Pinckney’s Treaty: Treaty negotiated by Thomas Pinckney, minister to Spain, to settle a dispute over the boundary between the U.S. and Spain in West Florida. Spain claimed all land south of the Tennessee River. The treaty settled on a line at 31 degrees latitude, from the Chattahoochee River to the Mississippi, giving the U.S. much of Alabama and Mississippi and the Spanish West Florida (including Mobile Bay).

Louisiana Purchase: As Spain gave its Louisiana Territory to the French, President Jefferson worried that Napoleon would close the Port of New Orleans to U.S. traffic, making shipping on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers too expensive or even impossible. Jefferson planned to buy New Orleans for $9 million, but Napoleon offered the whole of the Louisiana Territory for $15 million. Although he had no clear constitutional authority to do so, Jefferson made the purchase. The total amount of land bought according to the treaty was imprecise, but it at least included ‘all the lands drained by the waters of the Mississippi River.’ The purchase more than doubled the size of the U.S., extending the nation west to the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains.

Lewis and Clark Expedition: Trip by the Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838) with the help of Shoshone Indian guide Sacajawea, to explore the West. Although planned well before, it took on new importance after the Louisiana Purchase. It began in St. Louis in 1804, went along the Missouri River through the Rocky Mountains onto the Columbia River and to the Pacific Ocean. Returning to Washington in 1807, the expedition was a great success. They did not find the hoped-for total water route to the Pacific, but Lewis and Clark mapped the territory, brought back animal and plant artifacts, and firmed up the U.S. claim to the region. They also started an explosion of commerce in the region, expanding the fur trade. Both men received new appointments in government: Clark was made Superintendent of Indian Affairs; Lewis, once Jefferson personal secretary, was named Governor of the Territory of Upper Louisiana. Unable to take the fame, unable to focus on the publication of his journal, caught up in difficult negotiations between the Indians and settlers, prone to alcoholism, and deeply in debt, Lewis took his life in September 1809.
 

Meriwether Lewis

Route of the Corps of Discovery (red outbound, blue inbound)

Links for Lewis and Clark:

National Geographic

Lewis and Clark

Corps of Discovery

Archive

Lewis & Clark

Conquest of Florida: Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 settled a border dispute between Spanish territory east of the Mississippi and the U.S.  Tensions, however, picked up again as Americans drifted southward testing the line. After repeated skirmishes between Seminole Indians and American settlers along the border, the U.S. ordered Andrew Jackson to the region. He led a force that did more than just “pacify” the border; it took over Florida. In the 1819 peace treaty, Spain gave Florida to the U.S. in return for a part of Texas that the Americans claimed. The Seminoles continued to fight into the 1840s, but finally were defeated.

Monroe Doctrine: U.S. foreign policy created by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and declared by President James Monroe in his “State of the Union” message to Congress in 1823. It states, “The American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European nation.” The doctrine was directed at France, which was eyeing the newly independent republics of South America, and at Russia, which had an interest in Alaska. It succeeded because it had the unofficial backing of Great Britain and the Royal Navy. The Monroe Doctrine demonstrates that the U.S. intended to become an important international power.
 
 

Industrialization: Transformation of the economy from an agricultural base to industrial base – built largely on the mechanization of labor. Although this should not be overstated—the United States experienced its first era of industrial development between 1813 and 1837. The development of industries was predicated on the transportation revolution—the invention of the steamboat (by Robert Fulton) and the coming of railroads. The first substantial industry in America, the textile industry, developed in New England where factories turned southern cotton into textiles. While the rise of a textile industry drew the sections closer together as purchaser and supplier, the relationship was not equally beneficial. The northern economy became more complex, but the South’s became more dependent on one crop –and was known as the Cotton Kingdom.

