Chapter 8
AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: A RURAL MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITY RISES IN
DEFENSE Massachusetts farmers once again marched in protest against high taxes – but this time the taxes had been imposed by their own state legislature. What became known as Shays’ Rebellion began in front of the Northampton county courthouse on the morning of August 29, 1786. Hundreds of farmers, many of them veterans of the recent war for independence, succeeded in shutting down the court.Their action inspired similar protests throughout New England and mid-Atlantic states. Economic depression heightened antipathy between rural farmers and urban merchant elites. The results of these protests were decidedly mixed – protesters were arrested, and in some cases sentenced to death, while legislatures changed course, and national political leaders saw the threat of anarchy – but they clearly demonstrated the solidarity felt by rural residents.
THE CRISIS OF THE 1780s Nationalist sentiment grew in reaction to mass protests fueled by economic depression.Economic problems like wartime inflation plagued the nation. High prices led to food riots. After the war the key problem was depression. The trade imbalance with Britain drew hard currency out of the United States, leaving farmers with no cash to pay taxes or debts. Repayment of debt became both a
political and economic problem.Farmers called for laws to require creditors to accept a state’s nearly worthless paper currency at face value. Rhode Island’s legislation along these lines shocked merchants throughout the nation.
Nationalists called for a stronger central government to deal with the economic crisis of the 1780s. Representatives from five states, meeting in Annapolis in September 1786, called for a convention to propose changes in the Articles of Confederation.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION The 55 delegates from 12 states who assembled in Philadelphia in May of 1787 represented the nation’s political and social elite. They were patriots and republicans, and they distrusted democracy.James Madison was instrumental in formulating the Virginia Plan, which would greatly reduce
state power in favor of a “consolidated government.” Small states opposed the plan, and William Paterson counted with the New Jersey Plan, in which states were equally represented in a single house of Congress. Eventually, the interests of both small and large states were met in the Great Compromise: there would be a bicameral legislature, with representation in one house based on population, and the representing all states equally. The convention compromised free-state and slave-state interests by agreeing to count five slaves as three freemen in the census. Southern slavery was preserved. In September, the Constitution was submitted for ratification.Supporters of the Constitution called themselves Federalists. Anti-Federalists feared that the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and that a republic could not work well in a large nation. James Madison, speaking for the Federalists, argued that the multitude of interests in a large state would create a balance of power and prevent special interests from seizing control. The ratification struggle divided Americans. Opponents tended to be agrarian localists while supporters tended to be commercial cosmopolitans. Five states agreed to ratification only with the understanding that a bill of rights would be added.The first ten amendments to the Constitution served to restrain the growth of governmental power over citizens.
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION Following ratification of the Constitution, a new government was set up with George Washington as president.Washington dressed in plain republican broadcloth, but he was hardly a man of the people. Congress established executive departments, the heads of which coalesced into the cabinet.Congress also created the federal judiciary. Contrary to nationalist wishes, states maintained their individual bodies of law. Federal courts became the appeals bodies, establishing the federal system of judicial review of state legislation. Localists supported the eleventh amendment, which prevented states from being sued by citizens of another state.The new Congress turned to the nation’s fiscal problems. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton submitted a series of financial proposals that strained the Federalist coalition. Debate broke out over paying off government securities at face value. Congress also debated the federal assumption of state debts because Southern states had already paid off most of theirs. Hamilton proposed a Bank of the United States, which many opponents considered an unconstitutional expansion of power. Jefferson espoused the doctrine of strict constructionism while Hamilton was a loose constructionist. Hamilton also called for a protective tariff to develop an industrial economy. Hamilton’s plan did restore financial health and encouraged economic growth.Foreign affairs further strained the Federalist coalition. Americans initially welcomed the French Revolution, but when the Revolution turned violent and war broke out with Britain, public opinion divided. Hamilton favored closer ties with Britain; Jefferson feared them. The arrival of French ambassador “Citizen Genêt” increased domestic tensions. Washington issued a neutrality proclamation which outraged Jefferson’s supporters.One of the most pressing problems faced by the new government was relations with Indian
nations. The Indian Intercourse Act made treaties the only legal way to obtain Indian lands, but did not stop violence by white settlers. Under the leadership of Little Turtle of the Miami tribe, an Indian coalition defeated a large American force in the Ohio Valley.
