The United States felt a surge of pride following the War of 1812. American had, once again, held its own against the most powerful nation in the world. For the first time, there was a strong feeling of nationalism in the young nation. The Federalist Party, discredited by the Hartford Convention and its talk of secession during the war, faded away. This left the Republican party of Jefferson as the sole political party in the country. The acceptance of many Federalist ideas by Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe allowed the two parties to merge into one. This period of high nationalism and lack of political strife became known as The Era of Good Feelings.
Instead of just thinking of themselves in terms of their state – Virginians, Marylanders, or South Carolinians– citizens began to think of themselves as Americans too. This shift to Nationalism could be seen in all aspects of the country from the economy, to politics and foreign policy. Congress pushed forth much of Henry Clay’s American System to improve the nation economically. A national bank was chartered again, internal improvements were funded, and a tariff was passed to protect the fledgling United States industries from foreign competition. The United States moved from a regional economy to a national one. Goods grown in the West shipped to the East for distribution, and manufactured goods from the North were sold in the West and South. Nationalism could also be seen in the judicial decisions of the time. The Marshall Court, with John Marshall as Chief Justice, made a series of decisions that collectively strengthened the national government at the expense of the States. On the international front, the United States pressed its newfound strength in the acquisition of Florida through the Adams-Onis Treaty and in defense of the young Latin American nations through the Monroe Doctrine.
The Industrial Revolution started in the United States during this time; there were revolutions in transportation, manufacturing, and energy. The North had been at the forefront of industry in America, primarily because of the accessible use of waterpower. Innovations lead to the use of steam as a power source. This allowed factories to be placed anywhere, instead alongside the rapidly moving rivers or creeks. The United States modeled the factory system after the British, but added its own touch with interchangeable parts. Canals were built to aid the movement of goods. The Erie Canal allowed goods from the Midwest region to move through the Great Lakes, through the canal, down the Hudson River, to the port of New York to be shipped to other states or countries. Steamboats capitalized on the new use of steam power which allowed ships to move upstream. Turnpikes and national roads connected regions of the country. The first railroads supplemented, and finally replaced, the earlier modes of transportation. 30,000 miles of railroad track had been laid by the 1850s.
The three regions of the country specialized in goods during market revolution. The South still grew the much-needed cash crops with cotton having taken precedence with the start of the textile industry. As cotton became “King,” the slave system became more firmly entrenched than ever. With the growth of slavery, the planter class dominated the social, political, and economic systems of the region. The growth of industry fueled the need for workers in the North. Immigrants and farmers moved to the cities for labor jobs. As immigrants flooded into the nation, mostly from Ireland and Germany, a feeling of nativism, or fear of immigrants, began to take hold. The unregulated factories took advantage of the labor force, which caused a rise in unions. These unions looked out for the workers’ rights. The West continued to be a strong agricultural region as the fertile soil provided much of the nation’s grain and livestock.
The period of American Romanticism ushered in a response to the old Enlightenment, or Age of Reason. This idea of feeling and emotion, rather than logic, was an impetus for the Second Great Awakening. The ideology of the Romantic period was that man should strive for perfection and that change was possible. This led to a number of reform movements, and allowed women to be at the forefront. The heavy consumption of alcohol led to the temperance movement. A realization that those who had committed crimes could possibly be reformed changed peoples’ perceptions of prisons. Prisons were once strictly a place for punishment; they began to be called penitentiaries with an emphasis on creating good citizens. As the waves of immigrants settled, education became the way to teach immigrants how to be good and informed participants in the republican ideas found in the United States. Women began to question their own subordinate status. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was an early and influential moment for the Women’s Movement for equality.
More men gained the vote as property restrictions were being reduced or removed. A shift in political power took place as voting began to include the common man in addition to the wealthy. Political candidates vied for votes and campaigning became a part of elections. Andrew Jackson was suspicions of the older and wealthy elite who held political power. He won the support of the newest voters. His victorious election in 1828 signaled a rise in the power of the common man. Jackson attacked many of the old political traditions with his destruction of the Bank of the United States and the start of the spoils system. Jackson fed on the growing American desire for land with his dealings with the Native Americans. Jackson ignored John Marshall’s decision in favor of the Cherokee; Jackson ordered the removal of the Cherokee and the other “civilized nations” from the Southeast to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The lure of the West and desire for more land continued with the idea of Manifest Destiny. The idea of Manifest Destiny was that the United States had the responsibility to spread its government and society to all parts of the continent. The United States, with the Mississippi River as its western border, expanded its boundaries all the way to the Pacific in the course of fifty years. The United States gained its current continental borders between 1803 and 1853, with the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Oregon, the Mexican Cession, and the Gadsden Purchase.
The North ended slavery after the Revolutionary War, and many Northerners desired a national ban on slavery. The abolition movement took hold and emphasized an immediate emancipation of all slaves. The slave states in the South became more and more defensive of their “Peculiar Institution,” as the Abolitionists became more vocal. The desire to end slavery, as well as the push not to see it spread to the new American territories to the west, became a major issue that divided the nation. This eventually led to the Civil War. The political calm of the first third of the century came to a swift end with the push west and the ensuing fight over the existence of slavery in the new territories. The United States found itself at the brink of war once again after forty years of the Era of Good Feelings, and its period of strong Nationalism.
Primary Sources for Era 4
- Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, envoy to France to discuss the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson explains in the letter that France is viewed as our “natural friend,” but that New Orleans is one place on earth where the nation that possesses it will be our natural enemy.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page026.db&recNum=130 - John Marshall’s Court Case Cherokee Nation v. The State of Georgia, 1831.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1801-1825/marshallcases/mar03.htm - Account of William B. Travis, commander of the troops at the Alamo, Feb 24, 1836 while the Alamo was under attack from Santa Anna and the Mexican army – 10 days prior to the defeat.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1826-1850/mexicanwar/alamo.htm - The Seneca Falls Resolution, written at the Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 – the official start of the women’s rights movement
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1826-1850/women/seneca.htm - Letter from a “forty-niner” on life mining in California – descriptions of the lifestyle, costs of goods, changes as more and more people move out there.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/three/swain2.htm