Antebellum America AP United States History Unit 4

John Gast’s American Progress

Albert Bierstadt’s The Oregon Trail

Emanuel Leutze’s Westward the Course of Empire

Manifest Destiny. . . the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us. John O’Sullivan Democratic Review (1845)

Westward, ho!

Mexican Texas (ca. 1822) Nueces River Rio Grande River

Texas War for Independence (1836)

The Republic of Texas (1836 -1845) Stephen Austin “The Lone Star Republic” Sam Houston

Election of 1844 New York Polk 237, 600 Clay 232, 500 Birney 15, 800

What if Clay had won New York? Candidate James K. Polk (Democrat) Henry Clay (Whig) James G. Birney (Liberty) Actual Electoral College result if Clay had won New York 170 134 105 141 0 0

Oregon and the Treaty of 1846

Lincoln’s “spot resolutions” Resolved By the House of Representatives, That the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House 1 st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution. 2 d. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico.

Wilmot Proviso (1846) Provided, territory from that, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.

St. Patrick’s Battalion (San Patricios)

California, the “Bear Flag Republic”

Mexican Cession (1848) and Gadsden Purchase (1853)

Manifest Destiny "Although Americans perceived Manifest Destiny as a benevolent movement, it was in fact an aggressive imperialism pursued at the expense of others. " Assess the validity of this statement with specific reference to American expansionism in the 1840 s.