The American Clothe
ANYTHING BORN FROM THE FURNACE OF natural creation may be molded and sculpted under the ease of its novelty. But as with anything born from a fire of such magnitude, as it cools many divergent forces spread and develop, splitting the physical aspect of the metal and separating its very composition. I give you this in the hands of America, that in the 18th and 19th centuries when this country was new and fresh from the fire of the Revolutionary War, it cooled and it split, causing somewhat permanent dents in the already rusting irons of Americanism, the most important of these being expansion, nationalism, and sectionalism.
To lay way for the growth of the United States, expansion seemed inevitable; in hindsight one can see the murky blemishes in the States’ regulations and certitude. The U.S. Foreign Policy, which included Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality and Farewell Address, Jefferson's frustrations with the Tripolitan pirates from 1801-1804, and the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, attempted to avoid entangling alliances and signaled America's emergence as a power strong enough to prevent European meddling in western hemisphere's affairs, but fell shoddily short (Stephanson, 23). For example, Daniel Shays, a former Revolutionary Army captain, led a rebellion from 1786-1787 by farmers against unsettled economic conditions and against politicians and laws that were grossly unfair to farmers and working people in general (Richards, 88). They protested against excessive taxes on property, which was unswervingly caused by the swift extension of the U.S. into new territories, polling taxes that prevented the poor from voting, unfair actions by the court of common pleas, the high cost of lawsuits and, more importantly, the lack of a stable currency (Riley, 69). They rallied for the government issue of paper money, since at the time there were a variety of paper monies in circulation, but not much was honored at face value (a campaign for "sound money" rallied for the issue of a gold-backed currency). The Revolutionary War was over, but the United States had yet to form formal government organizations (the Constitutional congress had yet to convene, and the country was in chaos). The rebels protested against governmental and court systems that were wrought with dictatorial and oppressive regimes and against excessive salaries for government and court officials, all of which stemmed directly from the torrents of expansion.
Also a fine exemplar of the vigor of expansion is the Louisiana Purchase, one of the largest land deals in history. In 1803, the United States paid approximately $15 million dollars for over 800,000 square miles of land. This land deal was arguably the greatest achievement of Thomas Jefferson's presidency but also posed a major philosophical problem for him; Thomas Jefferson was strongly anti-federalist, and while he might have written the Declaration of Independence, he definitely did not author the Constitution, because he, although whispered otherwise, spoke against a strong federal government and instead advocated states' rights. He feared tyranny of any kind and only recognized the need for a strong, central government in terms of foreign affairs (Walker, 5). This began the growth of the force of nationalism, mainly the war between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.
The Federalist Party was born out of the controversy over adoption of the proposed Federal Constitution in 1787-1788, before the American party system itself had been conceived (a well-defined Federalist party did not exist before 1794). After Washington's inauguration in 1789, debate arose in Congress and the cabinets over the proposals of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, subsequently enacted into law, that the national government should assume state debts, fund the national debt at par value, and charter a national bank. The opposition to Hamilton rallied around Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Congressman James Madison (Hamilton pushed through schemes for paying the foreign debt, restoring national credit, and assuming state debts. A United States bank and postal system soon followed, as well as a protective tariff and bounty system to develop manufactures and agriculture. The effortless crushing of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 gave ample evidence of the new national strength).
In the meantime, the refusal of the Federalists to form an alliance with France had fused the Democrats and the Republicans, the two opposition groups to which most of the Anti-federalists belonged. Thomas Jefferson organized and James Madison joined the new Democratic-Republican Party. Not until these congressional debates over Jay's Treaty of 1794 did two parties emerge clearly: the Federalist Party led by Hamilton and the Democratic-Republican Party of Madison and Jefferson (Elkins/McKitrick, 257). From then on, the Federalists championed commercial and diplomatic harmony with Britain, domestic stability and order, and strong national government under powerful executive and judicial branches. By the end of his second term, Washington had become closely identified with the Federalists. Washington's Farewell Address of 1796, prepared in association with Hamilton, may even be read as a basic text of Federalism. Washington's vice president, John Adams, was elected president as a Federalist in 1796. Adams retained Washington's cabinet officers and sought to continue his predecessor's policies. He prosecuted an undeclared naval war with France, and after the Federalists had gained control of Congress, he supported the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. But Adams met increasing opposition within his own party from the Hamilton faction, especially over his military priorities. Other priorities of the U.S. were, at this time, starting to take shape (sectionalism was quickly becoming an important issue towards the Federalists followers as they were beginning to understand the national alterations).
In the days leading up to the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The United States of America attempted to remain just that: united. In order to continue to exist as a nation they would have to have been truly unified. Lincoln was reacting to the many conflicts that were dividing the United States, in what is now referred to as sectionalism.
The different sections at this time were the north and the south (the west was also a section but this section, because it was new, did not practice sectionalism. Instead it was the other sections that fought to control the destiny of the west). The northern regions of the nation tended to focus on trade, shipping and manufacturing. The southern regions of the nation tended to focus on agriculture, while the mid Atlantic region blended both. As the nation expanded westward new states like Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio were largely agricultural but yet still stuck to northern and southern ways of life. These geographic and economic differences spurned cultural differences as well. The merchants of the north were accustomed to a faster paced lifestyle while the plantation owners of the south played the role of the gentleman farmer (Walker, 7). The leisurely lifestyle of the south did not extended, however, to the working farmhands, slaves that supported the plantation lifestyle of the southern aristocracy (the north had little agricultural production prowess, because of its primarily industrial nature, excluding its manufacturing of grain, which supplied over one-half of the Northern and Southern states with a balanced furnishment of grain and wheat). This was only made worse with the issue of slavery (cotton was essential to the southern economy; as they used to say, "Cotton is king!"). To southerners, slavery was essential in maintaining cheap production of cotton, as cotton production and slave tenure grew concurrently.
As the different regions began to define themselves, political issues came to the forefront. Wishing to support domestic manufacturing, northern politicians endorsed a series of protective tariffs. The first tariff passed in 1816 was relatively mild but the second passed in 1828 was much more severe. Southern states called it the "Tariff of Abominations" and demanded the right of nullification. President Andrew Jackson endured a bitter conflict with his Vice President, John C. Calhoun, while the Webster-Hayne debates raged in the Senate. The split over the tariff and nullification was so fierce that it even led to a violent attack on Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the senate. Eventually Congress passed, and the President signed, a bill called the Force Bill that authorized the use of the military to compel states to pay the tariff (Riley, 68).
As mentioned earlier, the dents and splits aforementioned as still present today, if only as rust stained on the metal of our past. But in this newest fire, America became a stronger nation, discovering that if we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm any hostility, but we do not. Instead we make war so that we may live in peace. As these components of the machinery of the “United” States blended together with roars of discontent, war brew and inevitably fell upon the States, both northern and southern, and the result was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind.
Works Cited
Stephanson, Anders. Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Richards, Leonard. Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle, 2002.
Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800, Oxford University Press, 1993.
Riley, Scott. “The Taxes of the New World.” The Historian Guide 18, 1989.
Walker, C. Nicholas. “The Competing Forces of Expansion, Nationalism, and Sectionalism.” Johnston County History 1, 2003.
“The Louisiana Purchase: Primary Documents of American History.” The Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Louisiana.html
“Essays on the Civil War.” Shotgun’s Home of the American Civil War. http://www.civilwarhome.com/essays.htm
