 Hi, I'm Dr. Gene Preuss. In this lecture, we'll look at manifest destiny, the war between the United States and Mexico, and how all of this contributed to the lingering question of slavery in the United States. We're going to first address the question, what is manifest destiny? Then how did the desire to expand west or drive the U.S. into a war with Mexico? And then finally, what was the effect of acquiring all this new land in the west and its effect on the lingering question of slavery? The term manifest destiny really comes out of the 1845 essay written by journalist John L. O'Sullivan. And it's kind of a concept that we've applied in more recent times to what was going on at that time. This spirit that the United States need to stretch from sea to sea, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and that we needed to secure that land between those two oceans for ourselves. And what John L. O'Sullivan was writing was on Texas. That was the title of the essay, and it was about the annexation issue. And he was trying to get his fellow readers, his fellow Americans, and those who read his newspaper, to approve of annexation of Texas. And so what he said was, quote, our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent allocated by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions. In essence, what he was saying was that he saw the west as a pressure valve, and he saw Texas as the beginning of that pressure valve, and that God himself, Providence, had allocated, had given to the US in order to relieve the pressure of immigration. This land, our manifest destiny, our future made real, is to overspread the continent. And so that was this idea. Now this is painting that you see here. John gasped American progress, although it was painted several years later, it reflected that idea that Americans wanted to move west. And you see here the spirit of the United States moving, floating above the land. She's carrying with her in her arm a ledger showing people's ownership of land, a ledger book, and a cable for the telegraph. She's stringing along with her. And you can see behind her is sunlight, brightness, the sun rising in the east, and you see ships on the canals and on the rivers. You see railroads and settlers coming forward. And in their wake, before them, you see fleeing Buffalo, Native Americans, and darkness. So this idea that migration westward brings light, civilizes the land, and it brings new technology is all wrapped up in the painting and the idea it was trying to capture. And so if we look at this land and we look at the map of where we're moving to, settlement by about the time of the 1840s and 50s, you see that it had reached the Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana territory. American settlement, as we know, was already in Texas. And Texas, you see the broad outline of Texas. It goes all the way up to Wyoming, along the Rio Grande and all the way back down. And then what is west of that? Although you have the Oregon territory up north, it's disputed. And then you have Mexico below it. So we're going to look at this area and how we got that. Annexation of Texas had long been an issue, and it had been an issue since the Texas Revolution of the 1836 era. But people in the United States were hesitant to annex Texas for a number of reasons. But it had been on everybody's mind. So you had William Henry Harrison in 1839 who tried to get Texas annexed, his vice president who took over after he passed away, also wanted annexation. And there were other people as well, John C. Calhoun, a senator from South Carolina who had proposed annexing parts of Mexico because he wanted to protect slavery, was all in favor of annexation. And in fact, there was a group called the Knights of the Golden Circle who were a group of Southerners who wanted more land in what's Mexico and into Latin America, even Cuba and Puerto Rico because those were already slave-holding nations. They wanted to expand and protect slavery. And so they were in favor of annexing more and more territory. But because of this strange combination of people who wanted annexation, enough people opposed these various schemes and plans that the annexation treaty failed. And so by the time you get to the election of 1844 in the United States, annexation was a major issue. And the candidates were James K. Polk of Tennessee. He was a expansionist. His whole campaign was on expansionism. And so when he wins the election, Tyler, who's in office for a few more months until March, goes to Congress and says, look, the will of the people is for annexation. Let's get Texas annexed. And so by using a joint resolution of Congress, Texas comes into the union and all of the requirements, elections, the appointment of new judges, a governor, are all in place by December 29th of 1845 and Texas officially is annexed and becomes a state of the union then. Now, Polk saw himself as Jackson's heir, the heir to Andrew Jackson. In fact, people called him Young Hickory. He was an expansionist. And one of the things that he wanted to do was answer some of these questions. Texas was annexed in December of 1845. But the question remained over Oregon's status. Now, you see in green here where Oregon is traditionally the Oregon territory traditionally lay. But there was also claims up to this area in pink, but not only from the United States, but also from Great Britain and Russia had claims on the Oregon territory. What Polk did is he went to Great Britain and he said, we want this area. He would have been happy with a continuation of the line of 1818 straight across in order to separate Canada from the United States. Just expand that line. But because Great Britain was unwilling to negotiate over the Oregon territory, he sent in people to