The Spanish, who had acquired French claims, forged alliances and promoted immigration to resist American expansion. Britain granted greater autonomy to its North American colonies, strengthened Indian allies, and constructed a defensive buffer against Americans.By 1794, the government faced a crisis. Western farmers were refusing to pay the whiskey tax, so an army was sent into western Pennsylvania to suppress resistance. Strong military action was also seen in the West against Indian resistance. Britain had blockaded France and confiscated the cargoes of 250 American ships. The British were anxious to settle their American disputes and concentrate on defeating France.The Jay Treaty resolved several key disputes between the United States and Britain, but did so at the expense of the French alliance and without addressing slaveholder interests. Opponents held up the
treaty in the House until Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain granted them sovereignty in the West.The political battles over the Jay Treaty brought President Washington off his nonpartisan pedestal. In his farewell address he summed up American foreign policy goals: “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”
FEDERALISTS AND JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS No one anticipated the emergence of organized political parties, but they were a significant national presence by the election of 1800.Shifting coalitions began to polarize into political factions during the debate over the Jay Treaty. Hamilton’s supporters claimed the title “Federalist.” The opposition chose “Republican,” implying that the Federalists were really monarchists. These coalitions shaped the election of 1796, which Federalist John Adams narrowly won. Jefferson became vice president.Adams faced rising tensions with France which began seizing American shipping. When negotiations broke down, the nation was on the brink of war. The XYZ Affair discredited France, and brought Adams popularity.The Federalists pushed through the Alien and Sedition Acts, which severely limited freedoms of speech and of the press and threatened the liberty of foreigners. Republicans organized as an opposition party. Federalists saw opposition to the administration as opposition to the state and prosecuted leading Republican newspaper editors. The Republicans won the election of 1800. Adams negotiated an end to the quarrel with France.
The Federalists were divided over Hamilton’s dispute with Adams. They waged a defensive struggle for strong central government and good order. But by controlling the South, the West, New York, and Pennsylvania, the Republicans prevailed, though due to a technicality, the Federalists nearly tied up the final outcome.
rise of partisan politics greatly increased participation as American politics became more competitive and democratic.
“THE RISING GLORY OF AMERICA” A thriving national culture emerged. Painters Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley introduced Europeans to American subjects. Gilbert Stuart, Charles Wilson Peale, and John Trumbull brought their own perspectives to American painting.The Revolutionary years saw a tremendous increase in the number of newspapers. During the 1790s newspapers became media for partisan politics. In response to prosecutions under the Sedition Act, Jeffersonian Republicans helped to establish the principle of a free press.As a highly literate citizenry, Americans had a great appetite for books. The literature of the Revolutionary era reflected political concerns. Writers explored the political implications of independence or examined the new society that was emerging in America. Mason Locke Weems’s Life of Washington created a unifying symbol for Americans.
Although women’s literacy rates were lower than men’s, a growing number of books were specifically directed toward women. Several urged that women in a republic ought to be more independent than before.
CONCLUSION The nation withstood a decade of stress and rapid population growth. New political structures helped manage disagreements.
Discussion Questions
1. What were the economic problems that resulted from the Revolution? What sorts of remedies did people propose? What sorts of problems would these remedies create?
2. Who were the “nationalists” and what did they want? How did the Constitution of 1787 fulfill their goals?
3. Why was the Constitution of 1787 ratified? What were the arguments for and against it? Who opposed it and why?
4. What is the connection between the Federalists who supported the constitution and the supporters of the Federalist Party?
5. Who was a Federalist and who was a Republican? What were the goals of each party?
6. Why did the United States nearly get into a war with France? Why was war averted?
7. Compare and contrast American government policy toward Indian nations with policy toward European nations.
Vocabulary
Whiskey Rebellion
Annapolis Convention
Virginia Plan
New Jersey Plan
Federalists
Anti-Federalists
Judicial review
Federalism
Republicans
Alien and Sedition Acts
Suffrage
Review Questions
1. Who were the Nationalists and what did they want?
2. What were the most important accomplishments of Washington’s presidency?
3. What factors led to the rise politcal parties in the 1790s?
4. What role did newspapers play in the political culture of post-Revolutionary America?
AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: A RURAL MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITY RISES IN
DEFENSE Massachusetts farmers once again marched in protest against high taxes – but this time the taxes had been imposed by their own state legislature. What became known as Shays’ Rebellion began in front of the Northampton county courthouse on the morning of August 29, 1786. Hundreds of farmers, many of them veterans of the recent war for independence, succeeded in shutting down the court.Their action inspired similar protests throughout New England and mid-Atlantic states. Economic depression heightened antipathy between rural farmers and urban merchant elites. The results of these protests were decidedly mixed – protesters were arrested, and in some cases sentenced to death, while legislatures changed course, and national political leaders saw the threat of anarchy – but they clearly demonstrated the solidarity felt by rural residents.
