June 20, 2024 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in our 26th episode of our Story of America Series, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, tells the story of a growing nation—and a divided nation—on the precipice of greatness and destruction from within.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, another installment of our series about Us, the
Story of America series, with Hillsdale College professor and author
of Land of Hope Bill McLay By. Eighteen fifty, a
seventy four year old America was in a period of
(00:32):
prosperity like we'd never seen before. But we were once
again embroiled in an old crisis. Something had to break,
But would it. Let's get into the story. Take it away. Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Looking back at the time before the Civil War, it's
easy to conclude that war was inevitable. It sure seems
that way when we're looking backward. But as the late
and great historian Dave McCullough once noted, the people that
lived at the time didn't know what was going to happen.
They were living in the present.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Their present, just as we live in ours.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
There were, however, several moments that did make the war
much more probable.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But before moving.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Forward with that part of the story, let's take a
step backward. Let's go back to the eighteen twenties, not
long after Mexico won its independence from Spain. It sought
to bring in immigrants from the American South to farm
(01:40):
and work the land, to populate the land. And they came,
and they kept coming. They were lured by this vast,
unsettled territory and the immense opportunity it provided.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
One of those.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Grants was the son of a banker from Missouri named
Stephen F.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Austin.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
He arrived with three hundred settlers and began what would
soon become a substantial wave of immigrants. Five years after
Austin's arrival, the number of American immigrants outnumbered the number
of Mexicans by nearly three to one. Mexico, trying its
best to slow the migration numbers down, could not stop
(02:27):
the steady flow of newly arrived American immigrants, and that
massive influx of migrants created conflict with the existing Mexican population.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
It was exacerbated by.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This strong cultural contrast between the Mexicans who were Catholic
and the Americans who were Protestants. Things began to come
to a head when Mexico's new government abolished slavery and
at the same time demanded that the newly arrived Americans
convert to make matters worth general and Onnio Lopez dis
(03:01):
Ana came to power with the goal of centralizing authority
and making himself a dictator, which he did in eighteen
twenty four when he abolished the Mexican Constitution and ended
the state legislatures. It would lead to the struggle for
Texas independence, one that would be led by Virginia native
(03:24):
and one time Tennessee governor Sam Houston. You'll notice these names,
Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston. These are people whose names
would become the names of major American cities in Texas.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Things didn't begin well for the Texas.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Santa Anna's army of six thousand moved rapidly against their
opposition and ruthlessly so following Santa Ana's orders to execute
all survivors. Those orders were followed with brutal efficiency and
an old Spanish mission in San Antonio named the Alamo,
(04:08):
where a small but courageous American force was slaughtered. The
town of Goliad was next, and four hundred prisoners of
war were massacred. Santa Anna, it turns out, was on
the edge of a big and very bloody victory, but
(04:31):
less than thirty days later, the American prospects would change
dramatically at the Battle of San Jacinto. Mostly untrained youit,
the volunteers, along with the small contention of Sam Houston's men,
would launch a surprise attack at a vastly larger and
better trained Mexican army. The battle lasted mere minutes, and
(04:54):
the Americans captured Santa Anna himself.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
In the fall of eighteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Six, Sam Houston would be elected president of a new nation,
the Independent Republic of Texas. This is why until this day,
Texans sometimes see themselves as part of their own country,
because it once was not long after that Texas voted
(05:24):
in overwhelming fashion to become a part of the United States,
and Houston, in his capacity as a nation's leader, made
an appeal to the US government. That appeal was not
given a warm reception by President Andrew Jackson. Jackson rightly
feared that adding Texas to the nation would enrage Mexico
(05:45):
and would inflame the slavery controversy. Martin van Buren and
Jackson's successor, also kicked the can down the road all
the way to.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
The eighteen forties.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
These were wise decisions by both presidents. Both men understood
that war with Mexico was just not an option. It
would disturb the uneasy piece at home on the slavery question.
