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American Stories:
A History of the United States
Second Edition
Chapter
9
Nation Building
and Nationalism
1815–1825
American Stories: A History of the United States, Second Edition
Brands • Breen • Williams • Gross
Election Day in Philadelphia (1815) An
exuberant crowd celebrates in the square outside
Independence Hall in this painting by German
American artist John Lewis Krimmel.
Building and Nationalism
1815–1825
• Expansion and Migration
• Transportation and the Market Economy
• The Politics of Nation Building After the War
of 1812
A Revolutionary War Hero
Revisits America in 1824
• After War of 1812, surge of nation
building, first stirrings of
industrialization
• Priority of national over state, local
interests
• Foreign policy meant to insulate
America
• New nation of great power and wealth
emerging
Expansion and Migration
Expansion and Migration
• American perspective shifted from
Europe to West after 1815
• Rush-Bagot Agreement, 1817
 U.S. recognized Canada as British; British
agreed not to invade U.S.
Expansion and Migration (cont’d)
• Anglo-American Convention of 1818
 49th parallel boundary between U.S. and
Canada
 Joint occupation of Oregon
• Continent held in part by the English,
Spanish, and Indians
Extending the Boundaries
• West Florida annexed, 1810–1812
• Secretary of State John Quincy Adams’s
goal was reduction of Spanish holdings
• First Seminole War, 1818
 Andrew Jackson occupied east Florida
Extending the Boundaries (cont’d)
• Weakened Spain accepted Adams-Onis
Treaty
 U.S. got all Florida
 U.S. paid $5 million in Spanish debts to
Americans
Extending the Boundaries (cont’d)
• John Jacob Astor and the American Fur
Company in Oregon and St. Louis
• “Mountain men” like Kit Carson and Jim
Beckwourth roamed through Plains and
Rockies, fueling romantic myths
• Military expeditions created impression
that Plains were “great American
desert” unfit for settlement
Extending the Boundaries (cont’d)
• By 1840, over one-third of U.S.
population lived west of the
Appalachians
• Speculators sold land parcels to settlers
on credit
• Squatters and Preemption
• 1841—Congress approved permanent
right of preemption
North America, 1819 Treaties with Britain
following the War of 1812 setting the border
between the United States and Canada (British
North America) made this border the longest
unfortified boundary line in the world.
Native American Societies
Under Pressure
• “Five Civilized Tribes” (60,000 strong)
controlled much of South: Cherokee,
Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and
Seminole
• Different Native American groups
reacted differently to white
encroachment
• Cherokee largest of “Five Civilized
Tribes”
Cherokee Literacy Sequoyah’s invention of the
Cherokee alphabet enabled thousands of
Cherokees to read and write primers and
newspapers in their own language.
Native American Societies
Under Pressure (cont’d)
• Cherokee became plantation owners
• Slavery against African Americans
resulted from this
• Sequoyah created alphabet for
Cherokee language
Competing Land Claims View of the Great
Treaty Held at Prairie du Chien (1825).
Representatives of eight Native American tribes
met with government agents at Prairie du Chien,
Wisconsin, in 1825 to define the boundaries of their
respective land claims. The United States claimed
the right to make “an amicable and final
adjustment” of the claims. Within 25 years, most of
the tribes present at Prairie du Chien had ceded
their land to the government.
Native American Societies Under
Pressure (cont’d)
• Seminole smallest of “Five Civilized
Tribes”
• Seminole slavery was more payment of
tribute than ownership of humans
• Second Seminole War was example of
Seminole resistance
Native American Societies Under
Pressure (cont’d)
• Treaty of Moultrie Creek removed tribe
from fertile land
 War described as “a negro and not an
Indian war”
 Federal government used deception,
threats, and bribery to get Native
Americans to cede land
 State governments claimed jurisdiction
over lands given to Native Americans by
treaty
Native American Societies Under
Pressure (cont’d)
• Black Hawk’s War (1831–32) was last
stand of Native Americans north of
Ohio River and east of Mississippi River
• By 1830s, idea that Native Americans
should be moved West even if they
assimilated was dominant view
Transportation and the
Market Economy
Transportation and
the Market Economy
• After the War of 1812, political leaders
recognized the need to improve the
country’s transportation network
• National leaders like Madison and
Calhoun called for “internal
improvements”
• Actual federal role less than anticipated
in those calls for internal improvements
Roads and Steamboats
• National Road from Cumberland,
Maryland, eventually to Vandalia,
Illinois
• Turnpikes—privately owned toll roads
chartered by states
• Network of rivers encouraged economic
development
• Steamboats transported upriver,
reduced costs
River Transport The Clermont on the Hudson
(1830–1835) by Charles Pensee. Although some
called his Clermont “Fulton’s Folly,” Robert Fulton
reduced the cost and increased the speed of river
transport.