THE CRISIS OF THE 1780s Nationalist sentiment grew in reaction to mass protests fueled by economic depression.Economic problems like wartime inflation plagued the nation. High prices led to food riots. After the war the key problem was depression. The trade imbalance with Britain drew hard currency out of the United States, leaving farmers with no cash to pay taxes or debts. Repayment of debt became both a
political and economic problem.Farmers called for laws to require creditors to accept a state’s nearly worthless paper currency at face value. Rhode Island’s legislation along these lines shocked merchants throughout the nation.
Nationalists called for a stronger central government to deal with the economic crisis of the 1780s. Representatives from five states, meeting in Annapolis in September 1786, called for a convention to propose changes in the Articles of Confederation.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION The 55 delegates from 12 states who assembled in Philadelphia in May of 1787 represented the nation’s political and social elite. They were patriots and republicans, and they distrusted democracy.James Madison was instrumental in formulating the Virginia Plan, which would greatly reduce
state power in favor of a “consolidated government.” Small states opposed the plan, and William Paterson counted with the New Jersey Plan, in which states were equally represented in a single house of Congress. Eventually, the interests of both small and large states were met in the Great Compromise: there would be a bicameral legislature, with representation in one house based on population, and the representing all states equally. The convention compromised free-state and slave-state interests by agreeing to count five slaves as three freemen in the census. Southern slavery was preserved. In September, the Constitution was submitted for ratification.Supporters of the Constitution called themselves Federalists. Anti-Federalists feared that the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and that a republic could not work well in a large nation. James Madison, speaking for the Federalists, argued that the multitude of interests in a large state would create a balance of power and prevent special interests from seizing control. The ratification struggle divided Americans. Opponents tended to be agrarian localists while supporters tended to be commercial cosmopolitans. Five states agreed to ratification only with the understanding that a bill of rights would be added.The first ten amendments to the Constitution served to restrain the growth of governmental power over citizens.
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION Following ratification of the Constitution, a new government was set up with George Washington as president.Washington dressed in plain republican broadcloth, but he was hardly a man of the people. Congress established executive departments, the heads of which coalesced into the cabinet.Congress also created the federal judiciary. Contrary to nationalist wishes, states maintained their individual bodies of law. Federal courts became the appeals bodies, establishing the federal system of judicial review of state legislation. Localists supported the eleventh amendment, which prevented states from being sued by citizens of another state.The new Congress turned to the nation’s fiscal problems. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton submitted a series of financial proposals that strained the Federalist coalition. Debate broke out over paying off government securities at face value. Congress also debated the federal assumption of state debts because Southern states had already paid off most of theirs. Hamilton proposed a Bank of the United States, which many opponents considered an unconstitutional expansion of power. Jefferson espoused the doctrine of strict constructionism while Hamilton was a loose constructionist. Hamilton also called for a protective tariff to develop an industrial economy. Hamilton’s plan did restore financial health and encouraged economic growth.Foreign affairs further strained the Federalist coalition. Americans initially welcomed the French Revolution, but when the Revolution turned violent and war broke out with Britain, public opinion divided. Hamilton favored closer ties with Britain; Jefferson feared them. The arrival of French ambassador “Citizen Genêt” increased domestic tensions. Washington issued a neutrality proclamation which outraged Jefferson’s supporters.One of the most pressing problems faced by the new government was relations with Indian
nations. The Indian Intercourse Act made treaties the only legal way to obtain Indian lands, but did not stop violence by white settlers. Under the leadership of Little Turtle of the Miami tribe, an Indian coalition defeated a large American force in the Ohio Valley.
