Download Sectionalism and Nativism Sectionalism was rampant in the country

Sectionalism and Nativism
Sectionalism was rampant in the country in the decades before the American Civil War broke out.
Sectionalism is defined as loyalty to a region within a larger nation. In the case of the South, southerners
were loyal to their state and to the county they lived in within that state. Sectionalism needs to be
contrasted with nationalism. Nationalism is loyalty to the nation as a whole. To illustrate the difference
between sectionalism and nationalism, today if an American travels overseas and somebody asks him or
her who they are they will reply “I am an American.” Before the Civil War, however, if an American
traveled overseas and somebody asks him or her who they were they likely would have replied “I am a
Virginian, I am a Kentuckian, I am a North Carolinian, I am a Marylander,” etc. In other words, Americans
before the Civil War would have identified with their state rather than with the nation. Sectionalism is
going to cause many problems and disagreements within the United States between the North and the
South.
Several sectionalism events are going to occur within the United States prior to the Civil War. In fact,
sectionalism can be traced back at least as far as the Constitutional Convention in 1787. At the
Constitutional Convention several sectionalistic agreements between the North and South arose. One
involved the 3/5 Compromise. Once delegates had agreed to create a bicameral Congress, disagreement
between the North and South arose over whether slaves should be counted for purposes of determining
the number of representatives southern states got in the House of Representatives. Of course, southern
states wanted to count slaves in determining the number of representatives a state got in the House of
Representatives because slaves made up perhaps as much as 20% of the southern population. Likewise,
Northern states, who had few slaves, did not think that slaves should be counted as part of the population
when determining representation in the House of Representatives. To settle this impasse the two sides
compromise. Southerners would be allowed to count each slave as 3/5 of a person when determining
population for representation in the House of Representatives. A conflict also a rose between the North
and the South at the Constitutional Convention over the ease of passing a protective tariff. Northerners
wanted a tariff to protect their industry while southerners oppose a tariff because it hurt agriculture. When
the South made it difficult for Congress to enact tariff legislation the North retaliated by forbidding the
African slave trade. The two sides compromised and the North got an agreement that Congress could
pass a protective tariff with a simple majority vote in return for giving the South a guarantee that the
Federal Government would not abolish the African slave trade for 20 years.
Sectionalism also occurred in regards to the Panic of 1819. Southerners believed that the Panic of
1819 was caused by the Second National Bank. This bank, which had been created in 1816, and given a
charter for 20 years, was allowed to open branches throughout the United States. It was these branches
of the Second National Bank that made loans to southern cotton producers to expand production. When
the bottom dropped out of the cotton market it was also branches of the Second National Bank that had to
foreclose on mortgages that were not being paid. Southerners could not understand why the bank could
not allow them more time to repay loans. When the bank foreclosed on mortgages, southerners began to
complain that the Second National Bank was a Yankee institution whose headquarters was in
Philadelphia-a northern city-that existed to benefit the northern manufacturing economy and hurt the
southern agricultural economy.
Sectionalism also was present in the Missouri Compromise of 1819-1820. In the Missouri
Compromise the issue of the spread of slavery into the western territory was raised for the first time.
Northerners wanted to keep slavery out of the West because they believed that if slavery did not expand
it would die and that the nation's industrial economy would be enhanced if the North could gain control of
Congress. Southerners, in contrast, wanted slavery to expand into the western territories because the
South believed that it could increase its representation in Congress and thus use its increased power to
pass legislation that would benefit the southern agricultural economy and stop legislation that would
benefit the northern manufacturing economy. In this context, northerners introduced the Tallmadge
Amendment, which required the territory of Missouri to abolish slavery as a condition of statehood.
Southerners oppose passage of the Tallmadge Amendment because they believed slavery could not be
regulated in the western territories by the Federal Government. Henry Clay, a congressman from
Kentucky, settled the issue with the Missouri Compromise. Clay did three things as part of the Missouri
Compromise: admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state; create a new state, Maine, and admitted it
to the Union as a free state; and drew a line across the Louisiana Purchase Territory at the 36° 30 minute
parallel. North of that line slavery would be forbidden, south of that line slavery would be allowed. This
compromise settled the issue of the spread of slavery in the West until the 1840s. It represents a
sectional difference between the North and the South.
