Download CHAPTER 9 Nation Building And Nationalism SUMMARY

CH A PT E R 9 Nation Building And Nationalism
SUMMARY
After the War of 1812, the United States emerged as a nation of great potential wealth
and power. New lands were opened to settlement, a transportation "revolution"
took place, and a mood of confidence prevailed.
I. EXPANSION AND MIGRATION
After 1815 the American people shifted their attention from Europe and began to
look westward. They saw a rich, unsettled continent, still held in part by the
English, Spanish and Indians.
A. Extending the Boundaries
John Quincy Adams, secretary of state from 1816 to 1824, deserves the most
credit for expanding the nation's boundaries during that period. Taking
advantage of Spain's decline, Adams negotiated two treaties: the AdamsOnis Treaty and the Transcontinental Treaty. Under the terms of these
treaties, the United States secured all of Florida and reached as far as the
Pacific. In terms of actual settlement, however, the "West" was still east of the
Mississippi River.
B. Settlement to the Mississippi
In order to make the land beyond the Appalachians available to white
settlers, the United States government initiated a policy of moving the
Indians to the west side of the Mississippi. When they resisted, they were
forcibly removed. Even so, some southern states felt that the federal
government did not push the removal of the Indians vigorously enough, and
these states claimed their own jurisdiction over the Indians, whom they
treated harshly.
The land from which the Indians were evicted was sold by the government to
large land speculators, who in turn sold the land in small parcels to
actual settlers. By 1840 more than one-third of the nation's population lived
west of the Appalachians. Because so many settlers began their farming by
being in debt, many immediately went into commercial farming and therefore
needed access to markets. The trans-Appalachian West was dotted with
small family farms tied to market towns and regional centers.
C. The People and Culture of the Frontier
The West was settled by immigrants who carried their cultures with them and
who came to escape overpopulation, rising land prices, and worn-out soil.
Since farming a new frontier meant starting with fewer tools and less
available labor, cooperation and a strong sense of community became
necessary for survival.
The frontier farmer often saw his or her land shoot up in value in a few
years. Many took the opportunity to sell out and move on, thus adding a
touch of drifting to the frontier character.
II. A REVOLUTION IN TRANSPORTATION
Two important and interrelated developments marked this era: rapid improvement
in transportation and the increasing use of money and credit in the economy.
In an effort to "conquer space," the national government built the National Road,
from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, then in Virginia. In addition, a whole
web of turnpikes came into existence, built by private entrepreneurs. Usually,
however, the roads did not return a profit, and though beneficial to the public,
they lost their attraction for investors.
A. Roads and Steamboats
Nature blessed the United States with a network of rivers that constituted a
natural transportation system that greatly encouraged America's economic
development. Flatboats carried cargo from the upper Mississippi and
Ohio Valley to New Orleans, and all along the lower stretches of the great
river, cotton planters built their wharfs.
Flatboats traveled in only one direction, with the flow of the river, but after
1811, steamboats churned the waters of the West and drove
transportation costs down. The steamboat, actually less important than
the flatboat, stirred a sense of romance in the American people.
Congress even abandoned its usual hands-off policy toward private
enterprise to regulate safety standards on the great paddle wheelers.
B. The Canal Boom
No river and no road linked East and West before the state of New York, led by
Governor De Witt Clinton, built the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo.
Even before its completion in 1825, the canal was an enormous success.
Easterners and Westerners paid less for one another's goods as a result, and
New York City grew rapidly as a commercial center.
III. EMERGENCE OF A MARKET ECONOMY
The desire to reduce the costs and increase the speed of shipping heavy freight
over great distances laid the groundwork for a new economic system
A. The Beginning of Commercial Agriculture
The revolution in transportation had a decisive effect on agriculture. Lower
transportation costs meant greater income for the farmer. The sale of a farmer's
produce to distant markets meant participation in a complex system of credit.
The greatest profits went to those who could switch from mixed farming and
concentrate on a single crop, or staple. Agriculture, in general, became specialized by
region. The Ohio Valley became a major wheat-producing region, but the most
spectacularly successful staple was cotton. Several factors were responsible, such as
the invention of the cotton gin, increased demand and the extensive use of slave labor.
B. Commerce and Banking
Commercial farming and regional specialization demanded a new system of
marketing. Farmers were less likely to sell their harvest directly to the
consumer. Instead, they sold their crops to local merchants, who in turn sold it to
regional merchants, who then sold it to national or international traders. While
farm products flowed in one direction, credit flowed in the other. Farmers were
paid for crops before they were planted. The farmer, of course, paid interest on these
loans, and the efficiency of the whole operation lowered total costs and increased
profits for everyone.
The greater use of credit stimulated the banking system. After 1812, the number of
state banks grew rapidly and as they competed to make loans they made money
easier and cheaper to obtain. Congress, fearful of a boom-bust economic cycle,
created a second Bank of the United States in 1816 to check the irresponsible behavior
of the state banks. Instead, the Bank of the United States added to the problem by
making loans easy. In 1819, the nation suffered the inevitable collapse of its money
supply.
C. Early Industrialism
Manufacturing increased after the War of 1812, but most manufacturing was still
done at home; what changed was the way the process was financed. Merchants owned
the raw materials, which they "put out" to farm families. Only in the textile industry
did a fully developed factory system emerge. The most spectacular example was the
complex operated by the Boston Manufacturing Company at Lowell, Massachusetts.
