Westward Expansion & the Sectional Debates Notes

Reasons for Westward Expansion

1. The idea of Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined by God to expand across the continent, drove settlers westward in search of land, opportunity, and national glory.
2. Economic motives were strong: new lands promised farming opportunities, mineral wealth (like the 1849 California Gold Rush), and trade routes that would link the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
3. Expansion was also encouraged by technological progress, such as the railroad, and government incentives, including the Homestead Act (1862), which offered free land to settlers.

Sectional Debates and the Question of Slavery

1. Every territorial gain reignited the central political question of whether slavery would expand westward. The Missouri Compromise (1820) and Compromise of 1850 tried to balance free and slave states, but both only postponed conflict.
2. The Compromise of 1850, negotiated by Henry Clay, admitted California as a free state, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law, and allowed popular sovereignty (local voting on slavery) in New Mexico and Utah, temporarily easing tensions but angering both North and South.

The Crises of the 1850s

1. The Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854), introduced by Stephen Douglas, repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed settlers in those territories to decide on slavery by popular sovereignty. This led to “Bleeding Kansas,”where pro- and anti-slavery forces clashed violently.
2. The Dred Scott decision (1857) declared that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in the territories, essentially making slavery legal everywhere and deepening sectional mistrust.