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PART III: AMERIC A, THE UNFINISHED PROJECT
contracts for craft apprentices. Jefferson’s party was successful in all but three states in winning voting rights for every white male citizen irrespective of whether they were property owners. All but two states moved to choosing presidential electors by direct election rather than leaving their selection to state legislators.20 In the end, however, Jefferson’s program featured Empire with a more friendly and democratic face. For all the acrimonious and sometimes violent tension between the parties, the underlying power structure and bias for elite privilege remained remarkably stable. Federal policies continued to allow slavery, favor big industrialists and financiers, and advance the forceful appropriation of Native lands by the U.S. Army.21 The defining act of Jefferson’s administration was to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, thereby doubling the size of the United States, providing a safety valve for the pent-up tensions of America’s deep class conflict, and removing potential imperial competitors from the nation’s immediate borders. In an early demonstration of the gift of American politicians for Orwellian doublespeak, Jefferson dubbed the expanding U.S. nation “An Empire for Liberty.”
WESTWARD EXPANSION Hardy pioneers were attracted to the newly opened frontier by the promise of freedom from rent collectors, legalized loan sharks, and other institutions of imperial bondage. Yet the predators were quick to follow, and the newly established free farmers all too soon found themselves back in debt, yielding to the local bank its annual pound of flesh — until a bad harvest brought default and the bank claimed everything. The passions that might otherwise have been channeled into open revolt were defused by the continuing promise of yet more virgin territory just beyond the horizon. The United States became a nation of restless, rootless vagabonds, bags always packed and one foot on the wagon.22 After the Louisiana Purchase came the War of 1812, which opened the way for expansion into Florida, Canada, and Indian territories further to the west.23 When Mexico won its independence in a revolutionary war against Spain, its territory included what are now the states of Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, and part of Colorado. Ignoring Mexico’s claims, as they ignored the claims of the indigenous peoples, thousands of settlers poured into Mexican territory from