From Ocean to Ocean

How the nation’s resources were used to build a continental nation

An American Education

Uniting nation that (even in 1787) was larger than most of Europe, worried many. In 1788, Benjamin Rush proposed a plan for a “Federal University” that would “prepare our youth for civil and public life.” The curricula included studies in ancient and modern history, commerce, agriculture, manufactures, natural history, chemistry, athletics, and rhetoric – in short everything a young nation needed to develop a “virgin continent.” The plan was never acted on.

Jedidiah Morse

Jedidiah Morse not only was a pioneering geographer of North America, he was also a premier spokesman for the ascendancy of the United States in the Western Hemisphere. He believed that it was the “inevitable destiny” of the US to “gain mastery” over the North American continent. He also advocated a program for teaching Native Americans to develop “our ways” of life.

Noah Webster

Noah Webster’s work on “American” English was the product of nationalism. He believed the nation should have its own rules for the language.

How to Overcome the distances and obstaclesA continental nation would require:

•Advances in technology to allow faster transportation over mountains and rivers.

•Available land for new settlements (which would have to be negotiated with various Indian tribes.

•Expanding population (including immigration from abroad).

•Exploitation of the continental resources through agriculture, mining, and trade

•National unity and agreement over major policies.

Political divisionsDivisions within the old party of Thomas Jefferson would

hamper the creation of a national policy for economic growth: Some old Jeffersonian followers had disapproved of the

adoption of a new Bank of the U. S. and higher tariffs, arguing that these “Federalist ideas” made government too powerful.

People in the west resented the older states, and blamed the Bank of the U.S. for the financial panic from 1817 to 1820.

The slavery issue was reopened when Missouri became a state in 1820. The “Missouri Compromise” accepted that some new states (south 36 degrees latitude) would practice “cotton slavery.”

Some people thought the new economic developments helped only the rich, at the expense of the poor.

Overcoming geography

Advancements in steam engine design helped Robert Fulton to perfect the steamboat. The Clermont began operating in New York harbor in the early 1800s. Fulton later perfected designs for submarines and even torpedoes.

Steam engines to overcome high ground

In this illustration a steam-powered wince is in use to haul a boat over foothills of the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania. Rails had been used in New York, Charleston and other cities to speed horse-drawn street carriages. It was only a matter of time (and metallurgy) before a steam-rail system was proposed.

The grand canal (or Clinton’s ditch?)

After the war of 1812 ended, Dewitt Clinton persuaded the New York legislature to begin construction on an enormous canal to reach from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes at Erie, Pennsylvania. No canal longer than about 30 miles had been built before this grand scheme to build a “water highway” hundreds of miles across New York state.

Building the canal

Benjamin Wright, the canal’s engineer, had to design locks and channels, not only for central route, but for “branch” canals as well.

Modifications to Original Plans

Even as the canal was being built, changes had to be made because new flat boats and barges were being developed to carry more goods. The canal was paid for by issuing bonds to investors – tolls charged to boats for access to the canal and locks would pay dividends on the bonds – and eventually turn a profit.

The way west

The completed canal opened the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys to widespread settlement.

Growth of the Continental Nation

Tecumseh

No reliable image of Tecumseh exists, but for a brief time in 1809-1813, he threatened to block the westward expansion of the Americans by forging a “First Nation” confederation of all the Ohio-Great Lakes region tribes. He was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

Anti-immigration

Not every American appreciated rising immigration. Stores, hotels, and restaurants posted “no Irish” signs. But cheap immigrant labor aided transportation, mining, and other industrial ventures.

The Iron Horse

Transportation in America was going to be revolutionized by the latest advance in steam engines – the railroad. It took advances in metallurgy to produce the first successful locomotives, like the General Tom Thumb (1829), which became the center piece of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first successful system in the country.

Textiles in New England

Textile mills in Lowell Massachusetts and other parts of New England brought wealth to the region. Because textile mills required large numbers of laborers, mill owners began recruiting young women from farming areas.

