We extend a warm thank you to the Iowa State University Center for On-Line Learning
and the Iowa State University Department of History for their support of this project.
On August 8, 1846, Congress granted the Territory of Iowa a parcel of land for
the purpose of facilitating a project to improve the Des Moines River. Iowa in
turn sold the land to pay for improvements on the Des Moines River in the hopes
of seeing the river become a transportation route that connected settlers to the
markets of the Mississippi River. SUch lands grant conveyed for internal
improvements resulted from an emerging national focus on internal improvements.
Echoing similar trends of nineteenth-century America, the improvement projects
provided mechanism for change and transformation that proved to be central in
the formation of law and politics in the United State and its territories.
As the population increased and settlement expanded westward in nineteenth-century America, the need for internal improvements became more apparent. Although internal improvements played a part in the discussion of national development in the early Republic, the stress of increasing populations in the federal territories brought the issue onto the national stage. While some individuals claimed the need for more comprehensive and reliable infrastructural developments, others fought against them. Despite the growing population and expanding nation, internal improvements became a contentious topic in American politics.
A spirit of improvement permeated the nineteenth century. An increasing population, industrialization, western migration and expansion, and the rise of economic markets created a need for transportation networks. Even though the early Republic supported economic aids such as plank roads and bridges with public funding, the fervor only increased throughout the nineteenth century. The spirit of improvement echoed throughout the country even capturing the interest of private companies. Not only did private capitalists invest in internal improvements to strengthen connections with their markets, but also state and national governments facilitated the improvement movement. Through the issuance of land grants, state and national governments aided the construction of a national transportation network.
As the ideas of internal improvement and expansionism spread throughout the United States, prior notions of the status quo were tested. Prior federal government involvement in constructing internal improvements was minimal. However, the nineteenth century brought about change in federal policy. While the status quo involved state, local, and private funding of improvement projects, westward expansion strained the traditional mechanisms for such projects. In response, the national government assisted efforts to construct transportation systems that met national objectives. Internal improvements provided the expanding nation a defensive transportation infrastructure in which to ship military personnel and supplies, opened frontier regions for settlement, and facilitated connections between consumers, suppliers, and their markets.
Federal support of internal improvements arose from two factors. Regional wealth and population contributed to the decision making process of the national government in awarding land grants to the states. Congress awarded land grants based on a perceived need by a region, territory, or state. Following the westward expansion of the United States, the national government offered economic assistance in developing a transportation infrastructure to facilitate the shifting population. However, in applying a second criterion, the national government did not extend the offer of economic assistance, such as the land grants, if the region or state possessed enough private capital to fund the projects. Federal government involvement in facilitating economic development, by way of internal improvements, did not begin at the state level. Federal government acted in response to state support and activism; if the state did not actively support internal improvements then the federal government did not offer economic assistance. Both criteria occurred throughout much of the nineteenth century as boosterism and activism promoted the undertaking of projects such as the National Road (plank road), The Erie Canal, and the Transcontinental Railroad. These internal improvements stand as some of the nineteenth century's greatest examples of organization and promotion by the various levels of government, citizens, and private businesses.
References
Freehling, William W. Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South
Carolina 1816-1836. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Goodrich, Carter. Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads, 1800-1890. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
Holt, Charles F. The Role of State Government in the Nineteenth Century American Economy, 1820-1902. New York: Arno Press, 1977.
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840. New York: Harper and Row, 1955.
Malone, Laurence J. Opening the West: Federal Internal Improvements Before 1860. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Further Readings
Blackstone, Sir William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. [Yale University-
Project Avalon]; available from http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/blackstone/blacksto.htm; Internet; accessed December 12, 2004.
Bogue, Alan G. "Farming in the Prairie Peninsula, 1830-1890." Gen. Ed. Marvin Bergman. Iowa History Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
____________. From Prairie to Corn Belt. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963.
___________. "The Iowa Claim Clubs: Symbol and Substance." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 45 no. 2 (September, 1958): 231-253.
Cook, Robert. "The Political Culture of Antebellum Iowa: An Overview." Gen. Ed. Marvin Bergman. Iowa History Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
Department of the Interior. Statement Showing Land Grants Made By Congress To Aid in the Construction of Railroads, Wagon Roads, Canals, and Internal Improvements together with data relative thereto. (Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1908).
Feinstein Charles H. and Mark Thomas. Making History Coun: A Primer in Quantitative Methods for Historians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men; The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War. Oxford: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Freehling, William W. Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina 1816-1836. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Goodrich, Carter. Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads, 1800-1890. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
Grant of Lands to Iowa- Navigation of the Des Moines River, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, Ch. 103, 77-78 (1846).
Hibbard, Benjamin H. History of the Public Land Policies. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1924.
Holt, Charles F. The Role of State Government in the Nineteenth Century American Economy, 1820-1902. New York: Arno Press, 1977.
Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Horwitz, Morton J. The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.
Hurst, James Willard. Law and the Condition of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century United States. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1956.
Pollock, Ivan L. History of Economic Legislation in Iowa. Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1918.
Potter, David M. Impending Crisis, 1848-1861. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1976.
Ralston, Leonard F. "Iowa Railroads and the Des Moines River Improvement Land Grant of 1846." Iowa Journal of History 56, no. 2 (April 1958): 97-128.
