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The Resource Securing the West : politics, public lands, and the fate of the old republic, 1785-1850, John R. Van Atta

Securing the West : politics, public lands, and the fate of the old republic, 1785-1850, John R. Van Atta

Creator
Author
Summary
Few issues defined the period between American independence and the Mexican War more sharply than westward settlement and the role of the federal government in that expansion. In Securing the West, John R. Van Atta examines the visions of the founding generation and the increasing influence of ideological differences in the years after the peace of 1815. Americans expected the country to grow westward, but on the details of that growth they held strongly different opinions. What part should Congress play in this development? How much should public land cost? What of the families and businesses left behind, and how would society's institutions be established in the West? What of the premature settlers, the "squatters" who challenged the rule of law while epitomizing democratic daring? Taking a broad approach, Van Atta addresses three interrelated queries: First, how did competing economic beliefs and divergent cultural mandates influence the various outcomes of this broad debate over the means, timing, and purposes of settling the trans-Appalachian West? Second, what alternative visions of western society lay behind the battles among policy makers within the government and the interested parties who would sway them? Third, why did settlement of the West take such a different course in the end from that which the earliest leaders of the republic intended? This story explores dimensions of the federal lands question that other historians have minimized or left out entirely. Van Atta draws upon a range of sources known to have influenced the public discourse, including congressional debates, committee reports, and correspondence; editorial writings by the famous and unknown; and news coverage in various widely circulated newspapers and magazines of the period. Much of the attention focuses on Congress--the elected leaders who advocated divergent plans about western lands. In Congress, more than any other place, public leaders articulated basic concerns about the character, structure, direction, and destiny of society in the early United States. By 1830, many other important national concerns had become critically entangled with land disposition, creating points of ideological tension among rival regions, parties, and interests in the early years of the republic--particularly in Jacksonian America
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource
Contents
  • 3.
  • Rise of the Radical West
  • 4.
  • "A World within Itself"
  • 5.
  • Foot's Resolution and the "Great Debate"
  • 6.
  • Whose West?-Alternative Visions
  • 7.
  • "A Lawless Rabble"
  • List of Maps
  • Epilogue: The West Secured?
  • Notes
  • Essay on Sources
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Prologue: "A Great Country, Populous and Mighty"
  • 1.
  • "Republican Notions-and Utopian Schemes"
  • 2.
  • An Embryo of Empire
Isbn
9781421412764
Instance
Label
Securing the West : politics, public lands, and the fate of the old republic, 1785-1850
Title
Securing the West
Title remainder
politics, public lands, and the fate of the old republic, 1785-1850
Statement of responsibility
John R. Van Atta
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
Few issues defined the period between American independence and the Mexican War more sharply than westward settlement and the role of the federal government in that expansion. In Securing the West, John R. Van Atta examines the visions of the founding generation and the increasing influence of ideological differences in the years after the peace of 1815. Americans expected the country to grow westward, but on the details of that growth they held strongly different opinions. What part should Congress play in this development? How much should public land cost? What of the families and businesses left behind, and how would society's institutions be established in the West? What of the premature settlers, the "squatters" who challenged the rule of law while epitomizing democratic daring? Taking a broad approach, Van Atta addresses three interrelated queries: First, how did competing economic beliefs and divergent cultural mandates influence the various outcomes of this broad debate over the means, timing, and purposes of settling the trans-Appalachian West? Second, what alternative visions of western society lay behind the battles among policy makers within the government and the interested parties who would sway them? Third, why did settlement of the West take such a different course in the end from that which the earliest leaders of the republic intended? This story explores dimensions of the federal lands question that other historians have minimized or left out entirely. Van Atta draws upon a range of sources known to have influenced the public discourse, including congressional debates, committee reports, and correspondence; editorial writings by the famous and unknown; and news coverage in various widely circulated newspapers and magazines of the period. Much of the attention focuses on Congress--the elected leaders who advocated divergent plans about western lands. In Congress, more than any other place, public leaders articulated basic concerns about the character, structure, direction, and destiny of society in the early United States. By 1830, many other important national concerns had become critically entangled with land disposition, creating points of ideological tension among rival regions, parties, and interests in the early years of the republic--particularly in Jacksonian America
Member of
Cataloging source
N$T
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Van Atta, John Robert
Dewey number
978/.02
Index
index present
LC call number
E179.5
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
Series statement
Reconfiguring American political history
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • United States
  • United States
  • Federal government
  • Public lands
  • Slavery
  • Indians of North America
  • Manifest Destiny
  • West (U.S.)
  • HISTORY
  • HISTORY
  • Federal government
  • Indians of North America
  • Manifest Destiny
  • Public lands
  • Slavery
  • Territorial expansion
  • United States
  • West United States
  • Expansion
  • Grundeigentum
  • Politik
  • USA
Label
Securing the West : politics, public lands, and the fate of the old republic, 1785-1850, John R. Van Atta
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • 3.
  • Rise of the Radical West
  • 4.
  • "A World within Itself"
  • 5.
  • Foot's Resolution and the "Great Debate"
  • 6.
  • Whose West?-Alternative Visions
  • 7.
  • "A Lawless Rabble"
  • List of Maps
  • Epilogue: The West Secured?
  • Notes
  • Essay on Sources
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Prologue: "A Great Country, Populous and Mighty"
  • 1.
  • "Republican Notions-and Utopian Schemes"
  • 2.
  • An Embryo of Empire
Control code
876374890
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781421412764
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other control number
  • 40023576976
  • ebc3318813
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)876374890
Label
Securing the West : politics, public lands, and the fate of the old republic, 1785-1850, John R. Van Atta
Publication
Copyright
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • 3.
  • Rise of the Radical West
  • 4.
  • "A World within Itself"
  • 5.
  • Foot's Resolution and the "Great Debate"
  • 6.
  • Whose West?-Alternative Visions
  • 7.
  • "A Lawless Rabble"
  • List of Maps
  • Epilogue: The West Secured?
  • Notes
  • Essay on Sources
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Prologue: "A Great Country, Populous and Mighty"
  • 1.
  • "Republican Notions-and Utopian Schemes"
  • 2.
  • An Embryo of Empire
Control code
876374890
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781421412764
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other control number
  • 40023576976
  • ebc3318813
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)876374890

Subject

Genre

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      37.955220 -91.772210

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