Page 320 - American Stories, A History of the United States

13 An Age of

Expansionism 1830–1861

The Spirit of Young
america

i n the 1840s and early

1850s, politicians, writers, and entre­
preneurs frequently proclaimed them­
selves champions of Young America.
One of the first to use the phrase was
the famous author and lecturer Ralph Waldo
emerson, who told an audience in 1844 that
the nation was entering a new era of com­
mercial development, technological prog­
ress, and territorial expansion. emerson
suggested that a progressive new genera­
tion—the Young Americans—would lead
this surge of physical development. More
than a slogan but less than an organized
movement, Young America favored the mar­
ket economy and industrial growth, a more
aggressive foreign policy, and a celebration
of America’s unique strengths and virtues.
Young Americans favored enlarging
the national market by acquiring new ter­
ritory. they called for the annexation of
texas, claimed all of Oregon, and urged
the seizure of vast territories from Mexico.

Learning O b j e c t i v e s

13.1 13.2

Why did How did
the United devel opments
states annex in transpor­
texas and the tation foster
southwest? industri­
p. 290 alization and
encourage
immigration? Ambition And AmbivAlence Herman Melville, shown here
p. 300 in an 1870 portrait by joseph Oriel eaton, shaped the knowledge
he gained as a merchant sailor into Moby-Dick, a cautionary saga
about the dark side of human ambition.
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