APUSH Chapter 7 Notes (1793-1815)
Cultural Aspirations of the New Nation- American Literature
A growing number of writers began working to a strong American literature especially Charles Brockden Brown. But his fascination with horror and deviance kept him from a popular audience. More successful was Washington Irving of New York, whose popular folktales, recounting the adventures of such American rustics, made him the widely acknowledged leader of American literary life in the early eighteenth century.
Lewis and Clark
A series of explorations revealed the geo of the new territory to white Americans. In 1803, Jefferson planned an expedition to cross the continent to the Pacific, gather geographical info., and investigate prospects for trade with Natives. The expedition began in May 04. He named its leader the 29 yr old Meriwether Lewis, a vet of Indian wars who was skilled in the wilderness. Lewis chose as a colleague the 34 yr old William Clark, an experienced frontiersman and soldier. They, with a company of 48 men, started up the Missouri River from St. Louis. With the Shoshone woman Sacajawea as their interpreter, they eventually crossed the Rocky Mnts., descended the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and in the late fall of 1805 camped on the Pacific coast. In September 06, they were back in St. Louis with records of the geo and the natives they had observed along the way. While they explored, Jefferson sent other groups to other parts of the Louisiana Territory. Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, 26, led an expedition in the fall of 05 from St. Louis into upper Mississippi Valley. In the summer of 06, he set out again, up the valley of the Arkansas River and into modern day Colorado. His account of his travels helped make an enduring (inaccurate) impression w/ most Americans that the land between the Missouri River and the Rockies was an uncultivatable desert.
Country and City
America remained an overwhelmingly rural and agrarian nation. 3% of the population lived in towns of more than 8,000 in 1800. Even the nation's largest cities couldn't compare with European capitals like London and Paris. People in cities/towns lived differently from the majority of Americans who worked as farmers. Urban life made wealth, and wealthy people sought increasing elegance and refinement in their things. They also looked for fun—music, theater, dancing, and, for many people, horse racing. Informal horse racing began in the 1620s, and the 1st formal one in North America opened near NYC in 1665. By the early 1800s, it was a popular activity in most areas of the country. The crowds were an early sign of the appetite for popular, public entertainments that would be an enduring part of American culture. It was possible for some to believe that this small nation might not become a modern society. But the forces pushing the transformation were at work. Thomas Jefferson as president was obliged to confront and accommodate them
Battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805)
An 1805 naval battle in which Napoleon's forces were defeated by a British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson.
War Hawks
By 1812 war fever was on both the N and S borders of the US. The demands of these areas found support in Washington among determined young congressmen aka the "War Hawks." In the congressional elections of 1810, voters elected a large # of reps of both parties eager for war with Britain. The most influential of them came from the new states in the West or the backcountry of the old states in the South. Two of their leaders, both recently elected to the House of Reps, were Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. supporters of war with England. Clay was elected Speaker of the House in 1811, and appointed Calhoun to the crucial Committee on Foreign Affairs. Both began for the conquest of Canada. Madison still wanted peace but was losing control of Congress. On June 18, 1812, he approved a declaration of war against Britain.
Cane Ridge
By the early 19th century, the revivalist energies of Christian denominations were combining for evangelical fervor since the 1st Great Awakening 60 years before. In a few years, membership in churches embracing revivalism was growing. At Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in the summer of 1801, a group of evangelical ministers made the nation's 1st "camp meeting"—a revival that lasted several days and impressed all with its fervor and its size (about 25,000 people). These events became common. The basic message of the 2nd was that individuals must readmit God and Christ in their daily lives and embrace a fervent, active piety, and reject the skeptical rationalism. The wave of revivalism did not restore the religion of the past. Few denominations accepted the idea of predestination, and the belief that people could affect their own destinies added intensity to the search for salvation. The Awakening combined a more active piety with a belief in a God whose grace could be attained by faith and good works.
Battle of Tippacanoe
During Tecumseh's absence, Governor Harrison saw to destroy the influence of the 2 Indian leaders. With 1,000 soldiers, he camped near Prophetstown, and on 11/7/1811, he provoked an armed conflict. The white forces suffered losses as heavy as the Natives & Harrison drove off the Indians and burned the town. The Battle of Tippecanoe (near the creek) confused many of the Prophet's followers, and Tecumseh returned to find disarray. But there were still some eager for combat, and by the spring of 1812 they were raiding white settlements along the frontier. The mobilization of the tribes resulted from the Indians' own initiative, but Britain's agents in Canada encouraged and helped supply the uprising. To Harrison and most whites of the regions, there seemed one way to make the W safe for Americans: to drive the British out of Canada and annex that province to the US.
