The Frontier Thesis: Valid Interpretation of American History?

THE FRONTIER THESIS

Valid Interpretation of American History?

Edited by RAY ALLEN BILLINGTON Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

ROBERT E. KRIEGER PUBLISHING COMPANY HUNTINGTON, NEW YORK 1977

Cover illustration credit: Culver Pictures "The Atlantic frontier was compounded of fisherman, fur-trader, miner, cattle-raiser, and farmer. Excepting the fisherman, each type of industry was on the march toward the West, impelled by an irresistible attraction. Each passed in successive waves across the continent. Stand at Cumberland Gap and watch the procession of civilization, marching single file-the buffalo following the trail to the salt springs, the Indian, the fur-trader and hunter, the cattle-raiser, the pioneer farmer-and the frontier has passed by."-Frederick Jackson Turner Original edition 1966 Reprint 1977

Printed and Published by ROBERT E. KRIEGER PUBLISHING CO., INC.

645 NEW YORK A VENUE

HUNTINGTON, NEW YORK 11743

Copyright

©

1966 by

HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, INC. Reprint by Arrangement

All rights reserved. No reproduction in any form of this book. in whole or in part (except for brief quotation in critical articles or reviews), may be made without written authorization from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Billington, Ray Alien, The frontier thesis. Reprint of the ed. Winston,

New York,

1903-

ed.

published by Holt,

in series:

Rinehart and

American problem studies.

Bibliography: p. Turner, Frederick Jackson,

1.

in American history--Addresses,

2.

1861-1932,'

The frontier

essays,

lectures.

Frontier thesis--Addresses, essays,

lectures.

tle.

[E179.5.B625 1977] 0-88275-586-2

ISBN

0 C; A 60�

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973

77-9103

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CONTENTS Introduction -It THE BEGINNING OF THE CONTROVERSY FREDERICK J.

GEORGE

Statement of the Frontier Thesis Later Explanations and Developments W. PIERSON-Turner's Views Challenged TURNER-

9 21 31

THE FRONTIER AS SAFETY VALVE DRAWING EXCESS WAGE EARNERS FROM THE EAST Even an Indirect Safety Valve Attracting Eastern Farmers ELLEN VON NARDROFF-A Resources and Sociopsychological Safety Valve FRED A. SHANNON-Not

:\t- DEMOCRACY AS A PRODUCT

51

OF THE FRONTIER

BENJAMIN F.

WRIGHT-Democratic Practices of English Origin JOHN D. BARNHART-American Democracy Distinguished from Democracy in General MERLE CURTI-The Impact of the Frontier: A Case Study

.=t.:

41

63 69 75

INFLUENCE OF THE FRONTIER ON AMERICAN CHARACTER Significance of Continuity EVERETT s. LEE-Mobility a Strong Influence DAVID M. POTTER-The Role of Abundance EARL POMEROy-The

80 90 96

SUMMARY RICHARD HOFSTADTER-The

HARRY

C. ALLEN-The

Thesis Disputed Thesis Upheld

Guide for Further Reading

1 00 1 07 1 19

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. ..;.. � j d�.......AC 1""',� "" .l. r� - 1-1 " IJ. �! ,...�-u:C:-1 1� � ,.- \ Ir';' s.J:1edding some of their cultural baggage as they advanced. In their new homes more of the habits of civilization were discarded �ecause many of the customs and institu tions necessary in the thickly populated communities of the East were inappropriate in the thinly peopled hamlets or farm areas of the West. As fewer controls were needed governmental functions were simplified, ecc>­ nomic activity reverted to self-sufficiency, social organization erroded away, and cult.,ural activities slowed. On the' successive fro? tier�( Turner believed, an , atqmization of s05i� occurred, and with it a reversion toward primitivism. Gradually, however, Jatecomers swelled the population of each pioneer settlement, and as their numbers increased so did the level of civilization. Governmental controls tightened, economic specialization began, the social organization grew more complex, and cultural activities multiplied. The mature social order._that eventually evolved from each pioneer community differed noticeably from those of th..:: eastern regions, from which its settlers came. TEe��_ altera!:.�o!!s, Turner believed, resulted from
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4

