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Chapter Nine
An Agrarian Republic,
1790 – 1824
Part One
Introduction
Chapter Focus Questions
How did America’s economy develop in a world
of warring great powers?
What was the role of Jefferson’s presidency and
his agrarian republicanism in forging a national
identity?
How did the divisive War of 1812 end colonial
dependency?
How did westward expansion become a
nationalizing force?
Part Two
Expansion Touches Mandan
Villages on the Upper Missouri
Mandan Communities
Lewis and Clark visited the Mandan villages in
what is now North Dakota.
The Mandan lived by agriculture and hunting and
lived in matrilineal clans.
The male chiefs met with Lewis and Clark who
offered them a military and economic alliance.
Americans established Fort Clark as a trading
base.
Americans brought diseases like smallpox that
wiped out the vast majority of Mandans.
This shows the medal Lewis and Clark presented to the Nez Perce Indians in
1805. One side shows a profile of Thomas Jefferson, with the description, “Th.
Jefferson, President of the U.S. A.D. 1802,” while the clasped hands on the
other side promise Peace and Friendship. National Park Service Photo.
During this reenactment of the meeting of Lewis and Clark and the Nez Perce in
present-day northern Idaho, tourists reach out and touch imagined history as Craig
Rockwell (as Capt. William Clark) shows the group a camas plant. In reality, until the
Nez Perce took them in and fed them, expedition members were too exhausted and
starving to reach out to anyone.
Lewiston Morning Tribune.
In this horse parade, contemporary Nez Perce Indians recapture the
pageantry and pride that the tribe’s possession of large herds of
Appaloosa horses and their renowned horsemanship brought them
before white settlement. Diana L.Jones,USDA Forest Service.
Patrick Gass, one of the soldiers on the expedition, published the first
popular account, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of the Corps of
Discovery, in 1810. This illustration “Captains Lewis and Clark
holding a Council with the Indians,” depicts a frequent event, for
Lewis and Clark learned the route west by consulting with local
Indians. Patrick Cass,Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Part Three
North American Communities
from Coast to Coast
Spanish Colonies
To protect their interests against Russian and British
expansion, the Spanish had established a chain of missions
throughout California.
The Spanish also controlled New Orleans, though in 1800 it
was:
a polyglot, French-dominated society that was half black; and
an international port.
Americans were concerned that whomever controlled New
Orleans could choke off commerce along the Mississippi
River.
East and West Florida dominated the Gulf of Mexico, and
Spain opened the area to American immigration.
Haiti and the Caribbean
The Caribbean posed strong challenges
because of the sugar industry.
The Caribbean slave societies were jolted
by the successful slave revolt in Haiti.
British North America
The heart of British North America was the
former French colony of Quebec. Loyalists
comprised most of the other settlers.
The American Revolution caused Great
Britain to create a national legislature under
strict executive control.
Russian America
Russian settlements in Alaska were an
extension of its conquest of Siberia.
The Russians established Sitka in 1804.
Russia established new settlements in
California, including Fort Ross.
This view shows Sitka, the center of Russian activities in Alaska, in 1827. Russian
architectural styles and building techniques are apparent in the Church of St.
Michael the Archangel in the right background, contrasting with the Asian and
Indian origins of most of Sitka’s inhabitants. SOURCE:From an engraving by
Freidrich H.von Kittlitz,1827.Elmer E.Rosmusen Library Rare
Books,University of Alaska,Fairbanks.
America in 1800
Map: America in 1800
In 1800, the United States was surrounded
by European colonies.
1800
MAP 9.1 North America in
1800 In 1800, the new
United States of America
shared the North
American continent with
territories held by the
European powers: British
Canada, French
Louisiana (secretly ceded
that year to France by
Spain), Spanish Florida,
Spanish Mexico, and
Russian Alaska,
expanding southward
along the Pacific coast.
Few people could have
imagined that by 1850,
the United States would
span the continent. But
the American settlers
who had crossed the
Appalachians to the Ohio
River Valley were
already convinced that
opportunity lay in the
West.
Trans-Appalachia: Cincinnati
The trans-Appalachia West was the most rapidly
growing region of the United States.
By 1800, 500,000 Americans lived in TransAppalachia.
Cincinnati served as major trading center for the
Ohio River Valley.
River traffic to and from New Orleans increased
annually, though Westerners were concerned over
who controlled the city.
When John Caspar Wild painted this view of Cincinnati in 1835, its
location on the Ohio River had already established it as center for the
trade in agricultural goods shipped down the river to New Orleans,
first by flatboat and later by steamboat. (John Caspar Wild, View of
Cincinnati, 1835, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)
Atlantic Ports: From Charleston to
Boston
Only 3 percent of Americans lived in cities
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Boston, and
New York dominated trade.
