American History Milestones from 1607 to 1865 - Essay Example

? American history from 1607 to 1865 American history tells an amazing story. It describes in detail how a people came to a wilderness and created a great country. They rose up against an oppressor and founded a nation dedicated to liberty. It also tells how those revolutionaries created a dynamic economy and fought a war with themselves to abolish to evil institution of slavery. Drama and heroism is littered throughout the history of the United States. This book captures all of these highlights and brings the story to life in a way that few other books have done. America was founded as a colony of the United States. The early states such as Virginia and Massachusetts often attracted refugees and religious outcasts. Together they slowly built a country together. Some of the principal industries at time were tobacco and shipbuilding. As the colonies grew more powerful, they chafed at the heavy hand that ruled them from London. A little known fact is that the American colonists who fought the British during the Revolutionary War were not always dramatically opposed against the British who ruled over them. Some admired the British. During the Revolutionary War, which was led by George Washington, there were opportunities to come to terms, although most of these opportunities occurred at the beginning of the war. Before the time when New York fell to the British, it might have been possible for the British and the American sides agree on a peace that would have kept the Americans under British Rule. However, after this seminal battle, the two opponents were too entrenched in their respective positions to reach an agreement. Both sides were too polarized and seen too much hardship. Throughout the conflict, the British failed to conceive that the colonists only wanted respect and more autonomy. By denying this reasonable request, the British forced the Americans to take drastic action against them. It didn’t have to be this way. In the months after the war started, American colonists worked together to petitioned the King to change his mind about the conflict and to give more authority to the colonial legislatures. In other words, this is a war that is not always as it is portrayed. The country the colonists built was founded on some important Republic principles. Writing to a friend, John Adams once said: There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real Liberty. And this public Passion must be Superior to all private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest connections, when they Stand in Competition with the Rights of society. (Rahe, 23) The years that followed the founding were amazing. The country grew in population, power, and wealth. The size of the country grew and more states joined. Most people would find it hard to argue that the changes between 1790 and 1860 were not some of the most impressive in the history of the United States. One of the key elements of the growth that occurred as this time was rapid industrialization. Novel technologies like the cotton gin and the steam engine permitted work to be completed in any even faster fashion than before. All across the land, factories began to sprout up like mushrooms. The country began to shift away from a resource based economy that included farming and agriculture, and began to be characterized by a much more diverse economy that was sending goods all over the world. Throughout it all Americans debated what system of government they should have. They often looked back to the words of Thomas Jefferson: Two political Sects have arisen within the U. S. the one believing that the executive is the branch of our government which the most needs support; the other that like the analogous branch in the English Government, it is already too strong for the republican parts of the Constitution; and therefore in equivocal cases they incline to the legislative powers: the former of these are called federalists, sometimes aristocrats or monocrats, and sometimes tories, after the corresponding sect in the English Government of exactly the same definition: the latter are stiled republicans, whigs, jacobins, anarchists, disorganizers, etc. these terms are in familiar use with most persons. (Thorpe, 488). The new path of government led by this Jeffersonian revolution was in large part responsible for the massive growth enjoyed by the U.S. during this period. This was also the beginning of the age of globalization and America was at the forefront. It was creating globalization, both with its links to the old world in Europe and the new worlds in South America and Asia. As in economy theory, comparative advantages permitted countries to obtain products that they might not have otherwise be capable of obtaining in the marketplace. During these years, America began to tap its huge natural wealth. So much of what made America rich lay beneath its soil. This was time when the railroad would be introduced to the country and this would in part change the United States forever. Railways would permit the speedy transport of goods and people around the country. The economy would expand massively. Eventually, the railway would unite the country from sea to sea as it was built to California. This was part of Manifest Destiny. As John Quincy Adams wrote in this period: The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. For the common happiness of them all, for their peace and prosperity, I believe it is indispensable that they should be associated in one federal Union. (McDougall, 78). America felt it was destined to the rule the world. But there was one problem yet. Slavery dominated political discourse in the country in this time. African Americans could still be bought and sold. In the years to come, slavery would be a ghost haunting America. Again, Quincy Adams is especially insightful about what slavery meant for the future of the U.S. If slavery be the destined sword of the hand of the destroying angel which is to sever the ties of this Union, the same sword will cut in sunder the bonds of slavery itself. A dissolution of the Union for the cause of slavery would be followed by a servile war in the slave-holding States, combined with a war between the two severed portions of the Union. It seems to me that its result might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent; and, calamitous and desolating as this course of events in its progress must be, so glorious would be its final issue, that, as God shall judge me, I dare not say that it is not to be desired. (Howe, 160). In the years between 1861 and 1866, the United States fought a horrible Civil War between North and South. The South believed in slavery, the North strongly opposed it. Families were torn apart by this great conflagration. The war began soon after a man from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln was elected. In the beginning, the North simply wanted to stop the spread of slavery into western states, but the South wanted to expand the slaveholding states’ numbers. The southerners felt their rights were being trampled. The South decided to secede from the North and the war began. Millions would die in this horrible conflict. The United States would be torn asunder. Few believed it would be able to survive. For four long years, the war dragged on. Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation which would free the southern slaves. Slowly, the North began to gain the upper hand. In 1865, the War was over. A few days later, a Southern sympathizer murdered Lincoln. It took years for America to recover from this horrible conflict, but in the end it was stronger than ever and it re-dedicated itself to preserving liberty throughout the world. The history of America in its early years is an extraordinary story. Every page of this history is covered with heroes and figures who are larger than life. They breathe as if they were alive today. When we see what America started as—a ramshackle group of colonists on a heartless frontier—and what it eventually became we can hardly be anything other than awestruck. America became a great country through imagination and hard work. The Republic will live forever. Work consulted Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought. Oxford: 2007. McDougall, Walter A. Promised land, crusader state: the American encounter with the world since 1776. Houghton Mifflin, 1997 Rahe, Paul A. Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution. Volume: 2. UNC Press Books, 1994. Thorpe, Francis N. ed. “A Letter from Jefferson on the Political Parties, 1798," American Historical Review. v.3#3 (April 1898) pp 488–89 Read More