All this was happening at a time when America was
(06:17):
and growing in its own national confidence in the westward
expansion of the country was a fundamental.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Part of that confidence.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
One journalist who argued for Texas to become part of
the ever expanding United States with a writer and journalist
named John O'Sullivan who coined the phrase manifest destiny.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
In modern American life.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The term is likely to be viewed negatively, and for
good reason. It's easily viewed as brash, arrogant. That's not
an entirely complete or accurate or fair picture, because, for
O'Sullivan and members of a movement called Young America, manifest
destiny was not merely about the acquisition of land. The
(07:03):
roots of the phrase were embedded in a kind of
American idealism that was born in the era of Jackson,
but had deeper roots going back to the very beginnings
of our nation and the longing and drama the generations
that came before him. That America was a city on
a hill and a land of ope.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
When we come back more of the story of us
our manifest destiny. Here on our American stories. This is
Lee Hibibe, and this is our American stories, and all
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
(07:44):
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life. If you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's
Hillsdale dot edu. And we returned to our American stories
(08:11):
and the story of our expansion into the West. When
we last left off, Professor McLay told us about John O'Sullivan,
the mouthpiece of a group of people involved in the
Young America movement that advocated for the nation to stretch
from sea to shining sea. Indeed, O'Sullivan would put a
name to this idea, manifest destiny. Here's Professor McLay now
(08:35):
to read the article O'Sullivan published in his Democratic Review
where the phrase was coined. Let's return to the stories.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The American people having derived their origin from many other nations,
and the declaration of National independence being entirely based on
the Great principle of human equality. These facts demonstrated once
our disconnected position as regards any other nation, that we
have in reality but little connection.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
With the past history of any of them, and still
left with all.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. On the contrary, our
national birth was the beginning of a new history, the
formation and progress of an untried political system which separates
us from the past and connects us with the future only,
and so far as regards the entire development of the
(09:37):
natural rights of man in moral, political, and national life,
we may constantly assume and our country is destined to
be the great nation of future.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
It.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It is so destined because the principle upon which nation
is organized fixes its destiny, and that of equality is perfect,
is universal, It presides in all the operations of the
physical world, and it is also the conscious law of
the soul, the self evident dictates of morality, which accurately
(10:19):
defines the duty of man to man and consequently man's
rights as man. Besides, the truthful annals of any nation
furnish abundant evidence that its happiness, its greatness, its duration,
we're always proportionate to the democratic equality in its system.
Government and now here's o'sullivant writing about the cruelties and
(10:45):
injustice inflicted upon mankind through the agents What friend of
human liberty, civilization, and refinement can cast his view over
the past history of the monarchy and aristocracies of antiquities
and not deplore that they ever exist? What philanthropists can
(11:07):
contemplate the oppressions, the cruelties and adjusted inflicted by them
on the masses of mankind, and.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Not turned with moral horror from the retrospect.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
America is destined for better deeds.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It is our unparalleled glory.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
That we have no reminiscences of battlefields, but in defense
of humanity, of the oppressed, of all nations, of the
rights of conscience, the rights of personal and franchisement. Our
animals describe no scenes of horrid carnage where men were
led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another,
(11:49):
dukes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in the
human form called heroes. We've had patriots to defend our
homes are liberties, but no aspirants.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
To crowns or thrones. Nor have the American people.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Ever suffered themselves to be led by wicked ambition to
depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that
a human being might be placed on a seat supremacy
in its magnificent domain of space and time. The nation
of many nations is destined to manifest to man time
(12:29):
the excellence of divine principles, to establish on earth the
noblest temple ever, dedicated to the worship of the most high,
the sacred, and the true. Its floor shall be a hemisphere,
(12:50):
its roof the firmament of the star studied heavens, and
its congregation and union of many republics, comprising hundreds of
happy millions, calling owning no man master, but governed by
God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood,
(13:10):
of peace and goodwill amongst men. These happy millions did
not include slaves. Tragically, now here's how he ended things. Yes,
we are the nation of progress of individual freedom, of
(13:31):
universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the sinosure of our
union of states, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality
of individuals. And while truth sheds its efulgence, we cannot
retrograde without dissolving the one and subverting the other. We
(13:53):
must onward to the fulfillment of our mission to the
entire development of the principle of our organization, freedom of conscience,
freedom of person, freedom of trade and business, pursuits, universality
of freedom and equality. This is our high destiny, and
(14:13):
in Nature's eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect, we
must accomplish it all. This will be our future history
to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man,
the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed
mission to the nations of the world which are shut
(14:35):
out from the life giving light of truth, has America
been chosen? And her high example shall smite unto death
the tyranny of kings, higherarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the
glad tidings of peace and goodwill. Where myriads now endure
an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of
(14:58):
the field. Who then can doubt that our country is destined.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
To be the great nation of futurity?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Oh? Wow, There was no doubt in his mind, no
doubt there were economic factors driving this concept of manifest
destiny and arrogance was most certainly at play considering the
many Native American tribes that wouldn't be impacted negatively by
(15:38):
this vision, and the African Americans that were somehow left
out of the picture entirely. But still these were remarkable
ambitions and ideals being advanced. And these are ideals that
would remain in place and be extended. But anyway, we
(16:00):
do have to see the whole notion of manifest disy
liked so many things as a mixture of good and bad.