Cotton Gin: Eli Whitney's invention: a simple machine that transformed American agriculture and industry. The problem with cotton cultivation is the seeds embedded in the cotton bolls that must be removed before the cotton can be turned into textiles. Before the gin, it took a man about a day to process one pound of cotton. Whitney's small gin could process about fifty pounds a day. An enlarged gin that was powered by steam could process much more. The gin made cotton cultivation profitable. It sparked a demand for more land on which to grow cotton and thus America expanded. It also reinvigorated a slave labor system that had been diminished by the Revolution and the talk of "liberty." It provided a base for the early industrial revolution in New England in the 1820s. And it helped unite Northern and Southern economies.

Revolution in Transportation and Communication

Robert Fulton: Inventor of the first commercially successful steamboat—The Clermont which first steamed up the Hudson River in 1807. By 1836, 361 steam driven paddle wheelers were registered to navigate tributaries of the Mississippi River.

Erie Canal: Man-made waterway, opened in 1826, connecting the Hudson River and New York City to Lake Erie (Buffalo). It was essential to the opening of the West to trade because it linked the Great Lakes as far as Duluth, Minn., and Chicago, Ill., to the Atlantic without having to go through Canada. It last some of its importance, however, when railroads entered the scene.

The Tom Thumb: The first passenger train in the U.S., it was invented by Peter Cooper in 1830 in Baltimore. It ran along rails at the incredible speed of 10 miles an hour, but when challenged to race a horse-drawn wagon, the train broke down. Despite the inauspicious beginning, railroads came to dominate long-distance travel and commerce in the U.S. over then next two decades.

Samuel Morse: Inventor in the U.S. of the telegraph in 1837. The telegraph is an electro-magnetic transmitter that interrupts an electric circuit and allows for transmission of information. The telegraph was separately invented in England. Morse’s more important contribution became the Morse Code, a series of electrical “dots” and “dashes” that became the alphabet of telegraphy.

Creating A National Economy: The Marshall Court

Fletcher v. Peck (1810): The State of Georgia land granted part of the future Alabama and Mississippi to the Yazoo Land Company in 1794. When the public discovered that many legislators had been bribed to make the deal, the people voted them out of office and the new Georgia legislature repealed the grant. But some of the land had already been sold; so the new owners sued for breach of contract. The Marshall Court ruled that the new owners were protected under the Contract Clause (Art. I, Sect. 10). Under this decision, the Supreme Court asserted the power to overturn state laws.

Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816): Virginia case involving inheritance and the Treaty of Paris (1783). To attack Loyalists during the Revolution, Virginia law said no “enemy” could inherit land. When Martin, a British citizen, tried to sell the land Virginia took it. Martin sued and lost in Virginia court. He appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Marshall Court accepted the case, setting the precedent that the U.S. Supreme Court can hear appeals and reverse state court rulings.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819): Piggy-backing on the Fletcher precedent, the Marshall Court ruled that the State of New Hampshire could not alter the 1769 charter of Dartmouth College because the Court ruled the charter to a contract. Under this decision, corporate charters are protected by the Contract Clause and states may not regulate them. Daniel Webster argued the case on behalf of Dartmouth College.

McColloch v. Maryland (1819): Supreme Court decision deriving from Maryland’s attempt to tax federal bank notes. Chief Justice Marshall rejected Maryland’s claim that states had created the federal government, ruling instead that it was created directly by the people (“We the People”). The decision relates to federalism; Marshall ruled that the national government’s power is limited but “is supreme within its sphere of action.”

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824): Arising out of a controversy involving Fulton’s steamboat and navigation of the Hudson River. The New York state assembly gave Fulton and his partner exclusive rights to steamboat traffic on the river. They then granted a contract to Aaron Ogden. But because the Hudson forms the boundary between two states, New York and New Jersey, Thomas Gibbons sued claiming that he should have access to the river also. The Marshall Court unanimously ruled in favor of Gibbons, saying that the Constitution gives sole right to regulate interstate commerce to the federal government and no such power may be exercised by any state. This not only further established the power of the federal government, as was Marshall’s wont. It also sparked dramatic development of steamboat navigation and set the precedent for similar questions involving railroads in the 1830s and afterward.

