History of the USA
seemed in grave peril.
With reluctance and against unanimous Federalist opposition, Congress made
the decision to go to war against Britain. Except for some initial naval
victories, the war went badly for the Americans. Western Indians, under the
gifted TECUMSEH, fought on the British side. In 1814, however, an invading
army from Canada was repelled. Then, just as a peace treaty was being
concluded in Ghent (Belgium), Andrew JACKSON crushed another invading
British army as it sought to take New Orleans. The war thus ended on a
triumphant note, and the republic was confirmed. The Federalists, who in
the HARTFORD CONVENTION (in Connecticut, 1814) had capped their opposition
to the war with demands for major changes in the Constitution, now were
regarded as disloyal, and their party dwindled down to a base in New
England and in the 1820s dissolved. Robbed of their enemy, Jeffersonian
Democratic-Republicans broke into factions, effectively disappearing as a
national party.
AN AGE OF BOUNDLESSNESS: 1815-50
The volatile and expansive years from 1815 to 1850 were, in many ways, an
age of boundlessness when limits that had previously curbed human
aspirations seemed to disappear.
Economic and Cultural Ferment
After 1815 the American economy began to expand rapidly. The cotton boom in
the South spread settlement swiftly across the Gulf Plains: the Deep South
was born. Farmers also moved into the Lake Plains north of the Ohio River,
their migration greatly accelerating after the completion of the ERIE CANAL
in 1825. Practically all Indians east of the Mississippi were placed on
small reservations or forced to move to the Great Plains beyond the
Missouri River. Canals and railroads opened the interior to swift
expansion, of both settlement and trade. In the Midwest many new cities,
such as Chicago, appeared, as enormous empires of wheat and livestock farms
came into being. From 1815 to 1850 a new western state entered the Union,
on the average, every two and one-half years.
The westward movement of the FRONTIER was matched in the Northeast by rapid
economic development. National productivity surged during the 1820s; prices
spurted to a peak during the 1830s and dropped for a time during the 1840s;
both prices and productivity soared upward again during the 1850s, reaching
new heights. A business cycle had appeared, producing periods of boom and
bust, and the factory system became well developed. After the GOLD RUSH
that began in California in 1848-49, industrial development was further
stimulated during the 1850s by the arrival of $500 million in gold and
silver from the Sierra Nevada and other western regions. A willingness to
take risks formerly thought wildly imprudent became a national virtue. Land
values rose, and hundreds of new communities appeared in the western
states.
Meanwhile, property tests for voting were disappearing, white manhood
suffrage became the rule, and most offices were made elective. A
communications revolution centering in the inexpensive newspaper and in a
national fascination with mass education (except in the South) sent
literacy rates soaring. The Second Great Awakening (1787-1825), a new
religious revival that originated in New England, spread an evangelical
excitement across the country. In its wake a ferment of social reform swept
the northern states. The slave system of the South spread westward as
rapidly as the free labor system of the North, and during the 1830s
ABOLITIONISTS mounted a crusade to hammer at the evils of slavery.
Expansion of the American Domain
The years 1815-50 brought further expansion of the national domain. In the
Anglo-American Convention of 1818, the 49th parallel was established as the
border between Canada and the United States from the Lake of the Woods to
the Rockies, and in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, Spain ceded Florida and
its claims in the Oregon Country to the United States. During the 1840s a
sense of MANIFEST DESTINY seized the American mind (although many
individuals, especially in New England, were more restrained in their
thinking). Continent-wide expansion seemed inevitable. Texas, which had
declared its independence from Mexico in 1835-36 (see TEXAS REVOLUTION),
was annexed in 1845. Then a dispute with Mexico concerning the Rio Grande
as the border of Texas led to the MEXICAN WAR (1846-48). While U.S. armies
invaded the heartland of Mexico to gain victory, other forces sliced off
the northern half of that country--the provinces of New Mexico and Alta
California. In the Treaty of GUADALUPE HIDALGO (1848), $15 million was paid
for the Mexican cession of those provinces, more than 3 million sq km
(roughly 1 million sq m).