In eighteen forty four, Congress passed the annexation of Texas,
and Justice Jackson had predicted. It led to real trouble
right away with Mexico that did not deter the newly
(16:23):
elected American President, James K.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Polk.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Indeed, even while negotiating with Mexico, he was preparing.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
For war, which won congressional proof.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Unlike the War of eighteen twelve, this war, at least
in military terms, was a huge success. By September of
the very same year, with great speed and precision, the
cities of Monterey Vera, Cruz and finally Mexico City itself
were captured. A group of marines raised the American flag
at the National Palace on September thirteen. This was the
(17:01):
Halls of Montezou that we hear in the Marine Corps
hymn remarkably too. At the very moment General Scott's soldiers
were occupying the Mexican capital, gold was discovered at Sutter's
Mill in California, prompting a massive gold rush that would
bring over three hundred thousand dreamers, prospectors, and miners into
(17:23):
the area, transforming the once desolate desert landscape into.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
A bustly thriving new state.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Indeed, the discovery of gold in California seemed to cast
upon the expanding nation a kind of divine favor.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
As historian Robert Johansson.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Would later note, it was almost as if God had
kept the gold hidden until the land came into the
possession of the American Republic.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
When we come back more of the story of us
here on our American stories, and we returned to our
American stories and the final portion of our story on
(18:13):
manifest destiny and the impending crisis over the expansion of slavery.
When we last left off, America had trounced Mexico, and
it acquired vast amounts of land in the West, New Mexico, California,
and so on. Let's return to the story. Here again
is Professor Bill McLay.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
The war would end with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
in February of eighteen forty eight, Mexico gave up its
claims to Texas above the Rio Grande River and seeded
California and New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
To the United States.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Added up America and acquired one million square mile. Comprehend
that number, it was an addition of nearly six hundred
and forty million acres of new land, which was by
all measures an astonishing number, as significant as Louisiana purchase
in its scope and impact. Only two years later, America
(19:21):
acquired the Oregon Territory and a treaty negotiated with Great Britain.
The dream of manifest destiny of a trans continental nation,
a nation spanning from coast to coast, had been fulfilled,
and with remarkable speed. America now was a nation truly
(19:42):
from sea to shining sea. America's future was as bright
and replete with opportunity, as much as it ever had
been in its brief history, and perhaps more so. This
did not change the deep divisions that slavery. In the
(20:05):
question of whether to extend the institution of slavery into
this vast new territory, or what degree to allow it
to expand, disrupted what had actually been a rather uneasy
peace in place since the Missouri Compromise of eighteen twenty.
Even before the war was over, efforts were underway to
control the impact it might have. Democratic Congressman David Wilmot,
(20:30):
who endorsed the addition of Texas to the nation as
a slave state, also proposed that Congress forbid slavery in
any of the new territories that America might acquire as
a result of a victory in our war with Mexico.
