler admitted Texas as a slave state on December 29, 1845. The flag of the Republic of Texas was lowered and the flag of the United States was raised over the largest state in the nation.

Texas had a population of 100,000 whites and 38,000 African Americans. The population grew by almost 50 percent by 1850. Most of the 600,000 people in Texas by 1860 were migrants from southern states.

Polk was a president in a hurry because he pledged to serve only one term. He accomplished all four objectives. Settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain is one of the things that need to be done.

Polk wanted to lower tariffs to allow more foreign goods to compete in the American marketplace.

The Walker Tariff was approved by Congress and named after Rob ert J. Walker, the secretary of the Treasury.

The Independent trea sury Act that Martin Van Buren had signed into law in 1840 was restored by Polk the same year as the Congress repealed it. All federal government funds were received by the Independent Treasury deposit offices. The system was intended to replace the Second Bank of the United States, which Jackson had "killed," so as to offset the growth of unregulated state banks, which had caused the depression of the late 1830s.

The new Independent Treasury gave the federal government the exclusive management of government funds and required that all disbursements be made in gold or silver, or paper currency backed by gold or silver.

The public outcry against the lowest tariffs in the nation's history was represented in the political cartoon by a woman ready to whip Polk.

Polk twice vetoed Whigs for federal funding of infrastructure projects. His efforts to reverse Whig economic policies satisfied the slave holding South but angered Northerners who wanted higher tariffs to protect their industries from British competition and westerners who wanted feder al y financed roads and harbors.

Expansionists insisted that Polk take the whole region rather than split it with the British in the dispute over the Oregon Country boundary. Polk wanted to achieve his goals.

The British were not willing to go to war. James Buchanan, Polk's secretary of state, signed a treaty in June of 1846 that extended the border between the United States and Britain to the Pacific coast.

The Mexican government broke off relations with the US on March 6, 1845, two days after James Polk became president. Polk did not want Americans to fire the first shot in the war to acquire California and New Mexico.

He didn't want a war that produced a military hero who would become a Whig candidate for the presidency.

Several thousand U.S. troops were ordered by Polk to take up positions around the small Texas town of Cor pus Christi, where the Nueces River emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. The Nueces River was claimed by Mexico. In March, Polk ordered Taylor to move his force south to the north bank of the Rio Grande, where they built Fort Brown opposite the Mexican town of Matamoros. This was an invasion by the Mexican government.

The Mexican troops attacked the U.S. soldiers north of the Rio Grande. Eleven Americans were killed, five were wounded, and the rest were taken prisoner. Polk's plan to provoke an attack by Mexico worked. Congress authorized the recruitment of 50,000 soldiers on May 13.

Some congressmen were skeptical of Polk's explanation. Democrats were worried about the president's story. He said that the war was started in fraud.

Polk denied that the war had anything to do with slavery. He argued that his efforts to extend America's boundaries to the Pacific were meant to replace sectional tensions with national unity.

Due to the climate, cotton could not be grown in places like New Mexico and California, which made slavery impossible.

The president's account of what happened along the Mexico- Texas border was accepted by most Americans. The New York newspaper called for war.

Many people in the South were excited about the possibility of war. Many of them rushed to volunteer and had to be turned away. 112,000 whites served in the war. The officers who would later distinguish themselves as opposing generals in the Civil War were from the Western Expansion.

"Polk's War" was a southern scheme to extend slavery into new territories taken from Mexico.

Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail because he didn't want to pay taxes. The United States will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man who swallows arsenic who brings him down, according to the mentor of Thoreau.

The war was opposed by most northern Whigs, including a young Illinois congressman named Abraham Lincoln. The United States had no reason to put its army in the border region. Lincoln asked the pres ident to locate the spot where the American troops were fired upon, implying that they may have crossed into Mexican territory.

The United States was unprepared for a war. The Mexican army numbered more than 30,000, but the regular army numbered less than 7,000. Before the war ended, the U.S. military had grown to almost 79,000 troops, many of them fron tier toughs who lacked uniforms, equipment, and discipline. Some of the soldiers engaged in plunder, rape, and murder. The Mexican forces had their own problems with training, discipline, and supplies.

The Mexican- American War lasted from March 1846 to April 1848 and was fought on four fronts: southern Texas/northern Mexico, central Mexico, New Mexico and California. The U.S. Army won at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.

General Taylor's army occupied Matamoros on May 18. The popularity of Tay lor, a slave owning Louisiana Whig with a leathery face and tousled hair, was instantaneous.

Taylor, "Old Rough and Ready," had spent thirty eight years in the army and had earned the respect and affection of his men.

President Polk wanted to acquire California. The president was worried that Great Britain or France would take control of California if the United States did not.

The outbreak of hostilities along the Rio Grande prompted Sloat to set sail for California. The flag of the Republic of California was taken down by the U.S. sailors and troops at San Francisco in early July.

Commodore Robert F. Stockton sailed south to capture San Diego and Los Angeles. Mexican resistance ended by mid-August.

An American military expedition headed for Cali fornia at the same time. Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, was captured by General Stephen Kearny's army on August 18. On January 10, 1847, they took control of Los Angeles. The Mexican forces surrendered three days later. Both Kearny and Stockton had orders to conquer and govern California.

In the meantime, the unpredictable John C. Fremont arrived from Sonoma with 400 newly recruited troops and claimed that he was in charge. Stock ton responded by naming the governor of California.

