Professional Learning Conference

Transcription

1 Professional Learning Conference Professors: Ellen Barshop and Jennifer Chamberlain Course: PLC What Happened Here?

2 Course: PLC What Happened Here? History/Geography - Course Outline Course Description: In this course, participants will investigate how during the Era of Good Feelings, regions did not always have friendly with other regions due to the deepening of sectionalism in the United States. Learner Outcomes: Given information on sectionalism in the United States, the participant will be able to politically, socially, and economically compare and contrast the three regions of the United States. Given information on sectionalism in the United States, the participant will be able to analyze primary sources on sectionalism. Given information on sectionalism in the United States, the participant will be able to analyze informative text. Section Topic 1 What is Sectionalism? 2 Movement of the United States 3 Regional Differences 4 Analyzing the Past 5 What Does This Cartoon Mean? Recommended Texts: Between North and South: Delaware, Desegregation, and the Myth of American Sectionalism Sectionalism, Politics, And American Diplomacy Patchwork Nation: Sectionalism and Political Change in American Politics Congress and the Emergence of Sectionalism: From the Missouri Compromise to the Age of Jackson Sectionalism in American Politics, Assignments for This Course: Compare and Contrast Chart: Nationalism vs. Sectionalism Excerpts - Main Idea GO Sectionalism GO Exit Ticket: Political Cartoon

3 1 Spot the Differences NATIONALISM Era of good feelings SECTIONALISM Era of Era good of feelings bad feelings Section 3-1

4 1 Spot the Differences NATIONALISM Era of good feelings SECTIONALISM Era of Era good of feelings bad feelings Section 3-2

5 Nationalism Sectionalism Looks Like NATIONALISM Era of good feelings SECTIONALISM Era of Era good of feelings bad feelings Can Be Described As Section 3-3

6 Note: Until 1863, the state of Virginia comprised its present territory and the territory of present day West Virginia. City Population City Population Note: Until 1863, the state of Virginia comprised its present territory and the territory of present day West Virginia. City Population City Population Section 3-4

7 Excerpt 1 - Setting the Geographic Stage The nation in 1800 was very different from what it is today. Two out of every three Americans still lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Coast. Fewer than one in ten lived west of the Appalachians. These round-topped, forested mountains extended like a bumpy spine from Maine through Georgia. They made travel between east and west very difficult. Beyond the mountains, the land flattened out and was covered by dense woods. More and more settlers crossed the Appalachians in the early 1800s, clearing trees and starting farms and mills. For Americans of the day, this land between the eastern mountains and the Mississippi River was known as the West. Across the Mississippi lay the frontier, a vast, unexplored wilderness. Everywhere, travel was difficult and slow. Nothing moved faster than a horse could run not people, not goods, not messages. News could take weeks to travel from one city to another, as the post office labored to deliver letters and newspapers over rutted, muddy roads. Excerpt 2 - What the Regions Thought of Each Other The Yankees of the Northeast, with its growing cities and bustling trade, were seen as enterprising, thrifty, and in the eyes of southerners quick to chase a dollar. The rich plantation owners of the South were seen as gracious, cultured, and in the eyes of northerners lazy. The frontier settlers who sought their fortunes in the West were seen as rugged, hardy, and in the eyes of people on the East Coast crude. Excerpt 3 - Developing the American Spirit After the British burned Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812, Congress hired architects to rebuild the White House and the Capitol in a style that would equal the grand, stately buildings of Europe. Congress complained about the cost, but not about the result. These magnificent buildings are admired to this day as national symbols. White American men saw themselves as devoted to individualism and equality. Their commitment to these values may not have extended to enslaved African Americans, American Indians, or women. Still, they were united in the belief that they were different and better than Europeans. Another national symbol was born during this period: Uncle Sam. Legend has it that the name came from Sam Wilson, a New York butcher. Uncle Sam, it was said, had provided the army with meat during the War of More likely the name was made up to match the initials U.S. for United States. After the war, Uncle Sam became a popular nickname for the federal government. Adapted from: Hart, D. (2005). The United States through industrialism (Student ed., ). Palo Alto, CA: TCI, Teacher's Curriculum Institute. Section 3-5

