The Early American Republic: A Documentary Reader / Edition 1

by Sean Patrick Adams

Overview

THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC

UNCOVERING THE PAST: DOCUMENTARY READERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

“Selected with imagination and wisdom, these incisive and wide-ranging texts will provide a ‘road map’ for students of the first sixty years of American independence.”
Daniel Walker Howe, Winner of 2008 Pulitzer Prize for History

“A nice blend of comprehensiveness and coherence, the selections are individually interesting, relate well to each other, and provide a wide-ranging, imaginative, and disciplined conversation about the Early Republic.”
Paul E. Johnson, University of South Carolina

“This handy collection of speeches, documents, private letters, and pieces of literature, complete with context-setting prefaces, will be invaluable in any course covering major themes in the history of early national America.”
Joanne Freeman, Yale University

“Expertly edited and chock-full of enlightening and telling primary documents, this reader conveys a beautifully textured sense of the past and attends to all of the key issues during the formative years of the United States.”
Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina

“Finally, a primary sources reader that includes the full breadth of voices (both familiar and lesser known) that characterized the Early American Republic. Sean Adams’s informative introduction ties these voices together well, making this book a helpful teaching tool for conveying the rich variety of social and political issues that the young nation faced.”
Steven Deyle, University of Houston

“Students will marvel at the fifty-year struggle to forge a nation in the decades following the American Revolution.”
Seth Rockman, Brown University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405160971
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/20/2008
Series:	Uncovering the Past: Documentary Readers in American History
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sean Patrick Adams is Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida, where he teaches courses in Nineteenth-Century U.S. History. He is the author of numerous publications, most notably Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (2004).

Read an Excerpt

Click to read or download

Table of Contents

List of Figures ix

Series Editors’ Preface x

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction: Traveling the Early American Republic 1