Kearny had seen enough by June of 1847. He had taken Fremont across the country for a court martial. In the most celebrated trial since that of the Vice President, Fremont was found guilty of insubordination and dismissed from the army. He urged Fremont to remain in the army and "resume the sword," but he was so angry at his treatment that he resigned his commission and settled in California, where he would become the state's first U.S. senator.

California and New Mexico were taken before the battle in northern Mexico. After a five- day siege, the city of Monterrey surrendered to Taylor's army. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who had been forced out of power in 1845, sent a message to Polk from his exile in Cuba that he would end the war if he were allowed to return to Mexico. Polk told the Mexican leader that the U.S. government would pay well for any territory taken from Mexico. Polk allowed Santa Anna to return to Mexico in August of 1846.

Santa Anna had lied. He was in charge of the Mexican army. He was better at raising armies than he was at leading them.

Santa Anna invited the Americans to surrender. The Battle of Buena Vista was fought in northern Mexico.

The Mexicans suffered more casualties than the Americans. The Mexicans refused to accept Polk's terms for surrender as they continued to lose battles.

The nation's Taylor was a popular war hero whose capital was Mexico City. On March 9, 1847, a large military exploits paved the way for the American force led by Winfield Scott, presidency.

The largest amphibious operation ever attempted by the U.S. military was carried out without loss. General Scott became a national hero after Vera cruz surrendered. Volunteers who had run out of enlistments were replaced by reinforcements who were eager to go home.

Scott's invasion force marched toward Mexico City, 200 miles away.

The Englishman was wrong. The U.S. forces arrived at the gates of Mexico City in September 1847, after four brilliantly orchestrated battles in which they overwhelmed the Mexican defenders.

There were problems with General Scott's assault on Mexico City. Some 7,000 soldiers have deserted since the start of the war. Many poor Irish and German Catholic immigrants crossed over to form the Saint Patrick's Battalion in the Mexican army, which included many foreign fighters.

The Mexican army urged foreign born soldiers to switch sides and fight for their religion.

The Americans captured seventy- two defectors during the battle for Mexico City.

Most of them were sentenced to death. General Scott ordered that about fifty of the deserters be hanged, despite military law that called for traitors to be shot by a firing squad. The others were branded with a "D" on their cheeks.

They had to watch the battle for four hours.

The doctor asked about the man.

Santa Anna left the country after Mexico City fell. The Mexican government was left in turmoil. The peace talks began on January 2, 1848, at the vil lage of Guadalupe Hidalgo, just outside Mexico City, but they dragged on for weeks because different men claimed to have authority to speak for the Mexican government.

Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and significant parts of what would become Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada became the states of Western Expansion. More than half the nation of Mexico was resented by this rep.

The annexations of 30,000 square miles of territory in southern Arizona and New Mexico in the 19th century rounded out the continental United States, doubled its size, and provided routes for eventual transcontinental rail lines. The United States agreed to pay 15 million dollars in return for Polk's enormous empire. The treaty ended the war on March 10, 1848. The last US sol diers left Mexico at the end of July.

The Mexican- American War was America's first major military intervention outside the United States and the first time that U.S. military forces had occupied another country. More than 11,000 Americans died from disease. In terms of the number of soldiers lost, the war is still the deadliest in American history. Out of every 1,000 soldiers in Mexico, some died.

The victory was divisive. The debate over the future of slavery was renewed. The president was bent on territorial expansion for the sake of slavery and he directed the conflict.

He wrote that his wife wouldn't believe how many Mexicans had been mistreated by American soldiers. The war was called "unnecessary and pointless" by General Taylor.

American expansionists were thrilled by the news of the victory. Robert Walker was excited about the addition of California and the Oregon Country.

Asia has become our neighbor.

"We have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race-- the free white race," said John C. Calhoun when he opposed the idea of taking more than the northernmost Mexican territories. It would be the first instance of incorporating an Indian race in Mexico. The government of the White race is ours.

The argument was about taking all of Mexico. The United States became a transcontinental nation after the acquisition of the northern Mexican provinces. The Department of the Interior was created in 1849 to supervise the distribution of land, the creation of new territories and states, and the protection of the Indians. Americans had a long coveted western empire.

Slavery was extended into the territories acquired from Mexico when Texas and gold were discovered in California. It led to civil war because of the debate.

The West was made part of the United States.

The West was portrayed as empty despite being populated by Native Americans and Hispanics. The first Americans to move into California were traders and trappers. There was a flood of people from all over the world after gold was found there. Many Southerners moved to the Mexican province of Texas to grow cotton and take their slaves with them. Slavery was banned by the Mexican government in 1830.

Mexico was furious when the United States annexed Texas. James K. Polk, the newly elected U.S. president, wanted to acquire California and New Mexico, but negotiations failed. Polk urged Congress to declare war when Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande.

Despite high casualties, American forces eventually won the war.

The acquisition did not strengthen the Union. The fight over the role of slavery in the new territories started.

You can see what you've learned and learn what you've missed at InQuizitive.

The destruction that would befall the nation in the coming decade was a sign of the violence sparked by these slave- holding Missourians.

Political storm clouds were forming over the fate of slavery. Henry Clay said that the United States was torn by the "uproar, con fusion, and menace" caused by slavery.

The United States had developed two different societies, one in the North and the other in the South, and the two sections disagreed over the nation's future.

Jackson's prediction was coming true by the year 1849.

The political conflict was caused by the tensions over slavery. Some of the issues dividing North and South were resolved in the Compromise of 1850. The southern states were forced back into the Union after a bloody civil war.

Even though he was a slave owner, Taylor wouldn't veto the proviso. His seeming hypocrisy is highlighted by this political cartoon.

