The American Frontier Thesis

8/8/2019 The American Frontier Thesis

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THEHUNTINGTON LIBRARY

QUARTERLYVOLUME XXIII, NUMBER 3 MAY 1960COPYRIGHT I960 BY THE HENRY E. HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND ART GALLERY

The AmericanFrontierThesis*By RAY ALLEN BILLINGTON

FEW TOPICScould more appropriatelycommemoratethe one hun-dred tenth anniversary f the birth of Henry E. Huntingtonthanthatsuggested o me by the genially persuasiveDr. Pomfret.Frontieringwas in Mr. Huntington'sblood;his ancestorsn 1633helpedplantAmerica's irst frontieron the shoresof MassachusettsBay;he heard he call of the West when he moved to CalifornianI892 to aidin the conquestof America'sast frontieronthePacific.The fortune that he accumulatedpersonifiedhe hopefor materialgain that turnedmen'sfaces towardthe settingsun for the threehundredyearsneededto settle the continent;hismagnificent ene-faction to this institutionsymbolizedthe idealismthat sustainedthosepioneersastheymarchedwestward.For Mr.Huntington,ikethe frontiersmen, elieved hatwealthwasnot thefinalgoal.In thisLibraryandArt Galleryhe paidtributeto culturethat is the ulti-matein humanendeavor, o ideasthat dwarf allothercreationsofman.

My purposethis afternoon s to discusswith you one of thoseideas-one intimatelyassociatedwith the HenryE. HuntingtonLi-braryandArt Gallery. Livingaswe do in an age of materialistic

*An addressdelivered on Founder'sDay, Feb. 29, 1960, at the Henry E. Hunting-ton Libraryand Art Gallery,San Marino,Calif.Researchnecessaryfor the prepara-tion of this paper was made possible by a faculty researchgrant from the SocialScience Research Council.201


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202 HUNTINGTON LIBRARYQUARTERLYprosperitywhere theacquisitionf bodilycomfortsassumes trans-cendentrolein humanmotivation,we are nclined o forgetthatthepagesof history prove ideasto be more dangerous han nuclearweapons,more constructivethan all the sources of energy har-nessedby man.Disciplesof force-from AlexanderandCaesar oNapoleon and Hitler-have alteredthe lives of men andreshapedthe mapof the globe, but no moreso than NikolausCopernicus,Karl Marx,CharlesDarwin, and Albert Einstein.Thoughts,notswords or guns or hydrogenbombs,haveproventhemselves hemostpowerfulforces for good andevil in mankind'shistory.

The idea thatis my themetoday-the American rontier hesis-canhardlybe ranked n influencewith theevolutionaryhypothesisor the theoryof relativity,yet it has,for almost hreequarters f acentury, stirredusually placid historians nto passionatecontro-versy,radicallyaltered heteachingof our nation'shistory, nspireda veritableflood of publication, erved as a justificationor suchdiversediplomatic rograms sPhilippinemperialismndthe"Tru-man Doctrine' and been utilizedby propagandistso rationalizesuch conflictingconceptsas "rugged ndividualism"ndthe NewDeal.A thesis hathelpscreate heimageof theircountryabsorbedfrom teachers ndschoolbooksby generations f youngAmericans,and thusalters heir behavioralpatternascitizensof the Republic,is surelyworthy of more thanpassingattention.The manresponsibleor thisrevolution n historicalinterpreta-tion, FrederickJacksonTurner,may havebeenknown to someofyou, for he spenthis lastyears living happily n Pasadena s a re-searchassociate f the HuntingtonLibrary.Hence I should ike totell you somethingof thisremarkablendividualand of the evolu-tion of his frontierthesis,as the story is revealed n his recentlyopenedmanuscriptst the Library,beforereturning o the theorythathe originated.Born in Portage,Wisconsin,in 1861, the son of a politicallyprominentnewspaper ditor,youngTurnerwas won to thehistori-cal professionby ProfessorWilliamF Allenwhile a studentat theUniversityof Wisconsin.ProfessorAllen'semphasis pontheinter-pretation f historicaldataandtheevolutionary rowthof medievalinstitutionsprofoundly mpressedhe young student;he confessedmanyyears aterthatwheneverhe wrote"Allenhasalways ooked