Called the Wilmot Provisom, it passed the House many times,
(20:50):
but was opposed by the Senate time and time by
Southern senators like John C. Calhoun, who insisted that slave
owlers had a constitutional right to take their slaves, who
were their property, anywhere they wanted, including any new territories.
It was, in Calhoun's and many Southerners minds, a direct
(21:13):
violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, that this
would amount to a taking of property without due process
of law. How could such a fierce division be settled,
particularly when it revolved around different interpretations of fundamental constitutional law. Well,
(21:35):
one I did it emerged at the time, was a
notion of popular sovereignty. This would allow the territories to
manage their internal affairs in a way that best suited
the needs and concerns of the people living in them.
It was seemingly an elegant solution of simple solution, a
preferred solution to the alternative, which was to keep the
(21:57):
debate going and get nowhere. The idea that decisions about
slavery could best be left to the people closest to
the situation was really in line with the whole idea
of self rule an American federalism. But that solution ran
up against an even more foundational principle, the Declaration of
(22:19):
Independence itself. But as often it happens, events brought the
issue of slavery to a head irrespective of what politicians
said or did. The gold Rush California had created an
urgent need for government that could establish basic law and order,
(22:42):
and General Taylor, himself a slave owner, suggested that California
should be admitted into the ever expanding nation and admitted
as a free state. Californians themselves had drafted a constitution
and created a state government prohibited slavery. Needless to say,
Southerners were shocked. They were shocked at Taylor's suggestion, believing
(23:07):
that a fellow slave oler would never turn against them. Moreover,
the addition of California as a free state, and a
huge free state at that would upset the balance of
power in the US Senate, the balance between slave and
free states. Southern states would now be in a minority.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
This would lead to.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Thoughts and even talks of Southern secession, real talks for
the first time about the South absenting itself from the Union.
Into this phrase step the great deal maker of the Senate,
Henry Clay of Kentucky, who put together a complex legislative
(23:50):
package that contained eight separate resolutions he hoped would settle
the differences between slave and free states. One of the
Senate's greatest debates followed. Clay and Webster favored to compromise,
while Calhoun and anti slavery Senator William Seward fiercely opposed
any compromise. It would take the great negotiating talents of
(24:15):
Illinois's Stephen A. Douglas, the Little Giant, to fashion the
deal everyone could stomach, and it would become known as
the Compromise of eighteen fifty. The planet is complex, but
here are the basic elements. It called for California's admission
as a free state popular sovereignty to determine the status
(24:37):
of slavery in the other territories acquired in.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
The Mexican War.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And there was also the matter of strengthening the Fugitive
Slave Act, which would require citizens of free states to
capture and return escape slaves to their owners.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
That was a crucial.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Aspect of the compromise, the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act,
because the Compromise of eighteen fifty had relegated the slave
states to minority status in the Senate. So the upside
for the South in this was a recognition and protection
by Congress of slavery as an essential part of Southern life,
(25:16):
a part that the rest of the nation had to respect.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Well, it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
The compromise didn't resolve the issue. It simply reduced the
tension that arose out of these great territorial gains, But
it didn't solve anything. That's so clear to us in retrospect,
but it was not clear to those acting.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
In history at the time.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
In their presence, and problems delayed can lead to greater
problems when finally confronted. Sometimes delayed it's the right path,
and sometimes it's a disaster. That's what statesmanship is all about, determining.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Which is the better.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Many abolitionists and moral reformers of the day, the anti
slavery proponents were seen as crackpot idealists, but the case
could easily be made that crackpot realism was a problem too.
The idea that the nation could endlessly postpone addressing itself to
an issue as fundamental as slavery and human bondage in
(26:29):
a nation that was predicated on the universal expression that
all men are created equal, that idea was untenable.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
And even obsurd.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It seems that way to us looking back. How much
longer could a divided nation withstand this division? The answer
to that question was soon to come.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Had a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery himself Hillsdale College graduate, and
his special thanks as always to Professor Bill mcclay's extraordinary
storytelling continues with the story of Us. He's a professor
at Hillsdale College, author of the Land of Hope and
the Young Reader's Edition. Go to Amazon and buy both
(27:15):
of them by two and read them to your kids.
