America from Mercantilism to Egalitarian - Essay Example

America from Mercantilism to Egalitarian Egalitarianism is derived from a French word which means equal. In political terms it is a doctrine which holds that all the people must always be treated as equals meaning that they should have equal economic, social, civil and political rights. In sociological terms, it advocates for the removal of the economic inequalities among the people living in the society. The overriding influences of government, education and businesses seemed to be increasingly unthinkingly, directed to egalitarianism in the American life. In doing so, they were unintentionally reducing the strength of egalitarianism in the American systems way back from 1630 to 1840. Egalitarianism is a doctrine that sees the equality of result, condition, privilege, and remuneration as a pleasing goal of the organization of the society. The basis for the beliefs have been secular and religious, and they range from crude slogans to some more sophisticated statements from Marx about the society moving from socialism to communism. The slogans included that we all have similar stomachs. Socialism according to Marx referred to the people being rated according to their abilities and hence their work. Communism refers to people being rated according to their abilities and needs. Communism which has higher levels of equality also has unequal treatment demand. It led to positive discrimination in terms of income, education and prestige and some other services and goods that could be arranged in such a way that the different levels of their distribution balanced out. This greatly reduced the sense of the relative inequality or deprivation. This led to allocation of intolerable levels of power to the state as a whole. This is the agency that is given the responsibility of manipulating the social scales. Mercantilism on the other side is one of the economic theories and it states that the wealth of the nation should be based on the amounts of the silver and gold in its treasury. In a mercantilism system, the government acted as the central role in modifying and regulating the trade mostly by imposing restrictions on the trade. It drove the economic exchange in the whole of Europe in the 16th and the 18th centuries. The mercantilists also advocated for the possession of the colonies as the places where mother country would acquire the needed raw materials that were not available in their countries. The involved nation’s accumulated wealth in different ways; explorers looked for silver and gold deposits that they could mine. The trade offered methods of accumulating the bullion and getting revenue from this depended on maintaining some favorable balance which meant that a nation was meant to export more than it imported. This kind of system was attacked by the scholar Adam Smith and also others who were for laissez faire exchange. Laissez faire means “let them do as they see fit.” This recent economic theory was against the regulation of the very “visible hand” of the government. Commerce would therefore be viewed as being driven by the very invisible hand of the personal initiative. Adam Smith a Scottish philosopher wrote a book in 1776, The Wealth of Nations which totally rejects the idea and philosophy of mercantilism. Mercantilism according to him advocated for protectionism and state interventionism in the economy which only enriched the privileged elites. Mercantilism encourages isolationism and promotion of local businesses over overseas industry, and the solitary use of domestic vessels in trade. Mercantilism preserved money for paying colonist that in turn would buy only English goods.  The Navigation Acts (1660 - 1760) by the British Parliament demonstrate mercantilism’s policies. The Acts forbade English do business on anything but English vessels in English ports and possessions made within the colonies (like sugar and tobacco) had to be shipped in the Empire. The American Revolution and the war of 1812 were against this mercantilist system and the US became an example in self-governing, representative government and extraordinary open markets. The Lay sermon of 1630 given by John Winthrope explained that there are two folds in life which include the conformity with some of the work and the end results that are aimed at. This is where God comes in because we are in a covenant with Him for the work that we do each and everyday. We are given commission of the work we do and we should follow His commandments and incase we fail He will break out in much wrath against us and so we should always choose life by obeying His commandments because He is the author and finisher of our lives. He also said that every man should always be in need of other people who should be knit together in the tight bonds of brotherly affection. He suggests that no man was made to be more honorable or wealthy than the other or even has any singular or particular respect to himself but all were made and created for the glory of our creator and also for the common and great good of the man himself. He suggested and proved that God reserves the possessions of all the gifts to Himself only. This is so because He refers to the wealth as His silver and His gold of which the human race should honor. The two rules of justice and mercy should be followed in order that mercantilism to be ended in favor of egalitarianism. The use of the double Law should regulate the conversations the people have towards each other. These are the Law of Grace also referred to the law of the gospel and the Law of Nature also known as the moral law. They command us to love each other and give no room on how to deal with our enemies for all people are to be considered as friends in the state of innocence. During the reign of President John Adams who reigned in the period between 1797 and 1801, there were so many Acts that were signed in order to end the era of mercantilism. By the time he came into power the France had conked out diplomatic relations with the US and had already seized 300 American ships. Adams therefore sent XYZ commissioners to Paris for negotiations which did not do well and even led to a more heated hostility between the two. This XYZ affair led to an enlistment of some troops and the more strengthened fledging United States Navy. Later in 1799, there were naval battles also known as quasi wars which ended after Convention of 1800 and also released the US from the 1778 wartime alliance with the France. There was the signing of the Naturalization Act which totally changed the requirement of residency for citizenship to 14 years from the previous 5 years. It was targeted at the immigrants who were suspected to support the Democratic - Republican Party. There was also the signing of