| Portion of title |
Squatters, statesmen, and the antebellum rupture of American democracy |
| Contents |
A tale of two squatters -- Squatter democracy -- Crockett, hard cider, and the Whigs' rustic turn -- "Great American measures" and the election of 1844 -- Manufacturing destiny -- Sacramento's squatter riot and the aftershocks of manifest destiny -- A squatter's-eye view of bleeding Kansas -- Squatterdom -- The ordeal of the squatter king -- George Bush's America. |
| Abstract |
"With one eye on Washington and the other on flashpoints across the West, Dangerous Ground tracks squatters from the Mississippi Valley and cotton lands of Texas, to Oregon, Gold Rush-era California, and, finally, Bleeding Kansas. The sweeping narrative reveals how claiming western domains became stubbornly intertwined with partisan politics and fights over the extension of slavery. While previous generations of statesmen had maligned and sought to contain illegal settlers, Democrats celebrated squatters as pioneering yeomen and encouraged their land grabs through preemption laws, Indian removal, and hawkish diplomacy. As America expanded, the party's power grew. The US-Mexican War led many to ask whether these squatters were genuine yeomen or forerunners of slavery expansion. Some northern Democrats bolted to form the Free Soil Party, while southerners denounced any hindrance to slavery's spread. Faced with a fracturing party, Democratic leaders allowed territorial inhabitants to determine whether new lands would be slave or free, leading to a destabilizing transfer of authority from Congress to frontier settlers. Squatters thus morphed from agents of Manifest Destiny into foot soldiers in battles that ruptured the party and the country"-- Provided by publisher. |
| General note | Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2018. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-267) and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2023293026 |
| ISBN | 9780197531426 |
| ISBN | 0197531423 |
