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The United States: Major Issues During 1815-1824
Examining the events of 1815 through 1824 in American history is a most interesting study indeed. It was a colorful era in our nation's past and it saw the occurrence of numerous events that shaped our nation in significant ways. Considering some of the major socio-political "sectional" events of the era, one can see how it is that the period could be considered as a time of "nationalism" for our country. Let us examine events such as the Panic of 1819, the Missouri Compromise, and issues regarding foreign policy and judicial review to gain some greater insight as to the overall character of our nation at the time and then consider how these events contributed to promoting a sense of nationalism in America.
The Panic of 1819, largely instigated by poor banking practices, was one factor that led to the "financial crisis" resulting from the drastic drop of world agricultural prices (247). Because farmers were unable to accrue the kind of revenue they relied on, many were therefore unable to "pay debts to local shopkeepers, wholesale merchants, and state banks, " (247). Over the next couple years, lawsuits and bankruptcies ensued; furthermore, the negative impacts of agricultural market collapse had shown that "artisans, yeomen, and merchants now depended on regional or national markets, " (247). Let us next consider the Missouri Compromise, which played a vital role in shaping the utilization of slavery in the growing Union.
The Missouri Compromise resulted in allowing Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state in 1821 after the 1820 statehood of Maine; this arrangement allowed for equal representation of senators from both "slave states" and "free states"; Furthermore, Missouri would be the only state north of the "Missouri Compromise Line" (located at 36 degrees 30' north latitude) in the Louisiana Purchase territory to be granted slave state status (276).
Moving onto the issue of foreign policy, one sees that the United States had already established foreign trade, particularly with Great Britain. Along with strong cotton exports, we also had a significant wheat and tobacco exports, which "remained important segments of international trade, " (Foreign Relations). Furthermore, the United States exported some manufactured goods to locales such as the West Indies, Canada, and Brazil. The British and Dutch invested in U.S. stocks and, in 1818, some 26 percent of our nation''s 99 million dollars of federal debt was "held overseas, " (Foreign Relations). During the 1820s, foreign investment increased, and Pennsylvania, Virginia, Louisiana, and Ohio, as New York had done in 1817, "sold state bonds for canal projects in London securities markets, " (Foreign Relations). Conversely, European interests had begun to increase investing in the United States cotton trade.
Considering matters of judicial review, one can see that, under the helm of Chief Justice John Marshall (described as having won the support of "nationalist-minded Republican judges"), the Supreme Court handed down a number of rulings that "shaped the Constitution." Among the cases considered during the period of 1815-1824 include the landmark McCulloch vs. Maryland (1819), Dartmouth College vs. Woodward (1819), and Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824). In the case of McCulloch vs. Maryland, matters concerning the Second National Bank were reviewed. The Maryland legislature, wanting to keep competition for its "state-chartered" banks, had decided to impose a tax of 15, 000 dollars per year upon "notes issued by the Baltimore branch office of the Second Bank, " (252). The Marshall Court ruled that the Second Bank was constitutional, as it was ''necessary and proper'" given the national government's responsibility to control currency and credit." Furthermore, Marshall asserted that a tax on the Second Bank would in effect "render the national government 'dependent on the states, ' an outcome that 'was not intended by the American people' who ratified the Constitution, " (252).
Other cases include Dartmouth College vs. Woodward, involving the private, royal-chartered Dartmouth College and the interest of the New Hampshire State legislature to convert the school into a public entity. Dartmouth College opposed this concept and brought the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the school based on precedent from the 1810 Fletcher vs. Peck decision, which ruled that contracts, including grants and charters, could not be "impaire[d]" by state laws (253). As for Gibbons vs. Ogden, the Supreme Court forbade a "monopoly" granted by the New York legislature to Aaron Ogden, who owned a Hudson River steamboat service. Based on the assertion that the Constitution gives "the federal government to regulate interstate commerce, " the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Thomas Gibbons, who possessed a federal license granting him rights to "transport people and goods between" New York and New Jersey (252).
Looking at the summarization of these issues, one can begin a drawing a clear picture as to how these "sectional" issues contributed to the concept of the nationalism that flourished between 1815-1824. Principally, despite the fact that each of the above stemmed from either regionally local or conceptionally confined matters, all of the aforementioned concerns ended up having national implications, and largely helped to cement our nation''s foundation both in law and in action and also resulted in our nation''s strengthening as a whole Union whose parts truly functioned in greater accord.
If "nationalism" is to be defined as Merriam Webster does ("loyalty and devotion to a nation; a nationalist movement or government"), than one could indeed assert that the extent to which this nation could be considered "nationalist" is both full and valid. That the Panic of 1819 had national impact on various markets, or that the slavery issues surrounding Missouri could bring Maine to statehood and affect the outcome of essentially all other Louisiana-purchase territory states that followed, or that foreign trade and diplomacy issues further enabled the United States to grow both in clout and economy, or that otherwise "local" legal matters would compel the U.S. Supreme Court to hand down rulings that would indeed affect the whole of the nation as well as embolden federal laws while curbing some state-level latitude (as evidenced in the outcomes of the aforementioned court cases) indicates, doubtlessly, nothing less than a movement toward unifying this nation ideologically and operationally.
Not only was the Supreme Court (thanks largely to the philosophy of Chief Justice Marshall) on board with securing the national government's broad stance in overseeing functions in every corner of this nation at the time, but foreign policy helped to build the whole of our nation's economy, a durable, poly-sided agreement had been made on deciding how the rather dodgy issue of slavery would play out in much of the West. Furthermore, the Panic of 1819 proved that the subsistence and survival of farmers, merchants, craftsmen, artists, and many others largely was interdependent and hinged upon the health of the whole of the nation's economy and even that of the world's (particularly when direct profit from trade abroad was concerned).
While we had signed the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution decades earlier, it was the period between 1815 and 1824 when, as certain events transpired, this nation's autonomy, stability, and composure were truly tested. While the Civil War would nearly wedge our nation apart four decades later, at the very least, the approach with which many of the aforementioned sectional issues were handled was to hopefully begin tying up many of ther metaphorical loose ends our nation still endured during the early nineteenth century. In such a way, our fledgling nation can be siad to have been on its way toward a more nationalistic approach, for both American individuals and the federal government looked to both the good of the whole nation as well as the stipulations of the Constitution to chart our course forward.
Works Cited:
Foreign Investment and Trade. 28 February 2007. http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/Fl-Ga/Foreign-Investment-and-Trade.html
Henretta, James A.; David Brody; and Lynn Dumenil. America: A Concise History. 3rd Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.
"The Market Revolution: 1815-1824." Making a Nation: The United States and its People. 2007. Pearson Prentice Hall. 28 February 2007. http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_boydston_makinganat_1/0, 6695, 109133-, 00.html>
By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez - I am a freelance writer who has contributed web content for numerous websites including Associated Content, The Fun Times Guide, and Edubook.Die Antwoord "The Money and the Power" @ Irving Plaza 2/11/12
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