Union and Liberty: A history of

America

Part one: The first Term of Andrew Jackson (1828-1832)

The Tariff of Abominations and the Southern Reaction:

In 1828, President John Quincy Adams passed a tariff increase to help American manufacturers compete
with their European counterparts. This sealed Adams' fate in the Election of 1828 as Andrew Jackson and
John C. Calhoun put reducing the tariff as part of their running platform.[1] Jackson beat out Adams in the
election with 178 or 68% of the electoral votes. With the election won Jackson and Calhoun were sworn into
the White House on March 4, 1829.

The Nullification crisis

After Jackson's ascension to the Presidency, South Carolina declared a right to nullify the Tariff of
Abominations. Jackson opposed the nullification, but did not want to cause a confrontation with Calhoun as
Calhoun had openly supported South Carolina's position on the tariff, and a fissure between the President and
the Vice President would not help to strengthen the Union. Jackson also sympathized with the southern side
of the debate to some degree. On April 13, 1830, at the Democratic Party celebration of Thomas Jefferson's
birthday, a series of toasts would emphasize each member's position on the issue. When it came to Jackson,
he raised his glass and said, "Our Federal Union: It must be preserved." Calhoun spoke next, and stated
"Union and Liberty, our two most dear."[2] Calhoun's toast echoed the closing remarks by Daniel Webster
during an earlier debate on the issue of Nullification. While the toasts showed the differing opinions between
the President and the Vice President, it also showed their willingness to work together to preserve the United
States.

In the summer of 1830, Jackson declared that he would reduce tariff levels to appease South Carolina and
attempt an end to the Nullification Crisis, but he and Calhoun disagreed on how far to lower the tariffs.
Calhoun wanted to lower tariffs immediately to below the levels before the Tariff of 1828 was passed, while
Jackson wanted to gradually lower tariffs to somewhere in between the 1816 levels and the levels of the
Tariff of Abominations. During talks in Congress, the two sides agreed to gradually reduce tariffs to the
levels of the Tariff of 1824 over the next three years.
Arkansaw Statehood
In 1831, the state of Arkansaw was admitted to the United States, becoming the 25th state

The election of 1832

With their friendship restored, Jackson and Calhoun won the nominations for President and Vice President
for the Democratic Party in 1832. Henry Clay was nominated as the Presidential candidate for the National
Republican Party. The main issue during the election was the Second Bank of the United States, which Clay
was in favor of and Jackson was against. Jackson had vetoed a renewal of the bank's charter during his first
term as President, and convinced much of the populace during his campaign in 1832 that the bank was
unnecessary and would lead to an elite. His appearance as the Common Man continued, and he won the
election of 1832 with a landslide victory.

Under Jackson and Calhoun, the Democratic Party swept the south and the west, as well as much of the
northeast. The Democratic Party achieved 190 electoral votes out of a possible 289, gaining 65% of the
votes. Clay managed to win Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Kentucky, and Maryland, earning the National Republicans 32% of the electoral vote. Vermont was won by
the small Anti-Masonic Party led by William Wirt, but this minor party soon faded. Jackson and Calhoun
were inaugurated and took office for a second term on January 21, 1833.
Part Two: Jacksons Second Term

New York vs New Jersey

Even after the United States had been created, some states still had quarrels with each other that had carried
over from the time as British colonies. The most important of these were territorial disputes that came about
from inaccurate surveying or overlapping claims. One of these was the dispute between New York and New
Jersey over their border as it approached New York City.

The border between New York and New Jersey after it reached the Hudson River according to New Jersey
was a bisection of the Hudson, while in New York it was said to be the western shore of the Hudson. In the
1820s, New Jersey began to develop shipping industries on the western shore of the Hudson, and in turn
New York attempted to tax the shipping for crossing the border into New York as the ships came in and out
of New York Bay. Several New Jersey companies refused to pay the tolls on the shipping and the state
brought the issue up in court. The dispute went all the way up to the Supreme Court as the Court is obligated
in the Constitution to hear "controversies between the states".

During the hearing, not only were the trade issues brought up but also the underlying dispute over the two
states' territorial boundaries. After four days, the Court headed by Chief Justice John Marshall eventually
decided in favor of New Jersey in a 5-2 decision. Justices Marshall, Duvall, Story, Mclean, and Baldwin
were of the majority opinion, while justices Johnson and Thompson forming the dissenting opinion. They
determined that New Jersey did not have to pay New York for the tolls, but went further and stated that the
eastern border of New York and New Jersey would bisect the Hudson River through the Narrows. This
landmark ruling gave Staten Island to New Jersey and established the precedent of the Supreme Court having
ultimate jurisdiction over boundary disputes between states.

Indian Removal:
Throughout his presidency, Andrew Jackson oversaw the policy of moving many of the Indian tribes west of
the Mississippi River. Many of the Choctaw voluntarily moved off their lands after ceding the remaining
territory to the United States government, and were moved west to areas in what is now the state of
Arkansaw. While it was the intention of the federal government to move the Choctaw further west, the
governor of Arkansaw allowed the Choctaw who desired to settle in Arkansaw and purchase land there.
During Jackson's administration, ten thousand Choctaw moved into Arkansaw, while the same number
remained in Mississippi where they were treated harshly by incoming settlers.

Many of the Chickasaw and Creek received monetary compensation for their remaining lands in Georgia and
Alabama. Most of these tribes used the money to move west of the Mississippi and settle or south into
Mexico. But a few decided to buy land in Alabama north of the Tennessee where they set up small
communities in the sparsely populated frontier regions of the state. Their largest community was in Waterloo,
Alabama, in the northwestern corner of the state. While the town had grown with the influx of Native
Americans, the town has mostly died out during the 20th century as a result of emigration north to the
Midwest.

The Seminoles were the toughest group to be removed, and the only group to remain in their ancestral lands
until after the Jackson administration. The Seminole Wars is a term given to the many skirmishes the natives
had with settlers and the militias gathered by the city of Saint Augustine. After offers of moving west had
been accepted then rejected by a council of Seminole chiefs, the tribe stood its ground and fought for over
ten years before they submitted and reached an agreement with the federal government. Owing to the poor
climate of much of Florida and the resistance of the Seminoles, the federal government was slow to deal with
the Seminoles and eventually let them remain on their land in the interior of Florida.

The Cherokee presented a complicated situation and in the end were the only of the Five Civilised Tribes to
be forcefully removed from their land successfully. The Supreme Court decision of Worcester v. Georgia and
Jackson's unwillingness to let the federal government handle the situation led the Georgia state militia to take
action against the Cherokee. Many of the Cherokee were rounded up and forced to move west, on a journey
where many of them died. Eventually, at Memphis in 1833, the Cherokee chiefs signed a treaty which
formally ceded their land to Georgia and granted them new land south of the Platte River in what is today
Pahsapa. While this conflicted with the locations of other Native American tribes, the Cherokee were moved
to a reservation there and remain there to this day.

Assassination of Jackson:
The first attempt to assassinate Jackson came in 1833. On May 6, Jackson was on his way to lay the
cornerstone of a monument to Mary Ball Washington in Fredericksburg. During a stopover in Alexandria in
what was then Virginia but is now part of Winfield, a man by the name of Robert B. Randolph appeared and
attempted to stab the President with a dagger. Jackson managed to dodge the blow and proceeded to chase
after Randolph and beat him with his cane. Jackson had previously ordered the dismissal of Randolph from
the navy for embezzlement, but in the end Jackson decided that the beating was punishment enough to
Randolph and did not press charges. A short chronicle of the event was written by Washington Irving, who
was present at the time and was serving as the minister to Spain under Jackson's administration.

The second attempt to assassinate a president was also toward Jackson, this time successful. In 1835, as
Jackson exited the Capitol Building after the funeral of South Carolina senator Warren R. Davis Richard
Lawrence stepped out toward Jackson and fired a pistol at the President. The bullet entered Jackson's chest
and Lawrence was restrained by the crowd, including David Crockett, one of the first senators from the state
of Tejas. Jackson died of blood loss four days later and was given a state funeral. He was succeeded by Vice
President John C. Calhoun on February 3, 1835. Lawrence was deemed insane but his crime was viewed as
so great that he was sentenced to death seven years after Jackson's death.

Part Three: Calhouns first year.

The Texas Rebellion:

Beginning in the summer of 1835, Mexico increasingly had problems with its frontier region of Texas as well
as some other provinces as the conflict between centralisation and federalism increased. Along with Texas,
the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and Yucatan rose up in open revolt
against Santa Anna. On October 2, the Battle of Gonzales was fought between Texas and Mexico, the first
engagement of the Texas Rebellion. Two months later, on December 7, the Texans captured San Antonio and
on December 19, signed their declaration of independence from Mexico at the city of Washington-on-the-
Brazos, later to become Austin after the man considered as the Father of Texas.

