FAITH, FISH ‘N FUR
Introduction to
AMERICAN EXPANSION
OLLI 2010
Manifest Destiny
OUTLINE – 1
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I. Purpose
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II. Details
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III Narratives
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A. National
B. Personal
IV. “Proper use of Soil”
V.
Imperial competition.
VI.
Your family stores.
PURPOSE
The Gift Outright
• The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia.
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.
• "... The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young ambition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday's the beginning hour."
Robert Frost:
• To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
"On the Pulse of Morning"
• History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
DETAILS
And questions.
Website.
Readings.
THE NARRATIVES
One: The American Dream.
Two: Manifest Destiny
THE AMERICAN DREAM
"The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for
everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the
European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and
mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in
which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately
capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of
birth or position.“ James Truslow Adams, 1931
MANIFEST DESTINY
Westward the Course of Empire: Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the
United States (often in the ethnically specific form of the "Anglo-Saxon race") was destined to expand
across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. It was used by
Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and
fell into disuse after the mid 1850s.
GO WEST YOUNG MAN
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Horace Greeley is often credited with a famous quote actually made by John B. L. Soule. The
quote first appeared as the title to the 1851, Terre Haute Express editorial written by Mr. Soule.
Along with being wrongly credited to Mr. Greeley, it has also often been misquoted. It was
originally written as:
•
•
Go West, Young Man!
• David Chuhran
"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."
Even though Horace Greeley was not the author of this famous quote, which he partially used in
his own 1865 editorial, he was nevertheless an important contributor to history. He launched
the New York Tribune in 1841 and used it as a personal platform for advancing his political
views. In one of his other more famous editorials, penned during the Civil War and titled, �The
Prayer of Twenty Millions�, he demanded slave emancipation earning him a personal reply
from Abraham Lincoln in August of 1862. Greeley was a Republican who hired Karl Marx as his
European correspondent during the1850�s. He was an advocate of western settlement as well
the voice for many social causes including labor rights.
•
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/chuhran020204.html
Capt John Smith
• “Here every man may
be master and owner
of his owne labour and
land…If he have
nothing but his hands,
he may…by industrie
quickly grow rich.” His
message attracted
millions of people in
the next four centuries.
The New World:
THE PROPER USE OF THE SOIL
Contact between First Nations and
Europeans.
Andrew Jackson
• In his, Message to Congress on
“Indian Removal,” 1830,
Jackson said, “What good man
would prefer a country covered
with forests and ranged by a
few thousand savages to our
extensive Republic, studded
with cities, towns, and
prosperous farms embellished
with all the improvements
which art can devise or industry
execute, occupied by more than
12,000,000 happy people, and
filled with all the blessings of
liberty, civilization and
religion?”
General George Washington
• Addressing the
Committee on Indian
Affairs of the Continental
Congress in Sept of
1783, Washington wrote
of how to “dispose of the
Land to the best
advantage; People the
Country progressively,”
He continued ….
the propriety of purchasing their Lands in preference to attempting to
drive them by force of arms out of their Country; which as we have
already experienced is like driving the Wild Beasts of the Forest which
will return us soon as the pursuit is at an end and fall perhaps on
those that are left there; when the gradual extension of our
Settlements will as certainly cause the Savage as the Wolf to retire;
both being beasts of prey tho' they differ in shape. In a word there is
nothing to be obtained by an Indian War but the Soil they live on and
this can be had by purchase at less expence, and without that
bloodshed, and those distresses which helpless Women and Children
are made partakers of in all kinds of disputes with them.
Washington to Congress on Indian removal
John Winthrop
• Reasons to be
Considered for
Justifying the
Undertakers of the
Intended Plantation in
New England (1629)
4. The whole earth is the Lord's garden, and he hath given it to the sons of
men with a general commission (Gen. i.28) to increase and multiply, and
replenish the earth and subdue it, which was again renewed to Noah; the end
is double and natural, that man might enjoy the fruits of the earth and God
might have his due glory from the creature. Why then should we stand here
striving for places of habitation, etc. (many men spending as much labor and
cost to recover or keep sometimes an acre or two of land as would procure
them many, and as good or better, in another country), and in the meantime
suffer a whole continent as fruitful and convenient for the use of man to lie
waste without any improvement?
Winthrop’s Fourth Reason
First Nations knew how to improve the land
INDIANS DO CULTIVATE THE SOIL!
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
Late summer is when we begin to harvest maize, or corn, our most important crop. Here, a
mother and daughter pick ripe ears of maize and put them into a woodsplint pack basket.
The mother makes the job easier by using a woven strap called a tumpline across her
forehead, so that her hands are free to pick the maize and the basket is always right where
she needs it. Women do most of the work in our gardens, but children, teenagers, and
elders help. Families and friends pitch in and work together. Harvesting isn't all work,
though; it's a time to chat, catch up on news, laugh, and tell stories. It's also an opportunity
for adults to teach children all about growing crops.
James Madison
1830
• The plea with the best aspect for
dispossessing Indians of the lands on
which they have lived, is that, by not
incorporating their labour and
associating fixed improvements with the
soil, they have not appropriated it to
themselves, nor made the destined use
of its capacity for increasing the number
and the enjoyments of the human race.
But this plea, whatever original force be
allowed it, is here repelled by the fact
that the Indians are making the very use
of that capacity which the plea requires,
enforced by the other fact that the
claimants themselves, by their counsels,
their exhortations, and their effective
aids, have promoted that happy change
in the condition of the Indians which is
now turned against them
GENDER ROLE CONFUSION
“only squaws and hedgehogs are
made to scratch the ground.”
Iroquois man
Battle of Sandusky
Women in battle
• By late afternoon, a number of squaws
had come forward and joined in the
affray in their own way. Beating on
kettles with sticks and screeching in
shrill, harsh voices, they added
significantly to the din in an effort to
further intimidate and demoralize the
Americans. When they happened
across dead Americans, most of them
already scalped, they took their
weapons and goods ands tripped
them of their clothing
European Imperial Competition.
Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish,
Russian, French & English
17th – 19th century European expansion
New Sweden
New Netherlands
1750
Paid and Taken
Imperial sources of US
Empires
Dates
States
British
1776-90
13 Colonies
Tribes
1787
Northwest Territory
Tribes
1795
Yazoo Land (AL, MS)
French
1803
Louisiana Purchase
Mexico
1819
Florida
Mexico
1846-47
Texas, California
Spanish
1819-90
Oregon Country
1867
Alaska
1898
Hawaii
Russia
Hawaii
Your Family’s Story:
"Go West, young man, and grow up
with the country."
MINE
GENEALOGY
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One of the ways participants can be involved is
through sharing their families settling,
immigrating and west ward movement. There
are many genealogy websites. I use the New
England Historic and Genealogical Society; the
Church of Latter-Day Saints includes a free
genealogy program on their website. If you get
really into and are ready to pay for data,
Ancestry.com is worth checking out. The Allen
County Library in Fort Wayne has an excellent
collection. The 9th and Vine Hamilton County
and Cincinnati Public Library has a great
genealogy section. They hold a beginning
genealogy program the first Saturday of each
month at 10:00 AM.