--Tuesday 2-12 is our first essay assesment please come prepared with materials from class.
--Friday 2-15 your "Signers of the Declaration" assesment is due. Please make sure it is at least 1 typed page.
Have you been keeping up with your work? Assignmets are posted on Jupiter Grades for you to print!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Graphic organizer for Possible Thematic essay Topics
Use the following to group testing terms to create thematic essays. Some topics overlap.
INTERIM ASSESSMENT #2
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WESTWARD
EXPANSION
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AGE
OF JACKSON
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ROAD
TO CIVIL WAR
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CIVIL
WAR
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RECONSTRUCTION
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INDUSTRIALIZATION
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PROGRESSIVE
ERA
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IMPERIALISM
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Annexation of Hawaii HW
Read the following and answer the questions completely!
By the 1880s American business interests dominated the island’s
lucrative sugar business and had significant influence in Hawaii’s economy and
government. Angered by U.S.
domination, Hawaiian Islanders in 1891 welcomed a native Hawaiian, Liliuokalani, as queen.
Hawaii had the finest harbor in the mid-Pacific and was viewed as
a strategically valuable coaling station and naval base. In 1893, a small group of sugar
and pineapple-growing businessmen, helped by the American minister to Hawaii
and backed by heavily armed U.S. soldiers and marines, deposed [overthrew]
Hawaii's queen. They imprisoned the queen and worked to annex the islands to
the United States.
President
Cleveland ordered a study of the Hawaiian revolution, which concluded that the
American minister to Hawaii had conspired with the businessmen to overthrow the
queen and that the coup would have failed "but for the landing of the
United States forces upon false pretexts respecting the dangers to life and
property." The study proved
that the people of Hawaii had not sanctioned the revolution. And the report showed that American
businessmen had organized it.
But
Congress did not act to restore the monarchy and in 1894, Sanford Dole, who was beginning his pineapple business, declared
himself president of the Republic of Hawaii without a popular vote.
The
Republican Party platform in the presidential election of 1896 called for the
annexation of Hawaii. New Republican president William McKinley called for a
joint resolution of Congress (the same way that the United States had acquired
Texas). With the country aroused by the Spanish American War and political
leaders fearful that the islands might be annexed by Japan, the joint
resolution easily passed Congress. Hawaii officially became a U.S. territory in
1900.
1. How
did the U.S. get control of Hawaii?
Explain
2. Do
you agree with America’s foreign policy regarding the annexation of Hawaii? Explain
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Progressive Era Terms and presidents (T. Roosevelt and Wilson)
Progressive Era Terms
Standard Oil — A monopolistic oil company, founded in the late 19th
century by John D. Rockefeller, that controlled much of the production,
refining and transport of oil in the United States.
Progressivism — An American reform movement within both major political
parties, from about 1890 to World War I, that pressed for legislation to reform
many aspects of America’s urban and industrial system.
Hull House — The first
social settlement house in America. Founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Star
in Chicago in 1889, it served as a shelter and an educational center,
especially for children of immigrants.
child labor reform — One of the political and social goals of Progressives which
sought to regulate the age and the conditions of work for children.
Americanize — The act of
getting people of different ethnic cultures to change their ways by adopting
American culture.
Tammany Hall — First organized after the Revolution as a patriotic society in
New York City, it later became a political club and then the Democratic
political machine that controlled the politics of the city.
muckrakers — A term
first used by President Theodore Roosevelt to describe writers and journalists
such as Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair, who exposed the
problems of America’s industrial system.
The Jungle — A shocking, best-selling 1906 book written by Upton
Sinclair that addressed dangerous and unsanitary conditions in America’s meat
processing plants.
The Pure Food and Drug Act — A 1906 law passed by the Roosevelt administration that created
agencies to ensure that food and medicines produced by American corporations
were safe.
trust — During the
Progressive Era, the term used to describe a business monopoly.
trust-busting — A term to describe legal and court actions that attempted to
break up the trusts and to make monopolies illegal.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act — A law approved in 1914 that increased government regulation of
business, attempting to limit monopolistic practices by America’s largest
corporations.