Robert Fulton's Steamboat
England had steam power and navigation, in the 1700s, and there were experiments in America in the 1780s and 90s in forms of steam-powered transportation. A major advance emerged out of the efforts of the Robert Fulton and the Robert R. Livingston, who made a steamboat large enough for passengers. The Clermont, with paddle wheels and an English-built engine, sailed up the Hudson River in 1807.
Technology in America
Even while Jeffersonians warned of dangers of rapid economic change, they witnessed a series of tech advances that would ensure that the US, too, would be transformed like England. Some of these advances were English imports. Despite efforts by the British govt. to prevent the export of textile machinery or the emigration of skilled mechanics, a # of immigrants with advanced knowledge of English tech came to the US, eager to bring the new tech to America. Samuel Slater, for example, used the knowledge b4 he left England to build a spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for the Quaker merchant Moses Brown in 1790.`
The Louisiana Purchase
Faced with Napoleon's sudden proposal, Livingston and James Monroe, whom Jefferson had sent to Paris for negotiations, had to decide to accept it or not or if they had authorization. Fearful that Napoleon might withdraw, they proceeded. Haggling the price, they signed with on 4/30/1803. By the treaty, the US was to pay 80 million francs ($15 million) to the French govt. The US was to grant commercial privileges to France in the port of New Orleans and to grant residents of Louisiana into the Union with the rights and privileges as citizens. The boundaries of the purchase weren't clearly defined. In Washington, the president was pleased and embarrassed when he received the treaty. He was pleased with the terms; but he was uncertain about his authority to accept it, since the Constitution said nothing about new territory. But his advisers told him his treaty-making power under the Constitution would justify it, and Congress approved it. Late in 1803, General James Wilkinson, a commissioner of the US, took control of the territory. Before long, the LA Territory was organized on the pattern of the NW Territory, with the assumption that it would be divided into US. The first of these was admitted to the Union as the state of Louisiana in 1812.
Marbury vs Madison
Federalists had long maintained that the Supreme Court could nullify acts of Congress, and the Court itself exercised the power of judicial review in 1796 when it upheld the validity of a law passed by Congress. But the its authority would not be secure, it was clear, until i declared an act unconstitutional. In 1803, in the case of Marbury v. Madison, it did. William Marbury, one of Adams's midnight appointments, was named a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia. But his commission, although signed and sealed, had not been delivered to him before Adams left office. When Jefferson took office, his secretary of state, James Madison, refused to hand over the commission. Marbury asked the Supreme Court to make Madison to perform his official duty. But the Court ruled that while Marbury had a right to his commission, the Court couldn't order him to deliver it. On the surface it was a victory for the administration. But of much greater importance than the relatively insignificant matter of his commission was the Court's reasoning. The original Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Court the power to compel executives to act in matters as the delivery of commissions, and it was on that basis that Marbury had filed his suit. But the Court ruled that Congress had exceeded its authority, that the Constitution defined the judiciary powers, and the legislature had no right to expand them. The relevant section of the act was, therefore, void. In seeming to deny its authority, the Court was in fact enlarging it. The justices denied a relatively minor power (to force the delivery) by asserting a greater one (the power to nullify a Congress act).
Hamilton and Burr Duel
Federalists in NY turned to Hamilton's greatest political rival, VP Aaron Burr. Burr accepted a Federalist proposal to be their candidate for governor of NY in 1804, and there were rumors that he agreed to support the plans for secession. Hamilton accused him of plotting treason and made many private remarks, reported in the press, about his "despicable" character. When he lost the election, he blamed Hamilton's hatred and challenged him to a duel. He feared that refusing Burr's challenge would make him a coward. So, on July morning in 1804, the two men met at Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton was mortally wounded; he died the next day. Burr had to flee NY to avoid an indictment for murder. He found outlets for his ambitions in the West. B4 the duel, he begun corresponding with General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory. Burr and Wilkinson hoped to lead an expedition that would capture Mexico from the Spanish. There were rumors (little evidence) that they wanted to separate the SW from the Union and make a western empire that Burr would rule. Whether true or not, many of his opponents chose to believe it—including Jefferson himself. When Burr led a group of armed followers down the Ohio River in 1806, disturbing reports went into Washington (one from Wilkinson, who suddenly turned against Burr) that an attack on New Orleans was soon. Jefferson ordered Burr's arrest and his men as traitors. Burr was brought to Richmond for trial. But to Jefferson's chagrin, Chief Justice Marshall limited the evidence the govt. could show and defined the charge so the jury had little choice to acquit. Burr soon faded from the public eye. The Burr conspiracy was part of the story of a single man's ambitions and flamboyant personality. But it exposed the larger perils still facing the nation. With a central govt. that remained weak, with ambitious political leaders willing, if necessary, to circumvent normal channels in their search for power, the legitimacy of the federal govt.—and indeed the existence of the US as a stable and united nation—remained tenuous.