President Calhoun's response to the start of the Texas Rebellion was that the United States should support the
Texans in their struggle for independence from the 'corrupted democracy of Santa Anna's Mexico', as he
stated in a speech in New Orleans. Calhoun also said that he would not directly intervene unless Mexico
invaded the United States, in order to avoid angering the northern states by seeming like he overtly supported
the expansion of slavery.

Expansion of Rail:
During his travel to the speech in New Orleans, Calhoun became the first president to travel in a railroad car
when he travelled on the Baltimore and Ohio rail connection between Washington, DC and Baltimore.
Afterward, he was determined that rail expansion would serve to greatly help the country in its industrial
growth.
During 1835 and early 1836, he helped pass legislation to finance a railroad between Columbia and
Charleston in South Carolina, as well as approving a bill to create a congressional transport committee,
primarily to assist with and oversee the connection of the nations interior industrial and population centers
with its ports. This would facilitate economic growth as well as encourage passenger travel in greater parts of
the United States.
Toledo War:
The Toledo War was a boundary dispute between the Territory of Michigan and the State of Ohio. The
dispute had erupted when it was discovered that the southernmost point of Lake Michigan, the basis for the
northern boundary of Ohio, was found to be more southerly than previously thought. Although there were
few confrontations between the two, both the governments of Michigan Territory and Ohio refused to back
down even with Calhoun and members of Congress.

The tensions between Michigan Territory and Ohio remained well into 1836. As William Henry Harrison, an
Ohioan, seemed like the front runner for Calhoun's opposition in the election, Calhoun realized he didn't
have anything to gain from siding with Ohio. With this, the President began supporting Michigan's position,
and urged Congress and the Ohioans to side with his position. In June of 1836, Calhoun signed a bill that
would accept Michigan as a state, as soon as the boundary with Ohio was settled. In August of 1836, the
governors of Michigan and Ohio, with pressure from Congress and Calhoun to settle the dispute, allowed the
border to be resurveyed.

To ensure impartiality, they chose a little known surveyor named John C Fremont, who was then an officer in
the United States Navy. Fremont surveyed the line eastward from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan
to Lake Erie, and found that the line did indeed pass south of Toledo. In compensation, Michigan allowed
those who wanted to move to Ohio to do so, and compensated them for their land holdings on the Michigan
side of the border.

While Michigan gained the Toledo Strip during the war, it also lost a large amount of land. This land went to
the creation of the Pembina Territory in anticipation of the admission of Michigan as a state. The border
between Pembina Terrtitory and Michigan Territory was formed by the Mississippi River up to the Chippewa
River, then following that river to its source, then plotting a course north northeast to Lake Superior.
Montevideo became the first capital of Pembina Territory.

Election of 1836:
Throughout 1836, the election was fought with a tough campaign. Calhoun ran as the incumbent for the
Democratic Party, nominating George M. Dallas, former senator and attorney general of Pennsylvania, as his
running mate. William Henry Harrison and Henry Clay ran in their newly created Whig Party, while Daniel
Webster and Willie Magnum ran for the National Republicans. While Calhoun's decision in the Toledo War
lost him Ohio, it has been determined by historians that he would have likely lost Ohio anyway as it was
Harrison's home state. Harrison's and Webster's attempts to gather public opinion were futile and Calhoun
was elected, showing the continuing disunion of the Anti-Jacksonian parties.

Calhoun/Dallas: 150
Harrison/Clay: 74

Webster/Magnum: 67

Part Four: The Mexican Collapse

Admission of Michigan:
On February 4, 1837, Michigan was admitted as a state in the Union. Before it was admitted, the land
to the west of Lake Michigan was separated off to form the Marquette Territory. Detroit became the
capital of the state of Michigan, which it remains to the present day. Stephen T. Mason, who was
territorial governor during the Toledo War, was elected the state's first governor. John S. Homer, who
opposed Mason in the 1836 territorial elections, became the first governor of Marquette Territory,
moving to the new territorial capital of Green Bay.

Fall of the Mexican Republic:

As 1837 began, the Texans faced another attack by Mexico. As Santa Anna marched against Texan
forces, other regions in Mexico began rebelling. The Yucatan, which had rebelled two years before,
rose up once again to overthrow the policies of centralization of Santa Anna. In the north, citizens in
Santa Fe and many of the Spanish missions along the California coast rose up as well. Santa Anna
figured that if he himself crushed the Texans, then the rest of the country would fall back in line.
Santa Anna initially won a string of victories capturing San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Upon
reaching Beaumont, he caught a group of the Texans retreating to the east. Santa Anna, taking a major
gamble ordered his men to pursue the Texans all the way across the Sabine River, at which point they
began putting up a fight. The Texans managed to push Santa Anna back across the river, but not before
letting civilians know that the Mexican army had crossed into the United States. Santa Anna lost that
gamble, and on April 12, 1837, Congress approved a declaration of war on Mexico. United States
troops moved into Texas and soon were chasing Santa Anna back toward the Rio Bravo. Other forces
were assisting with the revolts in California and Santa Fe. John C Fremont, now part of the United
States Corps of Topographical Engineers, took part in the expedition to assist the rebels in Santa Fe.
Later, he traveled west and led the rebels in California down from San Francisco to capture the
missions in San Diego and all the way to Baja California.

Meanwhile, Zachary Taylor drove the Mexican army out of Texas and assisted the new rebellion in the
provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. In September of 1837, they declared their
independence as the Republic of the Rio Bravo. Minor skirmishes continued throughout Mexico into
1838 as the independence forces and United States army contingents continued to battle the remnants
of the Mexican army.

The rebels cooperated with the United States forces and Santa Anna was soon captured by the Texans
and imprisoned. However, despite Fremont in the west, Zachary Taylor in the north, and the country
growing more and more unstable, the government in Mexico City refused to give up. It was decided
that an attack on Mexico City itself would have to be made. General Winfield Scott led an army to
attack Veracruz and push forth to Mexico City. He followed the approximate route of Hernan Cortez,
leading to one of his nicknames being the Second Cortez. After the occupation of Mexico City, the
government surrendered, and Santa Anna was freed to negotiate with the various proclaimed
governments that Mexico was now at war with. In a humiliating affair, Santa Anna signed the Treaties
of Galveston on May 5, 1838. In the treaties, Santa Anna and the Mexican government recognized the
independence of the newly proclaimed republics of California, Rio Bravo, and Yucatan. In addition, all
land east of the Rio Bravo was ceded to Texas, Veracruz was opened to all United States navy vessels,
and a sum was paid to the United States government. Soon after Santa Anna returned to Mexico City
and the United States forces had evacuated, he was overthrown and replaced by Federalist Anastasio
Bustamante. This would only lead to further troubles and civil strife in Mexico throughout the 19th
century.
Part Five: The Remainder of Calhoun's Presidency

Martin Van Buren's Ambassadorships

During Jackson's presidency, Calhoun had seen that Martin van Buren was becoming a prominent politician.
Van Buren, a Dutch New Yorker, had been governor of New York as well as Jackson's Secretary of State for
much of his Presidency. Calhoun, wishing to keep van Buren away from the United States to keep him out of
politics, appointed van Buren to a number of ambassadorships during his presidency. Among his posts, van
Buren attended the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 as ambassador to the United Kingdom. In 1839,
van Buren was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands, where he played a small part in the negotiations
leading to the independence of Belgium and helping the Netherlands retain all of Limburg and Luxembourg,
as well as Liege to keep the country contiguous. In exchange, Belgium received the Dutch possessions on the
island of Borneo, which at the time were losing money and that the Dutch consdiered a bad investment.

Speech on Republics:
In 1839, President Calhoun made a speech in Washington on the benefits of a republican system, and
encouraged all the Latin American republican movements to flourish. This speech inspired many people,
especially the men fighting for the independence of the Piratini Republic. The leaders, including Guiseppe
Garibaldi, were encouraged by Calhoun's speech, and managed to hold off the Brazilian Empire for six more
months. In 1840, Calhoun authorized the sending of hundreds of men to go assist the Piratini Republic in
their fight. By August, the Piratini forces signed a ceasefire with Brazil, and became yet another independent
republic in Latin America with the former Brazilian provinces of Rio Grande do Sul and Juliana.

State of Jackson:
With the intervention in Mexico, there wasn't much that Calhoun could do about the resistance of the
Seminoles in the Florida Peninsula. While settlers were not moving to the lower portion of the peninsula,
many were moving to the panhandle. As these settlers wanted to be part of a state, Congress passed a bill to
divide the territory of Florida into two along the Aucilla River. The western portion soon was admitted on
June 18, 1838, as the state of Jackson after the former President, while the rest remained a territory. The
capital of Jackson was decided between Pensacola and Tallahassee, and Pensacola was decided on as many
citizens of Jackson thought Tallahassee was too close to the Seminole lands and was vulnerable to raids.
Also, the population of Pensacola experienced a massive increase as immigrants flocked to the city after the
collapse of the Mexican state.