Federal
Reserve Act — A law passed by
Congress in 1913 that created the Federal Reserve System, the United States central
banking system that regulates the nation’s money supply.
The Progressive Party — The political party founded by Theodore Roosevelt to enable
him to run as a third party candidate in the election of 1912.Also known as the
Bull Moose Party.
Plessy vs. Ferguson — A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896 that legalized
the segregation of the races through “separate but equal” facilities.
lynching — A
particularly brutal vigilante or mob killing of another person. Thousands of
African Americans were lynched in the South in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
Socialist Party — A political party in the U.S., founded by Eugene Debs in 1901,
that advocated that workers should own the means of production. Debs received
nearly one million votes in the presidential election of 1912.
Industrial Workers of the World — A union that believed that workers should own the means
of production but which also believed in using strikes and sabotage to achieve
their goal. The organization was
also known as the “Wobblies.”
Suffragists — Reformers, such as Susan B. Anthony, who worked to
obtain the right for women to vote.
Study Review for Quarterly Assesment (1/10-11/13) Thursday Friday Next Week
Name: ________________________________ Per:
________
UNITED
STATES HISTORY STUDY SHEET Interim Assessment #2
Manifest Destiny: the belief that it was the destiny of the U.S.
to expand its territory over the whole of North America
Monroe Doctrine: opposed the creation of new colonies in Latin
America
Louisiana Purchase: the acquisition by the United States of America
in 1803 of France's territory. The U.S. paid a total sum of 15 million dollars
for the territory. The Louisiana Purchase was the largest territorial gain in
U.S. history, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The
purchase doubled the size of the United States. The Louisiana territory
encompassed all or part of 15 present U.S. states. The purchase of the territory
of Louisiana took place during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. At the time,
the purchase faced opposition because it was thought to be unconstitutional.
Although he agreed that the U.S. Constitution did not contain provisions for
acquiring territory, Jefferson decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway in
order to remove France's presence in the region and to protect both U.S. trade
access to the port of New Orleans and free passage on the Mississippi River.
The Erie Canal: a canal in
New York that runs from Albany to Buffalo, completing a navigable water route
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal officially opened in
1825. It was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard (New
York City) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States. It was
faster than carts pulled by draft animals and cut transport costs by about 95%.
The lowered cost of shipping between the Mid-west and the Northeast brought
much lower food costs to Eastern cities and allowed the East to economically
ship machinery and manufactured goods to the Mid-west. The canal fostered a
population surge in western New York State, opened regions farther west to
settlement, and helped New York City become the chief U.S. port.
Mexican War: the war between the U.S. and Mexico, 1846–48
in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part
of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution. It was settled by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which gave
the U.S. undisputed control of Texas, established the U.S.-Mexican border at
the Rio Grande River, and ceded to the United States the present-day states of
California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts
of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. The US expanded to the Pacific Ocean.
Territorial Expansion and the Issue of Slavery: the westward expansion of the US escalated the debate over slavery- would slavery
expand to the West?
Sectional differences: economic
conditions and interests in each region varied
Homestead Act: a special act of Congress (1862) that made public lands in the
West available to settlers without payment. The intent was to grant
land for agriculture. A homesteader had to be the head of the household or at
least twenty-one years old. They had to live on the designated land, build a
home, make improvements, and farm it for a minimum of five years. Immigrants,
farmers without their own land, single women, and former slaves could all
qualify.
Andrew Jackson: 7th president of the U.S. 1829–37
•Spoils System: provide jobs to political
party supporters
•Nullification Crisis: In 1832, South Carolina declared that the
federal tariffs were unconstitutional and thereby null and void in the state of
South Carolina- a state had the right to ignore (nullify) federal laws it did
not agree with
Native American Indian policies (1800–1900): The United States was eager to expand, to develop
farming and settlements in new areas, and to satisfy land hunger of settlers
and new immigrants. The national government initially sought to purchase Native
American land by treaties. The states and settlers were frequently at odds with
this policy. As American expansion continued, Native Americans
resisted settlers' encroachment.