The Spanish, who had acquired French claims, forged alliances and promoted immigration to resist American expansion. Britain granted greater autonomy to its North American colonies, strengthened Indian allies, and constructed a defensive buffer against Americans.By 1794, the government faced a crisis. Western farmers were refusing to pay the whiskey tax, so an army was sent into western Pennsylvania to suppress resistance. Strong military action was also seen in the West against Indian resistance. Britain had blockaded France and confiscated the cargoes of 250 American ships. The British were anxious to settle their American disputes and concentrate on defeating France.The Jay Treaty resolved several key disputes between the United States and Britain, but did so at the expense of the French alliance and without addressing slaveholder interests. Opponents held up the
treaty in the House until Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain granted them sovereignty in the West.The political battles over the Jay Treaty brought President Washington off his nonpartisan pedestal. In his farewell address he summed up American foreign policy goals: “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”
FEDERALISTS AND JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS No one anticipated the emergence of organized political parties, but they were a significant national presence by the election of 1800.Shifting coalitions began to polarize into political factions during the debate over the Jay Treaty. Hamilton’s supporters claimed the title “Federalist.” The opposition chose “Republican,” implying that the Federalists were really monarchists. These coalitions shaped the election of 1796, which Federalist John Adams narrowly won. Jefferson became vice president.Adams faced rising tensions with France which began seizing American shipping. When negotiations broke down, the nation was on the brink of war. The XYZ Affair discredited France, and brought Adams popularity.The Federalists pushed through the Alien and Sedition Acts, which severely limited freedoms of speech and of the press and threatened the liberty of foreigners. Republicans organized as an opposition party. Federalists saw opposition to the administration as opposition to the state and prosecuted leading Republican newspaper editors. The Republicans won the election of 1800. Adams negotiated an end to the quarrel with France.
The Federalists were divided over Hamilton’s dispute with Adams. They waged a defensive struggle for strong central government and good order. But by controlling the South, the West, New York, and Pennsylvania, the Republicans prevailed, though due to a technicality, the Federalists nearly tied up the final outcome.
rise of partisan politics greatly increased participation as American politics became more competitive and democratic.
“THE RISING GLORY OF AMERICA” A thriving national culture emerged. Painters Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley introduced Europeans to American subjects. Gilbert Stuart, Charles Wilson Peale, and John Trumbull brought their own perspectives to American painting.The Revolutionary years saw a tremendous increase in the number of newspapers. During the 1790s newspapers became media for partisan politics. In response to prosecutions under the Sedition Act, Jeffersonian Republicans helped to establish the principle of a free press.As a highly literate citizenry, Americans had a great appetite for books. The literature of the Revolutionary era reflected political concerns. Writers explored the political implications of independence or examined the new society that was emerging in America. Mason Locke Weems’s Life of Washington created a unifying symbol for Americans.
Although women’s literacy rates were lower than men’s, a growing number of books were specifically directed toward women. Several urged that women in a republic ought to be more independent than before.
CONCLUSION The nation withstood a decade of stress and rapid population growth. New political structures helped manage disagreements.
Discussion Questions
1. What were the economic problems that resulted from the Revolution? What sorts of remedies did people propose? What sorts of problems would these remedies create?
2. Who were the “nationalists” and what did they want? How did the Constitution of 1787 fulfill their goals?
3. Why was the Constitution of 1787 ratified? What were the arguments for and against it? Who opposed it and why?
4. What is the connection between the Federalists who supported the constitution and the supporters of the Federalist Party?
5. Who was a Federalist and who was a Republican? What were the goals of each party?
6. Why did the United States nearly get into a war with France? Why was war averted?
7. Compare and contrast American government policy toward Indian nations with policy toward European nations.
Vocabulary
Whiskey Rebellion
Annapolis Convention
Virginia Plan
New Jersey Plan
Federalists
Anti-Federalists
Judicial review
Federalism
Republicans
Alien and Sedition Acts
Suffrage
Review Questions
1. Who were the Nationalists and what did they want?
2. What were the most important accomplishments of Washington’s presidency?
3. What factors led to the rise politcal parties in the 1790s?
4. What role did newspapers play in the political culture of post-Revolutionary America?
Chapter 9
Notes
AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: MANDAN VILLAGES ON THE UPPER MISSOURI The Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter of 1804-1805 with the Mandan villages in what is now North Dakota. The Mandan lived by agriculture and hunting and organized themselves in matrilineal clans. Lewis and Clark offered them a military and economic alliance. Later, Americans established Fort Clark as a trading base. But along with their goods, Americans brought diseases like smallpox, which wiped out the vast majority of Mandans. The vignette shows the costs to American Indians of Thomas Jefferson’s dream of an “empire for liberty.”
