Texas Annexation Treaty example essay topic

Anthony Jones. King History 171 A October 31, 1997 WESTWARD EXPANSION The movement of people that has resulted in the settlement of America is one of the most fascinating and significant topics in the history of the United States. Nowhere else has an area of equal size been settled as a result of the initiative of small groups and individuals. Westward expansion helped stimulate the American economy. The first organized migration to California originated in Platte County, on the far western frontier of Missouri. Reports described California as 'a perfect paradise, a perpetual spring.

' The people of Platte County formed the Western Emigration Society, which sent out information about California throughout the Mississippi Valley (Wexler, 139). Several merchant and landowners were concerned about the number of prospective emigrants that they launched a campaign disparaging California. This act proved to be effective, in 1842 and 1843 relatively few emigrants followed the first migration to California. The first wagon train was led by John Bidwell, the organizer of the Western Emigration Society. Bidwell let the pioneers across the Rockies, a party of 69 adults and children who divided into two groups after crossing. One group headed north into Oregon, while the other, led by Bidwell continued west to California.

By 1842, the currency system of the Republic of Texas was in such dire straits that even the government would not accept red backs for payment of taxes. Other plans were attempted to get the republic fiscal house in order, but these plans achieved only slightly better results. However, as the economy in the United States improved and the Texas annexation movement gained momentum, currency in Texas slowly recovered some of its values before Texas was annexed in 1845 . Slavery was a big issue, many anti-slavery leaders came out strong against adding another potential slave state to the Union. The basic concerns were - war with Mexico and the division over slavery (Re mini). Clay argued against incorporating Texas into the Union when he was almost assured of the Whig Party's nomination for president.

In the election Clay, who hedged on his annexation position, was narrowly defeated by James Polk, a former Tennessee senator who ran on a strong expansionist platform (Bender 212). The Senate rejected the Texas annexation treaty submitted by John Tyler in 1844. Tyler resubmitted the issue for congressional vote again in 1845, he proposed that the two houses of Congress pass a joint resolution that Texas be annexed. Such a resolution required only a majority vote in both houses of Congress, which avoided the necessity for the two-thirds Senate majority vote required for treaty ratification (Bender 214).

The strategy worked, on March 1, 1845 Lame-duck President John Tyler signed the joint Resolution inviting Texas to join the Union. This was the first of this procedure to acquire a territory. The issue of whether to admit Texas remained divisive, with opponents of slavery condemning the admissions of Texas as a territorial grab intended to create a new slave state. Following the ratification of the treaty, some politicians felt the manifest destiny of the United States was to annex all of Mexico.

The territory gains between 1845 and 1848 were enough to satisfy all but the most zealous advocates of manifest destiny. John O'Sullivan criticized the opponents of Texas annexation. He went beyond the immediate issue of Texas to argue that it is the fate of America to grow to encompass much, if not all of the North American continent. O'Sullivan is credited with inventing the term 'manifest destiny' to describe his expansionist views for America. This phrase was coined in a New York Morning News editorial. (Wexler, 153).

The added territories gained from the war with Mexico caused the controversy over the question of slavery between the North and the South. Following the Mexican War there were bitter debates in Congress, in state legislatures and on street corners, until a temporary solution was reached with the Compromise Resolution of 1850. A resolution admitting California as a free state and allowing territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without reference to slavery. By the Compromise's terms, the boundaries of Texas would be adjusted and the United States would assume Texas' public debt. The last resolution involved slavery: That the fugitive slave law would be strengthened, but no slavery would be allowed in Washington D.C. Southerners argued that the arid lands of the West were not suited to cotton growing and a slave economy. However, the South extended its political control of the region.

They felt that if they could break the political control of the region, maybe it could break the North's hold on national leadership. Southerners argued that the North had no right to dictate to the government of the West when it was mostly Southern blood that had won the region. Northern abolitionist demanded that Congress ban slavery from the western territories, under the provisions of the Constitution that authorized it to 'make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States'. Moderates on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line proposed various solutions. The western border states advocated 'squatter sovereignty,' under which settlers in each territory would decide whether they wanted slavery. The question of slavery in the Southwest took on a new urgency.

As the expansionist eleventh President of the United States, James K. Polk was perhaps more responsible than any other single person for setting boundaries of what came the American West. Polk's ardent enthusiasm for westward expansion saved his career, gaining him the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1844. In his campaign the annexation of Oregon and Texas, although either measure might well mean a war, and once elected, he went on to implement his plan for expansion. Through a combination of military threats and diplomacy, Polk managed to arrive at a compromise with Great Britain in resolving joint ownership claims of Oregon set at the 49th parallel as the Oregon Territory's northern boundary. Acquiring the rest of the West was a bloody affair, and the newly admitted state of Texas was at the heart of the matter. As early as 1844, there was a call to build a transcontinental railroad that would transport goods from eastern factories and farms to western ports and to the Orient.

Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois advocated that the Indians be removed from the Platte Valley and territorial governments be established in Nebraska and Oregon, and a transcontinental railroad be surveyed, so that the United States could 'drive Great Britain and her ships and commerce from China' (3). As emigrants crossed the continent in search of new homes in California, relations between Mexico and the United States were steadily deteriorating. The breaking point was when Texas became the 28th state of the union on December 29, 1845. Texas became part of the Union with border disputes existing with Mexico. Polk hoped to settle the dispute peacefully. He sent envoy John Slidell to Mexico City with the authority to buy California and to settle the Texas boundary by assuming all claims against Mexico in return for the Rio Grande line.

The Mexican government found this unacceptable and refused the United States' offer of about forty million dollars for New Mexico and California (Wexler, 141). When US General Zachary Taylor led an army across the disputed area to the banks of the Rio Grande in 1846, Mexican troops attacked his units and killed sixteen of his men. Polk seized upon this incident as proof of Mexican treachery, and quickly secured a declaration of war from Congress. Although the United States ultimately defeated Mexico's poorly -- armed troops in some of the most destructive warfare ever witnessed to this time, the acquisition of the West was, ironically, little help to Polk. The slavery question had been linked to the war and darkened the nation's expansionist prospects.

Congress took up legislation that would prohibit slavery in all newly acquired territories. On January 24, 1848, James Marshall, a veteran of the Bear Flag Revolt, discovered gold on the American River at Coloma while building a lumber mill for John Sutter, in the lower Sacramento Valley. A brief report of the discovery appeared in a San Francisco newspaper in mid-March, where it went mostly unnoticed. By signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican- American War. The United States acquired an immense western territory stretching from Texas to the Pacific and north to Oregon, which included Upper California, Utah.

The United States gained 1.2 million square miles, virtually doubling its territory. The human cost for the United States was 13,238 killed and 4,152 wounded. (6) The United States agreed to pay $13 million for land and assume payment of $3.25 million in claims that American had brought against Mexico (Wexler, 210). The United States from the days of independence has adopted the project of extending its dominions, and since then, that line of policy has not deviated in the slightest degree. There is still considerable movement of people westward. In most respects the movement lost its typical characteristics when there could no longer be said to be a frontier line.