Introduction

on Tur!l�r� p!,es��tation of the hYR9th�sis, finding in his lack of precise �efinitions, inexact phraseology� sweeping lJ!etaphors, tendency to exaggerate! proneness to draw broad conclusions from inadequate evidence, and his �[l­ difference to other casual forces, proof that the frontier thesis was not only ;�spect but positively Wfo� !I0�, they askedl. ���pl�te�y as in the prior two gen�rations. To these scholars Turner's statement of the thesis is unimportant; what is important to them is whether ��e thesis i t�eJf �a.:> v.aUdity. This can be determined only by extensive testing -using the variety of tools available to social scientists, with emphasis at the grass-roots level where statistical evidence can be employed. According to disciples of this third generation, many of the critics of the 1930s and 1940s were as extravagant in their claims, questionable in their methodology, and suspect in their findings as they accused Turner of being. �}0 �� �.:c�i ()�s in this � � �. �!E� ? ave been arranged to reveaJ.the extent of . ..... e.' the differences between the . s�cond' and third generations. It begins with two - d . '" selectio�;by Fre erick Jacks�; Turner, �hich state the frontier thesis. The "------ -

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Introduction

5

first indictment of. Turner's presentation of his thesis, and of the thesis itself, is by ��g�c :W�.Ri�r.§On. In the essay reproduced in part here and in later essays, Pierson emphasizes the inconsistencies and contradictions in Turner's writings, and the vagueness of the concept he was expostulating. Today's reader should keep in mind two questions:
8

Introduction

can assume that the validity of the frontier thesis has been proved or disproved. Today's students of the subject, iInlike those of a generation ago, be live the hypothesis to be a useful tool and one essential to understanding the American charac!�r. They differ from the original Turnerians in knowing that it is only one of many tools and that any assumption that pioneering alone shaped American civilization is false. This is a judgment to which Frederick Jackson . Turner would have subscribed for he, unlike some of his disciples, realized that man's behavior is too complex to be ascribed to any one influence.

In the reprinted selections footnotes appearing in the original sources have in general been omitted unless they contribute to the argument or better understanding of the selection.

When FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER (18611932) read his essay on "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" in 1 893, he touched off a controversy that has stirred historians since that time and will continue to stir them for years to come. At that time Turner was a relatively young man. He had graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1885, earned a Master of Arts degree from that institution in 1 887, and completed work for the doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University in 1890. Returning to Wisconsin as assistant professor of history, he included the study of westward expansion in his new course on the economic and social history of the United States. The reading necessary to prepare that course suggested the b�ld interpretation of the American past that is printed in part below.'"

Statement of the Frontier Thesis

In a recent bulletin of the Superin­ tendent of the �ensus for 1890 appear these significant words: "Up to and in­ cluding 1 880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unset­ tled 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 west­ ward movement etc., it can not, there­ fore, any longer have a place in the census reports." This brief official state­ ment marks the closing DCa great his­ toric movement. Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an

area of free land, its continuous re­ cession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development. Behind institutions, behind constitu­ tional forms and modifications, lie the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet changing conditions. The peculiarity of Ameri­ can institutions is, the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people-to the changes involved in crossing a con­ tinent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and po­ litical conditions of the frontier into the

• From Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," American Historical Association, Annual Report for the Year 1893 (Washington, 1894), pp. 199-227.

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10

F R E D E R I C K J A C K S O N TU R N E R -

complexity of city life. Said Calhoun American history because of i ts relation in 1 8 1 7, "We are great, and rapidly-I to westward expansion. was about to say fearfully-growing!" In this advance, the frontier is the So saying, he touched the distinguishing outer edge of the wave-the meeting feature of American life. All peoples point between savagery and civili�i5ion. show development ; the germ theory of Much has been written about the frontier politics has been sufficiently emphasized. from the point of view of border war­ In the case of most nations, however, the fare and the chase, but as a field for the development has occurred in a limited serious study of the economist and the area; and if the nation has expanded, it historian it has been neglected. has met other growing peoples whom it The American frontier is sharply di§­ has conquered. But in the case of the tinguished from the European frontier United States we have a different phen- ; -a fortified boundary line :.unniTlg omenon. Limiting our attention to the through dense populations. The _ most Atlantic coast, we have the familiar significant thing about the American phenomenon of the evolution of institu- frontier is, that it lies at the hitheJ:'_ �dg� tions in a limited area, such as the rise of free land. In the census reports it is of representative government; the dif- treated as the margin of that settlement ferentiation of simple colonial govern- which has a density of two or more to ments into complex organs; the progress the square mile. The term is an elastic from primitive industrial society, with- one, and for our purpose does not need out di"� ision of labor, up to manufactur- sharp definition. We shall consider the ing civilization. But we have in addition whole frontier belt, including the Indian to this a recurrence of the process' of country and the outer margin of the evolution in each western area reached "settled area" of the census reports. This in the process of expansion. Thus .Amer- (eaper will make no attempt to treat-the-­ ican development has exhibited not subject exhaustively; its aim is simply merely advance along a single line, but to call attention to the frontier as a a return to primitive conditions on a fertile field for investigation, and to continually advancing frontier line, and \ suggest some of the problems which a new development for that area. Amer- arise in connection with' it. ican social development has been conIn the settlement of America we have tinually beginning over again on the to observe how European life entered frontier. This perennial rebirth, this the continent, and how America mod­ fluidity of American life, this expansion ified and developed that life and reacted westward with its new opportunities, its on Europe. Our early history is the continuous touch with the simplicity of study of European germs developing in primitive society, furnish the forces an American environment. Too exclu­ dominating American character. The sive attention has been paid by institu­ true point of view in the history of this tional students to the Germanic origins, nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the too little to the American factors. The Great West. Even the slavery struggle, frontier is the line of most rapid and which is made so exclusive an object of "effective Americanization. The wilder­ attention by writers like Professor von ness masters the colonist. it fingsJUm Holst, occupies its important place in a European in dress," industries, tools,

