The Columbia
Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.
2001-05.
(From
http://www.bartleby.com/65/us/US.html)
Madison,
Monroe, and Adams
Under Jeffersonâs successor, James Madison, the continued
depredations of American shipping, combined with the clamor of American âwar
hawksâ who coveted Canada and Florida, led to the War of 1812, which was,
however, opposed in New England (see Hartford Convention). The Treaty of Ghent
(see Ghent, Treaty of) settled no specific issues of the war, but did confirm
the independent standing of the young republic. Politically, the period that
followed was the so-called era of good feeling. The Federalists had
disintegrated under the impact of the countryâs westward expansion and its new
interests and ideals. Democrats of all sections had by now adopted a Federalist
approach to national development and were temporarily in agreement on a
nationalist, expansionist economic policy. This policy was implemented in 1816
by the introduction of internal improvements, a protective tariff, and the
second Bank of the United States. 51
The same policies were continued under James Monroe. The Monroe
Doctrine (1823), which proclaimed U.S. opposition to European intervention or
colonization in the American hemisphere, introduced the long-continuing U.S.
concern for the integrity of the Western Hemisphere. Domestically, the strength
of the federal government was increased by the judicial decisions of John
Marshall, who had already helped establish the power of the U.S. Supreme Court.
By 1820, however, sectional differences were arousing political discord. The
sections of the country had long been developing along independent lines. 52
In the North, merchants, manufacturers, inventors, farmers, and
factory hands were busy with commerce, agricultural improvements, and the
beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. In the South, Eli Whitneyâs cotton gin
had brought in its wake a new staple; cotton was king, and the new states of
Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi were the pride of the cotton kingdom. The
accession of Florida (1819) further swelled the domain of the South. The
American West was expanding as the frontier rapidly advanced. Around the turn
of the century settlement of territory W of the Appalachians had given rise to
the new states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Settlers continued to move
farther west, and the frontier remained a molding force in American life. 53
The Missouri Compromise (1820) temporarily resolved the issue of
slavery in new states, but under the presidency of John Quincy Adams sectional
differences were aggravated. Particular friction, leading to the nullification
movement, was created by the tariff of 1828, which was highly favorable to
Northern manufacturing but a âTariff of Abominationsâ to the agrarian South. In
the 1820s and 30s the advance of democracy brought manhood suffrage to many
states and virtual direct election of the President, and party nominating
conventions replaced the caucus. Separation of church and state became
virtually complete. 54
Jackson to the
Mexican War
An era of political vigor was begun with the election (1828) of
Andrew Jackson to the presidency. If Jackson was not, as sometimes represented,
the incarnation of frontier democracy, he nonetheless symbolized the advent of
the common man to political power. He provided powerful executive leadership,
attuned to popular support, committing himself to a strong foreign policy and
to internal improvements for the West. His stand for economic individualism and
his attacks on such bastions of the moneyed interests as the Bank of the United
States won the approval of the growing middle class. Jackson acted firmly for
the Union in the nullification controversy. But the South became increasingly
dissident, and John C. Calhoun emerged as its chief spokesman with his statesâ
rights doctrine. 55
Opponents of Jacksonâs policies, including both Northern and
Southern conservative propertied interests, amalgamated to form the Whig party,
in which Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were long the dominant figures.
Jacksonâs successor, Martin Van Buren, attempted to perpetuate Jacksonian
policies, but his popularity was undermined by the panic of 1837. In 1840, in
their âLog Cabin and Hard Ciderâ campaign, the conservative Whigs adopted and
perfected the Democratic partyâs techniques of mass appeal and succeeded in
electing William Henry Harrison as President. The West was winning greater
attention in American life, and in the 1840s expansion to the Pacific was
fervently proclaimed as the âmanifest destinyâ of the United States. 56
Annexation of the Republic of Texas (which had won its own
independence from Mexico), long delayed primarily by controversy over its
slave-holding status, was accomplished by Harrisonâs successor, John Tyler,
three days before the expiration of his term. Tylerâs action was prompted by
the surprising victory of his Democratic successor, James K. Polk, who had
campaigned on the planks of âreoccupation of Oregonâ and âreannexation of
Texas.â The annexation of Texas precipitated the Mexican War; by the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo the United States acquired two fifths of the territory then
belonging to Mexico, including California and the present American Southwest.
In 1853 these territories were rounded out by the Gadsden Purchase. Although in
the dispute with Great Britain over the Columbia River country (see Oregon),
Americans demanded âFifty-four forty or fight,â under President Polk a peaceful
if more modest settlement was reached. Thus the United States gained its
Pacific Northwest, and âmanifest destinyâ was virtually fulfilled. 57
In California the discovery of gold in 1848 brought the rush of
forty-niners, swelling population and making statehood for California a
pressing question. The westward movement was also stimulated by many other
factors. The great profits from open-range cattle ranching brought a stream of
ranchers to the area (this influx was to reach fever pitch after the Civil
War). The American farmer, with his abundant land, was often profligate in its
cultivation, and as the soil depleted he continued to move farther west,
settling the virgin territory. Soil exhaustion was particularly rapid in the
South, where a one-crop economy prevailed, but because cotton profits were
frequently high the plantation system quickly spread as far west as Texas.