Andrew Jackson

Henry Clay

John C. Calhoun

Daniel Webster

“Harry of the West” (1777-1852): Henry Clay was one of the four most important politicians in the U.S. in the first half of the nineteenth century. A Kentuckian, represented the West and was the leading nationalist in Congress from the 1812 war to his death in 1852. He ran for president three times as a National Republican or a Whig, never winning. He held such important positions as Secretary of State and Speaker of the House. At critical points, he put together agreements between the different sections and competing factions in the country, earning the name the “Great Compromiser.” He fashioned the Missouri Compromise (1820-21); the Compromise of  1833--settling the tariff dispute between South Carolina and Congress to end the Nullification Crisis; and the Compromise of 1850. In retrospect, his compromises helped delay what many historians consider the inevitable civil war until the Union was in a position to win.

John C. Calhoun, 1782-1850: Born on the frontier of western South Carolina of Scots-Irish stock, Calhoun was a hard-headed politician, he came to represent the South in the federal government from the War of 1812 to the very day of his death in 1850. He was Secretary of War under Monroe and Vice-POTUS to John Quincy Adams and then to Andrew Jackson. He resigned the office, however, in 1831 after a long conflict with Jackson and went on to lead the state’s attempt to nullify the “Tariff of Abominations” in 1833. In 1850, fearing the South would be a permanent minority and forced to bow to the will of the free North and West, he reluctantly called for secession if slavery were not allowed to spread into the territories.

Daniel Webster, 1782-1852: Born in New Hampshire, he represented Massachusetts in the Senate. An expert lawyer, he represented Dartmouth College in the important 1819 case involving the right of contract. In 1830, he defended the nationalists in a famous debate with South Carolina’s Robert Hayne (John C. Calhoun). As Secretary of State in the 1840s, he negotiated important treaties with Great Britain and expanded U.S. territory. He was known as the greatest debater in the Senate. So great, in fact, that Stephen Vincent Benet wrote a play, The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which Webster debated Satan in court and won the case.

The American System: Henry Clay’s plan to strengthen the national economy. Initially, its most controversial elements were renewing a national bank and spending federal tax money on internal improvements. Such improvements included building canals and the National Road from  Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois, to unite the country, improve trade and national defense. The plan exposed a rift between supporters and opponents of internal improvements that began the decay of the “good feelings” that had defined the era. Clay and John Quincy Adams represented a Nationalist-Republican faction, while Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun represented a Democratic-Republican faction. Those who opposed internal improvements usually balked at using federal money to pay for what oftentimes were local projects entirely within a state (such as the Maysville Road, in Kentucky).

Panic of 1819: First national crisis of the boom and bust business cycle in U.S. history, it led to a depression and affected public trust in banks for a generation. As with any economic catastrophe, its causes are complex.
    The War of 1812 had created more debt for the U.S., but a postwar boom gave the impression of solvency, generating widespread speculation and chicanery. As usual, there was a dearth of hard currency (specie). The expansion of paper money (local bank notes) set the stage for potential disaster if anyone decided to ask what the real value of money was. Paper money was often discounted as much as 60%. Uncontrolled lending weakened banks to the point where it was said that in 1818 barely six banks in the country could have met their obligations if they fell due. Added to this, the crudeness of the frontier economy opened opportunities for criminal activity: cheque kiting, stock jobbing, and counterfeiting. And the banks were accused of making loans knowing that they would not be repaid; so they could repossess the property.
    In 1818, the price of cotton soared to over 32 cents a pound, causing the British to look for alternative sources in India and subsequently causing the price in America to fall to 14.3 cents. The price drop sent shock waves through the economy as debts were called by banks and as demand for other U.S. goods dried up. Loans went unpaid and banks went out of business, causing the economic bubble to burst.
    Many blamed the Bank of the United States (BUS) for the crash. The BUS was rechartered in 1816 to bring rationality to currency markets and the economy generally, but out of political weakness it failed on most counts. Many disrespected or distrusted the BUS. Maryland, Tennessee, and Georgia taxed BUS notes and others intended to in the future. Under its charter, the BUS was required to pay out in specie upon request. With too little hard currency available in the U.S., it bought specie from Britain at a premium, putting the BUS in debt, too. When Congress reported its study of the administration of the BUS, the dominoes began to fall. It discovered that many branches of the BUS, notably the Baltimore branch, were rife with corruption. The President of the Baltimore branch was deeply in debt because of bad investments. His own bank collapsed, prompting a ripple effect of panic through Maryland and the South.
    One of the more important results of the Panic and depression was that for the first time several states enacted relief legislation, including: stay laws, placing a moratorium on collection of debts; and setting minimum appraisal laws, restricting the auction price of defaulted property. The other significant result was a lingering distrust for the BUS.