Election of 1840:
Unfortunately, the United States intervention in Mexico and Jackson's earlier policies which Calhoun for the
most part continued pushed the country into a recession in the later 1830s. Combined with the consolidation
of the Whigs and National Republicans into the Whig Party, Calhoun ran into trouble during the election of
1840. While he tried to appeal to much of the nation as the continuation of the Common Man espoused by
Jackson, he did not achieve very much success. The country was in an economic downturn and had grown
fed up with Jackson's policies. William Henry Harrison successfully ran with the platform of the Common
Man and a war hero while making Calhoun look like a wealthy southerner. Where Calhoun tried to make
Harrison seem out of touch and unfit to administer the nation, Harrison's campaigners not only twisted the
attacks to Harrison's favor, but pointed out that they also had Daniel Webster, then a renowned senator and
politician. These campaign tactics helped William Henry Harrison win the election handily, and he was
sworn in on March 3, 1841.

Calhoun/Dallas: 93

Harrison/Webster: 205
Part Six: The Whigs in Control

Competition with Clay:

Right from the start of Harrison's term, the President had difficulty with the Whig leader and renowned
speaker, Henry Clay. Although Clay had a powerful influence in the senate, he tried to influence the
executive actions of Harrison such as appointing his cabinet. Even though the Whig party platform promised
to reduce the Jacksonian spoils systems of cabinet appointments, Clay wanted to appoint Whig members
who to help his advancement in the party.

Harrison resisted Clay's pressures for the most part, but had to concede a few positions to keep Clay content
and agreeable, for Clay was a very influential man in the confirmation process by the Senate. However,
Harrison did manage to keep most of his appointments seemingly nonpolitical and based on merit, such as
the nomination and confirmation of former president John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State. Thomas
Ewing was made Secretary of the Treasury and Zachary Taylor, one of the main generals on the side of the
United States in the Mexican Collapse, was appointed as Secretary of War.

The Third Bank of the United States:

As part of the Whig party platform, Harrison revived the Bank of the United States for the third time in the
nation's history. However, to appease those senators and representatives who had supported Jackson in the
closure of the bank, Harrison had the charter length reduced from the previous twenty years to a three year
charter to ensure more Congressional oversight on the actions of the Bank. During the year of the charter's
expiration, Congress would deliberate on whether to renew the charter or to let it expire. The Bank reopened
in June of 1842 with Nicholas Biddle once again at its head.

The Bank helped the United States government recover from the debt it had incurred during the Mexican
Collapse by offering loans to many new businesses that had sprung up. Along with the American System, the
Third Bank helped spur the growth of railroads in the United States during the 1840s. The Bank also helped
to standardize the currency used in the United States during this period, as notes from the bank were often
used instead of notes from State Banks when making large purchases.

The American System:

The last large part of the Whig party platform that Harrison implemented during his presidency was the idea
of the American System. Harrison gradually implemented this policy over the full length of his term. Despite
the reluctance of the South, a high tariff was placed on many raw material as well as manufactured goods.
However, to appease the south and the new neighbors in the west, the tariff was exempted for United States
exports to Texas, California, Rio Bravo, and Yucatan. To support the expansion of American internal
infrastructure, Harrison and the Transport Committee authorized a number of bills which financed the
construction of railroads. These railroads were primarily in the north, and connected the shipping centers in
New York and New England to the burgeoning cities on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. While a few
railroads were constructed in the southern states, they did not see much rail growth aside from small state or
private investments.

Part Seven: A Growing Nation

Iowa Purchase:
Up until 1841, the border of the state of Missouri had been a straight north-south line. The area between that
border and the Missouri River in the west had been granted to the Iowa tribe. After encroachments by white
settlers, the Bureau of Indian Affairs began negotiations with the Iowa and other tribes who lived on the land.
The government eventually bought the land for eight thousand dollars and the natives agreed to move to
lands west of the Missouri River. The purchased land, known as the Ioaw Purchase, became part of the state
of Missouri, finalizing the state's current borders.

Admission of new States:

In March of 1842, the census from Marquette Territory had reached 75,000 people, and a bill was passed to
have it admitted as a new state. Green Bay became the state's capital because of its central location within the
state and its having been the territorial capital.
After the admission of Marquette, some Southern states began to complain about the large numebr of
northern states that were being admitted to the Union. They lobbied in Congress for the admission of Florida
as a state, despite the continued presence of Seminoles in the rural swamp areas of the territory. In May,
1843, a bill was finally passed to admit the state after a number of settlers, encouraged by their state
governments, move down into Florida and settled either on the coasts or in the northern reaches of the
territory. The city of Jacksonville was declared the capital until the problem of the Seminoles was dealt with,
then a new state Congressional meeting would decide whether to stay in Jacksonville or move to a different
city further south.

A few months later in August, the settlers in the southern area of Pembina Territory applied for statehood.
Congress passed the bill, and the new state of Demoine was established with the city of Waterloo as its
capital due to its cental location, rather than the larger but far more northern city of Minneapolis. Later in the
year, two forts would be established in the state; Fort Raccoon near the confluence of the Des Moines and
Raccoon rivers, and Fort Decatur, near where the two forks of the Des Moines River join together.

Oregon Trail:
After the original explorations by Lewis and Clark, and the later expeditions by explorers and military men
such as John Jacob Astor, Zebulon Pike, and Benjamin Bonneville, many settlers traversed the American
West toward the Oregon Territory. Many of these first wave of settlers were descendants of Frenchmen in
Upper Louisiana who desired better fur trapping grounds further west. However, this wave was not very
large and many of the settlers were subject to attacks by the native tribes. In the 1840s, a second wave of
settlers began coming west, following the paths set before them. While only a few made it all the way to the
Pacific and the Columbia River, many others settled towns along the trail, along the Platte River as well as
along the Snake River.

A Multicultural Nation:
Since 1820, when immigration records began being kept in the United States, there had been a wide influx of
immigrants from many places in northern Europe. During the 1830s, that number only increased with over
six hundred thousand coming to the United States in that decade. The 1840s only brought more people as
Europe went through hardships. Irishmen came after crops started failing and settled mostly in New England.
Englishmen and Scotsmen, many among them refugees fleeing the British Isles after the Chartist Uprisings,
either went to Canada or settled all among the eastern and southern states. German immigrants in the 1840s,
fleeing general hardship, settled in independent Tejas, as well as along the upper Mississippi, the Great
Lakes, and along the Missouri as it approached the Mississippi. Dutchmen, upset by the strife cause by the
Belgian Revolution and a heavy storm that battered the Low Countries in January of 1843, came and settled
not only in the Hudson Valley, where the remnants of New Netherland still remained, but also in New
Orleans and the lowlands along the lower Mississippi and Arkansaw rivers. Many of these immigration
patterns would leave their mark in the town names that are in those regions today.
Part Eight: The Election of 1844

Election of 1844:
Both conventions of 1844 highlighted the troubles faced by both parties of thattime to unify a country that
was growing ever more sectionalized. The Democats were looking to recover the Presidency after the loss to
Harrison, while the Whigs still had internal disputes with the power-hungry Clay.

The Whigs were divided as to whether to renominate Harrison, the incumbent, or Clay, who had run
previously and was an expert speaker. At the nomination, after five rounds of ballots, the votes were about
half and half between Harrison and Clay. After four more rounds of ballots, Harrison got the nomination, but
an embittered Clay never announced his support for Harrison. The nomination of Harrison would also end
Henry Clay's congressionial career, for he had resigned his position in the senate during his run for the
nomination.
The Democrats were also divided on their candidates, but their trouble was how to regain the executive
office instead of a power struggle. The two major candidates for the nomination, former President Calhoun
and New York governor Martin van Buren, were both from opposite ends of the country but neither would
accept the Vice Preisdential seat. At the convention, the two remained at a deadlock after many rounds of
ballots. Van Buren's insistance on immediate negotiation with Britain over the Oregon Country made him a
pacifist in the eyes of the public, while Calhoun was seen as being too southern of a candidate and his failure
to win reelection in 1840 had hurt his standing with the party. In addition to this, Lewis Cass, a Michigan
senator, still had a few dozen votes that were blocking the supermajority necessary for either to get the
nomination.
During a meeting between rounds of voting, discussion turned to a compromise candidate. After great
deliberation, various Democrat party memebrs introduced the name of James K. Polk, speaker of the House
and a representative from Tennessee. Talks with Polk began, and after his agreement to run for the
nomination and Cass throwing his support behind Polk and solely running for Vice President, the momentum
toward Polk had begun. After two more ballots, Polk had become the clear nominee and was nominated, with
Cass as the Vice Presidential candidate.

