How did the US government attempt to stimulate economic growth during the early

Question

How did the US government attempt to stimulate economic growth during the early 19th century?

How did the US government attempt to stimulate economic growth during the early 19th century?

2. What role did the federal government play in "internal improvements" of transportation in the first decades of the 19th century?

3. What factors motivated Americans to move westward in the early 19th century?

4. What was the "era of good feelings"? What happened to it?

5. Explain the Missouri Compromise. Why did Jefferson call it "a fire bell in the night"?

6. What rulings by the Marshall Court enhanced its own power and that of the federal government?

7. Could the US have enforced the Monroe Doctrine in 1823? Why or why not?

8. What was the "corrupt bargain" of 1824? Was it corrupt?

Explanation / Answer

Answer 1)

The modern American economy traces its roots to the quest of European settlers for economic gain in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The New World then progressed from a marginally successful colonial economy to a small, independent farming economy and, eventually, to a highly complex industrial economy. During this evolution, the United States developed ever more complex institutions to match its growth. And while government involvement in the economy has been a consistent theme, the extent of that involvement generally has increased.

The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1787 and in effect to this day, was in many ways a work of creative genius. As an economic charter, it established that the entire nation -- stretching then from Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi Valley -- was a unified, or "common," market. There were to be no tariffs or taxes on interstate commerce. The Constitution provided that the federal government could regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states, establish uniform bankruptcy laws, create money and regulate its value, fix standards of weights and measures, establish post offices and roads, and fix rules governing patents and copyrights. The last-mentioned clause was an early recognition of the importance of "intellectual property," a matter that would assume great importance in trade negotiations in the late 20th century.

Answer 2)

Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canals, harbors and navigation improvements.[1] This older term carries the connotation of a political movement that called for the exercise of public spirit as well as the search for immediate economic gain. Improving the country's natural advantages by developments in transportation was, in the eyes of George Washington and many others, a duty incumbent both on governments and on individual citizens.

The federal role in funding and constructing internal improvements was one of the most persistent and contentious issues of American politics in the years after the revolution. With independence, elites based in the various regional economies of the American coastal plain did share an interest in developing the transportation infrastructure of the country. Unlike Europe, they were isolated from one another by poor inland transportation links and the legacy of their colonial trading patterns, and separated from their interior lands by formidable geographic obstacles.[7] George Washington repeatedly pressed his vision of a network of canals and highways to be created and overseen through the auspices of wise leaders at the head of an active republican government. This initial thrust for internal improvements fell victim to what Washington considered the narrow-minded and provincial outlook of the individual states, and federal authority hamstrung by theArticles of Confederation to the point of impotence.

Answer 3 )

America’s steady westward expansion throughout the 19th century was influenced by a number of factors, among them a need for land for a burgeoning population, governmental policies which encouraged migrants west, and a sense of “manifest destiny” – the idea that Americans were destined by God to populate their entire country to the Pacific shore and beyond.he swelling American population played a large part in the decision Americans made to head west. According to America’s second census in 1800, the U.S. population numbered 5.3 million. By the seventh census, in 1850, the population had quadrupled to 23.2 million. It’s been estimated that between 1820 and 1850, four million Americans moved west. In the first half of the 19th century especially, Americans were mainly farmers who needed arable land for their crops and livestock, land that was not available in the overcrowded and farmed-out east. There were, as well, financial panics (in 1818 and 1839) that uprooted people and sent them west seeking a fresh start.

The Government Opens Up New Lan

The American government itself encouraged its citizens to move west, in large part by acquiring new territory from foreign powers. Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 Louisiana Purchase added 530,000,000 acres to America and the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 revealed a land rich with promise for settlers. The United States aggressively continued it expansion by negotiating an 1846 agreement with Great Britain to cede the Oregon Territory (which included the present-day states of Oregon and Washington) to the United States. And the U.S. fought the Mexican-American War of 1846-47 in order to secure its hold on Texas and acquire California and much of the American southwest, opening these territories up to American settlers.

Pacific Expansion

Some American citizens and government officials believed in the notion of “manifest destiny,” a term coined by journalist John L. O’Sullivan in 1845, which meant Americans were destined to control all the continental lands west to the Pacific, south to the Rio Grande, and north to Canada. But manifest destiny could also be a guise for opportunism. America’s expansion west was an expansion for merchants as well as farmers. California was known for its fertile land and, later, its rich gold fields, but American merchants wanted to acquire it for its Pacific ports. These allowed for American expansion into the Pacific Ocean for trade with China and Japan; eventually, the U.S. established a powerful American naval base in Hawaii.

Answer 4)

The Era of Good Feelings marked a period in the political history of the United States that reflected a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.[1][2] The era saw the collapse of the Federalist Party and an end to the bitter partisan disputes between it and the dominant Democratic-Republican Party during the First Party System.[3][4] President James Monroe strove to downplay partisan affiliation in making his nominations, with the ultimate goal of national unity and eliminating parties altogether from national politics.[1][5][6] The period is so closely associated with Monroe's presidency (1817–1825) and his administrative goals that his name and the era are virtually synonymous.[7]

The designation of the period by historians as one of good feelings is often conveyed with irony or skepticism, as the history of the era was one in which the political atmosphere was strained and divisive, especially among factions within the Monroe administration and the Republican Party.

Answer 5)

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