NORTH AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FROM COAST TO COAST The size and geographical distribution of the U.S. population expanded rapidly. In 1800, however, the United States was only a fledgling nation, sharing the continent with colonies of European powers.
Most of Spain’s holdings were weakening, even the recently established missions of Alta California. Spain was unsuccessful in sealing its territories from trade with other nations. New Orleans was a thriving international port, and Americans were concerned that whoever controlled it could choke off commerce along the Mississippi River. While in theory Spain controlled St. Louis, in reality French traders ran the town.
The slave-holding, sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean were tenuously held colonies of various European powers. The successful slave revolt in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1791 was viewed as a portent of liberation to slaves throughout the Americas, and inspired fear in white slaveowners.
Britain exerted strong executive control over its Canadian holdings. In alliance with indigenous peoples, British North Americans dominated the continental fur trade.
Russian fur traders had established outposts along the Alaskan coast and had settlements almost as far south as San Francisco Bay.
The trans-Appalachian west was the region of greatest growth. Five to 10 percent of American households moved each year, with many kin groups moving west together. Cincinnati, founded in 1788, was an example of rapid growth, fueled by trade down the Ohio-Mississippi River system to New Orleans.
Atlantic seaports still dominated the nation’s economy and politics. Multiracial Charleston was a center for the slave trade. Baltimore became increasingly oriented toward trade with inland farmers. Philadelphia was, in the 1790s, the nation’s capital. New York merchants were aggressive, successful traders, while Boston was diversifying beyond trade.
A NATIONAL ECONOMY The new nation, a producer of raw materials, struggled to avoid being dominated by its foreign trading partners.
Most Americans lived in rural, agricultural communities. Northerners were generally self-sufficient, while the plantation regions of the South sold most of their crops overseas. But in the 1790s, trade with Britain was still less than it had been before the Revolution.
The outbreak of war in Europe – first the French Revolution, and then decades-long conflict between England and France – and American neutrality led to a vast expansion of trade. This fueled the growth of American coastal cities. Americans entered the China market, and were actively engaged in shipbuilding. In the mid-nineteenth century, American clipper ships were the fastest cargo ships on the sea.
THE JEFFERSON PRESIDENCY Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801 was the first time presidential power went from one party to another. Throughout his presidency, Jefferson worked to appeal to centrists in both the Federalist and his own Jeffersonian Republican parties.
Thomas Jefferson emerged as a strong president with strong party backing who was able to shape national policy. He feared extremes of wealth as inimical to Revolutionary ideals, and believed that only a nation of roughly equal yeoman farmers could fulfill America’s promise. Increasing territory seemed the solution; America’s abundant land allowed him to envision a nation of small family farms (even though he himself owned a large plantation and slaves).
Jefferson had been elected on a promise to reduce the size of the federal government, which he fulfilled in part because the government was already small and unimportant. 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 established the principle of judicial review.
The conflict between France and Britain threatened American security. Napoleon had acquired the Louisiana Territory from Spain. Jefferson attempted to buy New Orleans, but instead accepted the French offer to buy the entire territory, doubling the size of the United States and fulfilling his desire for continued expansion.
The acquisition of territory with French customs created a conflict with Americans whose traditions were derived from England. The solution was to maintain some French institutions in Louisiana.
Acquisition of Louisiana put the United States in conflict with Spain, which faced a strong independence movement in Mexico.
RENEWED IMPERIAL RIVALRY IN NORTH AMERICA Jefferson was easily re-elected in 1804, but faced problems protecting American neutrality.
Britain seized American ships trading in the French West Indies and impressed sailors into the Royal Navy. Jefferson was determined to defend American sovereignty, but lacked a strong navy.
Congress first imposed a boycott and then an embargo on foreign commerce. The law did not change British policy and caused a deep depression as well as widespread smuggling. Federalists gained strength, especially in New England.
Federalists were not strong enough to defeat Jefferson’s Republican successor, James Madison, in the 1808 election. The Embargo Act was repealed and Congress vainly sought a peaceful way to defend American rights.
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. Many tribes were divided into accommodation and traditional factions.