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AMERICAN FRONTIER THESISover my own shoulder,and stirredmy historicalconscience!''Under his master'sprodding,Turner in i888 departedfor thatmeccaof allyoung scholarsof the day,JohnsHopkinsUniversity,to returna year later with the coveteddoctorate.Yet thatyear atJohnsHopkinswas thoroughlydisquieting. omeof hisinstructorshe liked-Woodrow Wilson,who lecturedon politics;RichardTEly, who introducedhim to the historicalapproacho economics;AlbionW Small,an advancedgraduatetudentwholed an informaldiscussiongroupinto the problemsof Americannationalism-butthe venerated dean of the profession,Professor Herbert BaxterAdams,arousedmoredoubt hanenthusiasmntheyoungman romtheWest.Adams,a firmbeliever n thethen-populargerm"heoryof history,advisedhisstudents o turn fromthe studyof Americato Europe,for the originsof everyAmerican nstitutionhad beentracedback to its "germ"n the German olkmoots,andhence thesubjectwas exhausted!This absurdityTurnerrefusedto accept;he confessed aterthatmanyof hishistoricaldeasstemmed romhisindignant eaction oProfessorAdams'suggestion.2 e agreed hat thesimilarity etweenEuropean ndAmerican ustomsand nstitutionsouldbeexplainedby thetransplantingf Europe's ivilization, utwhatof thediffer-ences?These were especiallyclear to Turner hat year, for theystoodforthin exaggeratedelief in hisown MiddleWest,and,as avisitor to anotherregionfor the firsttime,he could, as he wrote,"get a more detachedview of the significanceof the West itself"thanever before.3Had the institutions n which ProfessorAdamsdiscoursed o learnedlysimplyevolvedin the United Statesfromtheir medieval"germs"?Or had they been alteredby the uniqueenvironmentn which they grew to maturity?Turner'smemoriesof his own boyhood helpedsupply the an-swer, for the Wisconsinof his youth was justemerging rom thefrontierstageandprovideda soil for theseedsof civilizationunlikeanything n Europeor the East.He laterrecalled:'FrederickJacksonTurnerto CarlBecker,Oct. 26, 1920, TurnerPapers,Hunting-ton Library (hereafterreferredto as HEH), TU Box 30,Correspondence.2"The frontier was pretty much a reaction from that due to my indignation"Turnerto Becker,Dec. I6, I925, HEH, TU Box 34,Corresp.

3Turner to William E. Dodd, Oct. 7, 1919, HEH, TU Box 29, Corresp.

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLYI have polled down the Wisconsin [River] in a dug-out with Indianguides..., seeingdeer in the river,-antlered beautieswho watcheduscome down with curiouseyes andthen brokefor the tall timber.... Ihaveseenalynchedmanhanging o atreeasI camehome fromschoolinPortage,... haveseen the red shirtedIrishraftsmen ake the town whenthey tied up and came ashore, . . . have seen Indians come in on theirponiesto buy paintandornaments, ndsell theirfurs;havestumbledontheir camp on the Baraboo,where driedpumpkinswere hung up, andcookingmuskratswere in the kettle,andanIndianfamilywere bathingin the river.4Surely such a wild, free land would have some effect on newcomersand their imported institutions.So also, Turner believed, would the blending of races that oc-cured in those middle western frontier communities, where north-erners and southerners, Yankees and Cavaliers, Englishmen andIrishmen and Germans and Norwegians met and mingled. Againhis childhood memories could be trusted:There was an Irishward, into which we boys venturedonly in com-panies. There was a Pomeranianward where women wore woodenshoes,kerchiefson their head,red woolen petticoats.... There wereNorwegian settlements,Scotch towns, Welsh, and Swiss communitiesin the county.... In the city itselfwe hadall types froma negro familynamedTurner, o an Irish "keener"who lookedlikea Druidandwhoseshrillvoice could be heardoverimpossible paceswhen anIrishsoulde-parted.... They mixed too. And respectedandfought eachother.5Would not traditional institutions be corroded in such a hodge-podge of races and peoples?

