THE UNITED STATES TRANSFORMED, 1828 - 1848Social, Cultural, and Geographic Change and How the United States Maintained Its Identity Over Time

CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY The notion that Americans were an exceptional

people with a mission, endorsed by Providence, to control the continent was largely accepted in the 19th Century.

Americans considered themselves uniquely suited to this purpose, and accordingly, embraced expansionist policies.

If, however, the West was recognized as the future, there was also an acknowledgement, on the part of many Americans, that they lived during a time of transition, and rapid change. Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving’s famous character, is a reflection of period. Keeping up with the changes of the period would cause strain on the social fabric of America.

TRANSCENDENTALISM

Religious change was one of the most important aspects of the time period. Transcendentalism, which was a literary movement to a large degree, nevertheless offered that God and truth were alive in the universe.“So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect, — What is truth? and of the affections, — What is good? by yielding itself passive to the educated Will. ... Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit.”

NEW LITERATURE IN AMERICATo a large extend, writers like Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were inspired by the tenets of transcendentalism. Thoreau embraced the notions of Civil Disobedience and self-reliance in his writing. He lived “in the woods” in order to facilitate this experience.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

Setting many of his novels in the Western Frontier, Cooper was perhaps most famous for his novel The Pioneers, one of several works featuring Natty Bumppo, a self-made man and the incarnation of American exceptionalism at work.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNEThe Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s best known work, is the story of Hester Prynne, courageous enough to endure the judgment of society and personal shame associated with adultery in order to gain redemption. The novel explores the relationship between Americans and the organized church, and gives some insights into the manner in which women were treated in society as well.

THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOLIf American artists were not yet truly respected by the European standard setters, they were improving. While many studied in Europe to gain credentials, the Hudson River School was a local movement.

GEORGE CALEB BINGHAMGeorge Caleb Bingham, rather than creating overly dramatic works, focused on everyday Western scenes and everyday Western people on his works, which seem to celebrate the democratic spirit.

CULTURAL EXPRESSION OF THE WORKING CLASSThe lower classes in the United States drank. And they scrapped. And they resented the rich. Many of the entertainment the poor sought out included cheap liquor and high interest action – plays, sporting events.

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE – RESISTANCE AGAINST SLAVERY

Civil Disobedience as a form of resistance to authority was a major product of the system of enslavement in the South. African-American churches reinforced the righteousness of resistance via spirituals. Many aspects of the dress, hair styling, the song, and the religious practices of African-Americans during slavery seem to resemble traditions from African cultures, many of which Americans had been removed from for generations.

THE PERFECTIBILITY OF MANKIND AND UTOPIAN CULTURESUtopian groups like the New Harmony society of Indiana, the Brook Farm experiment of the transcendentalists, and the “free love” community of Oneida were devoted to the perfection of mankind; all failed. Even the innocuous Shakers, devoted to celibacy, could not maintain their community for long.

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENINGThe Second Great Awakening was an upsurge in religious fervor and enthusiasm for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which resulted in massive revivals and camp meetings in the West.Charles Grandison Finney was one of the most animated of the preachers who got behind the movement, using an “anxious bench” to show his crowds the most devoted of his converts. Loud shouting, fainting, convulsions, and hysterical crying out upon conversion were contagious.

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENINGThe individualism of American politics during this period was no doubt influenced by the Second Great Awakening. After all, if men could facilitate their own relationship with God in such a way as to obtain salvation, voting in a Presidential Election didn’t seem out of bounds…

Another consequence of the Second Great Awakening was the commitment many converts had to the separation of Church and State. Often, the most impassioned of proselytizers were committed to freedom of religious expression most zealously.

SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENTS: TEMPERANCEWhile groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League were not manifest at this point in US History, there were plenty of temperance crusaders at work. Public drunkenness, decreased productivity at work, and the notion that sobriety and salvation should go hand in hand were the new prevailing thoughts.

DOROTHEA DIX AND THE MENTALLY ILLDorothea Dix was devoted to the human treatment of the mentally ill. After discovering how heinously the mentally ill were treated, Dix committed her life to de-criminalizing mental illness. Through muckraking articles and publicity, Dix was able to convince Americans that treatment of the illness, and not punishment, was the just way to solve the problems of the ill.