Lowell Girls: Farm girls from Massachusetts who worked in the textile mills in Lowell. Girls were preferred as workers because they company did not have to pay them as much and because they tended to be more docile, controllable laborers. The Merrimack Manufacturing Co. created what it hoped would be a model industrial town, known as the Lowell system. Next to the water-powered mill, it built dormitories to provide safe and comfortable housing for workers; kitchens for regular prepared meals; and lecture halls and libraries for worship, education, and cultural events, and all in a park-like setting along the Merrimack River. Although conditions were very good at first, by the mid-1830s, age had eroded much of the town pleasant appeal and an economic depression caused the company to cut wages and services. By 1840, the thirty-two mills and factories in Lowell turned the town into a commonplace grimy industrial town.

Craft Workers’ Manifesto (1827): Declaration by skilled mechanics of Philadelphia. The workers complain about poor working conditions and low wages; condemn businesses that put profit before the welfare of workers; and call upon mechanics to join together to force businesses to improve conditions. Recalling Jefferson’s arguments against the “slavery” of the workshop, it declares, “all who toil have a natural and unalienable right to reap the fruits of their own industry.”

Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Hunt (1842): Massachusetts Supreme Court case involving the legality of trade unionism. To combat poor working conditions, dropping wages, and job insecurity, many craftsmen or skilled workers formed trade unions. The most significant of them were the Mechanics’ Union of Trade Associations, which included carpenters, shoemakers, bricklayers, and others; and the National Trades’ Union. Businesses obviously opposed the unions, accusing them of being “combinations” or monopolies designed to raise the price of labor. In Commonwealth v. Hunt, the state court ruled that forming a union was not illegal and neither was the union’s demand that only union members be hired. It represented a small step toward empowering workers.
 

“The Corrupt Bargain”: An alleged deal between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams in the disputed 1824 election. Supporters of Jackson believed Clay agreed to support Adams in return being named Secretary of State. Both men denied the charge (and Adams in particular was a man of high honor) and no evidence exists to prove it occurred, but it created deep animosity between Clay and Jackson and started what has been jokingly called the Era of Hard Feelings.

Universal White Male Suffrage: During the 1820s, states across the nation began eliminating property restrictions on voting. In the 1828 election, Andrew Jackson, a backwoods South Carolinian who had been born in log cabin, took advantage of the development. He claimed to be the representative of the “common man,” and common men voted for him in droves: he won 56% of the popular vote.

Spoils System: Policy initiated by Jackson of granting government jobs and contracts to political supporters. After winning the 1828 election, Jackson swept government workers out of office and replaced them with his supporters, declaring “to the victor goes the spoils.” He repeatedly removed cabinet members who did not obey his demands, going through five Treasury Secretaries. But he also demanded that the most basic government jobs be filled by supporters. Turning vice into virtue, he called the system “rotation in office” and claimed it gave more people an opportunity to benefit from government jobs. Opponents called it the “spoils system.”
    The spoils system helped build the Democratic Party, as men supported Jackson in return for political patronage. But it also politicized minor government jobs and meant that many office holders had no other qualification to work other than being a Jacksonian Democrat.

Whig Party: As Jackson removed opponents from government jobs, the Era of Good Feelings ended and two political parties developed: the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson and the Whig Party. Two main things united the Whigs: (1) hatred of Jackson, and (2) like the Federalists before them, a belief in a stronger central government and the Hamiltonian economic system. The Whigs were led by Henry Clay who ran as the party candidate for president three times but never one. The Whigs gained some strength on the national level during the 1840s, notably with Presidents William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, but internal divisions over the issue of slavery continually hampered the party’s growth. When Clay and other leaders died and as slavery became a national issue in the early 1850s, the party split and then collapsed.

