APUSH Chapter 8
Varieties of American Nationalism
How the United States gained national pride, how the west took
shape, and why people were “feeling good” about politics.
Summary
After the War of 1812 a new spirit of nationalism and expansion emerged and the nation led by a president
determined to heal old wounds embarked on an "era of good feelings." Unfortunately there were many who
did not feel very good for very long. During the 1820s two forces one divisive and the other unifying shaped
American life and politics. The first appeared during the Missouri debates which despite overtones that
resembled the earlier Federalist-Republican clashes brought the issue of slavery and its expansion to the
forefront. The immediate question-which section (North or South) would control the Senate-was dealt with
through the Missouri Compromise but the underlying problem was more difficult to resolve. What the debates
revealed was that some in the nation saw the addition of slave states (not just western states but slave states)
as a threat. Southern politicians it was apparent had come to equate the expansion of slavery with the
expansion of their own political philosophy (and power). How true these beliefs were is not the issue. What is
important is that they were believed and as the years passed more would come to share these convictions.
Countering this divisive force was the spirit of nationalism and the emergence of two parties-both with a
national following. These developments seemed to overshadow sectional concerns and with the election of
Andrew Jackson one of the most popular political figures since George Washington the nation seemed more
concerned with unity than division. How long this was to last, was another question.
Chapter Themes
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
American Pride begins to take shape
The American West begins to take shape
Political Unity
Sectionalism
Andrew Jackson—a new kind of leader
Chapter Objectives—Analysis you must master
1. The effects of the War of 1812 on banking, shipping, farming, industry and transportation.
2. The westward expansion after the War of 1812 and its relation to the growing interest in internal
improvements.
3. The settlement patterns that resulted from this postwar westward expansion.
4. The causes of the Panic of 1819 & the effects of the subsequent depression on politics & the
economy.
5. The arguments advanced by the North and South during the debates over the admission of Missouri
and how they influenced sectional attitudes.
6. The reasons why President J. Monroe announced his "doctrine" in 1823 and its impact on
international relations.
7. Presidential politics in the "era of good feelings” and how they altered the political system.
8. The frustrations experienced by John Quincy Adams during his term as president.
9. The reasons why Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 and the significance of his victory.
Terms—people, places, events, and ideas you should know
James Madison
Treaty of Ghent
Rush Bagot
Agreement
Bank of the
United States
Second Back of
the United States
American Textile
Industry
Francis Cabot
Lowell
1816 Protective
Tariff
Government
Funded Roads
National Road
Steamboats
Internal
Improvements
Vetoing of
Internal
Improvements
Great Migrations
The Factory
System
The Plantation
System
Astor’s American
Fur Company
Market Economy
Stephen Long’s
Expedition
James Monroe
First Party
System
The Virginia
Dynasty
Monroe’s
Goodwill Tour
John Quincy
Adams
Seminole War
Adams-Onis
Treaty
Panic of 1819
Tallmadge
Amendment
Missouri
Compromise
John Marshall
Fletcher v. Peck
Dartmouth
College v.
Woodward
McCulloch v.
Maryland
Implied Powers
Federal Primacy
Johnson v.
McIntosh
Worcester v.
Georgia
Latin American
Revolution
Monroe Doctrine
Caucus System
The Corrupt
Bargain
Election of 1824
Tariff of
Abominations
Andrew Jackson
The Fur Trade
A historian’s description of the American West’s fur trade and the men it would create.
In Virgin Land, Henry Nash Smith explores the legendary image of the mountain men that led easterns
to believe that they were lone wanderers prowling the western desert seeking adventure and intrique.
Although this was the popular conception, it was simply not the case. These men were very rough,
adverturous businessmen, and they needed an economic framework, however loose and transient, to
support their occupation. The furtrade and the companies that resulted from it provided the fiscal support
and stability that the mountain men needed to crisscross the continent in search of adventure and profit.
There were essentially two realms of trade: The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade and the Upper Missouri.