Asking himself these questions,Turnerbegan to wonder whetherEurope's transplanted civilization had not been modified by theunique American environment, just as the medieval cultures that hehad studied under Professor Allen had been changed by their ex-pansion in the dark forests of Germany. Woodrow Wilson hadtalked to him of institutions as living, growing things, as "vehiclesof life,' and of change as "breakingthe cake of custom'" The Ger-man historianJohann Gustav Droysen, whose Principles of History

4Turner o Becker,Dec. x6,I925, HEH, TU Box 34,Corresp.5Ibid.6Turner to Dodd, Oct. 7, 1919, HEH, TU Box 29, Corresp.

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AMERICAN FRON'I'IER THESIShe read n 1890,hadimpressed ponhimthat"Historywas theselfconsciousnessof humanity"' nd that man could understand hepresent only by familiarizinghimselfwith the past.7Could notAmericansunderstandhemselvesbetterif they realized hattheywere, in part, productsof an environmenthat hadplacedits dis-tinctivestampupon them?And, if so, what were the distinguish-ing featuresof that environment?His answerswere contained n two remarkableessays,"Prob-lems in AmericanHistory,' published n 1892, and "The Signifi-cance of the Frontier n AmericanHistory,'readbeforea congressof historiansat the ColumbianExposition n Chicagoduringthesummerof I893.8The firstwas a pronouncement f Turner'shis-toricalcredo; n it, he statedmanyyears ater,"Isaidpretty nearlyeverything havesincesaid'"Onesentence sworthquoting:"Thepeculiarityof American nstitutionss the fact thatthey arecom-pelledto adapt hemselves o the changesof a remarkably evelop-ing, expandingpeople''.0This conceptwas raised o full stature nhissecondessayayearlater.The key to anunderstandingf Amer-ican history,he argued,was "the existenceof an areaof free land,its continuousrecession,and the advanceof Americansettlementwestward"''lAs men moved westward,they shed their "culturalbaggage"alongthe way; asthey planted heirsettlementsn forestclearings, he repeated"beginningover again"altered heirhabitsand institutions.An "Americanization"f man and society hadtakenplace.

7Turner o Merle Curti, Aug. 8, 1928,HEH, TU Box 38,Corresp.Turnerin 1928presentedtwo copies of this work to the Huntington Library.One, Droysen'sGrun-driss der Historik (Leipzig, I882), he autographedand dated "1890"; the other, anEnglish translation,Outline of the Principles of History (Boston, 1893), is datedin Turner'shand "I893' In the latter he has marked severalpassages n which thisconcept is expressed.8The former essay first appeared n the Sgis (Madison,Wis.), Nov. 4, I892, andhas been reprinted in Turner, The Early Writings of Frederick Jackson Turner(Madison,Wis., 1938),pp. 7 -83.The second essay,"The Significanceof the Frontierin American History:' was first printed in the Proceedings of the State HistoricalSociety of Wisconsin, XLI (Madison, 1894), 79-112. It has been reprinted severaltimes and is most readily available in Turner, The Frontier in American History(New York,1920), pp. I-38.9Turner to Max Farrand, Oct. 13, I196, HEH, TU Box 26, Corresp.loThe Early Writings of FrederickJacksonTurner,p. 73."The Frontier in AmericanHistory, p. i.