The election itself was less intense as the two primaries, but it was still a hard-fought election. Polk laid out a
clear platform for his campaign, that made four points. Polk's goals were to get some or all of the Oregon
Country, bring Texas into the United States, get rid of the National Bank, and establish an independent
treasury system that would separate the government funds and revenues from the national banking systems.
Harrison tried to compete with Polk but found it difficult without Clay to support him on the campaign.
Harrison could not claim that he was the western candidate because both he and Polk hailed from western
states. Harrison attacked Polk that he was not baptized because his father was a deist, to which Polk
responded that Thomas Jefferson and many of the founding fathers were also deists. Harrison also attacked
Polk's relative obscurity within the political scene, but to no avail. In the election, Polk defeated Harrison and
won the presidency, carrying much of the South and the key states of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Also, the
Congressional elections of 1844 gave the Democrats a majority in the Senate.

Polk/Cass: 172

Harrison/Webster: 123

Part Nine: The Annexation of Texas

Annexation of Texas:
After his inauguration, President Polk set out to accomplish the first goal that he set out during his election
campaign; to bring the Republic of Texas into the Union. Polk sent Joel Roberts Poinsett as the United States
consul to Texas to negotiate the terms of the annexation in June. By August, the Congress of Texas voted in
approval the annexation and the motion gained the approval of David Crockett, then President of the
Republic. Meanwhile, Polk gathered support from Congress to support bringing Texas into the United States.
Polk and many of the Democrats spent the majority of the summer of 1845 garnering support in Congress for
the annextion of Texas. While many northern senators initially opposed the idea of bringing more slave states
into the Union, especially one as big as Texas, some were won over by a compromise to bring the remainder
of Pembina Territory in within the remainder of Polk's term. Still, a two thirds majority could not be reached
in the Senate at the next vote. At the next Senate meeting, however, president pro tempore John Tyler
managed to bring some of the Whigs opposing annexation to ratify the treaty, and in September, Texas was
brought into the Union.
Texas was initially brought into the United States as a territory, but its more populated areas quickly became
states. In March of 1846, the area of the Republic of Texas was divided into three parts. Tejas and Houston,
separated by the Colorado River, were admitted that month. Samuel Houston became governor of Tejas and
David Burnet became governor of the state of Houston. David Crockett, president of Texas at the time of
annexation, was elected as one of the first senators from the state. The admission of Tejas and Houston
brought in two more slave states, although the states tried to remain neutral on the issue when it was brought
up.
The states of Houston and Tejas hold a number of interesting facts in their early history. During the four
months the Tejas state capitol building in San Antonio was being constructed on the west side of Alamo
Plaza, the legislative sessions were held across the plaza in the chapel of the Alamo mission, which had seen
a minor battle during the Texan War of Independence. The admission of Houston to the United States is an
interesting note in history, for it marks the only time a President has had a state named after him before
holding his office as President.
Part Ten: Of States and Banks

Admission of Pembina and Itasca:

After Tejas and Houston had been brought into the Union, northern congressmen were clamoring for new
states to be created out of the lands in Pembina Territory. The population of the territory had been increasing
as immigrants poured in and as copper mining boomed in the region. By the beginning of the Polk
administration, many cities and forts had been founded along the many rivers and lakes in the area. In the
summer of 1847, Pembina Territory as divided by the Minnesota and Red Rivers, and the state of Itasca was
created from the eastern portion with Duluth at the western end of Lake Superior as its capital.
A year later, there were many pressing for the admission of Pembina to the Union. However, there were
problems with the native Sioux tribes living in the region. After forts were built at positions on the east side
of the Missouri, settlers and soldiers began coming to the region. The settlers tended to cluster around the
forts to protect them from raids by the native Americans for a while, but soon the population grew large
enough that the government of Pembina Territory decided that buying land from the Sioux was necessary.
Representatives from the Sioux tribes and the United Staes government met in early 1848, and negotiated
treaties regarding the movement of the Sioux and other tribes in the area.

The agreements either states that the tribes would live in peace with the settlers in their current living areas,
or that they could move north or west across the Missouri River. Despite the Sioux tribes' signing of the
treaties, compensation was often never paid because of corruption or the money was sent directly to settlers
and traders who Sioux leaders had become indebted to. Pembina was finally admitted as a state in late 1848,
with the first state capital at Yankton on the Missouri.

Expiration of the Third Bank:

With Polk coming into office and the Democrats gaining a majority in the Senate once again, the era of the
Third Bank was coming to a close. The bank's charter was set to expire in 1845, and despite the lobbying by
the Whig congressmen to renew the charter, any bill that was passed to renew it was vetoed by Polk. The
Bank finally expired at the end of 1845, and Biddle, who had been the president of the Second and Third
Banks, died soon after.

However, not all policies from the Third Bank were discarded. The issuing of United States notes was kept,
but moved under the jurisdiction of the United States Treasury Department. The Treasury continued to issue
these US notes, and backed them with gold and silver, which could be redeemable at select Treasury offices
around the country. These becamse the first official national currency and, while not going far in replacing
the use of coins, were often used for large-scale purchases and increased the credibility of paper currency in
the United States, leading to the repeal of the Coinage Act passed by President Calhoun a decade earlier.
Part Eleven: The Beginning of the Oregon War

Tension in Oregon:
By the summer of 1846, tensions between the United States and the British officials in North America were
high. The Provisional Government established by American settlers at Champoeg three years earlier had
been growing, with incoming settlers using Champoeg as a main camp before going off to establish their
own communities in the Oregon Country. A petition sent by William Gilpin and Fremont as a The dispute
over the northern border of Maine remained unsettled, and the influx of American settlers into the Oregon
Country was spreading north. While it was clear that the government in London had no desire for war, the
United States and the settlers in Oregon were much more eager. Many forts were established by the United
States and the Champoeg Provisional Government in the region to protect the settlers. Thus, when some
British soldiers tried to force a community of American settlers off their land along the Fraser River near
Fort Langley, shots were fired and the Oregon War had begun.

While the information of the fighting traveled east to Washington and London, the Champoeg government
led by Gilpin and Fremont and the forces of the Hudson Bay Company conducted the affairs of the war in
Oregon. American settlers quickly took the lightly defended Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River
and reconstructed the fortifications at Fort Nez Perce, which had been abandoned by the British after a fire
two years earlier, but were unable to gain control of any British forts north of the Columbia River. The
Champoegans did manage to hold on to most of the American forts on the north bank of the Columbia,
including Fort Bonneville at a southern bend in the river and Fort Choteau at the confluence of the
Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers.
Part Twelve: The Summer Campaigns

Summer of 1846:
Word of the outbreak of hostilities in Oregon spread quickly to the two governments, but it reached
Washington first. The United States ordered troops to advance northward to stop the British from sending
further supplies to Oregon via land. Echoing the War of 1812, most of the fighting was centered around the
Great Lakes. However despite small gains by either side during the summer months, the majority of the
fighting outside of Oregon came to a stalemate. There were only three real pushes that either side made in
the summer months of the war. A United States force went north along the Red River to Winnipeg and laid
siege to the city, but failed to capture it. The British, in turn, captured Sault Saint Marie in Marquette but
failed to advance any further. In Maine, a combined land and naval attack under the joint command of
General Winfield Scott and Commodore Matthew C. Perry advanced into New Brunswick. While Scott's
advance stalled before it could reach Fredericton, Perry was able to lead a raid and bombardment of Saint
John's. Perry had to retreat, however, when a British flotilla arrived south from Halifax to engage.

In Oregon, the summer months saw the most brutal fighting in the war. In June, President Polk and Congress
passed a bill organizing any United States forces in the Oregon Country under Fremont. Fremont,
commanding the newly formed Oregon battalion, moved north from Oregon City and in late July took Fort
Vancouver after the short Battle of Bellevue, in which the 700 Americans and 400 local Chinook natives
defeated the 300 British who were defending the fort. The Chinook had sided with the Americans after
Fremont promised they could keep the lands they had settled on. Fremont continued north and rached the
outskirts of Fort Nisqually by the end of August.
Aside from Fremont's campaign, Gilpin led forces from Forts Choteau and Bonneville along the north bank
of the Columbia River to encircle Fort Okanogan. They reached the fort and surrounded it starting in early
August. To cease supplies from reaching the fort, the soldiers attacked and fired upon any ships in the
Columbia River that were heading for the fort. The small fort did not hold out for very long due to the lack of
supplies and the men inside had surrendered by the end of the month. Meanwhile, a small British naval force
on the Pacific began harassing shipping enterring the Columbia and bombarding Fort Astoria.

Part Thirteen: A Winter in Oregon

Oregon War, Winter of 1846:

As the months went on and summer turned to winter, the British soldiers in Fort Nisqually were running low
on supplies and surrendered. Fremont continued north along the coast while William Gilpin's men went
upstream along the Columbia. Gilpin and his company quickly reached and captured Fort Colville. Gilpin
continued up the Columbia River and in October, intercepted a supply train taking supplies from the Hudson
Bay Company headquarters of York Factory to British settlements in Oregon. After the supply wagons
surrendered, Gilpin's men hatched a plan where they would follow the supply train west to Fort Thompson
and use it to capture the fort. The plan worked, and Fort Thompson fell at the beginning of November. The
capture of the supply train would play a vital part in the success of the Americans during the winter
campaigns in Oregon.

