Government and Markets
The 14th Congress was overwhemingly made up of Jeffersonian Republicans, but it reversed many of the positions taken by Jefferson's old party.
For example:
-It chartered a national bank (which Jefferson was completely against)
-It enacted a protective tariff
-It debated building a national system of roads & canals
I think I hear Jefferson rolling in his grave right now.
Republicans had (as late as 1811) viewed such programs as heresy, but by 1815, the had come to accept it as orthodox. (Oh, the hypocrisy...)
As the Republicans struggled with their national identities (like teenagers at the peak of puberty) the War of 1812 waged, during which the United States demonstrated:
-It was unable to coordinate a fiscal & military effort
-Its reliance on foreign trade made the U.S. dependent on Europe
-It must abandon Jefferson's export oriented agrarianism
-It must encourage national independence through susidies through commerce & manufactures
The American System
Henry Clay, a war hawk (a party in Congress who supported the 1812 War efforts), headed the drive for neo-Federalist program. He advocated three things in the American system:
-Protective tariffs (So there was actually reason behind taxes at one point)
-Internal improvement (Roads, canals, railroads, etc.)
-National bank
Clay argued that the American system would foster national economic growth and sectional interdependence between geographical sections, which would result in a happy & healthy republic.
The second Bank of the United States was charted by Congress in 1816, headquatered in Philadelphia, and it could establish branches wherever it saw fit.
The federal government agreed to deposit its funds in the national bank, to accept the Bank's notes as payment, and to by 20% of the Bank's stock. It became more powerful than the Bank that was rejected as unconstitutional in 1811.
Two major things that convinced Republicans in favor a national bank:
-The nation needed a national currency
-The nation needed a centralized control of money & credit
The alternative was state banks, which would issue unregulated and inflated notes, which would throw the postwar economy into chaos.
The constitutionality of the bank was not discussed (the power of ignorance is a powerful tool in politics). The Bank was empowered to be the sole institution to do business throughout the U.S. The notes issued by the Bank was the first semblance of national currency, which it could regulate.
The first overtly protective tariff was passed in 1816, shepherded by Henry Clay and John Calhoun. It raised tariffs an average of 25%, and protected the nation's infant industries. It did so at the expense of foreign trade & American producers (I'll just assume they knew what they were doing).
Wartime difficulties helped because America could not depend on imported manufactures during war, and Congress encouraged domestic manufactures.
The protective tariffs were strongly supported in the Northeast and the West, and got just enough support from the South to pass. It established once and for all the principle of protectionism.
Internal improvements had a harder time winning approval. (Hint: it had something to do with money. Surprise, surprise.)
Wartime British blockade that hampered coastal shipping encouraged internal improvements because it made Americans dependent on obsolete interior roads and caused a desire of an efficient transportation network.
Some wanted a National road linking Chesapeake with trans-Appalachian West, others wanted an inland canal system linking northern & southern coastal states, and some wanted a federal turnpike linking Maine & Georgia.
But because of funding, the improvements was doubtful of constitutionality (the federal government didn't want to pay for something only beneficial to certain states, very much like the way parents refuse to blatantly favor one child), so it was only partially supported by Presidents Madison & Monroe. The government wanted a more constitutional amendment.
Therefore, the state governments took care of the funding for internal improvements. It reflected the designs of the most ambitious states. The most spectacular accomplishment is New York's Erie Canal, challenged by Pennsylvania's and Ohio's canal systems. Most internal improvements were built by corporations charted by canals & railroads.
This commitment to a more efficient transportation network produced the market economy. States provided funding that attracted private investors.
Markets and Law
The American revolution replaced British courts with national and state legal systems, which were based on English common law and made legal action accessible to most white males.
Most of the disputes generated by the transition to a market society ended up in court. The courts removed social conflicts from the public arena and into a peaceful courtroom (No such thing). The result was a promotion of:
-Entrepreneurial use of private property
-Sanctity of contracts
-Right to do business shielded from neighborhood restraints
-Right to do business shielded from the tumult of democratic politics
The central character was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall. He presided over the Court from 1816 onwards. He used the Court as a conservative hedge against the excesses of democratically elected legislatures, and he protected the independence of courts. Marshall also created the court's right of review legislation, encouraged business, and strengthened national government at the expense of the states.