Native American nations on the plains in the west continued armed
conflicts with the United States. The age of Manifest Destiny came to be
associated with extinguishing American Indian territorial claims and removing
them to reservations.
- Indian Removal Act of 1830 was
signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. The act
authorized him to negotiate with the Indians in the Southern United States
for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in
exchange for their homelands resulting in their forced removal called The
Trail of Tears
- The Dawes Act ended communal holding of property by
Native Americans which had ensured that everyone had a home and a place in
the tribe
Popular Sovereignty: the people decide; the people living in a
territory should be free of federal interference in determining domestic
policy, especially with respect to slavery
The Missouri Compromise: kept
an even balance between the number of free and slave states
Kansas-Nebraska Act: the act of Congress in 1854 annulling the
Missouri Compromise, providing for the organization of the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska, and permitting these territories self-determination on the
question of slavery.
Dred Scott v. Sanford: a slave living in free territory brought a lawsuit
to have himself declared a freeman (1857) but was denied by the U.S. Supreme
Court on the grounds that a slave was not a citizen and therefore could not sue
in a federal court.
The Raid at Harper's Ferry: raid
on the Federal arsenal which was led by the militant abolitionist John Brown. This public attempt to end slavery terrified
slaveholders in the South.
William Lloyd Garrison: leader in the abolition movement.
Harriet Tubman: U.S. abolitionist: escaped slavery and became a leader of
the Underground Railroad
Harriet Beecher Stowe: U.S. abolitionist and
novelist; author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: an
anti-slavery novel which brought the evils of slavery into the national
spotlight and encouraged social reform
Election of Lincoln (1860): He opposed the spread of slavery into
the territories; immediately following his election, the South began to secede
Lincoln’s First
Inaugural Address: speech in which he states
his main national goal is to preserve the Union
The Alaska Purchase: the acquisition of
the Alaska territory by the United States from the Russian Empire in the year
1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate
Radical Republicans: Congressional
group that believed secession from the Union caused the war, and all those who
supported it must be punished.
They also believed freedmen must be given economic assistance and
guaranteed the constitutional right to protect themselves.
Thaddeus Stevens: leader of the Radical Republicans
Emancipation Proclamation: the
order issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in
those territories in rebellion against the Union.
Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan: offered amnesty (forgiveness) to nearly all Confederates
who would swear allegiance to the United States. He believed that the nation's wounds will heal most quickly
if the Southerners were forgiven and welcomed back into the Union.
Suspension of Habeus Corpus: Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus for
the duration of the war. That meant that anyone could be arrested at anytime. This an emergency action that went against the Bill of Rights.
The Battle of Gettysburg: was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the
town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the battle with the largest number of
casualties in the American Civil War and is often described as the war's
turning point
Carpetbaggers: opportunistic Northerners who flocked to loot the occupied
southern states; an outsider relocating to take advantage of locals
The Ku Klux Klan: a group that believed the Civil War had ended,
but the fight to preserve the system of white supremacy in the South must
continue
13th Amendment: prohibited slavery in the United States
14th Amendment: granted citizenship and equal protection to freemen
15th Amendment:
African-American men granted the right to vote
The First Transcontinental Railroad (1869): connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the
United States by rail for the first time. It served as a vital link for trade,
commerce and travel. The transcontinental railroad slowly ended most of the far
slower and more hazardous stagecoach lines and wagon trains that had preceded
it. The railroads provided much faster, safer and cheaper (8 days and about $65
economy) transport east and west for people and goods across the continent.
