Bleeding Kansas

During this time, tides were turning against the Democrats and the Whigs. A new party was rising, the Republicans, or sometimes called the "free soil" party. It was called this because they opposed the spread of slavery. So the soil would be free....get it?! Huh, huh, get it?!

Another young politician from Illinois joined this party. Who was this man? This man was Abraham Lincoln.



You might want to remember Lincoln for later.

As you could probably imagine, a subject as controversial as slavery would result in some high tensions. Things got pretty violent and Kansas became known as "Bleeding Kansas".

Both pro slavery and anti slavery people were rushing to the new territory to have an affect on popular sovereignty.




The first election for the question of slavery took place in November of 1854. 1700 armed Missourians crossed into Kansas and threatened violence if they couldn't vote.



Because fear is a good motivator, a pro slavery delegate was elected.

Other fraud with the voting occurred so both sides decided to set up their own governments in Kansas.

This obviously will not work.

Kansas Nebraska Act

During this time, a senator from Illinois named Stephen Douglas was rising in prominence. He was just a little guy at 5'4, they called him "The Little Giant". Not to be confused with the football movie starring Devon Sawa.

A big issue that was dividing the North and the south...besides slavery, was a railroad. A railroad was to be built to connect California to the rest of the nation, but....where should the railroad begin?

The South thought New Orleans should be the location.


The North however, thought this was a terrible idea. They were afraid that the railroad would be used to transport slaves.

So Douglas thought that the city should be Chicago! He knew though that if he wanted it in Chicago something would have to be done to make the southerners happy. There was also that pesky little problem of the land to build the railroad on was not officially open yet.

This land was the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, Douglas introduced a bill that would open up these territories and the issue of slavery would be left to popular sovereignty, also known as, it would be up to the people.

But wait....



Remember the Missouri Compromise?! It banned slavery north of the southern boarder of Missouri. Both the Kansas and Nebraska Territories are north of the southern boarder of Missouri!!! OMG!


The South thought this was just a dandy idea, but they wanted more. They wanted the entire Missouri Compromise's limit on slavery repealed. The bill was passed in 1854. So, did the railroad go from Chicago to California?

No...in the shuffle of this bill the whole Railroad was forgotten until 1862.

The North was pretty unhappy about the Kansas Nebraska Act, in fact, they were irate.

So irate they threw chairs..


(I have no historical proof of this)

The Compromise of 1850

As we have discussed, slavery was kind of a big deal. The North saw it as an evil institution, while the South saw it as a necessary one. In 1850 there were 15 free states and 15 slave states, but adding California to the union would upset the balance.







So, what should be done? Should California be let in as a free state? What about the balance of power? They decided to settle the disputing with a bare knuckle boxing match...



No, no, no, actually, they chose to do another compromise.

The Compromise of 1850 consisted of the following terms:

California would enter the Union as a free state (Yay for free states!), the residents in the organized territory in New Mexico would decide if they would allow slavery or not, Utah would be set up the same way. This could be a big yay or a big boo to the free states.

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This put really harsh punishment on people who helped escaped slaves or refused to help capture them. And finally, the slave trade in Washington D.C. was banned, it sort of looked bad when the Capital of the country was used for selling off slaves...

So now that this compromise was settled, everything went smoothly until the end of time.

But really, it didn't...this was just the beginning...

The Mexican-American War

Texas functioned as a republic for 9 years while the United States talked of annexing it. Mexico warned the U.S. that if they annexed Texas, it would be a declaration of war.

So, naturally, Texas was annexed to the United States and Mexico wasn't very happy.

Polk was a huge fan of Manifest Destiny as we know, not only was Texas important for this idea, but he also wanted the land in between Texas and the Pacific coast, this land also belonged to Mexico.

Polk sent a messenger named John Slidell to Mexico to offer money for the land. When Slidell got there, no one would talk to him.


Slidell returned to the United States a very unhappy guy. He told Polk that the Mexicans need to be punished, then he laughed manically.