The two regions had different circumstances and hence very different methods of operating business.
The Upper Missouri trade relied on the Indian tribes to bring their buffalo skins to trading posts. There,
the robes were bought and sent to St. Louis via the river.
The Rocky Mountain Trapping system was quite different. In the Rockies, beaver was the fur of choice.
It was trapped mainly by the Euro-American mountain men traveling in company groups. The pelts were
sold at a yearly rendezvous where the buyers would travel overland to the designated site and then haul
the furs via mule train and wagon to the city to be sold. This system allowed the mountain men to stay in
the wilderness year round, as they did not have to travel to a trading post to sell their catch. These two
systems were not sealed from one another. Depending on the terrain, available capital, and the attitude
of the nearby Indian tribes, a fur company would often use both the rendezvous system and trading
posts.
The first of the fur giants was the British Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670. The
Hudson's Bay Company dominated the trade of Northern Canada and the Oregon territory well into the
19th Century. The first substantial American venture was the Pacific Fur Company started by John
Jacob Astor in 1810. Astor's dream was to create a corporation that covered all of the West, starting with
a fort at the mouth of the Columbia River. He sent one group by ship to build the fort and another by
land to establish a useable overland route. The fort "Astoria" was erected as planned and the overland
group arrived in 1811. The French North West Company was already trapping in the vicinity and
provided keen competition for Astor. With the coming threat of British invasion during the War of 1812,
Astor sold his fort to the North West Company for a fraction of its cost. The British did invade and take
over the fort, renaming it Fort George. After the United States won the war, the post was returned to
America, but not to Astor.
The American fur trade was dormant from 1814 to 1819 due to the economic and political
turmoil caused by the War of 1812. The loss of Astoria and trouble with the Blackfeet Indians on the
Missouri also dealt a blow to the trade. Manuel Lisa did manage to run the Missouri Fur Company from
about 1807 to 1820; this group built Fort Raymond in 1807 and trapped and traded with the Indians on
the Upper Missouri. In 1822, John Jacob Astor again made a debut into the fur industry by establishing
the Western department of the American Fur Company in St. Louis. A year earlier, the Hudson's Bay
Company and North West Company had merged, resulting in British dominance of the Columbia River.
Also in 1822, William Henry Ashley advertised for "one hundred young men to ascend the Missouri
River to its source, there to be employed for one, two or three years." This marked the beginning of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Though it would change hands several times, this company would
innovate the industry by creating the "free trapper system" and the rendezvous.
Both Astor's new American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company would be successful
in creating the Rocky Mountain trading system. As both companies branched out, they would eventually
compete for control of the Upper Missouri trade. The stiff competition ended with the American
Company's collapse in 1834. This was just as well. By 1834, the decline in demand for beaver hats (the
fashion had turned to silk) combined with an increasing scarcity of resources (the beaver had been
nearly trapped out) to weaken the market. In the early 1830's, beaver was worth almost $6/lb in
Philadelphia; by 1843 the price was not even $3/lb.
The fur companies were a central force in the lives of the mountain men. They provided the economic
system and often the initial capital that was necessary to the trapper's life. But if the fur giants helped the
trapper operate, they also controlled him. The mountain man was a slave to the fur market created by the
competition between companies. The amount of control a company had over a trapper depended on what
contract for his services he was under. "Engages" were men that were supplied and salaried by the
company. The furs which they collected were all company property. "Skin Trappers" or "Share
Croppers" were outfitted by the company in exchange for a set share of the pelts at the end of the season.
The "free-trapper" was at the top of this social pyramid. He was beholden to no company. He outfitted
himself and trapped with whom and where he pleased. In the edited words of mountain man Joe Meek:
"They prided themselves on their hardihood and courage, even on their
recklessness and profligracy. Each claimed to own the best horse; to have
had the wildest adventure; to have made the most narrow escapes; to
have killed the greatest number of bears and indians; to be the greatest
favorite with the indian belles, the greatest consumer of alcohol, and to
have the most money to spend."
