WEBVTT 00:13.200 --> 00:16.500 Professor David Blight: If you haven't noticed, 00:16.501 --> 00:19.741 at the back of my edition of Douglass's narrative, 00:19.740 --> 00:23.360 which is the one I'm hoping you are using--. 00:23.360 --> 00:27.000 00:27.000 --> 00:35.010 Come on down, in, quickly. 00:35.010 --> 00:41.390 Anyway, if you haven't noticed, at the back of this edition of 00:41.392 --> 00:47.782 Douglass's narrative there are not only a variety of ancillary 00:47.775 --> 00:52.955 documents, Douglass's greatest speech is 00:52.957 --> 00:56.557 also included. A word on that. 00:56.560 --> 00:58.470 It's Douglass's 4^(th) of July Speech. 00:58.470 --> 01:03.040 If you've never read it, you should read it. 01:03.039 --> 01:06.119 It is the rhetorical masterpiece of American 01:06.116 --> 01:09.046 abolitionism, one of the greatest works of 01:09.050 --> 01:11.340 oratory in American history. 01:11.340 --> 01:15.560 It was Frederick Douglass as Beethoven on steroids, 01:15.561 --> 01:17.251 but with language. 01:17.250 --> 01:20.290 01:20.290 --> 01:23.580 It's like a symphony in three movements; 01:23.580 --> 01:28.610 I say that in a little head-note introduction to it. 01:28.610 --> 01:31.640 He gave that speech in 1852. 01:31.640 --> 01:35.630 I may refer to it at the end of this lecture, 01:35.632 --> 01:37.812 depending on the time. 01:37.810 --> 01:41.740 It is all about the crisis that has gripped the country in the 01:41.736 --> 01:45.636 wake of the Compromise of 1850, in the midst of this expansion 01:45.638 --> 01:48.718 of slavery into the West, and the way it has begun to 01:48.720 --> 01:51.210 tear apart America's political culture. 01:51.209 --> 01:55.179 And on the 4^(th) of July, amidst his friends in 01:55.181 --> 01:59.491 Rochester, New York, he's invited to give the 4^(th) 01:59.490 --> 02:04.080 of July oration. He says "thank you very much." 02:04.079 --> 02:08.069 The invitation was from the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of 02:08.069 --> 02:11.779 Rochester, New York, many of whom were his friends. 02:11.780 --> 02:14.970 02:14.969 --> 02:17.809 He gave the address in the house of his friends, 02:17.807 --> 02:21.367 Corinthian Hall in Rochester, 600 people in the audience; 02:21.370 --> 02:25.570 double, more than double your numbers. 02:25.569 --> 02:29.999 Read that speech because it's as if Douglass, 02:29.995 --> 02:35.325 after that first opening, gentle introduction where he 02:35.326 --> 02:41.356 sets his audience at ease about the greatness of the Founding 02:41.361 --> 02:44.831 Fathers, the genius of the Declaration 02:44.826 --> 02:48.586 of Independence--he calls it the ring-bolt of American 02:48.585 --> 02:51.655 independence, the ring-bolt of American 02:51.655 --> 02:54.045 identity. He just makes them feel good 02:54.045 --> 02:55.195 about the founders. 02:55.200 --> 02:59.010 02:59.009 --> 03:02.369 And then it's as if he has a staff bolting the doors around 03:02.373 --> 03:05.913 the hall, and then he's got a staff riveting people into their 03:05.910 --> 03:09.260 seats, puts metaphorical seatbelts on 03:09.256 --> 03:13.126 them and says, "you won't move until I rain 03:13.130 --> 03:17.650 Hell down on you for the next twenty minutes." 03:17.650 --> 03:18.580 Which is what he did. 03:18.580 --> 03:23.060 03:23.060 --> 03:26.460 And he says, in effect--he says more than in 03:26.462 --> 03:30.342 effect, he says it directly--"why have you invited 03:30.340 --> 03:34.060 me to speak to you on your Fourth of July?" 03:34.060 --> 03:35.700 And he just rains the pronouns on them: you, 03:35.697 --> 03:36.877 you, you, you, your, your, your, 03:36.877 --> 03:38.317 your. "The Fourth of July is yours 03:38.319 --> 03:39.819 and not mine; you may rejoice, 03:39.824 --> 03:42.094 I must mourn," and on and on he goes. 03:42.090 --> 03:45.130 03:45.129 --> 03:49.719 And then there's the moment, one of the most brilliant 03:49.719 --> 03:53.269 rhetorical moments in American letters, 03:53.270 --> 03:56.910 in my view, certainly in abolitionist writing, 03:56.909 --> 04:01.519 where he doesn't even announce his text to his well rooted 04:01.520 --> 04:03.300 Biblical audience, 04:03.300 --> 04:08.060 04:08.060 --> 04:10.030 and he says, after raining down on them this 04:10.027 --> 04:12.357 long passage about--"the Fourth of July is yours, 04:12.360 --> 04:14.060 you may rejoice, I must mourn, 04:14.063 --> 04:17.593 to drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of 04:17.586 --> 04:21.106 liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, 04:21.110 --> 04:24.400 is inhuman mockery," he says. 04:24.399 --> 04:27.869 And then he just floats, without announcing his text, 04:27.866 --> 04:29.596 into the 137^(th) Psalm. 04:29.600 --> 04:34.010 04:34.009 --> 04:37.629 And he simply reads: "By the rivers of Babylon there 04:37.634 --> 04:41.294 we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered 04:41.285 --> 04:44.085 Zion. We hanged our harps upon the 04:44.087 --> 04:48.907 willows in the midst thereof, for there they that carried us 04:48.906 --> 04:52.006 away captive required of us a song, 04:52.009 --> 04:55.339 and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying 'sing us one 04:55.341 --> 04:56.611 of the songs of Zion.' 04:56.610 --> 05:01.190 How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? 05:01.189 --> 05:05.359 If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her 05:05.357 --> 05:09.597 cunning, if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to 05:09.598 --> 05:11.498 the roof of my mouth." 05:11.500 --> 05:17.050 What has Douglass just done to his friendly audience? 05:17.050 --> 05:19.950 He's used one of the most famous passages in the Bible. 05:19.949 --> 05:21.939 His audience would've known that passage. 05:21.939 --> 05:25.019 People wouldn't today, in most circles. 05:25.019 --> 05:30.919 "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down." 05:30.920 --> 05:36.170 We were the captives from Egypt and he said, you made us sing 05:36.165 --> 05:39.775 for you. And in effect he is saying to 05:39.784 --> 05:44.614 them, "I'll sing for you but you may not like it." 05:44.610 --> 05:50.090 That was Douglass's--and he did it hundreds of times 05:50.094 --> 05:56.554 elsewhere--it was Douglass's most brilliant expression of--or 05:56.546 --> 06:02.346 critique of--this American hypocrisy about freedom in a 06:02.354 --> 06:06.704 land of slavery. A lot of people were worried 06:06.695 --> 06:08.525 about this contradiction. 06:08.530 --> 06:13.040 06:13.040 --> 06:17.040 It was Douglass as well in the midst of the Mexican War--which 06:17.042 --> 06:19.472 is what we're about today--in 1847, 06:19.470 --> 06:22.490 in the midst of that expansionist war, 06:22.491 --> 06:26.331 where at least modest numbers of northerners, 06:26.329 --> 06:28.919 certainly abolitionists, opposed it because they saw it 06:28.915 --> 06:30.825 as a war for the expansion of slavery. 06:30.829 --> 06:35.409 It was Douglass who said America is a nation of 06:35.408 --> 06:39.488 inconsistencies, completely made up of its 06:39.489 --> 06:41.479 inconsistencies. 06:41.480 --> 06:44.820 06:44.819 --> 06:47.159 But you know, the young Abraham Lincoln had 06:47.156 --> 06:50.046 always been worried about this very same question. 06:50.050 --> 06:54.280 He comes at it from a different perspective, he comes at it from 06:54.276 --> 06:56.486 different experiences, largely. 06:56.490 --> 06:59.750 He's never going to be an abolitionist. 