Page 333 - American Stories, A History of the United States

internal expansionism and the
13.1
industrial Revolution

13.2
13.2 How did developments in transportation foster industrialization and encourage
immigration?
Y oung America expansionists saw a clear link between new territory and other

forms of material growth and development. In 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse
perfected and demonstrated his electric telegraph, a device that would make
it possible to communicate rapidly over the continent. Simultaneously, the
railroad was becoming a more important means of moving people and goods over the
same great distances. Improvements in manufacturing and agriculture increased the
volume and range of internal trade. The beginnings of mass immigration were provid-
ing human resources for exploiting new areas and economic opportunities.
The discovery of gold in newly acquired California in 1848 attracted a flood of emi-
grants from the East and foreign nations. The gold they unearthed spurred the national
economy, and the rapid growth of population on the Pacific Coast inspired projects for
transcontinental telegraph lines and railroad tracks.
Manifest Destiny and the thirst for new territory waned after the Mexican–
American War. The expansionist impulse was channeled instead into internal devel-
opment. Although the boundaries of the nation ceased to expand, the technological
advances and population increase of the 1840s continued during the 1850s. The result
was faster economic growth, more industrialization and urbanization, and a new
American working class.

the triumph of the Railroad

The railroad transformed the American economy during the 1840s and 1850s. The
technology came from England, where steam locomotives were first used to haul cars
along tracks in 1804. In 1830 and 1831, two American railroads began commercial
operation—the Charleston and Hamburg in South Carolina and the Baltimore and
Ohio in Maryland. After these pioneer lines had shown that steam locomotion was
practical and profitable, other railroads were built and began to carry passengers and
freight during the 1830s. But this early success was limited, because canals were strong
competitors, especially for the freight business. Passengers might prefer the speed of
trains, but the lower unit cost of transporting freight on the canal boats prevented
most shippers from changing their habits. Furthermore, states such as New York and
Pennsylvania had invested heavily in canals and resisted chartering a competitive form
of transportation.
During the 1840s, rails extended beyond the northeastern and Middle Atlantic
states, and mileage increased more than threefold, totaling more than 9000 miles by
1850. By 1860, all the states east of the Mississippi had rail service. (See Map 13.4).
In the 1840s and 1850s, railroads drove many of the canals out of business. Better
tracks and more powerful locomotives that could haul more cars decreased the cost of
hauling goods. Railroads had an enormous effect on the economy. Although English
imports originally met the demand for iron rails, it eventually spurred development of
the domestic iron industry. Since railroads required an enormous capital outlay, their
promoters pioneered new methods for financing business enterprise. At a time when
families or partnerships still owned most manufacturing and mercantile concerns, the
railroad companies sold stock to the public and helped set the pattern for separating
ownership from control that characterizes the modern corporation. They also devel-
oped new types of securities, such as “preferred stock” (with no voting rights but the
assurance of a fixed rate of return) and long-term bonds at a set rate of interest.

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