They're terrific reading the story of us manifests destiny. Here
on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, another installment of our series about Us, the
Story of America series, with Hillsdale College professor and author
of Land of Hope Bill McLay By. Eighteen fifty, a
seventy four year old America was in a period of
(00:32):
prosperity like we'd never seen before. But we were once
again embroiled in an old crisis. Something had to break,
But would it. Let's get into the story. Take it away. Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Looking back at the time before the Civil War, it's
easy to conclude that war was inevitable. It sure seems
that way when we're looking backward. But as the late
and great historian Dave McCullough once noted, the people that
lived at the time didn't know what was going to happen.
They were living in the present.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Their present, just as we live in ours.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
There were, however, several moments that did make the war
much more probable.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But before moving.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Forward with that part of the story, let's take a
step backward. Let's go back to the eighteen twenties, not
long after Mexico won its independence from Spain. It sought
to bring in immigrants from the American South to farm
(01:40):
and work the land, to populate the land. And they came,
and they kept coming. They were lured by this vast,
unsettled territory and the immense opportunity it provided.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
One of those.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Grants was the son of a banker from Missouri named
Stephen F.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Austin.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
He arrived with three hundred settlers and began what would
soon become a substantial wave of immigrants. Five years after
Austin's arrival, the number of American immigrants outnumbered the number
of Mexicans by nearly three to one. Mexico, trying its
best to slow the migration numbers down, could not stop
(02:27):
the steady flow of newly arrived American immigrants, and that
massive influx of migrants created conflict with the existing Mexican population.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
It was exacerbated by.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This strong cultural contrast between the Mexicans who were Catholic
and the Americans who were Protestants. Things began to come
to a head when Mexico's new government abolished slavery and
at the same time demanded that the newly arrived Americans
convert to make matters worth general and Onnio Lopez dis
(03:01):
Ana came to power with the goal of centralizing authority
and making himself a dictator, which he did in eighteen
twenty four when he abolished the Mexican Constitution and ended
the state legislatures. It would lead to the struggle for
Texas independence, one that would be led by Virginia native
(03:24):
and one time Tennessee governor Sam Houston. You'll notice these names,
Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston. These are people whose names
would become the names of major American cities in Texas.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Things didn't begin well for the Texas.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Santa Anna's army of six thousand moved rapidly against their
opposition and ruthlessly so following Santa Ana's orders to execute
all survivors. Those orders were followed with brutal efficiency and
an old Spanish mission in San Antonio named the Alamo,
(04:08):
where a small but courageous American force was slaughtered. The
town of Goliad was next, and four hundred prisoners of
war were massacred. Santa Anna, it turns out, was on
the edge of a big and very bloody victory, but
(04:31):
less than thirty days later, the American prospects would change
dramatically at the Battle of San Jacinto. Mostly untrained youit,
the volunteers, along with the small contention of Sam Houston's men,
would launch a surprise attack at a vastly larger and
better trained Mexican army. The battle lasted mere minutes, and
(04:54):
the Americans captured Santa Anna himself.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
In the fall of eighteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Six, Sam Houston would be elected president of a new nation,
the Independent Republic of Texas. This is why until this day,
Texans sometimes see themselves as part of their own country,
because it once was not long after that Texas voted
(05:24):
in overwhelming fashion to become a part of the United States,
and Houston, in his capacity as a nation's leader, made
an appeal to the US government. That appeal was not
given a warm reception by President Andrew Jackson. Jackson rightly
feared that adding Texas to the nation would enrage Mexico
(05:45):
and would inflame the slavery controversy. Martin van Buren and
Jackson's successor, also kicked the can down the road all
the way to.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
The eighteen forties.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
These were wise decisions by both presidents. Both men understood
that war with Mexico was just not an option. It
would disturb the uneasy piece at home on the slavery question.