06:59.750 --> 07:03.720 But his very first public address, The Young Men's Lyceum 07:03.722 --> 07:06.992 speech of 1838, the first public address that a 07:06.986 --> 07:11.256 young Abraham Lincoln ever gave, in the middle of it is this 07:11.261 --> 07:14.831 quite remarkable passage where it's as though he's almost 07:14.831 --> 07:18.661 predicting--we don't want to give him too much credit for his 07:18.656 --> 07:22.546 predictions--but it's almost as if he's predicting this crisis 07:22.545 --> 07:26.425 that we're now about to try to understand for the next several 07:26.433 --> 07:29.603 weeks. "At what point," said Lincoln 07:29.603 --> 07:33.653 in this speech way back, in 1838, "At what point shall 07:33.649 --> 07:38.079 we expect the approach of danger and by what means shall we 07:38.077 --> 07:39.907 fortify against it? 07:39.910 --> 07:43.010 07:43.009 --> 07:47.689 Shall we expect"--we here is this American nation--"Shall we 07:47.686 --> 07:52.196 expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step over the 07:52.204 --> 07:54.904 ocean and crush us at a blow?" 07:54.900 --> 07:57.500 He answers, "Never. 07:57.500 --> 08:01.380 All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, 08:01.379 --> 08:04.249 with all the treasure of the earth, 08:04.250 --> 08:10.010 could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a 08:10.012 --> 08:13.472 track on the Blue Ridge Mountains, 08:13.470 --> 08:15.950 in a trial of 1000 years. 08:15.950 --> 08:19.010 08:19.009 --> 08:25.129 If destruction is to be our lot we must ourselves be its author 08:25.133 --> 08:27.013 and its finisher. 08:27.009 --> 08:31.539 As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by 08:31.536 --> 08:32.336 suicide." 08:32.340 --> 08:38.010 08:38.009 --> 08:44.629 He doesn't say what that problem in the midst would be, 08:44.633 --> 08:49.543 directly, but he's already implied it. 08:49.540 --> 08:51.890 What is civil war? 08:51.890 --> 08:57.010 A kind of collective suicide. 08:57.009 --> 08:59.169 Now, briefly, and I'm going to put the 08:59.173 --> 09:02.743 Underground Railroad story off until after we do the aftermath 09:02.741 --> 09:05.491 and the collapse of the Compromise of 1850. 09:05.490 --> 09:08.620 Oh, I just predicted it would collapse, sorry about that. 09:08.620 --> 09:12.160 09:12.159 --> 09:16.529 But this anti-slavery impulse that does take hold in the 09:16.532 --> 09:20.112 American North went through various stages. 09:20.110 --> 09:23.480 That first stage is the 1830s into the 1840s, 09:23.481 --> 09:27.851 which is largely a time of great expansion in abolitionist 09:27.848 --> 09:29.918 organizations, in societies, 09:29.917 --> 09:33.127 in newspapers. It tends to be a decade, 09:33.125 --> 09:36.265 decade and a half, driven largely by a kind of 09:36.265 --> 09:39.615 Garrisonian--and I outlined the various tenets of 09:39.615 --> 09:43.935 Garrisonianism--but it tended to be a kind of Garrisonian moral 09:43.943 --> 09:47.143 suasion. This was an era in which most 09:47.135 --> 09:50.755 abolitionists were largely devoted to this idea of 09:50.759 --> 09:55.049 reforming or changing the heart of the American people. 09:55.049 --> 09:59.969 This was driven very much by the kind of evangelical second 09:59.971 --> 10:04.721 great awakening impulse of changing the conscience of the 10:04.722 --> 10:08.532 American people; indeed, just changing the 10:08.525 --> 10:11.805 conscience of the slaveholder himself. 10:11.809 --> 10:15.859 A second stage of American anti-slavery impulse-there's no 10:15.863 --> 10:19.633 single moment when it begins--but that second stage is 10:19.632 --> 10:22.052 essentially a political stage. 10:22.049 --> 10:25.649 It begins largely with the birth of the Liberty Party, 10:25.648 --> 10:27.548 as it was called, in 1837, 10:27.549 --> 10:31.159 the first attempt at an anti-slavery political party, 10:31.163 --> 10:34.433 founded by some pretty serious abolitionists. 10:34.429 --> 10:37.389 These people were the real thing. 10:37.389 --> 10:39.279 They're going to run James G. 10:39.280 --> 10:43.260 Birney for President a couple of times, and they got miniscule 10:43.257 --> 10:45.667 numbers of almost countable votes. 10:45.669 --> 10:48.429 James G. Birney who had been born in 10:48.429 --> 10:53.079 Alabama, a former slaveholder who moves north and becomes an 10:53.079 --> 10:59.009 abolitionist. His symbol was quite remarkable. 10:59.009 --> 11:03.049 That Liberty Party will morph, in the 1840s, 11:03.052 --> 11:07.002 after its record of very little success, 11:07.000 --> 11:10.090 into--especially in the midst of this Mexican War--what became 11:10.089 --> 11:13.439 known as the Free Soil Party, by 1848. 11:13.440 --> 11:15.990 And we'll pick up the Free Soilers here in a few minutes. 11:15.990 --> 11:19.050 11:19.049 --> 11:21.409 The Free Soil Party--as it was founded in 1848, 11:21.408 --> 11:23.868 directly in response to this expansionist war, 11:23.870 --> 11:27.220 with Mexico--was a party largely devoted, 11:27.222 --> 11:30.992 by its very title, to keeping the West free of 11:30.994 --> 11:34.444 slavery; a political impulse to try to 11:34.436 --> 11:38.716 keep America's future free of slave labor systems. 11:38.720 --> 11:43.050 11:43.049 --> 11:46.059 But what's really going on here is a shift out of the moral 11:46.057 --> 11:49.067 suasionist impulses of early abolitionists to a learning of 11:49.065 --> 11:50.305 the art of politics; 11:50.310 --> 11:54.010 11:54.009 --> 11:57.009 of engaging a larger political culture with the nation's 11:57.008 --> 11:59.688 greatest issues. And it is of course when 11:59.689 --> 12:03.939 abolitionism--or an anti-slavery impulse is what I want to it 12:03.939 --> 12:06.459 call here, because these are not 12:06.462 --> 12:10.892 necessarily rabid abolitionists that become Free Soilers, 12:10.889 --> 12:14.939 nor who become the Republicans after 1854. 12:14.940 --> 12:19.260 But it is a fear of slavery--a fear of its power, 12:19.259 --> 12:23.039 a fear of its denigration of free labor, 12:23.039 --> 12:27.749 a fear of the way slavery as a system could control America's 12:27.746 --> 12:31.766 future--that becomes, especially in the wake of the 12:31.765 --> 12:36.345 Mexican War, front and center the greatest political issue in 12:36.349 --> 12:38.849 America. Now how did we get a Mexican 12:38.853 --> 12:41.263 War? Now I don't know if you know 12:41.264 --> 12:43.684 much about the war with Mexico. 12:43.679 --> 12:46.459 We speed right over it in a lot of American history classes. 12:46.460 --> 12:52.910 But after the annexation--time for some maps, 12:52.910 --> 12:53.790 yes. 12:53.790 --> 13:01.090 13:01.090 --> 13:05.520 I think that's visible, mostly. 13:05.519 --> 13:11.149 Well after the annexation of Cuba in-- Texas in 1836--the 13:11.149 --> 13:15.169 South was always trying to annex Cuba, 13:15.169 --> 13:17.279 four times before the Civil War, I can't get that out of my 13:17.275 --> 13:19.935 head. But after the annexation of 13:19.942 --> 13:24.952 Texas, by the United States, and Texas became a state--so 13:24.946 --> 13:29.656 said the United States, after 1836--Texas was to be 13:29.661 --> 13:34.181 that great Western territory, seemingly limitless. 13:34.179 --> 13:36.629 Its western border had never been determined. 13:36.629 --> 13:39.739 For that matter, a southern border with Mexico 13:39.743 --> 13:41.683 had never been negotiated. 13:41.679 --> 13:45.019 The United States just took Texas and said, 13:45.023 --> 13:47.593 "well; we'll figure out its boundaries 13:47.585 --> 13:48.805 later. Oh, by the way, 13:48.809 --> 13:50.389 Mexico--we'll let them know." 13:50.390 --> 13:55.010 13:55.009 --> 13:58.179 Mexico never accepted the Rio Grande as a border between the 13:58.182 --> 14:00.012 United States and Mexico--never. 