Impressment
Few volunteered for the British navy as it was a "floating hell". Most had to be impressed to serve, and often deserted. By 1807, many of those had emigrated to the US and joined the US marine or navy. To check this loss, the British claimed the right to stop and search American merchantmen and reimpress deserters only the right to seize British->Americans. In practice, the navy didn't distinct, impressing both groups.
The "Indian Problem" and the British
Given the ruthlessness with which white settlers in North America had continued to dislodge natives, Indians looked to England for protection. The British in Canada had relied on the Indians as partners in fur trade. There was relative peace in the NW for over a decade after Jay's Treaty and Anthony Wayne's victory over the tribes at Fallen Timbers in 1794. But the 1807 war crisis after the Chesapeake-Leopard incident revived the conflict between Indians and white settlers.
Conflict with the Courts
Having control of the executive and legislative branches of govt., the Republicans looked with suspicion on the judiciary, which remained largely Federalist. Soon after Jefferson's 1st inauguration, his followers in Congress launched an attack on the last opposition by repealing the Judiciary Act of 1801, eliminating the judgeships to which Adams made his "midnight appointments."
Jefferson and Napolean
Having failed in a plan to seize India from the British, Napoleon dreamed of restoring French power in the New World. The territory east of the Mississippi, which France gave to Britain in 1763, was part of the US, but Napoleon hoped to regain the lands west of the Mississippi, which belonged to Spain since the end of the 7 Years' War. In 1800, under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso, France regained title to Louisiana, which included a lot of the Mississippi Valley to the west of the river. Napoleon hoped it would become the heart of a great French empire in America.
Judith Sargent Murray
In 1784, she published an essay for the right of women to education- Men & women were equal in intellect and potential. Women should have the same educational opportunities as men. And should have opportunities to earn livings and establish roles in society apart from husbands and families. This attracted relatively little support. Jefferson and his followers thought of Native Americans as "noble savages" (uncivilized but not necessarily uncivilizable), they hoped schooling Indians in white culture would "uplift" the tribes. Missionaries proliferated among the tribes. But there weren't comparable efforts to educate enslaved African Americans. Higher education similarly diverged from Republican ideals. Colleges and universities in America grew from nine at the time of the Revolution to twenty-two in 1800. None of the new schools were truly public. Even universities established by state legislatures relied on private contributions and tuition fees. Scarcely more than one white man in a thousand (and virtually no women, blacks, or Indians) had access to any college education, and the few who did were members of prosperous, propertied families.
The Cotton Gin and the Spread of Slavery
In 1793, Eli Whitney made the cotton gin that performed the task of removing seeds from short-staple cotton quickly and efficiently ("gin" was a derivative of "engine"). With this, 1 operator could clean as much cotton in a few hours as it once took a group to do in a day. Soon cultivation spread through the South. (Previously it had been largely the coast and the Sea Islands, the only places where long-staple cotton—easier cleaned w/o the gin—could be grown.) Within a decade, the total cotton crop increased 8x. African American slavery, which w/ the decline of tobacco had seemed for a time to be a dwindling institution, expanded and fixed upon the South. The large supply of US produced fiber served as a incentive to entrepreneurs in New England and elsewhere to develop a native textile industry.
Challenging the Barbary Pirates
In 1801, the pasha of Tripoli forced Jefferson's hand by ordering the flagpole of the American consulate chopped down—a symbolic declaration of war. Jefferson responded cautiously and built up naval forces in the area over the years. Finally, in 1805, he agreed to terms by the US ended the payment of tribute to Tripoli but paid a substantial (and humiliating) ransom for the release of American prisoners.
