AMSH 3002y/Spring 1998
March 25th Lecture Notes
Thomas Jefferson & The Fateful Turn Westward
EARLY AC HOMEPAGE | LECTURE NOTES
The genius of Madison's Federalist #10:
Ratification process -- FPs written to allay fears about a national government; convention had been to create a structure to deal with problems in the absence of a national government
Madison took up three fears: 1.) of representative gov't rather rather than a democracy
2.) The likely increase in the destructive power of faction with size
3.) That the US would be too big to be governable
That destructive potential of factions lessen with their number -- a large country would have more factions, each less less likely to get its way at the expenses of the many others or at the expense of the national good
"Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests…"
In representative national assemblies, special interests will be blended until they approximate a national interest
Legislators must join with others -- in the open -- to effect positive legislation; lots of hurdles to overcome to do so -- checks and balances, etc.
Force of faction dispersed across an "extended sphere"
How extended?
Original 13 states -- about 300,000 sq miles of settled territory/ 800,000 to Mississippi
But most of 4,000,000 in 1790 within 20 miles of Atlantic or tributary
Links were primarily by sea -- no original 13 without access to Atlantic (NH tight);
Sail from Portland Maine to Savannah Georgia -- 2/3 weeks
A slab [parallelogram] facing the Atlantic à pointed to Europe -- and Caribbean
What Madison hadn't figured on --
1. Parties -- 1790s
2. The rise of national politicians -- Election of 1800
3. The rapid further extension of the sphere -- 1803
Parties -- The "outs" organized to dump the "ins"
Jefferson -- as accommodating (Clinton as jefferson…)
The chance to buy Louisiana --
Spain receding to France -- French extended in Santo Domingo; US interested in securing access to mouth of Missisippi
Offer to buy New Orleans -- Robert Livingston (KC 1774) -- deaf/couldn't speak French
James Monroe sent to help with negotiations
Napoleon/Talleyrand -- Offer to sell Louisiana (800,000 sq miles / 200,000 population)
Indians/Spanish/French/ "Hispano-Indian omnium gatherum of savages and adventurers"
West of Mississippi /south of Missouri/
1803 -- Tjefferson goes for it
1803 -- authorizes exploration in search of water route to pacific -- Meriwther Lewis/William Clark 1804-1806 -- No river link up // Rockies are for real….
Importance of purchase -- made settlement of the West the principal project of the republic for the next century…
Turned the faces of Americans around; from looking out across the Atlantic to looking westward across the rest of America…
Jefferson's triumph -- Distrustful of Europe
Distrustful of crowded cities
Distrustful of maritime commerce/navies
The west offered Americans a century-long receding frontier -- unsettled land for the asking/grabbing
Frederick Jackson Turner -- "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
Wasn't the Atlantic a "frontier"?
Yes --
An exploitable resource
Not owned
There to be worked/premium on labor
No --
Capital requirements/market access requirements
Favored merchants who hired labor
Yeoman farmer// maritime proletariat
"wooden worlds" not frontier cabins -- hierrchical/authoritarian
encourages autocrats and orders-followers