Lewis and Clark Timeline
Post Expedition 1851 - 1860

1851

Increased northern abolitionist sentiment resulting from attempts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 is reflected in the rescue by a Boston mob of an escaped slave named Shadrach from the authorities.

The Illinois Central Railroad, which will link Chicago, Galena, and Cairo, Illinois, is chartered. This railroad receives a grant of more than 2.5 million acres from the U.S. government.

Dakota (Sioux) Indian people turn over all their land in Iowa and most of their territory in Minnesota to the U.S.

The Treaty of Fort Laramie is signed between the U.S. Government and the tribes of the northern plains, providing tribal borders and annual allotments of food and gifts to compensate for white incursions on Indian hunting grounds.

A fire in San Francisco causes twelve million dollars in estimated property damage; 2,500 buildings are destroyed.

Isaac M. Singer develops a practical domestic sewing machine, building on the invention of Elias Howe.

The notorious adventuress, Lola Montez, a self-styled Spanish dancer (she is Irish) opens a two year American tour with a performance of "Betty the Tyrolean" in New York.

1852

The Caroline Fry Marriage Association advertises: "Cheap wives for poor and deserving young men...particular attention paid to the proper matching of temperaments."

Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published, which condemns the slave system in the U.S.

1853

Congress authorizes the War Department to conduct a transcontinental railroad survey to determine the most practical railroad route across the country. These explorations constitute the first attempt at a comprehensive and systematic geographical examination of the West by the Federal Government.

Franklin Pierce is inaugurated as the fourteenth President of the United States.

The U.S. and Mexico negotiate the Gadsden Purchase for $10 million, through which the U.S. acquires Southern Arizona and New Mexico Territories, land needed for a practical southern route for a transcontinental railroad. The Gadsden Purchase completes the permanent continental boundaries of the United States.

U.S.-Japanese trade relations result from Commodore Matthew C. Perry's armed entry into Edo (Tokyo/Yokohama) Bay in Japan.

Concern with steadily growing immigration precipitates the formation of the Know- Nothing Party. The party urges the repeal of naturalization laws and the exclusion of all foreign-born persons from federal, state, or municipal offices.

Chicago is connected for the first time by track to the East with the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Washington Territory is formed.

1854

Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, establishing a doctrine of congressional non-interference in the territories and repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had excluded slavery from the 36° 30' latitude and which had been implicitly accepted by the Compromise of 1850. The new territories of Kansas and Nebraska liquidate the northern portion of Indian Territory.

The term "Beecher's Bible" is used to characterize the Sharps rifles being shipped to settlers in Kansas after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher designated the weapons, being rushed to settlers determined to keep Kansas Territory "free," as moral agencies greater than the Bible.

Eli Thayer founds the Massachusetts Immigrant Aid Society to encourage anti-slavery emigration to Kansas.

The assassination of James King, Editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, marks the height of desperado activity in California. A vigilance committee utilizing a quasi-legal process is established to restore order. In Wyoming, the Grattan affair marks the beginning of hostilities between the Indian tribes of the northern plains and the U.S. Government. Lt. Grattan and his small force of U.S. regulars deliberately provoke a confrontation over a stolen emigrant cow with a band of Brulé Sioux; Grattan and his entire command are killed.

1855

Five thousand armed "border ruffians" cross into Kansas Territory from Missouri, securing the election of a pro-slavery legislature. Meanwhile, a Free-State Party organized by anti-slavery forces drafts a Free-State constitution which is adopted by popular vote. Kansas Territory now has a dual government.

Andrew Reeder, the first territorial Governor of Kansas, allows the pro-slavery legislature's election to stand.

The New York State Immigration Commission leases Castle Garden at the tip of Manhattan Island as a reception center for immigrants. The number of immigrants exceeds the 400,000 who landed in 1854.

President Pierce signs an act creating the first U.S. Court of Claims. Previously, citizens could remedy claims against the federal government only through petitions to Congress.

