Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy

Chapter 17 Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy, 1841–1848 I The Accession of “Tyler Too” • Whig party: – Wm H Harrison, a Whig, was elected in 1841 and John Tyler elected Vice-President • Cabinet: Secretary of State—Daniel Webster • Henry Clay spokesman in the Senate, the uncrowned king of the Whigs – Harrison contacted pneumonia and died after only four months in office • By far the shortest administration in American history but longest inaugural address I The Accession of “Tyler Too” (cont.) • John Tyler: • The “Tyler too” party of the Whig ticket, now claimed the spotlight • He was stubbornly attached to principle • Resigned early from the Senate, rather than accept distasteful instructions form the Virginia legislature • Forsook the Jacksonian Democrats for the Whigs • His enemies accused him of being a Democrat in Whig clothing • Was at odds with the majority of his adoptive Whigs I The Accession of “Tyler Too” (cont.) • Whig party platform: – Pro-bank, pro-protective tariff, and pro-internal improvements • “Tyler too” rhymed with “Tippecanoe,” but there the harmony ended • President Harrison, the Whig, served for only weeks, whereas Tyler, the ex-Democrat who was still largely a Democrat at heart, served for 204 weeks II John Tyler: A President Without a Party • Whigs platform: • It outlined a strongly nationalist program • Financial reform came first: – The Whig Congress passed a law ending the independent treasury system – President Tyler, disarmingly agreeable, signed it – Clay drove though Congress a bill for a “Fiscal Bank” which would create a new Bank of the United States – Clay—the “Great Compromiser”—would have done well to conciliate Tyler II John Tyler: A President Without a Party (cont.) – Tyler veto the bill on both practical and constitutional grounds – The Whig leaders tried again, passing another bill providing for a “Fiscal Corporation” – Tyler again vetoed the offensive substitute – The Democrats were jubilant • Whig extremists condemned Tyler as “His Accidency” and “Executive Ass” – He was formally expelled from his party – His entire cabinet resigned in a body, except Secretary of State Webster, who was then in the midst of delicate negotiations with England II John Tyler: A President Without a Party (cont.) • Proposed Whig tariff bill: – Tyler vetoed the bill – Because he saw the Whig scheme for a distribution among the states of revenue from the sale of public lands in the West – He could see no point of squandering federal money • Chastened Clayites redrafted their tariff bill: – They chopped out the offensive dollar-distribution scheme – Pushed down the rates to about the moderately protective level of 1832—roughly 32% on dutiable goods – Tyler reluctantly signed the Tariff of 1842 III A War of Words with Britain • Anti-British passions: • At the bottom lay the bitter, red-coated memories of the two Anglo-American wars • The pro-British Federalists had died out • British travels wrote negatively about American customs in their travel books • These writings touched off the “Third War with England” • Fortunately this British-American war was fought on paper broadsides, and only ink was spilled III A War of Words with Britain (cont.) – America a borrowing nation: • Expensive canals to dig and railroads to build • Britain, with overflowing coffers, was a lending nation • The panic of 1837 and several states defaulted on their bonds or repudiated them altogether – 1837—a short-lived insurrection erupted in Canada • Hot-blooded Americans furnished military supplies or volunteered for armed service • The Washington regime tried to hold its neutrality III A War of Words with Britain (cont.) • Again it could not enforce unpopular laws in the face of popular opposition • A provocative incident on the Canadian frontier brought passions to a boil in 1837: – An American steamer, Caroline, was carrying supplies to the insurgents across the Niagara River – It was attacked by the British and set on fire – The craft sank short of the plunge, only one American was killed • This unlawful invasion of American soil had alarming aftermaths XIII The Mastering of Mexico (cont.) • General Winfield Scott succeeded in battling his way up to Mexico City by Sept., 1847 – One of the most brilliant campaigns in American annals: • He proved to be the most distinguished general produced by his country between the American Revolution and the Civil War Map 17-3 p371 XIII Fighting Mexico for Peace • Scott and chief clerk of the State Department Nicholas P Trist arranged: – For an armistice with Santa Anna • At a cost of $10,000 – Polk called Trist home, but he wrote a 65 page letter explaining why he could not come home – Trist signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, forwarded it to Washington XIII Fighting Mexico for Peace (cont.) • The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: • • • • Confirmed the American title to Texas Yielded the enormous area stretching to Oregon, the ocean, embracing California The total expanse was about ½ of Mexico The United States agreed to pay $15 million for the land and to assume the claims of its citizen against Mexico in the amount of $3,250,000 – (see “Makers of America: the Californios” pp 374-375.) XIII Fight Mexico for Peace (cont.) • Polk submitted the treaty to the Senate: – The antislavery Whigs in Congress—dubbed “Mexican Whigs” or “Conscience Whigs”— denounced the “damnable war” – Another peril impended: • A swelling group of expansionists were clamoring for all of Mexico • If America had seized it, she would have been saddled with an expensive and vexatious policing problem XIII Fight Mexico for Peace (cont.) • Victors rarely pay an indemnity: – Polk arranged to pay $18,250,000 after winning – Critics say Americans were pricked by guilty consciences – Apologists pointed proudly to the “Anglo-Saxon spirit of fair play” p372 XIV Profit and Loss in Mexico • As wars go, the Mexican War was a small one: – It cost 13,000 American lives, most taken by disease – The fruits of the fighting were enormous: • America’s total expanse was increased by 1/3 • It proved to be the blood-spattered schoolroom of the Civil War • The campaigns provided priceless experience • The work of the navy was valuable in placing a blockade around Mexican ports XIV Profit and Loss in Mexico (cont.) • The Marine Corps won new laurels and to this day sings in its stirring hymn about the “Halls of Montezuma.” • The army waged war without defeat and without a major blunder • Opposing armies emerged with increased respect for each other • Mexicans never forgot that their northern neighbors tore away about ½ of their country • Marked an ugly turning point in relations between the United States and Latin America XIV Profit and Loss in Mexico (cont.) • The war aroused the slavery issue that would not stop until the Civil War • David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced a fateful amendment that stipulated that slavery should never exist in any of the territories to be wrested from Mexico • The Wilmot Proviso never became federal law: – It was endorsed by the legislatures of all but one of the free states – It came to symbolize the burning issue of slavery in the territories p374 p375 Map 17-4 p375 p376 p377 ... Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny • The two major parties nominated their presidential standard-bearers in May 1844: – Henry Clay chosen by the Whigs at Baltimore – James K Polk of Tennessee chosen... public lands in the West – He could see no point of squandering federal money • Chastened Clayites redrafted their tariff bill: – They chopped out the offensive dollar-distribution scheme – Pushed... of Manifest Destiny: – A sense of mission, believing that Almighty God had “manifestly” destined the American people for a hemisphere career…(see page 366) VIII A Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny