The Rise of Nationalism & Sectionalism
Please pick up a copy of Focus #14: Sectionalism from the cart
Turn in Homework 7 to the box and take out Class Notes #14:
The Rise of Nationalism
Take the first five minutes of class to complete the warm-up
questions on Focus #14 (Quiz #3 is on Thursday)
We will:
*analyze how the War of 1812 and the “Era of
Good Feelings” contributed to rising
nationalism
*compare and contrast regional characteristics that
contributed to rising sectionalism
Warm-up Review for Quiz #3
1. Which amendment guarantees freedom of speech and press, among other rights?
2. Which amendment guarantees the “right to privacy?”
First Amendment
Fourth Amendment
3. What document served as the basis of our first (unsuccessful) national government?
Articles of Confederation
4. What is the nickname of the clause of the Constitution that gives the Congress the power to do what is “necessary
and proper” for the welfare of the country?
Elastic Clause
5. Which party – Federalist or Republican – would have liked and used that clause to its fullest?
Federalist Party
6. What legislation of 1798 threatened constitutional freedoms and helped win the White House and Congress for the
Republicans in 1800?
Alien & Sedition Acts
7. What was one major issue that contributed to the War of 1812?
*Seizure of American ships and impressment of sailors
*British blockade by 1811
*British support for Native Americans in the West
Nationalism on the Rise: “The Virginia Dynasty”
Following Jefferson’s victory over
John Adams in the “Revolution”
of 1800, three Virginians served as
president and helped to shape the
new nation for a quarter century
(1801-1825)
All three were DemocraticRepublicans, slave owners, and
lawyers. They were also good
friends who lived within a day’s
journey of each other in central
Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson
1801-1809
Greatest Event:
Louisiana Purchase
(1803)
James Madison
1809-1817
Greatest Event:
War of 1812
(1812-15)
James Monroe
1817-1825
Greatest Event:
Monroe Doctrine
(1823)
American Neutrality Under Threat
• With the start of the Napoleonic Wars in 1805, British and
French naval vessels resumed impressment of American
sailors and seizure of cargoes bound for enemy ports
• Jefferson’s response was the ill-advised Embargo Act (1807)
that halted all trade with foreign nations in the expectation that
Britain and France would be compelled to desist and agree to
negotiate with the U.S. (they didn’t and New England suffered
an economic depression, angering the Federalist opposition)
• James Madison (Jefferson’s hand-picked successor) signed
Macon’s Bill #2 (1810) stating that, if either Britain or France
agreed to respect American rights, the U.S. would cut off trade
with the other country
• France agreed and the U.S. cut off trade with Britain in 1811,
resulting in a British blockade of U.S. ports
The War Hawks
• Meanwhile, back on the trans-Appalachian
frontier, Native Americans (led by such
tribes as the Shawnee and Creek), resisted
westward settlement by American pioneers
• Britain supplied the Shawnee leader,
Tecumseh, with money and weapons
• Newly-elected “War Hawks” in Congress,
such as Henry Clay of Kentucky and John
C. Calhoun of South Carolina, called for an
invasion of Canada to break the back of the
British-Native American alliance
• Congress declared war on Britain on June
18, 1812; Madison called up the army
The War of 1812 (1813, 1814, & 1815)
http://10.120.2.41/SAFARI/montage/play.php?keyindex=121612&location=005849&chapterskeyindex=401463&filetypeid=7
“Mr. Madison’s War” (as the Federalists called it) was
a comedy of errors that almost resulted in defeat:
1. Attempted invasions of Canada failed miserably
2. Tecumseh wreaked havoc on the Northwest frontier,
until defeated by General Harrison in late 1813
3. British expeditionary force occupied Washington and
burned the White House and the Capitol (1814)
Bright Spots (we won! - a nearly-fatal military draw):
1. “The Star-Spangled Banner” (F. Scott Key)
2. Andrew Jackson’s defeat of the Creek and his
victory over the British at New Orleans after the
war formally ended (January 1815)
3. Treaty of Ghent (1814) secured British recognition
of American interests and ended the war “status quo
ante” – no winner, no loser
Political Nationalism:
“The Era of Good Feelings”
• Nationalism increased as a result of “victory” in
the War of 1812 and the downfall of the
Federalists after the Hartford Convention (1814),
where some radical Federalists proposed peace
with Britain and secession from the Union
• James Monroe won overwhelming electoral
college and popular majorities in the elections of
1816 and 1820
• Effective one-party rule resulted and lasted
through Monroe’s presidency (1817-1825)
• Even former New England Federalists supported
Monroe – his visit to New England in 1817
inspired the phrase “Era of Good Feelings”
Monroe’s Elections: 1816, 1820
Monroe won by some of the
biggest electoral college
totals in U.S. political
history; Federalist Party did
not even exist by 1820
Note the addition of five new
states between 1816 and 1820;
reflects the growth of the U.S.