The Shawnees emerged as the leading force of Indian resistance in the Ohio Valley. Tecumseh led a group that attempted to escape contact with whites. But white land-hunger threatened all Indians in the region. His brother, Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), called for a rejection of the whites’ ways and built a pan-Indian religious movement. Tecumseh added a political dimension by forming a pan-Indian confederacy that called for an end to land sales to whites, arguing that land was the common property of all Indians. He also urged military resistance. While Tecumseh was in the South, 1000 white soldiers attacked Tenskwatawa’s outpost at Tippecanoe. In response, Tecumseh formally allied with the British.
THE WAR OF 1812 British support for Western Indians and conflict over shipping rights were among the grievances that sparked the War of 1812.
A new generation of War Hawks from the South and West supported war against Britain. Madison’s declaration of war received no Federalist support, and sectional divisions persisted throughout the war. Initially the war was a disaster. The British navy established a strong blockade and burned Washington.
The British-Indian alliance thwarted American expansionism, at least temporarily. Andrew Jackson eventually earned his Indian name, Sharp Knife, in bloody victories over the Creeks.
Continued opposition from New England led to the Hartford Convention, which articulated the nullification principle.
The Treaty of Ghent ended the war without addressing the major grievances. Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans saved American pride. The war also ended lingering feelings of American colonial dependency. Indians were the only clear losers.
DEFINING THE BOUNDARIES Westward expansion resumed in the Era of Good Feelings (1817-1823).
The end of the war brought diminished Indian resistance and enabled Americans to resume their westward migration. 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. Thus regional cultures were transplanted to the west, cementing east-west connections. The Old Northwest shared New England values while the Old Southwest was based on plantation slavery.
James Monroe presided over the post-war period. The Federalist Party was all but dead in this “Era of Good Feelings.”
Monroe brought former Federalists into his cabinet and embraced most of Henry Clay’s American System, which updated many of Hamilton’s ideas. Clay called for establishing the Second Bank of the United States, a protective tariff, and government subsidized roads and canals.
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams laid the foundation for continued expansion. Two treaties with Britain set and established a demilitarized Canadian border and joint occupation of Oregon. Adams used Andrew Jackson’s incursions to pressure Spain into turning over Florida and relinquishing claims to Louisiana. Adams defined the response of the United States to emerging nations in the western hemisphere by designing the Monroe Doctrine.
As foreign demand for American shipping and foodstuffs declined, the Second Bank of the United States foreclosed on loans, triggering 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.
Another crisis developed over the efforts to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave state. Northerners opposed the creation of new slave states. Southerners sought to expand slavery and were alarmed that Congress would even consider the matter. Henry Clay forged a compromise which 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.
CONCLUSION Westward expansion shaped the fundamental direction of the United States as Americans searched for broader definitions of community.
Vocabulary
Marbury v. Madison
Embargo Act
War Hawks
Nullification
Battle of New Orleans
War of 1812
Treaty of Ghent
Monroe Doctrine
Missouri Compromise
Chapter 9 Review Questions
1. With what powers did the United States share North America in the decades after independence?
2. What were the most important strengths of the American economy in the early 1800s?
3. What values were emobdied in agrarian republicanism?
4. What factors led to conflict between the United States and Britain in North America?
5. What were the consequences of the War of 1812?
6. What were the principle provisions of the Missouri Compromise?
Discussion Questions
1. The text says that in 1800 few people would have predicted that America would become a continental nation. Why is this true? Who were America’s rivals?
2. What drove America’s push for continental expansion?
3. Why was America’s economy in 1800 so thoroughly local in its orientation? What changes were occurring at that time that led it to become a national economy? What geographic areas developed as manufacturing centers, food centers, etc.?
4. Thomas Jefferson is spoken of as a “Republican Agrarian.” What does that mean? Why did he believe that America could maintain itself as an agricultural republican society?
5. What were Jefferson’s domestic goals? How thoroughly did he achieve them?
6. What were the Jeffersonians’ foreign policy goals? Why did they support continental expansion? What problems did this lead to? How did the War of 1812 come out of this?
7. How did Indians respond to American expansionism? Was there an alternative to the conflict that resulted?
8. In what ways was America becoming less of a localized nation and more of a nation with a national identity and national economy?
9. Why was there so much political conflict during the so-called “Era of Good Feelings?” Is this the result of the collapse of the old party system?
Notes
AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: MANDAN VILLAGES ON THE UPPER MISSOURI The Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter of 1804-1805 with the Mandan villages in what is now North Dakota. The Mandan lived by agriculture and hunting and organized themselves in matrilineal clans. Lewis and Clark offered them a military and economic alliance. Later, Americans established Fort Clark as a trading base. But along with their goods, Americans brought diseases like smallpox, which wiped out the vast majority of Mandans. The vignette shows the costs to American Indians of Thomas Jefferson’s dream of an “empire for liberty.”
