John Quincy Adams hammered out the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 with Spain. John Jacob Astor carried the fur trade
to the Pacific Northwest, and the legends of mountain men were popularized. Settlers pushed the Indian tribes before them,
moving them westward into the trans-Appalachian West. Tribes, such as Cherokee and Seminole, tried to assimilate or resist
by force, the federal government's policy of Indian Removal. Cumberland Road was the first of the overland toll roads.
Turnpikes failed to meet the need for cheap transportation over great distances. A system of canals was needeed to link the
Great Lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi with the coastal states. In 1825, the Erie Canal was finished. The invention of
the cotton gin, and slaver labor made the South the world's greatest cotton producer. Henry Clay called for an American System
of protective tariffs and financed internal improvements. A second Bsnk of the United States (1816) was to promote the antion's
financial stability. James Monroe projected the image of a high-principled, disinterestedstatesman. The Supreme Court made
great contributions to nationalism and theexpansive powers of the federal government. John Quincy Adams was the supreme spokesman
for nonpartisan and scientific achievement, but his leadership could not survive the growing sectional and economic divisions
in the nations.
|