Soon after Santa Anna overthrew Mexico's democratic constitution and established a dictatorship. In the year 1853 Douglas suggested forming 2 new territories: the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory. Cession of Mexican Land and Manifest Destiny Achieved - Under the treaty, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas and ceded a large territory to the United States. When the Americans were still coming, the Mexicans were getting angry and this led them to start a war. Kansas-Nebraska Act: The nation came close to war after Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. South Carolina and six other states seceded: South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. The compromise also provided that the Louisiana Territory north of Missouri's southern border would be free of slavery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Missouri Compromise - In 1812, Senator Henry Clay convinced Congress to adopt the Missouri Compromise. It allowed Maine to be admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri to be admitted as a slave state. The compromise also provided that the Louisiana Territory north of Missouri's southern border would be free of slavery. It gave Southern slaveholders the clear right to prosecute escaping fugitives in “free” regions and return them to slavery. The Missouri Compromise revealed how many sectional rivalries divided the states of the Union. The compromise was balancing the interests of the North and the South. Southerners were unhappy that Congress had given itself the power to enact slavery laws. Many Northerners were angry that Congress had allowed slavery to expand to another state. When President Thomas Jefferson saw that the issue raised compromise, he realized it could tear the nation apart. As Jefferson was observing, bitter feelings about slavery posed a serious threat to national unity. In time the issue of slavery would definitively divide the nation in two. Mexico Becomes a Dictatorship - American colonists wanted more representation in the Mexican legislature. Some Tejanos hoped for a democratic government that gave less power to the central government. These hopes were dashed in 1833 when General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna became president of Mexico. Soon after, Santa Anna overthrew Mexico's democratic constitution and established a dictatorship. Stephen Austin urged Texans to rebel against the Mexican government. Texans declared independence from Mexico and created the Republic of Texas in 1836.Texas Revolutionary War - The Spanish governor of Texas gave Moses Austin a land grant to establish a small colony in Texas, in 1820. Thousands of Americans poured into Texas, soon coming into conflict with the Mexican government. The new settlers were Protestant, not Catholic, and many of the settlers were slave owners from the American South who wanted to grow cotton in Texas. But Mexico had abolished slavery. For a while, Mexico tolerated violations of its laws. Then, in 1830, Mexico banished more Americans, but the Americans still continued to arrive. Tensions rose as Mexico tried to enforce its laws banning slavery and requiring settlers to worship in the Catholic Church. Mexico also began imposing heavy taxes on American imports. When the Americans were still arriving, the Mexicans became angry and this pushed them tostart a war. Texas rejected the request for annexation to the United States - Sam Houston became president of the new Republic of Texas. He hoped the United States would annex Texas. But Republican opinion in the United States was divided. Southerners supported the annexation of Texas as a slave state. Northerners objected, but still hoped for western expansion. Both Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren refused to support annexation. Both feared that adding a slave state could spark a huge political fight that could divide the Union. Oregon Border and Texas Annexation Agreed - President John Tyler favored annexation of Texas but was not nominated for a second term. Clay hoped to avoid the issue of annexation, but Democratic candidate James K. Polk called for annexation of both Texas and Oregon. At the time Oregon was joined by Great Britain and the United States. Shortly after Polk took office, Tyler asked Congress to annex Texas. The convention of Texas delegates quickly met and voted to annex. The annexation of Texas had increased tensions with Mexico. Polk provoked a war with Mexico - Polk found that the Mexican government needed money He offered money to settle the Rio Grande border claim. He also offered to purchase California and the rest of New Mexico. Mexico was outraged and rejected the offers. They didn't want to cede more land to the United States. Polk then changed tactics. He hoped to provoke a Mexican attack on U.S. troops. He sent General Zachary Taylor south to the disputed land south of the Nueces. The Mexican saw it as an act of war. After Mexican troops ambushed the American patrol on the disputed land, Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war. Many Northerners claimed that Polk had provoked the war. Land Cession to Mexico and Manifest Destiny Achieved - Under the treaty, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas and ceded a large territory to the United States. This territory was known as the Mexican Cession, which included present-day California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In exchange, the United States paid Mexico $18 million. With the Gadsden purchase, the United States paid Mexico $10 million for a narrow strip of what is now Arizona and New Mexico. Manifest destiny was achieved. Compromise 1850 - In September 1850 Congress finally passed five bills based on Clay's proposal. This series of laws became known as the Compromise of 1850. President Zachary Taylor had opposed the Compromise. Then Taylor died in 1850. The new president Millard Fillmore supported the Compromise and signed the law. The Compromise of 1850 was designed to end the crisis by giving both supporters and opponents of slavery some of what they wanted. To further the Compromise they outlawed the slave trade in the nation's capital. Popular sovereignty would be used to decide the issue of slavery in the remainder of the Mexican Cession, but under the terms of the compromise. The Fugitive Slave Act was the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850. Many Northerners swore they would hate the new law. Northerners were outraged to see people accused of being fugitive slaves deprived of their freedom. An Indiana man was taken from his wife and children and given to an owner who claimed the man had run away 19 years ago, and a wealthy African American was brought back to South Carolina after living in New York for years. Kansas Nebraska Law - The nation came close to war after theCongress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The law was signed into law by Senator Stephen Douglas. He wanted to see a railroad built from Illinois through Nebraska Territory to the Pacific Coast. In the year 1853 Douglas suggested forming 2 new territories: the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory. Southerners immediately objected. Both territories were in an area closed to slavery by the Missouri Compromise. This meant that the states created from these territories would enter the Union as a free state. To gain Southern support, Douglas proposed that slavery in the new territories be decided by popular sovereignty. The Kansas-Nebraska Act nullified the Missouri Compromise. Just as Douglas hoped that Southerners would support the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They were sure that Missouri would cross the border into Kansas. In time, they hoped Kansas would join the Union as a slave state. Northerners were outraged by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They believed that Douglas had betrayed them by reopening the issue in the territories. After months of debate, the South advocates for the Kansas-Nebraska Act to pass both houses of Congress. Douglas predicted that, following the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the issue of slavery would be banished from the halls of Congress forever. Bloody Kansas: The Kansas-Nebraska Act left it up to whites to figure out whether Kansas would become a free country or a slave territory. Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery flocked to Kansas within weeks of Douglas' bill becoming law. Each side would have to make a firm decision when it came to Election Day. Thousands of Missourians entered Kansas to vote illegally in elections to select a territorial legislature. Even though Kansas had only 3,000 voters, 8,000 votes were cast on Election Day. The antislavery colonists refused to accept these results and called a second election. Kansas now had 2 governments, each claiming the right to impose their own rule on the territory. A pro-slavery sheriff was killed while trying to arrest some anti-slavery settlers in the town of Lawrence. John Brown, an anti-slavery settler from Connecticut led 7 men to a pro-slavery settlement near Pottawatomie Creek. When they were there they killed 5 pro-slavery men and boys. These actions sparked widespread fighting in Kansas. The violence was so bad that it earned Kansas the name Bleeding Kansas. The violence in Kansas spread to the United States Senate. Dred Scott - Dred Scott was a slave who had once been owned by a US Army medic. The doctor and Scott lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory. At that time slavery was illegal. After leaving the army, the doctor settled with Scott in Missouri. With the help of antislavery lawyers, Scott sued for his freedom. Scott was not a free man, he said for reasons. According to Taney, Scott had no right to sue in federal court because African Americans were not citizens. So Taney Said, simply living in a free territory did not make an enslaved person free. Taney declared that slaves were property and that property rights were protected by the United States Constitution. Taney wrote that Congress had no power to ban slavery in any territory. Pro-slavery supporters rejoiced at the Dred Scott decision. The decisions meant that slavery was legal in all territories. One of the Northerners who spoke out against the Dred Scott decision was an Illinois lawyer named Abraham.