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Changing Politics

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New political parties�

  • Democrats: Jackson and Van Buren
    • Liberty of the individual
    • States’ rights
    • Federal restraint
  • Whigs: Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, Harrison
    • Value of community
    • National power
    • Active government programs and reforms
      • Internal improvements, prisons, asylums, schools
    • Abolition of slavery

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Political Parties

Federalists

Republicans

Democratic

Republicans

Democrats

Whigs

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Political Changes

  1. Power of the Common Man
  2. Two-Party System
    • Winner-take-all System
    • Role of Third Parties

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The Lone Star Rebellion

Up to 1836

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Texan War

  • Stephen Austin
    • 300 American families
    • Catholicized and Mexicanized
  • Texan Independence 1836
  • Santa Anna and the Alamo
    • Sam Houston
  • Treaty: April 21, 1836
    • Rio Grande

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Everybody wants Texas

  • Mexico
    • Never recognized independence
  • Britain
    • Trade interests, free of tariffs
  • United States
    • Land, slavery
    • “Texas or Disunion”

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Annexation of Texas

  • Election of 1844
    • Henry Clay (Whigs)
    • James K. Polk (Democrats)
  • Annexation in 1845

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Manifest Destiny

The belief that God had “manifestly” destined the American people to spread across the continent.

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Foreign Interests

1836-1844

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Polk’s Presidency

Polk’s Goals:

  1. Lower the tariff
    • Walker Tariff of 1846
  2. Independent treasury
  3. Settlement of Oregon dispute
    • 49th Parallel
  4. Acquisition of California
    • US Mexican War

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The Mexican American War

1845-1848

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Leading to War

  • Mexican $3 million debt
  • Slidell’s offer to buy CA rejected ($25 m)
  • Mexican troops attack US troops
  • “Spotty Lincoln”
  • Dealings with Santa Anna

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Mexican American War

  • Leaders:
    • Stephen W. Kearny: Santa Fe Trail
    • John C. Fremont: “happened to be there”
    • Zachary Taylor: Fought into Mexico, Buena Vista
    • Winfield Scott: Inland from Vera Cruz

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Mexican American War

  • Peace
    • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
      • February 2, 1848
      • Texas west to the Pacific (California)
      • U.S. pay $15 million + forgive debt

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So What?

  • Benefits:
    • Land (1/3 of U.S.)
    • Experience for Civil War generals (Lee and Grant)
  • Costs:
    • Turning point in U.S. Latin American relationships
    • Slavery issue renewed
      • Wilmot Proviso
    • American lives lost

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Conceptual Identifications

  • Revolution
  • Rebellion
  • Confederation
  • Republic
  • Colonialism
  • Mercantilism
  • Slavery
  • Race
  • Class
  • Gender
  • Labor
  • Sectionalism
  • Reform
  • War
  • Suffrage
  • Manifest Destiny

1. General definition

2. Example

  1. Historical Significance
  2. Example
  3. Historical Significance
  4. Etc…

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