Chapter 18

Manifest Destiny and its Legacy

1841-1848

The Accession of "Tyler Too"

Early in 1841 a lot of people craving the spoils system nearly took the life of President Harrison.

Henry Clay was the uncrowned king of the wigs and the ablest spoke man the wigs had.
President Harrison died four weeks after inauguration. (The shortest presidency term In the history of the US)

John Tyler: A president without the Party

The first thing that the wigs took care of was financial reform. They passed a bill that would take care of the treasury
The next thing that Clay did was to pass a bill that would create the new bank of the united states
But Tyler vetoed the bill passed by CLAY
Still Clay tried for a new Bill, "Fiscal Corporation" but yet Tyler still vetoed
By the time being Tyler was hated by the wigs and they even threaten him with death.
The wigs tried to pass the wig tariff which would bring extra revenue but Tyler vetoed it to
Later on Tyler did sign a tariff which was the same as the wig tariff but with some things cutoff. Like lower tariff 32%
Tyler later on signed it

A War of Words with England

Manipulating the Maine Maps

In early 1840's there was a dispute about the boundary of the Maine boundary
Lord Ashburton was sent to Washington to try and resolve the problem that was going on at that time
The Americans came out victorious when they got 7,000 square miles out of he 12,000 miles.

The Lone Star of Texas Shines Alone

Mexico refused to recognize Texas's independence
In 1839-1840 Texas made treaties with France, Holland, and Belgium
British had plans to get Texas and actually get Texas cotton, which would be cheaper and more secure than that of the US.

The Belated Texas Nuptials

Texas became important in the elections of 1844
In 1845 Texas became the 28^th state of America
Texas became harshly dangerous because with Texas the US would have to deal with Foreign affairs

Oregon Fever Populates Oregon

Robert Gray had stumbled by the Columbia River in 1792
Trough out this time most of the pioneers that were British and American had lived side by side peacefully
By 1846 about 5,000 Americans had settled south of the Columbia River
Mostly all that was disputed was a small portion of Oregon

A Mandate (?) for Manifest Destiny

The people believed that they were manifested by god and that they had to spread their uplifting and their ennobling democratic institutions over the hemisphere
The wigs weren't happy and they would make up lies about Polk
James Polk beat Clay at the election by 170-105

Polk The Purposeful

One of Polks goals was to lower the tariff, his secretary of state came up with a tariff that reduced the tariff from 32 % to 25%
Most of the votes on the tariff were for but because they came mainly from the south
Polks second goal was to restore the independent treasury
Polk third and fourth goals were to get California and to settle the Oregon dispute
The British were realizing that fighting over the Columbia river wasn’t worth a while
The settlement was agreed that the border line was going to be 49o
At the same time America was already in war with Mexico

Misunderstandings with Mexico

In 1845 the population of California was about 13,000 Spanish-Americans and about 75,000 Indians
America charged $3 million dollars in damage to Mexico which they acknowledged
Polk wanted to buy California from Mexico
Texas was in problems again. This time they were disputing the boundary of Texas
The Texans said that it should be the Rio Grande
Polk offered a maximum of $25 Millions but it was refused by the Mexicans

American Blood on (?) American Soil

On Jan 13 1846 Polk ordered 4,000 troops to mach down Rio Nueces where he wanted a showdown
Polk wanted to declare war for the following reasons (1)Unpaid dues and (2) rejection of Slidell's
On April 25 the Mexicans attacked the Americans. 16 dead and few wounded
By no means did Mexico wanted to sell CA so Polk had to use force to get CA

The Mastering of Mexico

The Dictator of Mexico Santa Anna double crossed his country
General Zachary Taylor won a few battles but in Feb 22-23 of 1847 20,000 men headed by Santa Anna attacked Zachary.
Zachary only had 5,000 men

Fighting Mexico for Peace

Profit and Loss in Mexico

The total cost of the war was not that costly. It only cost the lives of 1,300 American citizens.
But the fruits of the war were enormous
The war between Mexico was sort of like a school room for the coming CIVIL WAR