US History

U.S. History Study Guide

Northerners pushed for the acquisition, since the admission of Oregon, a free state, would balance the annexation of slave holding Texas. Despite the public desires, Polk, once in office, could not commit to “fight” for the territory already caught up in border disputes withMexico. He did not wish to engage in further conflict and instead proposed a compromise with Britain. The 1846 Compromise divided the Oregon Territory along the forty-ninth parallel. South of this line lay U.S.-owned Oregon, and north lay the British-owned Washington territories. Oregon was admitted as a state in 1859. 10.28 Effects of Expansion: Sectional Tension Intensified The expansion of the U.S. into the West reopened a controversy that had been temporarily settled by the Missouri Compromise: the balance of slave holding versus Free states. Regional passions flared as the nation debated the extension of slavery into the new territories. In 1844, Congress repealed the 1836 Gag Rule, which had suppressed all debates on slavery, and disputed the status of the newly acquired territories. Texas entered the Union as a slave state in 1845 because the territory was already slave-holding when it sought admission. Since the other lands ceded by Mexico, including California and New Mexico were undecided, Northern and Southern interests rallied to recruit these lands to choose between to be a slave state or a free state. 10.29 Wilmot Proviso In 1846, Democratic Congressman David Wilmot attempted to prevent the debates that would erupt when the U.S. gained additional Western lands by proposing the Wilmot Proviso, which stipulated that slavery be prohibited in any territory gained from Mexico. With strong support from the North, the Proviso passed through the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate, where it was repeatedly reintroduced without success. The issue sparked intense debate. In the debates, four main arguments emerged: • Antislavery Northerners cited the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which forbade slavery north of the Ohio River, as proof that the founding fathers opposed the extension of slavery, and therefore that America should add no new slave states. • Southerners, led by John C. Calhoun, argued that all lands acquired fromMexico should become slave-holding. • Moderates, including President Polk, suggested that the 36º30' line from the Missouri Compromise be extended into the Western territory, so all territories North of the line would be free, and all territory South of the line would be slave-holding • Others suggested the system of popular sovereignty, in which the settlers themselves, through their local governments, would decide whether their regions should be slave-holding or free.

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