The annexation of Texas as a slave state was endorsed by representatives. He proposed a bill to do that. His opposition to slavery in Mexican territories reflected his desire to keep southern political power in Congress from growing.

Many in Congress thought otherwise. The Senate objected to the House's approval of the Proviso.

In December of 1845, President Polk persuaded Wilmot to back off his amendment. Others were ready to take up the cause at that time. The debate over the westward expansion of slavery for the next fifteen years would set the stage for the Civil War.

The moral defects of popular sovereignty were obvious. African Americans were not allowed to vote on their fate, and a majority of whites were allowed to strip black people of their freedom.

Polk pledged to serve only one term, and he won the Democratic presidential nomination. His plan was not endorsed by the party. It claimed that Congress couldn't deal with slavery in the states.

Henry Clay, the Whigs' leader, lost three times as a presidential nominee. During the Mexican- American War, which he had opposed as an "unnecessary and pointless" effort to gain territory, they chose General Zachary Taylor. He opposed the extension of slavery into new western territories, even though he owned a Louisiana plantation with 145 slaves.

Taylor was hesitant. He claimed no party affiliation, had never voted in a presidential election, and had no political experience. He told his brother that he wouldn't want to be president.

Americans who did not support abolition supported banning slavery from the western territories. "Free soil" in the new territories became the cry of the Free- Soil party, which was focused on stopping the spread of slavery.

The Free-Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren as their candidate. Slavery will not be allowed in the western territories according to the party's platform.

The Free-Soilers split the votes of the Democrats and the Whigs to give Ohio to the Democrats. Van Buren had 291,000 votes, which was behind the totals of 1,361,000 for Taylor and 1,222,000 for Cass. Taylor received 163 to 127 electoral votes.

San Francisco became a bustling city in a few months during the California gold rush.

There was a new issue that was complicating the debate over territorial expansion. On January 24, 1848, a group of workers building a sawmill discovered gold nuggets on the property of John A. Sutter, along the south fork of the American River in the Mexican province of California. Cali fornia would be identified as the "great prize" transferred to the United States through the treaty ending the Mexican- American War.

President Polk told Congress that there was an "extraordinary abundance of gold" in California. Almost 100,000 Americans, mostly young men, set off for California within a year, eager to find wealth, freedom, and a new beginning. It was the greatest mass migration in American history by the year 1854. Tens of thousands more came from all over the world.

"Never was there a race of men like this before," a Califor nian said.

They were fed by hope and fueled by greed, which caused them to quit jobs, leave farms, borrow money, and leave their wives and children behind.

Several family members of former president John Tyler were among the forty-niners who rushed to California. Julia wrote to her mother that the president was not fond of the Cali fornia outbreak.

They raced to California as fast as they could. California produced half of the world's output of gold. The U.S. economy benefited from the influx of California gold. It shifted the nation's focus eastward, spurred the construction of transcontinental railroads and telegraph lines, and excited dreams of an American commercial empire on the Pacific Coast linked to Asia.

The Native Americans were killed by the influx of Americans into California. In 1850, the new Cali fornia state legislature allowed whites to force "unemployed" Indians to work for them in exchange for food and clothing. California's Native American population was decimated by conflicts with the Indians of the Sierra Nevada foothil and the Gathering Storm.

The Native Americans who resisted were killed. The Indian population in California plum meted by over 80 percent during the early 1850s. White settlers killed them if infectious disease did not kill them. "Must melt away before the white man like snow before a spring sun" was the prediction of California's Indians.

The sleepy coastal vil age of San Francisco was transformed by the gold rush. San Francisco grew from 800 to 20,000 residents in two years. Half of the ships that arrived in San Francisco never left and went to the mining towns in search of gold.

Thirty new wooden houses, two murders, and at least one fire were reported each day. It said 500 saloons. San Francisco was filled with offcasts and exiles from almost every nation, the true and perfect scum of the Earth, according to a South Carolina planter.

The city grew even faster. It was the area for the northern mines. saloons, taverns, restaurants, laundries, general stores emerged to serve the burgeoning pop ulation of miners. The gold prospectors were given sturdy trousers made of denim sailcloth. The blue jeans were made to stand up to the physical labor of mining. "Levi's" are still made today.

California became a masculine society very quickly. During the height of the gold rush, men outnumbered women in San Francisco 50 to 1, while across the new state of California it was 8 to 1. Luzena Wilson said that the men in the mining camps "stared at her as a strange creature" because she was the only woman they had seen in months. The few women who dared to live in the camps could demand a pre mium for their work as cooks, laundresses, entertainers, and prostitutes. One published a brutally honest ad for a husband in a local newspaper.

Some 20,000 Chinese were among the California miners, who were mostly unmarried young men. Few wanted to stay in California because they wanted to return to their homes. The mining camps sprang up like mushrooms. When rumors of a new strike surfaced, miners rushed to the area; when no more gold could be found, they moved on.

Whiskey Flat, Lousy Ravine, Petticoat Slide, and Piety Hill were dirty, lawless, and dangerous places. There were fourteen mur ders in a single week in Calaveras County. There were eight murders in less than a year. Many murderers were lynched if they were caught. One goldseeker in every five was dead within six months of arriving in California in 1849. Insurance companies refused to cover the goldfields because they were so dangerous. Diseases were rampant and suicides were common.

California was important for other reasons. California's request for statehood was used by the new president to end the stalemate in Congress over slavery.

Californians were in desperate need of organized government. They put a free- state into operation without consulting Congress. By 1850 Americans had also adopted a free- state constitution.