Eli Whitney’s contribution to growth

Eli Whitney, another inventor, created many devices. But his most important invention was the cotton gin, a rather simple mechanical way to easily separate the cotton fibers from the ‘chaff’ of the plant.

This revolutionized the cotton goods industry. But it also unfortunately increased the practice of slavery as thousands of southern landowners converted their lands from tobacco and food to the growing of cotton.

The Telegraph

The telegraph was perfected in the 1830s by Samuel F. B. Morse, an artist and inventor. After partnering with a former Postmaster General, who helped Morse develop the system of lines for telegraph communications, Morse became a very rich man.

The telegraph revolutionized the transmission of information in America, altering news and even military movements.

Women and Unionism

Working in the textile mills (left) and other industries like bookbinding (right), young women found their lives strictly regulated, with dormitory-like housing, curfews and “morals clauses” in their work rules. Some resented this and began to organize unions

Cotton south

The cotton industry, however, also stimulated the growth of slavery in the south, the (illegal) renewal of the slave trade from Africa, and the opening of serious divisions within the nation over “the slavery question.”

John Quincy Adams

President John Quincy Adams (1825-29) had a distinguished career as a diplomat and Secretary of State. But despite an ambitious plan to build a “national university,” stabilize the economy, and build more “internal improvements,” his term of office was marred by the “corrupt bargain” – the charge that he had bribed Henry Clay with high office in order to win the 1824 election.

More Voters

Changes in Suffrage Requirements between 1800 and 1828Many of the Western states that entered the Union after 1800 did not impose property requirements for voting. By 1828, most states had eliminated such requirements.

Popular Politics

Unlike the days of Washington and Jefferson, politics in the late 1820s was based on mass appeals. George Caleb Bingham’s painting, “The County Election,” sketched how mass politics worked.

Fear of Slave Revolts

New states with slavery usually New states with slavery usually copied the “black codes” of the copied the “black codes” of the older slave states in an effort to older slave states in an effort to prevent the growth of any large prevent the growth of any large African population. The slave African population. The slave revolt led by Nat Turner (right) in revolt led by Nat Turner (right) in 1831, frightened the slave states 1831, frightened the slave states into expanding their restrictions into expanding their restrictions on African life. Since Turner on African life. Since Turner claimed to have been inspired by claimed to have been inspired by reading Revolution-era pamphlets reading Revolution-era pamphlets on freedom, many slave states on freedom, many slave states passed laws making it illegal to passed laws making it illegal to teach Africans to read.teach Africans to read.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was a slave whose master taught him to read. When the local law made it illegal for him for have any books, he decided to run away – and succeeded to reaching Massachusetts on his third attempt. After receiving further education, he became a major speaker against slavery in the U.S. His Autobiography was widely sold and quoted in anti-slavery publications.

Douglass later organized voters for the Free Soil and Republican Parties among free Blacks living in northern states.

Free Black Society

From a series of racist caricatures of black life in Philadelphia, this image lampoons African American aspirations to respectability. A church official disciplines a church member for alleged misconduct.

Slavery and Progress

Despite laws that prevented slaves from becoming educated, southerners still claimed that slavery was a “civilizing institution.” John C. Calhoun (left), former vice-president, long-serving Senator foe South Carolina, wrote essays arguing that slavery was “indispensable to progress.” He further argued that slavery would slowly bring advances to the “black race” so that they could – in some future century -- “take their place among civilized peoples of the world.” Anti-slavery groups called Calhoun’s defense of slavery nothing more than a “sad attempt to defend an immoral institution.”

Reform movementsThe 1830s and 1840s constituted an era of reformist movements. In addition to the anti-slavery movement and the demand for the women’s rights to vote, there were peace movements, anti-alcohol movements, a prison reform movement, and the first call for vegetarianism as a way of improving the “national health.”

Ultimately, the anti-slavery movement pushed all the other calls for reform into the background.

