Chapter 9

NATION BUILDING AND

NATIONIONALISM

America Past and Present

Eighth Edition
Divine  Breen  Fredrickson  Williams  Gross  Brand

Copyright 2007, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman

 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.
 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:
Taking Spanish Lands
 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
 Weakened Spain accepted Adams-Onis
Treaty
 U.S. got all Florida
 U.S.-Spanish boundary to Pacific
 U.S. paid $5 million in Spanish debts to Americans
 Extending the Boundaries:
The Oregon Country
 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
North America, 1819
 Native American Societies
Under Pressure
 “Five Civilized Tribes” (60,000 strong)
controlled much of South
 Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and
Seminole
 Adopted many ways of American population
 Despite adapting, Native Americans seen
as obstacles to settlement
 Different Native American groups reacted
differently to white encroachment
Native American Societies Under
Pressure: The Cherokee
 Cherokee largest of “Five Civilized Tribes”
 John Ross led move to accommodate
Americans
 Cherokee became market economy farmers and
plantation owners
 Slavery and discrimination against African
Americans resulted from this
 Adopted Constitution of Republican government
in 1827
 Sequoyah created alphabet for Cherokee
language, 1821-22
Native American Societies Under
Pressure: The Seminole
 Seminole smallest of “Five Civilized Tribes”
 Seminole a combination of Florida natives with
Creeks and escaped slaves
 Seminole slavery was more payment of tribute
than ownership of humans
 Second Seminole War was example of Seminole
resistance
 War described as “a negro and not an Indian

war”
Native American Societies Under
Pressure: Indian Removal
 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
 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
Settlement to the Mississippi:
Settlers Move In
 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
 New settlers engaged in commercial farming
 Had to pay off debt
 Allowed them to buy consumer goods they did not
produce
The People and Culture of the
Frontier
 West settled to escape overpopulation, rising land
prices, worn-out soil
 Settlers brought existing culture with them
 Myth: self-reliant family farms
 Reality: cooperation and community efforts
 Many families moved frequently in West
 Abraham Lincoln’s family moved three times between
1816-1830
 Result was less attachment to land than other rural
populations
 Easterners saw West as untamed
 James Fennimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales
 A Revolution in
Transportation
 Primitive land transportation in the East
was offset by shipping via the coastal
waterways
 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
 Roads useful for travelers, but too
expensive for transportation of bulk goods
 Water most efficient for bulk cargo
transportation
 Roads and Steamboats
 Network of rivers encouraged economic
development
 Flatboats transported downriver in early times
 Steamboats transported upriver after 1811
 Upriver capabilities reduced costs
 Steamboats catered to passengers with luxury
hotel atmosphere
 Steamboat accidents stimulated Ante-Bellum
Congressional effort to establish safety
regulations
 The Canal Boom
 Canals needed to link West with coast
 Erie Canal, 1825
 New York Governor Dewitt Clinton got state funding
 Canal linked New York City to Great Lakes at
Buffalo, through Albany
 Canal cut east-west transportation costs
dramatically
 Canal stimulated commercial growth of New York
City
 Other states followed until 1840s, when canal
deemed unprofitable, but useful
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
The Beginning of Commercial
Agriculture
 Cheap, widely available land and
marketing revolution spurred profitable
commercial farming
 Lower transportation costs meant greater
income for the farmer
 Sale to distant markets involved farmers in
a complex system of credit
 Market stimulated specialization
 North produced wheat
 Lower South produced cotton
 The Beginning of Commercial
Agriculture: Rise of King 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
 Commerce and Banking
 Old style farmer sold crop directly
 New style farmer sold to local merchant; local
merchant sold to final market
 System required farmers and local merchants to
have credit
 Use of credit stimulated banking
 Federal government issued too little money, private
banks issued bank notes
 State banks increased after 1812
 1816—Second Bank of the United States created
to check state banks
 Bank’s easy credit sparked Panic of 1819
 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

 After 1815, increased demand stimulated

mass production
 Textile industry in New England led
development of factory system
 Early Industrialism
 Before rise of textile factories, New
England urban economy rested on
overseas trade
 New England politicians made a shift from
supporting export-favorable low tariffs to
high protective tariffs
 Other industries adopted factory model by
1840s and 1850s
 U.S. not yet an industrial country, but was
evolving national market economy
 The Politics of Nation
Building After the War of 1812
 “Era of Good Feelings,” 1816-1824
 Politics a one-party system
 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 Republicans in Power

 Federalists died as national party after 1812, but

Republicans adopted some of their ideas
 Henry Clay’s American System, 1816
 High tariffs to protect industries that sprang up in
embargo and war
 Second Bank of the U.S.
 Federal aid for internal improvements
 Aid for internal improvements controversial
 Sectional conflict over who benefited
 Madison, Monroe saw constitutional conflicts
The Election of 1816
 Monroe as President
 Madison picked fellow Virginian James
Monroe as his successor in 1816
 Monroe sought national harmony, an “era
of good feelings”
 Took no action in Panic of 1819, believed
president above such matters
 Provided no leadership controversy over
Missouri
 Voters accepted Monroe’s view of
leadership, he is re-elected in 1820
The Election of 1820
 The Missouri Compromise:
The Issues
 1817—Missouri applied for statehood as slave
state
 Northerners believed South over-represented in
House of Representatives, despite their own
decisive majority
 Tallmadge Amendment called for 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:
The Solution
 Missouri admitted as slave state
 Maine separated from Massachusetts,
admitted as free state
 Slavery banned elsewhere in Louisiana
Purchase above the latitude of 36o30'
 Missouri controversy exposed deep rift
between North and South
 Jefferson called it “a fire bell in the night”
The Missouri Compromise,
1820-1821
 Postwar Nationalism and the
Supreme Court
 John Marshall Chief Justice, 1801-1835
 Most dominant chief justice ever
 Liberty and property rights were above attainment
of political, social, and economic equality
 Role of court to enable economic growth by
protecting individuals and businesses from
interference by state legislatures
 Court should also provide federal government
more power to encourage economic growth
 Postwar Nationalism and the
Supreme Court: The Key Cases
 Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 1819
 Charters granted by states are eternal contracts
 Weakens the ability of states to regulate business,
allows corporation to have limited public responsibility
 McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819
 Implied powers doctrine
 States cannot tax or regulate federal agencies
 Power to tax is power to destroy
 Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824
 Federal regulation of interstate commerce trumps
state regulation
 Postwar Nationalism and the
Supreme Court: Summation
 Summary of Marshall’s Court actions
 Broadened powers of federal government at
the expense of states
 Encouraged growth of a national economy

 Exemplified main nationalist trend of the

period: federal government should
promote growth of prosperous, nationwide
capitalist economy
Nationalism in Foreign Policy:
The Monroe Doctrine
 U.S. sympathized with Latin American revolts
 U.S. recognized independence of Latin
American countries after Adams-Onis Treaty
approved
 “Grand Alliance” of Europe saw Latin American
revolts as democratic challenges to
authoritarianism
 Grand Alliance pushed Spain to re-claim
colonies
 Great Britain wanted independent Latin
American countries with open markets
Nationalism in Foreign Policy:
Monroe Doctrine
 Britain asked U.S. to cooperate to oppose Grand
Alliance schemes for Latin America
 Monroe persuaded by John Quincy Adams that U.S.
alone must protect Latin American independence
 Monroe Doctrine, 1823
 U.S. opposed European expansion to the Western

Hemisphere
 U.S. would not interfere in European affairs
 Largely dismissed by Europeans
 Signified America’s new sense of independence and
self-confidence