A. THE RIGHT TO EXPAND
1. Manifest Destiny was the name given to the belief that the United States would inevitably expand westward to the Pacific Ocean.
2. Manifest Destiny was used to gain public support for American territorial expansion.
B. TEXAS
1. Texas became the Lone Star Republic in 1836.
2. Although he favored territorial expansion, President Jackson opposed the admission of Texas into the Union. Jackson feared that debate over the admission of Texas would ignite controversy over slavery.
3. Texas was an independent republic until 1845, because Americans were divided over the issue of admitting another slave state into the Union.
C. OREGON
1. During the 1844 election campaign, the slogan "fifty-four forty or fight" referred to Polk's promise to take all of the Oregon land under dispute between the United States and Britain.
2. The United States and Britain reached a compromise that established the northern boundary of Oregon at the 49th parallel.
D. THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-1848
1. President Polk justified the Mexican War by claiming that Mexican troops had illegally crossed into American territory, where they attacked and killed American soldiers. Hostilities had thus been forced on the United States by the shedding of "American blood upon the American soil."
2. Led by Abraham Lincoln and supported by the transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau, Whigs opposed the Mexican War.
3. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War. Under the terms of the treaty, the United States gained California and New Mexico (including present-day Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, as well as parts of Colorado and Wyoming) and recognition of the Rio Grande as the southern boundary of Texas.
4. The Wilmot Proviso called for the prohibition of slavery in lands acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War.
5. Although the Wilmot Proviso never became federal law, it was eventually endorsed by the legislatures of all but one of the free states, and it came to symbolize the polarizing issue of extending slavery into the territories.
TEST TIP
The Wilmot Proviso is so well known that it is easy to believe that it became a law. In fact, it did not. Although the House passed the Wilmot Proviso twice, the Senate rejected it. APUSH test writers use the phrase "passage of the Wilmot Proviso" as a tempting but incorrect answer. Note that the Wilmot Proviso did not support popular sovereignty.
A. NEGOTIATIONS
1. Stephen A. Douglas, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun all played key roles in the negotiations that resulted in the passage of the Compromise of 1850.
2. Abraham Lincoln did not play a role in the negotiations that led to the Compromise of 1850.
B. PROVISIONS
1. Provisions of the Compromise of 1850 included the following:
• Admission of California as a free state
• Abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia
• Continued protection of slavery in the District of Columbia
• Passage of a more stringent fugitive-slave act
• Establishment of territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah, without an immediate decision on the status of slavery
A. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
1. Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the leading proponent of popular sovereignty.
2. The principle involved was that the settlers of a given territory would have the sole right to decide whether or not slavery would be permitted there.
B. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
1. The act proposed that the Territory of Nebraska would be divided into two territories—Kansas and Nebraska.
2. Their status as slave or free states would be determined by popular sovereignty.
C. CONSEQUENCES OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
1. The act did the following:
• Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thus heightening sectional tensions
• Permitted the expansion of slavery beyond the Southern states
• Led to a divisive debate over the expansion of slavery into the territories
CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW
• Ignited a bloody contest for control over Kansas
• Split the Democratic Party
• Sparked the formation of the Republican Party
A. THE RULING
1. Dred Scott was a slave and thus could not sue in federal court.
2. Under the Constitution, slaves were private property and thus could be taken into any territory and legally held there in slavery.
3. Slaves could not be taken from their masters, regardless of a territory's "free" or "slave" status.
B. THE CONSEQUENCES
1. The ruling invalidated the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
2. The ruling became a major issue in the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
3. The decision widened the gap between North and South, thus bringing them closer to war.
TEST TIP
It is very important to remember which compromises, acts, and Supreme Court decisions restricted the expansion of slavery and which did not. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Kansas- Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision all permitted the expansion of slavery beyond the Southern states. Although the Compromise of 1820 did restrict the expansion of slavery above the 36° 30' line, it allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state.
A. THE REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS
1. Led by Abraham Lincoln, the Republicans accepted slavery where it existed but opposed the further extension of slavery into the territories.
2. The Democratic Party split. Northern Democrats supported Stephen A. Douglas and popular sovereignty. Southern Democrats supported John C. Breckinridge, the extension of slavery into the territories, and the annexation of Cuba.
B. CONSEQUENCES
1. Lincoln won the electoral vote but did not receive a majority of the popular vote.
2. Led by South Carolina, seven Southern states seceded from the Union.