E-text prepared by G. Edward Johnson, Stacy Brown,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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From the original portrait by Stuart, at Bowdoin College.
UNION AND DEMOCRACY
BY
ALLEN JOHNSON
PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY
YALE UNIVERSITY
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY ALLEN JOHNSON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
U. S. A.
The title of this volume must be regarded as suggestive rather than asstrictly accurate, for the beginnings of union are to be found fartherback than 1783, and democracy in its largest sense has even yet beenonly imperfectly realized. At the close of the Revolution, union was buta name. What Metternich said of the Italy of his day might have beensaid of the United States in 1783: it was only a geographicalexpression. The formation of the new federal union under theConstitution is properly the main, though not the sole, theme of thisvolume. Behind the thirteen Atlantic communities lay a vast region whichalmost at once invited the colonizing activities of the people. The riseof this western world is a movement of immense significance. Out of thebosom of the West emerged the new democracy which transformed the faceof society in the old States. Whether viewed economically orpolitically, this forms the second theme in any history of the times.Around these two movements, therefore, I have endeavored to group theevents of forty-five years.
Within the last few years special studies have added much to the commonstock of historical information, and in many ways effected changes inthe historian's point of view. The time seemed proper to restate thesalient factors in the history of this formative period. I have franklyappropriated the labors of others. Had the plan of the series permittedthe use of footnotes, I would gladly have made particular acknowledgmentof my indebtedness. At the same time I have not hesitated to present theresults of my own studies where they have led away from the conventionalview of men and events.
In preparation of the maps showing the popular vote in the elections of1800 and 1824, I have drawn largely upon the data which Dr. Charles O.Paullin, of the Carnegie Institution, has generously put at my disposal.In States where the presidential electors were not chosen directly bythe voters, other votes, such as those for governor, have been made thebasis for determining the popular choice among party candidates for thepresidency. Two of my graduate students, Miss Isabel S. Mitchell and Mr.Joseph E. Howe, have given me valuable assistance in the execution ofthe maps. I am under particular obligation to my colleague, ProfessorStewart L. Mims, for reading critica