Last Best Hope of Earth

Tag: American Behavior

  • Preservation of America and its Virtues

    Painting of Daniel Boone leading party into Kentucky. By: Daniel Murphy.

    Europeans and early Americans both believed that the New World, America included, was made of a climate “harmful to all living creatures, including the Indians, who were the only humans native to the New World.” Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty, 386. George Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, wrote in his 36-volume book Natural History that the New World had “some combination of elements and other physical causes, something that opposes the amplification of animated Nature.” Buffon, Natural History, General and Particular, in Henry Steele Commager and Elmo Giordanetti, eds.

    Americans were insecure about this fact. Americans knew that America had twice as much rain as Europe, that there could be wild swings in temperature, and that the same regions that would be bitterly cold in winter could be boiling hot in summer. Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty, 389.

    America’s leaders came to believe that these conditions, particularly the intense heat and humidity, would routinely lead to the spread of diseases, like yellow fever. The leading intellectuals of the day, including Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Samuel Mitchill, Benjamin Latrobe and Charles Caldwell, thought how best to deal with this problem. Charles Caldwell imagined that American cities should be rebuilt as a result of the unusual climate, “requiring lofty buildings, lots of squares, and many trees, especially Lombardy poplars, which were the best kind of tree for soaking up the miasma and emitting vital air.” Id. at 390.

    Many Americans began to wonder if the Native Americans’ lack of progress in the thousands of years prior to the colonies was attributed to the circumstances of America’s land, not a difference in nature. Id. at 394. Why did so many Americans wonder this? Because a fear began to develop that Americans might degenerate to a cruder and more savage state, as a result of their environment. Id. at 395.

    Some Americans observed that as settlers moved west, they tended to lose their “politeness and refinement.” Id. at 396. Some questioned whether that was a result of the environment and was the beginning of a regressive movement back to a more savage state.

    Thomas Jefferson told a different story, however. “The tendency of the American character is then to degenerate, and to degenerate rapidly; and that not from any peculiar vice in the American people, but from the very nature of a spreading population. The population of the country is out-growing its institutions.” Thomas Jefferson to William Ludlow, September 6, 1824.

    There are two interesting points of analysis here.

    First, there is always a continual sense in American history that the essential element of American-ness is being lost. Rather than being confident that society could preserve its best traditions and attributes, Americans seem to have a fear that because styles, norms, or people change, those traditions and key American attributes are at risk. This fear seems to be misplaced, considering the extraordinary changes that American society has experienced in its over 200 years of existence.

    Second, Jefferson’s fear that the spreading population was outgrowing the government was a legitimate fear but one that ultimately did not come to fruition. As the settlers expanded the boundaries of the United States westward, the ability of the federal government and states to keep up was undoubtedly tested. However, the settlers came from the East, with all of its established institutions. Those settlers must have desired to recreate the familiar structure of American life that was familiar to them, and even those who were not familiar with the Eastern lifestyle would quickly have seen the benefits.

    Both of these points, the preservation of American virtues and the government’s ability to adapt to its growing and changing population, remain as relevant now as the early 1800s. These same issues are raised and argued over time after time throughout American history, and yet, the Union remains strong. Perhaps the concerns and the worries about these two fundamental issues, while understandable, are misplaced.

  • Early American Behavior

    Simon Snyder.

    Americans in the late 1700s were “known for pushing and shoving each other in public and for their dread of ceremony.” Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty, 329. Further, violence, rioting, and demonstrations in America had become commonplace, more than in England. See id. at 335-36. Some blamed this uniquely American behavior as being caused by an excessively alcohol-centered culture. By way of example, Gordon Wood explains in Empire of Liberty that during a trial in court, “a bottle of liquor might be passed among the attorneys, spectators, clients, and the judge and jury.” Id. at 340.

    These early American behaviors changed the nature of politics. Republicans began to realize that the dream of a Republic full of virtuous, compassionate individuals who would sacrifice their wellbeing for those of their compatriots was not coming true. Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty, 329.

    Common Americans began to want unpretentious men for politicians, which some took as troubling. When some attempted to mock those politicians who were unpretentious and unrefined, the majority of individuals would crowd out the naysayers. For example, Simon Snyder was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1808, and insisted in not having an honor guard at his inauguration because he did not want the “pomp and parade,” which he felt was un-democratic. See Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty, 331. Opponents mocked him, calling his followers clodhoppers as an insult, however, him and his supporters took that term and reversed it, treating it as a badge of honor.

    To illustrate the new American mentality even further, while in the 1700s men had worn colorful, varied clothing, in the 1800s men came to dress alike with “black coats and pantaloons,” so as to be equal with all other men. Id. at 332.

    Since those early days of “wild American behavior,” much has changed. The days of passing around liquor bottles in court are certainly gone. But the sense of having a truly democratic society, as Simon Snyder preferred, has not changed. When an inauguration occurs, whether at the state level or the federal level, there are traditions that have developed over the past two centuries. However, these traditions fall short of anything close to the monarchical traditions of Europe at the time of Simon Snyder.

    Setting aside the fact that Americans have apparently had a reputation for violence from the beginning, it is interesting to note that Americans have tightly held to the belief that a modest Republic is possible to maintain and is preferable to other types of government. While America is no longer quite so modest as in its early days, it stands alone as one of the most powerful countries in the world, both economically and militarily, while also keeping an identifiable modesty in the conduct of the government.

    Some may take issue with such a conclusion, that America is a noble republic that does not display “pomp and parade.” But then again, looking to other powers in the world currently and looking to the great powers of years past, when has a country with so much power carried a quiet confidence that its power was here to stay? It surely takes a significant amount of scouring the history books to answer that question.