March 21, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in our 20th episode of "The Story of America" series, Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, tells the story of a changing America—and an America on the brink of a collision of opinions on the very nature of freedom and liberty themselves.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next another installment of our series about Us, the
Story of America series, with Professor Bill McLay, author of
the terrific book Land of Hope and a professor at
Hillsdale College. By the time eighteen twenty rolled around, America
(00:31):
was a nation on the move. Trains, canals, and steamboats
all moving westward, and New York becoming our largest city.
Our way of life was changing, but our original sin
remained slavery. Let's get into the story. Take it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It was not just canals being built.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
The first railways were being built in the eighteen twenties,
and they would we turned Western towns like Chicago into
commerce powerhouses. There was Samuel Slater, whose factory innovations and
systems changed textile manufacturer Eli Whitney's cotton gin, which made
short staple cotton into a commercially viable product and would
(01:20):
make cotton king in the South. John Finch and Robert
Fulton's in innovations in steam technology and other inventions like
that would usher in an era of economic growth unrivaled
in American history, but there were still important unresolved problems,
one of them a huge unresolved issue slavery. By eighteen eighteen,
(01:51):
there was a balance between free as slave states, eleven
of each, which made for a stalemate in the Senate.
The balance wasn't a solution to a problem. It was
merely a delay of a solution. It was a truce,
a ceasefire in place of an actual treaty of settlement.
In eighteen nineteen, the first of the Louisiana territories applied
(02:15):
for statehood, Missouri, and there was little doubt it would
seek to be admitted as a slave state, and that
would disturb the equilibrium. A fierce debate ensued in Congress, because,
more than any previous time in American history when the
(02:35):
subject of slavery had come up, there was greater commitment
economically to the institution in the Southern States, and there
was greater opposition morally in otherwise in the Northern States.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So any debate that would occur was going to be
more ferocious.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Than debates that had been seen before, and this one
was extremely fiery.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Aumpromise finally averted an all out disaster. Maine would be
admitted as a free state, thus maintaining the balance between
slave and pre states. Math Maine really just separated off
from Massachusetts. More importantly, slavery would be exclusive henceforth from
(03:21):
the remaining parts.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Of the Louisiana territory that were north of missouri southern border,
that is, the thirty six thirty latitude extended westward. Again,
a problem delayed is not a problem solved. And the
hope that many of the actual framers of the Constitution
had sincerely held that slavery was an institution on its
(03:46):
way out and it would die out of its own inanition,
this was a hope that was dying itself. No one
understood the nature of the aryl, the depth of the issue,
the depth of the problem, better than Jefferson himself. He
(04:06):
wrote the following words to John Holmes, the US representative
from Massachusetts in one of the earliest supporters of the
Missouri compromise. Holmes had mailed a letter to Jefferson with
a copy of a pamphlet he published for the citizens
of Maine. Jefferson, in retirement at Monticello, spotted to Holmes
shortly after the passage of the Missouri copy. Here's what
(04:28):
he said. I thank you, dear sir, for the copy
you have been so kind to to send me of
the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It is a perfect justification to them. I had for
a long time ceased to read newspapers or.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in
good hans and contend to be a passenger in our
bark to the shore from which I am not distant.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But this momentous question.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled
me with terror. I considered it at once as the
knell of the union.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It is hushed, indeed for the moment.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence,
a geographical line coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political.
Once conceived and held up, the angry passions of men
will ever be obliterated, and every new irritation will mark
it deeper and deeper.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I can say with conscious truth that.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There is not a man on earth who would sacrifice
more than I would to relieve us from this heavy
reproach in any practicable way. It's a remarkable letter in
its substance and its towne let me repeat two lines
(06:04):
of it, because they may are repeating this momentous question
like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled
me with terror. I considered it as once as the.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Knell of the Union. The word knell.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
It means the slow, repeated, solemn ringing of a bell
for a death or funeral. Then came this evocative and
disturbing line from his letter to Holmes. But as it is,
we have the wolf by the ear, and we can
(06:43):
neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is
in one scale, and self preservation.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
In the other.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
So Jefferson doesn't see a way out, doesn't see a
way out of slavery, and this doesn't only disturb him,
it haunts him. Here's how he closes things out in
his letters. I regret that I am now to die
in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by
(07:15):
the generation of seventeen seventy six to acquire self government
and happiness to their.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Country is to be thrown away for the unwise.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And unworthy passions of their sons. And my only consolation
is to be that I live not to weep bore
it if they would, but dispassionately weigh the blessings they
will throw away against an abstract principle more likely to
be affected by union.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Than by sision.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
They would pause before they would perpetrate this act of
suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of
the world. These are words, powerful words that resound and
(08:06):
echoed down through the ages, down through the years, and
I think they echo to the present day, the present,
any present, our present, to the presence of the past.
It's never been immune to the possibility of being coming
full of itself and its passions.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
But it should never be allowed to fail to.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Honor the sacrifices of the past and the blessings we
owe to it. That was the bitter prospect that Jefferson
was facing as he faced death after a long, indistinguished career,
the possibility that it might all have been pronounced.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
A terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by
our own Monty Montgomery, himself a Hillsdale College graduate, and
a special thanks to Professor Bill McLay who teaches at
Hillsdale College. All of the work we do here in
our American stories, all the history stories are brought to
us by the great folks at Hillsdale Well, you can
go to learn all the beautiful and important things in life.