8 Excerpt 4 - Henry Clay and The American System The swelling of nationalist spirit was reflected in proposals that the federal government take a more active role in building the national economy. One of the leading supporters of such measures in Congress was Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay believed that America s future lay in capitalism, an economic system in which individuals and companies produce and distribute goods for profit. Most supporters of capitalism agreed that government should have a limited role in the economy. But Clay believed that the national government had a role to play in encouraging economic growth. Clay supported an economic plan called the American System. This plan called for taxes on imported goods to protect industry as well as federal spending on transportation projects like roads and canals. A third part of Clay s plan was a new national bank to standardize currency and provide credit. Congress adopted this idea in 1816 when it created the second Bank of the United States. (The first national bank had lapsed in 1811.) The bank was a private business, but the government owned onefifth of it and deposited government funds there. Excerpt 5 - John C. Calhoun and States Rights Another early champion of economic nationalism was South Carolina s John C. Calhoun. In Congress, Calhoun supported the national bank, a permanent road system, and a tax on imports. Yet in other ways he resisted federal power. By the 1830s, he would become the leading spokesman for states rights, largely to protect slavery in the South. His career illustrates the tensions between nationalism and the pull of regional differences. Excerpt 6 - Daniel Webster A third proponent of nationalism was Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Webster served several terms in both the House and Senate. Unlike Clay, who was a War Hawk, Webster bitterly opposed the War of After the war, however, he voiced strong support for Clay s American System. Let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, that these twenty-four states are one country, Webster urged in Later, he would strongly challenge Calhoun s claim that states had the right to defy the federal government. Adapted from: Hart, D. (2005). The United States through industrialism (Student ed., ). Palo Alto, CA: TCI, Teacher's Curriculum Institute. Section 3-6

9 Excerpt 1 Main Idea: Excerpt 2 Main Idea: Excerpt 3 Main Idea: Excerpt 4 Main Idea: Section 3-7

10 Excerpt 5 Main Idea: Excerpt 6 Main Idea: Big Picture Main Idea: Section 3-8

11 the North, South, and West. ISSUES W E S T E R N L A N D L A B O R ISSUES Agricultural economy (small/large cotton farms; slave labor) WESTERN FARMER I N T E R N A L M O N E Y NORTHERN INDUSTRIALIST LOW PRICES to aid settlement by small farmers LOW PRICES 1) to encourage HIGH PRICES to discourage westward expansion of slavery westward migration of northeastern 2) to expand cotton labor force farming SECTIONALISM: ISSUESby THREATENING NATIONAL UNITY, replacing worn-out farm land FREE LABOR (no slaves) to avoid job competition on farms from cheap slave labor WESTERN FARMER HIGH TARIFF with revenue used to build roads, bridges, and T canals for shipping western farm A products to eastern markets R I F F (a tax on imports) I M P R O V E M E N T S SOUTHERN PLANTER interests. Forty years of sectional rivalry led to the Civil War ( ). To unravel the causes of the War, let s tune in to what each section wanted. SLAVE LABOR to do the hard, non-wage work of producing cotton, the south s white gold FREE LABOR (no slaves) to provide a skilled work force for business SOUTHERN PLANTER NORTHERN INDUSTRIALIST LOW TARIFF 220 1) to export raw farm products on favorable terms 2) to keep down cost of buying manufactured goods HIGH TARIFF to protect manufactured goods from being undersold by foreign competitors FOR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS (roads, bridges, canals) to create eastern market for farm goods AGAINST INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS to avoid large government expenditures which might require a higher tariff to refill the treasury FOR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS to create a western market for manufactured goods SOFT (OR CHEAP ) MONEY paper money not backed by specie (gold), thus in large supply; of less worth, and easier for debtor farmers to obtain SOFT MONEY Farmers (agrarians) often were in debt because crop markets were unpredictable. They liked paying their debts with cheap, inflated dollars, but their creditors didn't like it. Through inference, can you figure out why? HARD MONEY paper money backed by specie. Northern businessmen often were creditors (lenders). To get their dollars s worth, they wanted debts repaid them in hard, sound money (backed by gold) not soft, cheap, inflated money. Tally the bottom line of these sectional economic views, and you quickly see that the North and South differed on all adventuretalesofamerica.comfive issues. This caused a political power struggle between the free labor states of the North and the slave labor states of the South. The section controlling the federal government would set economic policies, such as tariffs, that would Section 3-9 affect the very livelihood of the other. Political power, then, became crucial to economic interests. BY 1861 THE POLITICAL POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH WOULD LEAD TO CIVIL WAR.