Meanwhile, back in Texas, there was a boarder dispute. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor down to keep his eye on things.

Taylor's men got into a bit of a fight with a group of Mexicans.


Even though the boarder between the United States and Mexico was in dispute, Polk used this incident to ask for a declaration of war on Mexico, even though a young member of the House of Representatives from Illinois questioned this action. He wasn't buying that Mexico had breached the boarder and wanted to know the exact spot where the skirmish broke out. This became known as the Spot Resolution, and that young representative was Abraham Lincoln, you will hear more about him later.

Despite Lincoln's Spot Resolution the Mexican-American War was on.

General Stephen Kearny left from Kansas and easily made it to New Mexico, he was kicking butt and taking names.

While Kearny was headed for California, a group of Americans declared California independent. They even had their own flag!


It had a bear on it, so it was cleverly dubbed The Bear Flag Revolt.

California was now in American hands as was New Mexico and another General, Winfield Scott decided to go straight for the heart.

General Scott led an army into Mexico City and captured it. After this, the Mexicans realized they couldn't win so they handed over the land and President Polk was happy.

Texas Independence

The Texans captured a fort called the Alamo in San Antonio. This made Santa Anna mad, so he took an army to San Antonio.

The Texans took shelter in the Alamo when they saw Santa Anna's incoming army.

They surrounded the Alamo and Santa Anna demanded they surrender. A man by the name of William Travis responded by firing a cannon at them.



The Mexicans responded with 12 days and nights of cannon fire. Eventually the Mexicans stormed the Alamo and killed all 200 of the defenders inside.

The Alamo is now a tourist attraction in San Antonio...and Pee Wee Herman traveled to this location in his movie, Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

Anyway....

While the Alamo was happening, a group of Texans were writing up a Texas Declaration of Independence and Constitution. They were really over being part of Mexico.

After a lot of fighting and retreating, the Texans and Mexicans met at San Jacinto. The Texans were victorious while shouting...


Not only did the Texans win at San Jacinto, they also captured Santa Anna and forced him to sign a treaty that ended the war and would also recognize Texas's independence. Also, for good measure, a regiment from Illinois took Santa Ana's fake leg.




Even though the Texans won, Mexico would not honor the treaty because Santa Anna was a POW (prisoner of war) at the time.

If you are wondering, Santa Anna never got his leg back, it is still in Illinois and can be viewed at The Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield Illinois!

The Texas Revolution

Mexico decided it was time to get a better handle on Texas.

Mexico halted immigration, put a high tariff on American imports, and banned slavery. Troops were sent in to collect taxes.



Even though the United States had previously dropped its claim to Texas, the Mexicans did not trust the United States.

The United States offered Mexico $1 million for Texas, Mexico refused. It was now apparent that the United States really did want Texas.

Things became tense, Stephen Austin was jailed, people were killed and to make things worse, new president Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana banned militias and then things got crazy.

The war started over a cannon. It was Mexico's cannon, it was probably a very nice cannon so Mexico wanted their cannon back. Texas refused to give it back and they decided to taunt the Mexicans with a flag like this...



The Mexicans attacked and the Revolution had begun.

Something Strange Afoot in Texas

The United States was growing and more places were being settled. Another place Americans were settling was Texas, but Texas didn't belong to us, it belonged to Spain.

Moses Austin approached the Spanish and asked if he could set up a colony in Texas, they agreed. Before the colony was officially set up though, Moses died. His son Stephen Austin (his friends called him Stone Cold) finished the colony for him.

The population of this colony was 1,800 which included 400 slaves.

Eventually, Mexico earned its independence from Spain so Texas was controlled by Mexico. They had no problem with these Americans settling in Texas as long as they did a few things. First, they had to give up their American citizenship, then swear allegiance to Mexico. They were also required to become Catholic and hold their land for at least seven years.

Of course, no one really did these things, how silly?

The Mexican government was a bit nervous about the settlers loyalty to America, so they sent in General Manuel de Mier y Teran to check things out.


The General went back to Mexico and told the government that they might want to do something about Texas.