Roads and Steamboats (cont’d)
• Steamboats had luxury hotel
atmosphere, but poor safety record
• Congressional effort to establish safety
regulations
• Canals-economical way to ship farm
produce
Roads and Steamboats (cont’d)
• Erie Canal, 1825, linked New York City
to Great Lakes
• Great economic success, inspired
numerous other canal projects
Emergence of a Market Economy
• Canals cut shipping expenses for
western farmers and eastern
manufacturers
• Steamboats on the rivers also reduced
shipping costs and stimulated
commercial agriculture
• Market stimulated specialization, North
produced wheat
Emergence of a Market
Economy (cont’d)
• Five factors made Deep South world’s
greatest producer of cotton:
 Increased cotton demand from New
England textile factories
 Eli Whitney and the cotton gin
 New, fertile land available in old Southwest
 Slavery permitted large-scale operation
 The South’s splendid natural transportation
system
The Canal Boom Illustration of a lock on the Erie
Canal at Lockport, New York, 1838. The canal
facilitated trade by linking the Great Lakes regions
to the eastern seaports.
Early Industrialism
• Traditional methods but innovative
financing through “putting out” system
 “Putting-out”—merchants delivered raw
materials for farm families; artisans
processed these materials
 Did not disrupt agricultural life patterns
Early Industrialism (cont’d)
• After 1815, increased demand
stimulated mass production
• Textile industry in New England led
development of factory system
Early Industrialism Lowell, Massachusetts,
became America’s model industrial town in the first
half of the nineteenth century. In this painting of
the town in 1814 (when it was still called East
Chelmsford), a multistory brick mill is prominent on
the river. Textile mills sprang up throughout Lowell
in the 1820s and 1830s, employing thousands of
workers, mostly women. Below, a photograph from
c. 1848 shows a Lowell mill worker operating a
loom.
Early Industrialism Lowell, Massachusetts,
became America’s model industrial town in the first
half of the nineteenth century. In this painting of
the town in 1814 (when it was still called East
Chelmsford), a multistory brick mill is prominent on
the river. Textile mills sprang up throughout Lowell
in the 1820s and 1830s, employing thousands of
workers, mostly women. Below, a photograph from
c. 1848 shows a Lowell mill worker operating a
loom.
The Politics of Nation Building
After the War of 1812
The Politics of Nation Building
After the War of 1812
• “Era of Good Feelings,” 1816–1824
• Popular interest in national politics fell
 Interest groups no longer took differences
into the political arena; public interest in
politics declined
• Common theme of public policy in this
period: “awakening nationalism”
The Missouri Compromise
• 1817—Missouri applied for statehood as
slave state
• Northerners believed South overrepresented in House of
Representatives, despite their own
decisive majority
The Missouri Compromise (cont’d)
• Tallmadge Amendment—gradual
elimination of slavery if Missouri
admitted, passes House
• South wished to preserve balance of
power between slave states and free
states
The Missouri Compromise (cont’d)
• Missouri admitted as slave state
• Maine separated from Massachusetts,
admitted as free state
• Slavery banned elsewhere in Louisiana
Purchase above the latitude of 36o30’
The Missouri Compromise (cont’d)
• Missouri controversy exposed deep rift
between North and South
• Jefferson called it “a fire bell in the
night”
Map 9.1 The Missouri Compromise, 1820–
1821 The Missouri Compromise kept the balance
of power in the Senate by admitting Missouri as a
slave state and Maine as a free state. The
agreement temporarily settled the argument over
slavery in the territories.
Postwar Nationalism and
the Supreme Court
• John Marshall Chief Justice, 1801–
1835—Most dominant chief justice ever
• Role of court to enable economic
growth by protecting individuals and
provide federal government more
power. Key Cases: Dartmouth College
v. Woodward, 1819
Postwar Nationalism and
the Supreme Court (cont’d)
• Charters granted by states are eternal
contracts
• McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819
Postwar Nationalism and
the Supreme Court (cont’d)
• Power to tax is power to destroy
• Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824
Postwar Nationalism and
the Supreme Court (cont’d)
• Federal regulation of interstate
commerce trumps state regulation
• The court’s actions exemplify trend:
federal government should promote
capitalist economy
Nationalism in Foreign Policy:
The Monroe Doctrine
• U.S. sympathized with Latin American
revolts, put U.S. on collision course
with European powers
• “Grand Alliance” of Europe saw Latin
American revolts as democratic
challenges to authoritarianism
• Britain asked U.S. to oppose Grand
Alliance
Nationalism in Foreign Policy:
The Monroe Doctrine (cont’d)
• Monroe Doctrine, 1823
• U.S. opposed European expansion and
would not interfere in European affairs
• Signified America’s new sense of
independence and self-confidence
Conclusion: The End of the Era
of Good Feeling
Conclusion: The End of
the Era of Good Feeling
• Era of Good Feeling was passing phase
• Settlement of West would continue but
differences over government’s role
would endure
• Concept of nonpartisan, common
purposes advanced by Monroe not
viable in contentious and democratic
era
Timeline