In 1844, the election campaign centred on the annexation of Texas and the two main candidates Henry Clay, who opposed the joining of Texas and James Polk who supported it, fought many hard debates. However, Polk won and just before he took the position the retiring president Tyler authorised the admittance of Texas to the United States in 1845. Polk was committed to the Manifest Destiny; this was a rising eagerness among Southern and Western Americans campaigning for territorial expansion. They spoke of expansion in a religious term, as though God had given them the honour of exploring America, and a right they should accomplish. However, the North did not agree and this caused further isolation between the two sides as the North believed it was a disguise for the real plan of just expanding slavery so as to increase the number of Southern slave states in Congress and to outnumber the North.
The United State’s annexation of Texas infuriated Mexico who still claimed control over Texas, however Polk wanted a war with Mexico which would hopefully result in the annexation of California and New Mexico. This was supported greatly by the southerners and western people in America as they felt new slave states would be formed from the new land. Mexico also owed the USA money and were not showing any signs of clearing this debt. James Polk tried to start a war, trying to get congress to use the unpaid debt as a reason, but Congress failed to fall for the bait but when 16 US soldiers were killed on Mexican territory Polk decided this was reason enough for war. Mexico lost the war very badly after peace negotiations in Guadeloupe Hidalgo and the USA ended up gaining California and New Mexico. In 1947 it was decided that the USA would keep this land including over a third of Mexican territory, and the USA would pay Mexico $15 million. The north did not agree with this war and did not agree with the existing gain, however the South wanted Polk to ask for more from Mexico, but so as not to alienate the North Polk changed his mind and didn’t.
The treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo was opposed by some of Polk’s own party, which was a sign that Polk was prejudiced on the side of the South. One opponent David Wilmot, proposed an agreement which suggested that all territory gained from the war should stay free from slavery, saying it would be used to protect jobs for white men and so there would be less competition for the jobs. This was put to congress and was almost passed with all Northern congress men voting for the idea and all Southern against. This led to the idea of the south seceding from the union completely. The debate over this idea shows how the slavery was amplifying the political gulf between the North and the South, as secession was suggested.
In order to bridge the gulf between North and South, the theory of popular sovereignty was suggested by Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas. They said that the answer to all the problems would be to let the individual territories about to become states choose whether they wanted to be free or slave states. Many thought this was a good idea and the fairest, but one such problem of this was that it inferred that the Missouri Compromise would then be unconstitutional as it shad said that all states North of the latitude line of 36 30 would be free and all below would be slave states. However, this really improved the problems between North and South as all became to a decision which everyone agreed on.
In 1848, James Polk renounce his position of President and an election followed, with the new President Zachary Taylor voted in. Taylor was a Southern slave-owner but was against the expansion of slavery into territories. However being a Southerner did not help his popularity with the South when he encouraged California and New Mexico to apply for admission into the union because the land was not suitable for slaves so they would then apply to become slave states. The south believed that they should be given compensation if the two states were allowed entry into the union as free states because it would then make the South unequal to the North, there were threats of secession if compensation was not provided. This feeling of betrayal by the President to the North widened the gulf more than ever before and physical fights broke out in congress. Due to this air of intense emergency, a compromise was needed, and in 1950, Henry Clay came up with the much needed arrangement to please both North and South on different things. California was to enter the Union as a free state, New Mexico and Utah were to choose whether to allow slavery or not. The Fugitive Slave Act was to be enforces, which was a law to ensure that any escaped slaves who had escaped to the North had to be returned to their owners in the South. This compromise calmed the mood as both sides realised that if they did not comply with the compromise the Union could result in breaking in two. This was a much needed reassurance and a much needed connection between both sides of the gulf and to try and reconnect the North and South.
With a new President, Franklin Pierce, the air was soon to change because Pierce realising his party was falling into two different groups and trying to hold it together, he decided to continue on with more expansion, his heart was set on Cuba, Spanish territory. Pierce wanted to buy Cuba first but once Spain would not sell, he unofficially, encouraged Senator John Quitman to take it by force. A number of missions were made trying to take Cuba, which all ended in failure, so in 1854, the Ostend Manifesto was distributed to Britain and France announcing that if Spain would not sell Cuba then America would be justified to take it by force. However, this secret manifesto escaped to the American newspapers and disgusted the North as they saw it a part of the Slave Power Conspiracy. After this disclosure, Pierce cut all contacts to it, but came out shamed by the North who saw it as unfair in favour of the South. The hopes of both Pierce and the South soon dwindled into nothing as the issue of expansion continued to increase the gulf between North and South.
One of the last examples of a cause of division between North and South in this period is the Kansas Nebraska Bill, this was a bill that planned that they could decide whether slavery was allowed in their state or not. Both Kansas and Nebraska, however, were above the Missouri Compromise line so should theoretically be free states. Stephen Douglas the author of the bill believed that Northerners would not mind about this detail as due to the arid land slaves would most likely not be taken to Nebraska, however they were more likely to in Kansas which he tried to ignore in his speeches. He also believed that the South would not mind if the states would get to chose because if they did choose slavery, then that was an area which has allowed slavery to expand.
The North, however were very unhappy as this bill opened the idea of all the new territories possibly becoming slave states. Some Northerners depicted the bill as a betrayal of the whole spirit of America as a land of opportunity and the American dreams of travelling west and making a fortune by labour as the allowance of slaves would mean that white people would have to compete for jobs.
On the other hand, the South, were primarily content with the Bill, but after the criticism of the North they became desperate to pass the bill for southern honour, a very important perception in the South. The Bill led to sectional voting and the bill was passed to the shock of the North. The 1854 elections caused the Democratic Party to suffer severely as the Northern Democrats thought their party was representing the interests of the South at their sacrifices.
Before the Mexican War in 1846, events had shown that expansion created grave dangers for the United States of America. Expansion could all too easily ignite sectional jealousy and result in confrontations. In 1849-50, some Southerners had even talked of leaving the Union all together. The 1850 compromise had succeeded in resolving the problems of the time, but not the underlying problem of slavery expansion.