the Alien Act that gave the president the powers to expel or even worse imprison the aliens in times of war. The sedition Act prohibited publishing, speaking or writing anything of a scandalous, malicious or a false nature especially against the President or the Congress. These created martyrs to some cause of civil liberties and all this aroused support for the Democratic-Republicans. Though he had established a strong government, it failed to fulfill the principle that it had to be receptive to willpower of the people. Together with his predecessor Washington, they had used policies that separated large groups of the Americans. In 1798, Adams and Federalists enacted some tax on land, houses and slaves that affected every owner property in the country in order to pay the navy, army and the national debt. There was a tax revolt where a mob freed tax evaders from prison and this made Adams to order the US army to collect taxes. The Democratic- Republicans took this as another example of the Federalist tyranny. By the year 1800, Americans were ready for change. Thomas Jefferson aware of this gathered so many Americans behind him that included shopkeepers, small farmers and other workers. During the election of 1800, they asserted themselves as Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson therefore enjoyed unusual favor because he appealed to American idealism and won the elections. During his inauguration in Washington, DC, he promised to preserve organized order among all the inhabitants through a frugal and wise government and that he would give them the freedom to control their individual pursuits of improvement and industry. He encouraged westward expansion and agriculture by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Louisiana Purchase. In order to promote egalitarianism, he restored the requirement of residency for naturalization back to five years. In his second term together with the secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, he decreased the national debt to much less than $560 million. He was able to accomplish this by greatly reducing the number of the executive employees and the Navy and Army officers and also other enlisted men. He also curtailed military and government spending. In need to protect their shipping interests in the overseas, the US fought First Barbary War that happened between 1801 and 1805 and the Second Barbary War in 1815. The Presidency of James Monroe that was between 1817 and1825 was domestically known to be an era of just good feelings. There was a real decline of the partisan politics. This presidential term was masked as a period of vigorous regional and factional conflict; on the other hand, the political triumph is acknowledged of the Democratic - Republican Party against the Federalist Party which collapsed after a national scope. President Monroe is well known for the Monroe Doctrine that he delivered to the Congress on 2nd December 1823. In it, he proclaimed that Americans are supposed to be free from the future colonization from the Europeans and also free from their interference. This in turn promoted egalitarianism because it promoted equality in the United States. During this time the state legislatures nominated the candidates.      The Log Cabin Campaign happened in 1840, it was a presidential campaign for William Henry Harrison. He campaigned actively for the office of the President and he was the very first person to do so. He used the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” This Tippecanoe referred to his military victory over some group of Shawnee Indians near a river in Indiana namely Tippecanoe in 1811. He was too old to vie for the presidency and all democrats laughed at him referring to him as granny and also that he was senile. They took advantage of this situation that he found himself in and Whigs, the people of the party, declared him as a log cabin and a hard cider candidate meaning that he was a man from the tumble and rough West who is among the common people. This was due to public demand because they wanted Harrison to be their president. Harrison’s opponent, president Martin Van Buren, was depicted as a wealthy man who was very much out of touch with the people of America. In the real sense, Harrison came from a wealthy background that was prominent whereas his opponent came from a very poor, humble and working background. The Whig strategy had been to win by totally avoiding the discussion of the hard national issues especially slavery and the national bank. The Whig was the political party that had Harrison as the presidential candidate. The elections were conducted during the economic depression that was the worst even to date; the voters blamed it on Van Buren saying that he was unsympathetic to the struggling citizens. Harrison won after campaigning vigorously. During the inauguration, he gave the longest speech of about 1 hour and 45 minutes in the freezing cold. He then served for only one month and then died of pneumonia on 4th April 1841. There was increased British taxation of its colonies, United States included, after the Indian and French war which led to tension. They therefore resisted the taxation and some other legislation. The British then imposed stricter reprisals and taxes which led to colonial resistance efforts America being included. They felt that they were being denied their natural rights. This was especially shown by Enlightment thinkers who included John Locke. Revolution became more and more likely and they hoped that they would implement some government that will be independent of the British crown which would be based on the Enlightment ideals. There was also the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp and Quartering Acts of 1765 that were aimed at raising the revenue fro the British colonists. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 that angered the colonists because the elimination of the import tariffs on the British tea did not end the tea boycott but rather the parliament used the profits to pay for the salaries of the royal governors. From the year 1763 the perceived benefits of the Empire membership surpassed the perceived costs on the part of the colonialist. This made them to think of leaving the America to carry on their business without their interruptions. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was determined to secure the Native American lands for the US settlements. This led to the Americans settling in those lands therefore making it easier to decide on how they would use it for their own use. By the year 1840 we find that egalitarianism was very rampant in the United States of America. Work Cited Young, Alfred. The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution. Beacon Press, 2000. Read More