The Federalist Frontier: Settler Politics in the Old Northwest, 1783-1840

The Federalist Frontier traces the development of Federalist policies and the Federalist Party in the first three states of the Northwest Territory-Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois-from the nation's first years until the rise of the Second Party System in the 1820s-1830s. Relying on government records, private correspondence, and newspapers, the book argues that Federalists originated many of the policies and institutions that helped the United States government take a leading role in American expansion across the continent. They placed the U.S. Army at the fore of the white westward movement, created and executed the institutions to survey and sell public lands, and advocated for transportation projects to aid commerce and further migration into the region. Federalist state-sponsored expansion also had clear effects on policy and political culture within the new states, with citizens in the Northwest considering pro-business policies on Hamiltonian terms and becoming great friends of Henry Clay's American System. Ultimately, the relationship between government and Settlers evolved as citizens raised their expectations of what government should provide, and the region embraced canal and railroad construction and innovators in public education.