14:00.009 --> 14:03.559 They assumed if there was a border with this first 14:03.555 --> 14:07.385 independent Republic of Texas, and now State of Texas, 14:07.389 --> 14:09.849 it was to be the Nueces River. 14:09.850 --> 14:12.150 Can you see the Nueces River? 14:12.149 --> 14:16.519 Not very visible but it's up here. 14:16.520 --> 14:20.220 Oh, my hand's not too steady. 14:20.220 --> 14:25.370 Anyway, the Rio Grande was never accepted as the border by 14:25.367 --> 14:29.687 Mexico; but that's never stopped wars 14:29.692 --> 14:34.902 of conquest before, and why would it then? 14:34.899 --> 14:39.339 Now, just to give you a bigger sense of this story. 14:39.340 --> 14:44.330 We've already talked a lot about how the westward expansion 14:44.333 --> 14:49.243 of a slave society and the westward expansion of the South 14:49.241 --> 14:55.011 was just booming from the 1820s through the '30s into the '40s. 14:55.009 --> 14:57.239 And there was a deep and abiding assumption in 14:57.244 --> 14:59.384 America--and we call it Manifest Destiny. 14:59.379 --> 15:02.759 At the time not everybody was walking around mouthing the 15:02.760 --> 15:04.330 phrase Manifest Destiny. 15:04.330 --> 15:07.000 People didn't meet in bars and taverns and say, 15:06.995 --> 15:09.425 "What do you think of Manifest Destiny?" 15:09.429 --> 15:13.199 But they spoke a language of inevitability, 15:13.198 --> 15:18.398 they spoke a kind of racialism about what needs to be done, 15:18.402 --> 15:22.712 should be done, has been done about Indians. 15:22.710 --> 15:27.200 And the Indian removal policies under Jackson of the 1830s did 15:27.200 --> 15:30.440 indeed, of course, remove: Indian removal. 15:30.440 --> 15:33.300 I have a whole map of that. 15:33.300 --> 15:38.270 I love my maps. This one's cool. 15:38.269 --> 15:40.439 But, of course, it's a brutal story. 15:40.440 --> 15:44.090 The five great tribes, sometimes called the civilized 15:44.090 --> 15:47.110 tribes of the American South--the Creeks, 15:47.110 --> 15:49.090 the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, 15:49.090 --> 15:51.680 the Cherokee, and the Seminole from 15:51.679 --> 15:55.199 Florida--were, indeed, between the early 1830s 15:55.204 --> 15:58.824 and the late-1830s removed, by and large--not all the 15:58.817 --> 16:02.567 Seminoles--but removed out west to what became Oklahoma 16:02.570 --> 16:06.740 Territory or it was originally called Indian Territory. 16:06.740 --> 16:11.600 But that Indian removal was in great--was part and parcel of 16:11.604 --> 16:16.224 opening up this southern frontier to expansion and to the 16:16.221 --> 16:21.331 possibilities now of the cotton boom and the development of the 16:21.333 --> 16:25.143 greatest, as we've said now more than 16:25.138 --> 16:29.418 once, source of wealth in the United States. 16:29.419 --> 16:32.789 Now, the presidential election of 1844. 16:32.789 --> 16:36.029 James K. Polk, the Democrat, 16:36.031 --> 16:41.801 a kind of hard money successor to Andrew Jackson, 16:41.795 --> 16:48.395 avid expansionist and a slave-owning cotton planter from 16:48.398 --> 16:52.458 Tennessee, got elected President. 16:52.460 --> 16:56.540 They called him Young Hickory instead of Old Hickory. 16:56.539 --> 16:59.309 He ran against Henry Clay, who ran for President, 16:59.314 --> 17:01.634 three, four, five times, depending on how 17:01.626 --> 17:06.176 many times you count them, in the antebellum years, 17:06.184 --> 17:09.014 as will Daniel Webster. 17:09.009 --> 17:12.269 But Henry Clay, essentially the intellectual or 17:12.274 --> 17:16.324 ideological founder of the Whig Party, ran as the Whig. 17:16.319 --> 17:21.199 Clay, too, ran on an expansionist platform of a kind, 17:21.197 --> 17:27.197 but the Whigs tended to argue for expansionism by negotiation. 17:27.200 --> 17:29.840 We were going to negotiate treaties of expansion, 17:29.839 --> 17:32.919 we were going to negotiate our way into the southwest, 17:32.920 --> 17:36.970 we were going to negotiate the British out of the northwest. 17:36.970 --> 17:42.310 Polk said: "negotiation--bullshit," is what 17:42.308 --> 17:45.468 he said. "Elect me and I will give you 17:45.466 --> 17:48.456 Mexico, elect me and I will give you Oregon." 17:48.460 --> 17:51.090 And he did. It was a close election. 17:51.089 --> 17:56.579 Polk won by only about 36,000 votes, out of about 2.8 million 17:56.579 --> 17:59.609 cast. He barely won New York state, 17:59.613 --> 18:04.073 a Democratic stronghold, in part because of immigration 18:04.071 --> 18:06.461 to New York, and he carried, 18:06.456 --> 18:10.886 therefore, New York's 36 electoral votes and was elected. 18:10.890 --> 18:13.550 The Liberty Party of James G. 18:13.553 --> 18:18.423 Birney got 16,000 votes in 1844, most of them in about 18:18.420 --> 18:21.910 three counties in upstate New York. 18:21.910 --> 18:26.940 They didn't cause a lot of ruckus, but they existed. 18:26.940 --> 18:31.280 Now, just before Tyler, John Tyler, left office as a 18:31.283 --> 18:36.823 lame duck he pushed through the annexation of Texas as a state. 18:36.819 --> 18:40.579 Not as a negotiated treaty, which would've required, 18:40.575 --> 18:44.105 as I hope you know, a two-thirds vote of the U.S. 18:44.109 --> 18:47.619 Senate. He just did it, 18:47.616 --> 18:51.746 and Texas was annexed. 18:51.750 --> 18:54.800 Now, Congress eventually did vote approval of this, 18:54.798 --> 18:58.208 in a frankly sectionalized vote, which was a harbinger of 18:58.211 --> 19:00.101 things to come. But James K. 19:00.100 --> 19:02.900 Polk, this expansionist president, expansionist 19:02.902 --> 19:04.792 slaveholding president, now, 19:04.789 --> 19:09.409 became the sixth of the first ten American presidents who was 19:09.408 --> 19:12.758 a slaveholder. This is significant. 19:12.759 --> 19:15.539 If you'll actually look back--there's a great book on 19:15.541 --> 19:18.701 this that demonstrates--there's lots of writing on this that 19:18.696 --> 19:21.366 demonstrates it--but Don Fehrenbacher's book called 19:21.370 --> 19:24.150 Slaveholding Republic shows us that before the 19:24.151 --> 19:27.361 American Civil War two-thirds of all American presidents were 19:27.360 --> 19:30.730 slaveholders or deeply sympathetic with slaveholding, 19:30.730 --> 19:34.500 as in the case of James Buchanan by the late 1850s. 19:34.500 --> 19:37.990 Two-thirds of all members of the U.S. 19:37.986 --> 19:41.276 Supreme Court were slaveholders. 19:41.279 --> 19:43.309 And, so far as we know, James K. 19:43.310 --> 19:47.370 Polk was the only president in American history to actually buy 19:47.370 --> 19:51.300 and sell slaves from the Oval Office of the White House. 19:51.299 --> 19:55.179 He kept on retainer a broker with whom he communicated 19:55.176 --> 19:59.196 regularly, buying and selling--speculating in slaves. 19:59.200 --> 20:00.680 It was kind of his hobby. 20:00.680 --> 20:03.730 20:03.730 --> 20:07.450 You know, some presidents engaged in the Hot Stove League 20:07.454 --> 20:10.584 in the winter, and do some baseball on paper. 20:10.579 --> 20:12.439 Polk was selling and buying some people. 20:12.440 --> 20:16.450 Polk was aggressive toward Mexico. 