American Agrarianism In 1800

The revolution of 1800 introduced the first peaceful transition of power from Adams to Jefferson. Jefferson sought to change the American ideals of the 1800s, as the people accepted and demanded a change through the Electoral College. Once established in office, he reduced the size of the government, purchased the Louisiana territory, and advocated farming in America. It is known as Jeffersonian Democracy, however, the democracy was based off the notion of Agrarianism. Agrarianism can be defined as the social or political philosophy which values a rural society far more than an urban society; it advocates the concept of farmers being superior to paid workers, thus emphasizing the superior simple rural life style opposed to a far more complex

He firmly believed that farmers were the true depiction of the American as they would keep the government from becoming too powerful. As farmers have a tendency to stay away from large urban center, they would not be influenced by greedy politicians. Thus, their vote would preserve national liberty. These agrarian republican beliefs in the moral and political power of farmers to provide a stable, free, rural nation largely lost out to the tendency toward urbanization spurred by the Industrial Revolution in the northern United States and the persistence of massive plantation growers in the southern part of the

His successors grabbed California, the southwest, and Oregon. "Manifest Destiny" was a conscious attempt by Jefferson's political descendants to prolong the agrarian present and deny the industrial future. American agrarianism expanded greatly during the 1800s, in theory Jeffersonian Democracy opened the gate way for Jacksonian Democracy to settle. As both Jefferson and Jackson desired for a greater agricultural America, yet this wasn’t the first time in American history that agrarianism was present. In the year 1769, J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur settled in New York, inhabiting the life of an American farmer. Crevecoeur in sight of a fresh start, decided to live the perfect American dream. His notion of the ideal American was unconventional; as he didn’t want to be a potent businessman or a wealthy tycoon. No, he saw the simple orderly farmer as the ideal American, thus to express his sentiments on the matter he took on a persona in his book, farmer James, from Letters from an American Farmer. Through this novel, Crevecoeur displays his views of a perfect agrarian society. Crevecoeur explains the humble principles of societies blossoming throughout the colonies, the inhabitants of America converting immense forests into pleasant fields and creating thirteen colonies of minimal subsistence, and content governmental harmony. Crevecoeur’s views on men were much like