2.32 America: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 8/31)

After the war there was a great stimulus to manufacturing and by 1815 there were 500,000 spindles in operation. The Federalist New Englanders were actually talking about secession at that time, but the Republicans of the same area kept the activity under control. Those two parties continued to struggle for a quarter of a century. (Ref. 151 ) In 1814 General Andrew Jackson had defeated the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend near the border of Georgia and Alabama and so, after his defeat of the British at-New Orleans in the following year, the United States was well in control of the old "southwest". (Ref. 151 , 39 )

James monroe administration (1817-1824) 4th president

Except for the Monroe Doctrine, the Supreme Court decisions of Chief Justice Marshall were the only enduring feature of the new nationalism of 1815 and after. The decisions included the defense of the constitutionality of the new Bank of the U.S., the right of the Supreme Court to review state court decisions concerning treaties or laws affecting the nation and finally the denial of the states to withhold militia from national service when demanded by the president. Henry Clay and John Calhoun were nationalist leaders in Congress at that time and both feared sectionalism. A post-war depression appeared in 1819 and in the recovery period, the question of slavery arose, with both sides threatening secession. In fear, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise, in which Missouri was admitted to the union as a slave state, but slavery was prohibited thereafter in any area north of Missouri's southern border, latitude 36~ 30". At the same time, Maine, which had just detached itself from Massachusetts, was admitted, thus making 12 free and 12 slave states.

It is appropriate here to return momentarily to the Indian situation in the southeast United States. In spite of all contact with Christianity the Southern Indians clung to many of their ancient rituals, especially the "bush" or annual Green Corn Festival, which lasted for several days after the new corn ripened and homage was paid to the Sun, Corn and similar Indian deities. However, many of the Indians and mestizos lived among the colonists, merged into the white culture and in time forgot their language and traditions. Genetically they had considerable impact, far more than is generally realized. After their many troubles more than 500 Creek survivors congregated in southern Alabama near Atmore, where for decades they lived near whites and Negroes. Each had its own school system, although the whites were dominant and discriminated against both ~he other groups. But mixing was considerable and today many of the "whites" in this area are in part Creek. All Indians were not exterminated by disease, warfare or-the later transfer west. In part they remained in the south, partly absorbed and helping to create 1 9th century "Negroes". Even Alex Haley, author of Roots, has Indian forebears. In the 1920s the anthropologist Melvill Herskovits made a random anthropometric survey of students at Howard University in Washington D.C. and of a selected groups of Negroes living in Harlem. One-third of each group displayed physical characteristics of Indian ancestry. In 1947 the historian August Meier made a genealogical survey of Negro college students in the southern heartland of Mississippi and adjoining states. On a large sample, 70% had Indian ancestors