Conflict on the Seas
In 1805, at the Battle of Trafalgar, a British fleet virtually destroyed the French navy. Because France couldn't challenge the British at sea anymore, it pressured England other ways. The result was what Napoleon called the Continental System, to close the Europe to British trade. He issued decrees stopping British and neutral ships at British ports from landing their cargoes at a European port by France or its allies. The British govt. replied to this w/ a blockade of the European coast. This required that goods shipped to Europe be carried by British or neutral vessels stopping at British ports— what Napoleon forbade. In the early 19th century, the US had one of the most important merchant marines, one that soon controlled a large proportion of trade between Europe and the West Indies. The events in Europe now challenged that, because US ships were between Napoleon and Britain's blockade. If they sailed for the European continent, they risked being captured by the British. If they sailed by way of British, they ran the risk by the French. Both of the powers violated US rights as a neutral nation. But most Americans considered the British the worse offender— since British vessels frequently stopped American ships @ seas and seized sailors off decks, making them victims of "impressment."
Life in Washington D.C.
In reality, throughout most of the 19th century D.C. remained a straggling, provincial village. Although the population increased steadily from the 3,200 counted in the 1800 census, it remained a raw, inhospitable community. Members of Congress saw it not as a home but as a place to visit briefly in sessions. A lot lived in simple boardinghouses near the Capitol. It wasn't unusual for a member of Congress to resign his seat in the midst of a session to go home if he had an opportunity to accept the more a higher post of his state legislature. Jefferson was a wealthy planter by background, but as president he showed a plain image. Like an ordinary citizen, he walked to and from his inauguration at the Capitol. In the presidential mansion, which wasn't the "White House," he disregarded the courtly etiquette of his predecessors. He didn't always bother to dress up, prompting the British ambassador to complain. Yet he impressed most who knew him. He had a wider range of interests and accomplishments than any other major political figure in US history, with Benjamin Franklin. He was also an active architect, educator, inventor, farmer, and philosopher-scientist. Jefferson was a shrewd and practical politician. He worked hard to have influence as the leader of his party, giving direction to Republicans in Congress. Although the Republicans had objected to the efforts of their Federalist predecessors to build a network of influence through patronage, Jefferson used his powers of appointment as a weapon. Like Washington before him, he believed that federal offices should be filled with men loyal to the principles and policies of the administration. By the end of his 2nd term, almost all federal jobs were held by loyal Republicans. He was a popular president and had little difficulty winning reelection by the overwhelming electoral majority of 162 to 14, and Republican membership of both houses of Congress increased.
Napolean's Offer in the importance of New Orleans
In the meantime, Jefferson persuaded Congress for funds for an expansion of the army & a river fleet, and hinted that American forces might descend on New Orleans and that the US might form an alliance with Britain if the problems with France weren't resolved. In response, Napoleon decided to offer the US the entire Louisiana Territory. Napoleon had reasons for this. His plans for an empire in US had already gone awry, because a yellow fever epidemic wiped out a lot of the French army in the New World and partly bc the force he wanted to send to reinforce the troops had been icebound in a Dutch harbor through the winter of 1802-1803. By the time it thawed in the spring of 1803, he was preparing for a war in Europe. He wouldn't have the resources for the US.
Death and Retreat of the Creek
In the meantime, another white military leader was striking an even harder blow at Indians in the Southwest. The Creek, supplied by the Spaniards in Florida, had been attacking white settlers near the Florida border. Andrew Jackson, a wealthy Tennessee planter and a general in the state militia, set off in pursuit of the Creek. On March 27, 1814, in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson's men took terrible revenge on the Indians, slaughtering women and children along with warriors. The tribe agreed to cede most of its lands to the United States and retreated westward. The vicious battle also won Jackson a commission as major general in the United States Army, and in that capacity he led his men farther south into Florida. On November 7, 1814, he seized the Spanish fort at Pensacola.
Doubling the National Domain
In the same year Jefferson was elected president of the US, Napoleon Bonaparte made himself ruler of France as first consul. In the year Jefferson was reelected, Napoleon named himself emperor. The two had little in common, yet were of great assistance to each other in international politics.
