The Carpetbaggers is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins , which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title . The prequel Nevada Smith (1966) was also based on a character in the novel.
139-519: In the United States, the term " carpetbagger " refers to an outsider relocating to exploit locals. It derives from postbellum Southern United States usage, where it referred specifically to opportunistic Northerners who flocked to the occupied southern states in hopes of increasing their political, financial and social power during the Reconstruction era . In Robbins' novel, the exploited territory
278-452: A Democrat, stated in 1875: If any two hundred Southern men backed by a Federal administration should go to Indianapolis, turn out the Indiana people, take possession of all the seats of power, honor, and profit, denounce the people at large as assassins and barbarians, introduce corruption in all the branches of the public administration, make government a curse instead of a blessing, league with
417-551: A Republican, but he switched to the Democratic Party at the end of his time as sheriff. Democrats held most of the economic power and cooperating with them could make his future. In 1878, Furbush was elected again to the Arkansas House. His election is notable because he was elected as a black Democrat during a campaign season notorious for white intimidation of black and Republican voters in black-majority eastern Arkansas. He
556-525: A black minister from New Haven, Connecticut, served as a delegate to South Carolina's 1868 Constitutional Convention. He made eloquent speeches advocating that the plantations be broken up and distributed among the freedmen. They wanted their own land to farm and believed they had already paid for land by their years of uncompensated labor and the trials of slavery. Henry C. Warmoth was the Republican governor of Louisiana from 1868 to 1874. As governor, Warmoth
695-405: A black-majority population. Following the end of his 1873 legislative term, Furbush was appointed as county sheriff by Republican Governor Elisha Baxter . Furbush twice won re-election as sheriff, serving from 1873 to 1878. During his term, he adopted a policy of "fusion", a post-Reconstruction power-sharing compromise between Populist Democrats and Republicans. Furbush originally was elected as
834-494: A crucial role in national expansion. It facilitated expansion into the West by creating an inexpensive, fast, convenient communication system. Letters from early settlers provided information and boosterism to encourage increased migration to the West, helped scattered families stay in touch and provide neutral help, assisted entrepreneurs to find business opportunities, and made possible regular commercial relationships between merchants and
973-534: A few thousand French migrated to Canada; these habitants settled in villages along the St. Lawrence River , building communities that remained stable for long stretches. Although French fur traders ranged widely through the Great Lakes and midwest region, they seldom settled down. French settlement was limited to a few very small villages such as Kaskaskia, Illinois as well as a larger settlement around New Orleans . In what
1112-444: A few years, the pioneer added hogs, sheep, and cattle, and perhaps acquired a horse. Homespun clothing replaced the animal skins. The more restless pioneers grew dissatisfied with over civilized life and uprooted themselves again to move 50 or a hundred miles (80 or 160 km) further west. The land policy of the new nation was conservative, paying special attention to the needs of the settled East. The goals sought by both parties in
1251-560: A free labor system to the region." Carpetbaggers tended to be well educated and middle class in origin. Some had been lawyers, businessmen, and newspaper editors. The majority (including 52 of the 60 who served in Congress during Reconstruction) were veterans of the Union Army. Leading "black carpetbaggers" believed that the interests of capital and labor were identical and that the freedmen were entitled to little more than an "honest chance in
1390-471: A home here, and to become one of our people, than I, but for the adventurer and the office-seeker who comes among us with one dirty shirt and a pair of dirty socks, in an old rusty carpet bag, and before his washing is done becomes a candidate for office, I have no welcome. That was the origin of the term "carpet bag", and out of it grew the well known term "carpet-bag government". In the United Kingdom at
1529-409: A kind of school for to graduate Rascals. Yes if you will give them a few Dollars they will liern you for an accomplished Rascal. This is in reference to the taxes that are rung from the labouring class of people. Without a speedy reformation I will have to resign my post." Albion W. Tourgée , formerly of Ohio and a friend of President James A. Garfield , moved to North Carolina, where he practiced as
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#17330856037721668-594: A lawyer and was appointed a judge. He once opined that "Jesus Christ was a carpetbagger." Tourgée later wrote A Fool's Errand , a largely autobiographical novel about an idealistic carpetbagger persecuted by the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. A politician in South Carolina who was called a carpetbagger was Daniel Henry Chamberlain , a New Englander who had served as an officer of a predominantly black regiment of
1807-618: A leader of the Exoduster movement. Blacks from the Deep South migrated to homestead in Kansas in order to escape white supremacist violence and the oppression of segregation. The Dunning school of American historians (1900–1950) espoused White supremacy and viewed "carpetbaggers" unfavorably, arguing that they degraded the political and business culture. The revisionist school in the 1930s called them stooges of Northern business interests. After 1960
1946-468: A one-room log cabin. The main food supply at first came from hunting deer, turkeys, and other abundant game. Clad in typical frontier garb, leather breeches, moccasins, fur cap, and hunting shirt, and girded by a belt from which hung a hunting knife and a shot pouch—all homemade—the pioneer presented a unique appearance. In a short time he opened in the woods a patch, or clearing, on which he grew corn, wheat, flax, tobacco, and other products, even fruit. In
2085-781: A party of 20 soldiers to find the headwaters of the Mississippi. He later explored the Red and Arkansas Rivers in Spanish territory, eventually reaching the Rio Grande . On his return, Pike sighted the peak in Colorado named after him . Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784–1864) led the Yellowstone and Missouri expeditions of 1819–1820, but his categorizing in 1823 of the Great Plains as arid and useless led to
2224-426: A place in the census reports." Despite this, the later 1900 U.S. census continued to show the westward frontier line, and his successors continued the practice. By the 1910 U.S. census however, the frontier had shrunk into divided areas without a singular westward line of settlement. An influx of agricultural homesteaders in the first two decades of the 20th century, taking up more acreage than homestead grants in
2363-470: A principal trading center for Mississippi River traffic and inland commerce but remained under Spanish control until 1803. Thomas Jefferson thought of himself as a man of the frontier and was keenly interested in expanding and exploring the West. Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the nation at the cost of $ 15 million, or about $ 0.04 per acre ($ 305 million in 2023 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre). Federalists opposed
