Unit+5+-+Day+1

Day 1 - (Ch 7.2)
 * How did Nationalism shape foreign and domestic policies?
 * What issues divided the country as it expanded westward?
 * In what ways did Henry Clay seek to unify the country which had developed two distinctly different economic systems?

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How did Nationalism shape foreign and domestic policies?

Recall that Nationalism is pride and loyalty to one's country. This feeling of pride dominated the the period of 1814 - 1820, and became known as the "Era of Good Feeling." It occurred after beating Britain in the War of 1812, also affectionately known as "The Second War for American Independence." You have many notes on this war and it's after math, so briefly stated here, know that Nationalism = pride. And pride can lead to some dangerous things. The Monroe Doctrine could have been one of those dangerous things for we felt so full of our selves that we issued the Monroe Doctrine in 1820, basically telling powerful European nations that we would go to war with them to protect the little nations of Latin America. What made us think we could actually pull off a deed like that is unclear, but our ability to be seriously hurt under such an idol threat is obvious. We were no super power, and everyone knew that. We were luck that no one challenged us directly at the time. But our pride in ourselves led to that moment of false bravado.

On the home front (what we call "domestic" politics) our Supreme Court was adding more power to the National government with almost no challenge. Gibbons v Ogden established the Federal Government's power to regulate interstate trade. McCullock v. Maryland established the supremacy of the federal government over state governments. More cases like these two were decided,and those examples are located in Chapter 7.2.

What issues divided the country as it expanded westward?

Slavery divided the nation as it spread west. Though the desire to spread west, and the desire to eliminate the Native Americans united the nation, what economic system should rule the new lands was the enduring argument. You see, paying wages to workers just does not work well when next door a slave owner merely needs to whip his workers. The two economic syystems can not work side by side, so territories needed to decide at the time they become a state just what economic system they would allow.

Missouri decided to become a slave state, and this shocked the North. As far as they were concerned, it lay in the North, and looking eastward from Missouri, every northern state had eliminated slavery by 1820. Missouri bucked that trend, and the North was sent into a tizzy. The South, for their part, was already looking upon the North with suspicion because of the way they eliminated slavery. The South depended on slaves for the back-breaking work necessary to turn a profit on a plantation. The North did not have such a need, and they worried that the North, after having freed their own slaves, would target slavery in the South next.

The Missouri problem needed to be resolved.

In what ways did Henry Clay seek to unify the country which had developed two distinctly different economic systems?

Henry Clay is the man of this day whom you should remember. He saved America from herself and her own petty prejudices.

A) To begin with, he resolved the Missouri question with a compromise that everyone thought would endure.
 * 1) Missouri would be the last and only slave state in the North. Missouri's southern border would be extended to the Rocky Mountains (our western border of the day), and no other slave state would be allowed to join the Union is it lay north of this line. Only Missouri would lay north of this line.
 * 2) To preserve a balance of power in the Senate between North and South (it was exactly equal prior to Missouri asking for statehood) all states beginning with Missouri would have to enter the union together with a state from the opposite side. With there always being a slave state paired with a free state, the South was guarenteed that any bill in Congress to ban slavery would be stopped in the US Senate. That bill would be DEAD!!

B) Henry Clay came up with the American System. This system ensured economic interdependence among the regions of teh nation that had begun to practice "sectionalism." Sectionalism is having pride and loyalty to one's section of the country OVER one's pride and loyalty to one's nation. At this time, the North worked for the North's benefit, not caring how policies harmed the other regions, and the South and West operated much the same way with the other sections of the nation.

The American system brought the regions together. The West gre food, and with careful planning by Henry Clay, that food would be sold to the South and North at a profit. The South grew Cotton, something they normally sold to Britain. Under the American System, they would sell it to the North at a profit. The North manufactured the finer things in life, like textiles (fabrics of all kinds) and other things like glass, furniture, cooking irons, etc. They would sell these things, for a profit, to the South and West. In this way, American could be diverse, yet stronger for it. It just took sectional cooperation, and Clay established this.

C) Henry Clay also brokered the deal between the US Government and South Carolina in 1832 when the "Tariff of Abominations" made SC threaten to not only NOT pay the tax, but threatened to secede from the Union. Jackson got a Force Bill through Congress which authorized him to use federal troops to invade the state of SC and topple the government. And make no doubt, he would do just that. Henry Clay was able to avert this disaster by negotiating a deal whereby the tariff was reduced slightly over 10 years. Each side claimed victory, and the country stumbled forward.

In 30 years time the nation would be in a Civil War. South Carolina would be the first state to leave the nation.