The Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery north of the 36 deg., 30’ line in the Louisiana Purchase. The first Congress under the Constitution prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, and later congresses did the same with future territories. Some congressmen questioned whether or not is was even Constitutional for Congress to prohibit slavery but precedent was against this argument. Although the Wilmot Proviso didn’t pass, it showed how much of a divisive issue slavery in new territory could become.
LYRICS TO BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM FREE
At that time, the Senate had 15 slave states, and 14 free states and so the slave holders blocked the appropriations bill until Polk could twist enough Northern Dems to change their vote in the House and pass the bill without the amendment which the Senate later passed. The bill was not brought to a vote in the Senate before the recess but the appropriations bill was repassed by the House in 1847 with the Proviso. Southern Democrats and Whigs voted against the bill, while a bipartisan group of Northerns in the House passed the bill. The voting on the Wilmot Proviso split the voting not along party lines, as would have been the case for issues like the tariff, the Bank, or federal aid for internal improvements, but along geographic lines. After that a Whig congressman stated he now favored “war, famine, and pestilence”ĭuring a debate on an appropriations bill for the Mexican War, David Wilmot a first term representative from Pennsylvania, moved for an amendment that would outlaw slavery in the new territory. Neither party wished to oppose the war because the Federalist party had disappeared after opposing the War of 1812. Democrats on the other hand felt like they had at least somewhat fulfilled their expansionist agenda by having territory seced to the US through military force.
Both parties could claim they were getting something according to their ideology, Whigs were paying for territory, and could therefore feel justified in voting for the treaty. They believed it was the destiny of the US to expand from coast to coast, at east. The idea of Manifest Destiny was mainly a Democratic ideal (48). The Whig party was evangelical in origin (p 48) and belived it should be God and not man, the virtue of the country’s ideals, and not the sword that should cause the US to grow and prosper. The Senate ratified the treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo in a vote that was 38-14, with five Democrats voting against it because they wanted more territory, and seven Whigs voting with them because they wanted none of the territory. of the Rio Grande river and purchase the Northern part of California and New Mexico for $15 million. At first Polk dismissed the treaty when it was sent to him, but changed his mind and sent it to Congress for ratification. Instead of returning to Washington as ordered, he disobeyed the President and signed an agreement with Mexcio giving the US everything that Polk originally requested him to get. Finally Polk relented and recalled Trist right at the time when Trist found an openning in the negotiations. In Washington, Polk was having to deal with his fellow Democrats who were howling for more territory.
Trist remained for several months during the summer of 1847 but found Santa Anna “reluctant” to yield up half his country. Once the US captured Mexico City Polk sent Nicholas Trist to negotiate surrender terms from Santa Anna. In the end it was this debate that split the country and brought civil war. The acquision of Mexico was such a big deal because it raised the debate over the balance of power between slave holding South and the North and the spread or limitation of slavery. Polk ran on this platform and it was mostly Southerns who fought for Mexico. Although some hardline Democrats wanted, “54°, 40’ or fight.” Polk, a Democrat, and slave-holder used his one term from 1836?-1840? to acquire more terrritory then any other President, gaining Mexico north of the Rio Grande and settling the US boundry with Canada at 49 deg. These notes are intended not as an original history of the time but simply as notes from a book by another author.Ĭhapter 1: The United States at MidcenturyĪs Ralph Waldo Emerson said, Mexico will posion us. Much of the prose is directly plagerized and I make no claim to the contary. Note: The following are notes that are intended to be readable but not necessarily good writing. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson
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