Anti-Masonic Party: The first “Third Party” to participate in a presidential election. As male suffrage grew, many newcomers to politics began to question the power of the old political elite. They feared a conspiracy existed to take power away from the people. They focused on the Order of Freemasons, a “secret society” whose members held many of the power positions in government and business, and whose membership in the past had included most of the most important founders of the country, including George Washington. In 1831, New York Masons were accused of murdering a former member who had revealed the order’s secrets. The incident caused tremendous hostility for the fraternity and the Anti-Masons hoped to win elective office on the opposition. They did not win, but they were the first party to hold a nominating convention and to establish a campaign platform.

Webster-Hayne Debate: In 1830, the issue of state's rights developed into an impassioned debate between Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Webster. They debated the question of the nature of the Union. Hayne took up John Calhoun’s state-compact theory, arguing that states could check national power, determining when the national government had gone to far and nullifying federal law. States had the power of “interposition” – the power to protect a citizen of the state from federal government. Webster, an ardent Whig, countered that the Constitution was a contract between the people and government, that sovereignty resided in the people and state and federal governments were their agents. “Liberty and Union,” he proclaimed, “now and forever, one and inseparable.” A majority in the Senate sided with Webster.

Nullification Controversy/Compromise of 1833: A renewal of the old conflict over whether states had the right to nullify (ignore within state borders) a federal law, as Madison had argued in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (see above). This time it involved the issue of a protective tariff. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina (formerly Jackson’s vice-president) opposed the tariff, believing that it hurt the cotton market, would lead to a tariff war with England, and would raise prices for southern consumers. The South Carolina legislature held a special state convention and called the “Tariff of Abominations” unconstitutional. Jackson, usually a supporter of states’ rights, asked Congress to allow him to send in federal troops to force South Carolina’s compliance with the law. He got the “Force Bill” but now the country seemed on the verge of a civil war. Henry Clay created a compromise to diffuse the situation. The Compromise of 1833 lowered the tariff rate over time so that it was no longer seen as a protective tariff, but rather was a revenue tariff. South Carolina agreed with the new tariff but then called the Force Act null and void. Both sides claimed victory. Jackson said that South Carolina backed down because of the threat of force, South Carolina won a smaller tariff. The debate over nullification and states’ rights would continue to cause conflict as the extension of slavery became a national issue in the 1850s.

Panic of 1837: Amid the monetary crisis in America, depression in England spilled over to the U.S. in 1837. England stopped buying American cotton. The drop in the price of cotton from 17.5 cents to 13.5 cents a pound broke the southern economy. English investment in northern industries and railroads dried up, stalling the American economy. A poor wheat crop broke western farmers. Creditors began foreclosing on farms. Banks failed. With no money for consumer goods, prices crashed. Businesses panicked, throwing thousands out of work – unemployment approached 35%. Without government welfare, the jobless had to turn to churches and voluntary societies for help. The government of President Martin Van Buren responded by holding back tax rebates to the people and by printing paper money to cover immediate expenses. The economic distress opened the door for Whigs to end the Jacksonians’ hold on the presidency.

“The Little Magician”: Jackson’s second Vice-President, Martin Van Buren, had earned this nickname for being able to manipulate New York politics. When Andrew Jackson chose not to run for a third term as POTUS, following Washington’s precedent, and so picked his successor: Van Buren. In 1836, he won the first clear two-party election since before the War of 1812. Van Buren represented the party now calling themselves Democrats and defeated all Whig Party candidates (three received electoral votes for POTUS). Van Buren, although not incompetent, is considered only an average POTUS because he had the unfortunate luck of having to govern during the economic depression of the late 1830s and did little to turn the economy around. Van Buren was renominated by the Democrats in 1840, but lost the election.