Another sectionlistic event that occurred was the Ohio Resolution in 1824. In that year, the Ohio
state legislature passed a resolution that was forwarded to Congress asking Congress to end slavery.
Southern states resented what they saw as meddling in the affairs of sovereign states by a Yankee
legislature. As Southerners saw it, slavery was an issue that could only be decided by state and local
governments. Southerners did not believe that the federal government had the authority to end slavery
and they resented the fact that a northern state legislature would send a resolution to Congress asking
Congress to end slavery. Southerners saw the Ohio Resolution as unnecessary interference in the affairs
of the South by a northern legislature.
Sectionalism also was involved in the activities of the American Colonization Society. The American
Colonization Society was an organization active mainly in northern states that worked to raise money
from private sources to purchase the freedom of slaves in the South and send those slaves to Liberia, a
country the American Colonization Society had created on the west coast of Africa as a haven for freed
American slaves. Southerners perceived activities of the American Colonization Society as an effort by
Northerners to interfere with the institution of slavery in the South.
Slave insurrections also fueled sectionalism in the South by creating paranoia in the minds of many
Southerners about a potential race war. If you recall from a previous lecture, Gabriel Prosser in 1800 and
Denmark Vessey in 1822 had unsuccessfully plotted rebellion while Nat Turner in 1831 had killed several
whites in a slave insurrection in Virginia. These events created fear and paranoia within the South and
any effort by any northern state to interfere with slavery in the South was met with suspicion.
The rise of abolitionism in the North also contributed to sectionalism in the South. Abolitionism, more
or less, had its beginnings in 1831 with publication of a newspaper called The Liberator by William Lloyd
Garrison in Boston. Within the pages of The Liberator Garrison called for an immediate end to slavery
without financial compensation to owners of slaves that were set free. Garrison advocated amending the
Constitution or having Congress passed a statute that would free all slaves in the United States on a
certain day. This was a different type of opposition to slavery as before 1831 most opponents of slavery,
called emancipationists, favored gradually freeing slaves over a period of time with complete financial
compensation to an owner when a slave was set free. As a result of Garrison's attack on slavery, abolition
societies developed throughout the North. While abolitionist comprised no more than perhaps 10% or less
of the northern population, abolition societies attracted prominent people, including ministers, writers,
attorneys, and others who were willing to use the power of the pen and the law to oppose slavery.
Southerners resented the activities of abolition societies in the North that branded southern slaves slave
owners as being immoral people.
The Nullification Controversy during Jackson's administration was also a sectionalistic event. If you
recall, Nullification arose over passage of the 1832 tariff after John C. Calhoun in two documents --the
South Carolina Exposition and Protest and the Fort Hill Letter -- maintained that states could declare
Federal laws to be null and void within the boundaries of that state and that a state could leave the Union
by holding a special convention and voting to void a law and leave the Union. In response, South Carolina
held a special convention and nullified the 1832 tariff, which prompted President Jackson to secure from
Congress passage of the Force Act, authorizing him to use the military to put down nullification.
Fortunately, the crisis ended when Henry Clay devised the Compromise of 1833, gradually lowering tariff
rates over the next 10 years. Most southern states sided with South Carolina in this crisis. Like South
Carolina, the South generally agreed with Calhoun's views that by holding a special convention a state
could void a Federal law and leave the Union. Had Jackson actually made use of the Force Act likely
other Southern states would have joined with South Carolina and probably tried to leave the Union as
early as 1832.
The North was sectionalistic as well. Northern sectionalism, however, was based on economic
specialization. In other words, while the South remained agricultural, the North developed a
manufacturing/industrial economy. The northern industrial revolution began about 1830 with the opening
of water powered textile mills in New England. Unlike the South, which relied upon slave labor, northern
factories depended upon free labor. Northern workers were paid wages by employers. Many workers in
northern factories were immigrants. They were part of what historians refer to as the Old Immigration. An
Old Immigrant was someone who came to the United States from northern and western European
countries, such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, the
Netherlands, or other countries in that part of the world. During the 1840s and 1850s, in particular, a
tremendous number of immigrants from Ireland and Germany migrated to the United States. The Irish
came to escape the potato famine, which caused massive starvation in Ireland. Because of the Industrial
Revolution in England, Irish tenant farmers were required to produce agricultural crops for English cities,
which meant that the Irish themselves had to rely upon the potato, a crop that was not native to Europe,
for subsistence. When fungus began to attack the plant, potatoes stored for food during the winter rotted
in the ground. Thus, the Irish faced famine and countless thousands migrated to the United States where
they found jobs in northern factories. The Germans, on the other hand, came to the United States
because Germany faced revolution and political upheaval in the 1850s. This political upheaval occurred
largely because the German states were experiencing the pains of unification. Some Germans, to escape
the political upheaval, decided to migrate to the United States. Since Germany was already an industrial
nation, German immigrants naturally gravitated toward northern cities where the factories were located.