20:16.450 --> 20:19.380 He ordered American troops to march south to the Rio Grande 20:19.380 --> 20:23.760 River, in Texas. There are already occupation 20:23.755 --> 20:27.595 troops in Texas. He ordered them to move south 20:27.602 --> 20:30.612 to the Rio Grande and just, in effect, see what the 20:30.607 --> 20:31.867 Mexicans would do. 20:31.869 --> 20:35.879 And he sends Zachary Taylor, the American general, 20:35.882 --> 20:38.672 to Matamoras, on the Mexico border, 20:38.666 --> 20:41.386 in early 1846. There was a negotiation 20:41.386 --> 20:44.476 initially set up between the American and Mexican military 20:44.476 --> 20:48.156 commanders which was conducted, by the way, in French because 20:48.159 --> 20:51.899 the Americans did not speak Spanish and the Mexicans did not 20:51.901 --> 20:54.301 speak English, but they found enough people on 20:54.296 --> 20:56.586 either side of it to understand at least some French. 20:56.590 --> 21:01.400 21:01.400 --> 21:04.660 Mexico had never acknowledged the Rio Grande. 21:04.660 --> 21:10.010 It said their border was the Nueces, north about 150,200 21:10.011 --> 21:11.801 miles. There was a kind of a 21:11.797 --> 21:14.387 three-week standoff between troops along the Rio Grande 21:14.388 --> 21:16.778 River, and then on the 24^(th) of 21:16.781 --> 21:21.161 April, 1846, a Mexican cavalry contingent ambushed American 21:21.158 --> 21:24.628 troops on the north side of the Rio Grande, 21:24.630 --> 21:28.620 killed eleven American troops, captured sixty-three. 21:28.619 --> 21:34.669 Two days later, Zachary Taylor sent a dispatch 21:34.667 --> 21:38.697 over land to Washington, DC. 21:38.700 --> 21:43.880 It took two weeks to get there--hot news!--and it simply 21:43.877 --> 21:47.547 announced, quote, "Hostilities have been 21:47.548 --> 21:52.728 commenced with Mexico," and it briefly told the story 21:52.725 --> 21:58.445 of the Mexicans attacking on the north side of the Rio Grande. 21:58.450 --> 22:02.310 Polk received the news and he immediately went to Congress and 22:02.311 --> 22:04.401 asked for a declaration of war. 22:04.400 --> 22:07.190 He announced, quote, "Mexico had passed the 22:07.187 --> 22:11.037 boundary of the United States and had invaded our territory 22:11.036 --> 22:14.086 and shed American blood on American soil," 22:14.090 --> 22:19.870 unquote. Blood and soil. 22:19.869 --> 22:24.019 On May 13,1846, the House of Representatives 22:24.019 --> 22:27.879 voted a declaration of war, 174 to 14. 22:27.880 --> 22:30.330 The U.S. Senate voted 40 to 2, 22:30.330 --> 22:35.400 with a lot of abstentions from Northerners, to declare war on 22:35.400 --> 22:38.320 Mexico. And off we went. 22:38.319 --> 22:42.689 The first major expansionist war in American history. 22:42.690 --> 22:45.470 War fever broke out all over the country. 22:45.470 --> 22:49.980 The romance of going abroad, an exotic place like Mexico, 22:49.981 --> 22:54.011 full of strange people speaking weird languages, 22:54.009 --> 22:57.309 and they're Catholics and you never know what you're going to 22:57.305 --> 23:00.745 find there. There are all kinds of strange 23:00.749 --> 23:02.969 practices. Herman Melville, 23:02.972 --> 23:07.402 the young writer--hadn't yet published Moby Dick but 23:07.402 --> 23:11.682 he was working on it--from his upstate New York home, 23:11.680 --> 23:14.560 he said in his town, "The people here," he said, 23:14.563 --> 23:16.653 "are all in a state of delirium. 23:16.650 --> 23:19.230 A military ardor pervades all ranks. 23:19.230 --> 23:26.580 Nothing is talked about but the Halls of Montezuma," meaning 23:26.576 --> 23:29.816 Mexico City. This was going to be an 23:29.818 --> 23:32.618 adventurous war, it was going to be quick. 23:32.619 --> 23:36.909 It was going to be a war of destiny. 23:36.910 --> 23:41.490 An Illinois newspaper justified the war on the basis that 23:41.489 --> 23:45.089 Mexicans were, I quote, "reptiles in the path 23:45.086 --> 23:47.536 of progressive democracy." 23:47.539 --> 23:51.069 Now, you know in Vietnam we called some people "gooks" and 23:51.070 --> 23:54.850 we've had "Horrible Huns" and we've had all kinds of names for 23:54.848 --> 23:57.948 our enemies. But they would get more direct 23:57.953 --> 24:00.703 than that--reptiles in the--I'm sorry. 24:00.700 --> 24:03.600 [laughter] Reptiles in the path of 24:03.600 --> 24:05.710 progressive democracy. 24:05.710 --> 24:06.820 Yes, well. 24:06.820 --> 24:10.010 24:10.009 --> 24:12.779 People rewrote the lyrics to the song Yankee Doodle to 24:12.775 --> 24:13.785 fit the Mexican War. 24:13.790 --> 24:14.820 It went like this. 24:14.820 --> 24:17.380 I promise you only one verse. 24:17.380 --> 24:20.060 [sings] "They attacked our men upon our 24:20.064 --> 24:22.894 land, and crossed our river, too, sir. 24:22.890 --> 24:28.250 Now show them all with sword in hand what Yankee boys can do, 24:28.245 --> 24:33.165 sir." I'm sorry, I have a cold. 24:33.170 --> 24:35.770 [applause] Actually, you should do that 24:35.765 --> 24:38.905 with an Irish brogue, because that's the way it 24:38.907 --> 24:42.947 would've been done then, making fun of the Irish while 24:42.952 --> 24:47.292 you make fun of the Mexicans, while you recruit the Irish to 24:47.291 --> 24:48.911 go fight in Mexico. 24:48.910 --> 24:51.890 [laughter] Many abolitionists had very 24:51.890 --> 24:56.160 serious things to say about this war, lots of them. 24:56.160 --> 24:57.420 I already mentioned Douglass. 24:57.420 --> 24:59.590 There are many, many others. 24:59.589 --> 25:05.109 The abolitionist James Russell Lowell considered the war--his 25:05.109 --> 25:10.169 words--"a national crime committed in behoof of slavery, 25:10.170 --> 25:13.640 our common sin." And most poignantly of all, 25:13.636 --> 25:16.946 and a title for this lecture, was Ralph Waldo Emerson. 25:16.950 --> 25:21.100 As usual Emerson wrote this into his private journals, 25:21.104 --> 25:23.304 from his study in Concord. 25:23.299 --> 25:27.799 He wasn't out thumping too many public platforms on this one, 25:27.796 --> 25:29.216 at least not yet. 25:29.220 --> 25:32.580 Emerson wrote into his journals in early 1847: 25:32.576 --> 25:35.706 "The United States will conquer Mexico," 25:35.710 --> 25:40.740 he said, "but it will be as though a man swallows arsenic, 25:40.737 --> 25:43.557 which brings him down in turn. 25:43.560 --> 25:47.790 Mexico will poison us." 25:47.790 --> 25:54.730 It did. By the end of 1846, 25:54.734 --> 25:58.744 the U.S. had established dominion over 25:58.735 --> 26:05.435 the southern half of California, which Mexico also claimed. 26:05.440 --> 26:10.570 In 1847, the United States forces, in the face of pretty 26:10.566 --> 26:14.676 ferocious resistance, invading largely through Vera 26:14.679 --> 26:17.939 Cruz on the Gulf Coast but also from the North, 26:17.940 --> 26:23.660 conquered Mexico City--the Halls of Montezuma--hence the 26:23.664 --> 26:26.374 line in the Marine hymn. 26:26.370 --> 26:30.010 26:30.009 --> 26:33.859 The United States lost 13,000 Americans in the war with Mexico 26:33.861 --> 26:36.451 in about a year and a half of fighting. 26:36.450 --> 26:41.780 By far, the vast majority died of disease and not in battle. 26:41.779 --> 26:48.419 An estimated 50,000 Americans died at the sword and the cannon 26:48.423 --> 26:50.713 of American troops. 26:50.710 --> 26:54.320 And by the end, the United States negotiated a 26:54.323 --> 26:56.013 treaty with Mexico. 26:56.009 --> 26:58.949 We conquered them and we dictated the terms, 26:58.949 --> 27:03.119 and the terms had everything to do with American geography. 27:03.119 --> 27:06.979 The Mexican Cession, as it became known--the land 27:06.979 --> 27:11.079 the United States gained from Mexico--is, of course, 27:11.080 --> 27:13.010 the whole southwest. 