E
•manifest destiny
•Treaty of Fort Laramie
•Santa Fe Trail
•Oregon Trail
• Mormons
•Joseph Smith
•Brigham Young
•“Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”
1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
MAIN IDEA
2. TAKING NOTES
Use a chart like this one to compare
the motivations of travelers on the
Oregon, Santa Fe, and Mormon trails.
Which do you think was the most
common motive? Explain.
CRITICAL THINKING
3. EVALUATING
What were the benefits and
drawbacks of the belief in manifest
destiny? Use specific references to
the section to support your
response. Think About:
• the various reasons for the move
westward
• the settlers’ point of view
• the impact on Native Americans
• the impact on the nation as a
whole
4. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the
United States Magazine and
Democratic Review, described
manifest destiny as meaning that
American settlers should possess
the “whole of the continent” that
“Providence” has given us for
the development of the great
experiment of liberty and . . . self-
government.” Do you think the same
attitudes exist today? Explain.
practice of having more than one wife, Smith destroyed
their printing press. As a result, in 1844 he was jailed for
treason. An anti-Mormon mob broke into the jail and
murdered Smith and his brother.
Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, decided to move
his followers beyond the boundaries of the United States.
Thousands of Mormons travelled by wagon north to
Nebraska, across Wyoming to the Rockies, and then south-
west. In 1847, the Mormons stopped at the edge of the
lonely desert near the Great Salt Lake.
The Mormons awarded plots of land to each family
according to its size but held common ownership of two
critical resources—water and timberland. Soon they had
coaxed settlements and farms from the bleak landscape by
irrigating their fields. Salt Lake City blossomed out of the
land the Mormons called Deseret.
RESOLVING TERRITORIAL DISPUTES
The Oregon Territory was only one point
of contention between the United States and Britain. In the early 1840s, Great Britain
still claimed areas in parts of what are now Maine and Minnesota. The Webster-
Ashburton Treaty of 1842 settled these disputes in the East and the Midwest, but
the two nations merely continued “joint occupation” of the Oregon Territory.
In 1844, Democrat James K. Polk’s presidential platform called for annexation
of the entire Oregon Territory. Reflecting widespread support for Polk’s views,
newspapers adopted the slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” The slogan
referred to the latitude 54˚40’, the northern limit of the disputed Oregon
Territory. By the mid-1840s, however, the fur trade was in decline, and Britain’s
interest in the territory waned. On the American side, Polk’s advisors deemed the
land north of 49˚ latitude unsuited for agriculture. Consequently, the two coun-
tries peaceably agreed in 1846 to extend the mainland boundary with Canada
along the forty-ninth parallel westward from the Rocky Mountains to Puget
Sound, establishing the current U.S. boundary. Unfortunately, establishing the
boundary in the Southwest would not be so easy.
Expanding Markets and Moving West 285
• escape religious presecution
• find new markets for commerce
• claim land for farming, ranching,
and mining
• locate harbors on the Pacific
• seek employment and avoid
creditors after the panic of 1837
• spread the virtues of democracy
Americans Headed West to...
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
E
Analyzing
Motives
Why did the
Mormons move
farther west in
their search for a
new home?
E. Answer
The Mormons
were fleeing
from religious
persecution.
Trail Motivations
Oregon Trail
Mormon Trail
Santa Fe Trail