While Gilpin was heading for Fort Thompson, Fremont's men continued north along the coast and reached
Fort Langley in mid-December. By then the fort was dangerously short on supplies after Gilpin had captued
the supply train. After a week, the soldiers in Fort Langley laid down their arms and surrendered. Fremont
and Gilpin remained in Fort Langley and Fort Thompson for the remainder of the winter.

Meanwhile, in Britain, Parliament was clamoring for negotitations to begin with the United States as they
had other things to worry about. The winter of 1846-47 was a harsh one in Britain, and combined with the
tensions and emigration of many Irishmen due to the ongoing famine on the island, many Parliamentarians
felt that the protection of the Columbia Department was of low interest to the United Kingdom at the time. In
early 1847, it was decided that negotiations with the United States would begin. President Polk was also
eager to begin negotiations as support for the war was beginning to fall in the States as well.
Part Fourteen: The End of the Oregon War

A Snowy Ceasefire:
As the United States and the United Kingdom moved toward negotiation, fighting died down in Oregon. The
United States Pacific Squadron, led by John Sloat and based in Monterrey, California, drove off the British
ships near Fort Astoria. The Pacific Squadron then continued north and began denying ships from passing
near Fort Victoria. After a few days, the Pacific Squadron travelled up toward Fort Langley and met Fremont
and his men at Warren Bay. Fremont and Sloat coordinated an amphibious landing on the east side of
Vancouver Island and proceeding south to capture Fort Victoria. However, they never got the chance to enact
this plan.

In early February, a ceasefire was arranged between the United Kingdom and the United States, and the path
was laid toward negotiation. A month later, the peace negotiations began in Madrid, with Washington Irving
as United States ambassador to Spain representing American interests and Sir Frederick Pollock, a Privy
Councillor, representing Britain. Alexander Christie was also present at the negotiations as a voice of the
Hudson's Bay Company. The deliberation on the specifics of the peace treaty last for a few weeks, but finally
a workable peace was made.

The Peace of Madrid:

The Peace of Madrid was signed on March 18, 1847, after being ratified by both Congress and Parliament.
While it was clear that the United States won the Oregon War, the country did not accomplish all its war
aims and even have to make some concessions. The main body of the treaty was concerned with the
concessions in the Oregon Territory. Firstly, the United States did not gain up to the 54 40'N line that
surrounded American support for the war. The border line was arranged at the 52nd degree North latitude, so
as to pass between Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands. Further, Great Britain retained fishing
rights off the coast of Oregon north of Vancouver Island.

Also in the Peace of Madrid, the two sides also took the opportunity to settle the remaining territorial
disputes along their shared border. To connect the region under jurisdiction of the United States north of the
Lake of the Woods in northern Itasca, the border was extended west to the Red River. Also, Maine's border
was settled as the River Saint John's going to the longitude midway between the American claim up to 1798
and the American claim after 1798. The border would then continue south along the longitude until it reached
the Saint Croix River, and would follow the Saint Croix River to the coast. An odd inclusion into the treaty
was the article calling for the return of the skull of Chief Comcomly, which had been stolen from his burial
ground in 1834 by a physician to be placed in a museum in England.

After the Peace:

With the Oregon War ended, the two sides returned to diplomatic normalcy, but the war would begin a rift
between Great Britain and the United States that would affect world politics for at least a century. The
American reaction to the end of the war was generally positive. The United States had bested her former
master for sure, unlike the ambiguity of the American victory in the War of 1812. However, some Americans
felt disheartened that the United States did not gain all of the disputed territory in the peace.

In Britain, the war was looked upon as a minor affair compared to Britain's domestic troubles of the time.
However, Parliament was alarmed at the relative lack of defense that the colonies in British North America
put up, especially Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with their important naval bases, and attributed it to the
decentralization of the colonies and the slow dispensations from Parliament. As a result, the British
government encouraged confederation in the Maritime colonies, granting self-governance to Nova Scotia in
1848. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island followed with self-governance in the 1850s. In 1861, the
last step to confederation was completed with the Charlottetown Conference. At the conference, the three
colonies were joined into the Acadian Union, with the administrative capital settling in Moncton, New
Brunswick.

Part Fifteen: Advance of Religion and Science

Mormon Exodus:
After being banished from towns in Ohio and Indiana, many followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints for their religious beliefs, they founded the town of Nuavoo in western Illinois. However,
they continued to be persecuted by the state legislature and mobs of angry citizens. In 1847, after resolving
to find elsewhere to settle, the Church split into two groups. One group, led by Hyrum Smith, brother of
Church founder Joseph Smith Jr., went north to British North America. The other group, led by Brigham
Young, went west looking for land in the sparsely populated Republic of California.

Smith's group headed north, arriving at Fort Decatur in April. His group continued northward eventually
traveling along the east bank of the Red River. Finally crossing into Britain in late 1847, the group set up
camp for the winter near Winnipeg. In the spring, Smith decided on a settlement after considering various
possible sites around Lake Winnipeg and the surrounding area. The settlement was in between Lake
Manitoba and Lake Saint Martin.[1] Smith named the settlement Whitmer after one of the Three Witnesses.

Young's group, the Vanguard Company, went west and consisted of the majority of the Mormons who fled
Nauvoo. The group crossed Demoine and then followed the Platte River west, much like those heading to
Oregon Territory. After following the Platte and the North Platte for months, the Vanguard Company broke
off the river as it turned south. After reaching Fort Vasquez,[2] the company turned full south and entered the
Republic of California in early 1848. Young consulted with trappers and frontiersmen about numerous sites
for settlement as Smith did in Winnipeg, and decided on two places for settlement. The first and primary
town, Vanguardia, would be on the east edge of Ute Lake. The second settlemnt, Youngstown, was much
further south and east, along a bend in the Colorado River.[3] Over the years the population grew and smaller
settlements spread out throughout the area, especially between the well travelled trail between Vanguardia
and Youngstown. To this day the Mormon Church is one of the largest religious groups in the state of Espejo.

The Poinsettian Institution:

In July of 1847, Joel Roberts Poinsett founded the Poinsettian Institution, an organization to promote the
advancement of science and general knowledge. The creation of the Institution was funded by the estate of
Louis Elizabeth Hungerford,[4] after the death of his father, Hubert. Louis had read the will of his great-
uncle James Smithson, which had stipulated that should Hubert die without heirs, the estate would go to the
United States government for an "establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

Initially keeping the estate upon his father's death in 1835, Louis had over the next decade become infatuated
with science and the world around him, and after reading a copy of Charles Darwin's Journal and Remarks
on his voyage on the HMS Beagle, decided to fulfill Smithson's will and donate the wealth of the estate to
the United States government. After the money was given to the government, Poinsett oversaw the creation
of the Institution, and was its first Secretary.

Part Sixteen: The Last of the Jacksonians

Purchase of Cuba:
In 1848, Polk set out to complete the final part of his platform, and sent ambassador Washington Irving to
discuss a purchase of Cuba by the United States. Irving was authorized to offer anywhere up to one hundred
million dollars. The idea was supported by southerneres as Cuba already had slavery and it wouild create
some balance to the gains from the Oregon War. Initially Irving's offers were not met with much approval by
the Spanish, but when words of yet another revolt on the island, this time led by Narciso Lopez, the Spanish
government agreed to sell the island for seventy milliond dollars, and allowing Spain to keep naval vessels in
Cuban ports. Cuba was officially transferred from Spain to the United States on January 1, 1849.

Election of 1848:
The road to the 1848 election began with President Polk announcing that he would not be running for a
second term. Polk stated that he had accomplished all his goals as President and thus had fulfilled his time in
the White House. Since Polk was not in the running, the Democrats nominated Vice President Lewis Cass as
their candidate, with Martin van Buren as the Democrat candidate for Vice President. On the Whig side, they
nominated two generals from the Mexican-American War. Winfield Scott was picked for President and
Zachary Taylor was chosen for Vice President.

The campaign of 1848 was the first one to bring up the issue of salavery. Scott and Taylor managed to
remain vague on the issue, and managed to win many voters in the South. However, the Democrats were
troubled by van Buren's outspoken platform against slavery. Van Buren's position gave the Democrats an
image of a Northern ticket. This lost them many votes in the South, while gaining them little in the Northern
states where few people considered slavery a major issue. In the end, the election marked the end of the era
of the Jacksonian Democrats, and saw Winfield Scott become the last President running on the Whig Party.
Prior to leaving office in March of 1849, Polk's last action as President was the creation of the Department of
Interior, which would oversee domestic affairs in the United States.