In his annual message on December 4, 1849, President Taylor endorsed immediate statehood for California and urged Congress not to put slavery into the issue. Simple solutions were not welcomed by the new Congress.

The president's plan was dismissed as anti- southern by Jefferson Davis, Taylor's son- in- law. irate Southerners threatened to leave the Union if Taylor brought California and New Mexico in as free states. Robert Toombs, a fiery Georgia congressman, said that if the legislation was passed, they would be driven from the territories of California and New Mexico.

Americans were worried about the fate of the repub lic because of the squabbling Congress. The New Yorker wrote that "madness rules the hour" in his diary.

The Senate decided to find a way to preserve the Union as the controversy over the future of slavery unfolded.

Thelions of the Senate-- Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Web ster--took center stage, with Wil liam H. Seward, Stephen A. Douglas, and Jefferson Davis in supporting roles.

These senatorial stars had large egos.

Henry Clay was once again turned to by congressional leaders because of the threat of southern extremists. A man had a distinguished political career. Clay gained every position he wanted except the presidency.

Clay wanted to save the Union by presenting his own plan to end the crisis. On December 3, 1849, as the Thirty- First Congress assembled for what would become the longest session in the chamber's history, Clay strode into the Senate to waves of applause and kisses from female followers. He wanted to focus on the national crisis so he asked to be removed from all committee responsibilities. Clay warned of a civil war that would break the Union.

President Taylor's proposal to admit Cal ifornia as a free state would tip the political balance against slav ery, with sixteen free states to fifteen slave states. The slaveholding states would become a minority. The South could not allow that to happen.

Henry Clay warned against a sectional conflict on the Senate floor.

Clay wanted to admit California as a free state, let the residents of the territories of New Mexico and Utah decide whether to allow slavery, deny Texas its extreme claim to much of New Mexico, and retain Texas.

After seven months of negotiations, the Omnibus Bil became reality, but only after the greatest debates in congressional history. Moderates won over those at the extremes, but not those at the northern and southern end of the spectrum.

The men were charged with defusing the crisis over slavery. The feeble and grim Senator John C. Calhoun arrived in the Senate chamber on March 4. A colleague had to read the defiant rejection of Clay's compromise by the uncompromising defender of slavery.

Congress was needed to protect the rights of slave owners to take their property into the new territories. He said that the South wouldn't make concessions. Slavery in California and the other western territories was allowed by the North. The "cords which bind" the Union would be severed if there wasn't an alternative.

On March 7, a gaunt Calhoun hobbled into the Senate to hear a speech from Daniel Webster. In an indigo blue coat with shiny brass but tons, one hand thrust into his beige vest, was the most eloquent orator in an age devoted to oratory.

"I want to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, not as a Northern man, but as an American," he said. He blamed both Northerners and Southerners for the crisis, but acknowledged that both regions had legitimate grievances: the South objected to the excesses of "infernal fanatics and abolitionists" in the North, and the North resented aggressive southern efforts to expand slavery into the new western territories.

The Con stitution of 1787 requires that every state cooperate in the recapture of runaway slaves. Slaves must be returned to their owners.

He had no patience with the idea of independence. He looked at the shrunken figure of John Calhoun and said that men who lack the capacity for compromise should not be considered. Civil war would be caused by Southern threats to leave the Union. Let men enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union instead of looking into darkness.

The extremists on both sides were angry with the speech. The Union could be broken according to the man. Web ster was savaged by the northern abolitionists for calling them fanatics and for his defense of the fugitive slave law.

New Yorkers were encouraged to defy the federal fugitive slave law by extending a "cor dial welcome" to escaped slaves.

Southerners repudiated the idea of a "higher law" than the Constitution and the idea that the abolitionists were above the law. A newspaper in Georgia said that Seward should be thrown out of the Capitol in a straitjacket. The senator from New York was unapologetic. He wanted to speak for the enslaved as well as all humankind.

The extremists had taken control of the debate and were postponing a vote on his compromise proposal. He didn't get much help from President Taylor, who focused on the admission of California as a new state. Clay reported in a letter to his son that the administration, the Abolitionists, the Ultra Southern men, and the timid Whigs of the North are all against his compromise plan. The Omnibus Bill was dead in the water despite Clay's efforts and he was crestfallen.

Congress took a break and celebrated Independence Day by gathering at the base of the Washington Monument. President Taylor had a mild sunstroke while listening to speeches. He tried to recover by eating raw vegeta bles and iced milk at the White House. He developed a violent stomach disorder that night. He asked for water after The Gathering Storm. I expect the summons soon. He died a few minutes later.

Taylor's death made it more likely that the Vice President would support Clay's pro posals. Taylor, the Louisiana slaveholder, was ready to make war on his native South to save the Union, while Fillmore, the Southerner, was ready to make peace. The new president asked the entire cabinet to resign. He named the Sec retary of state to show his support for compromise.

The Compromise of 1850 helped sustain a rising star in the Democratic party, the Union through the crisis.

Douglas saved Clay's plan. Douglas, the clever "Little Giant," suggested that the best way to save Clay's plan was to break it into separate parts. President Fillmore was in favor of the idea.

The plan worked because John C. Calhoun was no longer in the Senate. Clay's compromise plan passed in the Senate and the House by narrowest of margins.

The Compromise of 1850 became law on September 7, 1850. After months of debate, senators and congressmen burst into tears.

President Fillmore sighed and said the long agony was over.

In return for giving up its claims to much of New Mexico, Texas received $10 million, which secured payment of the state's debt, and the Utah Act set up the Utah Territory.

