Manifest Destiny In The 1840s

The textbook suggests that Manifest Destiny of the 1840s, a product of American nationalism, was ultimately responsible for the territorial expansion that led to the Civil War. Comment on this by analyzing the issues surrounding the question of slavery in the territories as they emerged in the 1840s and 1850s. Why was it so difficult to develop a lasting compromise on this question?

The Manifest Destiny of the 1840s set the tone for the country. The Manifest Destiny was essentially made for people for the Anglo-Saxon organization and not really for anyone else. As a matter of fact, the Manifest Destiny, has been said, to initiate the hatred among different groups of people, and light to fire to the beginnings of prejudices.

The tone of

the Manifest Destiny began with the prejudices against the Native American people. As people from Europe started to come over to America, they started to push out the Native Americans. The newly discovered Americans wanted to the Native Americans’ lands, so they could settle into their new societies they founded. Unfortunately, the Native Americans, while they fought hard to keep what was originally theirs, ending up losing a lot of their land to the newly founded Americans. This, unfortunately, was just the beginning of the country’s actions.
A man named John O’Sullivan is accredited with much of the attitudes among American during the Manifest Destiny Era. O’Sullivan was a crusader, but for land. He wanted all the land, and he did not care who or what he destructed. O’Sullivan’s attitude, as well as his way of life, and his ideas where adopted by many of the Anglo-Saxon Americans during this time. O’Sullivan’s theories were used through the Mexican War, they were used to obtain California and other territories in the South and in the West. Due to the popularity, and the successfulness of the Manifest Destiny perspective, people were drawn to it.
As you learn about the Manifest Destiny, you can begin to see why and how it led to the beginnings of the Civil War. Firstly, O’Sullivan and the Manifest Destiny, allowed people to think, that America was a great country, and being one of the world’s most powerful because of the Anglo-Saxon White Americans. Which is so bizarre when you actually say that out loud, but that it literally what people thought. When it came to African Americans, they were not seen as actual people. African Americans were originally brought over from Africa, by means of ships, to be used. They were not brought over because the people of America thought they would have a better life here.
From the very beginning, African Americans were seen as property and pawns.

So, when African Americans began to migrate up to the Northern states, as slavery in the North became less in numbers, they were able to acquire some freedoms. While African Americans during this time would never be seen an equal to the Anglo-Saxon White American, in the North they were able to owe land, and build homes. They began to become educated to a certain degree and lived with their families. However, in the South, African Americans were not granted those amenities, in fact, African Americans in the South during this time, barely received a bar of soap from their slave

owners.
On November 6, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln took his oath as President of the United States, he really wanted to focus on issue that was severely dividing his country, slavery. As you already know, the South contested President Lincoln with everything he tried to do to help alleviate slavery. The South offered to become completely independent of the United States, and become their own country called, “Confederates States of America”, in order to avoid giving up their slaves. The South’s economy was run by slaves, and the political leaders, plantation owners, and every major businessman in the South was well aware of that fact. They all knew that if President Lincoln was successful in stopping slavery, their economy would crash.
However, as we all know, the South did not end up emancipating from the United States, and so the Civil War began. Four later after the War began, it ended, with the North coming out on top, and the South losing everything. The aftermath of the War was complete devastation for the South. They had no money, no supplies, practically no resources, and the South crumbled.
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of laws that were passed through Congress to help amend the relationship between the North and the South. California was to be given their freedom as a state. The Fugitive Slave Act was amended, and slavery in Washington D.C. was eradicated. As the laws had gone through Congress, two Senators who helped write the Compromise died, Calhoun and Webster.
After the death of the two Senators, the issues began to rise to surface with the Compromise of 1850. People began to pick apart the Compromise, and a Senator named Stephen Douglas in particular. He started hosting events where other members of Congress could come and vote on the parts of the Compromise they liked and parts they did not. Well, this began a huge mess. People start changing their minds, no one wanted to pass certain parts, while others did. This began the reason why it was so hard to settle in and have everyone agree and sign the Compromise.
Examine the strengths and weaknesses (both civilian and military) of the North and South as they faced each other in 1861. What did the South have to do to accomplish its goal? Why didn’t the South do it?
The North had come clear advantages over the South during the Civil War. The North’s population of people was much greater than the South’s. It was said the North had an estimated twenty-one million people, whereas, the South had a mere nine million people. However, much to my surprise, the South’s military size was almost equal to the North’s military during the beginning of the War.
The North also overpowered the South with the North’s industrial advantage.

The North had factories, and railroads that made the equipment and weapons necessarily for the military, and then they had the means to get the weapons and equipment to their soldiers throughout the War. The South replied heavily on the North, prior to the War, for much of their everyday supplies. It was an adjustment to say the least, when the War began for the South to not only manufacturer their own military supplies, but they also had troubles transporting the supplies to their soldiers, because they did not have means of transportation such as

railroads.
The South, however, was essentially fighting for their lives. They had so much to lose during the War, whereas, the North, while they were fighting for some major change, they were not necessarily fighting for their lives but for the lives of others. The South was fighting for their land, their economy, and their slaves, which was their means to the listed above. They knew that if they lost this War, they would lose their way of life, and their land.
The South’s argument for getting involved in the War was that they wanted their independence from the North. They felt suppressed by the North, because the North did not believe in their way of life.
The South’s strategy to accomplish their goal of independence was to force the North’s hand into negotiating their independence. They figured, that if they could attack the North in such a damaging manner, the North would have no other choices but to give the South what they wanted. While this seemed to be a solid plan for the South, the War took an unexpected turn and they could not accomplish their goal. The North won the Battle of Gettysburg and Vicksburg; these were battles the South had intended to win to obtain their goal. As the South lost these battles, they lost their plan to accomplish their goal.