Marshall protected contracts and charters from state legislatures:
-DARTMOUTH VS WOODWARD (1816)
Dartmouth defended its royal charter of the 1760s from the changes introduced by a Republican legislation. The Republicans wanted to change it from a bastion of Federalism to a state college. Dartmouth was defended by Daniel Webster, who convinced Marshall to rule that state legislation could not alter corporate charter. This decision also protected all business ventures that had privileges under corporate charters, which had been granted by state governments, but could not be regulated by states once granted. Thus, these corporate charters acquired the legal status of contracts and beyond the reach of democratic politics.
-MUCCULLOCH VS MARYLAND (1816)
The state of Maryland had Jeffersonian doubts about the constitutionality of the Bank of U.S. so they tried to tax the Baltimore branch of the Bank, which then challenged Maryland's right to do so. Marshall decided in the favor of the Bank. He cited the Constitution's granting to the federal government of implied powers, which included the power to establish the Bank. So in laymen's terms, Maryland was not allowed to tax the Bank or any other federal agency because "the power to tax implies the power to destroy." This was an explicit blow against Jeffersonian strict constitution for Marshall, who insisted that the federal government was not dependent on the states. However, many Southerners believed that the Founders had intended the opposite. (This is why legal jargon is so overrated--who cares if it sounds good if no one understood it!)
-GIBBONS VS OGDEN (1824)
Marshall breaks a New York state-granted steamship monopoly; he argued that the monopoly interfered with federal jurisdiction over interstate commerce. This decision empowered the federal government over state government just like the aforementioned cases. Also, this decision encouraged private entrepreneuralism.
Marshall supported the American System and assumed that a natural link existed between the federal government and a market society.
State Courts
The state courts worked profound transformation of American law. They gave businessmen the right to do business even when they inflicted damage on neighbors. They ruled that businessmen had the right to develop property for business purposes and that railroads could build despite townspeople's complaints and protests. They believed "private injury and personal damage" must be expected and business uses of private property demanded legal protection.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
U.S. History
Provincial America
British people have a reputation of being snooty…and vain. With really cool accents. So apparently nothing’s changed since the 1700’s.
In America during the 18th century, the colonies were growing quickly. This led to a dilemma. The British had to make sure they were Anglicizing properly (a big fancy word that means being snooty people with really cool accents). They wanted the colonists to be completely English and not forget their roots.
Anglicizing meant that the wealthy colonists copied British styles (because apparently—only the rich could afford to be British). This included clothes, fashion, and even houses. For example Lawrence Washington (ancestor of good ol’ George) was a successful planter and built a fancy home on a hill named Mount Vernon—the house, not the hill.
Americans also put religion as a top priority (I wonder what that was like…) and demanded clergymen who were educated at Cambridge or Oxford in England. I guess it must have hard to find adequate ministers in the unsettled wild back then. Anyway, pretty soon the demand surpassed the supply, so the people of the north were forced to build schools to educate itself. The south—not so much.
Another part of colonial America was that the “Gentlemen” dominated local politics. They rode around the countryside, telling people who to vote for. A gentleman was classified as someone who didn’t do manual labor. If that’s the case gentility is definitely NOT something we lack nowadays.
There was a European double-standard:
1.) Married woman in an affair was harshly punished. Not just punished but harshly so—which is doubly distressing.
2.) Married man in an affair was not. Some even laughed it off—didn’t really care.
I always knew Europeans were to blame for this, ladies. Before Anglicization, there was never any double standard because the Puritans were so…pure. (Scarlet Letter, anyone?)
Other than geography, the North and South also differed in other ways.
South Carolina’s population was 70% slaves, and therefore, they were paranoid of a slave revolt. They also had the richest group in British North America—rice planters. (What is this? China?) Not to mention 3 major crops: tobacco, indigo, and wheat—NOT COTTON! (Yet.)
Slaves were the most expensive thing in southern economy. They organized the workers into task system which recognized human’s self-motivation: they required slaves to do and finish a certain amount of work before they can have free time and do nonslave-ish things. (Sounds like kindergarten. Except more brutal.) Slave owners also wanted more slave babies—so they can grow up and do slave-ish things. And make them rich. So the owners encouraged sex among the slaves. Sometimes the owners had huge harems of slave women. (DOUBLE STANDARD!)
