Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canals, harbors and navigation improvements. This older term carries the connotation of a political movement that called for the exercise of public spirit as well as the search for immediate economic gain. Improving the country's natural advantages by developments in transportation was, in the eyes of George Washington and many others, a duty incumbent both on governments and on individual citizens.
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👉 Internal improvements in the context of History of the United States (1815–1849)
The history of the United States from 1815 to 1849—also called the Middle Period, the Antebellum Era, or the Age of Jackson—involved westward expansion across the American continent, the proliferation of suffrage to nearly all white men, and the rise of the Second Party System of politics between Democrats and Whigs. Whigs—representing merchants, financiers, professionals, and a growing middle class—wanted to modernize society, using tariffs and federally funded internal improvements; Jacksonian Democrats opposed them and closed down the national bank in the 1830s. The Jacksonians favored expansion across the continent, known as manifest destiny, dispossessing Native Americans of lands to be occupied by farmers, planters, and slaveholders. As a result of the annexation of Texas, the defeat of Mexico in war, and a compromise with Britain, the western third of the nation rounded out the continental United States by 1848.
The transformation America underwent was not so much political democratization but rather the explosive growth of technologies and networks of infrastructure and communication, including with the telegraph, railroads, the post office, and an expanding print industry. These developments made possible the religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the expansion of education, and social reform. They modernized party politics and sped up business by enabling the fast, efficient movement of goods, money, and people across an expanding nation. They transformed a loose-knit collection of parochial agricultural communities into a powerful cosmopolitan nation. Economic modernization proceeded rapidly, thanks to highly profitable cotton crops in the South, new textile and machine-making industries in the Northeast, and a fast developing transportation infrastructure.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Internal improvements
- 👉 Internal improvements in the context of History of the United States (1815–1849)
- Internal improvements in the context of Henry Clay
- Internal improvements in the context of Presidency of James Monroe
- Internal improvements in the context of Presidency of Franklin Pierce
Internal improvements in the context of Henry Clay
Henry Clay (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. Clay unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate" of Congressmen, alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and Democrat John C. Calhoun.
Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1777, and began his legal career in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1797. As a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he won election to the Kentucky state legislature in 1803 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1810. Clay was chosen as Speaker of the House in early 1811 and, along with President James Madison, led the United States into the War of 1812 against Great Britain. In 1814, he helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, which brought an end to the War of 1812, and then after the war, Clay returned to his position as Speaker of the House and developed the American System, which called for federal infrastructure investments, support for the national bank, and high protective tariff rates. During 1820, Clay helped bring an end to a sectional crisis over slavery for many years by leading the passage of the Missouri Compromise. He finished with the fourth-most electoral votes in the multi-candidate 1824–1825 presidential election and used his position as speaker to help John Quincy Adams win the contingent election held to select the president. President Adams then appointed him to the prestigious position of Secretary of State. As a result, critics alleged that the two had agreed to a "corrupt bargain".
View the full Wikipedia page for Henry ClayInternal improvements in the context of Presidency of James Monroe
James Monroe's tenure as the fifth president of the United States began on March 4, 1817, and ended on March 4, 1825. Monroe, a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, took office after winning the 1816 presidential election by in a landslide against Federalist Rufus King. This election was the last in which the Federalists fielded a presidential candidate, and Monroe was unopposed in the 1820 presidential election. Monroe was succeeded by his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams.
Monroe sought to eliminate political parties, and the Federalist Party faded as a national institution during his presidency. The Democratic-Republicans also stopped functioning as a unified political party, and the period during which Monroe served as president is often referred to as the "Era of Good Feelings" due to the lack of partisan conflict. Domestically, Monroe faced the Panic of 1819, the first major recession in American history. He supported many federally-funded infrastructure projects, but vetoed other projects due to constitutional concerns. Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state but excluded slavery in the remaining territories north of the parallel 36°30′ north.
View the full Wikipedia page for Presidency of James MonroeInternal improvements in the context of Presidency of Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce served as the 14th president of the United States from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1857. Pierce, a Democrat from New Hampshire, took office after defeating Whig Party nominee Winfield Scott in the 1852 presidential election. Seen by fellow Democrats as pleasant and accommodating to all the party's factions, Pierce, then a little-known politician, won the presidential nomination on the 49th ballot of the 1852 Democratic National Convention. His hopes for reelection ended after losing the Democratic nomination at the 1856 Democratic National Convention. He was succeeded by Democrat James Buchanan.
Pierce vetoed funding for internal improvements, called for a lower tariff, and vigorously enforced the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Influenced by the Young America expansionist movement, the Pierce administration completed the Gadsden land purchase from Mexico, clashed with Great Britain in Central America, and led a failed attempt to acquire Cuba from Spain. Pierce's administration was severely criticized after several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, which called for the annexation of Cuba, by force if necessary. His popularity in the Northern free states declined sharply after he supported the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise. Passage of the act led directly to a long and violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the Western United States.
View the full Wikipedia page for Presidency of Franklin Pierce