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CHAPTER 6: SECTIONAL CONFLICTOUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYshould be accomplished by legal andpeaceful means. Garrison was joinedby another powerful voice, that ofFrederick Douglass, an escaped slavewho galvanized Northern audiences.Theodore Dwight Weld and manyother abolitionists crusaded againstslavery in the states of the old NorthwestTerritory with evangelical zeal.One activity of the movement involvedhelping slaves escape to saferefuges in the North or over the borderinto Canada. The “UndergroundRailroad,” an elaborate network ofsecret routes, was firmly establishedin the 1830s in all parts of the North.In Ohio alone, from 1830 to 1860, asmany as 40,000 fugitive slaves werehelped to freedom. The number oflocal antislavery societies increasedat such a rate that by 1838 there wereabout 1,350 with a membership ofperhaps 250,000.Most Northerners nonetheless eitherheld themselves aloof from theabolitionist movement or activelyopposed it. In 1837, for example, amob attacked and killed the antislaveryeditor Elijah P. Lovejoy inAlton, Illinois. Still, Southern repressionof free speech allowed theabolitionists to link the slavery issuewith the cause of civil libertiesfor whites. In 1835 an angry mobdestroyed abolitionist literature inthe Charleston, South Carolina, postoffice. When the postmaster-generalstated he would not enforce deliveryof abolitionist material, bitter debatesensued in Congress. Abolitionistsflooded Congress with petitionscalling for action against slavery. In1836 the House voted to table suchpetitions automatically, thus effectivelykilling them. Former PresidentJohn Quincy Adams, elected to theHouse of Representatives in 1830,fought this so-called gag rule as aviolation of the First Amendment,finally winning its repeal in 1844.TEXAS AND WAR WITHMEXICOThroughout the 1820s, Americanssettled in the vast territory ofTexas, often with land grants fromthe Mexican government. However,their numbers soon alarmed theauthorities, who prohibited furtherimmigration in 1830. In 1834 GeneralAntonio López de Santa Annaestablished a dictatorship in Mexico,and the following year Texansrevolted. Santa Anna defeated theAmerican rebels at the celebratedsiege of the Alamo in early 1836,but Texans under Sam Houstondestroyed the Mexican Army andcaptured Santa Anna a month laterat the Battle of San Jacinto, ensuringTexan independence.For almost a decade, Texas remainedan independent republic,largely because its annexation as ahuge new slave state would disruptthe increasingly precarious balanceof political power in the UnitedStates. In 1845, President James K.Polk, narrowly elected on a platformof westward expansion, brought theRepublic of Texas into the Union.Polk’s move was the first gambit ina larger design. Texas claimed thatits border with Mexico was the RioGrande; Mexico argued that theborder stood far to the north alongthe Nueces River. Meanwhile, settlerswere flooding into the territoriesof New Mexico and California.Many Americans claimed that theUnited States had a “manifest destiny”to expand westward to thePacific Ocean.U.S. attempts to purchase fromMexico the New Mexico and Californiaterritories failed. In 1846,after a clash of Mexican and U.S.troops along the Rio Grande, theUnited States declared war. Americantroops occupied the lightlypopulated territory of New Mexico,then supported a revolt of settlersin California. A U.S. force underZachary Taylor invaded Mexico,winning victories at Monterrey andBuena Vista, but failing to bring theMexicans to the negotiating table. InMarch 1847, a U.S. Army commandedby Winfield Scott landed nearVeracruz on Mexico’s east coast, andfought its way to Mexico City. TheUnited States dictated the Treatyof Guadalupe Hidalgo in whichMexico ceded what would becomethe American Southwest region andCalifornia for $15 million.The war was a training groundfor American officers who wouldlater fight on both sides in the CivilWar. It was also politically divisive.Polk, in a simultaneous facedownwith Great Britain, had achievedBritish recognition of Americansovereignty in the Pacific Northwestto the 49th parallel. Still, antislaveryforces, mainly among the Whigs,attacked Polk’s expansion as a proslaveryplot.With the conclusion of the MexicanWar, the United States gaineda vast new territory of 1.36 millionsquare kilometers encompassing thepresent-day states of New Mexico,Nevada, California, Utah, most ofArizona, and portions of Coloradoand Wyoming. The nation alsofaced a revival of the most explosivequestion in American politics of thetime: Would the new territories beslave or free?THE COMPROMISE OF 1850Until 1845, it had seemed likelythat slavery would be confined to theareas where it already existed. It hadbeen given limits by the MissouriCompromise in 1820 and had no opportunityto overstep them. The newterritories made renewed expansionof slavery a real likelihood.Many Northerners believed thatif not allowed to spread, slaverywould ultimately decline and die.To justify their opposition to addingnew slave states, they pointed to thestatements of Washington and Jefferson,and to the Ordinance of 1787,which forbade the extension of slaveryinto the Northwest. Texas, whichalready permitted slavery, naturallyentered the Union as a slave state.But the California, New Mexico,and Utah territories did not haveslavery. From the beginning, therewere strongly conflicting opinionson whether they should.134135