2502-529: A profitable monopoly; he left the business as a multi-millionaire in 1834. As the frontier moved west, trappers and hunters moved ahead of settlers, searching out new supplies of beaver and other skins for shipment to Europe. The hunters were the first Europeans in much of the Old West and they formed the first working relationships with the Native Americans in the West. They added extensive knowledge of
2641-402: A salutary restraint upon the tribes, who would feel that any foray by their warriors upon the white settlements would meet with prompt retaliation upon their own homes. There was a debate at the time about the best size for the forts with Jefferson Davis , Winfield Scott , and Thomas Jesup supporting forts that were larger but fewer in number than Floyd. Floyd's plan was more expensive but had
2780-564: A spirit of nationalism and providing a necessary infrastructure. The army early on assumed the mission of protecting settlers along with the Westward Expansion Trails , a policy that was described by U.S. Secretary of War John B. Floyd in 1857: A line of posts running parallel without frontier, but near to the Indians' usual habitations, placed at convenient distances and suitable positions, and occupied by infantry, would exercise
2919-675: A storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor; and there were several landless laborers. All the rest were farmers. In the South, frontier areas that lacked transportation, such as the Appalachian Mountains region, remained based on subsistence farming and resembled the egalitarianism of their northern counterparts, although they had a larger upper-class of slaveowners. North Carolina was representative. However, frontier areas of 1700 that had good river connections were increasingly transformed into plantation agriculture. Rich men came in, bought up
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#17330856037723058-576: Is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America." Turner himself repeatedly emphasized how the availability of "free land" to start new farms attracted pioneering Americans: "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development." Through treaties with foreign nations and native tribes , political compromise, military conquest,
3197-510: Is famous for classifying and painting in minute details 500 species of birds, published in Birds of America . The most famous of the explorers was John Charles Frémont (1813–1890), an Army officer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. He displayed a talent for exploration and a genius at self-promotion that gave him the sobriquet of "Pathmarker of the West" and led him to the presidential nomination of
3336-523: Is now New York state the Dutch set up fur trading posts in the Hudson River valley, followed by large grants of land to rich landowning patroons who brought in tenant farmers who created compact, permanent villages. They created a dense rural settlement in upstate New York, but they did not push westward. Areas in the north that were in the frontier stage by 1700 generally had poor transportation facilities, so
3475-462: Is the film industry , and the newcomer is a wealthy heir to an industrial fortune who, like Howard Hughes , simultaneously pursued aviation and filmmaking avocations. Ian Parker described the book as "a roman à clef — it was generally thought to have been inspired by the life of Howard Hughes ". In an interview with Dick Lochte, Robbins said, "The airplane manufacturer in The Carpetbaggers
3614-548: The American Colonization Society , where he continued to work as a photographer. He returned to Ohio after 18 months and moved back to Arkansas by 1870. Furbush was elected to two terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives, 1873–74 (from an African-American majority district in the Arkansas Delta, made up of Phillips and Monroe counties.) He served in 1879–80 from the newly established Lee County. In 1873,
3753-512: The Ku Klux Klan . The " Brooks–Baxter War " was a factional dispute, 1872–74 that culminated in an armed confrontation in 1874 between factions of the Arkansas Republican Party over the disputed 1872 election for governor. The victor in the end was the "Minstrel" faction led by carpetbagger Elisha Baxter over the "Brindle Tail" faction led by Joseph Brooks, which included most of the scalawags. The dispute weakened both factions and
3892-752: The Mississippi River , in what is now the Midwest , Texas , the Great Plains , the Rocky Mountains , the Southwest , and the West Coast . Enormous popular attention was focused on the Western United States (especially the Southwest ) in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, from the 1850s to the 1910s. Such media typically exaggerated the romance, anarchy, and chaotic violence of
4031-589: The U.S. Postmaster General had banned D. H. Lawrence 's Lady Chatterley's Lover from the mails as obscene. In 1960, publisher Grove Press won the Supreme Court case contesting the ban, but even in 1961 booksellers all over the country were sued for selling Henry Miller 's Tropic of Cancer . Parker quotes a professor of English as saying " The Carpetbaggers could have sent any retailer handling it to prison before 1960." The Carpetbaggers never landed in court, but it did vigorously (and profitably) exploit
4170-558: The United States Colored Troops . He was appointed South Carolina's attorney general from 1868 to 1872 and elected Republican governor from 1874 to 1877. As a result of the national Compromise of 1877 , Chamberlain lost his office. He was narrowly re-elected in a campaign marked by egregious voter fraud and violence against freedmen by Democratic Red Shirts , who succeeded in suppressing the black vote in some majority-black counties. While serving in South Carolina, Chamberlain
4309-421: The West Coast and the deep interior, with settlements such as Los Angeles and Salt Lake City respectively. The " West " was the recently settled area near that boundary. Thus, parts of the Midwest and American South , though no longer considered "western", have a frontier heritage along with the modern western states. Richard W. Slatta, in his view of the frontier, writes that "historians sometimes define
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4448-469: The frontier myth , have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining features of American national identity. Historians have debated at length as to when the frontier era began, when it ended, and which were its key sub-periods. For example, the Old West subperiod is sometimes used by historians regarding
4587-513: The neoabolitionist school emphasized their moral courage. Wild West The American frontier , also known as the Old West , and popularly known as the Wild West , encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with
4726-462: The 1790–1820 era were to grow the economy, avoid draining away the skilled workers needed in the East, distribute the land wisely, sell it at prices that were reasonable to settlers yet high enough to pay off the national debt, clear legal titles, and create a diversified Western economy that would be closely interconnected with the settled areas with minimal risk of a breakaway movement. By the 1830s, however,
4865-564: The 1840s called for low-cost land for free white farmers, a position enacted into law by the new Republican Party in 1862, offering free 160 acres (65 ha) homesteads to all adults, male and female, black and white, native-born or immigrant. After winning the Revolutionary War (1783), American settlers in large numbers poured into the west. In 1788, American pioneers to the Northwest Territory established Marietta, Ohio , as