The last of the measures were signed into law by the President and he claimed that they represented a "Final Settlement" to the sectional tensions over slavery.

Douglas urged to stop the debate and drop the topic of slavery.

Many Americans agreed with The Gathering Storm. It is secured.

The 1850 Compromise was not an example of warring people making concessions as it was a temporary, imperfect, and evasive truce over the future of slavery. Both sides of the compromise vowed to defy it.

The question of slavery in the territories has been avoided according to Salmon P. Chase. Clay's compro mise was dismissed as a surrender by fire- eaters in the Lower South. John Quitman, a Mississippian, said that the only recourse for the South was independence.

It was a great way of avoiding the fundamental issue. The compromise would reignite tensions.

The Compromise of 1850 did not eliminate discussions about the legitimacy of slav ery. The squabbling between North and South resumed after two months.

It sought to recover slaves who had already escaped months or years before and considered themselves safe, and it did more than strengthen the hand of slave catchers. Slave traders were able to kidnap free blacks in northern free states because of the law. A jury trial was denied for fugitives. The new law required citizens to help locate and capture runaways.

A bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a bunch of a "This filthy enactment was made in the 19th century by people who could read and write, and it was done by people who could not read or write," he wrote.

Two slave catchers from Georgia arrived in Boston in October of 1850 in order to capture William and Ellen Craft, husband and wife cabinetmakers. The slave catchers returned to Georgia after five days.

President Fillmore assured the South that he would use federal troops to return the Crafts to Georgia. The Crafts were spirited to safety in Great Britain.

In Detroit, Michigan, the rescue of a fugitive slave by a mob in October 1850 was stopped by military force.

There weren't many such incidents. The effort to protect the Crafts was one of several similar episodes of public resistance to slave catchers in the North. More than 300 escaped slaves were returned to bondage in the eleven years of the Fugitive Slave Act.

They advocated violence. "The warned free blacks about police and only way to make the Fugitive Slave others who could easily kidnap and sell them back into slavery under the new Law a dead letter," said the Frederick Douglass Fugitive Slave Act.

In Springfield, Massachusetts, a fiery abolitionist named John Brown formed an armed band of African Americans to attack slave catchers. The Fugitive Slave Act was found to be a bad investment for slaveholders by the New York newspaper editor.

The deep religious underpinning of the abolitionist movement was epitomized by the power ful Stowe, less than five feet tal. She helped runaway slaves cross the Ohio River from Kentucky while raising six children in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Fugitive Slave Act was hated by many anti-slavery activists.

She wanted the book to help the movement.

By the end of its first year, it had sold 300,000 copies in the United States and more than one million in Great Britain.

The vil ainous white planter Simon Legree, who torments and tortures Tom before ordering his death, as well as the Uncle Tom, whose gentleness and generosity grow even as he is sold as a slave and taken south; the Little Eva, a white girl who dies after befriend

The brutal realities of slavery were revealed in the novel. If slavery were not abolished, the Almighty God would destroy America.

One of them sent her a parcel with the severed ear of a slave.

Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire was chosen by the Democrats as their presidential candidate.

Jane fainted when she learned of the nomination. Their concerns were founded on the fact that Pierce had few presidential qualities.

The Compromise of 1850 was endorsed by the Democrats. The Whigs chose General Winfield Scott, a hero of the Mexican- American War, because they repudiated the lackluster mil ard Fillmore, who supported the Compro mise of 1850.

Scott was six feet five and 300 pounds. Tennessee, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Vermont were all carried by him.

The Whigs lost their support in the Lower South because of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. The popular vote was close, with the popular vote being between 1.6 million and 1.4 million.

The forty- eight- year- old Pierce was a mediocre congressman and senator who had served as a general in the Mexican American War. Even if it meant adding more slave states to the Union, Pierce promoted western expan sion and the conversion of more territories into states. He urged the two sides to keep the other in check.

Benja min., his eleven- year- old son, died recently. Just days before the inaugural ceremony, the president-elect and his wife witnessed their son's death in a train accident. The Pierces had lost three sons. Jane Pierce lived in seclusion after she refused to attend her husband's swearing in, writing letters to her dead children, cursing politics, and blaming Franklin for her troubles.

President Pierce was a timid, indecisive leader who was often drunk, and had tragic flaws and private demons: blinded by a desire to be liked and cursed with raging ambition.

He tried to acquire Cuba as a new slave state but was unable to unite his own party. He was a failure by the end of his first year in office.

James W. Forney said that the presidency overshadowed him. The Gathering Storm was meant to be all things to all people and was labeled a "doughface" by his opponents, meaning a Northern man with Southern principles who hated abolitionists for causing the tensions over slavery. The Secre tary of War Jefferson Davis was his closest friend in the cabinet.

The markets of Asia were discovered by Americans in the mid- 19th century. Merchants and manufacturers called for a transcontinental railroad to connect the Eastern and Pacific coast to facilitate the flow of commerce with Asia and the settlement of the western territories as trade with China and Japan grew. Those who supported the railroad did not know that the issue would reignite the debate over the westward extension of slavery.

Several proposals for a trans continental rail line were considered by Congress. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis of Mississippi favored a southern route.

In order to win the support of southern leg islators, Douglas advocated popular sovereignty, where voters in each new territory would decide whether to allow slavery. It was a clever way to get around the 1820 Missouri Com promise, which banned slavery north of the 36th parallel.

Douglas would make a lot of money if the bill passed because he owned property needed by a transcontinental railroad.

The Kansas- Nebraska Act was authored by an Illinois senator.

Millions of acres would be open to slaveholders. "What came to be called the Kansas- Nebraska Act astounded us," said Abraham Lincoln.

