1844 Election Between James K. Polk and Henry Clay

While all presidential elections are crucial in terms of the outcome’s strong effect on individual citizens and changes in the overarching political system, the election of 1844 between James K. Polk and Henry Clay was essential in determining the future of slavery. At this time in history, slavery had become a very controversial issue with differing opinions across the country that were passionately supported on either side by important politicians. In this election, slavery became the central issue that created controversy and swayed the election results one way or another.

Citizens who felt that slavery should cease would react in outrage when Polk spoke about remaining supportive of slavery, while citizens in support of slavery would rejoice. Polk ultimately ended up winning the 1844 presidential election because the overall vote of the country showed that his opinions about both the future of slavery and the potential annexation of Texas were in line with the majority of citizens compared to Clay’s proposed plans for these issues.

This consideration of the annexation of Texas lead to a much larger conflict than the simple disagreements amongst citizens in the United States and actually caused a war with Mexico. Polk ultimately decided that the United States should take over Texas as American territory because he was in the process of overseeing the largest expansion of territory in U.S. history. In 1845, he affirmed that Texas should be taken over and there was a great dispute between Mexico and the United States about the specific boundaries of Texas.

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While the U.S. sent a representative to discuss a negotiation or solution with Mexican leaders, this attempt to purchase their cooperation was unsuccessful and a true war had begun. In 1848, a treaty with Mexico was signed after America won the war stating that the southern Texas border would be where the U.S. originally desired–the Rio Grande. These events, in combination with the annexation of California and southwestern territories, led to the breakup of the union because it created an active and growing imbalance between slave states and free states. When Texas was admitted to the union as a slave state and other territories–especially California–were coveted–it was clear that slavery would become an even more intense issue. Politicians attempted to make California a slave state, but the notion was rejected by Californians and the union completely split when conflict over this issue failed to cease.

President Zachary Taylor passed away of the stomach flu in 1850, which left his vice president, Millard Fillmore, to step in his place of leadership. This was an important turn of events because Fillmore was very passionate about having a compromise reached between the opposing sides of the country over the issue of slavery. Therefore, Fillmore’s leadership was incredibly instrumental in having the Compromise of 1850 passed, which allowed for a temporary truce to be established about the issue of slavery due to the way in which slave trade was abolished in Washington D.C. (Roediger, 2008). An additional part of the compromise was the Fugitive Slave Bill that required the arrest of runaway slaves seeking refuge in the North. In a direct response to this ineffective attempt to settle the conflict surrounding slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a novel that is infamous for its abolitionist efforts and its impact on the United States at that time. Her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was written to help draw one’s attention to the cruelties and violent realities of slavery to those in the North that typically did not see this firsthand (Roediger, 2008).

The Whig Party was a political party at this time that was put in place in opposition to the former president, Andrew Jackson, and democracy. The party experienced great weakening upon the deaths of Webster and Clay to the extent that conflict born out of the Compromise of 1850 was enough to break the party entirely. This was a direct result of the anti-slavery group gathering enough authority to deny the party its nomination in the election of 1852. Because of this, the Republican party was established as a new form of political views that were different than those of democracy. The Kansas-Nebraska Act established the freedom to decide whether these states would have slavery in their territory or become a free state–a repeal of the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Bleeding Kansas originated from the conflict surrounding whether Kansas should be a free or slave state due to its violent nature.

Not long after this, Buchanan was elected as the new president and made it clear that he viewed slavery as a terrible thing. Despite his negative views of slavery, he thought that it was a protected part of the United States Constitution. He put efforts toward maintaining peace over the issue, but they were mute. Amongst this turmoil, the infamous case of Dred Scott came to light, which involved a slave that wanted to sue for his freedom and that of his family’s. The ultimate decision was to deny him his right to sue for his freedom, which spoke volumes to the public on the support of slavery at the time. Considering this sign of pro-slavery nature in the U.S., an abolitionist, John Brown, attempted to take over and seize Harpers Ferry. This ferry was carrying an arsenal of U.S. weapons that Brown wanted the slaves to lead a revolt with.

The generational change between this time and the resulting Second Great Awakening cannot be separated, as that change was wholeheartedly cemented in this revival alone. This revival symbolized a lot of religious beliefs, but also harnessed an extreme view of abolitionist goals that really changed part of the country’s view on slavery. Abraham Lincoln was able to win the election of 1860 due to his stance on slavery in a time of U.S. society that was beginning to reject its use in the country as anything but negative. While there were still very many states and leaders that thought slavery was essential to America, this caused an even further rift between the North and the South. The confederacy embodied white supremacy because they were fighting for slavery to remain a key factor in U.S. society, which surrounds the idea that whites are superior to blacks.

They also used minimal government because it enabled smaller groups of confederates to fight toward their cause without direct influence or involvement with the actual government sector or its authority. Lincoln began to see that the biggest common denominator for the burgeoning war was slavery and, therefore, made the choice to establish the Emancipation Proclamation. Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Grant, and Sherman were all able to secure union victory because these sites all contained battles that were lost by the Confederates. Lincoln wanted to reunite the United States by returning the states that were formerly Confederate to the U.S., Andrew Johnson attempted this same goal by punishing leaders that supported and fueled the rebellion, and Thaddeus Stevens told states to send representatives to Congress pledging their loyalty to end slavery. In the end, the South finally was able to defeat these attempts of reconstruction when the Compromise of 1877 caused all remaining troops to be pulled out of the South.