|
| |
|
| 1830 |
Congress passes a Pre-emption Act
which grants settlers the right to purchase at $1.25 per acre 160
acres of public land which they have cultivated for at least 12 months,
thereby offering "squatters" some protection against speculators
who purchase lands they have already improved. |
 |
| 1830 |
Jedediah Smith and William Sublette,
now partners in the successor to William Ashley's trading company,
lead the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains at South Pass
and on to the Upper Wind River. The 500-mile journey through Indian
country takes about six weeks, proving that even heavily loaded wagons
and livestock -- the prerequisites for settlement -- can travel overland
to the Pacific. |
|
| 1830 |
Joseph Smith publishes the Book
of Mormon and establishes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. |
|
| 1830 |
The Indian Removal Act, passed
with strong support from President Andrew Jackson, authorizes the
federal government to negotiate treaties with eastern tribes exchanging
their lands for land in the West. All costs of migration and financial
aid to assist resettlement are provided by the government. Jackson
forces through a treaty for removal of the Choctaw from Mississippi
within the year. |
|
| 1830 |
Alarmed at the growing number of
Americans in Tejas, Mexico imposes sharp limits on further immigration. |
|
| 1831 |
Joseph Smith, suffering persecution in his native New York, leads
his followers to Kirtland, Ohio, where they can build a new Zion.
 The
Nez Percé send a delegation to St. Louis requesting white teachers
for their people, sparking a missionary movement to the Northwest.
|
|
| 1831 |
In Cherokee Nation v. State
of Georgia, a dispute over Georgia's attempt to extend its jurisdiction
over Cherokee territory, Chief Justice John Marshall denies Indians
the right to court protection because they are not subject to the
laws of the Constitution. He describes Indian tribes as "domestic
dependent nations," saying that each is "a distinct political
entity...capable of managing its own affairs." |
|
| 1832 |
In Worcester v. State of Georgia,
the Supreme Court rules that the federal government, not the states,
has jurisdiction over Indian territories. The case concerns a missionary
living among the Cherokees, Samuel A. Worcester, who was jailed for
refusing to comply with a Georgia law requiring all whites residing
on Indian land to swear an oath of allegiance to the state. In ruling
against Georgia's actions, Chief Justice John Marshall writes that
Indian tribes must be treated "as nations" by the national
government and that state laws "can have no force" on their
territories. Defying the court, Georgia keeps Worcester in jail, and
President Andrew Jackson, when asked to correct the situation, says,
"The Chief Justice has made his ruling; now let him enforce it." |
|
| 1832 |
George Catlin begins his voyage
up the Missouri, traveling more than 2,000 miles with trappers from
the American Fur Company to their outpost at Fort Union, painting
hundreds of portraits of Indians and Indian life along the way. |
|
| 1833 |
At the San Felipe Convention, held
in San Felipe de Austin, American settlers led by Stephen Austin vote
to make Tejas a Mexican state, rather than a dependent territory,
and draft a state constitution based on that of the United States.
Austin himself carries the proposal to Mexico City, where President
Santa Anna agrees to repeal the 1830 law limiting American immigration
but refuses to grant statehood. |
|
| 1833 |
Samuel Colt develops his revolver. |
|
| 1833 |
The German naturalist, Prince Maximillian,
and the Swiss painter, Karl Bodmer, travel up the Missouri in Catlin's
footsteps, to observe and record Indian life. |
|
| 1833 |
The Choctaw complete their forced
removal to the West under army guard. |
|
| 1834 |
Congress restructures the Bureau
of Indian Affairs as the Department of Indian Affairs, expanding the
agency's responsibilities to include both regulating trade with the
tribes, as before, and administering the Indian lands of the West. |
|
| 1834 |
William Sublette and Robert Campbell
establish Fort Laramie on the North Platte River in Wyoming, the first
permanent trading post in the region and soon to be an important stopping
point for pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail. |
|
| 1835 |
The Florida Seminoles reject forced
removal to the West and begin a seven-year war of resistance under
Chief Osceola. |
|
| 1835 |
The Cherokee finally sign a treaty
of removal, giving up their lands in Georgia for territory in present-day
Oklahoma. |
|
| 1835 |
 THE
TEXAS WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE (1835-1836)
Mexican President Santa Anna proclaims himself dictator and
attempts to disarm the Americans in Tejas, sending troops to reclaim
a cannon that had been given to the settlers for protection against
Indian attacks. When the Americans resist at an engagement near
Gonzales on the Guadalupe River, the Texas War for Independence
begins.
