Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Spirit of Young America
- 1 Orthodox Jacksonianism, 1828–1844
- 2 Trade and Improvements: The Economic Orientation of Young America Democrats
- 3 Rails, Canals, and a New Commercial Spirit
- 4 Young America Democrats and the Revolutions of 1848
- 5 A New International Consciousness
- 6 The Fires of Perfection Revisited
- 7 The Antislavery Democracy
- 8 New Democrats and the Coming of the Civil War
- Conclusion: Lincoln on Young America
- Index
5 - A New International Consciousness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Spirit of Young America
- 1 Orthodox Jacksonianism, 1828–1844
- 2 Trade and Improvements: The Economic Orientation of Young America Democrats
- 3 Rails, Canals, and a New Commercial Spirit
- 4 Young America Democrats and the Revolutions of 1848
- 5 A New International Consciousness
- 6 The Fires of Perfection Revisited
- 7 The Antislavery Democracy
- 8 New Democrats and the Coming of the Civil War
- Conclusion: Lincoln on Young America
- Index
Summary
Thinking metaphorically about the history of the United States, New Democrats conceived of themselves as the middle link between infancy and ripeness. Nations proceeded through life cycles just as human beings did, and now it was time for America to grow up. According to this symbolic vision, Young America's forefathers were children, and the New Democrats had grown to become adolescents. Their own offspring would mature to adulthood, and their progeny, to middle age. Each stage in the country's history mirrored that of a human life. The Founders and the Jacksonians appeared to them as originators of a grand experiment. Now that it was proven to work, the new cohort needed to fulfill its responsibilities by maintaining and cultivating it.
The two generations preceding Young America took George Washington's advice to heart. In his farewell address, Washington warned against “entangling alliances,” leading the Founders and the Jacksonians to isolate themselves. They certainly dealt with foreign policy when it required attention, as in the case of Jefferson's embargo or the purchase of Spanish Florida in 1819. But they usually pursued such measures in order to promote domestic security, not to acquire new territory or to bring their notions of democracy to people across the sea. The foreign policy of the Founders and the Jacksonians was defensive, sometimes preemptive, but typically not aggressive.
Young America Democrats self-consciously accepted a new era of foreign relations. They made no bones about the demands of a more internationally connected age.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Young America Movement and the Transformation of the Democratic Party, 1828–1861 , pp. 116 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007