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The varying opinions and political parties of the nation have been, in many cases, geographically grouped. The Turner reading helps to explain some of these differences through the westward expansion of the Americas, while the Wilentz reading helps to express how the differences coalesce around the War of 1812. As discussed in Knowlton’s post, from last week, the government was set up in such a way that these divisions were bound to have some consequences.
Changing societies in different regions caused ideologies to vary between regions. Turner talks a lot about this in the first chapter of his book “The Frontier in America.” As the North grew away from agriculture and towards industrialization their ideologies changed from those of the southern agrarians. This caused strife between the two groups especially when it came to representation in the government with the three fifths clause. Wiltenz mentions that this strife almost tore apart the nation during the War of 1812. Some of the northern states had talked of secession openly because of Madison’s presidency. The U.S was almost torn apart before it could get a foothold in the global scale by the differing ideologies of the American people.
The War was caused by strife between the two regions of America and its former mother country, Great Britain. The American people had changed from the colonies to a nation that could sustain itself. This is a similar advancement to the advancement of the north to industrialization, or the western frontier to elite farmers. These are the social changes that Turner is talking about in his book. And it was the same change in ideologies of the societies in the different regions that caused strife between Britain and the U.S.
The same differences in society that Turner talks about with the frontier would be the cause for the Civil War. As the west was expanded and slavery extended to half the added states, the resentment between north and south grew. The talk of succeeding by the north during the war of 1812 would shift to the south. The north had thought they were unfairly represented and wanted someone other than the Virginians to be running the government. It caused them to want to succeed just as the southerners would when Lincoln took office.