Immigration: The mid-1800s saw a significant spike in immigration, particularly from Ireland and southern Germany. Between 1830 and 1860, nearly 5 million people immigrated to the United States, almost half of them during the decade. 1845-1854. The reasons for their emigration are numerous and diverse, but for all they included economic opportunity. Most particularly, the Irish (who composed the largest single immigrant group – at 1.6 million) sought escape from the discrimination of their British overlords and escape from the terrible potato famine that killed some one million Irish poor, starting in 1845. Like their Irish counterparts, the Germans were overwhelmingly Catholic. Unlike the Irish, they tended to settle in rural areas. About 15% of Germans eventually returned home once they had made a little money. The increase in population and the problems of assimilating the newcomers helped to stoke the reforms of the Second Great Awakening. It also caused backlash against the immigrants during economic downtimes.

Nativism: The anti-immigrant sentiment that arises every time there is a large influx of newcomers. During the 1830s, tension developed between Protestant “natives,” who believed that the Catholic immigrants would have divided loyalties with America and the Pope. It grew significantly after the Panic of 1837, as immigrants challenged “natives” for employment and as many of the immigrants brought European expectations of labor relations to business. Several nativist political groups organized to lobby government to restrict immigration, starting with the Native American Association in 1837. By the late 1840s and early 1850s, they represented a real political movement, with the Order of the Star Spangled Banner in New York and the American Party. The American Party was the most significant. Better known as the Know-Nothing Party because when asked about their organization by a non-member they were supposed to respond, “I know nothing,” the Know-Nothings won several elections in 1854. The anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic movement died out as slavery became the political focus in the late 1850s.
 
 

    John Tyler          James K. Polk     Zachary Taylor     Millard Fillmore      Franklin Pierce      James Buchanan

Manifest Destiny: First proclaimed in the 1840s by journalist John L. O’Sullivan, it is the idea that the U.S. has a God-given right to expand across North America and eventually to dominate the Western Hemisphere. It was the argument used whenever the U.S. wanted to take over new territory from Spain, England, or the Indian tribes.

“Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too”: Campaign slogan of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler, the Whig party ticket in 1840. Harrison was from Ohio and a staunch economic nationalist (like leader Henry Clay) but unlike Clay was also a war hero and so the popular choice. Tyler, a Virginian, was added to give the ticket balance despite the fact that he did not agree with Clay’s American System and had joined the party only because he hated Andrew Jackson. Because of Jackson’s popularity with the “common man,” the Whigs played up Harrison’s supposed humble beginnings in what was known as the “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” campaign, suggesting that he had been born in a log cabin and was a man of the people. They even built portable log cabins to take to political events. In fact, however, Harrison was from a very old and well placed Virginia family and lived in a very comfortable farmhouse. Chanting “Van! Van! Is a Used-up Man!” the Whigs handily won the election, but faced real problems when Harrison died only a month into office in 1841.

Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842): President William Henry Harrison's death left Vice-President John Tyler in office. Tyler was a Whig only because he hated Jackson; he did not support a strong national government or internal improvements. Unsuccessful in domestic politics, Tyler focused on foreign policy—annexing Texas (he supported it) and resolving conflict with Britain. He instructed Secretary of State Daniel Webster to settle a dispute with England along the border with British North American (later Canada). The Webster-Ashburton Treaty granted the U.S. nearly 60% of the disputed land in Maine and Upstate New York, as well as in Minnesota where the border jutted up from the 49th Parallel to give the U.S. access to what later proved to be a region rich in iron-ore, the Mesabi Range.