In 1846, Britain and the United States settled the OREGON QUESTION,
concluding a treaty that divided the Oregon Country at the 49th parallel
and bringing the Pacific Northwest into the American nation. In addition,
by the GADSDEN PURCHASE of 1853 the United States acquired (for $10
million) the southern portions of the present states of New Mexico and
Arizona. By 1860 the Union comprised 33 states, packed solid through the
first rank beyond the Mississippi and reaching westward to include Texas,
as well as California and Oregon on the Pacific Coast. Fed by a high
birthrate and by the heavy immigration from Ireland and Germany that surged
dramatically during the 1840s, the nation's population was leaping upward:
from 9.6 million in 1820 to 23 million in 1850 and 31.5 million in 1860.
Domestic Politics: 1815-46
In a nationalist frame of mind at the end of the War of 1812, Congress
chartered the Second Bank of the United States in 1816, erected the first
protective tariff (see TARIFF ACTS), and supported internal improvements
(roads and bridges) to open the interior. President James MONROE presided
(1817-25) over the so-called Era of Good Feelings, followed by John Quincy
ADAMS (1825-29).
Chief Justice John MARSHALL led the Supreme Court in a crucial series of
decisions, beginning in 1819. He declared that within its powers the
federal government could not be interfered with by the states (MCCULLOCH V.
MARYLAND) and that regulation of interstate and international commerce was
solely a federal preserve (GIBBONS V. OGDEN and BROWN V. MARYLAND). In
1820, in the MISSOURI COMPROMISE, Congress took charge of the question of
slavery in the territories by declaring it illegal above 36 deg 30 min in
the huge region acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. Witnessing the Latin
American revolutions against Spanish rule, the American government in 1823
asserted its paramountcy in the Western Hemisphere by issuing the MONROE
DOCTRINE. In diplomatic but clear language it stated that the United States
would fight to exclude further European extensions of sovereignty into its
hemisphere.
During the presidency of Andrew JACKSON (1829-37), a sharp bipolarization
occurred again in the nation's politics. Of Scots-Irish descent, Jackson
hated the English, and he was, in turn, as thoroughly disliked by New
Englanders, who thought him violent and barbaric. He made enemies in the
South, as well, when in 1832 South Carolina, asserting superior STATE
RIGHTS, attempted to declare null and void within its borders the tariff of
1828 (see NULLIFICATION). In his Nullification Proclamation (1832), Jackson
declared that the federal government was supreme according to the
Constitution. He skillfully outmaneuvered the South Carolinians, forcing
them to relent. In 1832 he vetoed the rechartering of the Second Bank of
the United States on the grounds that it caused the booms and busts that so
alarmed the country and that it served the wealthy while exploiting the
farmers and working people. To oppose him, the old Federalist coalition was
reborn in the form of the American WHIG PARTY. With a DEMOCRATIC PARTY
emerging behind Jackson and embodying the old Jeffersonian Democratic-
Republican coalition, two-party rivalries appeared in every state. By the
1840s modern mass political parties, organized down into every ward and
precinct, had appeared.
Led by Henry CLAY and Daniel WEBSTER, the Whigs called for protective
tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements to stimulate the
economy. Moralists in politics, they also demanded active intervention by
state governments to maintain the sanctity of the Sabbath, put down
alcoholic beverages, and "Americanize" the immigrants in the public
schools. Yankees, who by now had migrated in great numbers into the
Midwest, leaned strongly toward the Whigs. Many southerners admired Yankee
ways and tended to vote for Whig candidates, too.
Democrats continued to condemn banks and tariffs as sources of corruption
and exploitation, and in Jefferson's tradition insisted on cultural laissez-
faire, the freedom of people to live as they desired. The minority out-
groups--Irish Catholics and Germans--concurred, voting strongly Democratic
in order to ward off the imposition of Yankee morals. During the presidency
of Martin VAN BUREN (1837-41), Democrats succeeded in entirely separating
banking and government in the INDEPENDENT TREASURY SYSTEM, by which the
government stored and controlled its own funds. A brief Whig interlude
under William Henry HARRISON (1841) and John TYLER (1841-45) was followed
by the presidency of the Democrat James K. POLK (1845-49), who in the
Walker Tariff (1846) brought the United States closer to a free-trade
basis.
Growing Sectional Conflicts
President Polk's war with Mexico ripped open the slavery question again.
