In America, people
could be Nationalists or Sectionalists. A Nationalist is someone loyal to their
country while a Sectionalist is someone who is loyal to their region or section
of the country. This difference in loyalty caused some problems in America. An example
of the conflicts of interests is on the topic of tariffs. From a Nationalist standpoint,
it helps bring business to American manufactures all over the country, but from
a Sectionalist standpoint, it would ruin the south's business with European
countries because they will tariff America back.
Nationalism became popular around Madison and Monroe's
presidencies. During his presidency, Madison
presented Congress with a plan to make America
economically self-sufficient as well as unify the country. He called this the
American System. The American System had three parts, each calling for a
different form of action. The first part was to establish a protective tariff
to tax imported goods and protect the nation's businesses from foreign
competition (passed 1816). Secondly, the American System called for Congress to
establish a national bank (passed 1816). The final part of the system is to improve
transportation.
As
people began to shift their loyalty from state government to federal government,
nationalism became even more popular and the duration of the popularity was
named The Era of Good Feelings. During The Era of Good Feelings political differences
disappeared and the Federalist Party phased out. The Supreme Court began to
make decisions in favor of Nationalism and strengthening the Federal
government. The decisions included that the state governments could not tax the
National Bank and the interstate commerce could only be regulated by federal
governments. Nationalists managed to get America
to define their borders. In order to do this America
had to come to agreements with Great Britain
and Spain.
Two agreements were made with Great Britain
to improve relations. However, America
and Spain
disagreed over the boundaries and who got Florida.
Eventually America
obtained Florida
during a war with the Seminoles.
Sectionalism did appear ever once in a while when the topic of slavery came up.
The north still wanted to abolish slavery while the south refused to give it
up. This was a big problem when Missouri
applied for statehood as a slave state. Congress was faced with a difficult
problem. If Missouri
was admitted as a slave state, the slave vs. free state
balance would be disrupted and the south would be able to outvote the north on
slavery issues. The problem of Missouri's
statehood was solved through the Missouri
compromise where Missouri
entered the U.S.A.
as a slave state and Maine
entered as a free state.
This way, the amounts of slave states and free states
would still be equal.