27:13.009 --> 27:16.429 In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, 27:16.430 --> 27:20.580 the United States obtained, what is today all of the 27:20.582 --> 27:24.262 western part of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, 27:24.255 --> 27:27.675 Southern Calif--well all of California--Utah, 27:27.676 --> 27:33.396 parts of Colorado, Nevada--the great southwest. 27:33.400 --> 27:37.050 27:37.049 --> 27:40.819 That same year, 1848, was a terribly important 27:40.819 --> 27:43.839 year of turning points, in the world, 27:43.835 --> 27:45.925 especially in Europe. 27:45.930 --> 27:48.860 There are those arguing now that in some ways, 27:48.863 --> 27:52.713 1848 should be as important a turning point year in American 27:52.709 --> 27:55.979 history as it is in Europe, because of the great 27:55.982 --> 27:58.802 democratic/republican revolutions in Europe. 27:58.800 --> 27:59.670 27:59.670 --> 28:02.590 There are debates now in some history departments whether the 28:02.588 --> 28:04.388 U.S. survey courses should be 28:04.387 --> 28:07.647 divided in thirds now, since American history is into 28:07.653 --> 28:09.353 the 21^(st) century now. 28:09.349 --> 28:11.189 It's just getting too long in this country, 28:11.194 --> 28:12.604 it's got too much history now. 28:12.599 --> 28:18.069 And instead of dividing our survey courses at 1877 or 1865, 28:18.068 --> 28:19.858 it should be '48. 28:19.860 --> 28:24.060 Who cares? But, as these nationalistic 28:24.063 --> 28:28.753 revolutions against monarchy were breaking out all over 28:28.750 --> 28:31.890 Europe--in Hungary, Austria, Italy, 28:31.887 --> 28:36.797 Germany, France--some will succeed and establish republics, 28:36.799 --> 28:44.419 some will not--republican America was seizing territory 28:44.424 --> 28:51.064 and launching an empire on its own continent. 28:51.059 --> 28:54.809 Oh, by the way, for ceding us all of that 28:54.807 --> 28:59.587 territory of the great southwest, Mexico was paid 15 28:59.586 --> 29:02.626 million dollars. Sitting in the U.S. 29:02.631 --> 29:05.221 House of Representatives at that very time, 29:05.219 --> 29:08.359 during the Mexican War, in his only two-year term in 29:08.362 --> 29:10.522 the U.S. Congress, there was a young 29:10.520 --> 29:13.910 congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. 29:13.910 --> 29:15.820 He voted against the Mexican War; 29:15.819 --> 29:19.549 every chance he got he opposed it. 29:19.550 --> 29:24.050 He called it Polk's War. 29:24.049 --> 29:27.169 And then he said Polk's justification--these were the 29:27.166 --> 29:30.036 days of direct political language--he said Polk's 29:30.042 --> 29:36.332 justification for the war was, quote, "a half insane mumbling 29:36.328 --> 29:39.018 of a fever dream." 29:39.020 --> 29:45.200 Tell 'em Abe. He didn't mince any words. 29:45.200 --> 29:48.920 Fever dream. All right, but what did the 29:48.920 --> 29:49.830 Mexican War unleash? 29:49.829 --> 29:51.989 What are the legacies of the Mexican War? 29:51.990 --> 29:54.170 Why was there such a fuss? 29:54.170 --> 29:59.340 In the outline it says "why all the fuss"? 29:59.339 --> 30:01.539 Slavery in the western territories. 30:01.540 --> 30:05.970 Who cared? Daniel Webster, 30:05.972 --> 30:09.822 who'll play a big role in this compromise of 1850 debate--the 30:09.821 --> 30:13.781 great Whig of Massachusetts, probably the most powerful and 30:13.775 --> 30:16.395 important northern, certainly New England 30:16.397 --> 30:20.067 politician--kept warning that this really wasn't all that 30:20.067 --> 30:23.487 important. He said the problem of slavery 30:23.492 --> 30:27.562 in the west is like, is, quote, is a big fuss over, 30:27.563 --> 30:31.963 quote, "an imaginary negro in an impossible place." 30:31.960 --> 30:34.690 And the idea there was, "oh, that southwest, 30:34.685 --> 30:36.455 it's all desert isn't it?" 30:36.460 --> 30:37.980 What's the problem? 30:37.980 --> 30:44.540 It's not Louisiana in New Mexico, it's not Alabama in 30:44.538 --> 30:48.538 Arizona. Cotton won't boom there. 30:48.540 --> 30:52.090 He called it a mere abstraction. 30:52.089 --> 30:56.059 But if it were a mere abstraction, why did so many 30:56.056 --> 30:59.366 people care? Let's examine this just for a 30:59.368 --> 31:01.138 moment. Why the fuss? 31:01.140 --> 31:02.830 First, Northerners. 31:02.829 --> 31:06.649 And I know I'm generalizing here, there's no thing, 31:06.653 --> 31:10.863 there's no such thing as "The North" and "The South." 31:10.859 --> 31:12.899 At this point I hope you've grasped that. 31:12.900 --> 31:14.810 There are complexities within. 31:14.809 --> 31:17.439 But to northerners, one, they cared about this 31:17.440 --> 31:20.830 because there was the belief that slavery could indeed take 31:20.830 --> 31:22.350 root in the southwest. 31:22.349 --> 31:31.389 Why wouldn't it be a perfect environment for mining of silver 31:31.392 --> 31:33.772 and gold? And, lo and behold, 31:33.768 --> 31:35.918 right after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the end of 31:35.922 --> 31:37.172 the Mexican War what happened? 31:37.170 --> 31:41.940 Gold was discovered in California and it just 31:41.939 --> 31:47.469 capitalized, it just--and they had all bets off now, 31:47.468 --> 31:52.778 on just how important this question might be. 31:52.779 --> 31:55.959 And why wouldn't slavery work for the building of the 31:55.956 --> 31:59.556 railroads, why wouldn't slavery work for building canals? 31:59.559 --> 32:03.799 And for that matter, nobody wanted to compete for 32:03.798 --> 32:09.008 the slave labor system because it denigrated or degraded the 32:09.008 --> 32:11.038 idea of free labor. 32:11.039 --> 32:14.849 Secondly, there were a lot of northerners, particularly in 32:14.854 --> 32:18.804 politics, who wanted a non--who favored here a non-extension 32:18.803 --> 32:22.453 approach to slavery, whatever they thought of black 32:22.446 --> 32:26.586 people and the future of their rights and the idea of any kind 32:26.586 --> 32:28.076 of racial equality. 32:28.079 --> 32:31.229 They favored non-extension on constitutional grounds. 32:31.230 --> 32:35.150 The idea was that those who would not attack slavery where 32:35.147 --> 32:38.647 it already existed--because slaves were property and 32:38.653 --> 32:42.093 protected by the Fifth Amendment--they nevertheless 32:42.089 --> 32:45.319 believed they could use the Constitution, 32:45.319 --> 32:50.799 under Congress's sole authority to admit new states to the 32:50.799 --> 32:55.029 union, to stop this system from expanding. 32:55.029 --> 33:01.459 To stop America's future from becoming defined by slave labor, 33:01.455 --> 33:06.085 rather than free labor for the little man. 33:06.089 --> 33:10.939 Non-extension of slavery, therefore, became a kind of 33:10.943 --> 33:15.983 idea whereby you could cordon off slavery and blunt its 33:15.983 --> 33:18.503 future. Three, for northerners: 33:18.495 --> 33:21.725 bills in Congress for the territorial organization, 33:21.726 --> 33:25.016 which already existed now, as soon as the Mexican 33:25.023 --> 33:28.783 War--before the Mexican War was even over--there were bills 33:28.776 --> 33:32.846 before Congress to establish the territories now of Utah and New 33:32.853 --> 33:35.643 Mexico. Now, in large swaths of land, 33:35.641 --> 33:39.111 mind you, that could become more than two states. 33:39.110 --> 33:43.010 33:43.009 --> 33:46.189 And there were northerners who found these bills simply 33:46.186 --> 33:49.516 personally obnoxious, and they were being asked, 33:49.523 --> 33:54.333 they said, to be complicitous now in the expansion of slavery. 