"Fifty-four Forty or Fight": "Sabre-rattling" campaign slogan of Democratic Presidential candidate James K. Polk. Capitalizing on the nationalist sentiment building out of the conflict with Mexico, Polk insisted that Britain give up its claim to the Oregon Country or face American military force. The Oregon Country (Idaho, Washington, and Oregon) had become an important center for the profitable fur trade after John Jacob Astor founded Astoria in 1808. Upon winning the election, the Polk Administration negotiated a settlement with the British without war. Neither side really wanted to go to war over the region. The Oregon Treaty, formally titled Treaty with Great Britain, in Regard to Limits Westward of the Rocky Mountains, ratified in June 1846, extended the boundary between Canada and the U.S. along the 49th Parallel (established in 1818 from the Lake of the Woods to the Rockies) all the way to the Pacific (Vancouver Island remained intact and part of Canada). Congress organized the Oregon Territory in 1848

Six Flags Over Texas: In the decades following the Louisiana Purchase, many Americans moved to the eastern part of the Mexican state of Texas to grow cotton. By 1830, Mexico, alarmed at number of immigrants (about 20,000 whites and 1,000 black slaves),sent troops to block further settlement. The action failed. In 1835, the “Anglos” (or “Gringos”) numbered about 30,000 and decided that they wanted to become part of the United States (or at least independent of Mexico). Texans rose in rebellion and declared independence. The Mexican Army, under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, annihilated the Texans and U.S. volunteers at the Alamo (a San Antonio mission) in early 1836, but was defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto. Captured by Sam Houston's troops, Santa Anna bought his freedom by granting Texan independence. After the war, Texans voted overwhelmingly in favor of annexation, to be taken over by the U.S. In 1845, Congress finally submitted an offer to Texas to join the Union. At about the same time, Mexico officially recognized Texan independence on the condition that it not annex itself to the U.S.. (The border between the two countries was still in question). With popular opinion favoring annexation, the state held a constitutional convention and then submitted it work to Congress. Congress accepted the constitution and annexed Texas on December 29th, 1845.

Mexican War: Annexing Texas joined a long list of grievances that Mexico had with the U.S., including years of American intrigue trying to take over the Mexican province of California. It also opened up the dispute over the border between the two countries. Mexicans claimed it should be the Nueces River, while Americans insisted on the Rio Grande. President pushed the issue. In 1846, Mexican forces skirmished with U.S. troops on the north side of the Rio Grande. Polk declared it an invasion of U.S. territory and demanded that Congress declare war on Mexico. The U.S. forces led by Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott won numerous battles, notably Buena Vista (1847), and force the Mexicans to sue for peace.
 
 

Mexican Cession: Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), ending the Mexican War, Mexico gave up its claims territories north of the Rio Grande in Texas and New Mexico. It also ceded territories west of the Rio Grande and above the Gila River in what would become California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

“Forty-Niners”: Nickname given to the more than 80,000 people who traveled to California in 1849 to strike it rich in the California. Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, near Sacramento, California, in January 1848, spurring a Gold Rush. With most of the rich claims taken and most of the gold gone, few "Forty-Niners" got rich.

Gadsden Purchase: One of the hoped-for routes of a transcontinental railroad was to run from New Orleans to Los Angeles, but under the Mexican Cession the link between El Paso and Los Angeles would have to run inconveniently north above the Gila River. Southerners in Congress pushed for the U.S. to buy a section of Mexico to provide a more direct route. The U.S. paid $10 million for the roughly 500 mile stretch of land.

Ostend Manifesto: The U.S. had long wished to get control of Cuba, a Spanish colony. In the early 1850s, the sugar and tobacco island became embroiled in the debate over slavery. Southerners were becoming convinced that slavery was in peril unless they could find a place for it to expand and Cuba seemed to be the place. They convinced President Franklin Pierce to offer Spain $130 million for Cuba. When the Spanish turned it down, the U.S. responded with the Ostend Manifesto—tantamount to an ultimatum to Spain, saying that if Spain refused to sell Cuba, then the U.S. to protect its national security would have to take it. When the manifesto became public knowledge, the Pierce administration backed away from it. Similar misguided expansionism occurred when a Californian named William Walker led his troop of “immortals” in taking control of Nicaragua. Pierce formally recognized the new government. Both events represent excesses of Manifest Destiny and show how desperate some Americans were to extend slavery (or at least change the subject).
 
 

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Hudson River School: Group of landscape painters working in upstate New York during the 1830s and 40s. Their work represented a new American Romanticism, emphasizing the beauty of the region and the huge scale of the natural world compared to the relative smallness of humans. Some borrow from the Neo-Classical style of Europe, showing Greek- or Roman-style structures in a pastoral surrounding. But most of the work is uniquely American.