Anti-slaveryIn the early 1800s, the anti-slavery movement had been primarily a call for ending slavery and then equipping the ex-slaves to return to Africa and “colonize” a new society (Liberia was the result of these ideas). But as slavery grew after 1820, “abolition” became the focus of anti-slavery movements. In Boston, William Lloyd Garrison called for “no compromise” with slave states, demanded the immediate end to slavery and even burned a copy of the Constitution because it recognized the existence of slavery. Massachusetts became the heart of abolition.

Southern retaliationSoutherners, angry at the anti-slavery fervor in the north, retaliated by boycotting purchases of goods manufactured in New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, and passed numerous laws to tighten the movements of slaves and free African-Americans.

Southern post offices refused to forward anti-slavery literature in the mails. Even though this was illegal, postmasters and postmaster generals (like Amos Kendall of New Hampshire) permitted it in order to prevent trouble within the government.

Violence over slavery.

Two incidents in the 1830s made compromises over slavery less likely. Nat Turner’s attempt to lead a slaver insurrection in 1831 (left) made the South fear all attempts to free slaves. A pro-slavery mob in 1837 destroyed the abolitionist offices of Elijah Lovejoy (right), killing Lovejoy and making him a “martyr for freedom.”

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson had won the most popular votes in 1824, and always believed that the lection had been “stolen” by Adams and Clay. With the help of several prominent young party leaders, Jackson acted to rebuild the Democratic Republican Party into the Democratic Party, and won the presidency in 1828. With his stormy temperament, his presidency would be filled with controversy.

Politics and the role of the president The anti-slavery and other reform movements

flourished during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. As the hero of New Orleans, Jackson was wildly popular with the people, but many in the northeast part of the country questioned his ability. Cartoons in the 1828 election reminded voters that Jackson had invaded Spanish Florida in 1819, hanging two British subjects for selling weapons to the Indians, and nearly bringing on a war.

Many feared Jackson would ignore normal political methods and act on his own in most matters of government. They were right.

Jackson said that, as the only candidate chosen by all the American voters, the president acted “for the people,” even if Congress did not agree with his policies.

Cherokee Removal

Jackson insisted on supporting the state government of Georgia in the forced removal of the Cherokee nations from their native lands and transporting them west to “Indian Territory” west of the Mississippi River.

The Bank War

Convinced that the Bank of the United States (chartered in 1816) retarded economic growth in the west, Jackson vetoed a bill to renew its charter in 1832 (a veto issued on “political” grounds), ordered the government’s money removed from the bank in 1833 and laid the foundation for a separate “treasury system” for handling the U.S. government’s finances. This marked a great increase in the power of the presidency.

Near civil warIn 1833, Jackson threatened military action against South Carolina, which tried to prevent the collection of higher trade tariffs in Charleston. Only a last-minute compromise engineered by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun prevented violence.

This, added to the Bank issue and Jackson’s allowing the anti-slavery publications to be suppressed at the post offices, led to Jackson’s critics charging that he was behaving like a tyrannical monarch. But his popularity remained high with the people at large, who saw him as a champion of the “common man.”

Financial depression

In 1837, just months after Jackson completed his second term and retired, a a “financial panic” brought hard times to the economy. Jackson’s enemies charged that his interference in the banks had caused the depression.

Hard times continued in 1838 and 1839, with unemployment growing. For the first time since 1812, the party of Thomas Jefferson was in danger of losing control of the government.

Shifts in Party Organization

This political cartoon highlights the economic hardships caused by the Panic of 1837. The spirit of Andrew Jackson, symbolized by his hat, glasses, and clay pipe, hovers over the scene of suffering and despair. Jackson’s party lost voters due to hard times.

“It’s the economy, stupid”

Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s successor as president, was an accomplished politician, and had played a major role in rebuilding the Jeffersonian Republicans into the Democratic Party. But he was unable to stop the depression in 1839 and became the first president to be the victim of “pocketbook voting.”

Return of the two-party system

In 1840, William Henry Harrison, a candidate carefully selected for his “war hero” record, was elected president as leader of the young Whig Party . Anti-slavery tendencies in the Whig ranks worried the South.