8 The Growing Nation Other features of a modern economy also emerged Printers in Boston went on strike in 1809 and in other cities in the following years to protest low wages and poor working conditions Workers devoted to improving their members work life organized and created America’s first labor unions The number of banks in America increased greatly in the early 1800s In 1791 Congress following Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s recommendation had created the Bank of the United States to handle the government’s financial transactions The Bank also lent money to private businesses Its success led to the creation of many state banks In 1791 there were only three banks in the whole United States By 1830 there were hundreds of banks Banks were essential to the financing of new business and to overall economic expansion But not all the new banks were well run Management of the Bank of the United States was so poor that Congress did not renew its charter in 1811 Congress soon realized its mistake and created the Second Bank of the United States in 1816 At first the Second Bank also ran poorly Its managers reckless policies helped create the Panic of 1819 during which many businesses failed and individuals went hopelessly into debt Along with the increase in the number of banks came an increase in the number of corporations A corporation is a form of business organization People who wish to invest money in a business can form a corporation The advantage to this is that should the business not succeed the most the investors can lose is the money they have contributed to the corporation Any other money or property they may have is protected Many of these new corporations engaged in building roads and canals Words to Know corporation kor-puh-RAY-shuhn A form of business organization that limits the losses that investors can suffer federal government FED-ur-uhl GUHV-urn-muhnt The national or central government of the United States labor unions LAY-bur YOON-yuhns Organization of workers devoted to improving the members wages and working conditions Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton
The Growing Nation 9 The Legacy of Chief Justice John Marshall President John Adams appointed John Marshall as chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1801 He continued to serve in that position until his death in 1835 Marshall’s work as chief justice had an enormous impact on American history Marshall so dominated the decisions of the Court that the other justices who served on the Court with him have been almost completely forgotten During the period from 1803 to 1829 Marshall made several decisions that significantly strengthened the power of the federal government and aided America’s economic growth Marshall’s ruling in the Dartmouth College case 1819 stated that the Chief Justice John Marshall Constitution protected a private contract from regulation by a state Although the court modified this decision many years later it stimulated the start of new businesses The case of McCulloch v Maryland 1819 is one of the most important ever decided In it Marshall affirmed Congress’s power to create a national bank a disputed point since the 1790s He also denied a state the right to tax an institution of the federal government such as the Bank of the United States The power to tax involves the power to destroy Marshall wrote holding that the federal government was superior to the states The case of Gibbons v Ogden in 1824 also involved the powers of the federal government versus those of the states The case concerned the regulation of steamboats on the Hudson River Here again Marshall sided with Congress He said that only the federal government acting through Congress not a state could make regulations that concerned commerce or trade between states Besides strengthening the federal government the decision had an immediate practical effect of increasing competition among steamboat companies and lowering their prices for shipping goods
10 The Growing Nation The Beginning of the Transportation Revolution Americans were settling more and more land and the population was increasing People realized the great need for better ways to move people and goods across the huge spaces of America especially from east to west and back The country began to experience what historians call a transportation revolution as a boom occurred in the building of roads and canals Often the federal and state governments were as financially involved as private citizens and corporations The first turnpikes roads that charge tolls or fees in exchange for the right to travel on them were built at the end of the 1700s By 1810 about 300 corporations were building roads in the eastern United States Congress authorized the Cumberland or Old National Road in 1806 Construction began in 1811 It ran west from Cumberland Maryland Eventually the road reached as far as Vandalia Illinois Money collected at toll houses along the Old National Road helped pay for road upkeep and improvement Travelers drive by mile markers along the Old National Road located in Columbus Ohio Words to Know transportation revolution transs-pur-TAY-shuhn rev-uh-LOO-shun The period in the first half of the 1800s during which many roads canals and railroads were built and steamboats became common turnpikes TURN-pikes Roads that charge tolls
The Big Ditch The Growing Nation 11 In the early 1800s western New York State which borders Lake Erie and Lake Ontario was rapidly growing in population So was the entire Great Lakes region Ohio became a state in 1803 Indiana in 1816 and Illinois in 1818 People wished for better transportation between the The aqueduct over Nine Mile Creek just north of Atlantic Coast ports especially Camillus New York was one of the 32 aqueducts built in 1841 New York City and the Great Lakes region The construction of the railroad system up to this point had not begun In 1810 New York’s legislature set up a commission to study the possibility of building a canal to link the Hudson River and Lake Erie The group made DeWitt Clinton canal commissioner As mayor of New York City and future governor of the state Clinton was an ardent supporter of the proposed canal In 1817 on his recommendation the legislature authorized the construction of a 363-mile 584 kilometers canal from Albany to Buffalo At that time the longest canal in America was less than 28 miles 45 kilometers long They called it the Big Ditch and its construction was quite a remarkable accomplishment The canal was 4 feet 1 22 meters deep and contained 83 locks that raised boats a total of 600 feet 183 meters New machines and building materials were invented to solve the engineering problems involved The total cost was more than 7 million dollars After eight years of labor a huge celebration opened the canal in October 1825 Reading about the event former president Thomas Jefferson called the canal the wonder of the age The Erie Canal was a great success Users were required to pay tolls and within a few years all the construction expenses had been recovered and the canal was making a profit More important in the long run the canal stimulated the growth of New York City by making it much easier and cheaper for Great Lakes farm products to reach the East Coast Buffalo Rochester and Syracuse all in New York and other cities along the canal’s route also flourished All across the country a canal construction boom got underway greatly speeding America’s economic growth