Transcendentalism: Philosophical and literary movement developing out of European Romanticism -- a celebration of an heroic past [heavily influenced by the works of Immanuel Kant] that was symbolized by: (1) a recollection of Greek and Roman architecture, a retelling of Arthurian legend, and a closeness to nature; (2) Unitarian-Universalism--a belief in the "oneness" of a benevolent God and the essential goodness of man; and (3) American gnosticism--the idea of an individualistic approach to understanding and spirituality. It counters the Calvinist/Puritan view of the basic depravity and sinfulness of man (thus running in a different direction from the Second Great Awakening) and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the Age of Reason. It argues that some things are understood intuitively or through revelation rather than through science or experience. It originates in 1836 in Concord and Boston, Mass., in a group, called the Transcendental Club, that includes among its members: Henry Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
 

Second Great Awakening: Religious revival movement that is important on many levels: social, cultural, economic, political, and denominational. It began in New England and up-state New York (Burnt-Over District) and spread west. One of its greatest proponents was Charles Grandison Finney, a lawyer from near Rochester, NY, who preached an extremely emotional approach to God, saying that the spirit went through him "in waves and waves of liquid love." Like its predecessor in the 1740s, the second revival was caused by a belief that the nation was becoming too materialistic, that it was drifting too far from its religious roots and from being "a city upon a hill." The reforms also had heavy nativist overtones, however, as Protestant middle-class women fretted over assimilating poor Irish immigrants. The revival led to the creation of several new churches [e.g. the Shakers (Jehovah's Witness, Seventh Day Adventist, and, most notably, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons)]. It also led to many social reform movements, including: anti-liquor and anti-tobacco temperance (Lyman Beecher), public education (Horace Mann), prison reform (Dorothea Dix), and women's rights (see below). But the most significant reform movement spurred on by the Awakening was abolitionism. The millennial spirit at the core of the revival and the eradication of sin that it demanded merged with practical political and economic concerns as America grew into new territories west of the Mississippi to propel the country toward an inevitable final conflict over freedom and slavery. It led to the "Great American Schism" described below.
 
 

Temperance: Reform movement that attacked alcohol, which was so excessive in the U.S. that one historian called America, “the Alcoholic Republic.” Several voluntary societies organized to coerce men to pledge not to drink (teetotalism). When moral suasion failed, the temperance organizations, such as the American Temperance Society and the Washington Temperance Society, and individuals, notably Neal Dow, lobbied state legislatures to enact prohibition laws. Dow effectively prompted Maine to enact such a law (the “Maine Law”) in the 1850s.

Utopian Societies: The Second Great Awakening created many experimental communities across the Burnt-Over District. Some farming, some industrial, they were based on communalism, all settlers working together for the good of the community and no private property. Some were religious, others secular. The Transcendentalists founded Brook Farm, a community in Concord, where girls, not just boys, got an education and developed beliefs in pacifism. New Harmony, established by Robert Owen in Indiana; it was to be a model industrial town owned by the workers but went bankrupt. The Shakers were a religious sect created by Mother Ann Lee in England in the 1770s. They established communal farms in New England, Ohio, and Kentucky based on the equality of women and men. They became best known for building high-quality, yet simply designed furniture, and for musical composition (notably, “Simple Gifts”). The Shakers followed a strict rule of celibacy, growing through adoption of orphans. John Humphrey Noyes founded Oneida in upstate New York with about 200 residents who believed in universal marriage; it was famous for making animal traps and high quality metalwork, especially spoons.

Seneca Falls Convention: Meeting of delegates of the women's suffrage and equal rights movement, held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The movement was led by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, among others. The Convention drew up a "Declaration of Sentiments" in which it states several resolutions and demands, including the right to vote and hold property. Although the movement showed considerable support and solid organization, it had unfortunate timing: it would fail to achieve many of its goals because it would be drowned out by the slavery in the 1850s.