Industrialization: the large-scale introduction of manufacturing,
advanced technical enterprises, and other productive economic activity into an
area or a country
Railroads: furthered industrialization in the United States between 1865 and
1900
Robber Baron: owners
of big businesses that eliminated competition using ruthless methods
The Senate: was heavily influenced by big business
Monopoly: business organization that reduces business competition by exclusive
possession or control of the supply or trade in a product or service
Granger and Populist Movements: popular
movements that helped western
farmers fight unjust economic practices
Urbanization: the physical growth of cities as a result of rural migration and
even suburban concentration
New Immigrant Experience: immigrants from southern and eastern Europe in
the late 1800s and early 1900s who lived in urban areas and most held low
paying jobs
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: worked to secure the right of women to vote
Lucretia Mott: worked to secure the right of women to vote
The Temperance League: a social movement in which reformers urged reduction
of or prohibition in the use of alcoholic beverages.
Jane Adams: U.S. social worker and writer;
founder of Hull House; reformer (muckraker) of the Progressive Era who helped turn the
nation to issues of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, public
health, and world peace; helped the urban poor
Jacob Riis: photographer,
journalist and social reformer (muckraker) of the Progressive Era; helped the urban poor
How the Other Half Lives: book written by Jacob Riis documenting the
horrible living conditions in New York City slums and encouraged social reform
Neutrality: the policy of a nation that does not
participate in activities between other nations
Imperialism: the policy of
extending the rule or authority of a nation over foreign countries, or of
acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies
Reasons
supporting imperialism
- Find new markets for products,
new investments, more work for labor
- Creation of a modern
navy
- Belief in Anglo-Saxon
superiority
Yellow journalism: the type of journalism that relies on sensationalism
and shocking exaggeration to attract readers
Isolationism: the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the
affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic
commitments, international agreements, etc. and remain at peace by avoiding
foreign entanglements and responsibilities.
The Maine: A battleship best known for her catastrophic loss in Havana Harbor
on the evening of 15 February 1898. Sent to protect U.S. interests during the
Cuban revolt against Spain, she exploded suddenly without warning and sank
quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew. The cause and
responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry.
Nevertheless, popular opinion in the U.S. blamed Spain. The phrase
"Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for
action, which came with the Spanish–American War later that year.
Spanish-American War: the war between the U.S. and Spain in 1898.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the
U.S., which allowed temporary American control of Cuba, ceded indefinite
colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine islands from
Spain.
Annexation of Hawaii: the United States
Congress annexed the Republic of Hawaii to the United States and became the
Territory of Hawaii on July 7, 1898
The Preamble: is a brief
introductory statement of the Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding
principles.
Federalists and Anti-federalists: groups that debated the ratification of the
Constitution
Compromise: finding the middle ground; a settlement of
differences by mutual agreement
Articles of Confederation: an
agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of
America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first
constitution but it failed to give the central government enough power to
govern effectively
Constitutional Convention: took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United
States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation
following independence from Great Britain. Although the Convention was intended
to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many
of its proponents was to create a new government rather than fix the existing
one.
Virginia Plan: also known as the Large State Plan; proposed a legislative branch consisting of two
chambers with population-weighted representation- States with more people would have more
representation.
New Jersey Plan: proposed
a single-chamber legislature in which each state, regardless of size, would
have one vote
The Great Compromise/ Two-House
Legislature: created a Congress made up of a Senate and a House of
Representatives where representation in the Senate would be equal among states
but would be based on population in the House
The Federalist Papers: a
series of 85 essays to win support for the ratification of the United States
Constitution written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
Judicial review(Marbury v Madison): the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions
are subject to review (and possible invalidation) by the judiciary; the
Supreme Court can determine the
constitutionality of laws.
Separation of Powers: three branches of government (legislative,
executive, judicial) exist largely independent of each other, with their own authority
and duties; the power of one governmental branch balanced by the other two.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Rockefeller - Robber Baron?
The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller
"What a Funny Little Government!" Cartoonist Horace Taylor pokes fun at John D. Rockefeller in this cartoon which appeared in The Verdict, a partisan magazine of the day.
