Who We Are: America’s Fight for Universal Progress, From Franklin to Kennedy Volume I 1750s to 1850s

By Anton Chaitkin (2020)

Book Review

(Part 2)

Although President Washington, like his friend Alexander Hamilton, strongly supported US industrialization, the presidents who followed him tended to support the interests of southern slave owners and New York bankers who profited more from a pre-industrial economy. In addition, British spies Aaron Burr and Albert Gallatin actively campaign to turn New York and Pennsylvania against the US government.

2. Washington served two terms (1789-1797). Under his term

• 1791 – Hamilton starts model industrial city in Patterson New Jersey.
• 1792 – Hamilton and his family begin building the Erie Canal.
• 1793 – Jefferson (a close associate of British intelligence chief Lord Shelbourne – see Hidden History: How Ben Franklin and Friends Create Britain’s Industrial Revolution) resigns as Washington’s Secretary of State and started the Democratic-Republican Party. Its main platform was free trade (opposing Hamilton’s tariffs) and states rights.2John Adams (1797-1801) generally opposed the pro-industrial policies favored by Hamilton and Washington

2. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) anti-industrialist

• 1802 – Previously opposing the establishment of a military academy at West Point (which provided essential engineering skills for US industrial revolution), Jefferson eventually signs off on it.
• 1804 – Aaron Burr kills Hamilton in a duel. Later charged with treason for organizing a conspiracy for New York to secede from US. Follow acquittal, he flees to the UK owing to outstanding murder charge.
• 1807 – British launch unprovoked attack on US naval vessel off the coast of Virginia. In response, US passes Embargo Act, which bans all overseas cargo. Big boon for US manufacturers who no longer have to compete with cheap British imports (Jefferson ha revoked Hamilton’s protective tariffs).

3. James Madison (1809-1817) anti-industrialist who tries, unsuccessfully, to shut down West Point

• 1812 – 1815 – Exasperated by ongoing attacks on northern states by British trained and funded native Americans, US declares war on Britain. Defeats and excludes British Navy from Great Lakes and ends Indian attacks from Canada. Following the truce, Britain immediately launches new trade war.
• 1815-18 West Point becomes unique source of American engineers, who perform all tkey surveys for railroad development and hold all the chief railroad positions between 1823-29. The academy develops the first steam engine in the US and establishes a foundry that casts all the fittings for American water powered mills and steam engines, as well as all the army’s cannon and ammunition.

4. James Monroe (1817-1825) pro-industrialist

• Enacts 1824 Tariff Act and General Survey Act, which authorizes the president to use Army Corps of Engineers (from West Point) to undertake survey of all potential canals and roads of national significance.
• 1824-25 – Enacts federal subsidies to build a US canal system (to facilitate coal transport) as far south as Mississippi. Also begins railroad building and supports modern iron production. Monroe pro-industrialization efforts helped by pro-industry governors in North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia.

5. John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) pro industrialist

• 1826 Tariff conference organized in Philadelphia by Pennsylvania Society for Promotion of Mechanics and Mechanical Arts. Would lead to tariff increases in 1828 to encourage investment in new forges.

6. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837). During first term, Jackson, who initially claimed to be pro-industry, continued federal support of railroad development.

• 1830-32 first electric motor and first long distance telegraph
• 1832 South Carolina Ordination of Nullification – South Carolina refuses to honor US tariff laws and threatens to secede if forced to do so.
• 1837 US experiences it first serious depression after Jackson vetoes bill to recharter National Bank of US (ending federal credit for fledgling industries and new infrastructure) and country returns to monetary system run by multiple private banks and speculators.

7. Martin Van Buren (1837-41) anti-industrialist

• 1837 Van Buren orders West Point to discontinue all involvement in railroad building

8. William Henry Harrison (1841) strong supporter of tariffs and American system, dies unexpectedly one month after taking office.

9. John Tyler (1841-1845) anti-industrialist slave owner from Virginia

• 1842 – pro-industrialists successfully push new tariff law through Congres and gain Tyler’s reluctant approval

10. James Polk (1845-1849) anti-industrialist

• 1847 production of iron had quadrupled when Polk triggers a depression by discontinuing tariffs
• 1848 Henry C Carey, son of pro-industrialist Irish-American Matthew Carey helps to found Republican Party (which elects Lincoln in 1860)