Great American History - Essay Example

American History Q1a. How did Jefferson’s economic policies toward Native Americans influence national developments after 1808? Why was Jefferson reluctant to agree to the purchase of Louisiana? Jefferson’s economic policies towards American Indians was initially that of assimilation, encouraging them to undertake farming but when it was evident that this cannot materialize, he proposed a land exchange with North American Indian where they would vacate their lands for the land acquired previously by purchase from France west of the Mississippi. The removal policy of Jefferson was however cloaked in more gentle terms, employing the term ‘consent’ as a precondition (Hodge 31-32). The subtle policy of removal with consent however became increasingly removal under compulsion after his term, resulting in a deteriorating relationship between the Native Americans and the government and erupting oftentimes into bloody battles like the Battle of Tippecanoe and the loyalty of the American Indians to the British in the War of 1812 (Harrell 261-262) Jefferson had misgiving about the Louisiana Purchase because of serious constitutional issue attached to it. However, he viewed it as vital strategically to the US because of the New Orleans port directly accessing the Mississippi River, outlet for American trade with the outside world. He feared France’s control of the Mississippi. Thus, he justified the Purchase as an exercise of extra-constitutional power by the presidency (Harrell et al 247-248). Q1b. Discuss the impact of the Louisiana Purchase and Andrew Jackson’s removal policies on the Native Americans. Discuss the long term impact of Worcester v. Georgia on both Native Americans and the checks and balances system. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, a law strongly supported by President Andrew Jackson. The Act provided for the voluntary removal of the North American Indians from the east of the Mississippi to the west of it. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 had long encouraged the belief that this was possible. The removal law worsened the tension between the North American Indians and the United States which was already palpable even before its enactment as can be evinced from cases like the Cherokee Nation v Georgia, 30 US 1 [1831], and Worcester v Georgia, 31 US 515 [1832] (Norgren et al 6-7). The Worcester case, together with the Cherokee Nation case, established the legal framework with which the American Indians are to be governed with respect to their political and property rights. In the Worcester case, Chief Justice Marshall declared the possessory rights of the Cherokee Indians, a right which they can however relinquish in favor of the White Americans. The implication of the case, together with the 1830 Indian Removal Act, is that although the Indians have rights over their lands, the same rights could be voluntarily given up (Norgren et al 6-8). Q2. Discuss the role of the Supreme Court under the direction of John Marshall in the use of Federalist nationalism to protect the interests of government, commerce and capital. Why were Marbury v Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland and Fletcher v. Peck important in this respect? Under John Marshall’s stewardship of the US Supreme Court, it was able to establish its role and sanctity in American politics, expanding not only its role but that of the federal government as well. The sweeping decisions of the Marshall Court together with legislations of the American System reshaped the American economy as well as established the supremacy of the federal government (Harrell et al 279). In Fletcher v Peck, 10 US 87 [1810], for example, the SC held that the Court can strike down unconstitutional state law and upheld the sanctity of contracts between private properties. The case involved the Yazoo Land Act of 1795, a Maryland law, which allowed the sale of big tracts of land to private speculators, later repealed by a subsequent legislature for being fraught with bribery scandal. The SC struck it down for infringing on the sale. In another case, McCulloch v Maryland, 18 US 316 [1819], the Court supported the supremacy of the federal government vis-à-vis state power when Maryland questioned the capacity of Congress to incorporate banks without its approval. Under the Necessary and Proper Clause of s 1 of the Constitution, the SC declared that Congress can pass laws that serve the purpose of putting into effect its express powers. In Marbury v Madison, 5 US 137 [1803], the Marshall Court upheld the power of the judiciary to review and render the acts of Congress unconstitutional (Harrell et al 279). Q3. How did the global economic situation contribute to American economics between 1815 and 1820? How did economic growth and panic contribute to sectional conflict and political contention? Discuss the changes that took place in the New England textile industry from the establishment of the Waltham system in 1813 to 1850. How did the workers react to these changes? The year 1815 laid the groundwork for the gradual birth of the American national economy. The resultant peace of the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars and the failure of agricultural crops, due to severe weather conditions, in Europe caused an increased demand for American agricultural products. Cotton which was 39% of the total American exports between 1816 and 1820 doubled its price during the period. However, cheap imports also flooded the country like manufactured goods, cheap cotton fabrics and tropical products