Scott/Taylor: 165
Cass/Van Buren: 139
Part Seventeen: Technological and Social Innovation

The Age of Steam:

Winfield Scott's presidency occurred during a time of great change in the United States. With innovations in
steam technology over the past few decades and the spread of the electrical telegraph patented by Samuel
Morse in 1837 across the country expedited communications and transportation across the country.

Transportation technology was renewed with the creation of major railway and steamship companies in the
1840s. By 1850 the United States had close ten thousand miles of rail, including a railroad connection
Boston to Richmond, Virginia. Companies such as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Great Lakes
Railway along wtih financial backing from industrialists like James Gadsden in South Carolina and David
Levitt in Massachusetts spurred the construction of the United States rail network. James Gadsden in
particular played an important role in the expansion of the South Carolina Railroad. By 1851 when Gadsden
left the executive position, the railroad had expanded from its beginnings as a connection between
Charleston and Columbia to connect Savannah, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Pensacola.

River transportation was also revolutionized during the first half of the 19th century as steamships became
commonplace. The Erie Canal and other canals built across the country allowed for river transport alongside
rail. The most well known businessman to invest in steamships was Cornelius Vanderbilt. After profiting
from his operation of a ferry between Staten Island and Newark in New Jersey and a steamship service
between Manhattan and Albany in New York during the 1830s, Vanderbilt struck further west to make his
real fortune. In 1844, Vanderbilt founded a business that offered steamship transportation centered around
Saint Louis along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers. The business grew quickly, and by the time
Scott entered office, Vanderbilt's company was one of the most profitable and one of the largest private
employers in the United States. The success of Vanderbilt's steamship company helped to start the growth of
the area between Saint Louis and Cairo the population center it is today.

Fourierism in the United States:

In the early 1800s, Charles Fourier advocated a social system based on cooperation and concern toward one
another. He believed that everyone in a community should work toward to better the community, and
advocated self-sufficiency as he thought that trade was the root of poverty and conflict. Fourier advocated
these societies to be organized into small communes called 'phalanxes'. His ideas became known as
Fourierism and laid some of the groundwork that led to the modern ideas of socialism.

In the United States, the disipline of Fourierism caught on in parts of New England, as the idea of small
communal utopias spread across parts of the country. The main advocate of Fourierism in the United States
was Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune and a major figure in the Whig and later Republican
parties. Greeley sponsored the founding of a number of towns based on the ideals of Fouriers teachings in the
1850s including Phalanx, Massachusetts, Reunion, Calhoun, and Harmony, Roosevelt. These and other
Fourierist towns did not last long due to their relative isolationism and the ideals advocated by Fourier and
Greeley lapsed for another thirty years.

However, the socialist ideas of Fourier and other socialist thinkers of the mid-nineteenth century did reapper
in the 1870s and 1880s. Many of Fourier's ideas of cooperation were revisited in a number of towns that
called themselves 'transforms' throughout the western United States. These towns, however, accepted trade as
a means to assist in ending poverty and their leaders held a Fourier Transform Council to discuss the
advancement of Fourier's ideas in the United States. The Council met five times in twenty years until a
Fourier Party was formed in 1898, eventually becoming part of the Progressive Party.
Part Eighteen: The Country Goes West

Westward Settlement:
The 1850s saw renewed interest in migrations to the sparsely populated west. After the increased access
between the eastern seabord and the Midwestern states, people tired of the urbanization of the northern cities
moved further west in search of land and wealth. Soon, small towns sprung up along the Platte, Kanza, and
Arkansaw rivers as settlers continued to move west. Many of these settlers in the northern part of what would
become Kearny Territory were descendants of French and the surviving towns' names reflect their French
heritage. Meanwhile, the southern area was mostly settled by southerners who were seeking to start up farms
in the newly opened lands.

Further north, settlers bound for Oregon Territory during the 1850s often did not make the full journey and
instead built their homes along the tributaries of the northern Missouri River. These towns caused the
population of the Unorganized Territory to boom, and representatives from the territory lobbied in
Washington for incorporation into official territories. In 1851, Congress and President Scott passed
legislation to officially created organized territories. The area would be divided into three parts. The border
of the state of Houston was extended northward to the Missouri and everything east of that became Kearny
Territory. In addition, the 42nd northern parallel that formed the border between California and the United
States was continued east to the border of Kearny Territory. The area to the north became Dakhota Territory
while the area to the south was merged into New Mexico Territory, as it was most easily reachable from
Santa Fe.

These settlements brought many hardships, especially in Dakhota Territory. Besides moving west of the
Missouri River, there had been no agreements made between the native populations and the United States
government on American settlers in the area. As such, the natives sometimes resorted to raiding American
settlements if necessary. Scott being the military man he was, authorized the construction of military outposts
along the rivers to protect settlers from native incursions. Some major forts established during the 1850s
include Fort Collins and Bent's Fort in Colorado, Fort Laramie in Pahsapa, and Fort Washita in Calhoun.
Some of these forts have become historic sites, while others have developed into cities of their own, but all
of them are a testament to the settling of the Great Plains and the western United States.

The Issue of Slavery:

With the incorporation of the western territories into the nation, the debate over the expansion of slavery
intensified in Congress. Cuba was admitted as a slave state, making the balance in Congress nineteen slave
states to seventeen free states. While this balance seemed to favor slavery in the territories, the senators of
Missouri and Delaware were divided on the issue as European immigrants came to those states and the urban
population increased. This created a deadlock on slavery legislation for much of Scott's presidency.
However, there was another reason for this deadlock. Up until 1851, most of the bills that had been proposed
were to decide the issue for the entire Unorganized Territory, with a few proposing the border between free
and slave states extend west from the northern border of Missouri or at the 42nd parallel north. With the
division of the territory, it became possible to decide on each territory individually. With the epxansion of
New Mexico Territory and the many settlers coming from Tejas and Houston, slavery was allowed in the
territory.

But with the uncertainty of whether the United States would gain California or any territory south of the Rio
Bravo, the Missouri Compromise that was passed in 1820 was brought into review. This brought the
possiblity of slavery into both Kearny and Dakhota Territory. While there was not much doubt over whether
Dakhota would become a free territory, Kearny Territory presented an opportunity for the southern states to
gain the concessions they had been looking for. The dispute over Calhoun Territory would not be resolved
during Scott's administration, and the resolution of the dispute would bring much animosity between the
northern and southern states.

Part Nineteen: Coming Changes

Foreign Happenings:
While the United States was experiencing increased sectionalism and technological innovations, Europe was
undergoing a series of changes as well. In what would become known as the Midcentury Revolutions, France
went from being a monarchy to a republic, the Austrian Empire was reformed, and the stage was set for
Italian Unification. There were attempted changes in some of the German states, but none of them got very
far.

In France, after the death of king Louis-Philippe in early 1850, the wave of revolutions and rebellions was
kicked off as many Parisians, inclduing Orleanists and Republicans, gathered to protest the continuation of
the monarchy in his son. After a week of revolts and virtual lawlessness in Paris, a provisional government
was able to be formed. After months of deliberation, elections were organized in the country and Louis-
Napoleon Bonaparte was elected the first titular president of the Second French Republic.

Meanwhile, in the Americas, Mexico's internal conflicts continued. In fact, as time went on the instability in
Mexico heightened. During the 1840s Mexico had no less than twenty changes in the presidency, with
Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna and Anastasio Bustamante each holding the presidency four nonconsecutive
times during the decade. The struggle between the various factions in the Mexican government often led to
brief civil wars or insurrections in different provinces of the country, but all of these were put down
forcefully. This instability would continue for many years to come, until finally shattered as the United
Provinces of Central America had in the 1830s.

Mexico's instability caused many problems among its neighbors. With many Mexicans eager to get away
from the violence and civil strife, the populations of the neighboring countries swelled. The populations of
San Diego and Yuma in California doubled between 1840 and 1850 while new towns were settled along the
Verde River. The Republic of Rio Bravo and Republic of Yucatan also saw massive immigration and this put
a strain on their economies. The United States and other countries offered aid to Yucatan and Rio Bravo, but
it only alleviated the economic strain somewhat. Unemployment and crime became a problem in the cities,
and corruption in the government eventually led to these countries increasingly falling under foreign
influence.

Election of 1852:
Throughout the 1852 election, slavery was by far the dominant issue. In the Whig primaries, Vice President
Taylor had fallen out of fashion with the Whig party members and many southerners for his vacillating
stance on the expansion of slavery and was replaced by fellow Virginian John Botts. Scott also struggled, but
eventually gained the nomination, narrowly defeating Daniel Webster. The Democrats chose rising star
Stephen Douglas for their presidential candidate, while Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis was chosen as
the vice presidential candidate.

