The Legacy Papers, No. 1: The Era of Securing the American Revolution (1801-1854)

This is the first in a series of story essays called The Legacy Papers which explore the American Experiment from two unique points of view, at least in the opinion of this writer. 

 

One such unique perspective is through the broad lens of a series of alternating Crises, and the time periods — or Eras — from the end of one Crisis until the beginning of the next Crisis. This contributes to a story-like presentation of what ordinarily might perhaps be considered plain ‘ole history. It also captures and compacts the nearly 250 years of American history into fast-moving storylines of a Crisis or an Era, for a total of six Legacy Papers.

 

A second unique perspective is a literary device which seeks to place the Reader at the beginning of each Legacy Paper storyline. Whether the topic is a Crisis or an Era, this writer has painted a picture of the uncertainty of the pending events to come. Each imagines that the unveiling stories are unknown and therefore, uncertain. 

 

Clearly, this is not the case because, in reality, all Readers of these essays in the 21st century should know bits and pieces of the history that will unfold before their eyes. Nevertheless, this writer believes that such a point of view adds fascinating color and texture to the story of the American Experiment captured in these Legacy Papers. For by its very nature, an experiment does not have a guaranteed, predetermined, and certain outcome. Likewise, the final outcome of the American Experiment is uncertain. This heightens the story element, and invites a touch of mystery, surprise, and yes, drama.

 

Before beginning my unique story of these Legacy Papers, the overarching setting of the American Experiment must be defined. Specifically, this is the ongoing story of an experimental and revolutionary form of government started by the American Revolution, and which was built on five constitutional pillars. The five pillars will be revealed over the course of these Legacy Papers. This new form of government had never been attempted before in the history of nations. For at the end of the 18th century, the United States was the single, lone republic or Democratic government to be found on earth. And today, by a recent count, there are 123 Democratic or partially democratic nations. 

 

This is one such outcome of the experiment in self-government. Suffice it to say that our world, and especially the United States, is the Legacy of our Founders.

 

And now, having established a common perspective, let us set the proverbial stage for these Legacy Papers and their American Experiment story. 

 

It is the end of the pivotal year of 1800. 

 

The Crisis known as the American Revolution has just ended. The budding nation in the new world has just survived its first decade of life under two presidential administrations. George Washington — the only indispensable man of the American Revolution, the figure who was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen”, and the first president of the nation — had died just 18 days before the start of 1800. And at the end of 1800, a threatening and potentially disastrous war with France was averted, thanks to the diplomacy of President John Adams.

 

The election of 1800, while turbulent in its journey, had reached its appropriate destination — a peaceful transition of power through the ballot box with the election of the opposition party’s candidate over President Adams. Although it is uncertain which candidate of the opposition party would be president — sitting Vice President Thomas Jefferson or New York Senator Aaron Burr — the opposition party had successfully defeated the previously dominant Federalist Party. The U.S. Constitution was paving the way to a government with orderly transitions.

 

The first Era of the Legacy Papers was beginning. This is the Era of Securing the American Revolution (1801-1854). The word “securing” is used here to mean the attempted anchoring and making stable the impact of the American Revolution — not necessarily for all time, but enduring for a significant period.

 

But in 1800, what exactly would the next 50 years bring to the people of the United States? One of the pivotal questions on the American mind of 1800 was would the new nation actually survive? Early in this Era, people assumed that the primary threat would come from across the Atlantic from the Old World, Europe. Many people in Europe, especially those in England, did not think America would survive as a nation. They believed the United States was an experiment doomed to fail in a few decades. After all, who ever heard of a people governing themselves? What nonsense?! Or so they thought. After all, the rest of the world consisted of nations ruled by kings, emperors, czars, shoguns, sultans, and monarchs. Those silly Americans will eventually come to see the inescapable ways of the world.

 

Many Americans actually had similar thoughts. What are the chances of America surviving another war with a European power without George Washington to lead the army? If it were the British, wouldn’t they learn from their glaring military mistakes during the War for Independence, and eventually produce a different outcome? What are the chances the European powers would not try to contest for the vast North American continent and its enticing and untold natural resources?

 

Thus, the first of four dominant themes of this Era was Surviving the European Threat. Early on, very fortunately for the United States, the remnant of the averted war with France in 1800 would help lead to Napoleon selling to America the vast tract of land which was to be called the Louisiana Purchase. That basically would take care of the immediate threat from France.

 

Next would be the threat from former motherland, England and the War of 1812. There would be several battles scattered across America, including in Baltimore harbor where lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key would pen the words to The Star-Spangled Banner, as well as a battle in New Orleans where General Andrew Jackson would make a name for himself. The war would be, in effect, a draw and the two nations would sign a peace treaty in late 1814. 

 

Next, the most immediate European threat would come from Spain, especially in a place called Florida and much of the south. After much bickering from across the Atlantic, President James Monroe and his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams would establish the Monroe Doctrine, which made clear that the U.S. would consider any European activity on the continent an act of war. This doctrine would be instrumental in keeping Europe’s covetous hands off of the New World by forcibly declaring the continent off-limits to future European colonies and entanglements. This was to be the capstone in surviving the European threat to the grand experiment.

 

Enter the second theme of this Era. The eyes of America would be turning away from Europe — and Turning to the West, where America’s future lay, at least for the rest of this Era. The excitement would begin emphatically with Lewis and Clarke and their journey of discovery. These men would make it across the continent all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Into this expanse, ingenious men would invent a new method of transportation called the railroad, which would link steam-powered trains to nearly all major cities in the United States. The railroad would help commerce grow in the East, but it would “make” the West. 