NORTH AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FROM COAST TO COAST The size and geographical distribution of the U.S. population expanded rapidly. In 1800, however, the United States was only a fledgling nation, sharing the continent with colonies of European powers.
Most of Spain’s holdings were weakening, even the recently established missions of Alta California. Spain was unsuccessful in sealing its territories from trade with other nations. New Orleans was a thriving international port, and Americans were concerned that whoever controlled it could choke off commerce along the Mississippi River. While in theory Spain controlled St. Louis, in reality French traders ran the town.
The slave-holding, sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean were tenuously held colonies of various European powers. The successful slave revolt in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1791 was viewed as a portent of liberation to slaves throughout the Americas, and inspired fear in white slaveowners.
Britain exerted strong executive control over its Canadian holdings. In alliance with indigenous peoples, British North Americans dominated the continental fur trade.
Russian fur traders had established outposts along the Alaskan coast and had settlements almost as far south as San Francisco Bay.
The trans-Appalachian west was the region of greatest growth. Five to 10 percent of American households moved each year, with many kin groups moving west together. Cincinnati, founded in 1788, was an example of rapid growth, fueled by trade down the Ohio-Mississippi River system to New Orleans.
Atlantic seaports still dominated the nation’s economy and politics. Multiracial Charleston was a center for the slave trade. Baltimore became increasingly oriented toward trade with inland farmers. Philadelphia was, in the 1790s, the nation’s capital. New York merchants were aggressive, successful traders, while Boston was diversifying beyond trade.
A NATIONAL ECONOMY The new nation, a producer of raw materials, struggled to avoid being dominated by its foreign trading partners.
Most Americans lived in rural, agricultural communities. Northerners were generally self-sufficient, while the plantation regions of the South sold most of their crops overseas. But in the 1790s, trade with Britain was still less than it had been before the Revolution.
The outbreak of war in Europe – first the French Revolution, and then decades-long conflict between England and France – and American neutrality led to a vast expansion of trade. This fueled the growth of American coastal cities. Americans entered the China market, and were actively engaged in shipbuilding. In the mid-nineteenth century, American clipper ships were the fastest cargo ships on the sea.
THE JEFFERSON PRESIDENCY Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801 was the first time presidential power went from one party to another. Throughout his presidency, Jefferson worked to appeal to centrists in both the Federalist and his own Jeffersonian Republican parties.
Thomas Jefferson emerged as a strong president with strong party backing who was able to shape national policy. He feared extremes of wealth as inimical to Revolutionary ideals, and believed that only a nation of roughly equal yeoman farmers could fulfill America’s promise. Increasing territory seemed the solution; America’s abundant land allowed him to envision a nation of small family farms (even though he himself owned a large plantation and slaves).
Jefferson had been elected on a promise to reduce the size of the federal government, which he fulfilled in part because the government was already small and unimportant. 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 established the principle of judicial review.
The conflict between France and Britain threatened American security. Napoleon had acquired the Louisiana Territory from Spain. Jefferson attempted to buy New Orleans, but instead accepted the French offer to buy the entire territory, doubling the size of the United States and fulfilling his desire for continued expansion.
The acquisition of territory with French customs created a conflict with Americans whose traditions were derived from England. The solution was to maintain some French institutions in Louisiana.
Acquisition of Louisiana put the United States in conflict with Spain, which faced a strong independence movement in Mexico.
RENEWED IMPERIAL RIVALRY IN NORTH AMERICA Jefferson was easily re-elected in 1804, but faced problems protecting American neutrality.
Britain seized American ships trading in the French West Indies and impressed sailors into the Royal Navy. Jefferson was determined to defend American sovereignty, but lacked a strong navy.
Congress first imposed a boycott and then an embargo on foreign commerce. The law did not change British policy and caused a deep depression as well as widespread smuggling. Federalists gained strength, especially in New England.
Federalists were not strong enough to defeat Jefferson’s Republican successor, James Madison, in the 1808 election. The Embargo Act was repealed and Congress vainly sought a peaceful way to defend American rights.
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. Many tribes were divided into accommodation and traditional factions.