5004-456: The American West as lands west of the 98th meridian or 98° west longitude ," and that other definitions of the region "include all lands west of the Mississippi or Missouri rivers." Key: States Territories Disputed areas Other countries In the colonial era , before 1776,
5143-581: The Americans, whose values focused on equality, democracy, and optimism, as well as individualism , self-reliance, and even violence. The frontier is the margin of undeveloped territory that would comprise the United States beyond the established frontier line. The U.S. Census Bureau designated frontier territory as generally unoccupied land with a population density of fewer than 2 people per square mile (0.77 people per square kilometer). The frontier line
5282-596: The Appalachian Mountains included the Connecticut River valley, and northern New England (which was a move to the north, not the west). Settlers on the frontier often connected isolated incidents to indicate Indian conspiracies to attack them, but these lacked a French diplomatic dimension after 1763, or a Spanish connection after 1820. Most of the frontiers experienced numerous conflicts. The French and Indian War broke out between Britain and France, with
5421-470: The British plan to set up a Native state in U.S. territory south of the Great Lakes. They explained the American policy toward the acquisition of Native lands: The United States, while intending never to acquire lands from the Indians otherwise than peaceably, and with their free consent, are fully determined, in that manner, progressively, and in proportion as their growing population may require, to reclaim from
5560-544: The French making up for their small colonial population base by enlisting Native war parties as allies. The series of large wars spilling over from European wars ended in a complete victory for the British in the worldwide Seven Years' War . In the peace treaty of 1763 , France ceded practically everything, as the lands west of the Mississippi River, in addition to Florida and New Orleans, went to Spain. Otherwise, lands east of
5699-621: The Homestead Law of 1862, with a moderated pace that gave settlers 160 acres free after they worked on it for five years. The private profit motive dominated the movement westward, but the federal government played a supporting role in securing the land through treaties and setting up territorial governments, with governors appointed by the President. The federal government first acquired western territory through treaties with other nations or native tribes. Then it sent surveyors to map and document
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5838-671: The Mississippi River and what is now Canada went to Britain. Regardless of wars, Americans were moving across the Appalachians into western Pennsylvania, what is now West Virginia, and areas of the Ohio Country , Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the southern settlements via the Cumberland Gap , their most famous leader was Daniel Boone . Young George Washington promoted settlements in West Virginia on lands awarded to him and his soldiers by
5977-703: The Missouri River, and such principal stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean; whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable communication across the continent for commerce". Jefferson also instructed the expedition to study the region's native tribes (including their morals, language, and culture), weather, soil, rivers, commercial trading, and animal and plant life. Entrepreneurs, most notably John Jacob Astor quickly seized
6116-590: The Northeast, there was little competition on the western frontier for Transylvania University , founded in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1780. It boasted of a law school in addition to its undergraduate and medical programs. Transylvania attracted politically ambitious young men from across the Southwest, including 50 who became United States senators, 101 representatives, 36 governors, and 34 ambassadors, as well as Jefferson Davis,
6255-456: The Northwest terrain, including the important South Pass through the central Rocky Mountains. Discovered about 1812, it later became a major route for settlers to Oregon and Washington. By 1820, however, a new "brigade-rendezvous" system sent company men in "brigades" cross-country on long expeditions, bypassing many tribes. It also encouraged "free trappers" to explore new regions on their own. At
6394-663: The Republican Party-led Reconstruction. White Southerners commonly denounced carpetbaggers collectively during the post-war years, fearing they would loot and plunder the defeated South and be allied politically with the Radical Republicans . Sixty men from the North, including educated free blacks and slaves who had escaped to the North and returned South after the war, were elected from the South as Republicans to Congress. The majority of Republican governors in
6533-424: The Republican party, "carpetbaggers" were recent arrivals in the region from the North, and freedmen were freed slaves. Most of the 430 Republican newspapers in the South were edited by scalawags and 20 percent were edited by carpetbaggers. White businessmen generally boycotted Republican papers, which survived through government patronage. Historian Eric Foner argues: ...most carpetbaggers probably combine
6672-623: The Royal government in payment for their wartime service in Virginia's militia. Settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains were curtailed briefly by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , forbidding settlement in this area. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) re-opened most of the western lands for frontiersmen to settle. The nation was at peace after 1783. The states gave Congress control of the western lands and an effective system for population expansion
6811-488: The Sky . These movie titles bear an unmistakable similarity to two movies produced and directed by Hughes: The Outlaw (1943) and Hell's Angels (1930). Hell's Angels starred Jean Harlow, but it was not her debut; she was an established actress with seventeen earlier screen credits. Jean Harlow was famous as (in the words of her official estate-sponsored website) "Hollywood's Original Blonde Bombshell", but her bust measurement
6950-718: The South (1884). On November 6, 1875, Hiram Revels , a Mississippi Republican and the first African American U.S. Senator, wrote a letter to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant that was widely reprinted. Revels denounced Ames and Northerners for manipulating the Black vote for personal benefit, and for keeping alive wartime hatreds: Since reconstruction, the masses of my people have been, as it were, enslaved in mind by unprincipled adventurers, who, caring nothing for country, were willing to stoop to anything no matter how infamous, to secure power to themselves, and perpetuate it...My people have been told by these schemers, when men have been placed on
7089-506: The South did so to participate in the profitable business of rebuilding railroads and various other forms of infrastructure that had been destroyed during the war. During the time most blacks were enslaved, many were prohibited from being educated and attaining literacy. Southern states had no public school systems, and upper-class white Southerners either sent their children to private schools (including in England) or hired private tutors. After