The Middle Colonies (or the Mid-Atlantic colonies, if you prefer) included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. They were considered the “bread-basket” meaning they had many good farms that produced a lot of the food. The Quakers that ran Pennsylvania were pacifists (peacemakers—not the kind you give to babies when they start teething). Scots-Irish colonists were the lowest on the social hierarchy; they were the burnouts in high school. Because of this, the Quakers settled the Scots-Irish in the backcountry, so they would suffer most of the hostile Indian attacks, but what they did not expect was that the Scots-Irish developed an offensive attack, and they were kicked out of Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Now, the New England colonies had the worst economic growth caused by ruined crops which also resulted in poverty. They had to create new ideas to come up with money for the economy, so they began to harvest lumber, invested in shipbuilding, cod-fishing (very profitable), and the colonists learned whaling from the Indians. Whaling became a major industry. They also traded with the French, the archenemy of Britain—but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. They obtained French molasses from the Caribbean islands and began making rum. This, in turn, upset England, who passed the Molasses Act of 1733.
The Molasses Act of 1733 raised taxes on French molasses to make it less profitable. This did practically nothing; it only served to encourage smuggling and bribing. (Nice to know what America is really based on)
Another thing Britain did to upset the colonies was they banned fiat money, which is paper money that has no value except that the government promised it was an acceptable payment for taxes. Britain wanted real gold and silver or specie.
On the job market of colonial America there were some changes being made. Doctors became more respectable; they were being college trained now. Before, college wasn’t necessary to become a doctor. Now imagine a world where anyone could be a doctor—even that hobo under the bridge. You really didn’t want to get sick then. Anyways, Benjamin Rush was a doctor and leader (a double threat); he was the one who came up with the idea of a smallpox vaccine. And it worked! Gin was also a drug of choice for people back then: it was cheap and powerful. Kind of like the king…
A dominant philosophy at the time was the Enlightenment; it was the idea that with enough education, man can be perfected. So education was becoming more and more important, and another Benjamin—Franklin this time—supported it.
Leaders of the Enlightenment created a colony for the poor—Georgia. It was a place for “worthy poor.” And to be honest—it was an idealistic plan. They were planning to give land away! Georgia also banned all alcoholic beverages and slavery, and they wanted to produce silk. (They probably also wanted to build the houses out of marshmellows and end world hunger too—such ambitious people) None of which worked.
There was also the Great Awakening: a massive Christian revival in the colonies and in England. This shattered the unity of old denominations (congregational denominations) and turned to newer denominations, which grew as a result. The most important were:
1. Baptists – They multiplied rapidly
2. Methodists – They also grew quickly
3. Presbyterians – They became more and more important.
They were all considered poor people churches.
New Protestant colleges were founded, unifying the American colonies, and they began to think as a unit. (Thanks to the Enlightenment)
There several popular ministers, the rock stars of their time.
Gilbert Tennent preached “The Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry” in 1740.
Jonathan Edwards was delivered the “Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God” in 1737, but his most famous was probably “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
John and Charles Wesley were brothers and founders of the Methodist denomination. John was the preacher and Charles was a singer. They created the Holy Club—created for spiritual growth.
George Whitfield, a friend of the Wesley duo, was an Oxford student and probably the most popular preacher in America.
Meanwhile, there was also political culture in the colonies. People in England were divided between two parties: the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs were for “country” and the Tories were for “court” (king and all that). This divided the colonies a bit too: Jefferson was a Whig and Hamilton a Tory.
Most colonies were ruled by a royal government directly under the king, paid by the king, allegiance to the king (more like the money).
British people have a reputation of being snooty…and vain. With really cool accents. So apparently nothing’s changed since the 1700’s.
In America during the 18th century, the colonies were growing quickly. This led to a dilemma. The British had to make sure they were Anglicizing properly (a big fancy word that means being snooty people with really cool accents). They wanted the colonists to be completely English and not forget their roots.
Anglicizing meant that the wealthy colonists copied British styles (because apparently—only the rich could afford to be British). This included clothes, fashion, and even houses. For example Lawrence Washington (ancestor of good ol’ George) was a successful planter and built a fancy home on a hill named Mount Vernon—the house, not the hill.
Americans also put religion as a top priority (I wonder what that was like…) and demanded clergymen who were educated at Cambridge or Oxford in England. I guess it must have hard to find adequate ministers in the unsettled wild back then. Anyway, pretty soon the demand surpassed the supply, so the people of the north were forced to build schools to educate itself. The south—not so much.
Another part of colonial America was that the “Gentlemen” dominated local politics. They rode around the countryside, telling people who to vote for. A gentleman was classified as someone who didn’t do manual labor. If that’s the case gentility is definitely NOT something we lack nowadays.
There was a European double-standard:
1.) Married woman in an affair was harshly punished. Not just punished but harshly so—which is doubly distressing.
2.) Married man in an affair was not. Some even laughed it off—didn’t really care.