All this was happening at a time when America was
(06:17):
and growing in its own national confidence in the westward
expansion of the country was a fundamental.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Part of that confidence.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
One journalist who argued for Texas to become part of
the ever expanding United States with a writer and journalist
named John O'Sullivan who coined the phrase manifest destiny.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
In modern American life.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The term is likely to be viewed negatively, and for
good reason. It's easily viewed as brash, arrogant. That's not
an entirely complete or accurate or fair picture, because, for
O'Sullivan and members of a movement called Young America, manifest
destiny was not merely about the acquisition of land. The
(07:03):
roots of the phrase were embedded in a kind of
American idealism that was born in the era of Jackson,
but had deeper roots going back to the very beginnings
of our nation and the longing and drama the generations
that came before him. That America was a city on
a hill and a land of ope.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
When we come back more of the story of us
our manifest destiny. Here on our American stories. This is
Lee Hibibe, and this is our American stories, and all
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
(07:44):
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life. If you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's
Hillsdale dot edu. And we returned to our American stories
(08:11):
and the story of our expansion into the West. When
we last left off, Professor McLay told us about John O'Sullivan,
the mouthpiece of a group of people involved in the
Young America movement that advocated for the nation to stretch
from sea to shining sea. Indeed, O'Sullivan would put a
name to this idea, manifest destiny. Here's Professor McLay now
(08:35):
to read the article O'Sullivan published in his Democratic Review
where the phrase was coined. Let's return to the stories.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The American people having derived their origin from many other nations,
and the declaration of National independence being entirely based on
the Great principle of human equality. These facts demonstrated once
our disconnected position as regards any other nation, that we
have in reality but little connection.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
With the past history of any of them, and still
left with all.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. On the contrary, our
national birth was the beginning of a new history, the
formation and progress of an untried political system which separates
us from the past and connects us with the future only,
and so far as regards the entire development of the
(09:37):
natural rights of man in moral, political, and national life,
we may constantly assume and our country is destined to
be the great nation of future.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
It.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
It is so destined because the principle upon which nation
is organized fixes its destiny, and that of equality is perfect,
is universal, It presides in all the operations of the
physical world, and it is also the conscious law of
the soul, the self evident dictates of morality, which accurately
(10:19):
defines the duty of man to man and consequently man's
rights as man. Besides, the truthful annals of any nation
furnish abundant evidence that its happiness, its greatness, its duration,
we're always proportionate to the democratic equality in its system.
Government and now here's o'sullivant writing about the cruelties and
(10:45):
injustice inflicted upon mankind through the agents What friend of
human liberty, civilization, and refinement can cast his view over
the past history of the monarchy and aristocracies of antiquities
and not deplore that they ever exist? What philanthropists can
(11:07):
contemplate the oppressions, the cruelties and adjusted inflicted by them
on the masses of mankind, and.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Not turned with moral horror from the retrospect.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
America is destined for better deeds.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
It is our unparalleled glory.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
That we have no reminiscences of battlefields, but in defense
of humanity, of the oppressed, of all nations, of the
rights of conscience, the rights of personal and franchisement. Our
animals describe no scenes of horrid carnage where men were
led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another,
(11:49):
dukes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in the
human form called heroes. We've had patriots to defend our
homes are liberties, but no aspirants.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
To crowns or thrones. Nor have the American people.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Ever suffered themselves to be led by wicked ambition to
depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that
a human being might be placed on a seat supremacy
in its magnificent domain of space and time. The nation
of many nations is destined to manifest to man time
(12:29):
the excellence of divine principles, to establish on earth the
noblest temple ever, dedicated to the worship of the most high,
the sacred, and the true. Its floor shall be a hemisphere,
(12:50):
its roof the firmament of the star studied heavens, and
its congregation and union of many republics, comprising hundreds of
happy millions, calling owning no man master, but governed by
God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood,
(13:10):
of peace and goodwill amongst men. These happy millions did
not include slaves. Tragically, now here's how he ended things. Yes,
we are the nation of progress of individual freedom, of
(13:31):
universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the sinosure of our
union of states, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality
of individuals. And while truth sheds its efulgence, we cannot
retrograde without dissolving the one and subverting the other. We
(13:53):
must onward to the fulfillment of our mission to the
entire development of the principle of our organization, freedom of conscience,
freedom of person, freedom of trade and business, pursuits, universality
of freedom and equality. This is our high destiny, and
(14:13):
in Nature's eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect, we
must accomplish it all. This will be our future history
to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man,
the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed
mission to the nations of the world which are shut
(14:35):
out from the life giving light of truth, has America
been chosen? And her high example shall smite unto death
the tyranny of kings, higherarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the
glad tidings of peace and goodwill. Where myriads now endure
an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of
(14:58):
the field. Who then can doubt that our country is destined.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
To be the great nation of futurity?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Oh? Wow, There was no doubt in his mind, no
doubt there were economic factors driving this concept of manifest
destiny and arrogance was most certainly at play considering the
many Native American tribes that wouldn't be impacted negatively by
(15:38):
this vision, and the African Americans that were somehow left
out of the picture entirely. But still these were remarkable
ambitions and ideals being advanced. And these are ideals that
would remain in place and be extended. But anyway, we
(16:00):
do have to see the whole notion of manifest disy
liked so many things as a mixture of good and bad.