Was it to be allowed in the new territories? The WILMOT PROVISO (1846),
which would have excluded slavery, became a rallying point for both sides,
being voted on again and again in Congress and successfully held off by
southerners. Abolitionism, led by William Lloyd GARRISON and others and now
strong in many northern circles, called for the immediate emancipation of
slaves with no compensation to slaveowners. Most northern whites disliked
blacks and did not support abolition; they did want to disallow slavery in
the territories so they could be preserved for white settlement based on
northern ideals: free labor, dignity of work, and economic progress.
In 1848 northerners impatient with both of the existing parties formed the
FREE-SOIL PARTY. By polling 300,000 votes for their candidate, Martin Van
Buren, they denied victory to the Democrats and put the Whig Zachary TAYLOR
in the White House (1849-50; on his death Millard FILLMORE became
president, 1850- 53). The COMPROMISE OF 1850 seemed to settle the slavery
expansion issue by the principle of POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, allowing the
people who lived in the Mexican cession to decide for themselves. A strong
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW was also passed in 1850, giving new powers to
slaveowners to reach into northern states to recapture escaped slaves.
THE CIVIL WAR ERA
As the 1850s began, it seemed for a time that the issue of slavery and
other sectional differences between North and South might eventually be
reconciled. But with the westward thrust of the American nation, all
attempts at compromise were thwarted, and diverging economic, political,
and philosophical interests became more apparent. The resulting civil war
transformed the American nation.
Political Fragmentation
In 1854 the KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT threw open the huge unorganized lands of
the Louisiana Purchase to popular sovereignty, repealing the Missouri
Compromise line of 1820. The North exploded in rage. Thousands defected
from the Whig party to establish a new and much more antisouthern body (and
one wholly limited to the northern states), the REPUBLICAN PARTY. The
Republicans were aided by an enormous anti-Catholic outburst under way at
the same time, aimed at the large wave of Irish Catholic immigration. Anti-
Catholicism was already draining away Whigs to a new organization, the
American party, soon known as the KNOW-NOTHING PARTY. When in 1856 it
proved unable to hold together its members, north and south, because of
disagreements over slavery, the anti-Catholics joined the Republicans.
In Kansas civil war broke out between pro-slavery and anti- slavery
advocates, as settlers attempted to formalize their position on the
institution prior to the territory's admission as a state. The Democratic
presidents Franklin PIERCE (1853-57) and James BUCHANAN (1857-61) appeared
to favor the pro-slavery group in Kansas despite its use of fraud and
violence. In 1857 the Supreme Court, southern dominated, intensified
northern alarm in its decision in the case of DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD. The
Court ruled that Congress had no authority to exclude slavery from the
territories and thus, that the Missouri Compromise line had been
unconstitutional all along. Thousands of northerners now became convinced
that a "slave conspiracy" had infiltrated the national government and that
it intended to make slavery a nationwide institution.
In 1860 the political system became completely fragmented. The Democrats
split into northern and southern wings, presenting two different candidates
for the presidency; the small CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY attempted to rally
the former Whigs behind a third. The Republicans, however, were able to
secure the election of Abraham LINCOLN to the White House.
Southerners had viewed the rise of the Yankee-dominated Republican party
with great alarm. They were convinced that the party was secretly
controlled by abolitionists (although most northerners detested the
abolitionists) and that Yankees believed in using government to enforce
their moralistic crusades. In 1859, John BROWN led a raid on the federal
arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., hoping to incite a slave insurrection. His
action--and his subsequent deification by some northerners- -helped
persuade southerners that emancipation of the slaves, if northerners
obtained control of the country, was sooner or later inevitable.
Secession
Southern leaders had threatened to leave the Union if Lincoln won the
election of 1860. Many South Carolinians, in particular, were convinced
that Republican-sponsored emancipation would lead to bloody massacres as
blacks sought vengeance against whites. In order to prevent this horror
South Carolina seceded in December 1860, soon after the victory of Lincoln,
an undeniably sectional candidate; it was optimistic about the eventual
outcome of its action. Before Lincoln's inauguration (March 1861) six more
states followed (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Texas). In February their representatives gathered in Montgomery, Ala., to
form the CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. On Apr. 12, 1861, when President
Lincoln moved to reprovision the federal troops at FORT SUMTER, in
Charleston Harbor, Confederate shore batteries launched a 34-hour battering
of the installation, forcing its surrender. The U.S. CIVIL WAR had begun.
