Rise of the New West, 1819-1829 | Page 4

the last remnants of colonial
dependence. The Revolution had not fully severed the United States

from the European state system; but now the United States attained
complete independence and asserted its predominance in the western
continent. It was in this period that the nation strengthened its hold on
the Gulf of Mexico by the acquisition of Florida, recognized the
independence of the revolting Spanish-American colonies, and took the
leadership of the free sisterhood of the New World under the terms of
the Monroe Doctrine.
The joyous outburst of nationalism which at first succeeded the
dissensions of the period of war revealed itself in measures passed in
Congress, under the leadership of Calhoun and Clay; it spoke clearly in
the decisions of Judge Marshall; and in the lofty tone of condemnation
with which the country as a whole reproached New England for the
sectionalism exhibited in the Hartford Convention. [Footnote: Babcock,
Am. Nationality (Am. Nation, XIII.), chaps, ix., xviii.; Gallatin,
Writings, I., 700.]
It was not only in the field of foreign relations, in an aroused national
sentiment, and in a realization that the future of the country lay in the
development of its own resources that America gave evidence of
fundamental change. In the industrial field transportation was
revolutionized by the introduction of the steamboat and by the
development of canals and turnpikes. The factory system, nourished by
the restrictions of the embargo and the war, rapidly developed until
American manufactures became an interest which, in political
importance, outweighed the old industries of shipping and foreign
commerce. The expansion of cotton-planting transformed the energies
of the south, extended her activity into the newer regions of the Gulf,
and gave a new life to the decaying institution of slavery.
From all the older sections, but especially from the south and its
colonies in Kentucky and Tennessee, a flood of colonists was spreading
along the waters of the west. In the Mississippi Valley the forests were
falling before the blows of the pioneers, cities were developing where
clearings had just let in the light of day, and new commonwealths were
seeking outlets for their surplus and rising to industrial and political
power. It is this vast development of the internal resources of the

United States, the "Rise of the New West," that gives the tone to the
period. "The peace," wrote Webster in later years, "brought about an
entirely new and a most interesting state of things; it opened to us other
prospects and suggested other duties. We ourselves were changed, and
the whole world was changed. . . . Other nations would produce for
themselves, and carry for themselves, and manufacture for themselves,
to the full extent of their abilities. The crops of our plains would no
longer sustain European armies, nor our ships longer supply those
whom war had rendered unable to supply themselves. It was obvious,
that, under these circumstances, the country would begin to survey
itself, and to estimate its own capacity of improvement." [Footnote:
Webster, Writings (National ed.), VI., 28.]
These very forces of economic transformation were soon followed by a
distinct reaction against the spirit of nationalism and consolidation
which had flamed out at the close of the War of 1812. This was shown,
not only in protests against the loose-construction tendencies of
Congress, and in denunciations of the decisions of the great
chief-justice, but more significantly in the tendency of the separate
geographical divisions of the country to follow their own interests and
to make combinations with one another on this basis.
From one point of view the United States, even in this day of its youth,
was more like an empire than a nation. Sectionalism had been
fundamental in American history before the period which we have
reached. The vast physiographic provinces of the country formed the
basis for the development of natural economic and social areas,
comparable in their size, industrial resources, and spirit, to nations of
the Old World. In our period these sections underwent striking
transformations, and engaged, under new conditions, in the old struggle
for power. Their leaders, changing their attitude towards public
questions as the economic conditions of their sections changed, were
obliged not only to adjust themselves to the interests of the sections
which they represented, but also, if they would achieve a national
career, to make effective combinations with other sections. [Footnote:
Turner. "Problems of American History," in Congress of Arts and
Sciences, St. Louis, II.]

This gives the clew to the decade. Underneath the superficial calm of
the "Era of Good Feeling," and in contradiction to the apparent
absorption of all parties into one, there were arising new issues, new
party formations, and some of the most profound changes in the history
of American evolution.
The men of the time were not unaware of these tendencies. Writing in
1823,