The Kansas- Nebraska Act was passed by a vote of 37 to 14 in the Senate and 114 to 100 in the House in May 1854.

The national Whig party died with the anti- slavery group in Congress. The Republicans would come out of its ruins. "Now is the time for a new organization," said Senator Charles Sumner.

Some anti-slavery Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats decided to switch to two new parties because of the dispute over the Kansas- Nebraska Act. The American Know- Nothing party was formed to oppose the influx of immigrants from Ireland and Germany who arrived in the United States between 1845 and 1854. The territorial expansion of slavery and the "fanaticism" of abolitionists were opposed by many.

The Republicans attracted more Whigs from the north. The conscience Whigs joined with anti- slavery Democrats and Free-Soilers to form a Republican party dedicated to the abolition of slavery from the western territories.

Abraham Lincoln, a young Illinois congressman, converted from being a Whig to a Republican. He said that the passage of Douglas's Kansas- Nebraska Act made him think about slavery. Lincoln believed the future of the Union was in danger unless the North stopped pro-slavery Southerners. He focused his career on reversing the Kansas- Nebraska Act and preventing slavery from entering any new territories.

The Kansas- Nebraska Act placed Kansas at the center of the debate over slavery. Kansas was up for grabs when Nebraska became a free state.

Each side tried to gain political control of the 50 million-acre territory because Kansans could decide about slavery. "Come on, Gentlemen of the Slave States," William Seward yelled.

Groups against slavery recruited armed emigrants to move to Kan sas. When the first federal governor arrived in 1854, he sent an urgent message to the president, saying that Southerners were going to force slavery into the Territory in order to win the election of a territorial legislature.

Thousands of heavily armed border ruffians from Mis souri traveled to Kansas and elected pro- slavery legislators, as militia leader David Atchison urged. The territorial legislature declared that the territory would be open to slavery as soon as it convened. The governor went to Washington, D.C. to plead with the federal troops.

Outraged free- state advocates in Kansas, now a majority, rejected the pro-slavery government and elected their own delegates to the consti tutional convention. They applied for statehood after drafting a state con stitution. The "governor" and "legislature" were in Topeka by 1856. The Kansas Territory had two competing governments.

The mob destroyed the newspaper printing presses, burned homes, and ransacked shops.

John Brown, a white abo litionist, was enraged by the "Sack of Lawrence". The son of fervent Ohio Calvinists who taught their children that life was a crusade against sin, the humorless Brown believed that Christians must "break the jaws of the wicked." People who supported Brown thought he was a saint.

By the mid- 1850s, Brown had left his home in Springfield, Massachusetts, to become a holy warrior against slavery. He believed that blacks in the United States deserved both liberty and full social equality.

His hatred of slavery was very strong.

Four of Brown's sons and a son- in- law went to Pottawatomie, Kansas, a pro- slavery settlement, two days after the attack on Lawrence. Brown and his group killed five men with swords on the night of May 24. Brown told one of his sons that he was a judge.

The Pottawatomie massacre started a war in the Kansas Territory. On August 30, pro-slavery hooligans raided a free- state settlement. Frederick Brown, John's son, was shot through the heart.

On May 22, 1856, an ugly incident in the U.S. Senate shocked the nation. Charles Sumner, a Republican senator from Massachusetts, made a speech about the crime against Kansas in which he showered slave owners with insults and charged them with unleashing assassins in Kansas. Sumner said that the state of South Carolina displayed a "shameful imbecility" due to its passion for slavery. Sumner charged that the old man had chosen a mistress.

The strains on the Union were worsened by the violent incident in Congress.

Sumner's speech upset his cousin. Sumner was confronted as he sat at his Senate desk. Sumner was beaten about the head with a gold- knobbed cane until it splintered, after he was shouted that he had slandered the state of South Carolina. Sumner almost died, but he wouldn't return to the Senate for almost four years.

The people of the South celebrated as a hero. Dozens of people from the South sent new canes. "Bloodied Sumner" was created for the anti- slavery cause. Sumner's empty Senate seat is a reminder of the violence done to him. The brutal beating caused more Northerners to join the Republican party.

The 1856 presidential election was marred by the violence of "Bleeding Kansas" and "Bloodied Sumner". At their first national convention, the Republicans fastened on John C. Fremont, who had led the conquest of Mexican California.

The Republican platform was heavily influenced by the Whigs. Federal funding for a transcontinental railroad was endorsed. It was the first time a major party platform had taken a stand against slavery.

Franklin Pierce, the only elected president to be denied re- election by his party, was dumped by the Democrats. James Buchanan, a former senator and secretary of state from Pennsylvania, was chosen as the nominee. The Kansas- Nebraska Act was endorsed by the Democratic platform, and Congress should not interfere with slavery in states or territories.

In 1856, the Republicans had very few southern supporters and only a few in the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Buchanan added five free states to his southern majority for a total of 174, even though he swept the northernmost states with 114 electoral votes. The Democrats would control the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court.

A friend asked Franklin what he was going to do as he prepared to leave the White House.

Buchanan liked to drink. America's first unmarried president looked like a leader. He was handsome and well mannered. He had built an impressive career on his commitment to states' rights and his promotion of territorial expansion. He believed that the nation needed to make concessions to the South in order to save the Union. He was accused of lacking the strength to stand up to the slave holders in Congress. The choice of four slave- state men and only three free- state men for his cabinet was a troublesome sign.

Buchanan was one of the most experienced presidents. He had a limited ability as a leader and a lot of bad luck.