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#17330856037727228-460: The South during Reconstruction were from the North. Since the end of the Reconstruction era, the term has been used to denote people who move into a new area for purely economic or political reasons despite not having ties to that place. The term carpetbagger, used exclusively as a pejorative term, originated from the carpet bag , a form of cheap luggage, made from carpet fabric, which many of
7367-431: The South in raising cotton." Foner notes that "joined with the quest for profit, however, was a reforming spirit, a vision of themselves as agents of sectional reconciliation and the South's "economic regeneration." Accustomed to viewing Southerners—black and white—as devoid of economic initiative, the "Puritan work ethic", and self-discipline, they believed that only "Northern capital and energy" could bring "the blessings of
7506-484: The South to teach the freedmen; some were sponsored by northern churches. Some were abolitionists who sought to continue the struggle for racial equality; they often became agents of the federal Freedmen's Bureau , which started operations in 1865 to assist the vast numbers of recently emancipated slaves. The bureau established schools in rural areas of the South for the purpose of educating the mostly illiterate Black and Poor White population. Other Northerners who moved to
7645-444: The South's railroads (by mileage); 19% of the directors were from the North. By 1890, they controlled 88% of the mileage; 47% of the directors were from the North. Union General Adelbert Ames , a native of Maine, was appointed military governor and later was elected as Republican governor of Mississippi during the Reconstruction era . Ames tried unsuccessfully to ensure equal rights for black Mississippians. His political battles with
7784-520: The Southerners and African Americans ripped apart his party. The "Black and Tan" (biracial) constitutional convention in Mississippi in 1868 included 30 white Southerners, 17 Southern freedmen and 24 non-southerners, nearly all of whom were veterans of the Union Army. They included four men who had lived in the South before the war, two of whom had served in the Confederate States Army . Among
7923-550: The U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1883 to 1885. He died in Vicksburg, Mississippi 16 days after he left Congress. The next Republican congressman from the state was not elected until 80 years later in 1964: Prentiss Walker of Mize, Mississippi, who served a single term from 1965 to 1967. Corruption was a charge made by Democrats in North Carolina against the Republicans, notes the historian Paul Escott, "because its truth
8062-535: The United States , carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe allegedly opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War and were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial, political, or social gain. The term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote Republican politics (including
8201-519: The West and wholesalers and factories back east. The postal service likewise assisted the Army in expanding control over the vast western territories. The widespread circulation of important newspapers by mail, such as the New York Weekly Tribune , facilitated coordination among politicians in different states. The postal service helped to integrate already established areas with the frontier, creating
8340-517: The West was filling up with squatters who had no legal deed, although they may have paid money to previous settlers. The Jacksonian Democrats favored the squatters by promising rapid access to cheap land. By contrast, Henry Clay was alarmed at the "lawless rabble" heading West who were undermining the utopian concept of a law-abiding, stable middle-class republican community. Rich southerners, meanwhile, looked for opportunities to buy high-quality land to set up slave plantations. The Free Soil movement of
8479-469: The Wilderness Road. Kentucky at this time had been depopulated—it was "empty of Indian villages." However raiding parties sometimes came through. One of those intercepted was Abraham Lincoln 's grandfather, who was scalped in 1784 near Louisville. The War of 1812 marked the final confrontation involving major British and Native forces fighting to stop American expansion. The British war goal included
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#17330856037728618-497: The actress who played Rina in The Carpetbaggers , was chosen a year later to play the title role in the biopic Harlow . Fictional Rina Marlowe's husband, cinema director Claude Dunbar, commits suicide shortly after their marriage, as did Jean Harlow's second husband, producer Paul Bern . Marlowe dies tragically of encephalitis in about 1934; Harlow died of kidney failure in 1937. In other respects, correspondences between
8757-469: The admission of the last few contiguous western territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase , giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as " manifest destiny " and historians' " Frontier Thesis ". The legends, historical events and folklore of the American frontier, known as
8896-543: The attempted enforcement of laws upon outlaws. In 1890, the Superintendent of the Census, William Rush Merriam stated: "Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have
9035-560: The backcountry suffered. Escott claimed "Some money went to very worthy causes—the 1869 legislature, for example, passed a school law that began the rebuilding and expansion of the state's public schools. But far too much was wrongly or unwisely spent" to aid the Republican Party leadership. A Republican county commissioner in Alamance eloquently denounced the situation: "Men are placed in power who instead of carrying out their duties...form
9174-419: The bitterness of the past, and inculcate a hatred between the races, in order that they may aggrandize themselves by office, and its emoluments, to control my people, the effect of which is to degrade them. Elza Jeffords , a lawyer from Portsmouth, Ohio who fought with the Army of the Tennessee , remained in Mississippi after the conclusion of the Civil War. He was the last Republican to represent that state in
9313-417: The character Rina Marlowe with Jean Harlow , whom Howard Hughes had under personal contract for a few years and who many believe had an affair with Hughes; although actual evidence of such an affair is patchy at best, and Harlow often complained about Hughes making a fortune loaning her to other studios and paying her a paltry salary (her contract with Hughes was eventually bought out by MGM ). Carroll Baker ,
9452-424: The coalition of hostile Native tribes. Meanwhile, General Andrew Jackson ended the Native military threat in the Southeast at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 in Alabama. In general, the frontiersmen battled the Natives with little help from the U.S. Army or the federal government. To end the war, American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Ghent , signed towards the end of 1814, with Britain. They rejected
9591-438: The commissioners, county judges and sheriffs. George Thompson Ruby , an African American from New York City, who grew up in Portland, Maine, worked as a teacher in New Orleans from 1864 until 1866 when he migrated to Texas. There he was assigned to Galveston, Texas as an agent and teacher for the Freedmen's Bureau . Active in the Republican Party and elected as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1868–1869, Ruby