The free trapper did pay a high price for his freedom as he was at the
whim of market fluctuations and he was sometimes still at the mercy of a
company to give him credit at the end of a bad year.
All told, the typical trapper, though he might have a good season, or a
good year, never got out of debt. It was the company owners and
suppliers back in St. Louis that reaped the economic harvest of the fur
trade.
"I defy the annals of chivalry to furnish the record of a life more wild and perilous than that
of a Rocky Mountain trapper." -Francis Parkmam
The Stuff of Legends:
The Ways of the Mountain Men
The legends and feats of the mountain men have persisted largely because there was a lot of truth to the
tales that were told. The life of the mountain man was rough, and one that brought him face to face with
death on a regular basis--sometimes through the slow agony of starvation, dehydration, burning heat, or
freezing cold and sometimes by the surprise attack of animal or Indian.
The mountain man's life was ruled not by the calendar or the clock but by the
climate and seasons. In fall and spring, the men would trap. The start of the
season and its length were dictated by the weather. The spring hunt was
usually the most profitable, with the pelts still having their winter thickness.
Spring season would last until the pelt quality became low. In July, the
groups of mountain men and the company suppliers would gather at the
summer rendezvous. There, the furs were sold, supplies were bought and
company trappers were divided into parties and delegated to various hunting
grounds.
The tradition of the rendezvous was started by General William Ashley's
men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1825. What began as a
practical gathering to exchange pelts for supplies and reorganize trapping
units evolved into a month long carnival in the middle of the wilderness. The gathering was not confined
to trappers, and attracted women and children, Indians, French Canadians, and travelers. Mountain man
James Beckworth described the festivities as a scene of "mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading,
running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of extravagances that
white men or Indians could invent." An easterner gave his view: "mountain companies are all assembled
on this season and make as crazy a set of men I ever saw." There were horse races, running races, target
shooting and gambling. Whiskey drinking accompanied all of them.
After rendezvous, the men headed off to their fall trapping grounds. Contrary to the common image of
the lonely trapper, the mountain men usually traveled in brigades of 40 to 60, including camp tenders
and meat hunters. From the brigade base camps, they would fan out to trap in parties of two or three. It
was then that the trappers were most vulnerable to Indian attack. Indians were a constant threat to the
trappers, and confrontation was common. The Blackfeet were by far the most feared, but the Arikaras
and Comaches were also to be avoided. The Shoshone, Crows and Mandans were usually friendly,
however, trust between trapper and native was always tenuous. Once the beaver were trapped, they were
skinned immediately, allowed to dry, and then folded in half, fur to the inside. Beaver pelts, unlike
buffalo robes, were compact, light and very portable. This was essential, as the pelts had to be hauled to
rendezvous for trade. It is estimated that 1,000 trappers roamed the American West in this manner from
1820 to 1830, the heyday of the Rocky Mountain fur trade.
In November the streams froze, and the trapper, like his respected nemesis the grizzly bear, went into
hibernation. Trapping continued only if the fall had been remarkably poor, or if they were in need of
food. Life in the winter camp could be easy or difficult, depending on the weather and availability of
food. The greatest enemy was quite often boredom. As at rendezvous, the motley group would have
physical contests, play cards, checkers and dominos, tell stories, sing songs and read. Many trappers
exchanged well worn books and still others learned to read during the long wait for spring, when they
could go out and trap once again. The equipment of the mountain man was sparse and well used.
Osbourne Russell provides an apt description of the typical mountain man from one who was there.