Impressment- Chesapeake-Leopard Incident
In the summer of 1807, the British went to more extremes of Impressment. Sailing from Norfolk, with alleged deserters w/ the crew, the American naval frigate Chesapeake was hailed by the British ship Leopard. When the American commander, James Barron, refused the search, the British fired. He had to surrender, & a boarding party from the Leopard dragged 4 men off the American frigate. When news of this reached the US, there was a clamor for revenge. Jefferson and Madison tried to have peace. Jefferson expelled all British warships from American waters to try to prevent more incidents. Then he sent instructions to his minister in England, James Monroe, to demand the British govt. end impressment. The British govt. disavowed the actions of the Leopard and recalled him; it offered compensation for those killed and wounded there; and promised to return 3 of the captured (the 4th was hung). But the British cabinet refused to stop impressment.
Battle with the Tribes in the War of 1812
In the summer of 1812, US forces invaded Canada through Detroit but had to retreat back and in August surrendered the fort there. Other invasion efforts also failed. In the meantime, Fort Dearborn (later Chicago) fell before an Indian attack. Things went only slightly better for the US on the seas. At first, US frigates won some victories over Britain. By 1813, the British navy counterattacked effectively, driving the American frigates to cover and imposing a blockade on the US.
Jefferson's Assimilation Proposal
Jefferson considered the assimilation policy a gentle alternative to the conflict between Natives and whites. But to the tribes, the policy seemed harsh, especially w/ the efficiency with which Harrison set out to implement it w/ threats, bribes, trickery, and other tactics to conclude treaties. In the first decade of the 19th century, the # of white Americans who had settled west of the Appalachians grew to more than 500,000—a population larger than the Native Americans. The tribes would face pressure to move out of the way. By 1807 the US had extracted treaty rights to eastern Michigan, southern Indiana, and most of Illinois from reluctant tribal leaders. In the Southwest, whites were taking millions of acres from tribes in Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The Indians wanted to resist, but the separate tribes were helpless by themselves against the US. The policy of British authorities in Canada, after the Chesapeake incident, they expected a US invasion of Canada so renewed efforts to forge alliances with Indians. A 2nd was the rise of 2 native leaders, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh.
Jefferson and Napoleon- The importance of New Orleans
Jefferson was unaware at first of Napoleon's ambitions in US. For a time he pursued a policy that reflected his admiration for France. But he began to reassess relations with France when he heard rumors of the transfer of Louisiana. Troubling to Jefferson was French control of New Orleans, the outlet which the produce of the fast-growing western US was shipped to the world. Jefferson was more alarmed when, in the fall of 1802, he learned a Spanish ruler at New Orleans (who still governed the city, since the French hadn't taken formal rule) had announced a new regulation. American ships sailing the Mississippi River had been accustomed to depositing their cargoes in N.O. for transfer to ocean vessels. He now forbade this, even though Spain guaranteed US the right in the Pinckney Treaty of 1795. Westerners demanded the federal govt. do reopen the river. If Jefferson tried to change the policy by force, he would risk major war with France. If he ignored the demands, he would lose support. But he envisioned another solution. He instructed Robert Livingston, the US ambassador in Paris, to negotiate for the purchase of N.O. Livingston, on his own authority, proposed that the French sell the US the rest of Louisiana as well.
The Burr Conspiracy- Threat of New England succession
Jefferson's triumphant reelection in 04 showed that most of the US approved of the new territory. But some New England Federalists didn't. They realized that the more states that joined, the less power their region and party would have. In Massachusetts, a group of the most extreme, known as the Essex Junto, concluded that the only recourse for New England was to secede & form a separate "northern confederacy." If such a state were to have hope for survival, the Federalists believed, it would have to include NY and New Jersey & New England. But the leading Federalist in NY, Hamilton, refused to support the secessionists.
Transportation Innovations
One of the prerequisites for industrialization is a transportation system. The US had no system in the early years so it had no domestic market big enough for large-scale production. But soon the transportation obstacle was removed
Educational and Literary Nationalism in the Jeffersonian Era
Republicans believed in the creation of a nation system of public schools for male citizens for free. This didn't happen, instead it was mainly the responsibility of private institutions, most of which were open only to those who could afford to pay for them. In the South and mid-Atlantic states, most schools were run by religious groups. In New England, private academies were more secular, many modeled on those founded by the Phillips family at Andover, Massachusetts, in 1778, and at Exeter, New Hampshire, three years later. Most were aristocratic. Some education was open to the poor, but not enough to accommodate everyone, and the education was usually clearly inferior. Private secondary schools such as those in New England mainly accepted only male students; even many public schools excluded females. The late 18th and early 19th centuries did see advances in education for women. As Americans began to place a higher value on the importance of the "republican mother" who would help train the new generation for citizenship, people began to ask how mothers could raise their children to be enlightened if the mothers themselves weren't. This helped the creation of female academies (usually for the daughters of affluent families). In 1789, Massachusetts required its public schools serve females. States, although not all, soon followed.