from Britain and the Indies. It threatened to destroy American manufacturers forcing the government to increase their taxes to protect locally manufactured goods (Matson 269-270). In the textile industry, the Waltham system introduced by Francis Cabot Lowell revolutionized it by constructing one big factory where carding, spinning and weaving were all done instead of separately putting them out to women in their homes. It established a dormitory-like facility for women workers, providing them with all their needs and paying wages above the usual rates, attracting both applicants and other businessmen who copied it (Dobson 86). Q4. What was the purpose and goals of the Seneca Falls Convention? Discuss the forces in American society between 1820 and 1850 that contributed to the emergence of a women’s rights movement. Discuss one POSITIVE and one NEGATIVE long term impact of this convention. The Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19 to 20 in 1848, was a memorable date in the women’s rights movement, being the first largest meeting of women activists. It served the purpose of advancing women’s rights and the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, since then considered as one of the basic documents of the movement. The idea of a large-scale women’s convention first cropped up during the World Anti-Slavery Convention in England in 1840 when women activists were denied participation and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott made it happen eight years later. Its positive long-term effect is that it created the theoretical framework in which women could demand their rights as a separate class. On the other hand, it also emphasized not only gender-based distinctions but also class-based differences. Rather than unite women, it split them apart, one group, which included well-to-do, mainstream white women with a lot to lose, disassociating themselves from it and the other, including women who wanted to have more equality in jobs, education and property, embracing it (Elmore 748-750). The 1820s and 1830s were marked by heavy industrial developments accompanied by frenzied political activities like the anti-slavery movement. Work began to shift out of homes. Women felt left out by the revolution which was chiefly spearheaded by men and the women’s suffrage movement was therefore their response to the growing political activities around them (Dubois 16). Q5. What forces in American life contributed to the concept of Manifest Destiny? What challenges did various communities in the West have to face? How did expansionism and economics help shape Americans’ positions on slavery in the 1840’s? Manifest Destiny refers to the American fervor for expansionism that took hold of the country and underpinned the US foreign policy in the 1800s. John O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review, used it his article exhorting expansionism as a divine right of the US. Prior to O’Sullivan’s exhortation, Americans had already expanded their territory via the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. This was however chiefly motivated, not by expansionist desires, but by fear of economic uncertainties (Harrell 247-248). A similar underlying consideration made the idea of ‘manifest destiny’ caught on in mid 1800s. The just concluded depression of the 1830s made expansionism an attractive course to take, believing that it could ease the country out of its political and economic problems and ensure that the depression does not recur. Thus, under the cloak of manifest destiny, the Polk administration set out to annex Texas in 1843, an endeavor underpinned by fear that the English would take over Texas and use it as an alternative source of cotton, thereby giving up the cotton trade with the South. To entice the entire country along, the expansionists made abolition a central issue in the annexation by convincing the anti-abolitionist South that it would preclude England from taking it and abolishing slavery, while on the other hand, convincing the anti-slavery North, which feared rushing freed slaves to the North, that annexing Texas could provide the freed slaves a way out into Central America. The Oregon annexation in 1846 was likewise underpinned by potential trade considerations with the Far East, Oregon being seen as the key to it (White 73-77). Works Cited Dobson, John M. Bulls, Bears, Boom, and Bust: A Historical Encyclopedia of American Business Concepts, Ed: illus. ABC-CLIO, 2006. DuBois, Ellen Carol. Feminism and Suffrage: the Emergence of an Independent Womens Movement in America, 1848-1869, Edition: 2. Cornell University Press, 1999. Elmore, Jenifer. “Seneca Falls.” Class in America: Q-Z by Robert Weir. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. Fausold, Martin & Alan Shank. The Constitution and the American Presidency. Suny Press, 1991. Harrell, David Edwin Jr.& Harrell, Edwin & Gaustad, Edwin & Boles, John B & Griffith, Sally Foreman, & Randall, Miller & Woods, Randall B. Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005. Hodge, Carl Cavanagh & Cathal J. Nolan. U.S. Presidents and Foreign Policy: from 1789 to the Present, Ed: illus. ABC-CLIO, 2006. Matson, Cathy D. The Economy of Early America: Historical Perspectives & New Directions Edition: illustrated. Penn State Press, 2006 Norgren, Jill & Serena Nanda. American Cultural Pluralism and Law, Ed: 3, illust. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. White, Richard. "Its Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West, Ed: reprint, illust. University of Oklahoma Press, 1993 Read More