9730-433: The creation of an Indian barrier state under British auspices in the Midwest which would halt American expansion westward. American frontier militiamen under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creeks and opened the Southwest, while militia under Governor William Henry Harrison defeated the Native-British alliance at the Battle of the Thames in Canada in 1813. The death in battle of the Native leader Tecumseh dissolved
9869-495: The desire for personal gain with a commitment to taking part in an effort "to substitute the civilization of freedom for that of slavery"...Carpetbaggers generally supported measures aimed at democratizing and modernizing the South – civil rights legislation, aid to economic development, the establishment of public school systems. Beginning in 1862, Northern abolitionists moved to areas in the South that had fallen under Union control. Schoolteachers and religious missionaries went to
10008-488: The early 1900s; typically within the first two decades before American entry into World War I . A period known as "The Western Civil War of Incorporation" lasted from the 1850s to 1919. This period includes historical events synonymous with the archetypical Old West or "Wild West" such as violent conflict arising from encroaching settlement into frontier land, the removal and assimilation of natives, consolidation of property to large corporations and government, vigilantism, and
10147-542: The end of the 20th century, carpetbagger developed another meaning, referring to people who joined a mutual organization , such as a building society , in order to force it to demutualize , that is, to convert into a joint stock company , seeking personal financial gain by that means. The Republican Party in the South comprised three groups after the Civil War, and white Democratic Southerners referred to two in derogatory terms. Scalawags were white Southerners who supported
10286-678: The end of the gathering season, the trappers would "rendezvous" and turn in their goods for pay at river ports along the Green River , Upper Missouri, and the Upper Mississippi. St. Louis was the largest of the rendezvous towns. By 1830, however, fashions changed and beaver hats were replaced by silk hats, ending the demand for expensive American furs. Thus ended the era of the mountain men , trappers, and scouts such as Jedediah Smith , Hugh Glass , Davy Crockett , Jack Omohundro , and others. The trade in beaver fur virtually ceased by 1845. There
10425-636: The entire Republican Party, enabling the sweeping Democratic victory in the 1874 state elections. William Hines Furbush , born a mixed-race slave in Carroll County, Kentucky in 1839 received part of his education in Ohio. He migrated to Helena, Arkansas in 1862. After returning to Ohio in February 1865, he joined the Forty-second Colored Infantry. After the war, Furbush migrated to Liberia through
10564-418: The entirety of the 19th century, is cited to have significantly reduced open land. A frontier is a zone of contact at the edge of a line of settlement. Theorist Frederick Jackson Turner went deeper, arguing that the frontier was the scene of a defining process of American civilization: "The frontier," he asserted, "promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people." He theorized it
10703-412: The establishment of law and order, the building of farms, ranches, and towns, the marking of trails and digging of mines, combined with successive waves of immigrants moving into the region, the United States expanded from coast to coast, fulfilling the ideology of Manifest Destiny. In his "Frontier Thesis" (1893), Turner theorized that the frontier was a process that transformed Europeans into a new people,
10842-400: The expansion, but Jeffersonians hailed the opportunity to create millions of new farms to expand the domain of land-owning yeomen ; the ownership would strengthen the ideal republican society, based on agriculture (not commerce), governed lightly, and promoting self-reliance and virtue, as well as form the political base for Jeffersonian Democracy . France was paid for its sovereignty over
10981-412: The film The Fortune Cookie (1966), Harry Hinkle ( Jack Lemmon ) carries a hardcover copy of the novel into his bedroom. Insurance investigators are covertly listening. In the novel The Outsiders (1967), Ponyboy Curtis mentions that his elder brother Darry has a copy of the novel, which Ponyboy states he has read, despite Darry saying he is too young. Carpetbagger In the history of
11120-722: The first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory . In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville . The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback, but it was the best route for thousands of settlers moving into Kentucky . In some areas they had to face Native attacks. In 1784 alone, Natives killed over 100 travelers on
11259-571: The first, if not the very first, in the State to denounce the hordes of greedy office-seekers who came from the North in the rear of the army in the closing days of the [U.S. Civil] War", in the June 1867 stump speech that he delivered across Tennessee in support of the re-election of the disabled Tennessee Governor William G. Brownlow : No one more gladly welcomes the Northern man who comes in all sincerity to make
11398-578: The founders of the Republican party in Mississippi. They were prominent in the politics of the state until 1875, but nearly all left Mississippi in 1875 to 1876 under pressure from the Red Shirts and White Liners . These white paramilitary organizations , described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party", worked openly to violently overthrow Republican rule, using intimidation and assassination to turn Republicans out of office and suppress freedmen's voting. Mississippi Representative Wiley P. Harris ,
11537-512: The good land, and worked it with slaves. The area was no longer "frontier". It had a stratified society comprising a powerful upper-class white landowning gentry, a small middle-class, a fairly large group of landless or tenant white farmers, and a growing slave population at the bottom of the social pyramid. Unlike the North, where small towns and even cities were common, the South was overwhelmingly rural. The seaboard colonial settlements gave priority to land ownership for individual farmers, and as
11676-745: The land. By the 20th century, Washington bureaucracies managed the federal lands such as the United States General Land Office in the Interior Department, and after 1891, the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. After 1900, dam building and flood control became major concerns. Transportation was a key issue and the Army (especially the Army Corps of Engineers) was given full responsibility for facilitating navigation on
11815-478: The legislature's "depraved villains, who take bribes every day"; one local Republican officeholder complained, "I deeply regret the course of some of our friends in the Legislature as well as out of it in regard to financial matters, it is very embarrassing indeed." Escott notes that extravagance and corruption increased taxes and the costs of government in a state that had always favored low expenditure. The context
11954-439: The main responsibility for the issue of $ 28 million in state bonds for railroads and the accompanying corruption. This sum, enormous for the time, aroused great concern." Foner says Littlefield disbursed $ 200,000 (bribes) to win support in the legislature for state money for his railroads, and Democrats as well as Republicans were guilty of taking the bribes and making the decisions on the railroad. North Carolina Democrats condemned