Riley, Glenda. "The Frontier in Process: Iowa's Trail Women as a Paradigm." Gen. Ed. Marvin Bergman. Iowa History Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
Roland, Charles P. An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1966.
Schwieder, Dorothy. Iowa: The Middle Land. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
Sheriff, Carol. The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
United States Statutes at Large. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1824. Vol. IV, Ch. 46, 22-23.
Webster, Noah. An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970.
As the population increased and settlement expanded westward in nineteenth-century America, the need for internal improvements became more apparent. Although internal improvements played a part in the discussion of national development in the early Republic, the stress of increasing populations in the federal territories brought the issue onto the national stage. While some individuals claimed the need for more comprehensive and reliable infrastructural developments, others fought against them. Despite the growing population and expanding nation, internal improvements became a contentious topic in American politics.
A spirit of improvement permeated the nineteenth century. An increasing population, industrialization, western migration and expansion, and the rise of economic markets created a need for transportation networks. Even though the early Republic supported economic aids such as plank roads and bridges with public funding, the fervor only increased throughout the nineteenth century. The spirit of improvement echoed throughout the country even capturing the interest of private companies. Not only did private capitalists invest in internal improvements to strengthen connections with their markets, but also state and national governments facilitated the improvement movement. Through the issuance of land grants, state and national governments aided the construction of a national transportation network.
As the ideas of internal improvement and expansionism spread throughout the United States, prior notions of the status quo were tested. Prior federal government involvement in constructing internal improvements was minimal. However, the nineteenth century brought about change in federal policy. While the status quo involved state, local, and private funding of improvement projects, westward expansion strained the traditional mechanisms for such projects. In response, the national government assisted efforts to construct transportation systems that met national objectives. Internal improvements provided the expanding nation a defensive transportation infrastructure in which to ship military personnel and supplies, opened frontier regions for settlement, and facilitated connections between consumers, suppliers, and their markets.
Federal support of internal improvements arose from two factors. Regional wealth and population contributed to the decision making process of the national government in awarding land grants to the states. Congress awarded land grants based on a perceived need by a region, territory, or state. Following the westward expansion of the United States, the national government offered economic assistance in developing a transportation infrastructure to facilitate the shifting population. However, in applying a second criterion, the national government did not extend the offer of economic assistance, such as the land grants, if the region or state possessed enough private capital to fund the projects. Federal government involvement in facilitating economic development, by way of internal improvements, did not begin at the state level. Federal government acted in response to state support and activism; if the state did not actively support internal improvements then the federal government did not offer economic assistance. Both criteria occurred throughout much of the nineteenth century as boosterism and activism promoted the undertaking of projects such as the National Road (plank road), The Erie Canal, and the Transcontinental Railroad. These internal improvements stand as some of the nineteenth century's greatest examples of organization and promotion by the various levels of government, citizens, and private businesses.
References
Freehling, William W. Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South
Carolina 1816-1836. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Goodrich, Carter. Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads, 1800-1890. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
Holt, Charles F. The Role of State Government in the Nineteenth Century American Economy, 1820-1902. New York: Arno Press, 1977.
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840. New York: Harper and Row, 1955.
Malone, Laurence J. Opening the West: Federal Internal Improvements Before 1860. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Further Readings
Blackstone, Sir William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. [Yale University-
Project Avalon]; available from http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/blackstone/blacksto.htm; Internet; accessed December 12, 2004.
Bogue, Alan G. "Farming in the Prairie Peninsula, 1830-1890." Gen. Ed. Marvin Bergman. Iowa History Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
____________. From Prairie to Corn Belt. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963.
___________. "The Iowa Claim Clubs: Symbol and Substance." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 45 no. 2 (September, 1958): 231-253.
Cook, Robert. "The Political Culture of Antebellum Iowa: An Overview." Gen. Ed. Marvin Bergman. Iowa History Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
Department of the Interior. Statement Showing Land Grants Made By Congress To Aid in the Construction of Railroads, Wagon Roads, Canals, and Internal Improvements together with data relative thereto. (Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1908).
Feinstein Charles H. and Mark Thomas. Making History Coun: A Primer in Quantitative Methods for Historians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men; The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War. Oxford: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Freehling, William W. Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina 1816-1836. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Goodrich, Carter. Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads, 1800-1890. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
Grant of Lands to Iowa- Navigation of the Des Moines River, United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, Ch. 103, 77-78 (1846).
Hibbard, Benjamin H. History of the Public Land Policies. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1924.
Holt, Charles F. The Role of State Government in the Nineteenth Century American Economy, 1820-1902. New York: Arno Press, 1977.
Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Horwitz, Morton J. The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977.
Hurst, James Willard. Law and the Condition of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century United States. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1956.
Pollock, Ivan L. History of Economic Legislation in Iowa. Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1918.
Potter, David M. Impending Crisis, 1848-1861. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1976.
Ralston, Leonard F. "Iowa Railroads and the Des Moines River Improvement Land Grant of 1846." Iowa Journal of History 56, no. 2 (April 1958): 97-128.
Riley, Glenda. "The Frontier in Process: Iowa's Trail Women as a Paradigm." Gen. Ed. Marvin Bergman. Iowa History Reader. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
Roland, Charles P. An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1966.
Schwieder, Dorothy. Iowa: The Middle Land. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.
Sheriff, Carol. The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
United States Statutes at Large. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1824. Vol. IV, Ch. 46, 22-23.
Webster, Noah. An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970.