The Yakima War in Washington and the Rogue River War in Oregon represent Indian resistance to ever-increasing white migration and settlement.

Walt Whitman publishes the first version of Leaves of Grass.

1856

John C. Frémont of California is nominated for the Presidency of the United States by the first national convention of the Republican Party, meeting in Philadelphia.

"Border ruffians" and pro-slavery Kansas men sack Lawrence, Kansas. In retaliation, abolitionist John Brown, with four sons and three companions, massacres five pro-slavery men along Pottawatomie Creek.

The U.S. House of Representatives refuses to seat either the pro-slavery or the free state territorial delegates from Kansas. Raids continue between the two factions, and an estimated two hundred people are killed in "Bleeding Kansas."

Henry Bessemer perfects a technique for converting pig iron into steel by directing air blasts upon molten metal.

The first Mormon "handcart company," composed of emigrants anxious to reach Utah but unable to afford wagons and teams for the journey, leaves Iowa City on foot.

Lt. Gouverneur Kemble Warren and Ferdinand V. Hayden explore the great plains of Nebraska. Warren's map is the first sophisticated depiction of the trans-Mississippi west.

1857

James Buchanan is inaugurated as the fifteenth President of the United States. Buchanan's inaugural address condemns slavery agitation, supports a policy of non-interference with slavery in the states, and "popular sovereignty" in the territories.

In the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that an African American is not a citizen of the U.S. and therefore cannot sue in the courts. Further, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney states that restrictions cannot be placed upon where a master takes his or her "slave property."

One hundred and twenty California-bound immigrants are massacred at Mountain Meadows, Utah, by American Indians incited by a Mormon fanatic, John D. Lee. Lee claims that he is retaliating for President Buchanan's order removing Brigham Young as Governor of Utah.

U.S. troops are sent to Utah Territory; virtually bloodless, the "Mormon War," precipitated by a conflict of authority, ends in compromise.

Joseph C. Ives of the U.S. Topographical Engineers tries to ascend the Colorado River from the Gulf of Mexico. An overland expedition is able to explore the floor of the Grand Canyon in its lower reaches.

1858

President Buchanan supports Kansas' Lecompton (pro-slavery) Constitution and recommends that Kansas be admitted as a slave state.

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas engage in a series of debates as part of their campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.

Gold is discovered at Pike's Peak in Colorado.

The Butterfield Overland Mail, the first to serve both the Pacific Coast and the East, reaches St. Louis, where mail is transferred to a train for the remainder of the journey to the East Coast.

The first telegraph message is sent across the Atlantic Ocean via the Atlantic Cable.

Minnesota is admitted as the thirty-second state in the Union.

1859

John Brown seizes the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to start a nationwide slave insurrection. Two days later he surrenders to federal troops under Col. Robert E. Lee. John Brown is tried, and executed on December 2.

The first major silver strike in the U.S., the Comstock Lode, is discovered in Nevada.

Iowa and Missouri are the first trans-Mississippi states to be ranked in the top seven producers of corn in the U.S.

Edwin L. Drake drills the world's first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of the Species.

John M. Macomb finds ancient Indian ruins in the Mesa Verde area of Colorado. Macomb's expeditions fill in a major blank area on maps of the period.

Oregon is admitted as the thirty-third state in the Union.

1860

Abraham Lincoln is elected sixteenth President of the United States. On receiving news of Lincoln's election, the South Carolina legislature calls a special state convention to meet at Columbia on December 20. On that date, by unanimous vote, South Carolina secedes from the Union.

The first repeating rifle in the U.S. is produced by Oliver F. Winchester.

The first relay on the Pony Express Mail Service leaves St. Joseph, Missouri and arrives in Sacramento, California.

The State of California authorizes the California Geological Survey, headed by Josiah Dwight Whitney, who puts together a group of college-trained scientists. The maps produced by the survey use topographical systems and serve as models for later survey maps. The survey ends in 1868 when the state cuts off funding.

Eighth census: U.S. population - 31,443,321.