Each city had its own distinct economy and
culture.
These cities led the nation socially, politically, and
economically.
Those with the greatest ties to the transAppalachian West thrived.
Built for speed, the narrow beamed, many-sailed American clipper ships
were the technological marvel of their age. In 1854, the most famous
clipper ship, Flying Cloud, shown here, made the voyage from New
York to San Francisco in 89 days. SOURCE:Museum of the City of
New York/CORBIS.
Part Four
A National Economy
Cotton and the Economy of the Young
Republic
Table: American Export Trade, 1790 - 1815
Most Americans lived in rural, agricultural
communities.
Northerners were generally self-sufficient.
The plantation regions of the South were
heavily involved in marketing crops
overseas, but demand for tobacco and rice
only rose to pre-Revolutionary levels.
FIGURE 9.1 American Export Trade, 1790–1815 This graph shows how completely
the American shipping boom was tied to European events. Exports, half of which were
reexports, surged when Britain and France were at war and America could take
advantage of its status as neutral. Exports slumped in the brief period of European peace
in 1803–1805 and plunged following the Embargo Act of 1807 and the outbreak of the
War of 1812.
SOURCE:Douglass C.North,The Economic Growth of the United States , 1790 –1860
(New York: Norton,1966), p.26.
Shipping and The Economic Boom
In 1790, American shipping had been hurt by the end of
ties with Great Britain.
The outbreak of war in Europe and American neutrality
vastly expanded trade, fueling the growth of American
coastal cities.
The economic boom included:
American entry into the Northwest fur and China markets;
an active shipbuilding industry; and
trade stimulated the rise of insurance companies, banks, and
brokers catering to the international market.
By 1820, the United States was building a strong,
diversified national economy.
Part Five
The Jefferson Presidency
Tall, ungainly,
and diffident
in manner,
Thomas
Jefferson was
nonetheless a
man of
genius, an
architect,
naturalist,
political
philosopher,
and
politician.
SOURCE:Co
urtesy of the
Library of
Congress.
Republican Agrarianism
Thomas Jefferson emerged as a strong
president with strong party backing.
Jefferson’s ideal was an agrarian republic of
roughly equal yeoman farmers. America’s
abundant land allowed Jefferson to envision
a nation of small family farms.
Thomas Jefferson designed and supervised every aspect of the building and
furnishing of Monticello, his classical home atop a hill near Charlottesville,
Virginia. The process took almost forty years (from 1770 to 1809), for
Jefferson costantly changed and refined his design, subjecting both himself
and his family to years of uncomfortable living in the partially completed
structure. The result, however, was one of the most civilized—and most
autobiographical—houses ever built. SOURCE:Courtesy of the Library of
Congress
Jefferson’s Government and the
Independent Judiciary
Jefferson's promise to reduce the size of the federal
government was fulfilled by:
cutting internal taxes; and
reducing the size of army, navy, and government staff.
The unfinished state of the nation’s capital reflected
the emphasis on local communities.
While removing Federalist officeholders, Jefferson
provoked a landmark Supreme Court decision.
Marbury v. Madison did not restore William
Marbury to his post, but it established the principle
of judicial review and an independent judiciary.
This symbol of the
Philadelphia Society for
Promoting Agriculture
illustrates the principles
of republican
agrarianism. The
yeoman farmer is
ploughing his field
under the approving
gaze of the female
figure of Columbia. His
activity expresses the
values of the American
republic that she
represents and in which
Thomas Jefferson so
strongly believed. As he
said, “those who labor
in the earth are the
chosen people of God.”
SOURCE:Library of
Congress.
Opportunity: The Louisiana
Purchase
Map: Louisiana Purchase
The conflict between France and Britain threatened
American security.
Napoleon’s acquisition of the Louisiana Territory
threatened American access to the Mississippi River.
Jefferson attempted to buy New Orleans, but accepted
the French offer to buy the entire territory.
The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United
States, fulfilling Jefferson's desire for continued
expansion.
MAP 9.2 Louisiana
Purchase The Louisiana
Purchase of 1803, the
largest peaceful
acquisition of territory in
United States history,
more than doubled the
size of the nation. The
Lewis and Clark
expedition (1804–06) was
the first to survey and
document the natural and
human richness of the
area. The American sense
of expansiveness and
continental destiny owes
more to the extraordinary
opportunity provided by
the Louisiana Purchase
than to other factor.
Incorporating Louisiana
The French customs of Louisiana conflicted
with the English-derived American
traditions.
The solution was to maintain aspects of
French institutions in Louisiana.
Texas and the Struggle for Mexican
Independence
Acquisition of Louisiana put the United
States in conflict with Spain.