The increasing success of industry in New England prompted business people in
that area to shift their investments from shipping to manufacturing, and the
politicians there began to pay more attention to ways in which government could aid
industry. Even so, America was not yet an industrial nation; it was the growth of a
market economy of national scope that was the major economic development of the
period.
IV. THE POLITICS OF NATION BUILDING AFTER THE WAR OF 1812
Because the United States had a one-party system following the War of 1812,
contending interest groups no longer took their differences into the political arena.
Except for the Supreme Court, the national government became almost
irrelevant to the domestic economy.
A. The Republicans in Power
Once the Federalists were out of the way, the Republicans did not need to
follow a strict party line, and they even began to adopt Federalist measures. In
1815 and 1816, Republicans enacted high tariffs and established a
national bank. Some Republicans, such as Henry Clay, wanted the national
government to adopt measures that would have made the nation economically
self-sufficient (the "American System"), but Presidents Madison and Monroe
had constitutional scruples about federal aid going to internal improvements.
In addition, grants for such improvements provoked sectional conflict.
Congress retreated from its earlier attempts to stimulate economic growth, and
even the National Road fell into disrepair.
B. Monroe as President
James Monroe was elected President in 1816 and reelected in 1820. He was
determined at all costs to preserve national harmony. When a major
financial panic swept the country in 1819, Monroe did nothing to control it or
to mitigate its effects, because he felt the president should stand above such
matters. At the time, most Americans agreed. What is remarkable,
however, is that Monroe provided no leadership in the controversy over
Missouri.
C. The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri controversy arose when the Missouri territorial assembly
applied for statehood in 1817. Missouri would be a slave state, and many
Northerners already resented what they believed to be the South's overrepresentation in the House of Representatives. James Tallmadge of New York
persuaded the House to reject Missouri's application unless it abolished
slavery. The South considered Missouri's admission crucial, because at that
time there were eleven slave states and eleven free states. The South feared any
change in this balance.
Congress debated the issue in December 1819 and worked out a compromise.
Missouri was allowed to become a slave state, but Maine was also allowed
statehood as a free state. More important, Congress banned slavery from any
part of the Louisiana Purchase (except for Missouri)
above the latitude of 36°30'. Even more important, the Missouri controversy
demonstrated a fundamental rift between North and South.
D. Postwar Nationalism and the Supreme Court
Between 1801 and 1835, John Marshall served as chief justice of the Supreme
Court and used his position to encourage the growth of the nation. Because he
believed that the Constitution existed to protect the industrious, whose
exertions to enrich themselves would benefit the entire nation, he sought to
protect individual property rights against government interference, especially
from the state legislatures. In a series of decisions, Marshall limited the powers
of the states, usually by holding them to a strict observance of contracts.
E. Nationalism in Foreign Policy: The Monroe Doctrine
When Spain's colonies in Latin America rose in rebellion, the United States
responded favorably toward the new nations. In Europe, however, the
ruling classes feared that rebellion might prove contagious, and France was
encouraged to squelch Spain's rebellious colonies and, perhaps, to keep
them for France. Neither Great Britain nor the United States would tolerate
French involvement in Latin American affairs, and England asked the
United States to cooperate in preventing it. John Quincy Adams persuaded
President Monroe that the United States alone should guarantee the
independence of Mexico and the states in South and Central America. In
1823, Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, warning European nations to
stay out of the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine had no real effect
when it was first proclaimed, but indicated America's growing selfconfidence. In promising not to interfere in European internal affairs, America
detached itself from worldwide struggles against tyranny and betrayed part
of its revolutionary heritage.
The shift of American focus from Europe to national affairs was one of the
important themes of the period following the War of 1812. Americans now
looked inward and liked what they saw.
V. Conclusion: The End of the "Era of Good Feeling"
President Monroe supported John Quincy Adams to succeed him. It seemed a
good choice. Adams was an intelligent person with a keen interest in scientific
progress. His first loyalty was to the nation rather than any section. He was,
however, a "gentleman" in an age of rising democracy and a nationalist in an age
of growing sectionalism. He nearly lost the election of 1824, and his term office
was bound to be a failure. The "era of good feelings" could not last in a society of
so many contending interests.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After mastering this chapter, your students should be able to:
1. Analyze the factors that contributed to the rise of nationalism after the War of 1812.
2. Describe the process by which western lands were organized and sold.
3. Understand why families moved westward and the living conditions they faced.
4. Explain the development of a national transportation network and its contribution to a
market economy.
5. List and explain the reasons why the South became the world's greatest cotton producer.
6. Describe how new economic activities brought forth the early factory system.
7. Discuss the steps taken by Congress to encourage industry and enterprise.
8. Develop the main issues of sectional disturbance that accompanied the Missouri
Compromise.
9. Analyze the role played in economic and political matters by the Supreme Court under
Chief Justice Marshall
10. Explain the perceived international conditions that led to the Monroe Doctrine as well
as the specific intent of this statement.
ESSAY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.
Why was the desire to acquire new territories and settle the western
lands such a strong national impulse after 1815?
2.
Much of the lore of the West describes life as romantic, heroic,
and idyllic. Is this an accurate portrayal? Why or why not?
3.
America was relatively slow to industrialize, but because of the early
development of a market economy, there always seemed to be an
abundance of goods flowing throughout the country. What factors
contributed to this major economic accomplishment?
4.
As nationalism seemed to emerge triumphant, stronger sectional rivalries
developed between North and South. Why did sectionalism develop, and
how did the debate over Missouri reflect these differences?
5.
How was nationalism reflected in foreign policy from the Adams-Onis
Treaty through the Monroe Doctrine?