When the United States annexed Texas and acquired what is now the American South
When the United States annexed Texas and acquired what is now the American Southwest through war with Mexico in the late 1840s, the issue of slavery took on a more divisive nature than ever before in the United States. People who objected to slavery saw the potential of its explosion across the new territories as a frightening prospect, and many stepped up efforts to keep the territories free. On the other hand, proponents of slavery saw this opposition as a dangerous threat to their profits, their constitutional rights to property, and their “superior” racial status. I am posting a PDF with four documents below highlighting key issues of territorial expansion and questions of slavery and race from the late 40s through the 1850s. Your assignment is to read each of the documents carefully– and then thoroughly and specifically answer the four questions below. Type and submit your answers in a Word document. Be sure to answer every part of each question, including numerous specific references to the documents and short quotes to illustrate your analysis. 1. How does John L. O’Sullivan refute claims that the annexation of Texas was an unrighteous military conquest calculated to increase and perpetuate slavery? And why does he believe the United States has a better claim to California than Mexico. 2. How did the residents of Middletown, Connecticut justify their insistence their determination disobey the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, while simultaneously saying that they “reverence law,” and “are the party of law and order”? Can someone both respect the law, and knowingly break the law? Why, or why not? 3. According to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney, were free African Americans eligible for citizenship in the United States? Why or why not? What type of rights and privileges did he say they have in the United States? And how does Taney answer those who say the Declaration of Independence suggests black people should be citizens? 4. What does Stephen Douglas insinuate will happen if Illinois voters elect Abraham Lincoln as senator in 1858? How does Lincoln characterize his own position on black people, and relations between whites and African Americans? How does Lincoln characterize the Republican Party’s current policies and long-term goal concerning slavery?