He was America's first billionaire.
In a pure sense, the goal of any capitalist is to make money. And JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER could serve as the poster child for CAPITALISM. Overcoming humble beginnings, Rockefeller had the vision and the drive to become the richest person in America.
At the turn of the century, when the average worker earned $8 to $10 per week, Rockefeller was worth millions.
Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)
What was his secret? Is he to be placed on a pedestal for others as a "CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY?" Or should he be demonized as a "robber baron." A ROBBER BARON, by definition, was an American capitalist at the turn of the 19th century who enriched himself upon the sweat of others, exploited natural resources, or possessed unfair government influence.
Whatever conclusions can be drawn, Rockefeller's impact on the American economy demands recognition.
Rockefeller was born in 1839 in Moravia, a small town in western New York. His father practiced herbal medicine, professing to cure patients with remedies he had created from plants in the area. John's mother instilled a devout Baptist faith in the boy, a belief system he took to his grave. After being graduated from high school in 1855, the family sent him to a Cleveland business school.
Young John Rockefeller entered the workforce on the bottom rung of the ladder as a clerk in a Cleveland shipping firm. Always thrifty, he saved enough money to start his own business in produce sales. When the Civil War came, the demand for his goods increased dramatically, and Rockefeller found himself amassing a small fortune.
He took advantage of the loophole in the Union draft law by purchasing a substitute to avoid military service. When EDWIN DRAKE discovered oil in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Rockefeller saw the future. He slowly sold off his other interests and became convinced that refining oil would bring him great wealth.
Waste Not...
Rockefeller introduced techniques that totally reshaped the OIL INDUSTRY. In the mid-19th century, the chief demand was for kerosene. In the refining process, there are many by-products when CRUDE OIL is converted toKEROSENE. What others saw as waste, Rockefeller saw as gold. He sold one byproduct paraffin to candlemakers and another byproduct petroleum jelly to medical supply companies. He even sold off other "waste" as paving materials for roads. He shipped so many goods that railroad companies drooled over the prospect of getting his business.
Rockefeller demanded REBATES, or discounted rates, from the railroads. He used all these methods to reduce the price of oil to his consumers. His profits soared and his competitors were crushed one by one. Rockefeller forced smaller companies to surrender their stock to his control.
Standard Oil — a Trust-worthy Company?
John D. Rockefeller had to perform a delicate balancing act to maintain his reputation as a philanthropist while living the live of a wealthy businessman.
This sort of arrangement is called a trust. ATRUST is a combination of firms formed by legal agreement. Trusts often reduce fair business competition. As a result of Rockefeller's shrewd business practices, his large corporation, the STANDARD OIL COMPANY, became the largest business in the land.
As the new century dawned, Rockefeller's investments mushroomed. With the advent of the automobile, gasoline replaced kerosene as the number one petroleum product. Rockefeller was a bona fide billionaire. Critics charged that his labor practices were unfair. Employees pointed out that he could have paid his workers a fairer wage and settled for being a half-billionaire.
Before his death in 1937, Rockefeller gave away nearly half of his fortune. Churches, medical foundations, universities, and centers for the arts received hefty sums of oil money. Whether he was driven by good will, conscience, or his devout faith in God is unknown. Regardless, he became a hero to many enterprising Americans.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Manfest Destiny - Make-up (Please Type and use evidence!)
Was manifest destiny justified?