"A Trappers equipment in such cases is generally; one horse or mule upon which is placed...a riding
Saddle and bridle a sack containing six Beaver traps a blanket with an extra pair of Moccasins his
powder horn and bullet pouch with a belt to which is attached a butcher Knife a small wooden box
containing bait for Beaver a Tobacco sack with a pipe and implements for making fire with sometimes a
hatchet fastened to the Pommel of his saddle his personal dress is a flannel or cotton shirt (if he is
fortunate to obtain one, if not Antelope skin answers the purpose of over and under shirt) a pair of
leather breeches with Blanket or smoked Buffalo skin, leggings, a coat made of Blanket or Buffalo robe
a hat or Cap of wool, Buffalo or Otter skin his hose are pieces of Blanket lapped round his feet which
are covered with a pair of Moccasins made of Dressed Deer Elk or Buffalo skins with his long hair
falling loosely over his shoulders complete the uniform."
Jedediah Smith
1799-1831
"I wanted to be the first to view a country on which the eyes of a white man had never gazed and
to follow the course of rivers that run through a new land."
At the age of 22, Jedediah Smith signed on with the expedition of General William Ashley to travel to
the Upper Missouri and trap beaver. A year later, he led another of Ashley's groups deep into the central
Rockies where he rediscovered the forgotten South Pass, the key to the settlement of Oregon and
California.
The wandering spirit was planted deep in the heart of Jedediah Smith. Born January 6th, 1799, Smith's
family moved several times in an effort to stay on the edge of the growing frontier boundary. According
to family tradition, young Jedediah read Biddle's 1814 edition of the Lewis and Clark journals and was
set on living a life in the wilderness.
In his lifetime, Smith would travel more extensively in unknown territory than any other single
mountain man. He traveled in the central Rockies, then down to Arizona, across the Mojave Desert
and into California making him the first American to travel overland to California through the
southwest. In a most amazing journey, he also came back from California across the desert of the
Great Basin. The heat became so unbearable Smith and his men had to bury themselves in sand to
keep cool.
Though he was an accomplished outdoorsman, Smith did not fit the stereotype of the typical mountain
man. He never drank, never used tobacco, never boasted and was rarely humorous. Another rare quality
was his strident faith. Smith was very religious and often prayed and meditated. When fellow trapper
John Gardner died, Smith gave the eulogy, as recorded by expedition member Hugh Glass:
"Mr. Smith, a young man of our company made a powerful prayer which moved us all greatly and I am
persuaded John died in peace."
Smith proved himself a leader quickly on the trail. On his second expedition, he was
attacked by a grizzly bear. The bear came out of the thicket and mauled Smith violently,
throwing him to the ground, smashing his ribs and literally ripping off his scalp. When
the attack was over, the scalp was hanging on to his head by an ear. Smith instructed Jim
Clyman to sew it back on. Clyman did the best he could, but thought nothing could be
done for the severed ear. Smith insisted that he try. According to Clyman,
"I put my needle sticking it through and through and over and over laying the lacerated parts together as
nice as I could with my hands."
After two weeks of rest, Smith resumed his duty as captain of the party.
In 1830, Smith, rattled over the death of his mother and his neglect of family duty, decided he had had
enough of mountain life. He purchased a farm and townhouse, complete with servants, in St. Louis.
However, he would have to make one more fated trip into the wilds of the Southwest. When Smith sold
his shares in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company the year before, he had agreed to help procure supplies
for the subsequent owners. He left in the spring of 1831 and while looking for water on the Santa Fe
Trail, he was killed by Comanche warriors.
Most of Smith's knowledge died with him. His plans to edit and publish his journals and have a master
map constructed were never realized. Nevertheless, Smith was satisfied with his wilderness career.
"I started into the mountains, with the determination of becoming a first-rate hunter, of making myself
thoroughly acquainted with the character and habits of the Indians, of tracing out the sources of the
Columbia River and following it to its mouth; and of making the whole profitable to me, and I have
perfectly succeeded."
James Bridger
1804-1881
James Bridger (Old Gabe) was in good company when he signed on with Hugh Glass, Jedediah Smith,
and Thomas Fitzpatrick to be a member of General Ashley's Upper Missouri expedition. At the age of
17, he was the youngest member of the expedition. This was beginning of a long and colorful career in
the mountains for Jim Bridger.