|
|
| 1835 |
At a Consultation held in San Felipe
de Austin, members of Stephen Austin's American colony issue a "Declaration
of the People of Texas," proclaiming their independence of Santa
Anna's government on the grounds that he has violated the Mexican
constitution by proclaiming himself dictator. |
|
| 1835 |
Mexican troops sent to put down
the Texas rebellion are defeated at San Antonio by a tejano force
led by Juan Seguin and sent home in humiliation after promising an
end to the hostilities. |
|
| 1836 |
 Meeting
at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texans vote a Declaration of Independence,
appoint an interim government and elect Sam Houston, former governor
of Tennessee, commander-in-chief of the army. Houston orders his troops
to withdraw from the fortress-like Alamo in San Antonio and the fortified
town of Goliad, convinced that he can defeat Santa Anna's superior
numbers only by drawing his army into a chase. The headstrong defenders
of the Alamo and Goliad ignore Houston's commands. |
|
| 1836 |
Santa Anna leads a force of 5,000
troops into San Antonio to put down the Texas rebellion. On March
6, in a brutal show of force, the Mexicans overwhelm 187 Texans at
the Alamo. Colonels William B. Travis, James Bowie and Davie Crockett
perish in the massacre, which costs as many as 1,600 Mexican lives.
A few weeks later, to the south, some 300 Texans, commanded by James
W. Fannin, are defeated and captured near Goliad. Continuing his brutal
policies, Santa Anna orders them all executed. |
|
| 1836 |
 Setting
out in pursuit of Houston's army, Santa Anna crosses the Brazos in
hopes of capturing the newly formed Texas government at Harrisburg,
where it has been urging Houston to stand and fight. When the government
eludes him, Santa Anna turns back to intercept Houston's forces along
the San Jacinto River. But Houston, aware of his enemy's movements,
launches a surprise attack along the San Jacinto in which the Mexicans
are routed and Santa Anna taken captive. Negotiating from a field
cot with a bullet-shattered leg, Houston secures Santa Anna's agreement
to withdraw all his forces from Texas and to recognize Texan independence. |
|
| 1836 |
On his return to Mexico, Santa
Anna is driven into retirement and his agreement to recognize Texas
independence is denounced. For the next ten years, Mexican troops
and Texans continue to war against one another in a series of intermittent
clashes along the border. |
|
| 1836 |
In the fall, Sam Houston is elected
the first President of the Republic of Texas, outpolling Stephen Austin
4-to-1, and Texans vote to seek annexation by the United States. |
|
| 1836 |
Responding to the 1831 Nez Perce
request for teachers, the Whitman party -- Dr. Marcus Whitman and
his wife, Narcissa, accompanied by Narcissa's former suitor, Rev.
H. H. Spalding, and his wife, Eliza -- travel what will soon be known
as the Oregon Trail to arrive at the junction of the Columbia and
Snake Rivers, where they establish a mission to bring Christianity
to the Indians of the northwest. Narcissa and Eliza are the first
white women to cross the Rocky Mountains, and their group is perhaps
the first party of settlers to travel overland to the West. |
|
| 1837 |
Congress refuses to annex Texas,
bowing to abolitionist opponents who call it a "slavocracy."
But President Andrew Jackson recognizes the Republic of Texas on his
last day in office. |
|
| 1838 |
Mormon founder Joseph Smith leads
his persecuted followers to Missouri, to settle at a site he calls
the Garden of Eden, but local opponents force the settlers to flee
into Illinois where they establish Nauvoo. |
|
| 1838 |
General Winfield Scott oversees
the forced removal of the Cherokee from Georgia to the Indian Territory
of the West along the "Trail of Tears." |
