From%20Ocean%20to%20Ocean

1
From Ocean to Ocean

• How the nations resources were used to build a
  continental nation

2
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.
3
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.
4
Noah Webster
Noah Websters work on American English was the
product of nationalism. He believed the nation
should have its own rules for the language.
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How to Overcome the distances and obstacles

• A 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.

6
Political divisions

• Divisions 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.

7
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.
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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.
9
The grand canal (or Clintons 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.
10
Building the canal
Benjamin Wright, the canals engineer, had to
design locks and channels, not only for central
route, but for branch canals as well.
11
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.
12
The way west
The completed canal opened the Ohio and
Mississippi Valleys to widespread settlement.
13
Growth of the Continental Nation
14
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.
15
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.
16
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.
17
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.
18
Eli Whitneys 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.
19
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.
20
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
21
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.
22
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.
23
More Voters
Changes in Suffrage Requirements between 1800 and
1828 Many 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.
24
Popular Politics
Unlike the days of Washington and Jefferson,
politics in the late 1820s was based on mass
appeals. George Caleb Binghams painting, The
County Election, sketched how mass politics
worked.
25
Fear of Slave Revolts
New states with slavery usually copied the black
codes of the older slave states in an effort to
prevent the growth of any large African
population. The slave revolt led by Nat Turner
(right) in 1831, frightened the slave states into
expanding their restrictions on African life.
Since Turner claimed to have been inspired by
reading Revolution-era pamphlets on freedom, many
slave states passed laws making it illegal to
teach Africans to read.
26
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.
27
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.
28
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 Calhouns defense of slavery
nothing more than a sad attempt to defend an
immoral institution.
29
Reform movements
The 1830s and 1840s constituted an era of
reformist movements. In addition to the
anti-slavery movement and the demand for the
womens 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.
30
Anti-slavery
In 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.
31
Southern retaliation
Southerners, 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.
32
Violence over slavery.
Two incidents in the 1830s made compromises over
slavery less likely. Nat Turners 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.
33
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.
34
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.
35
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.
36
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 governments money removed
from the bank in 1833 and laid the foundation for
a separate treasury system for handling the
U.S. governments finances. This marked a great
increase in the power of the presidency.
37
Near civil war
In 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 Jacksons allowing the anti-slavery
publications to be suppressed at the post
offices, led to Jacksons 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.
38
Financial depression
In 1837, just months after Jackson completed his
second term and retired, a a financial panic
brought hard times to the economy. Jacksons
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.
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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. Jacksons party lost
voters due to hard times.
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Its the economy, stupid
Martin Van Buren, Jacksons 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.
41
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.