American History in the Secondary School
ARTHUR M. WOLFSON, PH.D., Editor.
FOUNDATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.
The ratification of the Constitution of the United States marks the end of one period of American history and the beginning of another. At that point the teacher should pause and gather up with his class all the threads which he has thus far been following. The problems henceforth to be presented are those of a well-established, entirely independent nation.
First of all, it should be noted that the history of the nation during its one hundred and twenty years of existence divides itself into five more or less distinct periods. These periods are (1) the thirty odd years from 1789 to 1823, during which time the nation was settling the foundations of its political life, internal and external; (2) the thirty years from 1820 to 1850, during which the nation was moving forward, under two diametrically opposed parties (those in favor of the extension of slavery and those opposed to its extension), in the occupation of the vast tracts of land beyond the Mississippi; (3) the twenty-five or twenty-six years from 1850 to 1876, during which these two parties finally came to blows and settled the constitutional questions involved in secession; (4) the twenty odd years from 1876 to 1898, during which the nation is forced to deal with new and unaccustomed economic questions; (5) the ten years or more since the Spanish-American War, the period of present-day practical politics.
Such an outline as this of the entire course of American history may seem to many teachers to be a little forehanded, yet it is our firm conviction that only that teacher who sees in the beginning the entire work of the term can deal with each lesson as it arises properly. Of this outline, even the class should not be entirely ignorant.
As to the first period—the period of the establishment of our national policy—in it the class will be confronted by two more or less distinct problems: first, the questions of internal policy, the solution of which can be found in the study of the activities of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, and of his contemporaries. These problems, important as they are, space requires that we leave for the present for the teacher himself to analyze and present to his pupils. In passing, we may say, however, that both teacher and pupils will find themselves amply repaid by a careful study of the reports of Hamilton and Jefferson which are to be found in Macdonald’s “Documents.”
Far more complex, and far more difficult, are the problems which are presented by the relations of the United States to its foreign friends and enemies. The mere study of the text-book, we have found, leaves the pupils hopelessly confused and bewildered. As the result of a number of years of experience we have come to believe that it pays, at the beginning, before one attempts to say a word about Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality, about the principles involved in the struggles with France and England, about the treaties with Spain and the purchase of Louisiana, to devote at least one or two lessons to a careful analysis of all the elements involved in our relations with foreign nations. In doing this we shall find that all questions of foreign policy fall under one of four headings: (1) commerce, (2) citizenship, (3) territory, (4) the position which the nation will take in case of disagreements between two or more foreign nations. Any class, skilfully led, will be able to furnish the teacher with these four headings. Then one may go on to further analysis. For instance, the class will see at once that commerce in times of peace and in times of war must be conducted upon a different basis. Under the first condition, commercial relations are usually settled by commercial treaties, though under special conditions they may involve questions like the right of the nation to trade with the colonies of a foreign nation, and the question of the “open door” of which we have heard so much in the last two or three decades. In times of war, the rights of neutral trade are much more complicated. Here they involve, especially in the earliest period of United States history, at least four different questions: (1) what constitutes an efficient blockade, (2) what articles may rightly be considered as contraband, (3) how far do “free ships make free goods,” (4) is trade with ports of one of the belligerents, closed in times of peace, open to the neutral in times of war (Rule of 1756)? Each of these questions, we have found, will offer opportunity for spirited class room discussion. None of them is simple, and the teacher should therefore be sure that he has his own answers ready before he attempts to open the discussion to the class.
The question of citizenship is easier. To begin with, we all agree that it is the duty of the nation to protect its citizens against unjust oppression. But not all nations at the end of the eighteenth century, or even to-day, are agreed as to what constitutes citizenship. Does naturalization, for instance, destroy the obligations which the individual owed to the country of his original allegiance? This is, of course, the single vital question involved in the dispute between the United States and England over impressment, though there is a subsidiary question, the right of entrance and search in times of war which the teacher should not neglect in presenting the subject.
The question of the acquisition of territory is again comparatively easy of analysis. All that it requires is for the teacher to show to his class that it was the “manifest destiny” of the nation to acquire, step by step, all the land lying south and west of the original limits of the country as far west as the Pacific Ocean. Whether the nation was wise in going beyond the confines of the continent in the acquisition of territory may be left till a later period for discussion.
Finally, there is the question as to the position which the United States should take in cases of dispute between the European nations. Here again the teacher should be prepared to show that self-preservation required that the United States should assume a position of absolute neutrality, that it was equally necessary, on the other hand, at least in the early years of the nineteenth century, that we demand that the European nations refrain from interfering in the affairs of America.
Coming now to the study of the specific events which illustrate these principles, the teacher will be ready to develop and the class will be ready to appreciate the series of events which begin with Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality, which are involved in the disputes with England which were settled temporarily by the Jay Treaty and later by the War of 1812 and the Treaty of Ghent. Next the negotiations with Spain concerning the right of entry and deposit at the mouth of the Mississippi and the later negotiations with France concerning the purchase of Louisiana may be developed. Finally in this analysis the class will find the key to that series of proclamations and messages which begin with Washington’s Farewell Address, which proceed through the messages of Adams and Jefferson, which end with Monroe’s message of December, 1823, commonly known as the Monroe Doctrine. When all this is done, the well-equipped teacher will be ready to discuss briefly with his class the later diplomatic history of the country, the gradual modification of the principles for which Washington, Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and Monroe contended, but he will find to his surprise that until the very last years of the nineteenth century little change was made in the whole system.
In the study of this period the teacher is earnestly recommended to have frequent recourse with his class to the documents which illustrate the history. Most of them can be found in convenient form in MacDonald’s “Documents,” in the “American History Leaflets,” in the “Old South Leaflets,” and in Hill’s “Liberty Documents,” a comparatively recent publication. For further reading, the teacher is recommended not only to the standard histories of the United States like Schouler’s, and McMaster’s, but also to the exhaustive work of Henry Adams, “History of the United States in the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison.” Finally, there are the three or four diplomatic histories of the United States of which the best are John B. Moore’s “American Foreign Policy,” Hart’s “Foundations of the American Foreign Policy” and John W. Foster’s “A Century of American Diplomacy.” In each of these works the teacher will find a thorough analysis of the Monroe Doctrine, its history and its application; should he desire to examine the Doctrine further, he will find material in two special studies: George F. Tucker’s “Monroe Doctrine,” and William F. Reddaway’s “Monroe Doctrine.” The first is an American presentation of the subject; the second that of an Englishman.
Additional References.
(1) Lalor’s Cyclopædia under such headings as “Blockade,” “Contraband,” “Naturalisation,” “Neutrality,” etc.
(2) John Westlake, “International Law,” Part I, chapter x, on “Citizenship”; Part II, chapter vii, on “Blockades”; chapters ix and x on “Contraband.”
(3) William Hall, “International Law,” Part II, chapter v, on “Citizenship”; Part IV, chapters v and vi, on “Contraband”; chapter vii, on the privileges of “Free Ships”; chapter viii, on “Blockades.”
(4) Theodore D. Woolsey, “Introduction to the Study of International Law” (the standard American authority); Part I, chapter iii, on “Citizenship”; Part II, chapter ii, on “Neutral Trade.”