12093-676: The more prominent were Gen. Beroth B. Eggleston , a native of New York; Col. A.T. Morgan, of the Second Wisconsin Volunteers; Gen. W.S. Barry, former commander of a Colored regiment raised in Kentucky; an Illinois general and lawyer who graduated from Knox College; Maj. W.H. Gibbs, of the Fifteenth Illinois infantry; Judge W. B. Cunningham, of Pennsylvania; and Cap. E.J. Castello, of the Seventh Missouri infantry. They were among
12232-474: The most ignorant class of society to make war on the enlightened, intelligent, and virtuous, what kind of social relations would such a state of things beget. Albert T. Morgan , the Republican sheriff of Yazoo, Mississippi, received a brief flurry of national attention when insurgent white Democrats took over the county government and forced him to flee. He later wrote Yazoo; Or, on the Picket Line of Freedom in
12371-465: The mountains for the proposed transcontinental railroad, but his expedition ended in near-disaster when it became lost and was trapped by heavy snow. His reports mixed narrative of exciting adventure with scientific data and detailed practical information for travelers. It caught the public imagination and inspired many to head west. Goetzman says it was "monumental in its breadth, a classic of exploring literature". While colleges were springing up across
12510-452: The movies by volunteering to perform a risky stunt, becomes fabulously wealthy as a movie cowboy star, and becomes proprietor of a Wild West show. In these details he bears a vague resemblance to Tom Mix , who was a star performer in the 101 Wild West Show and became in turn a movie extra, stuntman, and major star. Some also see a resemblance between Nevada Smith and William Boyd , who became famous as Hopalong Cassidy . Others say that Smith
12649-460: The new Republican Party in 1856. He led a series of expeditions in the 1840s which answered many of the outstanding geographic questions about the little-known region. He crossed through the Rocky Mountains by five different routes and mapped parts of Oregon and California. In 1846–1847, he played a role in conquering California. In 1848–1849, Frémont was assigned to locate a central route through
12788-480: The newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders. It is now used in the United States to refer to a parachute candidate , that is, an outsider who runs for public office in an area without having lived there for more than a short time, or without having other significant community ties. According to a 1912 book by Oliver Temple Perry, Tennessee Secretary of State and Radical Republican Andrew J. Fletcher "was one of
12927-399: The novel's characters and real individuals are imprecise. In the novel, Jonas Cord's first movie production is entitled The Renegade ; is released in 1930; and stars Rina Marlowe in her screen debut. Marlowe has a 38C bust, and Cord has one of his aeronautical engineers design a special brassiere for her. There is a brief reference to his producing a movie four years later entitled Devils in
13066-409: The novel, potentially further confusing the situation. When Rina Marlowe dies, a studio official says that, to replace Marlowe in an upcoming picture, "I'm already talking to Metro about getting Jean Harlow." A fictional Charles Standhurst, who owns "more than twenty newspapers stretched across the nation", is said to be "second only to Hearst ". The character Nevada Smith is a cowboy who breaks into
13205-679: The opportunity and expanded fur trading operations into the Pacific Northwest . Astor's " Fort Astoria " (later Fort George), at the mouth of the Columbia River, became the first permanent white settlement in that area, although it was not profitable for Astor. He set up the American Fur Company in an attempt to break the hold that the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly had over the region. By 1820, Astor had taken over independent traders to create
13344-432: The opportunity for commercial agriculture was low. These areas remained primarily in subsistence agriculture, and as a result, by the 1760s these societies were highly egalitarian , as explained by historian Jackson Turner Main: The typical frontier society, therefore, was one in which class distinctions were minimized. The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, so that ordinarily no one of wealth
13483-452: The period for greater dramatic effect. This inspired the Western genre of film, along with television shows , novels , comic books , video games , children's toys, and costumes. As defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of crops and hotels, and the formation of states." They explain, "It
13622-548: The population grew they pushed westward for fresh farmland. Unlike Britain, where a small number of landlords owned most of the land, ownership in America was cheap, easy and widespread. Land ownership brought a degree of independence as well as a vote for local and provincial offices. The typical New England settlements were quite compact and small, under a square mile. Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues, namely who would rule. Early frontier areas east of
13761-414: The possession of lands more than they can cultivate, and more than adequate to their subsistence, comfort, and enjoyment, by cultivation. If this is a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon
13900-571: The president of the Confederacy. Most frontiersmen showed little commitment to religion until traveling evangelists began to appear and to produce "revivals". The local pioneers responded enthusiastically to these events and, in effect, evolved their populist religions, especially during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840), which featured outdoor camp meetings lasting a week or more and which introduced many people to organized religion for
14039-431: The president. Then when the population reached 100,000 the territory applied for statehood. Frontiersmen typically dropped the legalistic formalities and restrictive franchise favored by eastern upper classes and adopting more democracy and more egalitarianism. In 1810, the western frontier had reached the Mississippi River . St. Louis, Missouri , was the largest town on the frontier, the gateway for travel westward, and
14178-549: The race of life." Many Northern and Southern Republicans shared a modernizing vision of upgrading the Southern economy and society, one that would replace the inefficient Southern plantation regime with railroads, factories, and more efficient farming. They actively promoted public schooling and created numerous colleges and universities. The Northerners were especially successful in taking control of Southern railroads, aided by state legislatures. In 1870, Northerners controlled 21% of
14317-487: The region getting a bad reputation as the "Great American Desert", which discouraged settlement in that area for several decades. In 1811, naturalists Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859) and John Bradbury (1768–1823) traveled up the Missouri River documenting and drawing plant and animal life. Artist George Catlin (1796–1872) painted accurate paintings of Native American culture. Swiss artist Karl Bodmer made compelling landscapes and portraits. John James Audubon (1785–1851)
14456-528: The right of African Americans to vote and hold office) and individuals who saw business and political opportunities because of the chaotic state of the local economies following the war. In practice, the term carpetbagger often was applied to any Northerners who were present in the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The word is closely associated with scalawag , a similarly pejorative word used to describe native white Southerners who supported
