History of America: Expanding the Nation

Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself
driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him. (Tocqueville)

Near mid 19th Century, the United States had come to experience a revolution of independence, an increase in immigration, westward expansion, and punctual economic growth. With immigration and population increasing, the labor that Americans performed altered as farms and small workshops were replaced by large industrial factories.

“By 1850 the notion of independent American farmers living mainly on what they themselves produced (Crèvecoeur’s vision of the 1780s) had become a dream of the past” (Davidson, et al., 2002). Americans put to use machines, acquired the products of machines, and depended on them. Amidst the Civil War, which was a period of swift expansion through immigration and economics, America came forth as a leading nation.

In the early 19th Century, Americans reallocated west in considerable numbers. Davidson, et al. state that “the vast areas of land available for settlement absorbed much of the burgeoning population. As settlers streamed west, speculation in western lands reached frenzied proportions” (2002). Westward movement was spurred by a number of circumstances. Possibly the most significant factor in the immense western push was the creation of a rail line, in addition to people immigrating from other countries for occupational opportunity and stability.

“With the enormous growth of the West in the first half of the nineteenth century, coupled with the unprecedented influx of immigrants, especially from Ireland and Germany, the nation’s population numbered over 23 million persons at mid-century” (Mc Carty). From the time of Reconstruction to the end of the 19th century, the United States went through an economic alteration that involved the perfecting of the industrial economy, the quick magnification of big business, the progress of large-scale agriculture, and the ascent of national labor unions and conspicuous industrial discord and hostility.

The late 19th century stamped a sensational outbreak of technological novelty, which fueled headlong economic growth and transferred material advantages to various Americans.

The advances in productive and extractive ventures that technology allowed also had economical effects that Americans were just beginning to comprehend and defy. The upsurge of the American corporation and the advent of industry brought about a concentration of the nation’s productive dimensions in many fewer hands, thus creating social status societies and distinctive classes of American people.

“Economic expansion generated greater national wealth, but it also brought social and intellectual change….Americans pursued opportunity, embraced a new concept of progress, viewed change as normal, developed a strong materialist ethic, and considered wealth the primary means to determine status” (Davidson et al., 2002). With new notions of economic and wealth development, reform and the abolishment of slavery approached.

The northern American states were skirmishing to abolish slavery and to pass a law on high tariffs. The South on the other hand is fighting for slavery and to cease the high tariffs. The market economy was emerging to become an influence to American culture and lifestyle; thus becoming a main cause of conflict due to its pressure from the development of self-reliant state economies, differing political views, locomotive rail-lines, trade, tariffs, and slavery. The northern states’ railroads were only developed for Northeastern American trade and growth. However, the north expected the South to disburse some expense, even considering that the tracks would not travel south into the Southern territory.

The Southern states viewed this proposal as unfair and urged to be excluded from paying locomotive establishment. Moreover, another large conflict was the high tariffs. The North were avaricious, they sought after to pass a law on high tariffs for imported goods so as to maintain a domestic form of trade between the northern and southern states, rather than importing goods from European countries.

In addition to railroad difficulties and tariffs, slavery was also a significant concern. The northern American states aspired to abolish slavery; however, the southern states’ economic system was dependent on slavery, and most importantly, slavery’s valued affects with the plantation and cotton industry. Abraham Lincoln argued that "We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. The Republican Party think it wrong - we think it is a moral, a social, and a political wrong.

We think it is wrong not confining itself merely to the persons of the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong which in its tendency, to say the least, affects the existence of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong, insofar as we can prevent it growing any larger, and so deal with it that in the run of time there may be some promise of an end to it."

The abolishment of slavery would cause an economic collapse for the southern states; which in turn, established a political rivalry amongst northern and southern diplomatic leaders. For example, the northern and southern states would dispute the ownership of free territories. Furthermore, the south viewed Congress as unfair considering northern state population and representation. For this brought forth a significant southern concern that a law could easily be created or passed due to the northern states voting power.

As slavery came under mounting attack, white southerners rallied to protect their peculiar institution. They developed a set of arguments defending slavery as a positive good. Both political parties in the South strongly defended the institution and southern rights. Many Americans, both North and South, shared the same values: personal independence, social egalitarianism, evangelical Protestantism.

But beginning in the mid-1840s with renewed westward expansion, the slavery issue increased sectional tensions. (Davidson et al, 2007)
Through political hurdles with slavery, trade, states’ exclusive economic beliefs, “Manifest Destiny,” and sectionalism, political parties formed separations from other states, created constitutions (relative to the United States Constitution), and “found themselves unable to represent the interests of their constituents across sectional lines” (Mc Carty, 2007). These effects led to the American Civil War.

On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for President of the United States for the second time. On that occasion, with the end of the Civil War in sight, he gave one of the most famous speeches in American presidential history.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." (1865)

American Civil War (2007). Available from the Spartacus Educational Web Site: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcivilwar.htm

Davidson, J., Gienapp, W., Heyrman, C., Lytle, M., & Stoff, M. (2002). Nation of nations: The Third Concise Edition. Ohio: The McGraw-Hill Companies

Lincoln, A. (1865, March 4). Second inaugural address of abraham lincoln. [Electronic Version]. Available from the Yale Law School Web Site: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/lincoln2.htm

Tocqueville, A. (n.d.). Alexis de Tocqueville quote. [Electronic Version]. Available from the QuoteDB Web Site: http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/3933