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As American settlers move west in search of more land to live on, they encroach on Native Americans and raise serious questions about slavery in new territories and states.
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In 1844, Democrat James K. Polk was elected to the presidency on a platform of acquiring new territory, whether by war or negotiation.
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The term “Manifest Destiny” was first used in 1845 by newspaper editor John O’Sullivan. Under this idea, the American nation and its people were entitle to all the land from Atlantic to Pacific, if not beyond.
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The Texas Republic was annexed by the United States on March 1st, 1845. Mexico still claimed the land that was now a part of the United States, and the annexation was the spark of the Mexican American war.
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A proposition by David Wilmot of Pennsylvania to ban slavery in any territories captured in the Mexican-American war.
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Thousands of settlers begin to travel by wagon West from Missouri to the Oregon country, in search of fertile lands to farm. From 1846-69, the Oregon Trail was used by as many as 400,000 traveling settlers.
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War between the United States and Mexico over the Texas Republic, which Mexico claimed and did not recognize. The war broke out when the United States annexed Texas into the Union.
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They treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo not only brought an end to the Mexican-American war, but also drew the boundary between the US and Mexico. The US gained 500,000 new square miles of territory, including land that would be a part of seven states.
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John Sutter tried to hide the discovery of gold on his land in California, but word got out anyways and soon tens of thousands of would-be miners were making the long journey from the Eastern US (and around the world) to strike it rich.
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In 1850, a series of 5 bills passed congress under the guidance of Henry Clay, a veteran of the Congress. These bills, known as the compromise of 1850, diffused the situation Over slavery in the new territory created after the Mexican-American war, which granted the US lots of new land.
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US purchases 28,000 square miles of land in a treaty negotiated by Ambassador to Mexico James Gadsden, in hopes of building a transcontinental railroad on a very far Southern route.
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Charles Sumner, a senator from New York, was attacked and caned by Preston Brooks of South Carolina, after Sumner made a speech highly critical of slavery. This highlights the tensions in Congress over slavery right before the civil war.