The War between the States
Lincoln moved swiftly. On April 15 he called the remaining states to
provide 75,000 troops to put down the Confederacy; Virginia, Arkansas,
North Carolina, and Tennessee reluctantly seceded. The capital of the
Confederacy moved to Richmond. On July 21, 1861, the first major battle
between Union and Confederate forces occurred--at Bull Run (see BULL RUN,
BATTLES OF), south of Washington, D.C.--resulting in a dramatic southern
victory. Thereafter, both sides settled down to a long conflict.
It became an immense struggle. With a total U.S. population of fewer than
32 million, the number of dead reached 620,000 (360,000 northerners out of
an army of about 1.5 million and 260,000 southerners in an army of about 1
million). In contrast, during World War II, when the American population
was 135 million and its military forces fought for 4 years throughout the
world, the total dead reached 400,000. In 1861 about 22 million people
lived in the North, as against some 9 million people in the South, of whom
3.5 million were black. Although the North possessed a vigorous system of
industry and a well-developed railroad network, Europeans were highly
skeptical of a northern victory because the Confederacy was practically as
large as Western Europe and fought with a determined passion for its
independence. The North had to invade and defeat the opposition in order to
win; the South had only to defend its borders. The conflict was not so
uneven as it seemed.
Lincoln launched an all-out effort: he declared a naval blockade of the
Confederacy; worked hard to maintain the loyalty of the slaveholding border
states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri); invaded Tennessee to
gain a base of power in the heart of the Confederacy; cut the South in two
by taking the Mississippi River; and looked for a general who could win.
This last task took him 2 years. Gen. George B. MCCLELLAN proved
disappointingly conservative, and his successors were bumblers. After Gen.
Ulysses S. GRANT won major victories in the western theater, Lincoln
brought him to Washington in 1864 to face the brilliant Confederate
commander, Robert E. LEE.
By mid-1863 the South was in desperate straits, lacking both food and
supplies. A great northward thrust was turned back at Gettysburg, Pa., in
July of that year (see GETTYSBURG, BATTLE OF). Thereafter, Grant mounted a
relentless campaign that hammered down toward Richmond, at hideous cost in
casualties. Union Gen. William T. SHERMAN, meanwhile, was slashing through
Georgia to the sea, leaving a wide swath of total destruction, and then
turning northward through the Carolinas. By April 1865, Grant had finally
rounded Lee's flank, and on the 9th of that month, Lee surrendered at
APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE. Confederate president Jefferson DAVIS intended to
fight on, but it was hopeless. The Civil War was over.
A Nation Transformed: The North
The war had transformed both North and South. On Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln had
issued his EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, declaring slavery dead wherever
rebellion existed (in the border states, it was terminated by later local
action). In addition, the enormous war effort taught the North lessons in
modern organization and the use of large corporations. In Washington the
Republican majority enacted a classically Hamiltonian program: high
protective tariffs, lavish aid to capitalists to build railroads and
exploit natural resources, free homestead grants for settlers, and banking
and currency legislation that created one national system of paper money.
The MORRILL ACT of 1862 provided grants of land for the establishment of
land- grant universities in each state to train the agriculturalists,
engineers, and other professionals needed to run an industrialized economy.
The two-party system survived in the North despite the war. Democrats never
sank below 40 percent of the vote because many northerners opposed the
conflict, or at least Republican policies. In the DRAFT RIOTS of 1863,
Irish Catholics and other New Yorkers fiercely protested the new
conscription law, which seemed a special hardship to poor people. The
rioters, as well as many other northerners, were hostile toward abolition;
they feared that Republican policies would send hordes of freed slaves
northward to compete for jobs. Democrats also opposed the powerful
centralizing tendencies of the programs pushed by the Republicans, as well
as their aid to capitalists.
Reconstruction
A week after Appomattox, Lincoln was assassinated. Now Andrew JOHNSON
assumed office and moved quickly to establish a plan for RECONSTRUCTION. He
asked southern whites only to repudiate debts owed by the Confederacy,
declare secession null and void, and ratify the 13TH AMENDMENT (which
declared slavery illegal). When Congress convened in December 1865, newly
elected southerners were already on the scene waiting to be admitted to
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