Spain’s involvement in the Napoleonic
Wars caused its American empire to slip
away.
Several populist revolts fueled a strong
independence movement in Mexico.
Part Six
Renewed Imperial Rivalry
in North America
Problems with Neutral Rights
In his second term, Jefferson faced problems protecting
American neutrality.
British ships seized American vessels trading in the French
West Indies and impressed sailors into the Royal Navy.
Congress first imposed a boycott and then passed the
Embargo Act on foreign commerce that:
did not change British policy;
caused a deep depression; and
led to widespread smuggling.
During the presidency of James Madison, the Embargo Act
was repealed.
Other similar acts passed later also proved ineffective.
A Contradictory Indian Policy
Indian affairs remained among the most difficult
foreign problems.
Western tribes resisted American incursion into
their territory.
Jefferson hoped that Indians would either be
converted to white civilization or moved across
the Mississippi River. Neither policy won much
Indian support.
Indian Resistance
The Shawnee emerged as the leading force of Indian
resistance in the Ohio Valley. Tecumseh led a band that
attempted to escape contact with whites.
His brother, Tenskwatawa, The Prophet, called for a
rejection of white ways and built a pan-Indian religious
movement.
Tecumseh formed a pan-Indian confederacy and was
initially defensive but soon advocated military
resistance.
While Tecumseh was in the South, a American army
defeated Tenskwatawa’s followers at Tippecanoe.
In response, Tecumseh formally allied with the British.
Map: Indian Resistance
MAP 9.3 Indian Resistance,
1790–1816 American
westward expansion
put relentless pressure
on the Indian nations in
the Trans-Appalachian
South and West. The
Trans-Appalachian
region was marked by
constant warfare from
the time of the earliest
settlements in
Kentucky in the 1780s
to the War of
1812.Tecumseh’s
Alliance in the Old
Northwest (1809–11)
and the Creek
Rebellion in the Old
Southwest (1813–14)
were the culminating
struggles in Indian
resistance to the
American invasion of
the Trans-Appalachian
region. Indian
resistance was a major
reason for the War of
1812.
Tecumseh, a Shawnee military leader, and his brother Tenskwatawa, a religious leader called The Prophet,
led a pan-Indian revitalization and resistance movement that posed a serious threat to American
westward expansion. Tecumseh traveled widely, attempting to build a military alliance on his
brother’s spiritual message. He achieved considerable success in the Old Northwest, but less in the
Old Southwest, where many Indian peoples put their faith in accommodation. Tecumseh’s death at
the Battle of the Thames (1813) and British abandonment of their Shawnee allies at the end of the
War of 1812 brought an end to organized Indian resistance in the Old Northwest. SOURCE:(a)The
Field Museum,#A93851c.(b)Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
This double portrait of two Sac Indians by John Wesley Jarvis, painted in 1833, shows
the growing resistance to official American Indian policy. The father, Black Hawk,
wears European dress and appears to have adapted to white ways, while the son,
Whirling Thunder, stubbornly wears traditional garb.
SOURCE:John Wesley Jarvis,Black Hawk and His Son, Whirling Thunder, 1833.Oil on
canvas.23”x 30”. (60.3 x 76 cm.)Gilcrease Museum,Tulsa,Oklahoma.
Part Seven
The War of 1812
The War Hawks
Map: War of 1812
Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun were
leaders of a new generation of War Hawks
from the South and West that supported war
as a means of expansion.
Madison’s declaration of war received no
Federalist support.
MAP 9.4 The War of 1812 On
land, the War of 1812 was
fought to define the
nation’s boundaries. In the
North, American armies
attacked British forts in
the Great Lakes region
with little success, and the
invasion of Canada was a
failure. In the South, the
Battle of New Orleans
made a national hero of
Andrew Jackson, but it
occurred after the peace
treaty had been signed. On
the sea, with the exception
of Oliver Perry’s victory
in the Great Lakes,
Britain’s dominance was
so complete and its
blockade so effective that
British troops were able to
invade the Chesapeake
and burn the capital of the
United States.
The Campaigns Against Northern
and Southern Indians
American efforts to capture Canada failed
due to:
New England opposition;
the strength of the British-Indian forces; and
the resistance of Canadians.
The Americans won the Battle of the
Thames, at which Tecumseh was killed.
Most of the important battles of the War of 1812 were fought on the
Canadian border, on water as well as on land. This picture celebrates a
rare American naval triumph in the war, the victory of Captain Oliver
T. Perry over a British naval squadron on Lake Erie in September
1813. SOURCE:Bettman/CORBIS.
The Hartford Convention
Andrew Jackson and Indian allies defeated
the Creek Indians and invaded Florida.
The British navy established a strong
blockade and burned Washington.
Continued opposition from New England
led to the Hartford Convention.