•

II

Statement of the Frontier Thesis �odes of travel, and thought. It takes him from the railroad car and puts him "in the birch canoe. It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin. It puts him in the log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois and runs an Indian palisade around him. Before long he has gone to planting Indian corn and plowing with a sharp stick; he shouts the war cry and takes �e scalp in ortho­ dox Indian fashion. In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man. He must accept the .conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails. Little by little he transforms the wilder­ "/.less, but the outcome is not the old Europe, not simply the development of Germanic germs, any more than the first phenomenon was a case of reversion to the Germanic mark. The fact is, that here is a new product that is American. At .first, the �rJce. ;

It is impbrtant to understand, there­ comforts of the town, he suffered hard­ fore,what were some of the ideals of this ships and privations, and reverted in .early Western democracy. How did the many ways to primitive conditions of life. frontiersman differ from the man of the Engaged in a struggle to subdue the coast? forest, working as an individual, and The most obvious fact regarding the with little specie or capital, his interests man of the Western Waters is that he were with the debtor class. At each stage had placed himself under influences des­ of its advance, the West has favored an tructive to many of the gains of civiliza­ expansion of the currency. I!1e pioneer tion. Remote from the opportunity for had boundless confidence in the future systematic education, substituting a log ,of his own community, and when sea­ hut in the forest-clearing for the social sons of financial contraction and de• From THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY by Frederick Jackson Turner. Copyright © 1920 by Frederick Jackson Turner. Copyright © 1948 by Caroline M. S. Turner. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. These selections appeared as: "The Problem of the West," Atlantic Monthly, vol. 78 (September 1896), pp. 289-297; "Contributions of the West to American Democracy," A tlantic Monthly, vol. 89 Ganuary 1903), pp. 83-96; "Pioneer Ideals and the State University," Indiana University Bulletin, vol. 7 Gune 1 5 , 1 910), pp. 6-29; and "The West and American Ideals," Washington Historical Quarterly, vol. 5 (October 1914), pp. 243-257. The last two were commencement addresses, delivered at the University of Indiana and the University of Wash· ington.

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F R E D E R I CK JA CKS O N T U R N E R -

pression occurred, he, who had staked his �11 oJl. confidence in Western develop­ ment, and had fought the savage for his home, was inclined to reproach the con­ servative sections and classes. To �e.�plain this . antagonism requires . more !ttan de:\> 'P'o" 1' i �rld;iYo�2 0f dishonesty;- ig�orance, and boorishness as furidamenta1 - Western tra�ts. �egislation in �tJ!.� _Y!?:ited States has had to deal with two distinct social conditions. In some portions of the coun­ try there was,- an i�, an aggregation of property, and vest�a rights are in the foreground: i!! �oth(!rs, capital is lacking, more primitive conditions prevail, with different economic and social ideals, and the contentment of the average individ­ ual is placed in the foreground. That in the conflict between these two ideals an even hand has always been held by the government would be difficult to show. The separation of the Western man from the seabord, and his environment, made him .in a large degree free from European precedents and forces. He lo()ked _a! things independently and with small regard or appreciation for the best Old World experience. He had no i_c:ieal of a philosophical, � , nation, that should advance civilization by "inter­ course with foreigners and familiarity with their point of view, and readiness to adopt whatever is best and most suit­ able in their ideas, manners, and cus­ toms." His was rather the i