33:54.329 --> 33:58.189 There were now enough northern politicians who said, 33:58.193 --> 34:02.743 "Look, I can't stop anything that's going on in Alabama and I 34:02.739 --> 34:06.239 won't try, but don't ask me to vote to 34:06.239 --> 34:11.299 create a new territory that will become a slave state." 34:11.300 --> 34:14.510 And already in the language of the Free Soil Party, 34:14.513 --> 34:17.923 and eventually in that Republican Party that will come 34:17.920 --> 34:20.930 out of it, is this idea that what 34:20.932 --> 34:26.692 northerners had to work to do, they said, was to make slavery 34:26.694 --> 34:29.964 sectional but freedom national. 34:29.960 --> 34:33.010 34:33.010 --> 34:38.100 Slave labor--sectional, regional, bound to a place--but 34:38.102 --> 34:42.912 free labor national, eternal and the definition of a 34:42.912 --> 34:45.622 future. There was also racism as a 34:45.615 --> 34:48.265 motive in this. There were lots of northerners 34:48.265 --> 34:51.295 who saw the West as the hope of the northern immigrant, 34:51.300 --> 34:55.460 the hope of the young farmer in Ohio who's got three sons, 34:55.459 --> 34:59.019 and they want to go West, and they don't want black 34:59.023 --> 35:01.683 people around. They want a Kansas or a 35:01.679 --> 35:05.229 Nebraska, eventually, that's free for small white 35:05.227 --> 35:06.037 farmers. 35:06.040 --> 35:10.010 35:10.010 --> 35:11.820 And that's rooted, of course, in what we're going 35:11.819 --> 35:13.779 to come back to again and again in the next three, 35:13.780 --> 35:17.420 four lectures, is this idea of a kind of free 35:17.424 --> 35:20.494 labor ideology, a cluster of ideas. 35:20.489 --> 35:25.129 No single idea but a cluster of impulses, assumptions, 35:25.130 --> 35:29.250 ideas--one of which was defensive representative 35:29.246 --> 35:33.056 government, another of which was a devotion 35:33.061 --> 35:37.501 to individual liberty for small people, small farmers, 35:37.500 --> 35:40.610 lone mechanics, coupled with now a fear of 35:40.614 --> 35:42.214 concentrated power. 35:42.210 --> 35:45.040 And what could be a more concentrated form of power than 35:45.035 --> 35:48.165 an oligarchy of slaveholders who can lo and behold control the 35:48.169 --> 35:50.939 presidency, the Supreme Court and enough of 35:50.940 --> 35:54.880 Congress, especially the Senate, if they can keep getting more 35:54.876 --> 35:57.456 states into the Union, than the South, 35:57.457 --> 35:59.067 as a concentrated power? 35:59.070 --> 36:03.010 36:03.010 --> 36:07.150 Free labor ideology was also rooted in this kind of now 36:07.148 --> 36:11.668 old-fashioned American fear of conspiracy against individual 36:11.670 --> 36:16.120 liberty. Free labor ideology was really 36:16.122 --> 36:22.132 a fanfare for the common man, a defense of the white 36:22.127 --> 36:26.717 Anglo-Saxon Protestant small farmer. 36:26.720 --> 36:30.290 36:30.289 --> 36:32.849 And, of course, finally there were some real 36:32.848 --> 36:35.758 abolitionists around, who opposed the expansion of 36:35.764 --> 36:37.494 slavery on moral grounds. 36:37.489 --> 36:41.279 And sometimes that person who believes in free labor ideology 36:41.276 --> 36:44.176 and may not want to many black folks around, 36:44.179 --> 36:47.399 also takes a kind of moral position against slavery, 36:47.398 --> 36:48.848 all at the same time. 36:48.850 --> 36:52.530 36:52.530 --> 36:55.020 And his name was Abraham Lincoln. 36:55.019 --> 37:00.389 Now in the South, why did the South care about 37:00.386 --> 37:03.006 slavery in the West? 37:03.010 --> 37:06.100 In part, because an assumption had set in among southern 37:06.102 --> 37:08.072 leadership, now, for a long time, 37:08.070 --> 37:12.040 37:12.039 --> 37:15.539 that it was not only the destiny of the American people 37:15.539 --> 37:18.459 to expand west, it was not only the destiny of 37:18.455 --> 37:21.885 the slave society to expand west--and remember they're 37:21.890 --> 37:25.970 manufacturing decade by decade a more intensive justification of 37:25.973 --> 37:28.893 the system--but it was the necessity, 37:28.889 --> 37:31.699 they're going to argue, that it expand or it would die. 37:31.700 --> 37:35.010 37:35.010 --> 37:37.710 To check the expansion of slavery would be to strangle the 37:37.707 --> 37:40.407 southern economy and way of life, is what so many southern 37:40.405 --> 37:41.915 politicians are now arguing. 37:41.920 --> 37:45.830 Slaves in existing states, also they came to realize, 37:45.830 --> 37:49.140 were becoming a burden, possibly a danger. 37:49.139 --> 37:52.559 As the slave population in a Georgia or an Alabama or a 37:52.561 --> 37:56.301 Mississippi continues to grow and grow and grow and grow, 37:56.300 --> 38:00.550 but nowhere to expand to, that slave population may 38:00.546 --> 38:03.006 become indeed a powder keg. 38:03.010 --> 38:06.920 One of the things that southern statesmen feared the most--and I 38:06.921 --> 38:10.251 cannot stress enough, because it's going to be right 38:10.253 --> 38:13.813 there at the heart of their secession debates in 1860--is 38:13.806 --> 38:17.486 they feared what they kept calling now this--it's more than 38:17.486 --> 38:21.036 a theory to them--this theory of a shrinking south. 38:21.039 --> 38:23.359 If they couldn't expand this system beyond its limits and 38:23.361 --> 38:25.021 beyond its borders--get into Arkansas, 38:25.019 --> 38:28.469 get out into Oklahoma, Texas, West Texas, 38:28.467 --> 38:32.257 further west, Caribbean--that the south would 38:32.260 --> 38:35.880 begin to shrink as an economic entity, 38:35.880 --> 38:39.070 as a political culture, as a force in the national 38:39.065 --> 38:41.625 government. And if you cordoned off 38:41.632 --> 38:46.132 slavery, what's going to happen to the price of slaves around 38:46.126 --> 38:48.676 its borders? Well, they might begin to go 38:48.682 --> 38:50.782 down. What happens if the price of 38:50.780 --> 38:53.720 slaves starts going down in Kentucky, Virginia, 38:53.721 --> 38:55.641 Maryland, around the edges? 38:55.639 --> 38:56.689 Well, people start selling them off. 38:56.690 --> 38:57.600 Where are they going to sell them? 38:57.600 --> 39:00.160 Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi. 39:00.159 --> 39:04.439 And you would have the beginnings now of an economy 39:04.440 --> 39:06.410 turning in on itself. 39:06.410 --> 39:10.150 39:10.150 --> 39:12.150 Southerners, many southerners, 39:12.149 --> 39:16.009 came to believe slavery had to expand or it could die. 39:16.010 --> 39:18.640 They also wanted political parity in the United States 39:18.643 --> 39:21.703 Congress. Every new state meant two new 39:21.703 --> 39:26.333 senators. And the number of states--free 39:26.334 --> 39:31.104 states to slave states, folks--in 1850, 39:31.102 --> 39:34.932 was 15 to 15. They wanted to sustain that 39:34.930 --> 39:37.530 parity. And California out there--it's 39:37.528 --> 39:41.708 going to have a sudden statehood in 1850 because of gold being 39:41.713 --> 39:45.833 discovered--is going to be the problem and the test case. 39:45.829 --> 39:51.069 Then there was this question of constitutional power. 39:51.070 --> 39:54.840 The question of checks and balances--the states' rights 39:54.835 --> 39:56.435 question if you want. 39:56.440 --> 40:00.010 40:00.010 --> 40:04.710 Did anybody have the right to prohibit anybody from taking 40:04.707 --> 40:06.847 their property anywhere? 