The Shawnees emerged as the leading force of Indian resistance in the Ohio Valley. Tecumseh led a group that attempted to escape contact with whites. But white land-hunger threatened all Indians in the region. His brother, Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), called for a rejection of the whites’ ways and built a pan-Indian religious movement. Tecumseh added a political dimension by forming a pan-Indian confederacy that called for an end to land sales to whites, arguing that land was the common property of all Indians. He also urged military resistance. While Tecumseh was in the South, 1000 white soldiers attacked Tenskwatawa’s outpost at Tippecanoe. In response, Tecumseh formally allied with the British.
THE WAR OF 1812 British support for Western Indians and conflict over shipping rights were among the grievances that sparked the War of 1812.
A new generation of War Hawks from the South and West supported war against Britain. Madison’s declaration of war received no Federalist support, and sectional divisions persisted throughout the war. Initially the war was a disaster. The British navy established a strong blockade and burned Washington.
The British-Indian alliance thwarted American expansionism, at least temporarily. Andrew Jackson eventually earned his Indian name, Sharp Knife, in bloody victories over the Creeks.
Continued opposition from New England led to the Hartford Convention, which articulated the nullification principle.
The Treaty of Ghent ended the war without addressing the major grievances. Andrew Jackson’s victory at New Orleans saved American pride. The war also ended lingering feelings of American colonial dependency. Indians were the only clear losers.
DEFINING THE BOUNDARIES Westward expansion resumed in the Era of Good Feelings (1817-1823).
The end of the war brought diminished Indian resistance and enabled Americans to resume their westward migration. 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. Thus regional cultures were transplanted to the west, cementing east-west connections. The Old Northwest shared New England values while the Old Southwest was based on plantation slavery.
James Monroe presided over the post-war period. The Federalist Party was all but dead in this “Era of Good Feelings.”
Monroe brought former Federalists into his cabinet and embraced most of Henry Clay’s American System, which updated many of Hamilton’s ideas. Clay called for establishing the Second Bank of the United States, a protective tariff, and government subsidized roads and canals.
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams laid the foundation for continued expansion. Two treaties with Britain set and established a demilitarized Canadian border and joint occupation of Oregon. Adams used Andrew Jackson’s incursions to pressure Spain into turning over Florida and relinquishing claims to Louisiana. Adams defined the response of the United States to emerging nations in the western hemisphere by designing the Monroe Doctrine.
As foreign demand for American shipping and foodstuffs declined, the Second Bank of the United States foreclosed on loans, triggering 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.
Another crisis developed over the efforts to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave state. Northerners opposed the creation of new slave states. Southerners sought to expand slavery and were alarmed that Congress would even consider the matter. Henry Clay forged a compromise which 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.
CONCLUSION Westward expansion shaped the fundamental direction of the United States as Americans searched for broader definitions of community.
Vocabulary
Marbury v. Madison
Embargo Act
War Hawks
Nullification
Battle of New Orleans
War of 1812
Treaty of Ghent
Monroe Doctrine
Missouri Compromise
Chapter 9 Review Questions
1. With what powers did the United States share North America in the decades after independence?
2. What were the most important strengths of the American economy in the early 1800s?
3. What values were emobdied in agrarian republicanism?
4. What factors led to conflict between the United States and Britain in North America?
5. What were the consequences of the War of 1812?
6. What were the principle provisions of the Missouri Compromise?
Discussion Questions
1. The text says that in 1800 few people would have predicted that America would become a continental nation. Why is this true? Who were America’s rivals?
2. What drove America’s push for continental expansion?
3. Why was America’s economy in 1800 so thoroughly local in its orientation? What changes were occurring at that time that led it to become a national economy? What geographic areas developed as manufacturing centers, food centers, etc.?
4. Thomas Jefferson is spoken of as a “Republican Agrarian.” What does that mean? Why did he believe that America could maintain itself as an agricultural republican society?
5. What were Jefferson’s domestic goals? How thoroughly did he achieve them?
6. What were the Jeffersonians’ foreign policy goals? Why did they support continental expansion? What problems did this lead to? How did the War of 1812 come out of this?
7. How did Indians respond to American expansionism? Was there an alternative to the conflict that resulted?
8. In what ways was America becoming less of a localized nation and more of a nation with a national identity and national economy?
9. Why was there so much political conflict during the so-called “Era of Good Feelings?” Is this the result of the collapse of the old party system?