The German, Irish, and immigrants from other countries faced much racism and prejudice after they
arrived in the United States. Historians refer to the racism and prejudice directed against immigrants in
the North during the 1840s and 1850s as Nativism. This Nativism developed in large part because the
Old Immigrants did not speak English and were largely Roman Catholic in religion. These Catholic
immigrants came into a country that prior to the 1840s was primarily Protestant. Protestant Americans felt
threatened by this large influx of Catholic immigrants into the United States. As a result of the hatred and
prejudice, Catholics within northern cities were often vilified. All kinds of wild tales would circulate about
Roman Catholics in northern cities. One of the most bizarre was the story of Maria Monk. Maria Monk,
according to this tale, at one time had been a nun in Montréal, Canada. She escaped the nunnery and
came to live with a Protestant minister in the United States. While living with the minister she told a
fantastic tale about her sister nuns who live in the nunnery in Montréal being raped by priests. According
to the Maria Monk, when the nuns became pregnant the priests would feed the babies to a den of lions in
the nunnery basement. This Protestant preacher that Maria Monk was living with was so out raged by this
tale that he decided to publish the story. After the story was published many anti-catholic Protestants in
the United States were equally outraged. Of course, a thorough investigation of Maria Monk's tale showed
that the story was not true. In fact, Maria Monk had never been a nun and had never lived in a nunnery in
Montréal. Actually, Maria Monk had been a prostitute. She apparently told this preacher a fantastic tale
knowing that since he was anti-catholic he would be sympathetic to her and take her in. This is just one
example of how Nativism manifests itself in northern cities during the 1840s and 1850s.
Nativism also manifests itself in the North during the 1840s and 1850s in the rise of the American
Party. This party, which is sometimes called the Know-Nothing Party because its members were told to
keep information about the organization to themselves by saying I know nothing if somebody asked him
about the organization, was a secretive fraternal type organization that was anti-immigrant and
anti-catholic during this time. The American Party worked to elect anti-immigrant and anti-catholic
politicians to public office in the United States. This party had some success. It elected some of its
members to Congress and to state legislatures in northern states. The American Party also tried to
prevent immigrants and Catholics from voting in the United States. What generally resulted from these
attempts to suppress voting were riots in American cities. In 1844, for example, a riot occurred in
Philadelphia due to activities of the American Party that saw much of Philadelphia burned to the ground.
In Louisville, Kentucky a similar riot occurred on Election Day in 1855. This event, which saw the Catholic
and German sections of Louisville burned to the ground occurred after the American Party got control of
the voting places on August 8, Election Day in Louisville in 1855. The American Party issued members of
that party yellow cards. In order to vote in the August 8 election an individual had to show a yellow card to
one of the thugs the American Party stationed at each polling place. The German and Catholic voters in
Louisville were turned away from polls by these thugs. Many of the immigrants and Catholics were beaten
when they tried to vote. As you might imagine a ride broke out and American Party members set fire to
the German and Catholic sections of Louisville, burning them to the ground. This event in Louisville
history is known as Bloody Monday. Similar incidents occurred in other cities throughout the United
States.
In conclusion, both the North and the South were sectionalism. Whereas the South's sectionalism
was based on agriculture and made use of slave labor, northern sectionalism was based on industrial
development and made use of free labor, in particular immigrant labor. A powerful reaction to the influx of
Catholic immigrants to northern cities called Nativism developed. This Nativism gave rise to the American
Party. When the American Party attempted to control elections in places like Louisville, violence often
occurred.