300 Chapter 11 Westward Expansion
February 1844, but before he could sign it he was
killed by the accidental explosion of a cannon on
USSPrincetonduring a weapons demonstration.
To ensure the winning of Texas, Tyler appointed
John C. Calhoun secretary of state. This was a blun-
der; by then Calhoun was so closely associated with
the South and with slavery that his appointment
alienated thousands of Northerners who might oth-
erwise have welcomed annexation. Suddenly Texas
became a hot political issue. Clay and Van Buren,
who seemed assured of the 1844 Whig and
Democratic presidential nominations, promptly
announced that they opposed annexation, chiefly on
the ground that it would probably lead to war with
Mexico. With a national election in the offing,
northern and western senators refused to vote for
annexation, and in June the Senate rejected the
treaty, 35 to 16. The Texans were angry and embar-
rassed, the British eager again to take advantage of
the situation.
Travis,Letter from the Alamoat
http://www.myhistorylab.com
The Annexation of Texasat
http://www.myhistorylab.com
Manifest Destiny
The Senate, Clay, and Van Buren had all misinter-
preted public opinion. John C. Calhoun, whose
world was so far removed from that of the average cit-
izen, in this case anticipated the mood of the country.
WatchtheVideoReadtheDocumentFor two centuries Americans had been gradually
conquering a continent. The first colonists had envis-
aged a domain extending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, although they had not realized the immensity of
the New World. By the time their descendants came to
appreciate its size, they had been chastened by the expe-
rience of battling the Indians for possession of the land
and then laboriously developing it. The Revolution and
its aftermath of nationalism greatly stimulated expan-
sion, and then, before the riches of trans-Appalachia
had even been inventoried, Jefferson had stunned the
country with the purchase of Louisiana, an area so large
that the mere thought of it left Americans giddy. And
now, after 200 years of westward expansion, Americans
perceived their destined goal: The whole continent was to
be theirs!A New York journalist, John L. O’Sullivan,
captured the new mood in a sentence. Nothing must
interfere, he wrote in 1845, with “the fulfillment of our
manifest destinyto overspread the continent allotted by
Providence for the free development of our yearly mul-
tiplying millions.”
The expansion, stimulated by the natural
growth of the population and by a revived flood of
immigration, was going on in every section and
with little regard for political boundaries. New set-
tlers rolled westward in hordes to fulfill their
manifest destiny. The politicians did not sense the
new mood in 1844; even Calhoun, who saw the
acquisition of Texas as part of a broader program,
was thinking of balancing sectional interests rather
than of national expansion.Life on the Trail
The romantic myths attached by
later generations to this mighty
human tide have obscured the
adjustments forced on the pioneers
and focused attention on the least
significant of the dangers they faced
and the hardships they endured. For
example, Indians could of course be
deadly enemies, but pioneers were
more likely to complain that the
Indians they encountered were dirty,
lazy, and pitiably poor than to worry
about the danger of Indian attack.
Women tended to fear their strange-
ness, not their actual behavior. One
reported that Indian men were com-
monly “guiltless of clothing.”
The greater dangers were acci-
dents on the trail, particularly to
children, and also unsanitary condi-
tions and exposure to the elements.InAmerican Progress(1872), John Gast depicts a feminized (and eroticized) America moving
westward, a school book in one hand, a telegraph wire in the other. Confronted with the
onslaught of “civilization,” the buffalo flee and the Indians cringe.