HORACE MANN AND THE COMMON SCHOOL MOVEMENTAlthough he was motivated as much by his fear that immigrants would refuse to assimilate into American Society as he was the desire to provide school children with an education, Horace Mann’s Common School Movement laid the groundwork for public schools all across the United States. Anti-Catholic sentiments in the curriculum, however, resulted in a backlash from devoted Catholics, who founded parochial schools.

ABOLITIONISM AND WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISONWilliam Lloyd Garrison was the founder of The Liberator and the most outspoken of advocates for the banning of slavery in America. When he founded his newspaper in 1831, he was a trailblazer for the movement.

SILENCING DISSENTAlthough abolitionists were hardly the majority, there were anti-slavery movements in every state, including the South, during the 1830s. The Congress created a “gag rule” to table any petitions concerning the issue of the slave trade or slavery.

THE ORIGINS OF THE WOMAN’S MOVEMENTAngelina Grimke and her sister Sarah were outspoken advocates for women. Sarah penned the famous Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women.

THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTIONOrganized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton after they were denied entry to the London Anti-Slavery Convention, the Seneca Fall Convention produced the Declaration of Sentiments, the first document to demand woman’s suffrage, in 1848.

SLAVE REBELLIONS AND BACKLASHThe most violent of slaver rebellions in US History took place in Southampton Virginia in 1831. Over fifty white Virginians were killed. But once Turner and his conspirators were arrested and hanged, strict controls were placed on the movements of the enslaved.

No gun ownership or possession.No access to liquor.No public assemblies of variable size.No testifying in court.No ownership of private property.No unsupervised worship.No learning to read or write allowed.

THE ORIGINS OF THE WHIG PARTY AND MANIFEST DESTINY

PART II. Political Dissent During the Age of Jackson

HENRY CLAY AND DANIEL WEBSTER WERE THE LEADERS OF THE WHIGS

THE WHIG PARTYThe Whigs were a diverse group of Americans who were unified by their opposition to Andrew Jackson. To a large extent, Henry Clay’s American System became the Whig Party Platform; however, men like John C. Calhoun simply disagreed with much of what Clay had articulated. They simply viewed the Whig Party as the only legitimate opposition to Jackson, and the only feasible way to get him out of office.

THE WHIGSThe name comes from the loyal opposition to the King in England – they mockingly called Jackson “King Andrew” for his disregard of the Constitution and his overuse of the veto power.They believed the legislature should be the guiding agency of government. They encouraged a strong national bank, internal improvements, and cautious, well-planned expansion into the West. They favored a high tariff, the sale of lands for public revenue, and, generally, the sovereignty of the federal government over the states.

TIPPECANOE, AND TYLER, TOO!After Martin Van Buren’s disastrous four years in office after an economic panic in 1837, the Whigs captured the Presidency by running a war hero, William Henry Harrison, in the Election of 1840. Harrison, however, died in office just thirty days into his Presidency. He war replaced by John Tyler, who was a Whig in name only. As President, he would undermine every major goal of the party.

THE OREGON QUESTIONThe jointly occupied territory of Oregon was increasingly settled as the 1840s began. The United States and Great Britain had both established claims to the territory and resolved to jointly occupy the territory. But under John Tyler, the already strong sentiment that Oregon would be annexed by the United States swelled, and posturing over the territory began. In 1844, James K. Polk ran on an expansionist agenda, and used the slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!” to declare his intentions to the British. In 1846, the two nations would resolve the longstanding dispute by splitting the territory at the 49th Parallel.

THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXASTexas won it’s independence from Mexico with the signing of the coerced Treaty of Velasco. After defeating and capturing Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, Texas was granted it’s independence and the boundary was established at the Rio Grande River. (Santa Anna would claim that the treaty was never legitimate, however, because his liberty was contingent upon signing the treaty.)Although Texas sought to be annexed immediately, Northern Congressmen, and particularly the anti-slavery backbencher John Quincy Adams, filibustered in order to prevent the state from entering the Union.

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXASWhen John Tyler attempted to annex Texas in 1844, the Congress refused to ratify the treaty; however, after Polk’s victory on an expansionist platform in the Election of 1844, Texas was finally admitted by a joint resolution of the Congress.