Chapter I: Preface

The purpose of this volume is to show the action and reaction of the most important social, economic, political, and personal forces that have entered into the make-up of the United States as a nation. The primary assumption of the author is that the people of this country did not compose a nation until after the close of the Civil War in 1865. Of scarcely less importance is the fact that the decisive motive behind the different groups in Congress at every great crisis of the period under discussion was sectional advantage or even sectional aggrandizement. If Webster ceased to be a particularist after 1824 and became a nationalist before 1830, it was because the interests of New England had undergone a similar change; or, if Calhoun deserted about the same time the cause of nationalism and became the most ardent of sectionalists, it was also because the interests of his constituents, the cotton and tobacco planters of the South, had become identified with particularism, that is, States rights.

And corollary to these assumptions is the further fact that public men usually determine what line of procedure is best for their constituents, or for what are supposed to be the interests of those constituents, and then seek for "powers" or clauses in State or Federal Constitutions which justify the predetermined course. This being, as a rule, true, the business of the historian is to understand the influences which led to the first, not the second, decision of the Representative or Senator or President or even Justice of the Supreme Court. Hence long-winded speeches or tortuous decisions of courts have not been studied so closely as the statistics of the cotton or tobacco crops, the reports of manufacturers, and the conditions of the frontier, which determined more of the votes of members of Congress than the most eloquent persuasion of great orators.

Thus the following pages utterly fail of their purpose if they do not picture the background of congressional and sectional conflicts during the period from Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln. But, to be sure, in so brief a book all the contributing elements of the growing national life cannot be fully described or even be mentioned. Still, it is the hope of the author that all the greater subjects have been treated. What has been omitted was omitted in order to devote more space to what seemed to be more important, not in order to suppress what some may consider to be of primary significance. Three hundred short pages for the story of the great conflict which raged from 1828 to 1865 do not offer much latitude for explanations and diversions along the way. Nor is it possible for any one to describe this conflict satisfactorily even to all historians, to say nothing of the participants who still live and entertain the most positive and contradictory convictions. Hence one must present one's own narrative and be content if open-mindedness and honesty of purpose be acknowledged.

The book is intended for the maturer students in American colleges and universities and for readers who may be desirous of knowing why things happened as they did as well as how they happened. And by the employment of collateral readings suggested in the short bibliographies at the close of each chapter, both the college student and the more general reader may find his way through the labyrinth of conflicting opinion and opposing authorities which make up the body of our written history.

To make this task easier some twenty-five maps have been prepared and inserted at the appropriate places in the text. These maps, perhaps one might say photographs of social or economic conditions, attempt to present the greater sectional and industrial groups of "interests" which entered into the common life of _ante-bellum_ times. They treat party evolution, economic development, and social antagonisms in a way which, it seems to the author, should help the reader to a better understanding of things than would be possible by the simple narrative.

For permission to use the maps on pages 291, 313, and 327 the author expresses his thanks to the publishers of _The Encyclopedia Americana_.

In this connection cordial thanks are extended to Professor J. F. Jameson and Dr. C. O. Paullin, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, for the privilege of using the data which they collected on the election of 1828 and the vote in Congress on the Tariff of 1832. Likewise Mr. P. L. Phillips, of the Division of Maps of the Library of Congress, has given the author much assistance. Nor must I fail to say that many of my students have rendered practical aid in working out the details of several of the maps. Mr. Edward J. Woodhouse, of Yale University, very kindly read all the proof and prepared the index. And Professors A. C. McLaughlin and M. W. Jernegan, of the University of Chicago; Allen Johnson, of Yale; Carl Becker, of Kansas; and Frederic L. Paxson, of Wisconsin, have all given counsel and criticism on certain chapters which have been of great practical benefit.

But in making these acknowledgments for assistance rendered, it is not intended to shift to other shoulders any of the responsibility for statements or manner of treatment which may arouse criticism. The book is intended to be helpful, interpretative, and beyond any sectional bias. If the author has not been successful, it is not the fault of others, nor because of any sparing of personal efforts.

_William E. Dodd._

CONTENTS

I. _Andrew Jackson_ 1

II. _The West_ 20

III. _The East_ 39

IV. _Conflict and Compromise_ 58

V. _The Triumph of Jackson_ 77

VI. _Distress and Reaction_ 96

VII. _The Militant South_ 114

VIII. _War and Conquest_ 147

IX. _The Abolitionists_ 161

X. _Prosperity_ 184

XI. _American Culture_ 208

XII. _Stephen A. Douglas_ 231

XIII. _Abraham Lincoln_ 251

XIV. _The Appeal to Arms_ 268

XV. _One Nation or Two?_ 289

XVI. _The Collapse of the Confederacy_ 309

_Index_ i

MAPS

_The Presidential Election of_ 1828 _between_ 18 _and_ 19

_Distribution of Indians and Location of Indian Lands and Unorganized Territory of the United States or the States_ 26

_The Distribution of Industrial Plants in_ 1833 49

_The Vote in the House of Representatives on the Tariff of_ 1832 _in Eastern and Western States_ _between_ 66 _and_ 67

_Growth of the West and Removal of Indians from Cotton, Tobacco, and First Western Grain Belts_ 88

_The Presidential Election of_ 1836 _between_ 92 _and_ 93

_Tobacco Areas in_ 1840 133

_Cotton Areas in_ 1840 134

_Wheat Areas in_ 1840 139

_The Presidential Election of_ 1844 _between_ 148 _and_ 149

_Annexations of_ 1845-53 159

_Location of Abolition Societies in_ 1847 169

_The Presidential Election of_ 1852 _between_ 180 _and_ 181

_The Industrial Belt of_ 1860 188

_Railroads in Operation_, 1850 190

_Railroads in Operation_, 1860 191

_The Black Belt of_ 1860 193

_The Cotton Belt of_ 1860 196

_Tobacco Areas in_ 1860 197

_Wheat Areas in_ 1860 200

_The Presidential Election of_ 1860 _between_ 264 _and_ 265

_Conflicting Sectional Interests_, 1850-60 237

_One Nation or Two_? 291

_The Confederacy in_ 1863 313

_Regions which surrendered with Lee and Johnston, April, 1865_ 327

EXPANSION AND CONFLICT