The Tecumseh Confederacy
Tecumseh understood, as few native leaders had, that only through united action could the tribes hope to resist the advance of whites. In 1809, he set out to unite the tribes of the Mississippi Valley into the Tecumseh Confederacy. Together, he said, they would halt white expansion, recover the whole NW, and make the Ohio River the boundary between the US and Indians. He said that Harrison and others, by negotiating treaties with individual tribes, didn't have a title to land. The land was to all the tribes; none could rightfully cede any of it w/o the consent of the others. In 1811, he left Prophetstown and traveled down the Mississippi to the tribes of the South and perduade them to join.
Tecumseh and the Prophet
Tenskwatawa was a religious leader and orator aka "the Prophet." Like Handsome Lake, he had experienced a mystical awakening in recovering from alcoholism. Having freed himself from white culture, he began to speak to his people of the superior virtues of Indians and the sinfulness and corruption of the whites. In this, he inspired a religious revival that spread through many tribes and helped unite them. His headquarters at the meeting of Tippecanoe Creek and the Wabash River (known as Prophetstown) became a sacred place for many tribes. Out of the common religious experiences, they began to consider joint military efforts. Tenskwatawa advocated an Indian society separate from white Americans and a culture rooted in tribal tradition. The effort to trade with the Anglos and to borrow from their culture would, he argued, lead to the death of native ways. Tecumseh—the chief of the Shawnees aka "the Shooting Star"—was more militant than his brother Tenskwatawa. He called extermination if they didn't try to stop white Americans from their lands.
The "Turnpike Era"
The "turnpike era" begun. In 1794, a corporation built a toll road running the 60 miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a hard-packed surface of crushed stone that provided a good year-round surface with effective drainage (but was expensive to build). It proved so successful that similar turnpikes ( named from the tollgate frequently used) were made from other cities to neighboring towns. The process was difficult. They had to survey routes with many things in mind, especially elevation. Horse-drawn vehicles had difficulty traveling along roads with more than a 5-degree incline, which required roads to take routes to avoid steep hills. Building roads over mountains was a big task, and no company was successful until govt. began to help in financing the projects.
Religion and Revivalism
The American Revolution had weakened traditional forms of religious practice and challenged many traditions. By the 1790s, only a small % of white Americans were members of formal churches. Religious traditionalists were alarmed about the emergence of new religions—theologies that reflected modern, scientific attitudes. Deism, originated among Enlightenment philosophers in France, attracted educated Americans like Jefferson and Ben Franklin and by 1800 had a moderately broad popular audience. Deists accepted the existence of God, but considered Him a remote "watchmaker" who withdrew from humans and sin. Skepticism produced the philosophies of "universalism" and "unitarianism." These new ideas rejected the Calvinist predestination and the Trinity. Jesus was a great religious teacher not the son of God. But religious skepticism attracted relatively few people. Most Americans had more traditional faiths. Beginning in 1801, traditional religion staged a dramatic comeback in the Second Great Awakening.
The War of 1812
The British weren't eager for an open conflict with the US. Even after US declared war, Britain largely ignored them. But in the fall of 1812, Napoleon launched a campaign against Russia that left his army in disarray. By late 1813, with the French Empire to final defeat, Britain was able to turn its military attention to America.
Limiting the Federal Government
The Jefferson administration moved to reverse these trends. In 1802, the president persuaded Congress to abolish all internal taxes, leaving customs duties and the sale of western lands as the only sources of revenue for the govt. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin drastically reduced government spending. Although Jefferson was unable to retire the national debt as he hoped, he did cut it almost in half (from $83 mill to $45 mill). He also scaled down the armed forces. He reduced the small army of 4,000 men to 2,500 and the navy from 25 ships in commission to 7. Anything but the smallest of standing armies, he argued, might menace civil liberties and civilian control of government. Yet he was not a pacifist. He was also helping establish the US Military Academy at West Point, in 1802. When trouble started overseas in the Mediterranean, he began to build up the fleet. For years the Barbary states of North Africa—Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli—had been demanding protection $, to avoid piracy, from all nations whose ships sailed the Mediterranean. During the 1780s and 90s the US had agreed to treaties for annual tribute to the Barbary states, but he showed reluctance to continue this policy.