12 Sectionalism - Map of the United States (Pre-1840) Southern States Western States Northern States Section 3-10

13 [W]e have another proof that the present government have renounced the true republican principles of Jefferson's administration on which they raised themselves to power, and that they have taken up, in their stead, those of John Adams.... [T]heir principle now is old Federalism, vamped up into something bearing the superficial appearance of republicanism.... Sir, I am convinced that it would be impolitic, as well as unjust, to aggravate the burdens of the people for the purpose of favoring the manufacturers; for this government created and gave power to Congress to regulate commerce and equalize duties [tariffs] on the whole of the United States, and not to lay a duty [tariff] but with a steady eye to revenue.... John Randolph in a speech to the House on the proposed tariff of The paper system... having of itself no intrinsic value... is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure, and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. - Andrew Jackson s farewell Address 2 [I have] considered the bill this day presented to me entitled 'An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,' and which sets apart and pledges funds... for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses.... The power to regulate commerce among the several states cannot include a power to construct roads and canals.... I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals and the improved navigation of water courses, and that a power in the national legislature to provide for them might be exercised with signal advantage to the general prosperity. But seeing that such a power is not expressly given by the Constitution... I have no option but to withhold my signature from it... James Madison: Message to Congress vetoing an Internal Improvements Bill, March, Section 3-11

14 I thank you, dear sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question But this momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be that I live not to weep over it - Thomas Jefferson: Letter to John Holmes - April 22, I wish with you that Congress had the power of expending our surplus monies (if ever we are to have them) on public improvements, and have long wished for such an amendment to the constitution, with the condition expressed that the federal proportion of each state should be expended on improvements within the state. otherwise all, like our lighthouses Etc. would go to New England. - Thomas Jefferson: Letter to William Short - October 19, It is to be regretted, Jackson said, that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.... [W]hen the law undertakes to... make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society the farmers, mechanics and laborers... have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. - Andrew Jackson - Explanation on the Veto [Second Bank of the United States] Section 3-12

15 the Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm. The old schism of federal & republican, threatened nothing because it existed in every state, and united them together... But the geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion & renewing irritations until it would kindle such mutual & mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much my only comfort & confidence is that I shall not live to see this: and I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of their fathers sacrifices of life & fortune, and of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of self government? This treason against human hope will signalize their epoch in future history, as the counterpart of the medal of their predecessors. -Thomas Jefferson, Correspondence with William Short, The constitution declares that congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of the United States. Under this power congress have passed laws for the survey and sale of the public lands, for the division of the same into separate territories; and have ordained for each of them a constitution, a plan of temporary government, whereby the civil and political rights of the inhabitants are regulated, and the rights of conscience and other natural rights are protected The territory of Missouri is a portion of Louisiana, which was purchased of France, and belongs to the United States in full dominion; in the language of the constitution Missouri is their territory or property, and is subject, like other territories of the United States, to the regulations and temporary government, which has been, or shall be prescribed by congress - Rufus King - November 22, Section 3-13

16 # North South West Section 3-14

17 Section 3-15 Henry Clay - Project Gutenberg etext 16960Public Domain