The Case for Manifest Destiny
Supporters of Manifest Destiny were motivated by two beliefs: the nation's God-given destiny to expand its civilizing influence across the continent and the practical need to expand the nation's borders. Most advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that American society, being predominantly white northern European, or "Anglo-Saxon," and Christian, was more advanced and enlightened than other cultures. American novelist Herman Melville summed up that belief when he stated, "We Americans are the chosen people—the Israel of our time."Adherents to the ideal of Manifest Destiny asserted that, as the chosen nation, the U.S. had an obligation to mankind to expand its reach and spread its culture, bringing God, technology and civilization to the west. O'Sullivan had elaborated on that idea in an 1839 article:
The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High—the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere—its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens....Others stressed a more practical need for expansion. The U.S. was experiencing a big growth in population, they said, and the U.S. needed to expand to accommodate those people. Furthermore, they contended, expansion would make the new nation more secure. Many agreed with author and diplomat George Bancroft when he said: "The acquisition of California by ourselves is the decisive point in the perfect establishment of the Union." Now the nation rested on a "foundation that cannot be moved," he continued. In his inaugural address, Polk laid out further benefits:
None can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if Texas remains an independent state, or becomes an ally or dependency of some foreign nation more powerful than herself. Is there one among our citizens who would not prefer perpetual peace with Texas to occasional wars, which often occur between bordering independent nations? Is there one who would not prefer free intercourse with her, to high duties on all our products and manufactures which enter her ports or cross her frontiers? Is there one who would not prefer an unrestricted communication with her citizens, to the frontier obstructions which must occur if she remains out of the Union?Advocates of fulfilling the nation's Manifest Destiny argued that critics' concerns that expansion would weaken the union by stretching it too far had not been borne out. Polk asserted that the addition of new territories had in fact bolstered the Union:
As our population has expanded, the Union has been cemented and strengthened. As our boundaries have been enlarged and our agricultural population has been spread over a large surface, our federative system has acquired additional strength and security. It may well be doubted whether it would not be in greater danger of overthrow if our present population were confined to the comparatively narrow limits of the original thirteen States than it is now that they are sparsely settled over a more expanded territory. It is confidently believed that our system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our territorial limits, and that as it shall be extended the bonds of our Union, so far from being weakened, will become stronger.Other advocates simply subscribed to the romantic notion of moving west to establish new lives on the frontier. The very idea of Manifest Destinyencouraged men and women to dream about boundless opportunity, supporters said. Senator James Semple (D, Illinois), in debate in the House over Oregon, noted that in 1843, as many as 1,500 settlers traveled to Oregon "to reclaim this vast wilderness, and to unite, by civilization and human intercourse, the shores of the Pacific with the great West of the Union." Indeed, proponents pointed out, Manifest Destiny inspired pioneers to transform plains and fertile valleys into farms and small towns, helping to build up the nation.
The government not only had a divine right to expand its influence, supporters said, it also had a duty to incorporate territories to protect those American citizens who had settled there. Semple asserted that such expansion expressed the will of the nation to expand. "It is impossible for [the government] to overlook the expression of public opinion on this point, so emphatically and universally pronounced. How was it to act? Was it to allow Great Britain to exercise jurisdiction over its citizens?" he asked.
Whatever their reasons for seeking expansion, proponents of Manifest Destiny defended the government's right to acquire new territories, even though the Constitution did not specifically give it the authority to do so. Supporters were sometimes labeled as "loose constructionists," because they interpreted the Constitution "loosely" or broadly enough to say that, under it, land acquisition was an implied power of the federal government.
Overall, for supporters of Manifest Destiny, all factors indicated that the U.S. should push westward. Buchanan perhaps best summed up the national mood regarding expansion when he stated: "Prevent the American people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might as well command Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny."
