Causes Of The Manifest Destiny

Superior Essays
The Manifest Destiny was a belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the American continent was justified and inevitable. However, it ended up being concomitant to the cause of the division of the nation. The North and South had different approaches to the slavery issues, which caused a major division in the nation. To resolve this disagreement, certain laws were put in place, but did it bring peace between the northern and southern territories? The Manifest Destiny began when President Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana in 1803 from the French government. The Louisiana Purchase included the area from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from New Orleans to Canada. This was a major purchase …show more content…
The Abolitionists feared that the new land/territory would be use to plant cotton which would bring forth the use of slaves. On the other hand, southerner’s slaveholders feared that abolishing slavery in the new territories would cause slaveholding states to lose power and votes in Congress. To address the slavery issues, the Compromise of 1850 was put in place to temporarily settle the dispute. The Compromise of 1850 was made up of five laws that covered the problems regarding slavery. After California requested to enter the union in 1849, the balance between free and slave states shifted causing a major drift in the union. To “bury the hatchet”, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington D.C. was abolished as part of the Compromise of 1850. California then entered the union as a free state. Another Act was passed to settle the boundary dispute between Texas and New …show more content…
With two branches of the government un-able to get control of the slavery issue, it was now up to the Supreme Court to decide. The time had come for the Supreme Court to decide exactly what the constitution say regarding the subject about slavery. The question was addressed in 1857 in the case of Dred Scott vs. Sanford. Scott sued for his freedom since he lived in what was considered free territory and state for a long period. The Supreme Court ruled that his stay in the Northwest territory did not make him a free man once he returned to Missouri. The Court also ruled that African American were excluded from the United States citizenship and was not considered to be a part of the “sovereign people” that makes up the Constitution. Lastly the Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not have the right to prohibit slavery in any territory therefore the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The northerners were not willing to accept the Court’s decision because they felt that it was dominated by pro-slavery

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    This completely undermined and contradicted the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which sought to phase out slavery in the expanding territories. Even Senator Douglas himself viewed the 1820 compromise as “a sacred thing, which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb.” But disturb it he did, to the outrage of all anti-slavery and free state proponents. The passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act also brought about violent conflicts and uprisings known as “Bleeding Kansas,” which pitted proslavery and free state activists against each other in bloody fights, which left 55 people dead. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2952.html The vote to pass Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the Democrats, with the North firmly against it and the South enthusiastically for it.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The manifest destiny was a belief that the U.S.’s destiny was to expand to the west; toward the Pacific Ocean and into the Mexican territory. Slavery became an essential issue between the north and the south civilians. The southern states support the expansion of slavery to the west because the slave owners asserted that slavery was essential to progress of civilization (Document 3). In addition, the south claimed, “slavery freed the upper class from the need to do manual labor, to worry about economic day-to-day realities, …gave them the time…to devote themselves to the arts and literature and mechanical advantages…” (Document 3) and expanding slavery toward west strengthened the “Slave Power” in front of the free states (Document 4).…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Dred Scott Court Cases