14595-829: The rising tide of equality. Chamberlain was said to justify white supremacy by arguing that, in evolutionary terms, the Negro obviously belonged to an inferior social order. Charles Woodward Stearns , also from Massachusetts, wrote an account of his experience in South Carolina: The Black Man of the South, and the Rebels: Or, the Characteristics of the Former and the Recent Outrages of the Latter (1873). Francis Lewis Cardozo ,
14734-603: The rivers. The steamboat, first used on the Ohio River in 1811, made possible inexpensive travel using the river systems, especially the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. Army expeditions up the Missouri River in 1818–1825 allowed engineers to improve the technology. For example, the Army's steamboat " Western Engineer " of 1819 combined a very shallow draft with one of the earliest stern wheels. In 1819–1825, Colonel Henry Atkinson developed keelboats with hand-powered paddle wheels. The federal postal system played
14873-421: The state government from 1867 to January 1874. Only one state official and one justice of the state supreme court were Northerners. About 13% to 21% of district court judges were Northerners, along with about 10% of the delegates who wrote the Reconstruction constitution of 1869. Of the 142 men who served in the 12th Legislature, some 12 to 29 were from the North. At the county level, Northerners made up about 10% of
15012-421: The state of nature, and to bring into cultivation every portion of the territory contained within their acknowledged boundaries. In thus providing for the support of millions of civilized beings, they will not violate any dictate of justice or humanity; for they will not only give to the few thousand savages scattered over that territory an ample equivalent for any right they may surrender, but will always leave them
15151-570: The state passed a civil rights law. Furbush and three other black leaders, including the bill's primary sponsor, state senator Richard A. Dawson , sued a barkeeper in Little Rock, Arkansas for refusing to serve their group. The suit resulted in the only successful Reconstruction prosecution under the state's civil rights law. In the legislature, Furbush worked to create Lee County, Arkansasfrom portions of Phillips County, Crittenden County, Monroe County, and St. Francis County in eastern Arkansas, which had
15290-400: The support of settlers and the general public who preferred that the military remain as close as possible. The frontier area was vast and even Davis conceded that "concentration would have exposed portions of the frontier to Native hostilities without any protection." Government and private enterprise sent many explorers to the West. In 1805–1806, Army lieutenant Zebulon Pike (1779–1813) led
15429-406: The territories of Great Britain. [...] They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages. As settlers poured in, the frontier districts first became territories, with an elected legislature and a governor appointed by
15568-506: The territory in terms of international law. Between 1803 and the 1870s, the federal government purchased the land from the Native tribes then in possession of it. 20th-century accountants and courts have calculated the value of the payments made to the Natives, which included future payments of cash, food, horses, cattle, supplies, buildings, schooling, and medical care. In cash terms, the total paid to
15707-412: The territory that Grove Press had opened up. On the second page of the novel, as aviator Jonas Cord approaches the landing strip of his father's explosives factory, Robbins writes: "The black roof of the plant lay on the white sand like a girl on the white sheets of a bed, the dark pubic patch of her whispering its invitation into the dimness of the night." In 1961, this was explosive indeed. (Paradoxically,
15846-580: The ticket who were notoriously corrupt and dishonest, that they must vote for them; that the salvation of the party depended upon it; that the man who scratched a ticket was not a Republican. This is only one of the many means these unprincipled demagogues have devised to perpetuate the intellectual bondage of my people...The bitterness and hate created by the late civil strife has, in my opinion, been obliterated in this state, except perhaps in some localities, and would have long since been entirely obliterated, were it not for some unprincipled men who would keep alive
15985-508: The time from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 to when the Superintendent of the Census, William Rush Merriam , stated the U.S. Census Bureau would stop recording western frontier settlement as part of its census categories after the 1890 U.S. Census . His successors however continued the practice until the 1920 Census . Others, including the Library of Congress and University of Oxford , often cite differing points reaching into
16124-504: The tribes in the area of the Louisiana Purchase amounted to about $ 2.6 billion, or nearly $ 9 billion in 2016 dollars. Additional sums were paid to the Natives living east of the Mississippi for their lands, as well as payments to Natives living in parts of the west outside the Louisiana Purchase. Even before the purchase, Jefferson was planning expeditions to explore and map the lands. He charged Lewis and Clark to "explore
16263-652: The war, hundreds of Northern white women moved South, many to teach the newly freed African-American children. They joined like-minded Southerners, most of which were employed by the Methodist and Baptist Churches, who spent much of their time teaching and preaching to slave and freedpeople congregations both before and after the Civil War. Carpetbaggers also established banks and retail businesses. Most were former Union soldiers eager to invest their savings and energy in this promising new frontier, and civilians lured south by press reports of "the fabulous sums of money to be made in
16402-588: The west was of high priority for settlers and politicians. The American frontier began when Jamestown , Virginia, was settled by the English in 1607. In the earliest days of European settlement on the Atlantic coast, until about 1680, the frontier was essentially any part of the interior of the continent beyond the fringe of existing settlements along the Atlantic coast. English , French , Spanish , and Dutch patterns of expansion and settlement were quite different. Only
16541-477: The words "pubic patch" are omitted in some recent editions published in the United Kingdom .) In 1963, while it may have been just within bounds in the United States, it was still one of 188 books prohibited from import into Australia, along with Vladimir Nabokov 's Lolita , D. H. Lawrence 's Lady Chatterley's Lover , Grace Metalious 's Peyton Place , and no fewer than seven books by Henry Miller. In
16680-561: The years when the White League , a white Democratic terrorist organization, conducted an open campaign of violence and intimidation against Republicans, including freedmen, with the goals of regaining Democratic power and white supremacy. They pushed Republicans from political positions, were responsible for the Coushatta Massacre , disrupted Republican organizing, and preceded elections with such intimidation and violence that black voting
16819-554: Was Bill Lear , not Howard Hughes, by the way." TV Guide Online ' s capsule summary of the movie says, however, "Deny it though he might, Harold Robbins obviously used parts of the life of Howard Hughes as the basis for his major character, Jonas Cord." Lear, the developer of the Lear jet and the 8-track tape player , was better known as an engineer rather than as an aviator, and had no connection with Hollywood . Parallels between Cord and Hughes include: Ian Parker and others identify