 

This westward expansion would become one of the most remarkable of American lore, fondly known as the “Wild West”. Soon, the names of Davy Crockett, Wyatt Earp, Jessie James, Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid, Geronimo, Wild Bill Hickok, Sam Houston, and the Alamo would become household names throughout the continent. This westward movement, also called Manifest Destiny, would be catapulted by the discovery of gold in a place called California. Soon that place would become the 31st state in the Union, and the American nation would stretch clear across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, from sea to shining sea, as it were. The vast continent would be an incalculable asset for the United States, just as George Washington and others had foretold. 

 

But with the growth of America across the continent, there would come the Era’s third important theme, Inward Growing Pains. New land and new states would exacerbate the primary, fundamental issue of the American Experiment — Southern slavery. As a Northerner, how could you accept the South and their vile institution of slavery? As a Southerner, how could you protect your way of life, which depended on the institution of slavery? After all, with all this land to conquer, wouldn’t slaves be needed to help manage and control that land?

 

America’s inward growing pains would include a spiritual movement — a significant movement of Americans turning back to God. Much like the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, a Second Great Awakening would take hold of many hearts of Americans in the 1820s and 1830s. Church membership would soar and with it, a rumbling spirit would begin two great and significant battlegrounds in the American Experiment – one against alcoholic beverages, called the temperance movement, and the other against slavery, called the abolition movement. Both movements would reach their zenith in a future Legacy Paper.

 

Another inward struggle would be manifested in attempts to resolve the interests of the American Indian. The issue seemed intractable in 1800, for even President Washington had given a mighty effort to bring about a just result for the hopes, future, and interests of American Indians, but it failed — marking the one crowning defeat of any issue in which he invested himself. 

 

This would become a definite inward growing pain, with an emphasis on pain. The strongest gasp for a solution, though not to the level of President Washington, would come from President Jefferson, motivated by the lofty ideals of the American Revolution. But his unsatisfying policy of assimilation and agricultural training was to be ineffective. The deepest valley, from a presidential administration standpoint, was to come from President Andrew Jackson and his policy of removal of American Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River. But in the end, these policies, treaties, and broken treaties from U.S. presidents and even state governors would not be determinative.

 

Instead, because America would grow so quickly and so much — that very growth would be the immovable force that would rule the day. The sheer number of settlers and European Americans would double in a span of twenty years, and the number of American Indians would shrink at an equivalent rate. Demographics and the unchecked power of democracy would lead to the tragedy and travesty done to American Indians. 

 

In a long history of a nation, the topic of inward growing pains can be expected to reoccur at different times. It happened in the 500-year history of the Roman Empire, and it will likely re-emerge later in the United States of America. So for now, we will move on with our story.

 

The fourth and final theme of this 50-year-long Era of Securing the American Revolution is the most crucial for the purposes of these Legacy Papers — Practicing Self-Government. One healthy sign of the American Experiment would be multiple political parties exhibiting transitory power.

 

The clearest sign of securing the American Revolution would be the nation’s self-government in operation. This is a direct legacy of the Founders. For from its founding in 1788 until 1854, the Federal government, and the nation, undergirded by the Constitution of the United States, would experience seven decades of peaceful transitions of governing power – 14 presidents would be elected from four different political parties. In the House of Representatives — known as the People’s House — governing power would change its controlling party ten times, and the Senate would change its controlling party six times. The frequency of these alternating centers of power is totally foreign to 21st century ears and minds.

 

The People and the States would vote for these changes, and everyone would come to expect peaceful transitions – and it would be so. The ballot was infinitely greater than the bullet and the gun. What other nation on earth could claim anything near to these amazing attainments?

 

In this land of the free and home of the brave, the People of the United States were sovereign over their new form of government, and the nation would become a beacon of hope for the world. The Federal government would operate in an environment of healthy debate about its Powers as granted by the Constitution. In the Executive branch, there were five Executive departments established by 1800 under President Washington (State, Treasury, War, Navy, and Post Office), and only one new Executive department (Interior, a shout-out to the West and its vast lands) would be added by 1854. 

 

In the Judicial branch, Chief Justice John Marshall would be appointed by President Adams and lead the way to establishing the Judicial branch as co-equal with the other two branches of the Federal government. 

 

And in the Legislative branch, a hero would emerge to lead that branch for nearly this entire era, from 1806 until his death in 1852. A man named Henry Clay was born nine months after the nation’s birth. Mr. Clay would grow up along with the nation, move west to Kentucky, and become the incomparable leader most responsible for keeping the union together against the growing threat of slavery. Affectionately known as “the Great Compromiser”, Mr. Clay would establish the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and several other legislative measures that directly prevented war between the North and the South. And serving in Congress with Mr. Clay as the nation’s leading opponent of slavery would be John Quincy Adams, one of only two individuals who would later serve in Congress after serving as President of the United States. Then in 1852, Mr. Clay would go to be with his Maker and the nation would bid a sad parting to Mr. Clay’s long service to the Union. In his lifetime, as a plantation owner, Mr. Clay would have slaves; but following President Washington’s wise example, he would free his slaves in his will. O that more Americans of the South in that generation would have done the same! 

 

Two years later in 1854, the Era of Securing the American Revolution would end. This Era would be marked by the themes of Surviving the European Threat, Turning to the West, Inward Growing Pains, and Practicing Self-Government. The reason the year 1854 was selected for the end of this Era will be more apparent in the next Legacy Paper on America’s next Crisis.

 

In the continuing story contained in the rest of these Legacy Papers, there is so much to tell — horrendous wars, momentous decisions, amazing inventions, transformational events, and new American heroes — all of which will take the nation to new heights through the 19th and 20th centuries, and into the 21st. You will be truly amazed at the Legacy of the Founders!