say, we're willing to go to war. And this battle cry that many Americans had was 5440 or fight. And you can see 5440 was the line across the top part of that red section of the Oregon territory. Now, in the end, Great Britain agreed to extend the line of 1818, which is all Polk ever wanted. And so he was satisfied that he'd gotten this territory, the Oregon territory and annexed it into the United States and signed this treaty with Great Britain. And now he had the Oregon question settled and the Texas question settled. In 1846, Polk ordered Zachary Taylor, General Zachary Taylor, to move to the Rio Grande area. Now, you see that shaded area that blue and orange shaded area that was disputed territory. Well, Texas claimed all of that land. Mexico had never recognized officially Texas's independence. And even if it did, Mexico was not willing to to allow that that shaded territory was really part of Texas. They said Texas might be independent, but only through the Nueces River. So when Taylor moves into that disputed territory down to the Rio Grande, Mexican troops move north. And across the Rio Grande, across from Brownsville, that is where they assembled on May the 9th, shots were fired in that disputed territory along the Rio Grande. And by May 13th, Polk went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war with Mexico. Mexico was now at war with the United States. Congress approved the measures of war. And by June, just a few weeks later, John C. Fremont and Kit Carson, one of the mountain men, moved into California along that northern route. The U.S. also moved ships into California's harbors and ports from Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco. And Stephen Kearney, another U.S. Army officer moved into Santa Fe, New Mexico and marched towards L.A. So there was a coordinated attack the United States took to invade this territory. Later on, Taylor sends troops to Matamoros and on to Monterey, Mexico. Polk returned Santa Ana, who has been in exile in Cuba, puts him on a boat and allows him to sail to Veracruz into Mexico City. Now, what Santa Ana had promised was that he would end the war, but instead Santa Ana continued fighting. And finally, Taylor and Santa Ana faced each other at the Battle of Buena Vista. This led to the siege of Mexico City. General Winfield Scott of the U.S. Army sailed into Veracruz with his men and they marched up to Mexico City. And there for Santa Ana and the Mexican Congress began to flee by the end of the year in 1846. By 1848, a treaty of peace between the two nations was ready. And what the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, that's where it was signed, said was that the Rio Grande would now be the border between the United States and Mexico and that the United States would pay $15 million and take the New Mexico and California territory. But this raised questions about slavery. Earlier in Congress, whenever it was approving funds for the war in 1846, brought up a thing called the Wilmont Proviso. And this was an addendum to a bill to allocate funds. And what the Wilmont Proviso had said was that slavery would never be allowed in any of the territory that we might get as a result of the war. Now, the Wilmont Proviso never went anywhere. It was never passed. But it reflects the significance that people saw about the acquisition of more land and the question of slavery and how those two issues were tied together. As it was following the war, migration increases. And you can see here, 300,000 people moved west in between 1841 and 1867. So a lot of people were willing to move. And a lot of that was due to gold, no doubt. But the acquisition of all this new land raised questions. What is going to happen to the slavery issue? Would these new territories, these areas become slave friendly? Or will they become free states and free territories? So who's going to have more power in Congress? That's what the whole issue was over. Which side? And so the question of size was also very important. California and Texas were large areas. How are they going to affect the balance? In the election of 1848, Zachary Taylor runs, he's now called old rough and ready. He was successful in his campaign in the US Mexican War. And he was an interesting president because although he was a slave owner, he didn't allow California and New Mexico to be free territories and didn't put up any fuss over that. He was a Southerner, but he was also a nationalist. And in his policies, he did things that angered both the North and the South, for example, he ignored a fugitive slave law that people wanted Southerners wanted Northerners to enact to help them catch runaway slaves. But also he upset the Southerners because when he upset the Northerners, I mean, because when there was a call to abolish slavery in the nation's capital in Washington, DC, he also ignored this. He died in July of 1850. And that brings an end to the question of manifest destiny, because it was now complete. And the question of slavery is going to continue to linger and very soon will explode. So what was manifest destiny? Well, it's the idea that the United States should expand from coast to coast. How did the desire to expand westward drive the US into war with Mexico? The United States, either by paying for it, or by going to war was willing to gain possession of this land between the two oceans. And finally, what was the effect? Well, securing possession of the Western territory allowed the opportunity for continued growth and development, of course, but it also created a severe cultural and political conflicts that are ultimately going to result in civil war. So I hope that's what you got out of this lecture. And as we move forward, we'll explore these themes a bit more. Thank you very much for listening.