The economy was growing too fast. European demand for American corn and wheat was declining as too many railroads and factories were being built. The failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company triggered a financial panic. People are worried that the economy could be in trouble if a prestigious institution closes its doors.

Many busi nesses went bankrupt due to worried customers withdrawing their money from banks, which forced the banks to call in loans. The "hard times" that had befallen the nation were highlighted in newspapers across the North. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs and banks started foreclosing. Every bank in New York City closed. Jobless men were roaming the city streets. There were angry mobs in New York City.

Buchanan and his administration refused to intervene in the economic panic of 1858, which became known as the Panic of 1858.

He promised that the government wouldn't do anything to relieve the suffering caused by the financial panic.

The agricultural economy in the South suffered the least during the panic.

You are brothers of one blood and your slaves are white.

They feel bad for you because they are your equals in the natural endowment of intellect. Our slaves don't vote. We do not give them political power. Being the majority, yours are the depositories of your political power.

Race-based slavery was suggested as a way to prevent working class whites from taking control of the social and political order. Race-based slavery made it so that Cot ton is king.

The slaves in the south were happier, healthier, and better cared for than their counterparts in the north. He insisted that people were not equal and should not be treated that way. Slavery brought social stability to the southern states, so the northern states needed to "enslave" their white workers.

President Buchanan stated in his inaugural address that the issue of slavery was not to be decided in Congress or the White House but in the Supreme Court.

Scott was taken to St. Louis in 1830 and sold to an army surgeon who took him to Illinois, then to the Wisconsin Ter ritory and finally back to St. Louis in 1842. While in the Wisconsin Territory, Scott married a woman and they had two daughters.

Scott filed a suit in Mis souri, claiming that his residence in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory made him free because of the abolition of slavery in those areas. The Supreme Court of Missouri ruled against him after a jury decided in his favor.

Seven of the nine justices were Democrats. Five of the seven people who voted against Scott were slaveholders. The Chief Justice of Maryland ruled that Scott lacked legal standing because he was not a US citizen.

The Constitution excluded African Americans from citizenship when it was drafted, according to Taney. The Supreme Court argued that the Compromise of 1820 had deprived the debate over slavery because of the refusal to give Scott and his family residency in Missouri.

The decision challenged the concept of pop ular sovereignty. The territorial government could not be created by an act of Congress if Congress could not exclude slavery from a territory. All of the West and the North were open to slavery.

The Court's decision made pro-slavery advocates happy. President Buchanan approved.

The fight over slavery continued in the Kansas Territory, with both sides resorting to violence. The pro-slavery territorial legislature scheduled a constitutional convention just before James Buchanan's inauguration. The legislature overrode the governor's veto. Buchanan replaced the governor with Robert Walker.

With Buchanan's approval, Governor Walker pledged to free- state Kan sans, who made up an overwhelming majority of the residents, that the new constitution would be submitted to a fair vote. The pro- slavery constitution was approved because opponents of slavery boycotted the referendum on the constitution, which would have allowed Kansas to become a slave state. Congress endorsed it.

Buchanan took a critical step. Influenced by the south, he urged Congress to approve the Lecompton Constitution. Buchanan's action would deny the majority of Kansas voters the right to decide the issue in a general election, which is why Stephen A. Douglas sided with anti-slavery Republicans.

In Kansas, a new acting governor scheduled another refer endum on the proposed pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution. Voters overwhelmingly rejected it on January 4, 1858. Kansans were ordered to vote in April 1858. The Lecompton constitution was rejected on August 2, 1858. The vote cleared the way for Kansas to become a free state.

The Democrats were divided over the issue of slavery in Kansas. Stephen A. Douglas, one of the few remaining Democrats with support in both the North and the South, struggled to keep the party from fragmenting. He had to get his home base in Illinois, where he faced reelection to the Senate.

Abraham Lincoln was selected by the Illinois Republicans to challenge Douglas. Lincoln was the son of a poor farmer who rented out his son to neighbors so he could work.

The family moved to Indiana when Abraham was seven. Lincoln's "angel mother" Nancy died two years later. The Lincolns moved to Illinois in 1830. Lincoln was a farmer in Springfield. He married Mary Todd from a wealthy, slave-owning family in Kentucky.

Lincoln served four terms as a Whig after he was elected to the Illinois legislature. He believed in Henry Clay's promotion of the American System.

I am in favor of a national bank. The expansion of slavery into the western territories was opposed by him.

Lincoln won a seat in the U.S. Congress and promised to serve only one term. He returned to lawyering in Springfield after his single unremarkable term. The Kansas- Nebraska Act brought Lincoln back into the political arena. Lincoln was not an abolitionist. He did not believe that the nation should force the South to end what he referred to as "the monstrous injustice," but he did insist that slavery not be expanded into new western territories.

Lincoln joined the Republican party in 1856 and two years later he decided to oppose Douglas. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates to raise his profile. The Illi nois Senate race became a battle for the future of the republic after they attracted tens of thousands of spectators.

Lincoln was tall and gangly, with a long neck, big ears, and deep- set, brooding gray eyes. He was a celebrated sto ryteller and lightened his speeches with a refreshing sense of folksy humor. An air of simplicity, sincerity, and common sense was conveyed to sympathetic observers by him.

The short, stocky Douglas wore only the finest custom-tailored suits and was quite the gentleman. Lincoln rode alone on his horse when he traveled to the debate sites, while Douglas traveled in a luxurious private railroad car.

Douglas was a man of considerable abilities and even greater ambition. He knew Lincoln was a formidable opponent. He is the strongest man in the party, full of wit, facts, dates, and the best stump- speaker.

