American History I

Ms. Page
Context: The “Era of Good Feelings” (1815 - 1824)
Question: What were the economic, cultural, and political trends in the United States after the War of 1812?

Historical Claims
During and after the War of 1812,
1. there was an increased sense of patriotism and nationalism.
2. westward expansion picked up pace.
3. the economy (especially the manufacturing sector) grew.
4. the Federalists’ political power declined and did not recover.

Directions
1) Explain why each claim makes sense, given your knowledge of the historical context.
2) Examine and analyze each document pair, and match it with the corresponding claim above. Be sure you can explain how the documents support the
claim.
3) Try to categorize each claim as economic, political, or cultural (or some combination of the three).

Document Pair A
“My connection to the Cotton Manufacture takes date from the
year 1811, when I met my friend Mr. Francis C. Lowell, at
Edinburgh, where he had been passing some time with his
family. We had frequent conversations on the subject of the
Cotton Manufacture, and he informed me that he had
determined, before his return to America, to visit Manchester,
for the purpose of obtaining all possible information on the
subject, with a view to the introduction of the improved
manufacture in the United States. I urged him to do so, and
promised him my co-operation. He returned in 1813. He and
Mr. Patrick T. Jackson, came to me one day on the Boston
exchange, and stated that they had determined to establish a
Cotton manufactory, that they had purchased in Waltham,
(Bemis’ paper mill,) and that they had obtained an act of
incorporation, and Mr. Jackson had agreed to give up all other
business and take the management of the concern.”

Source: ​Introduction of the Power Loom, and Origin of Lowell

by Nathan Appleton, 1813
Document Pair B
The pro-war position triumphed not only because of the mass appeal of 
patriotism based in romantic love but also because every American had a 
stake in the growth and westward expansion of the U.S. population. Small 
wonder then that when Madison came to reflect on the significance of the war 
in a presidential message delivered at the end of 1815, he exulted that “the 
United States are in the tranquil enjoyment of a[n]…honorable peace….The 
strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen in a population rapidly 
increasing, on a territory as productive as it is extensive.” 
 
Presbyterian minister Andrew McLeod of New York confidently predicted in 
1815 that the “love of country will be revived…by this second war of 
independence.” What he and other romantic patriots did not foresee was that 
all too real social, political and economic conflicts would tear the country apart 
section by section and person by person in the decades to come. 
 
Meanwhile, a population reared on stories of war as patriotic pleasure had 
learned to give little weight to the true costs of armed struggle. Perhaps this 
explains why the first major battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run, 
caught contemporaries so completely by surprise. Spectators with picnic 
hampers who had turned out to cheer the action were shocked to the core by 
the carnage: 5,000 casualties in a single day, almost as many as in all the 
Source: We Owe Allegiance to No Crown, John Archibald Woodside,
years of the War of 1812. The easy emotional victories of the War of 1812 did 
1814
nothing to prime the nation for the hard suffering of the war we can never 
forget, the Civil War, which finally, fully, made the nation. 
Source: Nicole Eustance, “Oh Say Can You See...?: How the War of 1812
Gave Us Something Worth Fighting For,” 2016
Document Pair C

Rhode Island (top left): “Poor little I, what will become of me? This leap is of a frightful, size - I sink into despondency –"

Connecticut (top middle): “I cannot Brother Mass; let me pray and fast some time longer - little Rhode will jump the first.”

Massachusetts (top right): “What a dangerous leap!!! but we must jump Brother Conn –"

King George III (bottom right): “O’tis my Yankey boys! jump in my fine fellows; plenty molasses and Codfish; plenty of goods to Smuggle; Honours, titles and Nobility into the bargain –"

Timothy Pickering (bottom middle): “I Strongly and most fervently pray for the success of this great leap which will change my vulgar name into that of my Lord of Essex – God save the King”

Memorial on cliff base (ribbon): “This is the produce of the land they wish to abandon –"

Memorial on cliff base (body): “Perry, McDonough, Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, Jones, Lawrence, Porter, Rogers, Burrows, Blakely, _ Pike, Brown, Harrison, Gaines, Scott, McComb, - Jackson, -
&c_&c_&c_ Enter’d according to act of Congress”
Document Pair D