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARYQUARTERLYThis frontier hesis,revolutionary sit wasin a daywhenhistorywas concernedonly with past politics,attractedprecious ittle at-tentionat first.Turner'sather did not feel impelled o describetsreceptionwhenhewroteof hisexperiences tthe ColumbianExpo-sition,l2andonly one Chicagopaperdeemed t worthyof mention-on page three.13Printedcopies of the essay, circulatedwidelyamonghistorians, roused ittle more enthusiasm. dwardEverettHale condescended o acknowledge"yourcuriousandinteresting

paper"T4ndTheodoreRoosevelt, henlaboringon his Winningofthe West,admitted hatTurnerhad "struck omefirstclassideas,and ... put into definiteshapea good dealof thoughtwhich hasbeen floating aroundrather loosely'"15here was little enoughsolacefor Turner n suchremarks, r in the letterfromthe editorsof Henry Holt & Companyassuringhim that they discovered nthe essay"indicationshatyou may be the comingmanwho is towrite the neededcollege historyof the United States'"1Time, however,soon broughthim his due, for as youngerandfreshermindsgraspedhesignificance f histheory,and,asstudentstrainedn his seminar ttheUniversityof Wisconsinspreadhisgos-pel over the nation,his staturemountedremarkably.Universityafteruniversitybid for his services,but none succeeded n luringhimfromhispreciousmanuscriptsn the statehistoricalocietyuntil

910o,when he accepteda callto Harvard.This move,he explainedto a friend,"wasdictatedneitherby ambitionnorby avarice"'utin the hopeof performing"a serviceto the causeof highereduca-tion" at Wisconsinby convincingthe regentsto end theirattackupon pureresearch.17Studentpressures t Harvard o hinderedhiswritingthathe resigned n 1924, two yearsbeforethe compulsoryretirementage of 65, and threeyearslatersettledin Pasadena sresearchassociateof this Library.Duringthe next yearshe livedl2Andrew Jackson Turner to Helen Mae Turner, July 23, 1893, HEH, TU Box i,Corresp.l3ChicagoTribune,July 13, I893.4Hale to Turner, April 2 , I894, HEH, TU Box i, Corresp.'SRoosevelt to Turner, Feb. 10, 1894, HEH, TU Box i, Corresp.16Henry Holt & Co. to Turner,Feb. 14, 1895, HEH, TU Box 2, Corresp.Thecontract for such a book, which Turner finally signed on Nov. 3, I897, is in thisfolder.17Turnerto Becker, Dec. 5, 1909, HEH, TU Box 12, Corresp.

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AMERICAN FRONTIER THESIShappily, illinghis letterswith enraptured roseon theperfectionofsouthernCalifornia'ssceneryand climate;but he hadneverbeenrobust, and his health steadily worsened. On March 14, 1932, theend came, suddenly and mercifully, after a morning of work in theLibrary.To know Frederick Jackson Turnerwas to love him; to read theletters and documents that he left behind is to sharein that love. Aman of infinite compassion and selflessness,he gave of himself sofreely to friends and students that his own material accomplish-ments were minor. He was, one of his disciples noted, never a"teacher"; nsteadhe "was himself studying history up there behindthe desk before our eyes, for our benefit no doubt, but just continu-ing the labors of the morning''18Turner consciously cultivated thisapproach. To him the young scholars who sat at his feet were notstudents, to be stuffed with information, but companions "on theadventure after historical truth" who, with a little encouragement,would "outstrip their guide in finding the trail and the new hori-zons''19His method, if he had one, was to "takethe student into theworkshop where the chips are flying and where he can see theworkman cut his finger and jam his thumb"20They were never tobe recast into their master'smold; "I have been;' Turnerconfessed,"a porter at the gate, rather than a drill sargent'.21These attitudeswere fatal to his own ambitiousplans for rewrit-ing American history. He was both a perfectionist and an intellec-tual pioneer, never content to set pen to paper until the last scrapof evidence had been gathered, the last phrase polished to perfec-tion. "Some of my own difficulty in publishing"he wrote a studentwho was similarlyafflicted,"arises rom my realizationof the manyfactors essential to a fundamentaltreatment,and a dislike to issue apartial survey"22 Thirty-four large file drawers in the ManuscriptDepartment of this Library, all stuffed with notes on his volumi-nous reading, testify to the truth of that statement.To makemattersworse, his pioneering instincts constantly led him from the main18Beckero Turner,[Nov. I925], HEH, TU Box 34,Corresp.

