What Hath God Wrought (126 page)

Along with its successes, Morse’s career also displayed some of the defects of American democracy: its contentiousness, corruption, and ethnoreligious hostility. As late as the Civil War Morse remained an outspoken apologist for slavery. On the other hand, he strongly supported women’s education and became a founding trustee of Vassar College. Electric telegraphy arrived at a time of transition, innovation, injustice, aggression, turmoil, and dramatic growth. Well might Morse’s contemporaries marvel but also wonder at what God had wrought in America. Like the ancient Israelites, the Americans had wrested their homeland from other occupiers, believing that this action fulfilled a divine purpose. In the biblical story that Morse’s telegraph demonstration evoked, the seer Balaam, hired by the Moabite king to curse the Israelites, instead reported that God blessed them and willed them to become powerful. “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion” (Numbers 23:24).

In 1848, it seemed that the greatness of the American people had been shown by their extensive recent conquests across the continent. Later, that greatness could seem affirmed by the preservation of the Union, industrial might, commercial influence, scientific research, and victories over global enemies. Later still, perhaps that greatness might be seen in the extent to which the dreams of 1848 feminists and abolitionists have at length been realized. History works on a long time scale, and at any given moment we can perceive its directions but imperfectly. Like the people of 1848, we look with both awe and uncertainty at what God hath wrought in the United States of America.

Lengthy though it is, this essay must be highly selective. Some fine historical works have been left out, and items cited in footnotes are not necessarily repeated here. With few exceptions, I mention only books, not articles, although many articles appear in the footnotes. Where it seemed possible to do so without creating ambiguity, I have often omitted subtitles and authors’ middle names.

The most influential major interpretations of this era have been those of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.,
The Age of Jackson
(1945) and Charles Sellers,
The Market Revolution
(1991). Schlesinger considered the distinguishing feature of the period the spread of democracy through class conflict spearheaded by the industrial workers. Sellers argued that market capitalism was an aggressive imposition upon a reluctant population. Schlesinger’s viewpoint has been updated and expanded by Sean Wilentz in
The Rise of American Democracy
(2005). All three books celebrate the Democratic Party of the time as the agent and defender of democracy against its Whig rival. I disagree with these works, but I have learned from them and admire their authors’ knowledge and skill. For a discussion of Sellers’s book by other historians, see Melvyn Stokes and Stephen Conway, eds.,
The Market Revolution in America
(1996). Valuable general treatments of the period, concise and balanced, are John Mayfield,
The New Nation, 1800–1830
, rev. ed. (1982); Harry Watson,
Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America
(1990); and Daniel Feller,
The Jacksonian Promise
(1995).

Older general works can retain enduring value in some respects even though dated in others; such include John Bach McMaster,
History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War
(1895); James Schouler,
History of the United States
, rev. ed., vols. III and IV (1904); Edward Channing,
History of the United States
, vol. V (1921); and Frederick Jackson Turner,
The United States, 1830–1850
(1935). More recent works on this period include Rush Welter,
The Mind of America, 1820–1860
(1975); Edward Pessen,
Jacksonian America
, rev. ed. (1978); and Robert Wiebe,
The Opening of American Society
(1984). Marxist interpretations include William Appleman Williams,
The Contours of American History
(1961); Alexander Saxton,
The Rise and Fall of the White Republic
(1990); and John Ashworth,
Slavery, Capitalism, and Politics in the Antebellum Republic
, vol. I (1995).

Antebellum southern history has benefited from works written on a grand scale; three such monumental accomplishments are Michael O’Brien,
Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810–1860
, 2 vols. (2004); William Freehling,
The Road to Disunion
, 2 vols. (1990–2007); and Eugene Genovese,
Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
(1974).

Diana Muir’s beautifully written
Reflections in Bullough’s Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England
(2000) emphasizes the industrial revolution. Two other fine books that should also be better known are William Brock,
Parties and Political Conscience, 1840–1850
(1979) and Major Wilson,
Space, Time, and Freedom
(1974). Two gems of narrative that reveal much social history are Patricia Cline Cohen,
The Murder of Helen Jewett
(1998) and Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz,
The Kingdom of Matthias
(1994). For connections between religion and politics so important to American history, consult the wide-ranging book by Kevin Phillips,
The Cousins’ Wars
(1999). An excellent college textbook is Pauline Maier et al.,
Inventing America
(2005), vol. I. The chapters on 1815–48 were written by Merrit Roe Smith.

The millennium edition of
Historical Statistics of the United States
, ed. Susan Carter et al. (2006), became available after I had completed my research; I used the bicentennial edition (1975). Other valuable reference works include William Shade and Ballard Campbell, eds.,
American Presidential Campaigns and Elections
(2003); Angus Maddison,
The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective
(2001); John Garraty and Mark Carnes, eds.,
American National Biography
(1999) and
Mapping America’s Past: A Historical Atlas
(1996); Arthur Schlesinger Jr. et al., eds.,
Running for President: The Candidates and Their Images
(1994),
History of American Presidential Elections
(1985), and
History of U.S. Political Parties
(1973); Kenneth Martis,
Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the U.S. Congress
(1989); Donald Bruce Johnson, ed.,
National Party Platforms
, rev. ed.(1978); Frank Taussig,
The Tariff History of the United States
(1910); and John J. McCusker,
How Much Is That in Real Money?
(1992).

The University of Kansas Press’s American Presidency Series is excellent. I have used Robert Rutland,
The Presidency of James Madison
(1990); Noble Cunningham Jr.,
The Presidency of James Monroe
(1996); Mary Hargreaves,
The Presidency of John Quincy Adams
(1985); Donald Cole,
The Presidency of Andrew Jackson
(1993); Major Wilson,
The Presidency of Martin Van Buren
(1984); Norma Peterson,
The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler
(1989); and Paul Bergeron,
The Presidency of James K. Polk
(1987).

Several well-written books bring to life specific years in American history: Edward Skeen,
1816: America Rising
(2003); Andrew Burstein,
America’s Jubilee, 1826
(2001); Louis Masur,
1831: Year of Eclipse
(2001); and the most moving of all, Bernard DeVoto,
The Year of Decision, 1846
(1943).

A continental approach is essential for an understanding of the period between 1815 and 1848. To locate the United States in its North American geographical setting, see the wonderful work of D. W. Meinig,
The Shaping of America
; I used vol. II,
Continental America, 1800–1867
(1993). Andrew Cayton and Fred Anderson integrate the United States into North American history in
The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500–2000
(2005). Valuable context is also supplied by Lester Langley,
The Americas in the Age of Revolution
(1996); Alan Taylor,
American Colonies
(2001); and Richard White,
It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own
(1991). I was influenced by the model of Fernan Braudel’s classic,
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II
, trans. Sian Reynolds (1976).

On the Hispanic borderlands that became part of the United States during the period here treated, two books of David Weber are invaluable:
The Spanish Frontier in North America
(1992) and
The Mexican Frontier, 1821–1846
(1982). See also Donald Chipman,
Spanish Texas
(1992); Andrés Reséndez,
Changing National Identities at the Frontier
(2005); and Juan Gomez-Quiñones,
Roots of Chicano Politics
(1994). Works on the history of Mexico are often useful, such as Michael Meyer and William Sherman,
The Course of Mexican History
(1990) and Timothy Anna,
Forging Mexico
(1998). For Hispanic California and its missions, see Kevin Starr,
California: A History
(2005); Robert H. Jackson and Edward Castillo,
Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization
(1995); James Sandos,
Converting California
(2004); and the essays in Ramon Gutierrez and Richard Orsi, eds.,
Contested Eden
(1998).