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Taney ruled that slave was not a citizen of the American so they had no right to bring their any disputes to the federal courts. Furthermore, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional because slave was personal property so Scott had never been free. The court also made a decision that the slavery could not be banned or deprived in the United State. All the decision to the Dred Scott case created a strong react for the American Public and antislavery groups because they feared that slavery would increase uncontrolled. These decision also damaged to the national unity especially the Northern and Southern.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    The years following 1850 proved to be a time of political turmoil in the United States. With slavery still being utilized in the South, it seemed that the Northern and Southern politicians would always be at odds. This opposition would always exist between the North and South so long as slavery existed. During the period preceding the Compromise of 1850 politicians were able to formulate compromises that barely appeased both sides. Eventually there was nothing else to do to satisfy both sides of the country.…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks, slaves as well as free, were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the country's territories (McPherson). The case before the court was that of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott, a slave who had lived in the free states of Illinois and Wisconsin before moving back to the slave state of Missouri, appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of winning his freedom. Scott traveled with his master, John Emerson, an army surgeon who was often transferred.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chap 13 What ideas did the term Manifest Destiny reflect? Did it cause historical events, such as the new political support for territorial expansion, or was it merely a description of events? For the next two decades, the professional politicians who managed the Second Party System avoided policies, such as the annexation of the slave holding Republic of Texas, that would prompt regional strife.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    First, Manifest Destiny was coined by newspaper editor, John O'Sullivan, and was effectively used to Justify many means of acquiring land in America after 1845. There are numerous examples as to how this was used, for instance, the Oregon treaty. Citizens began to migrate westward in search of new settlements, and many were found to be settling in places such as California, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas. Oregon at the time was owned by Great Britain, and when James K. Polk won the presidency in 1844, he began working to ultimately bring Texas into the Union as a slave state, and through the Oregon Treaty of 1846 and many negotiations with Great Britain, brought Oregon into the Union as a free state. James K. Polk declared war on Mexico because…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This compromise was composed of five laws that were proposed by Senator Henry Clay and passed in September of 1850. The five bills approved as statues by Congress were signed by President Fillmore: California was accepted in the Union as the 16th free state, governments in New Mexico and Utah were organized without mention of slavery, Texas received 10 million dollars in exchange of land it gained during the Mexican American War. It set the present geographical boundaries of the state, slave trade in Washington DC was abolished, but slave ownership continued, The Fugitive Slave Act was amended. In 1849, the state of California was interested in joining the Union, but this presented a slight problem.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Lincoln-Douglas debates, also known as the Great Debates of 1858, were a series of seven debates between two politicians running for the senate seat of the state of Illinois. The politicians were the republican nominee, Abraham Lincoln, and the democratic nominee, incumbent Stephen Douglas. The debates covered a series of topics, the most pertinent being the issue of slavery and its expansion into the newer western territories. The idea of the debates came forth after both Lincoln and Douglass had given speeches opposing one another in two of Illinois’ congressional districts. Lincoln and Douglas agreed to the series of seven debates in the remaining congressional districts: Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compromise Of 1850 Essay

    • 1860 Words
    • 8 Pages

    It stated that (for the North) California was to be admitted as a free stare, which also set off the “balance” of slave-to-non-slave sates, slave trade was to be prohibited in Washington D.C., and that Texas would lose the boundary dispute with New Mexico. In other words, the south got no slavery restrictions in Utah or New Mexico territories, slaveholding permitted in Washington D.C., Texas would get 10 million dollars, and the Fugitive Slave Law (authorized local governments to capture and return escaped slaves to their owners and had imposed penalties on anyone who aided in the slave’s flight) would be passed. The Fugitive Slave Law caused the most controversy, however. Though both the North and South benefited from the Compromise of 1850, the Compromise seemed to favor the North. This infuriated the…

    • 1860 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Territory expansion and manifest destiny When the 1830s through the 1840s rolled around the idea of having the manifest in the U.S. people didn’t feel as if it was the best decisions they had made. It went fast throughout the continents. They promoted it to further expansion of territory witch was close to the 1845. In around the 1846 the Oregon treaty ended with in the U.S.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sectionalism In 1820-1850

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Manifest Destiny was the creature that grew out of those ideas and as those ideas grew into an ideology, so did the racial justifications for exploring and conquering new land. For example, many Americans believed that white Europeans were the superior race to their neighbors: the Mexicans, Native Americans, and African Americans. The thought that these races are “unfit” to be a part of American society spread like wildfire throughout the states and helped give those people, mostly from the South, the justification that white supremacy in the United States was acceptable. This harmful stereotype that people of color were “less than” white Americans not only led to the integration of slavery in America but also contributed to the genocide of Native Americans through westward expansion. Therefore, manifest destiny was the stepping stone racist Americans needed to spread their ideas throughout the…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Not long afterwards, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 took place. This repealed the Missouri Compromise. Kansas and Nebraska were both to vote using popular sovereignty to decide on slavery. Both pro-slavery settlers and anti-slavery settlers rushed to the area to gain the upper hand of the states, resulting in absolute chaos. As a result states’ rights and Manifest Destiny played a role in the cause of the Civil War.…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Manifest Destiny is the ideology that the United States had the right to expand west by permission by God. This concept was the justification for westward expansion and was the cause of multiple conflicts between indigenous people and other countries. Most notable of these conflicts was the Mexican-American war. American settlers in Texas did not feel they had to abide by Mexican laws and ideas because God said they did not have to because the rules given to them are not from the United States, and thus not from God. The conflict between the Americans and Mexicans led to war.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Great Move (My opinion of why manifest destiny was a turning point in American History) American history has been debated time and time again. Everyone has a favorite time in history and often hold their own opinions about the events that take place. From the Declaration of Independence and the birth of America to the Revolutionary War that brought forth the great American dream, many things were innovated and changing. A new task, the task of moving west, started with Lewis and Clark and the great expedition that proved that moving west was in fact safe.…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays