Sectionalism and Western Expansion - Critical Thinking on the US History

Filibusters of the short-lived Republic of Texas viewed Spain as an autocratic authority that could not allow its subjects to exercise freedom and liberty. Actions of the filibusters of wanting to be part of the United States revealed that the United States was a nation that allowed its citizens to exercise freedom and liberty. The United States gave the filibusters hope that they could one day live in a land of freedom and liberty. The filibusters had for a long time felt like prey under the dominion of the crown of Spain (308).

The North and the South differed over the admission of Missouri as a State because of the debate whether slavery should be allowed in the new state. Immediately Missouri began petitioning for statehood, thousands of settlers flocked the territory and brought with them thousand of slaves (309).

The admission of new states to the Union threatened to upset the balance between free and slave states in Congress because a population of extra slaves would give Southern states more votes than they deserved in the Electoral College and the House of Representatives. Admitting Missouri as a slave state posed a threat to the tenuous balance between slave states and Free states in the Senate because slave states would have been given a two-vote advantage. The debate about representation later shifted into a debate about the morality of slavery. The Tallmadge Amendment was introduced in the House of Representative, and it denounced slavery as immoral and practice that opposed to the United States founding principles of liberty and equality. Northern representatives supported the Tallmadge Amendment whereas Southern representatives rejected it. There was also an argument between Northern representatives and Southern Representatives on whether Missouri should be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state. Finally, an agreement was reached in what is now called the Missouri Compromise. In the Missouri Compromise, it was agreed that Missouri and Maine would enter the Union at the same time with Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state (309). Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Holmes in reaction to the Missouri crisis in which he did state that the Missouri Compromise was reprieve only, not a final sentence. By stating that the Missouri Compromise was a reprieve only, not a final sentence, he meant that the Union had to do something more profound about the issue of slavery lest it brings about disunion of the United States (310).

American settlers in Texas sought independence from Mexico because they disliked Mexicos legal system, Mexicos prohibition on the practice of other religions other than the Roman Catholic, the fact that only two Texas representatives would be allowed in the state legislature and finally, the abolition of slavery by the Mexican government in 1829. American settlers also held the belief of American racial superiority that made them disregard Mexicans as backward, ignorant and dishonest (312).

Early attempts to make Texas independent of Mexico involved the formation of rebel groups. There were also demands for resumption of immigration from the United States, protection from Indian tribes, granting of Promised Land titles and creation of an independent state of Texas that was separate from Coahuila (312).

The relationship between Anglo-Americas and Tejanos in Texas before independence was lukewarm. Tejanos supported the push for independence because they hoped that a Liberal government would bring about reforms that would later turn out into economic benefits (313).

The relationship between Anglo-Americas and Tejanos in Texas after independence was unhealthy. The Anglo-Americans treated Tejanos with utter contempt and were eager to displace them because the Anglo-Americans believed in white racial domination. Anglo-Americans did not reciprocate the good gesture that the Tejanos had shown them in the fight for independence but instead repaid them by seizing their lands (315).