The literature on the Native American peoples is enormous and includes works of anthropology as well as history. What follows is only a representative sample of works available. For general works, see
The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas: North America
, ed. Bruce Trigger and Wilcomb Washburn (1996); Colin Calloway,
One Vast Winter Count
(2003); Alice Kehoe,
America Before the European Invasions
(2002); Daniel Richter,
Facing East from Indian Country
(2001); Shepard Krech,
The Ecological Indian
(1999); and Linda Barrington, ed.,
The Other Side of the Frontier
(1998). More specific studies include Gary Anderson,
The Indian Southwest, 1580–1830
(1999); John Ewers,
Plains Indian History and Culture
(1997); Wilbur Jacobs,
The Fatal Confrontation
(1996); Dean R. Snow,
The Iroquois
(1994); Thomas Kavanagh,
The Comanches
(1996); Robbie Ethridge,
Creek Country
(2003); L. Leitch Wright Jr.,
Creeks and Seminoles
(1986); John Sugden,
Tecumseh’s Last Stand
(1985); R. David Edmunds,
The Shawnee Prophet
(1983); and Peter Mancall,
Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America
(1995).

For the history of the Seminoles, see J. Leitch Wright Jr.,
Creeks and Seminoles
(1986); James Covington,
The Seminoles of Florida
(1993); Kevin Mulroy,
Freedom on the Border
(1993); and Kenneth Porter,
The Black Seminoles
, rev. ed. (1996). Joshua Giddings,
The Exiles of Florida
(1858) holds up well after many years. On the Florida Wars, see David and Jeanne Heidler,
Old Hickory’s War
(1996); John K. Mahon,
History of the Second Seminole War
, rev. ed. (1985); Virginia Peters,
The Florida Wars
(1979); and Francis Paul Prucha,
Sword of the Republic
(1969).

The concept of a “frontier” as a place of encounter rather than a barrier is explored in Thomas Clark and John Guice,
Frontiers in Conflict: The Old Southwest, 1795–1830
(1989); Richard White,
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region
(1991); Gregory Nobles,
American Frontiers: Cultural Encounters and Continental Conquest
(1997); Andrew Cayton and Fredrika Teute, eds.,
Contact Points
(1998); and Stephen Aron,
American Confluence: The Missouri Frontier
(2006). On the Great Plains, two books by Elliott West are valuable:
The Contested Plains
(1998) and
The Way to the West
(1995). See also Andrew Isenberg,
The Destruction of the Bison
(2000) and Terry Jordan,
North American Cattle-Ranching Frontiers
(1993).

Canadian-American relations can be examined in Arthur Burt,
The United States, Great Britain and British North America
(1961); Reginald Stuart,
United States Expansionism and British North America
(1988); Kenneth Bourne,
Britain and the Balance of Power in North America
(1967); and Bradford Perkins,
Castlereagh and Adams
(1964). For the diplomatic crises of Van Buren’s administration, see Kenneth Stevens,
Border Diplomacy
(1989), supplemented with Albert Corey,
The Crisis of 1830–1842 in Canadian–American Relations
(1941). For the Canadian perspective, I consulted Gerald Craig,
Upper Canada, The Formative Years
(1963) and Colin Read,
The Rising in Western Upper Canada
(1982). The authoritative history of the Canadian-American boundary dispute and its resolution by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty is now Francis Carroll,
A Good and Wise Measure
(Toronto, 2001). Also see Frederick Merk,
Fruits of Propaganda in the Tyler Administration
(1971); Howard Jones,
To the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
(1977); Kenneth Stevens,
Border Diplomacy: The Caroline and McLeod Affairs
(1989); and Howard Jones and Donald Rakestraw,
Prologue to Manifest Destiny: Anglo-American Relations in the 1840s
(1997).

George Rogers Taylor,
The Transportation Revolution
(1951) is an enduring classic. The important political implications of this revolution are demonstrated in John Lauritz Larson,
Internal Improvement
(2001). Also see Louis C. Hunter,
Steamboats on the Western Rivers
(1949); Nathan Miller,
The Enterprise of a Free People: Economic Development in New York During the Canal Period
(1962); Carter Goodrich,
Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads
(1966); Maurice Baxter,
The Steamboat Monopoly
(1972); Brooke Hindle,
Emulation and Invention
(1981); Karl Raitz, ed.,
The National Road
(1996); James Dilts,
The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore & Ohio
(1993); and John Majewski,
A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia Before the Civil War
(2000).