40:06.849 --> 40:09.689 To John C. Calhoun, at the end of the day, 40:09.687 --> 40:13.007 all these other arguments here were important, 40:13.010 --> 40:16.790 but the only argument at the end of the day that mattered--I 40:16.788 --> 40:20.568 mean he could drive it home with a brilliance unlike anybody 40:20.566 --> 40:24.336 else's--"You have no right--you northerners have no right to 40:24.344 --> 40:28.444 stop me from taking my wagon and my horse and my slave anywhere I 40:28.443 --> 40:30.543 wish." And he would just recite the 40:30.540 --> 40:31.270 Fifth Amendment. 40:31.270 --> 40:35.860 40:35.860 --> 40:41.010 Let me put it yet one more way. 40:41.010 --> 40:44.040 There is a certain element of honor at stake here, 40:44.043 --> 40:45.903 in the South, about slavery. 40:45.900 --> 40:49.040 40:49.039 --> 40:52.309 Their moral stance comes from this belief, this position--and 40:52.308 --> 40:54.268 think about this in your own time. 40:54.269 --> 40:57.879 The idea set in among northerners that the legal 40:57.881 --> 41:02.651 status of slavery in the western territories stood as a measure 41:02.646 --> 41:05.486 of its moral standing everywhere. 41:05.489 --> 41:08.489 Let me repeat that, the legal standing of slavery 41:08.489 --> 41:12.049 in the western territories stood as a measure of its moral 41:12.050 --> 41:13.550 standing everywhere. 41:13.550 --> 41:18.590 If you tell me slavery is wrong enough that you will not have it 41:18.590 --> 41:22.350 in America's future, then you're telling me it's 41:22.349 --> 41:26.399 wrong where I have it; and I don't accept that, 41:26.398 --> 41:30.908 and I won't live in the same political culture with you, 41:30.907 --> 41:35.087 if I have to--if I don't have to--on that basis. 41:35.090 --> 41:39.120 41:39.120 --> 41:41.300 So why all the fuss? 41:41.300 --> 41:45.540 Think today, think today about some of our 41:45.537 --> 41:50.497 greatest, salient, polarizing issues--at the risk 41:50.499 --> 41:52.979 of bringing them up. 41:52.980 --> 41:57.070 41:57.070 --> 42:00.400 If I were a gay American, and I believed in my right to 42:00.399 --> 42:04.349 be married, I would believe that the legal status of gay marriage 42:04.345 --> 42:07.115 in a Kansas where they have a referendum, 42:07.119 --> 42:09.599 is a measure of its moral status everywhere. 42:09.600 --> 42:14.780 42:14.780 --> 42:17.840 And extrapolate from there, to other issues. 42:17.840 --> 42:21.830 If you outlaw who I am, what I do, what I stand for in 42:21.829 --> 42:25.819 one state, what are you saying about it in another? 42:25.820 --> 42:31.710 42:31.710 --> 42:34.150 Oh, we shouldn't talk about the present in history courses, 42:34.146 --> 42:34.646 I'm sorry. 42:34.650 --> 42:39.050 42:39.050 --> 42:41.340 The fuss is because this is really a debate about America's 42:41.344 --> 42:42.704 future. What kind of future would it 42:42.696 --> 42:44.816 have? Well, there were four plans put 42:44.817 --> 42:48.197 in place and these four plans are going to come together 42:48.202 --> 42:51.282 around this debate over the Compromise of 1850. 42:51.280 --> 42:56.510 The first plan--these are all on your outline if you could see 42:56.512 --> 42:59.602 it earlier--you want that back up? 42:59.600 --> 43:06.500 43:06.500 --> 43:11.410 The first we call the Wilmot Proviso, for good reason--it's 43:11.412 --> 43:15.542 named for David Wilmot, a young Democratic Party 43:15.539 --> 43:19.389 Representative in the House of Representatives, 43:19.390 --> 43:24.410 who in 1846 got up in the midst of the Mexican War--this is a 43:24.413 --> 43:28.603 Democrat now and not a Whig or a Free Soiler. 43:28.599 --> 43:32.259 He's from Pennsylvania, and he didn't particularly care 43:32.258 --> 43:36.458 about black folks but he got up in the debates over the Mexican 43:36.459 --> 43:40.519 War about provisions for the troops and all those debates and 43:40.524 --> 43:44.084 he said "okay, we're going to war with Mexico, 43:44.076 --> 43:48.116 but in any new territory we gain from Mexico slavery shall 43:48.116 --> 43:50.336 never exist." It's as simple as that, 43:50.340 --> 43:51.620 that's the Wilmot Proviso. 43:51.620 --> 43:54.380 It's a great trivia question. 43:54.380 --> 43:57.550 If you ever have to play trivia in a bar ask what's the Wilmot 43:57.550 --> 44:00.090 Proviso? Nobody knows. 44:00.090 --> 44:03.890 But it was the rallying cry of the Free Soil Movement. 44:03.889 --> 44:08.529 Okay, we're going to war, we're going to get millions of 44:08.525 --> 44:12.735 acres of territory but slavery will never exist. 44:12.740 --> 44:15.920 This was the Free Soil formula. 44:15.920 --> 44:19.610 The language was borrowed from the Northwest Ordinance. 44:19.610 --> 44:23.830 All but one northern state legislature endorsed it. 44:23.829 --> 44:28.189 All southern legislatures condemned it. 44:28.190 --> 44:33.810 Gee, a little harbinger of things to come there, 44:33.813 --> 44:36.423 perhaps. It first passed the House of 44:36.424 --> 44:39.514 Representatives on the first try 83 to 64, reflecting that the 44:39.506 --> 44:42.226 House had far more northern representatives because the 44:42.233 --> 44:43.803 north has more population. 44:43.800 --> 44:48.960 But it did not pass the Senate where the Slave states still 44:48.955 --> 44:52.925 have parity. There was a good deal of racist 44:52.926 --> 44:54.506 support for this. 44:54.510 --> 45:00.840 Wilmot himself said--well I'll quote him. 45:00.840 --> 45:04.410 And here again this free labor ideology, it's a mixture of 45:04.409 --> 45:06.469 ideas. This is Wilmot in the debates. 45:06.469 --> 45:10.149 "I have no squeamish sensitiveness upon the subject 45:10.150 --> 45:13.830 of slavery nor no morbid sympathy for the slave. 45:13.829 --> 45:17.319 I plead the cause and rights of white freemen. 45:17.320 --> 45:21.360 I would preserve to free white labor a fair country, 45:21.359 --> 45:25.079 a rich inheritance, where the sons of toil of my 45:25.081 --> 45:29.281 own race and color can live without the disgrace which 45:29.278 --> 45:34.108 association with Negro slavery brings upon free labor." 45:34.110 --> 45:38.240 It doesn't get more direct than that. 45:38.239 --> 45:43.619 Keep the west free of slavery--and black people--was 45:43.619 --> 45:47.099 really David Wilmot's position. 45:47.099 --> 45:51.169 The second possible plan is what was known formally, 45:51.173 --> 45:53.733 legally, as state sovereignty. 45:53.730 --> 45:56.400 This is the states' rights position. 45:56.400 --> 46:01.550 This is the South's position, at least on this question--the 46:01.553 --> 46:06.623 individual's constitutional right of ownership in slaves as 46:06.619 --> 46:10.899 property and transport of slaves as property. 46:10.900 --> 46:14.470 State sovereignty, states' rights was indeed 46:14.473 --> 46:18.963 deeply at the root of the South's growing position here 46:18.961 --> 46:21.981 that, ultimately, no Federal 46:21.975 --> 46:27.535 Legislature, President--no Federal authorit--existed to 46:27.536 --> 46:30.416 stop slavery's expansion. 46:30.420 --> 46:34.990 The third position, a very American position, 46:34.993 --> 46:38.843 a natural outcome of the first two. 46:38.840 --> 46:41.960 The first two mix like oil and water, you need a compromise 46:41.958 --> 46:44.268 position--and that's popular sovereignty. 46:44.269 --> 46:47.609 Popular sovereignty was not a new idea in the midst of the 46:47.606 --> 46:49.476 Mexican War and its aftermath. 46:49.480 --> 46:50.700 It'd been around for awhile. 