In eighteen forty four, Congress passed the annexation of Texas,
and Justice Jackson had predicted. It led to real trouble
right away with Mexico that did not deter the newly
(16:23):
elected American President, James K.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Polk.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Indeed, even while negotiating with Mexico, he was preparing.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
For war, which won congressional proof.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Unlike the War of eighteen twelve, this war, at least
in military terms, was a huge success. By September of
the very same year, with great speed and precision, the
cities of Monterey Vera, Cruz and finally Mexico City itself
were captured. A group of marines raised the American flag
at the National Palace on September thirteen. This was the
(17:01):
Halls of Montezou that we hear in the Marine Corps
hymn remarkably too. At the very moment General Scott's soldiers
were occupying the Mexican capital, gold was discovered at Sutter's
Mill in California, prompting a massive gold rush that would
bring over three hundred thousand dreamers, prospectors, and miners into
(17:23):
the area, transforming the once desolate desert landscape into.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
A bustly thriving new state.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Indeed, the discovery of gold in California seemed to cast
upon the expanding nation a kind of divine favor.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
As historian Robert Johansson.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Would later note, it was almost as if God had
kept the gold hidden until the land came into the
possession of the American Republic.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
When we come back more of the story of us
here on our American stories, and we returned to our
American stories and the final portion of our story on
(18:13):
manifest destiny and the impending crisis over the expansion of slavery.
When we last left off, America had trounced Mexico, and
it acquired vast amounts of land in the West, New Mexico, California,
and so on. Let's return to the story. Here again
is Professor Bill McLay.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
The war would end with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
in February of eighteen forty eight, Mexico gave up its
claims to Texas above the Rio Grande River and seeded
California and New Mexico.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
To the United States.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Added up America and acquired one million square mile. Comprehend
that number, it was an addition of nearly six hundred
and forty million acres of new land, which was by
all measures an astonishing number, as significant as Louisiana purchase
in its scope and impact. Only two years later, America
(19:21):
acquired the Oregon Territory and a treaty negotiated with Great Britain.
The dream of manifest destiny of a trans continental nation,
a nation spanning from coast to coast, had been fulfilled,
and with remarkable speed. America now was a nation truly
(19:42):
from sea to shining sea. America's future was as bright
and replete with opportunity, as much as it ever had
been in its brief history, and perhaps more so. This
did not change the deep divisions that slavery. In the
(20:05):
question of whether to extend the institution of slavery into
this vast new territory, or what degree to allow it
to expand, disrupted what had actually been a rather uneasy
peace in place since the Missouri Compromise of eighteen twenty.
Even before the war was over, efforts were underway to
control the impact it might have. Democratic Congressman David Wilmot,
(20:30):
who endorsed the addition of Texas to the nation as
a slave state, also proposed that Congress forbid slavery in
any of the new territories that America might acquire as
a result of a victory in our war with Mexico.
Called the Wilmot Provisom, it passed the House many times,
(20:50):
but was opposed by the Senate time and time by
Southern senators like John C. Calhoun, who insisted that slave
owlers had a constitutional right to take their slaves, who
were their property, anywhere they wanted, including any new territories.