16958-408: Was a process of development: "This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward...furnish[es] the forces dominating American character." Turner's ideas since 1893 have inspired generations of historians (and critics) to explore multiple individual American frontiers, but the popular folk frontier concentrates on the conquest and settlement of Native American lands west of
17097-451: Was a prominent Republican U.S. Senator. His 1872 reelection campaign in Alabama opened him to allegations of "political betrayal of colleagues; manipulation of Federal patronage; embezzlement of public funds; purchase of votes; and intimidation of voters by the presence of Federal troops." He was a major speculator in a distressed financial paper. Tunis Campbell , a black New York businessman,
17236-432: Was a resident. The class of landless poor was small. The great majority were landowners, most of whom were also poor because they were starting with little property and had not yet cleared much land nor had they acquired the farm tools and animals which would one day make them prosperous. Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming. There might be
17375-477: Was a strong supporter of Negro rights. Some historians of the early 1800s, who belonged to the Dunning School that believed that the Reconstruction era was fatally flawed, claimed that Chamberlain later was influenced by Social Darwinism to become a white supremacist. They also wrote that he supported states' rights and laissez-faire in the economy. They portrayed "liberty" in 1896 as the right to rise above
17514-512: Was already at number nine on the New York Times bestseller list . The most successful of Robbins' books, it had sold over eight million copies by 2004. The profile of Robbins in Gale's Contemporary Authors Online claims that The Carpetbaggers "is estimated to be the fourth most-read book in history". The Carpetbaggers was published at the onset of the sexual revolution . Only two years earlier,
17653-421: Was apparent." The historians Eric Foner and W.E.B. Du Bois have noted that Democrats as well as Republicans received bribes and participated in decisions about the railroads. General Milton S. Littlefield was dubbed the "Prince of Carpetbaggers", and bought votes in the legislature "to support grandiose and fraudulent railroad schemes". Escott concludes that some Democrats were involved, but Republicans "bore
17792-555: Was based on cowboy actor Ken Maynard . A movie entitled Nevada Smith (1966) starring Steve McQueen was based on Smith's role in this book. The role of Billy the Kid in Hughes' The Outlaw was played by Jack Buetel , who prior to his movie career was neither an outlaw nor a cowboy, but an insurance clerk. Murray Schumach 's review in The New York Times on June 25, 1961, opens: "It
17931-533: Was developed. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abolished slavery in the area north of the Ohio River and promised statehood when a territory reached a threshold population, as Ohio did in 1803 . The first major movement west of the Appalachian mountains originated in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina as soon as the Revolutionary War ended in 1781. Pioneers housed themselves in a rough lean-to or at most
18070-615: Was hired in 1863 by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to help former slaves in Port Royal, South Carolina. When the Civil War ended, Campbell was assigned to the Sea Islands of Georgia, where he engaged in an apparently successful land reform program for the benefit of the freedmen. He eventually became vice-chair of the Georgia Republican Party, a state senator and the head of an African-American militia which he hoped to use against
18209-466: Was later elected as a Texas state senator and had wide influence. He supported construction of railroads to support Galveston business. He was instrumental in organizing African-American dockworkers into the Labor Union of Colored Men, to gain them jobs at the docks after 1870. When Democrats regained control of the state government in 1874, Ruby returned to New Orleans, working in journalism. He also became
18348-472: Was not extraordinary. The real-life person who did make her screen debut as a star, was famous for her large bust, and for whom Hughes really did have an engineer design a special brassiere, was Hughes' later discovery (and model for the character Jennie Denton) Jane Russell , who starred in The Outlaw . The names of real people whom Robbins' fictional characters resemble are often mentioned briefly within
18487-399: Was not quite proper to have printed The Carpetbaggers between covers of a book. It should have been inscribed on the walls of a public lavatory." He complains that the plot is merely "an excuse for a collection of monotonous episodes about normal and abnormal sex—and violence ranging from simple battery to gruesome varieties of murder". On the day the review was published, The Carpetbaggers
18626-399: Was plagued by accusations of corruption, which continued to be a matter of controversy long after his death. He was accused of using his position as governor to trade in state bonds for his personal benefit. In addition, the newspaper company which he owned received a contract from the state government. Warmoth supported the franchise for freedmen. Warmoth struggled to lead the state during
18765-530: Was sharply reduced. Warmoth stayed in Louisiana after Reconstruction, as white Democrats regained political control of the state. He died in 1931 at age 89. George Luke Smith , a New Hampshire native, served briefly in the U.S. House from Louisiana's 4th congressional district but was unseated in 1874 by the Democrat William M. Levy . He then left Shreveport for Hot Springs, Arkansas. George E. Spencer
18904-461: Was that a planter elite kept taxes low because it benefited them. They used their money toward private ends rather than public investment. None of the states had established public school systems before the Reconstruction state legislatures created them, and they had systematically underinvested in infrastructure such as roads and railroads. Planters whose properties occupied prime riverfront locations relied on river transportation, but smaller farmers in
19043-640: Was the first-known black Democrat elected to the Arkansas General Assembly. In March 1879, Furbush left Arkansas for Colorado. He returned to Arkansas in 1888, setting up practice as a lawyer. In 1889, he co-founded the African American newspaper National Democrat. He left the state in the 1890s after it disenfranchised black voters. Furbush died in Indiana in 1902 at a veterans' home. Carpetbaggers were least numerous in Texas. Republicans controlled
19182-490: Was the outer boundary of European-American settlement into this land. Beginning with the first permanent European settlements on the East Coast , it has moved steadily westward from the 1600s to the 1900s (decades) with occasional movements north into Maine and New Hampshire, south into Florida, and east from California into Nevada. Pockets of settlements would also appear far past the established frontier line, particularly on
19321-425: Was wide agreement on the need to settle the new territories quickly, but the debate polarized over the price the government should charge. The conservatives and Whigs, typified by the president John Quincy Adams , wanted a moderated pace that charged the newcomers enough to pay the costs of the federal government. The Democrats, however, tolerated a wild scramble for land at very low prices. The final resolution came in
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