And if you can't get to Hillsdale College, Hillsdale will
(09:16):
come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's Hillsdale dot edu. The
Story of Us with Professor Bill McClay here on our
American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next another installment of our series about Us, the
Story of America series, with Professor Bill McLay, author of
the terrific book Land of Hope and a professor at
Hillsdale College. By the time eighteen twenty rolled around, America
(00:31):
was a nation on the move. Trains, canals, and steamboats
all moving westward, and New York becoming our largest city.
Our way of life was changing, but our original sin
remained slavery. Let's get into the story. Take it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It was not just canals being built.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
The first railways were being built in the eighteen twenties,
and they would we turned Western towns like Chicago into
commerce powerhouses. There was Samuel Slater, whose factory innovations and
systems changed textile manufacturer Eli Whitney's cotton gin, which made
short staple cotton into a commercially viable product and would
(01:20):
make cotton king in the South. John Finch and Robert
Fulton's in innovations in steam technology and other inventions like
that would usher in an era of economic growth unrivaled
in American history, but there were still important unresolved problems,
one of them a huge unresolved issue slavery. By eighteen eighteen,
(01:51):
there was a balance between free as slave states, eleven
of each, which made for a stalemate in the Senate.
The balance wasn't a solution to a problem. It was
merely a delay of a solution. It was a truce,
a ceasefire in place of an actual treaty of settlement.
In eighteen nineteen, the first of the Louisiana territories applied
(02:15):
for statehood, Missouri, and there was little doubt it would
seek to be admitted as a slave state, and that
would disturb the equilibrium. A fierce debate ensued in Congress, because,
more than any previous time in American history when the
(02:35):
subject of slavery had come up, there was greater commitment
economically to the institution in the Southern States, and there
was greater opposition morally in otherwise in the Northern States.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So any debate that would occur was going to be
more ferocious.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Than debates that had been seen before, and this one
was extremely fiery.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Aumpromise finally averted an all out disaster. Maine would be
admitted as a free state, thus maintaining the balance between
slave and pre states. Math Maine really just separated off
from Massachusetts. More importantly, slavery would be exclusive henceforth from
(03:21):
the remaining parts.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Of the Louisiana territory that were north of missouri southern border,
that is, the thirty six thirty latitude extended westward. Again,
a problem delayed is not a problem solved. And the
hope that many of the actual framers of the Constitution
had sincerely held that slavery was an institution on its
(03:46):
way out and it would die out of its own inanition,
this was a hope that was dying itself. No one
understood the nature of the aryl, the depth of the issue,
the depth of the problem, better than Jefferson himself. He
(04:06):
wrote the following words to John Holmes, the US representative
from Massachusetts in one of the earliest supporters of the
Missouri compromise. Holmes had mailed a letter to Jefferson with
a copy of a pamphlet he published for the citizens
of Maine. Jefferson, in retirement at Monticello, spotted to Holmes
shortly after the passage of the Missouri copy. Here's what
(04:28):
he said. I thank you, dear sir, for the copy
you have been so kind to to send me of
the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It is a perfect justification to them. I had for
a long time ceased to read newspapers or.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in
good hans and contend to be a passenger in our
bark to the shore from which I am not distant.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But this momentous question.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled
me with terror. I considered it at once as the
knell of the union.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It is hushed, indeed for the moment.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence,
a geographical line coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political.
Once conceived and held up, the angry passions of men
will ever be obliterated, and every new irritation will mark
it deeper and deeper.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I can say with conscious truth that.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There is not a man on earth who would sacrifice
more than I would to relieve us from this heavy
reproach in any practicable way. It's a remarkable letter in
its substance and its towne let me repeat two lines
(06:04):
of it, because they may are repeating this momentous question
like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled
me with terror. I considered it as once as the.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Knell of the Union. The word knell.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
It means the slow, repeated, solemn ringing of a bell
for a death or funeral. Then came this evocative and
disturbing line from his letter to Holmes. But as it is,
we have the wolf by the ear, and we can
(06:43):
neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is
in one scale, and self preservation.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
In the other.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
So Jefferson doesn't see a way out, doesn't see a
way out of slavery, and this doesn't only disturb him,
it haunts him. Here's how he closes things out in
his letters. I regret that I am now to die
in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by
(07:15):
the generation of seventeen seventy six to acquire self government
and happiness to their.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Country is to be thrown away for the unwise.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And unworthy passions of their sons. And my only consolation
is to be that I live not to weep bore
it if they would, but dispassionately weigh the blessings they
will throw away against an abstract principle more likely to
be affected by union.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Than by sision.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
They would pause before they would perpetrate this act of
suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of
the world. These are words, powerful words that resound and
(08:06):
echoed down through the ages, down through the years, and
I think they echo to the present day, the present,
any present, our present, to the presence of the past.
It's never been immune to the possibility of being coming
full of itself and its passions.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
But it should never be allowed to fail to.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Honor the sacrifices of the past and the blessings we
owe to it. That was the bitter prospect that Jefferson
was facing as he faced death after a long, indistinguished career,
the possibility that it might all have been pronounced.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
A terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by
our own Monty Montgomery, himself a Hillsdale College graduate, and
a special thanks to Professor Bill McLay who teaches at
Hillsdale College. All of the work we do here in
our American stories, all the history stories are brought to
us by the great folks at Hillsdale Well, you can
go to learn all the beautiful and important things in life.
And if you can't get to Hillsdale College, Hillsdale will
(09:16):
come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's Hillsdale dot edu. The
Story of Us with Professor Bill McClay here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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