With Scott's slightly abolitionist notions on slavery having been brought out over the course of his term,
many Southern states turned against him. This combined with Douglas's promotion of popular sovereignty
for deciding slavery in the territories and the Democrat nomination of a candidate from the Deep South for
vice president, the Whigs lost much of their fervor and as a result, the election. This would be the last
election that the Whig Party would participate in, as in the next few years the party fractured along northern
and southern lines.

Aside from the national election, slavery was also important in the state elections. The banning of slavery
was on the ballot in both Missouri and Delaware in that year. In Delaware, the vote went in favor of banning
slavery as the practice had declined in the state over the last decade, and the final slaves were manumitted
with payment from the state in 1853. In Missouri, however, the vote was much closer, and was generally
divided between those in the north of the state in favor of banning slavery and those in the south of the state
who were against it. In the end though, slavery was upheld in Missouri in 1852.

Douglas/Davis: 168

Scott/Botts: 142
Part Twenty: Coming Together and Growing Apart

A Continental Idea:
With increasing amounts of people traveling west, many entrepreneurs and politicians saw a need for an
eventual link between the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts in the United States. During the Douglas
administration, many proposals were brought to Congress for rail lines connecting the two coasts. Some
suggested routes started from Saint Louis or Chicago, which had already been connected back to the major
east coast cities, while others proposed paths going up to Minneapolis and then west.
The western end of the proposed transcontinental railway was often more varied. Some proposals desired to
keep the railroad in the United States and ended the railway at one of the small but fast-growing costal towns
in Oregon Territory. Others saw a more southerly route that passed through the California Republic to end in
Monterrey, Yerba Buena, or San Diego. Despite the great interest taken by the government in completing a
rail line between the two coasts, sectionalism between north and south stopped any major progress until the
1870s when private companies expanded west.

Popular Sovereignty:
With many Americans moving west into the Great Plains, Stephen Douglas passed a bill in 1854 with
support from former Vice President Lewis Cass that would open up Kearny Territory to further settlement.
With the bill he advocated the position of popular sovereignty and letting the people of a territory decide
whether it would allow slavery when it was admitted to the Union. This led to increasing problems as ardent
abolitionists and Southern slaveholders moved into the territory to promote their respective positions.

In the months after the bill was passed, both slaveholders and freesoilers poured into the territory.
Slaveholders from Missouri and Arkansaw soon clashed with freesoilers from Chicago and New England.
These settlers came at odds with each other as the frontier towns swelled with people, and in spring of 1855
violence broke out that would soon engulf the entire territory. The violence began with what is now known
as the Haarlem Riots. The town of Haarlem lies on the Sparne River[1] near where it joins the Arakansaw,
and grew during the opening of Kearny Territory because of its proximity to Arkansaw and Missouri. In the
decade after the city's founding, it had grown to over two thousand people. With such growth, slavery
became a great issue in the town. In April of 1855, the murder of a freesoiler by one of the slaveholders in
the town spiraled out of control into general violence. The riot lasted almost the entire day before law was
restored in the town and in all, seven people were killed.

This sparked more riots in the rest of the territory as a proslavery legislature came into power. In July, noted
abolitionist John Brown attempted to bar the legislature from entering the territorial capital at Council Grove.
While John Brown was killed in the resulting skirmish, he was remembered and soon became a martyr for
the freesoilers in Kearny Territory. After further threats against the legislators, the territorial capital of
Kearny was relocated southward to Fort Gibson. In response, the freesoilers set up their own territorial
legislature in Council Grove. While the violence gradually decreased in 1856, the competing legislatures
lasted long after Douglas's administration and the events of 1855 and 1856 greatly hurt Douglas in the eyes
of the American people.

Part Twenty-One: The Adventures of William Walker

Adventures of William Walker:

In the 1850s, there were many in the southern United States who desired to extend slavery throughout the
Caribbean and Central America. Scoieties such as the Knights of the Golden Circle advocated the idea, and
helped encourage adventurous Americans to expand the reach of slavery themselves. The most successful
and well known of these adventurers or 'filibusters' as they became known was William Walker.
In 1853, Walker went on a recruiting campaign in the southern states for expanding slavery in the Caribbean
and possibly bringing the areas they conquered into the United States as slave states. Gathering only 70 men
on the continent, Walker went to Cuba to gather more men. There he met with Narciso Lpez, who joined
him and helped to recruit over 200 more men into Walker's band. The next summer, Walker and Lpez set off
from Cuba to Haiti, where they landed on Tortuga. The men went to Port Paix on the mainland and set the
town up as their base of operations, with Walker proclaiming he and Lpez as President and Vice President
of the Republic of Hispaola. After a few months, Walker and his men found they were running out of
supplies, and after a skirmish with Haiti's emperor Faustin I, Walker and his accomplices returned to the
United States, disgraced.
However, walker did not give up. Three years later, in late 1857, Walker decided to take advantage of the
unrest in Nicaragua. Getting financing from Cornelius Vanderbilt after he promised Vanderbilt shipping
rights along the Rio San Juan as well as the rights to build a canal across Nicaragua, Walker gather almost
one thousand followers and settled in the Mosquito Coast on the eastern shore of Nicaragua. Proclaiming he
was there to help the Liberal Party of Nicaragua win favor by annexing the Mosquito Coast. After driving out
what little British soldiers there were at San Juan del Norte (now San Juan del Este) Walker continued up the
coast until he reached Bluefields, and in early 1858 signed a treaty with the local Miskito recognizing
Walker's sovereignty over the land.
Shortly after, Walker proclaimed the Mosquito Republic and claimed that the country was sovereign over all
the coastline between Costa Rica and Honduras as well as some way inland, although it was never
determined how far. With Nicaragua still in turmoil, Walker went with a group of men up the Rio San Juan to
capture as much of the river as he could, as it was the planned route for the canal. With the two parties still
fighting in the west, Walker easily reached the communities of El Castillo and Boca de Sbalos. However,
the forest and disease had taken a toll on the men accompanying him.
Another concern was that the neighboring government of Costa Rica had become worried that Walker's
exploits might spread into their country, and was also looking to gain land and resolve border disputes with
its troubled neighbor that had arisen with the dissolution of the United Provinces of Central America. Costa
Rica sent an army north and met Walker's force outside of San Carlos on Cocibolca[1]. Walker's camp was
defeated, but Walker and his men were not executed since they agreed to fight with Costa Rica and cede his
Mosquito Republic to the Costa Rican government. Fighting for Costa Rica, they soon defeated Nicaragua
and reached Granada. In the peace settlement, Costa Rica gained Rivas department and Rio San Juan
department up to the Rio Camastro. Walker was made governor of the new Costa Rican Rio San Juan
province and remained in Costa Rica for the rest of his life.
Part Twenty-Two: A Divided Union

Election of 1856:
With attacks directed toward Douglas late in his presidency over his age and his handling of the violence in
Kearny Territory, the Democrats dumped Douglas and Davis from their ticket at the convention in Baltimore.
After a month of deliberation, the Democrats went with an even more moderate position with their
nomination of former Tejas governor Samuel Houston and senator James Bayard Jr. of Delaware. The
moderate stance of the Democrats would help them much in the Upper South and the Mid-Atlantic states
where the general opinion on slavery was still in flux.
By 1856, the Whigs had disappeared from the political scene and the remnants were now tasked with
building new parties from the ashes. Out of these ashes, the former Whigs generally split into two camps; the
northerners who were against slavery and the pro-slavery southerners. These two groups formed the
Republican Party and the Liberty Party. The first Republican convention in Miami, Michigan, the first to be
held outside the original thirteen colonies, ended with the nomination of New York senator William Seward
and Ohio senator Samuel P. Chase. The Republicans were ardently against slavery and used the rising tide of
abolitionism in the north to great effect. The Republicans also derided the Democrats' measures regarding the
violence in Kearny and desired harsh measures in the territory to make sure that such violence was not
repeated.
The Liberty Party, on the other hand, ran primarily on a platform of upholding slavery in the south and the
preservation of states' rights, although some went further and advocated the expansion of slavery in the
territories and to other countires in the Gulf and the Caribbean. At the convention, the Liberty Party
nominated Joesph Brown of Georgia and Charles Magill Conrad of Louisiana. The party gained much of its
support in the southern states, and gained popularity in Cuba and with immigrants from Mexico after the
endorsement of Jackson governor Felipe Trjano de la Vega.

The campaign was a bitter affair with slavery now the main issue for most Americans. Ironically, both the
Republican and the Liberty parties appealed to the American sense of freedom, with the Republicans talking
about the freedom of man while the Liberty Party pushing the freedom of the states from the federal
government. The Democrats advocated a central and moderate path, desiring to heal the sectionalism that
had afflicted the nation in the last decade. Douglas and Davis, now disgraced, formed their own minor party
in a hope to retain some supporters. After the votes were counted, Houston and the Democrats achieved a
very narrow majority in the electoral college. Seward gained over twice as many electoral votes as Brown
despite winning about the same number of states, showing the population difference between the north and
the south. Douglas's party only managed to win the home states of the president and vice president, and the
party withered shortly afterward.

