| Reading Guide for Week 5 | |
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In 1820 a British cultural critic lambasted what he deemed to be the primitive and barbaric quality of American culture: “In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? Or goes to an American play? Or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered? Or what old ones have they advanced? What new constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans? Who drinks out of American glasses? Or eats from American plates? Or wears American coats or gowns? Or sleeps in American blankets? Finally, under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-creatures may buy and sell and torture? ” Many Britons in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century associated American culture with uncivilized deficiency as well as inhumane violence. And it was against this prevailing British attitude that Robert Walsh, a magazine editor who later became a U.S. diplomat, wrote his spirited defense of American culture. Walsh issued his defense at a time when the United States was usurping Florida from the Spanish empire, a process which included the execution of two Britons (Arbuthnot and Ambrister) who in 1818 had been captured while assisting the Seminoles in their resistance against military incursions led by a certain Andrew Jackson. In this passage, Walsh worked hard to defend the United States against charges of expansionism and barbarism. (He alludes to the Barbary Wars that we studied last week.) Originally a glassmaker, Henry Schoolcraft in 1818 entered government service to investigate the mining potential of the future Missouri and Arkansas, and then was dispatched to explore the source of the Mississippi River in the future Minnesota and Michigan. He used his “frontier” experience to defend the United States’ treatment of Native Americans against British accusations of barbarism. Akin to Walsh, Schoolcraft sought to reverse the accusations and direct them against the British. In 1818 Henry Clay was a rising star in the U.S. Congress, serving the state of Kentucky. In this era Clay was perhaps most known for his articulation of an “American system” — a commitment to tariffs, financial stability, internal improvements, and public land sales all meant to facilitate economic growth throughout the United States, the undeveloped western “frontier” as much as the more developed east coast. Keen to cultivate new trade partners beyond the United States, Clay became very sympathetic to Latin Americans independence movements against the Spanish empire. His sympathies required him to navigate a fine line between supporting rebellions and advocating war, the latter which he wanted to avoid. Clay was unaware that Andrew Jackson had been secretly directed to invade Florida, toward usurping it from the Spanish empire. Like the British empire, the Spanish empire was increasingly alarmed at American expansionism not only on North America, but also in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. (The “River Plata” to which Clay refers was at the border of the future Argentina and Uruguay.) |