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Prominent early Americans, such as Peale and Jefferson, have been criticized for their unscientific –like behavior regarding the discovery of and research on the mastodon. Peale overlooked some fact and aspects of scientific process in his excitement over his specimen and Jefferson certainly abandoned some practicality as he wholeheartedly embraced the creature as a “monarch of the past.” It seems to me, however, that their grasp on the reality of the extinct animal is not important at all. Neither are the true facts about the mastodon. The importance of the mastodon comes in the meaning it was able to take on and its role as a symbol of the new American republic. Semonin touches on this concept when he discusses the founding fathers’ emphasis on the fact that the mastodon could certainly beat the British lion in a fight. The mastodon was at the height of its infamy at a time when the nation needed a powerful symbol. The country was in political turmoil and the world did not seem sure if America could make it on its own. The mastodon served as a symbol of strength and power that was unique to North America.
It is interesting, however, that the mastodon has not survived as a symbol of America. Semonin admits that the extinct animal never surpassed the bald eagle in terms of symbolic value but the mastodon fell from such a place of prominence to relative obscurity. Perhaps the fact that the animal is extinct played a role in this but this is also where scientific accuracy does play a role. The symbolism of the mastodon was built on incorrect information and as the country matured and developed this first try at national pride and unity was left behind for more concrete symbols such as the eagle. Just because the mastodon did not last, however, does not make it irrelevant to our nation’s history despite its anonymity today.
This search for an American identity separate from that of Europe, personified by the mastodon, carries on past the era of Peale and Jefferson into the following century. Both Calhoun and Clay worked to separate America both politically and economically from England. They sought to remove barriers imposed by Britain on American trade in order to increase economic growth as well as overcome the sentiment in some American politicians that America depended upon connections to Great Britain for its prosperity. This increasing tension and American desire to separate from Great Britain led to the War of 1812 in which, metaphorically, the American mastodon did in fact defeat the British lion.