46:50.699 --> 46:54.669 It was the simple idea that there would be no Act of 46:54.670 --> 46:56.150 Congress on this. 46:56.150 --> 47:00.370 Take Congress out of the story and simply let the people in the 47:00.371 --> 47:02.551 Western Territory have a vote. 47:02.550 --> 47:04.360 Let them have a referendum. 47:04.360 --> 47:06.190 Let there be popular democracy. 47:06.190 --> 47:09.400 If the people who settle Utah want to vote to have slave labor 47:09.397 --> 47:12.587 then they vote for it; if they don't, they don't. 47:12.590 --> 47:14.820 Democracy, what could be better? 47:14.820 --> 47:18.010 47:18.010 --> 47:20.730 This had the wonderful kind of charm of ambiguity, 47:20.733 --> 47:23.513 as David Potter once beautifully put it--a charm of 47:23.511 --> 47:26.151 ambiguity. There's kind of a place there 47:26.153 --> 47:28.603 for everybody, as long as you trust the 47:28.596 --> 47:30.006 democratic process. 47:30.010 --> 47:35.050 47:35.050 --> 47:36.880 But if you're going to have that referendum the problem of 47:36.880 --> 47:38.390 course always was, when do you hold the vote? 47:38.390 --> 47:42.010 47:42.010 --> 47:45.180 Do you hold the vote early in the territorial process or do 47:45.178 --> 47:48.018 you hold the vote late in the territorial process? 47:48.019 --> 47:51.609 Do you establish a rule, there's got to be a certain 47:51.610 --> 47:55.060 amount of population before you hold that vote. 47:55.059 --> 47:58.409 Southerners wanted that vote held late in the process because 47:58.412 --> 48:01.152 it would give their system longer to get there. 48:01.150 --> 48:04.010 It would take awhile. 48:04.010 --> 48:06.220 If you're going to take fifty slaves out to Kansas and 48:06.215 --> 48:08.125 Nebraska, or further west, it'd take awhile; 48:08.130 --> 48:10.700 for that lone farmer in his Conestoga wagon, 48:10.697 --> 48:12.307 he can get there quicker. 48:12.310 --> 48:16.280 48:16.280 --> 48:19.320 And fourth, they went back to the old Missouri 48:19.324 --> 48:22.374 Compromise--it's the principle of geographical 48:22.369 --> 48:25.959 division--here--it's the old principle of geographical 48:25.955 --> 48:26.965 division. 48:26.970 --> 48:30.010 48:30.010 --> 48:34.240 The Missouri Compromise of 1820--you all learned this 48:39.191 --> 48:43.011 the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, 48:43.010 --> 48:48.210 and it said in 1820--a very important Act of Congress in 48:48.206 --> 48:52.806 1820 in this story, now to be so twisted and abused 48:52.805 --> 48:56.345 and debated in the 1850s as a sacred act. 48:56.349 --> 49:02.329 It said slavery would never exist north of that line. 49:02.329 --> 49:06.959 The problem was that half of California was already north of 49:06.958 --> 49:09.098 that line. Now a lot of people said, 49:09.099 --> 49:12.069 "all right, the way we're going to head this problem off now is 49:12.072 --> 49:14.712 just to keep drawing careful geographic lines across the 49:14.710 --> 49:16.880 continent, free soil above, 49:16.879 --> 49:22.279 slave labor below; we'll just keep drawing that 49:22.280 --> 49:25.550 line." All right, I'm going to have to 49:25.549 --> 49:29.489 leave you hanging here about the compromise itself. 49:29.489 --> 49:32.849 That's fine because we can do the compromise--its 49:32.849 --> 49:36.979 collapse--aand lead right into the Kansas Nebraska--hold on, 49:36.980 --> 49:38.940 I got a minute, I think. 49:38.940 --> 49:42.380 The Election of 1848 was crucial. 49:42.380 --> 49:45.200 Democrats ran Lewis Cass of Michigan--a thoroughly 49:45.202 --> 49:48.262 forgettable politician, I'm sure you've never heard of 49:48.255 --> 49:50.725 him--but he was a great proponent of popular 49:50.733 --> 49:53.073 sovereignty. They ran on a popular 49:53.069 --> 49:54.429 sovereignty platform. 49:54.429 --> 49:59.429 The problem with slavery in the West now, this whole Mexican War 49:59.434 --> 50:03.014 problem, we'll solve it--popular democracy. 50:03.010 --> 50:05.010 The Whigs ran Zachary Taylor, the war hero of the Mexican 50:05.007 --> 50:07.197 War, old rough and ready; the problem was he was a 50:07.195 --> 50:08.365 Louisiana slaveholder. 50:08.370 --> 50:13.040 50:13.039 --> 50:18.409 And out of this furor over the expansion of slavery in the West 50:18.409 --> 50:21.439 came two new political offshoots. 50:21.440 --> 50:26.010 One was called the Conscience Whigs. 50:26.010 --> 50:29.910 They were created first in Massachusetts and they gave us 50:29.910 --> 50:32.070 Charles Sumner, among others; 50:32.070 --> 50:34.950 a group of abolitionist Whigs who broke with the Whig party 50:34.950 --> 50:38.210 now and would never go back, a harbinger of the ultimate 50:38.206 --> 50:41.736 death, within the next four years, of the Whig Party. 50:41.739 --> 50:46.039 And the other was the Free Soil party. 50:46.039 --> 50:49.799 Born in the Convention in Buffalo, New York in 1848, 50:49.796 --> 50:54.506 it ran Martin Van Buren--an odd choice--for President in 1848; 50:54.510 --> 50:55.650 a former President. 50:55.650 --> 50:59.050 50:59.050 --> 51:02.080 They stood for one thing: stopping, at all costs, 51:02.076 --> 51:05.036 the expansion of slavery into America's west. 51:05.039 --> 51:11.609 The Free Soilers took ten percent of the electoral vote in 51:11.614 --> 51:17.034 the 1848 election when Zachary Taylor, war hero, 51:17.034 --> 51:20.984 was elected. And then gold was discovered in 51:20.982 --> 51:24.172 California and overnight, it seemed like--it was 51:24.170 --> 51:28.580 overnight--California was going to be ready for statehood and, 51:28.580 --> 51:30.320 oh God, what to do with it? 51:30.320 --> 51:33.110 Because if it comes in as a Free state or a Slave state it's 51:33.108 --> 51:35.138 going to upset the balance in the Senate; 51:35.139 --> 51:37.889 and it's that huge territory out there. 51:37.889 --> 51:42.529 And suddenly there was a need, a desperate need--threats 51:42.533 --> 51:44.563 coming from the South. 51:44.559 --> 51:46.929 John C. Calhoun is calling a Southern 51:46.925 --> 51:49.615 Convention. Threats from some northerners 51:49.624 --> 51:52.624 who are saying "no, under all costs we will stop 51:52.615 --> 51:54.455 the expansion of slavery." 51:54.460 --> 51:56.740 There's a need to find yet new middle ground. 51:56.740 --> 52:00.040 52:00.039 --> 52:03.169 And on a night in January, 1850 Henry Clay got together 52:03.171 --> 52:06.711 and sloshed down a hell of a lot of brandy with Daniel Webster 52:06.708 --> 52:08.098 and they cut a deal. 52:08.099 --> 52:12.599 It became the Compromise of 1850. 52:12.600 --> 52:14.850 I'll leave you hanging there. 52:14.849 --> 52:20.509 Clay and Webster are drunk but they're fashioning the Great 52:20.505 --> 52:25.765 Compromise, or they hope, that would save the Union. 52:25.769 --> 52:29.889 Clay, at the end of that month, would go before the U.S. 52:29.890 --> 52:34.160 Senate and announce the five provisions of his compromise, 52:34.159 --> 52:38.879 and in so doing he stood up and he held a piece of the coffin of 52:38.879 --> 52:42.919 George Washington--now I don't know if it really was or 52:42.924 --> 52:46.674 not--but it was a piece of the True Cross, 52:46.670 --> 52:48.420 a little piece of wood. 52:48.420 --> 52:51.490 "This is from George Washington's coffin," he said. 52:51.489 --> 52:55.809 We must circle the wagons, we must save the Union, 52:55.813 --> 52:58.993 we must swallow this and do that." 52:58.989 --> 53:01.759 And there were groans and there were cheers. 53:01.760 --> 53:06.180 People wept, shouted. 53:06.179 --> 53:10.729 And people were really worried that the Union was going to 53:10.734 --> 53:14.254 unravel and fall apart--and it almost did. 53:14.250 --> 53:16.000 See you.