The Case Against Manifest Destiny
Critics of Manifest Destiny rejected the idea that it was God's will or even a good thing for the country to expand when it resulted in warfare and the subjugation and mistreatment of native peoples. Expansionists used the concept to justify their cruel treatment of those peoples, critics asserted. ManifestDestiny, with its talk of the need to "civilize" the "savages" who occupied the west, was also blatantly racist, they asserted.Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing, in a letter written to former Senator Henry Clay (Whig, Kentucky) about the annexation of Texas, described the impact of Manifest Destiny:
[T]the Indians have melted before the white man, and the mixed, degraded race of Mexico must melt before the Anglo-Saxon. Away with this vile sophistry! There is no necessity for crime. There is no fate to justify rapacious nations, any more than to justify gamblers and robbers, in plunder ... We talk of accomplishing our destiny. So did the late conqueror of Europe [Napoleon Bonaparte]; and destiny consigned him to a lonely rock in the ocean, the prey of ambition which destroyed no peace but his own.Critics grew particularly incensed when the concept was used to justify wars of expansion. God would not destine a nation to kill and subjugate people, they argued. If the "war be right then Christianity is wrong, a falsehood, a lie," Congregationalist minister Theodore Parker asserted in opposition to the war with Mexico.
Many in particular portrayed the Mexican-American War as a land grab, aimed at the conquest of a vulnerable neighbor with little ability to defend itself. Critics argued that Manifest Destiny was used to justify imperialism, and that the U.S. would never have tolerated being treated the way it was treating other countries. Senator Thomas Corwin (Whig, Ohio) was a particularly strong critic of the war with Mexico. According to him: [See Senator Corwin Criticizes Concept of 'Manifest Destiny' (Excerpts) (primary document)]
Had one come and demanded Bunker Hill of the people of Massachusetts, had England's lion ever showed himself there, is there a man over 13 and under 90 who would not have been ready to meet him; is there a river on this continent that would not have run red with blood; is there a field but would have been piled high with the unburied bones of slaughtered Americans before these consecrated battlefields of liberty should have been wrested from us? But this same American goes into a sister republic and says to poor, weak Mexico, 'Give up your territory—you are unworthy to possess it—I have got one-half already—all I ask of you is to give up the other!'....Furthermore, critics asserted, overexpansion was a threat to the country; it risked spreading the nation's institutions too thin, they warned. "Possessed of a domain, vast enough for the growth of ages, it is time for us to stop in the career of acquisition and conquest," Channing wrote to Clay. "Already endangered by our greatness, we cannot advance without imminent peril to our institutions, union, prosperity, virtue, and peace."
Other critics echoed Channing's belief that the U.S. already had enough land, and should stop seeking more. Supporters of Manifest Destiny exaggerated the stresses of a growing population, they asserted. Corwin argued that the U.S. had enough land, and that it was not worth waging war for "room." He asserted:
Look at your country, extending from the Alleghany Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, capable itself of sustaining in comfort a larger population than will be in the whole Union for one hundred years to come. Over this vast expanse of territory your population is now so sparse that I believe we provided, at the last session, a regiment of mounted men to guard the mail from the frontier of Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia; and yet you persist in the ridiculous assertion, 'I want room.' One would imagine, from the frequent reiteration of the complaint, that you had a bursting, teeming population, whose energy was paralyzed, whose enterprise was crushed, for want of space.Opposition to Manifest Destiny was also strong among the "Conscience Whigs," a small group mostly from the New England states who saw expansion as facilitating the spread of slavery. That would only increase the tension between a precariously balanced North and South, they warned. In opposing war with Mexico, Corwin presciently claimed, "Should we prosecute this war another moment, or expend one dollar in the purchase or conquest of a single acre of Mexican land, the North and the South are brought into collision on a point where neither will yield. Who can foresee or foretell the result!"
Not only was Manifest Destiny morally wrong, critics argued, but its realization through territorial expansion was unconstitutional. Those critics, called "strict constructionists," maintained that the Constitution never expressly gave the country a right to acquire new lands, so the government did not have the right to acquire territory. That view had also been expressed by opponents of the Louisiana Purchase.
In short, opponents questioned both the ideal of Manifest Destiny and its practical consequences. "I spurn the notion that patriotism can only be manifested by plunging the nation into war or that the love of one's country can only be measured by one's hatred to any other country," declared Representative Robert Winthrop (Whig, Massachusetts) in congressional debate in January 1846. He warned of the "danger of fixing our views so exclusively on our own real or imagined wants as to overlook the rights of others."
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