Death of Tecumseh
The US did achieve significant early military successes on the Great Lakes. 1st, the US took command of Lake Ontario, so they could burn York (now Toronto), the capital of Canada. They then seized Lake Erie, through the work of young Oliver Hazard Perry, who engaged and dispersed a British fleet at Put-in-Bay on 9/10/1813. This made possible a more successful invasion of Canada by Detroit. William Henry Harrison went up Thames River into upper Canada and on 10/5/1813, won the death of Tecumseh, serving as a brigadier general in the British army. The Battle of the Thames resulted in no more occupation of Canada, but it weakened and disheartened the Natives of the NW.
John Marshall
The chief justice of the United States at the time of the ruling of Marbury v Madison (and until 1835) was John Marshall, a Federalist and prominent Virginia lawyer, who served Adams as secretary of state. It was Marshall who failed to deliver Marbury's commission. In 1801, before leaving office, Adams appointed him chief justice, and almost immediately he established himself as the dominant figure of the Court, shaping most important rulings—including Marbury v. Madison. Through a succession of Republican presidents, he fought to give the federal govt. unity and strength. In doing so, he established the judiciary as a coequal branch of govt. with the other two.
Decline of Midwifery
The medical profession also used its newfound commitment to the "scientific" method to justify its control over kinds of care traditionally outside its domain. Most childbirths had been helped by female midwives in the 18th century. In the early 19th century, docs began to help deliveries. This made less opportunities for women & restrictions of access to childbirth care for the poor (could afford midwives but not docs).
2nd Great Awakening
The origins lay in the efforts of conservative theologians to fight religious rationalism and church establishments. Presbyterians expanded their efforts on western white settlement. Moving Methodist preachers traveled through the nation to win recruits for their new church, which became the fastest-growing denomination in America. The Baptists found a passionate following in the South.
Handsome Lake
The spirit of revivalism was particularly strong among Native Americans. Presbyterian and Baptist missionaries were active among southern tribes with a lot of conversions. The most important revivalist was Handsome Lake, a Seneca whose "rebirth" after years of alcoholism helped give him a stature in his tribe. He called for a revival of traditional Indian ways, a rejection of individualism of whites, and a restoration of the communal quality of the Indians. This spread through the scattered Iroquois communities that had survived the military/political setbacks of previous decades and inspired many Indians to give up whiskey, gambling, and other destructive customs from white society. He also encouraged Christian missionaries to become active in tribes, and urged Iroquois men to stop their roles as hunters and become sedentary farmers. Like white society, Iroquois women, who had traditionally done the farming, were to move into more domestic roles.
New roles for women and African Americans
There was a preponderance of women in the Awakening. Female converts outnumbered males. Maybe due to the movement of industrial work out of home and in the factory. That took women out of their roles as a household-based economy and left many isolated. Religious enthusiasm provided access to a new range of activities—charitable ministering to orphans and the poor, missionary organizations, etc.—in which women came to do. In some areas, revival meetings were open to all races. So emerged black preachers who were important within the enslaved. Some translated the religious message of the Awakening— salvation was available to all—into a liberating message for blacks. Out of these meetings in Virginia, for example, arose a plan in 1800 (devised by Gabriel Prosser, the brother of a black preacher) for a slave rebellion and attack on Richmond. It was discovered and foiled in advance by whites, but revivalism continued for racial unrest in the South.
Medicine and Science
They weren't always connected to each other in the early 19th century, many physicians were working hard to. U of Penn started the 1st American med school in 1765. Most doctors studied medicine by working with an established practitioner. Some American physicians believed in applying new scientific methods to medicine, but had to struggle against age-old prejudices and superstitions. Efforts to teach anatomy had strong public hostility because of the dissection of cadavers that it required. Municipal authorities had no understanding of medical science and no idea of what to do in the face of the severe epidemics that often killed populations; they slowly responded to warnings that the lack of sanitation programs was to blame for much disease. Individual patients often had more to fear from doctors than illnesses. Leading advocates of scientific medicine often had ineffective dangerous treatments. Washington's death in 1799 was probably less bc the minor throat infection than his doc trying to cure him by bleeding and purging.