Lincoln said that the dispute between the two candidates was due to Douglas's indifference to the immorality of slavery. Lincoln claimed to be focused on principle while Douglas was pre occupied with process. He stressed that he has always hated slavery as much as anyone.

Lincoln displayed his own racism. He did not support giving blacks the vote, or allowing them to serve on juries or marry whites.

Douglas accused his opponent of being a two faced man. Lincoln left it to his audience.

Although Lincoln won the popular vote, Douglas won the Senate seat because he got the support of the legislature.

Lincoln's campaign made him a national figure. In 1858, the Republicans won so many congressional seats that they took control of the House of Representatives.

National politics underwent profound changes by the late 1850s. In May 1858, the free state of Minne sota entered the Union, and in February 1859 Ore gon gained statehood. The slave states of the South were quickly becoming a minority.

Political tensions over slavery were increasing. The largest brawl in the history of the House of Representatives took place in 1858. More than fifty legislators fighting, punching, and wrestling one another, because of harsh words about slavery.

Americans began to feel that compromise was impossible and that slavery could only be ended with violence. Some people in the South were already talking about leaving.

Frederick Douglass spoke for many when he claimed that the "pure slavery party" was trying to increase its political power. The slave party was attacking American rights. It is crushing itself by leading more Northerners to embrace abolitionism.

John Brown reappeared in the East in October of 1859. Since the Pottawatomie massacre in Kansas in 1856, he has kept a low profile while acquiring money and sympathizers from New England. His commitment to abolishing slavery and promoting racial equality had increased because he saw slavery becoming more entrenched.

Brown thought he was carrying out a divine mission on behalf of a God. He struck fear into his supporters and opponents because he was a moral absolutist. He was one of the few whites who lived among black people and died for them.

In the hopes of sparking mass uprisings across the South, Brown hatched a plan to steal federal weapons and give them to slaves in western Virginia and Maryland. "I want to free all the black people in this state," Brown said.

He warned Brown that he was going to die in a steel trap. Brown said something must be done to awaken the nation to the evil of slavery.

He decided to go ahead without him.

A group of twenty men, including three of Brown's sons and five African Americans, crossed the river on the cool, rainy night of October 16, 1859. They walked five miles to the federal rifle arsenal under cover of darkness. Brown and his soldiers took the sleeping town by surprise, cut the telegraph lines, and occupied the arsenal with 100,000 rifles. He sent men to abduct prominent slave owners and sounded the alarm for local slaves to join the rebellion.

The raiders were surrounded by armed townsmen by dawn. Brown and a dozen of his men, along with eleven white hostages, and two of their slaves, holed up for thirty- two hours in a firehouse. Hundreds of armed whites poured intoHarpers Ferry, and Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived with a force of U.S. Marines.

The marines ordered the abolitionists to surrender. Twelve marines rushed in after breaking open the barricaded doors. Green's sword was bent back double when he plunged it into Brown's chest. He beat Brown until he passed out.

Four people were killed and another dozen were wounded by Brown's men. Ten of their own force were killed, including two of Brown's sons, and five were captured.

Brown was forced to lay on a cot in the courtroom. He was found guilty by the jury.

The question of slavery is still to be decided, even though Virginia may execute him. As Brown waited to be hanged, he met with newspaper reporters and wrote a number of letters, many of which were printed in anti- slavery newspapers. Henry Wise, gover nor of Virginia, visited Brown in jail and reported that he was a man of courage, fortitude, and simple ingeniousness.

On December 2, 1859, some 1,500 Virginia militiamen, including a young actor named John Wilkes Booth, assembled for Brown's execution.

The Southerners were caught up in a frenzy of fear and spread rumors about slave rebellions. Mississippi's Jefferson Davis warned that they had declared war on us. New restrictions on the movements of slaves were passed by the southern states.

The nation got ready for another presidential election, which was destined to be the most important in its history.

The squabbling Democrats gathered for a disastrous presidential nominating convention in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860.

President Buchanan decided not to run for a second term, leaving the Democratic nomination to Ste phen A. Douglas. His supporters promised to defend the institution in the South while assuring Northerners that slavery wouldn't spread to new states. Slavery in the territories and the states should be protected by the federal government.

The delegates from eight southern states walked out of the convention when the pro-slavery advocates lost.

The warring groups of the Democratic Convention decided to go their own way. Douglas's supporters gathered at the Front Street Theater in Baltimore on June 18 to nominate him for president.

The pro-slavery platform that had been defeated in Charleston was adopted by the Southern Democrats in Baltimore. Emigrants took their slaves to the western territories during the Gathering Storm. The last national party had split into northern and southern groups. The Republican victory in 1860 was almost certain because of the fracturing of the party.

The Republican convention was held in Chicago, where everything came together for Abraham Lincoln. To gain broader support, the convention endorsed a series of traditional Whig policies, including a higher protective tariffs, free farms, and federal funding of internal improvements.

In the Northeast and the Lower South, opinions were more radical. The attitude followed the latitude.

There was a sense of moderation in the border states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri.

In Baltimore a week before the Republicans met in Chicago, they reorganized themselves as the Constitu tional Union party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee for president.

There was a choice between Lincoln and Douglas in the North and Breckinridge and Bell in the South.

Lin coln's victory was announced at midnight on November 6.

He won every county in New England, but didn't win any slave states.

Second place went to Douglas with 29 percent of the vote.

Lincoln, a man of remarkable humility and empathy, agreed with the many journalists and politicians who said that he was a minority president.