It was, in Calhoun's and many Southerners minds, a direct
(21:13):
violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, that this
would amount to a taking of property without due process
of law. How could such a fierce division be settled,
particularly when it revolved around different interpretations of fundamental constitutional law. Well,
(21:35):
one I did it emerged at the time, was a
notion of popular sovereignty. This would allow the territories to
manage their internal affairs in a way that best suited
the needs and concerns of the people living in them.
It was seemingly an elegant solution of simple solution, a
preferred solution to the alternative, which was to keep the
(21:57):
debate going and get nowhere. The idea that decisions about
slavery could best be left to the people closest to
the situation was really in line with the whole idea
of self rule an American federalism. But that solution ran
up against an even more foundational principle, the Declaration of
(22:19):
Independence itself. But as often it happens, events brought the
issue of slavery to a head irrespective of what politicians
said or did. The gold Rush California had created an
urgent need for government that could establish basic law and order,
(22:42):
and General Taylor, himself a slave owner, suggested that California
should be admitted into the ever expanding nation and admitted
as a free state. Californians themselves had drafted a constitution
and created a state government prohibited slavery. Needless to say,
Southerners were shocked. They were shocked at Taylor's suggestion, believing
(23:07):
that a fellow slave oler would never turn against them. Moreover,
the addition of California as a free state, and a
huge free state at that would upset the balance of
power in the US Senate, the balance between slave and
free states. Southern states would now be in a minority.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
This would lead to.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Thoughts and even talks of Southern secession, real talks for
the first time about the South absenting itself from the Union.
Into this phrase step the great deal maker of the Senate,
Henry Clay of Kentucky, who put together a complex legislative
(23:50):
package that contained eight separate resolutions he hoped would settle
the differences between slave and free states. One of the
Senate's greatest debates followed. Clay and Webster favored to compromise,
while Calhoun and anti slavery Senator William Seward fiercely opposed
any compromise. It would take the great negotiating talents of
(24:15):
Illinois's Stephen A. Douglas, the Little Giant, to fashion the
deal everyone could stomach, and it would become known as
the Compromise of eighteen fifty. The planet is complex, but
here are the basic elements. It called for California's admission
as a free state popular sovereignty to determine the status
(24:37):
of slavery in the other territories acquired in.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
The Mexican War.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And there was also the matter of strengthening the Fugitive
Slave Act, which would require citizens of free states to
capture and return escape slaves to their owners.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
That was a crucial.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Aspect of the compromise, the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act,
because the Compromise of eighteen fifty had relegated the slave
states to minority status in the Senate. So the upside
for the South in this was a recognition and protection
by Congress of slavery as an essential part of Southern life,
(25:16):
a part that the rest of the nation had to respect.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Well, it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
The compromise didn't resolve the issue. It simply reduced the
tension that arose out of these great territorial gains, But
it didn't solve anything. That's so clear to us in retrospect,
but it was not clear to those acting.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
In history at the time.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
In their presence, and problems delayed can lead to greater
problems when finally confronted. Sometimes delayed it's the right path,
and sometimes it's a disaster. That's what statesmanship is all about, determining.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Which is the better.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Many abolitionists and moral reformers of the day, the anti
slavery proponents were seen as crackpot idealists, but the case
could easily be made that crackpot realism was a problem too.
The idea that the nation could endlessly postpone addressing itself to
an issue as fundamental as slavery and human bondage in
(26:29):
a nation that was predicated on the universal expression that
all men are created equal, that idea was untenable.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
And even obsurd.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It seems that way to us looking back. How much
longer could a divided nation withstand this division? The answer
to that question was soon to come.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Had a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery himself Hillsdale College graduate, and
his special thanks as always to Professor Bill mcclay's extraordinary
storytelling continues with the story of Us. He's a professor
at Hillsdale College, author of the Land of Hope and
the Young Reader's Edition. Go to Amazon and buy both
(27:15):
of them by two and read them to your kids.
They're terrific reading the story of us manifests destiny. Here
on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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