Part I Building The United States 11

Chapter 1 Origins 13

1 First Inaugural Address of George Washington, 1789 13

2 Tickagiska King Addresses President George Washington, 1789 16

3 Western Pennsylvanians Petition Against Taxes, 1790 17

Chapter 2 The First American Party System 21

1 A Federalist Appeal to Voters, 1792 21

2 Abigail Adams on the Partisan Press, 1797 24

3 Matthew Lyon Criticizes ‘‘Aristocratic’’ Politics, 1797 25

4 A Massachusetts Farmer Attacks the Federalists, 1798 27

Chapter 3 Recasting the American Nation 29

1 First Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson, 1801 29

2 A New Name for the United States? 1803 33

3 Rules of Etiquette in Jefferson’s White House, 1803 37

Part II Clashes East And West 39

Chapter 4 Whose Land? 41

1 Lewis and Clark Make American Claims in the ‘‘Great West,’’ 1805 41

2 Tecumseh Speaks Out Against American Policy in the Old Northwest, 1810 43

3 An Artist’s Depiction of Scalping during the War of 1812, 1812 45

Chapter 5 Conflict on Many Fronts 47

1 James Madison Justifies War with the British, 1812 47

2 The Hartford Convention Denounces the War, 1814 50

3 An Eyewitness Account of the Battle of New Orleans, 1816 54

Part III The Postwar Nation Looks Forward 59

Chapter 6 The Year 1819 in Image and Verse 61

1 A Poem about a Panic, 1819 61

2 Americans on Their Way to a Camp Revival, 1819 63

3 A Satirist Looks at the American Militia, 1819 64

Chapter 7 The Future Course of the Republic? 67

1 John C. Calhoun Promotes Federal Internal Improvements, 1817 67

2 The American Colonization Society Appeals to Congress, 1820 70

3 Maine Answers the ‘‘Missouri Question,’’ 1820 72

Part IV The Work Of A New Republic 75

Chapter 8 A Nation on the Move 77

1 A Western Editor Endorses ‘‘Old Hickory,’’ 1824 77

2 The Erie Canal Hits the American Stage, 1830 79

3 An Englishwoman Remembers Her First Illinois Winter, 1848 83

4 Charles Ball Describes Moving in the Slave Trade, 1837 86

Chapter 9 Work at Home, Factory, and Field 91

1 Lydia Maria Child on the Family Economy and Soapmaking, 1830 91

2 Two Views on the Morality of Capitalism in the Early Republic, 1834 and 1836 96

3 Henry Bibb Describes Slave Labor in the Cotton Fields, 1849 99

Chapter 10 A New Urban America 102

1 Frances Trollope Describes Cincinnati, 1832 102

2 A Poem Composed to Cholera, 1832 105

3 A Raucous Omnibus Ride in New York City, 1839 107

Part V Renewal And Reform 113

Chapter 11 The Soul of the Republic 115

1 Radical Quakers Appeal to Frances Wright, 1828 115

2 Rev. Charles Finney on Changing One’s Own Heart, 1836 117

3 Zilpha Elaw Remembers Preaching in the North and South, 1846 119

Chapter 12 Improvement of Body and Soul 122

1 Boston Physicians on Temperance, 1832 122

2 Mathew Carey Advocates Reform for Seamstresses, 1833 124

3 Sylvester Graham Denounces ‘‘The Appetites,’’ 1837 127

Chapter 13 Anti-Slavery to Abolition 131

1 African-American Leaders Reject Colonization Schemes, 1831 131

2 Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833 133

3 Maria Stewart Speaks at the African Masonic Hall, 1833 137

Part VI Jackson’s America 145

Chapter 14 The Rise of the ‘‘Common Man’’ 147

1 The Inauguration of Andrew Jackson, 1829 147

2 David Walker Describes the Condition of Free African-Americans, 1829 152

3 Sarah Grimke´ Defends the Rights of Women, 1837 155

Chapter 15 Native Americans and the Common Man 159

1 Andrew Jackson Attempts to Justify Indian Removal to Congress, 1830 159

2 John Ross Explains the Position of the Cherokee Nation, 1834 162

3 A Description of Native American Removal in Tennessee, 1835 165

Chapter 16 The Second American Party System 167

1 A Violent Election Season in New York City, 1834 167

2 Henry Clay on Whig Strategy, 1838 169

3 New Hampshire Papers Debate the ‘‘Log Cabin’’

Campaign, 1840 171

Part VII The American Continent 175

Chapter 17 The Mississippi and Beyond 177

1 Narcissa Whitman Describes Missionary Life in Oregon, 1836 177

2 George Catlin Describes the Mandan Buffalo Dance, 1841 180

3 Notchininga’s Map of the Upper Mississippi, 1837 183

Chapter 18 The Era of Manifest Destiny 185

1 Sam Houston’s Inaugural Address for the Republic of Texas, 1836 185

2 An Editor Endorses the Idea of ‘‘Manifest Destiny,’’ 1845 188

3 Walter Colton on the Discovery of Gold in California, 1850 191

Chapter 19 War with Mexico 195

1 President Polk’s War Message, 1846 195

2 An American Sergeant’s Perspective on the War with Mexico, 1847 199

3 Guillermo Prieto Describes the Occupation of Mexico City, 1850 204

Epilogue: The President and the Ex-Slave 208

1 Zachary Taylor’s Inaugural Address, 1849 209

2 Frederick Douglass on ‘‘Morals and Men,’’ 1849 211

Bibliography 214

Index 219

Editorial Reviews

"Selected with imagination and wisdom, these incisive and wide-ranging texts will indeed ... provide a 'road map' for students of the first sixty years of American independence." —Daniel Walker Howe, author of What hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (winner, 2008 Pulitzer Prize for History)

"[A] nice blend of comprehensiveness and coherence. The selections are individually interesting, they relate well to each other, and ... provide a wide-ranging, imaginative, and disciplined conversation about the Early Republic." —Paul E. Johnson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina, author of A Shopkeeper's Millennium and Sam Patch, the famous jumper; and coauthor (with Sean Wilentz) of The Kingdom of Matthias

"This handy collection of speeches, documents, private letters, and pieces of literature, complete with context-setting prefaces, will be invaluable in any course covering major themes in the history of early national America." —Joanne Freeman, Yale University

"Expertly edited [and] chock-full of enlightening and telling primary documents, this reader conveys a beautifully textured sense of the past and attends to all of the key issues during the formative years of the United States." —Mark M. Smith, Carolina Distinguished Professor of History, University of South Carolina

“Finally, a primary sources reader that includes the full breadth of voices (both familiar and lesser known) that characterized the early American republic. Sean Adams’s informative introduction ties these voices together well, making this book a helpful teaching tool for conveying the rich variety of social and political issues that the young nation faced.” —Steven Deyle, University of Houston

"Provides an exciting variety of primary sources and perspectives on the nation’s first sixty years. Adams has drawn together voices from across the early American republic to illuminate the complexities of the era." —Craig Friend, North Carolina State University

"Students will marvel at the fifty-year struggle to forge a nation in the decades following the American Revolution." —Seth Rockman, Brown University

From the Publisher