Occupation of the West was also sped by European immigrants hungry for land. 58
Slavery, Civil
War, and Reconstruction
By the mid-19th cent. the territorial gains and westward movement
of the United States were focusing legislative argument on the extension of
slavery to the new territories and breaking down the Missouri Compromise of
1820. The Wilmot Proviso illustrated Northern antislavery demands, while
Southerners, too, became increasingly intransigent. Only with great effort was
the Compromise of 1850 achieved, and it was to be the last great compromise
between the sections. The new Western states, linked in outlook to the North,
had long since caused the South to lose hold of the House of Representatives,
and Southern parity in the Senate was threatened by the prospective addition of
more free states than slaveholding ones. The South demanded stronger
enforcement of fugitive slave laws and, dependent on sympathetic Presidents,
obtained it from Millard Fillmore and especially from Franklin Pierce and James
Buchanan. 59
The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which repealed the
Missouri Compromise, led to violence between factions in âbleeding Kansasâ and
spurred the founding of the new Republican party. Although there was sentiment
for moderation and compromise in both North and South, it became increasingly
difficult to take a middle stand on the slavery issue, and extremists came to
the fore on both sides. Southerners, unable to accept the end of slavery, upon
which their entire system of life was based, and fearful of slave insurrection
(especially after the revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831), felt threatened by the
abolitionists, who regarded themselves as leaders in a moral crusade.
Southerners attempted to uphold slavery as universally beneficial and
biblically sanctioned, while Northerners were increasingly unable to
countenance the institution. 60
Vigorous antislavery groups like the Free-Soil party had already
arisen, and as the conflict became more embittered it rent the older parties.
The Whig party was shattered, and its Northern wing was largely absorbed in the
new antislavery Republican party. The Democrats were also torn, and the
compromise policies of Stephen A. Douglas were of dwindling satisfaction to a
divided nation. Moderation could not withstand the impact of the decision in
the Dred Scott Case, which denied the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in
the territories, or the provocation of John Brownâs raid on Harpers Ferry
(1859). The climax came in 1860 when the Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated
three opponents to win the presidency. 61
Southern leaders, feeling there was no possibility of fair
treatment under a Republican administration, resorted to secession from the
Union and formed the Confederacy. The attempts of the seceding states to take
over federal property within their borders (notably Fort Sumter in Charleston,
S.C.) precipitated the Civil War (1861–65), which resulted in a complete
victory for the North and the end of all slavery. The ensuing problems of
Reconstruction in the South were complicated by bitter struggles, including the
impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. Military rule in parts of the
South continued through the administrations of Ulysses S. Grant, which were
also notable for their outrageous corruption. A result of the disputed election
of 1876, in which the decision was given to Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel J.
Tilden, was the end of Reconstruction and the reentry of the South into
national politics. 62
The Late
Nineteenth Century
The remainder of the 19th cent. was marked by railroad building
(assisted by generous federal land grants) and the disappearance of the
American frontier. Great mineral wealth was discovered and exploited, and
important technological innovations sped industrialization, which had already
gained great impetus during the Civil War. Thus developed an economy based on
steel, oil, railroads, and machines, an economy that a few decades after the
Civil War ranked first in the world. Mammoth corporations such as the Standard
Oil trust were formed, and âcaptains of industryâ like John D. Rockefeller and
financiers like J. P. Morgan (see under Morgan, family) controlled huge
resources. 63
The latter part of the 19th cent. also saw the rise of the modern
American city. Rapid industrialization attracted huge numbers of people to
cities from foreign countries as well as rural America. The widespread use of
steel and electricity allowed innovations that transformed the urban landscape.
Electric lighting made cities viable at night as well as during the day.
Electricity was also used to power streetcars, elevated railways, and subways.
The growth of mass transit allowed people to live further away from work, and
was therefore largely responsible for the demise of the âwalking city.â With
the advent of skyscrapers, which utilized steel construction technology, cities
were able to grow vertically as well as horizontally. 64
Into the âland of promiseâ poured new waves of immigrants; some
acquired dazzling riches, but many others suffered in a competitive and
unregulated economic age. Behind the facade of the âGilded Age,â with its aura
of peace and general prosperity, a whole range of new problems was created,
forcing varied groups to promulgate new solutions. In the 1870s the expanding
Granger movement attempted to combat railroad and marketing abuses and to
achieve an element of agrarian cooperation; this movement stimulated some
regulation of utilities on the state level. Labor, too, began to combine
against grueling factory conditions, but the opposition of business to unions
was frequently overpowering, and the bulk of labor remained unorganized. 65
Some strike successes were won by the Knights of Labor, but this
union, discredited by the Haymarket Square riot, was succeeded in prominence by
the less divisive American Federation of Labor (see American Federation of
Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations). Massachusetts led the way
(1874) with the first effective state legislation for an eight-hour day, but
similar state and national legislation was sparse (see labor law), and the
federal government descended harshly on labor in the bloody strike at Pullman,
Ill., and in other disputes. Belief in laissez faire and the influence of big
business in both national parties, especially in the Republican party, delayed
any widespread reform. 66
The Presidents of the late 19th cent. were generally titular
leaders of modest political distinction; however, they did institute a few
reforms. Both Hayes and his successor, James A. Garfield, favored civil service
reforms, and after Garfieldâs death Chester A. Arthur approved passage of a
civil service act; thus the vast, troublesome presidential patronage system
gave way to more regular, efficient administration. In 1884 a reform group, led
by Carl Schurz, bolted from the Republicans and helped elect Grover Cleveland,
the first Democratic President since before the Civil War. Under President
Benjamin Harrison the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed (1890). 67
The attempt of the Greenback party to combine sponsorship of free
coinage of silver (see free silver) and other aids to the debtor class with
planks favorable to labor failed, but reform forces gathered strength, as
witnessed by the rise of the Populist party. The reform movement was spurred by
the economic panic of 1893, and in 1896 the Democrats nominated for President
William Jennings Bryan, who had adopted the Populist platform. He orated
eloquently for free silver, but was defeated by William McKinley, who gained
ardent support from big business. 68