I always knew Europeans were to blame for this, ladies. Before Anglicization, there was never any double standard because the Puritans were so…pure. (Scarlet Letter, anyone?)
Other than geography, the North and South also differed in other ways.
South Carolina’s population was 70% slaves, and therefore, they were paranoid of a slave revolt. They also had the richest group in British North America—rice planters. (What is this? China?) Not to mention 3 major crops: tobacco, indigo, and wheat—NOT COTTON! (Yet.)
Slaves were the most expensive thing in southern economy. They organized the workers into task system which recognized human’s self-motivation: they required slaves to do and finish a certain amount of work before they can have free time and do nonslave-ish things. (Sounds like kindergarten. Except more brutal.) Slave owners also wanted more slave babies—so they can grow up and do slave-ish things. And make them rich. So the owners encouraged sex among the slaves. Sometimes the owners had huge harems of slave women. (DOUBLE STANDARD!)
The Middle Colonies (or the Mid-Atlantic colonies, if you prefer) included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. They were considered the “bread-basket” meaning they had many good farms that produced a lot of the food. The Quakers that ran Pennsylvania were pacifists (peacemakers—not the kind you give to babies when they start teething). Scots-Irish colonists were the lowest on the social hierarchy; they were the burnouts in high school. Because of this, the Quakers settled the Scots-Irish in the backcountry, so they would suffer most of the hostile Indian attacks, but what they did not expect was that the Scots-Irish developed an offensive attack, and they were kicked out of Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Now, the New England colonies had the worst economic growth caused by ruined crops which also resulted in poverty. They had to create new ideas to come up with money for the economy, so they began to harvest lumber, invested in shipbuilding, cod-fishing (very profitable), and the colonists learned whaling from the Indians. Whaling became a major industry. They also traded with the French, the archenemy of Britain—but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. They obtained French molasses from the Caribbean islands and began making rum. This, in turn, upset England, who passed the Molasses Act of 1733.
The Molasses Act of 1733 raised taxes on French molasses to make it less profitable. This did practically nothing; it only served to encourage smuggling and bribing. (Nice to know what America is really based on)
Another thing Britain did to upset the colonies was they banned fiat money, which is paper money that has no value except that the government promised it was an acceptable payment for taxes. Britain wanted real gold and silver or specie.
On the job market of colonial America there were some changes being made. Doctors became more respectable; they were being college trained now. Before, college wasn’t necessary to become a doctor. Now imagine a world where anyone could be a doctor—even that hobo under the bridge. You really didn’t want to get sick then. Anyways, Benjamin Rush was a doctor and leader (a double threat); he was the one who came up with the idea of a smallpox vaccine. And it worked! Gin was also a drug of choice for people back then: it was cheap and powerful. Kind of like the king…
A dominant philosophy at the time was the Enlightenment; it was the idea that with enough education, man can be perfected. So education was becoming more and more important, and another Benjamin—Franklin this time—supported it.
Leaders of the Enlightenment created a colony for the poor—Georgia. It was a place for “worthy poor.” And to be honest—it was an idealistic plan. They were planning to give land away! Georgia also banned all alcoholic beverages and slavery, and they wanted to produce silk. (They probably also wanted to build the houses out of marshmellows and end world hunger too—such ambitious people) None of which worked.
There was also the Great Awakening: a massive Christian revival in the colonies and in England. This shattered the unity of old denominations (congregational denominations) and turned to newer denominations, which grew as a result. The most important were:
1. Baptists – They multiplied rapidly
2. Methodists – They also grew quickly
3. Presbyterians – They became more and more important.
They were all considered poor people churches.
New Protestant colleges were founded, unifying the American colonies, and they began to think as a unit. (Thanks to the Enlightenment)
There several popular ministers, the rock stars of their time.
Gilbert Tennent preached “The Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry” in 1740.
Jonathan Edwards was delivered the “Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God” in 1737, but his most famous was probably “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
John and Charles Wesley were brothers and founders of the Methodist denomination. John was the preacher and Charles was a singer. They created the Holy Club—created for spiritual growth.
George Whitfield, a friend of the Wesley duo, was an Oxford student and probably the most popular preacher in America.
Meanwhile, there was also political culture in the colonies. People in England were divided between two parties: the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs were for “country” and the Tories were for “court” (king and all that). This divided the colonies a bit too: Jefferson was a Whig and Hamilton a Tory.
Most colonies were ruled by a royal government directly under the king, paid by the king, allegiance to the king (more like the money).
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