Federalists demanded redress of grievances
though they dropped talk of secession.
The Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent ended the war without
addressing the major grievances, but the British
did agree to evacuate the western forts.
Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans saved
American pride.
The war also ended lingering feelings of American
colonial dependency.
The Indians were the only clear losers.
Part Eight
Defining the Boundaries
Another Westward Surge
Map: Spread of Settlement
Peace brought widespread Indian removal
that opened lands and enabled Americans to
resume their westward migration.
MAP 9.5 Spread
of Settlement:
Westward Surge,
1800–1820 Within
a period of twenty
years, a quarter of
the nation’s
population had
moved west of the
Appalachian
Mountains. The
westward surge
was a dynamic
source of
American
optimism.
Migration Routes
Northern migrants traveled the Genesee
Turnpike.
Middle States settlers went west on the
Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Turnpike and the
National Road.
The Wilderness and Federal Roads were
southern migration routes.
Western Settlement
Table: Western land sales
Overpopulated farmland in the East pushed
Americans to cheap land in the West. Easterners
brought the culture and values of their home
regions with them.
The Old Northwest shared New England values.
The Old Southwest was based on plantation
slavery.
Settlement of the heavily forested Old
Northwest and Old Southwest required
much heavy labor to clear the land. One
common laborsaving method settlers
learned from Indians was to “girdle” the
trees (cutting the bark all around),
thereby killing them. Dead trees could be
more easily chopped and burned.
SOURCE:Library of Congress.
The Election of 1816 and the Era of
Good Feelings
James Monroe presided over the post-war “era of
good feelings.”
Monroe brought former Federalists into his
cabinet.
Embracing most of Henry Clay’s American
System that updated many of Hamilton’s ideas,
the Monroe administration:
established the Second Bank of the United States:
passed a protective tariff; but
would not subsidize roads and canals - the third part of
the American System.
The American System
Madison and Monroe broke with Jefferson’s
agrarianism and embraced the Federalist
program for economic development
The American System included:
The establishment of a national bank
A tax on imported goods to protect American
manufacturers
A national system of roads and canals
This 1816 painting by Thomas Birch shows two improvements that aided
westward expansion: the lightweight but sturdy Conestoga wagon that made it
possible to carry heavy loads for long distances, and the improved road—the
Pennsylvania Turnpike—built by a private company that charged tolls to cover
its cost.
SOURCE:Thomas Birch,Conestoga Wagon on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
,1816.Shelburne Musueum,Shelburne,VT).
The Diplomacy of John Quincy Adams
Map: John Quincy Adams's Border Treaties
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams laid the
foundation for continued expansion. Two treaties with
Britain established a demilitarized Canadian border
and provided for the joint occupation of Oregon.
The Adams-Onis Treaty turned over Florida to the
United States and relinquished claims to Louisiana.
Adams defined the response of the United States to
emerging nations in the Western Hemisphere by
designing the Monroe Doctrine.
MAP 9.6 John Quincy Adams’s Border Treaties John Quincy Adams, secretary of state in
the Monroe administration (1817–25), solidified the nation’s boundaries in several
treaties with Britain and Spain. The Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 and the Conventions of
1818 and 1824 settled the northern boundary with Canada and the terms of a joint
occupancy of Oregon. The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 added Florida to the United
States and settled the disputed border between the American Louisiana Territory and
Spanish possessions in the West.
The Panic of 1819
New problems emerged as Americans moved westward.
A land boom was financed by speculative buying and
easy credit.
The Panic of 1819 was triggered by the Second Bank of
the United States foreclosing on loans that led to six
years of depression.
The Panic of 1819 hurt urban workers suffering from the
decline in trade and manufacturing failures.
Manufacturers pressed for higher protective tariffs,
angering Southerners.
The Missouri Compromise
Map: The Missouri Compromise
Effort to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave state
created a crisis.
Northerners opposed the creation of new slave states because
it would tip the balance between slave and free states.
Southerners sought to expand slavery and were concerned
that Congress would even consider the matter.
Henry Clay forged a compromise that maintained the balance
between free and slave states.
Maine was admitted as a free slave state and slavery was
barred north of Missouri’s southern boundary.
MAP 9.7 The Missouri Compromise Before the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Ohio
River was the dividing line between the free states of the Old Northwest and the
slaveholding states of the Old Southwest. The compromise stipulated that Missouri
would enter the Union as a slave state (balanced by Maine, a free state), but slavery
would be prohibited in the Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30(Missouri’s southern
boundary). This awkward compromise lasted until 1846, when the Mexican-American
War reopened the issue of the expansion of slavery.
Part Nine
Conclusion
An Agrarian Republic, 1790 – 1824
Media: Chronology