Houston/Bayard: 158

Seward/Chase: 91
Brown/Conrad: 45

Douglas/Davis: 16

Part Twenty-Three: From the Mountains to the Sea

Colorado Gold Rush:

In 1855, a group of Spanish settlers had struck north from Santa Fe to find a place to settle in northern New
Mexico Territory. The settlers followed the Rio Grande and then the foothills of the mountains until they
came upon a series of rock formations consisting of uplifted sandstone slabs against the side of a mountain. It
was here that they decided to set up their final camp, along a creek that ran through the area. Soon the settlers
met with a local Arapaho band led by Chief Niwot. After securing a tentative peace with Niwot, the settlers
set up camp. Soon they began traveling up the local canyon into the mountains, and the settlement started to
grow. In the spring of 1856, one of the settlers, Lzaro Mendinueta, discovered some gold five miles up one
of the canyons.
This discovery began what is now known as the Colorado Gold Rush. For almost a decade after the
discovery, almost two hundred thousand settlers from the south and the east poured into the southern Rocky
Mountains in search of gold and silver. New cities quickly sprang up in New Mexico Territory. While many
of them were small mining towns in the mountains that were abandoned after the rush calmed down, a few
on the eastern edge of the Rockies served as important depots and thrived even afterward. Some of these
cities include Zeublon near the base of Pike's Peak, Ororio on the South Platte River, Pueblo on the
Arkansaw River, and Ferroplano at the point where the Spanish first settled. Ferroplano would come to
prominence as the capital of the territory and later state of Colorado.

Houston, We Have Contact:

After the undersea cable from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland was completed, countries on both sides of the
Atlantic were postulating a telegraph cable to connect the two continents. The quickest path was clearly
Newfoundland to Ireland, and in 1855 the London and Acadia Telegraph Company was formed to try and
link England with the Acadian Union, and through that, Europe and North America. In 1855 an attempt was
made to connect the two sides but the project fell through when the United States Senate narrowly vetoed a
funding bill due to the Anglophobe opinions of many senators.

After a series of meetings between representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, and other
Atlantic European countries, a compromise was made. In 1857, Congress passed a bill for the funding of a
telegraph line to run from Nova Scotia to Lisbon. The London and Acadia Company worked with British
companies to build the cable, and in 1857 the first laying of the cable began from Halifax. This attempt failed
as the cable broke during the journey, but a successful laying was completed a year later starting in Lisbon.
In July of 1858 the cable was completed, and President Houston and Queen Victoria sent the first telegrams
across the Atlantic.

The title of this section refers not to the first message sent across the cable, as is commonly thought, but to
the message sent to Washington from Halifax upon receiving the first message from Queen Victoria. In the
first two telegrams sent across the cable, Queen Victoria on a visit to Lisbon wished that the communication
line would help improve relations between the United States and the United Kingdom, while President
Houston expressed his wish for further cooperation between the United States and Europe.

However, this first cable did not last long. A winter storm in Nova Scotia destroyed the cablehouse at
Whitehead where it came up out of the Atlantic. During attempts to rebuild the cable house, it was found that
the cable had deteriorated too much for continued use. Another cable was laid in 1859, and this sturdier line
survived the next winter. After this first success, more cables were laid in the late 1860s and 1870s, from
many different locations up and down both sides of the Atlantic coast.
Part Twenty-Four: Foreign Happenings

Liberian Independence:
After the American Colonization Society relinquished control of Liberia in 1847, the government took
administration of the colony with the support of some of the Society's original founders. Over the next
decade, the government encouraged emigration to Liberia. However, because of the danger of disease and
native uprisings as well as distaste for the Colonization Society, only about ten thousand people migrated to
Liberia, mostly from Maryland and Virginia. This meager population growth made the colony an economic
burden during the 1850s.

The discussions in Congress over what to do about Liberia were relatively one-sided. The Congressmen
arguing to keep hold of the colony and find a way to make it sustainable were vastly outweighed by those
who sought to rid the colony of American responsibility. With this backing from Congress, President
Houston relinquished American control of Liberia and established its independence in 1858. While Liberia
was now independent, it was still relatively dependent on the United States to maintain its economy.

The political situation in Liberia would not be much better. Despite the framing of the Constitution based on
that of the United States, Americans who had migrated to Liberia would continue to dominate politics and
society for the next century. The country would also be plagued by civil wars and rebellions by the natives
against what was perceived (and probably rightfully) as their foreign oppressors.

The Voortrekker Republiek:

After the British took control of the area around the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch, many of the Dutch-
speaking inhabitants of the region began searching for a new homeland away from the British. In 1835, they
went east and inland, in what is known as the Great Trek. These Voortrekkers[1], as they came to be known,
were mostly farmers and settled in the sparsely populated areas around the local Zulu and other tribes.
Gradually over the next decade, the Voortrekkers led by Piet Retief and Gerhard Maritz established towns in
and around the Zulu lands.

Despite the attempts to coexist with the native tribes, the amount of Boers that were migrating to the area
meant that tensions were inevitable. In 1846 after the death of the Zulu chief Dingane, his successor and half
brother Mpande was unhappy with Dingane's concessions to the settlers and attempted to expel the Boers
from Zulu lands. The Voortrekkers resisted, and in two years the technologically superior Trekkers soundly
defeated the more numerous Zulu. The two most distinguished generals, Andries Pretorius[2] and Hendrik
Potgieter, led the creation of a new state in the Zulu lands and the land west in what became the Natal
Republic.
By 1855, the land east of the British Cape Colony was dominated by three Voortrekker states; Transvaal,
Oranje, and Natal. Despite being recognized by the United Kingdom, the three states still felt diplomatic
pressure from Cape Town and London. Starting in the late 1850s, the process to unify the Voortrekker states
began with a free trade area among them. The process accelerated in 1859 when land disputed between
different families led to a unified court system. The unification was eventually completed in 1872 with the
creation of the Zuid-Afrikaanishe Republiek (also known as the Voortrekker Republiek). A weak federal
government was established and Matthew Pretorius, son of Andries, was elected the country's first
stadtholder. The United States was one of the first countries to recognize the republic under president Grant,
along with the Netherlands.

The Ganges Revolt:

In the early 1800s as the British East India Company gradually gained control over more and more of the
subcontinent, the British government took steps to regulate the company. The British East India Company
not only had its commercial functions removed save for trade in tea and opium, but the Crown in London
began imposing regulations on it. Championed by William Wilberforce, the regulations were implemented in
order to increase social freedoms for the local population. Such reforms in the Charter of 1833 included
assisting with the codification of the laws so the populace would more easily understand them and mandating
that no candidate for office under the East India Company be disallowed due to his religion, place of birth, or
his race. Shortly after the 1833 charter was passed, Wilberforce died and the Company was mostly left to its
own devices.

Wilberforce's reforms inspired others to either seek further reforms through Parliament or travel to the Indian
subcontinent themselves. However, Wilberforce's advocacy of combining the reforms with Christian
evangelism had lasting effects in the subcontinent. The evangelism was resented by many Indians who
thought that the British were trying to convert them and cause them to lose their caste, and the outlawing of
local practices such as Sari angered many local leaders. Other laws such as the Doctrine of Lapse, which
mandated that if a feudal lord died without a male child, the land would be forfeited to the East India
Company. The resentment was unknowingly fueled by some Chartists who fled to the subcontinent after the
Chartist Uprisings in the 1840s by encouraging democratic reform.

The tensions continued to mount between the local populace and Company authorities during the passage of
the Charter of 1853. While some reforms were enacted in London by Prime Minister Palmerston including
allowing Indians to serve in the Indian Civil Service, many higher caste Indians felt that this did not go far
enough. The situation exploded into rebeliion in 1858, when the ruler of Awadh, one of the autonomous
princely states, died without a direct heir to the throne. As the British East India Company attempted to seize
the land, the local population rose up. The rebellion soon spread to other areas, as the native soldiers in
Bengal and Gwailor rose up as well.
While the Ganges Revolt as it would be later known in Britain started out well with the rebels capturing the
holy site of Varanasi in the east and the outskirts of Agra in the west, the rebellion soon ran out of steam as
they faced royal troops from Delhi and British forces sent from Calcutta. The main turning point was the
Siege of Patna, in which over four hundred rebelling Sepoys were killed or captured. The revolt was further
demoralized by the participation of some Princely states, mostly Rajputana, against the rebels and the
continued loyalty of the Sepoys in Bombay and Madras to the East India Company. The revolt was finally
put down in early 1859. Afterward the area around Gwailor was granted to Rajputana, Awadh was put under
control of the East India Company, and the reforms that were advocated by Wilberforce were scaled back.
The revolt would leave a lasting impression on the British stay in the subcontinent and the local population
for the remainder of the century and beyond.