Bridger rose to the status of the quintessential mountain man. Biographer Grenville Dodge described
him as:
"a very companionable man. In person he was over six feet tall, spare, straight as an arrow, agile,
rawboned and of powerful frame, eyes gray, hair brown and abundant even in old age, expression mild
and manners agreeable. He was hospitable and generous, and was always trusted and respected."
Bridger had a remarkable sense of humor and he especially loved to shock tenderfeet and easterners with
his tall tales. He would tell of glass mountains, "peetrified" birds singing "peetrified" songs, and
reminisce about the days when Pikes Peak was just a hole in the ground. These stories were related in
such a serious manner as to fool even skeptics into believing them, making Jim's laughter all the louder
when his ruse was revealed.
All of these attributes served Bridger well, and made him adaptable to just about every situation he
found himself in. By the end of his lifetime, Bridger could claim the titles of trapper, trader, guide,
merchant, Indian interpreter and army officer.
After working for Ashley, Bridger trapped the Rocky Mountains with various companies and
partnerships. Renowned by his peers, Bridger was an able brigade leader and an
excellent trapper. Year after year he was able to avoid Indian attack and turn a
profit from his trapping.
One particular discovery early on in Bridger's career brought him lasting
celebrity. To settle a bet in the winter camp of his trapping party of 1824, Bridger
set out to find the exact course of the Bear River from the Cache Valley. He
returned and reported that it emptied into a vast lake of salt water. The men were
convinced he had found an arm of the Pacific Ocean. In reality, he was the first
white man to view The Great Salt Lake.
Bridger's most important discovery would come years later, in 1850. Captain
Howard Stanbury stopped at Fort Bridger and inquired about the possibility of a
shorter route across the Rockies than the South Pass. Bridger guided him through
a pass that ran south from the Great Basin. This pass would soon be rightfully
called Bridger's Pass and would be the route for overland mail, The Union Pacific Railroad line and
finally Interstate 80.
Although he would remain a trapper, Bridger easily turned to other means of income after the softening
of the beaver market in the 1840's. In the summer of 1841, Bridger and Henry Fraeb began building a
crude structure on the west bank of the Green River. They intended it as a trapping and trading base.
Later that summer, the first wagon load of overland missionaries and emigrants rolled up and Fort
Bridger was born. Jim did not recognize the significance of that moment, but in the coming years he
realized the potential of his crude building. Years later he described it:
"I have established a small store, with a Black Smith Shop, and a supply of Iron on the road of the
Emigrants on Black's fork Green River, which promises fairly, they in coming out are generally well
supplied with money, but by the time they get there are in want of all kinds of supplies. Horses,
Provisions, Smith work &c brings ready Cash from them and should I receive the goods hereby ordered
will do a considerable business in that way with them. The same establishment trades with the Indians in
the neighborhood, who have mostly a good number of Beaver amongst them."
The Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was expressed during Pres. Monroe's 7th annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823
. . . At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the minister of the Emperor
residing here, a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States
at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two
nations on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal has been made by His Imperial
Majesty to the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The Government of
the United States has been desirous by this friendly proceeding of manifesting the great value which
they have invariably attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude to cultivate the best
understanding with his Government. In the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the
arrangements by which they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a
principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American
continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. . .
It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great effort was then making in Spain and
Portugal to improve the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be
conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the results have been so
far very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which
we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and
interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of
the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European
powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our
policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or
make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more
immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial
observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of
America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the
defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured
by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled
felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations
existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt
on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and
safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and
shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it,
and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we
could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other
manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an
unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new Governments and
Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and
shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgement of the competent
authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States
indispensable to their security.
The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no
stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any
principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To
what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all
independent powers whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote,
and surely none of them more so than the United States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was
adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe,
nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers;
to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations
with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the
just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those continents
circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different.
It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either
continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern
brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore,
that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the comparative
strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments, and their distance from each other, it
must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave
the parties to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course. . . .