Economic Nationalism
• After the War of 1812, Americans
quickly spread west, helped by a
“Transportation Revolution” that
encouraged the building of roads
and canals to connect east and west
(e.g. Erie Canal and National Road)
• In 1816, Henry Clay of Kentucky
pushed for passage in Congress of
the Hamiltonian “American
system,” sought to encourage
economic growth through:
1. federal support for infrastructure
2. protective tariffs
3. a new central bank (Second Bank
of the United States)
Henry
Clay of
Kentucky
Judicial Nationalism:
The Marshall Court
*Chief Justice John Marshall led the Supreme Court
for 35 years after his 1801 appointment by President
John Adams; checked the power of the Republicans
*Marshall’s Federalist views helped to establish the
power of the Court as an independent branch of
government and asserted the power of the federal
government over the states
Marbury v. Madison (1803): established the Court’s
power of judicial review – the ability of the Court to
declare a law or action of the Congress and/or
President as unconstitutional
Significant Marshall Court Cases
• Other decisions of the Marshall Court supported
Hamiltonian views on the economy, such as the
Court’s defense of the Second Bank of the United
States in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), Marshall
upheld the right of the Bank to exist (under the
elastic clause) and confirmed that national law is
supreme to state law (Maryland couldn’t tax the
Bank’s transactions)
• In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), Marshall
ruled that the state of New Hampshire could not
take over private Dartmouth College, thus
supporting the rights of private corporations
• In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), Marshall ruled that only
Congress had the right to regulate interstate trade
under the power of the commerce clause
America’s “victory”
in the War of 1812
was followed by
several diplomatic
agreements that
secured the country’s
borders:
*Rush-Bagot Treaty
(1816): U.S./Britain
demilitarize the
Great Lakes
*British-American
Convention (1818)
established the
northern border at
the 49th parallel
*Adams-Onis Treaty
(1819): with Spain,
gave Florida to the
U.S. and established a
clear southwestern
border
Diplomatic
Nationalism
The Monroe Doctrine
• By 1823, many colonies in Latin
America had won their
independence from Spain and
Portugal
• The U.S. wanted to be sure that
European powers did not
interfere in the affairs of these
new countries, which would
make great trading partners for
the U.S.
• President Monroe issued the
Monroe Doctrine to declare the
Western Hemisphere “off-limits”
to European powers and pledged
that the U.S. would stay out of
European conflicts; this policy
became the cornerstone of U.S.
foreign policy
The Missouri Compromise
• In 1820, Missouri territory petitioned to enter the Union as a
slave state; Northern political resistance to this threatened to
create a North-South sectional divide
• Henry Clay hammered out an agreement in Congress whereby
Missouri would be permitted to enter as a slave state and Maine
would enter as a free state (to keep the balance between North
and South in the U.S. Senate)
• The Compromise deal also identified the southern border of
Missouri as the dividing line between slave and free territory
west of the Mississippi River (with the exception of Missouri)
What is the
geographic
identification
of the line
that divides
slave and free
territory as a
result of the
compromise?
How many slave
and free states
made up the
Union after the
compromise in
1821? Why was
this balance so
important?
The Expanding American Republic by 1821
secure borders and sectional balance
American Regions
• By the 1820s, three distinct regions were
emerging – North, South, and West
• Working with your table team, cut out
and match the characteristics and
primary sources provided with the
correct regions
• The youngest person at your table can
pick up glue sticks and 2 pairs of scissors
for your table
• When you finish Part II, work together to
complete the chart for Part III based on
the region assigned to you
The North
Senator Daniel
Webster of
Massachusetts,
one of America’s
greatest orators
*growing industry (especially textile
mills in New England)
*first factories and mass production
*urbanization (ex: New York City)
*increasing immigration (especially
from Germany and Ireland)
*reform movements to better society,
including abolition movements
*support for strong national
government, including the
“American system”
* *benefits from the Transportation
Revolution, especially the Erie
Canal and sale of manufactures
*Daniel Webster of Massachusetts
emerged as a leading spokesman
of this region
Left: Lowell Textile Mills, c. 1840
One of the first factory towns
created by Francis Lowell in
Massachusetts – employed
large numbers of young women
recruited from throughout New
England
Right: The Five Points District,
c. 1850, on New York’s Lower
East Side – heavily populated
by immigrants, especially the
Irish, who came to America in
great numbers as a result of
the Irish Potato Famine
The South
*support for states’ rights and a weak
national government
*commitment to the continuation and
expansion of slavery
*the growth of “King Cotton” as the
major money maker , especially
after Eli Whitney’s invention of
the cotton gin in 1793
*a hierarchical society, in which
wealthy planters dominated
society and politics
*blessed with navigable rivers that
helped to ease trade, especially
export of cotton
*John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
emerged as the major
spokesman
John C.
Calhoun
of South
Carolina
Left: Depiction of a
Mississippi cotton
plantation, c. 1850;
cotton became the
leading cash crop of
the South in the
early 1800s thanks
to Eli Whitney’s
invention of the
cotton gin in 1793
Right: English depiction of a
Richmond, Virginia slave auction in
1856; Virginia became one of the
largest domestic slave markets in
America by the 1850s
The West
Senator
Henry
Clay of
Kentucky
(c. 1850)
• This region at first included the entire
Trans-Appalachian region but by the
1850s became associated with the
Midwestern and Far Western states and
territories
• The West’s interests were based on:
*westward settlement by pioneers
*a strong sense of independence and
self-reliance
*agricultural boom due to the growing
demand for grain to feed Americans
*benefits from the Transportation
Revolution and rise of national
markets connecting east and west
*Henry Clay of Kentucky emerged as
the spokesman for this region – a
strong nationalist and also a slave
owner
Right: An Indiana
pioneer homestead
as it would have
appeared in the
1820s/1830s; the
Midwest opened up
to settlement after
U.S. victory over
Native Americans in
the War of 1812
Left: Depiction of a keel boat on
the Ohio River in the 1830s,
river-going trade on the major
rivers of the West was essential
to farmers who needed to get
their crops to market; canals
eventually connected Eastern
and Western markets
Before we leave…
• Remember to study for Quiz #3 on material
from Chapters 5 and 6 (1783-1815); the quiz
will be in our next class session.
• Complete Homework 7 if you have not done
so already and work ahead on Homework 8
(due next Monday, November 25).