"Peaceable Coercion"- Jefferson's Embargo
To prevent more incidents that could bring war, Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass the Embargo Act in 1807, which prohibited all international trade from US ports. The embargo was widely evaded, but effective enough to create a depression in the nation especially northeastern merchants and shipowners, most Federalists. The presidential election of 08 came in the embargo-induced depression. James Madison was elected president, but the Federalist Charles Pinckney again, ran more strongly than he had in 1804. The Act was a growing political liability, and Jefferson decided to back down. A few days before leaving office, he approved a bill ending his experiment with what he called "peaceable coercion."
Embargo Act- Other trade Acts
To replace the embargo, Congress passed the Non-Intercourse Act b4 Madison took office in 1809. It reopened trade with all nations but Britain and France. In 1810, it expired and was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2, which reopened free commercial relations with Britain and France but let the president prohibit commerce with either if it continues violating neutral shipping after the other stopped. Napoleon, to induce the US to reimpose the embargo against Britain, announced France wouldn't interfere with American shipping. Madison announced that an embargo against Britain alone would automatically go into effect early in 1811 unless it renounced its restrictions on US shipping. In time the new embargo persuaded England to repeal its blockade of Europe. But it was too late to prevent war. In any case, naval policies were only part of the reason for tensions between the 2.
Expansion and War
Two conflicts were in the last years of Jefferson. 1 was the tension in Europe, which in 1803 went to be a full-scale conflict (Napoleonic Wars). As fighting between Britain and France grew, each tried to stop the US from trading with the other. The other occurred in N. America, due to western expansion of whites, which collided w/ natives committed to protecting land from intruders. In the North and South, the threatened tribes mobilized to stop whites. They began to make connections with British in Canada and Spanish in FL. The Indian conflict on land, w/ the European conflict on sea, helped cause the War of 1812.
Jay's Treaty
Was made up by John Jay. It said that Britain was to pay for Americans ships that were seized in 1793. It said that Americans had to pay British merchants debts owed from before the revolution and Britain had agreed to remove their troops from the Ohio Valley.
William Henry Harrison
Virginia-born William Henry Harrison, already a veteran of combat against Natives at 26, went to Washington as the congressional delegate from the NW Territory in 1799. An advocate of development in the western lands, he was responsible for the passage in 1800 of the "Harrison Land Law", which let whites acquire farms from the public domain easier than before. In 01, Jefferson appointed Harrison governor of the Indiana Territory to administer the president's solution to the "Indian problem." Jefferson gave the Indians a choice: convert themselves to be a part of white society or migrate west of the Mississippi. Either way, they would give up their claims to their tribal lands in the Northwest.
Florida and War Fever
While whites in the North demanded conquest of Canada, those in the South looked to Spanish FL. The territory was a threat to whites in the southern US. Slaves escaped across the border; Indians in FL launched a lot of raids north. But white southerners also liked its network of rivers that provided those of the SW with access to ports on the Gulf. In 1810, American settlers in West FL (present Mississippi and Louisiana) seized the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge and asked the federal govt. to annex the territory to the US. Madison agreed and began to plan for the rest of Florida. The desire for FL became another motivation for war with Britain. Spain was Britain's ally, and a war might be an excuse for taking Spanish & British territory.
Importance of Interchangeable Parts
Whitney helped the concept of interchangeable parts to the US. As machines like the cotton gin began to be used, it became important for owners of the machines to have spare parts—and for the parts to be made so they fit the machines properly. Whitney designed not only the cotton gin, but the machine tools that could make its parts to exact specifications. The U.S. government later commissioned Whitney to make 1,000 muskets for the army. Each part had to be interchangeable with the equivalent part in every other gun. This was of great importance in the United States bc of the great distances many had to travel for towns or cities and the relatively limited transportation systems available. Interchangeable parts meant a farmer could repair a machine himself. But the interchangeability was not easy to achieve. In theory, many parts were made to be interchangeable. But, the actual manufacturing of the parts was not nearly precise enough. Farmers and others had to do considerable fitting b4 the parts would work in equipment. Not until later in the century would machine tools be made to be truly interchangeable.