a dose of patriotism: political history of the united states (part 1)

Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851. Emanuel Leutze.

I love studying history ~ understanding the slow evolution of human events and experiences, up until our moment in the present. History gives us a perspective outside of the narrow confines of the present, as well as our individualistic perspective of the past. Architectural history was my favorite topic of study at Cornell. I also love American History, however short it comparably is compared to other national histories (like England or China), because it generally reads like a great adventure novel. Combining the two studies together, I wish to create a fuller picture of the political history of America, and how it is all connected to create the country we see today.

I am inspired by my Thanksgiving reading into Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals", covering Lincoln's cabinet during the Civil War (roughly 1860 to 1864), and "The Bully Pulpit, charting the early Progressive Era under presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft (1900 to 1912). I am considering these divisions partly based on the history of political parties in the United States, as well as conventional historical periodization. 

Since the founding of the country, there has been constant tension between progressives and conservatives, regarding the role of the State, the meaning of democracy, and the pace of change in the nation. The Federalists versus the Jeffersonian Republicans, the abolitionists versus slaveholders, and business interests versus labor advocates --- nobody seems to agree on much, particularly when the stakes are high (Early Republic, Civil War, and Industrialization). A general trend seems to be "one step forward, two steps back", in almost all arenas of society, from dealing with slavery and race, to promoting suffrage and democracy, to regulating commerce. America relies on its laws and institutions as a fair arbiter and "single source of truth", to resolve its most intractable conflicts and problems. Many structural problems take decades of effort to legislate, through the incessant efforts of progressives (who celebrate change), and then decades to implement, through the slow and steady hand of conservatives (who respect order).  

Foundations of the Republic (1789 - 1824)

The first decades of the United States were chiefly concerned with national survival and executing the principles of the Constitution. Under the leadership of Revolutionary War veterans and the nation's founders, from Washington to Monroe, the former thirteen colonies grew steadily as an agrarian republic. In the 1790's, political disputes over the size and role of federal government led to the creation of the first political parties, the Federalists and the Jeffersonian-Republicans. Later on, the War of 1812 presented the young nation with a test of national resolve against Great Britain, the former motherland, which it triumphantly passed. During this period, the country established the first federal institutions, such as the National Bank, and a formalized Army and Navy. The United States also doubled in size, when President Jefferson secured French territory west of the Mississippi in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

(Above) The Bombardment of Fort McHenry, 1828-1830. Alfred Jacob Miller.

Manifest Destiny and Sectional Divide (1824 - 1854)

The growth of western settlements ushered in a new political era in the 1820's, a period of rising factionalism and partisan divide that culminated with the American Civil War (1861-1865). Following a rare period of national unity after the Monroe presidency, the national political dialogue split along socioeconomic and factional divides. The populist Democratic party, led by Andrew Jackson, gained prominence in the 1830's as a champion of the common man, rural interests, and manifest destiny. This era, known as the Jacksonian Era, was characterized by the growth of democratic participation through universal white male suffrage, a laissez-faire approach to business, and aggressive territorial expansion, which most notably culminated in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and contributed to the later Indian Wars (1860's-1870's). In Congress, the Whigs and the Democrats contested power among three regional blocs: the industrial North, the slaveholding South, and the ever-expanding frontier West. As new states steadily came into the union, from Maine to Texas to California, a series of grand legislative compromises maintained an ever more tenuous balance of power between the anti-slavery North and the pro-slavery South. Congress admitted new states in pairs, one "free" and one "slave" state, to appease factions and table open conflict. 

(Above) Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845. George Caleb Bingham.

The Civil War and Reconstruction (1854 - 1872)

By the late 1850's, the moral and economic issue of slavery had become the greatest challenge facing - and dividing - the nation. In light of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed the territories to become slave states based on popular sovereignty, a group of anti-slavery Whigs formed the Republican Party to stop the spread of slavery in the West. The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860 instigated the secession of eleven southern states, triggering a brutal four-year long campaign that saw 600,000 casualties and the assassination of the President. The institution of slavery ended in the South with the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the rebel states, and then finally in the rest of the country with the 13th Amendment in 1865. 

With the war over and the slavery question resolved​, the dominant Republican coalition moved to rebuild the South, in a period known as Reconstruction. Under Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant, reconciliation and political rebuilding occurred unevenly and unsuccessfully. Despite the passage of civil rights amendments guaranteeing citizenship and voting rights to freedmen, federal military governors and newly elected Black legislators faced fierce public opposition, white supremacy violence, and charges of rampant corruption. By the late 1870's, national sentiment had turned against Reconstruction. Democrats retook southern legislatures, and Republicans abandoned further civil rights projects to focus on economic modernization. The failure of Reconstruction ushered in the Jim Crow Era, in which black Americans faced rampant racial discrimination and segregation until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, some 100 years after the Civil War.

(Above) The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, 1864. Francis Bicknell Carpenter.

The Gilded Age and the Progressive Era (1872 - 1912)

​By the late 1800's, the country had transformed from an agrarian republic to an industrial powerhouse. In the 1890 census, the frontier, defined as an area with less than two persons per square mile, was deemed closed; manifest destiny was complete. The Trans-Continental Railroad linked the nation from coast to coast, connecting the swelling manufacturing cities of the East with the mining and frontier settlements of the West. The railway boom had also engendered the rise of steel, oil, real estate, and other industrial magnates, creating a newly minted class of ultra-rich capitalists who owned massive corporations and conglomerates. While wages increased across all income levels, the gap between the rich and the poor also widened. Labor, race, and urban riots were commonplace. Pioneering journalists and writers exposed corruption at all levels of society, from railroads to labor unions to slaughterhouses.

In the new century, a series of progressive leaders launched bold reforms to confront the problems of industrialization and improve the lives of ordinary Americans. President Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft vigorously pursued antitrust legislation to break up monopolies, such as Northern Securities and Standard Oil. New constitutional amendments, such as the direct election of senators and an income tax, reduced political corruption and encouraged free trade. Government leaders also established regulatory agencies to oversee business and trade practices, the Federal Reserve to safeguard the financial system, and a Department of Labor to strengthen workers' rights. Social reformers pushed for housing and zoning reforms in cities, safe food and drinking water, public education for children, and women's suffrage. As a sign of progressive zeal, a bourgeoning temperance movement even advocated for the prohibition of alcohol, which would be signed into law by the 18th Amendment (1919) and then later repealed by the 21st Amendment (1933). 

(Above) Snow in New York, 1902. Robert Henri.