19Turner to Becker, Oct. 25, 1928, HEH, TU Box 40, Corresp.20Turner o Becker,Nov. 7, 1898, HEH, TU Box 2, Corresp.21Turnero Curti,Aug. 8, 1928, p. 20, HEH, TU Box 38, Corresp.22Turnero Arthur H. Buffinton,Feb. 26, 1921, HEH, TU Box 31, Corresp.

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLYroad nto fascinatingbypathsof learning.His endlessquestwasfornew explanations,ewmeansof understandingnd lluminatinghestory of his country'sgrowth;narrativehistoryandoft-told talesintriguedhimnot at all.To composea brilliantessayor address,ocasta rayof lighton amisunderstoodproblem, o formulate chal-lenging hypothesisor a scintillating ew interpretation-thesewereTurner's trengths.These virtues meantthat he would write few books;his entirereputation ested on one publishedvolumeand somethirty essaysor lesser works. They meant also that he would be constantlyfrustrated,or his publicationplanswere as largeas his abilitytofulfill them was small.In 1897, n the optimism f youth,hesigneda contractto preparea one-volumecollege historyof the UnitedStates.When, seven years later, the publishersbegan proddinghim for a manuscript, e put themoff by promising o do a highschool textbookin addition!23 either volume was ever written,although he contractsworriedTurnerthroughouthis lifetime;heoften whimsicallyremarked hat he wished he could declarein-tellectualbankruptcyandthusbe free to work out his own salva-tion.24Often,too,helongedfor the financialsecurity hattextbooksprovided. Once a graduatestudent at Harvardshowed him aquarterlyroyalty check from a successfulschool text. "It was"Turnerconfided o a friend,"formoremoneythanallmy writingstogetherever broughtme!""Experience hould have taughthim thathis mind was ill-suitedto the productionof books. The one volume that he completedduringhis lifetime,his Rise of the New West, 1819-1829 in theAmericanNationseries,26 as a monumentnot only to its author'sbrilliancebut to the tenacityof the serieseditor,AlbertBushnellHart. "OnethingI do owe to Hart"Turnerwrotesomewhatrue-fully, "andthat is the steadfastway in which he hasworkedthe

23An extended correspondenceon this matter between TurnerandHenry Holt &Co. is in HEH, TU Box 5, Corresp.He succeededin writing only three incompletechapters, in rough draft, which are in HEH, File Drawer No. 15, folder marked"CollegeHistory of United States''24MaxFarrand,"FrederickJacksonTurnerat the Huntington Library:'Hunting-ton LibraryBulletin,III (Feb. 1933),159.25Turnero E. E. Dale, Jan.29, 925,HEH, TU Box 34,Corresp.

26Vol. XIV (New York, I906).

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AMERICAN FRONTIER THESISreel andfinallylanded he Ms. It'sa poorsucker nsteadof a trout,but it fought like the devil againstcoming to the landingnet'"27Yet Turnerneverlearned hatlesson;alwaysthe next few monthswould finishthe currentmanuscript nd much of thenext.In 1923he sent to the publishershe firstthreechaptersof the book thathe intendedas his magnumopus,a sectionalinterpretation f theperiod between 1830 and I850, at the sametime cheerfully in-forminga friend, "The book should be out sometimewithin theyear'28Four yearslaterwhen he joinedthe HuntingtonLibrarystaff,it was no nearercompletion,but Turnerwas confident that hisnew leisurewould solve all problems."So far as my plansgo' hewrote a friend,"I want to finishthat,continuestudies or a bookon sectionalismn Americanhistory,possiblyalso a book on thestruggle between rural and industrialelementsin America,andthe relationsof labor and capital n their classconsciousness, nd,usingtheseand otherstudies,possiblywind up, if I live, with aninterpretative eneralsurveyof Americanhistory:'29 few weekslater Turnerhad discovered he rich resourcesof the Libraryandwas off on the joyousquestfor new information.His The UnitedStates, 1830-185o did not appear until 1935, three years after hisdeath,andthenonly through helovinglaborof friendswho under-took its completion.30FrederickJacksonTurnererected few literarymonuments ohimself,but the concept for which he is best known-the frontierthesis-was sufficient o stamphim foreveras one of the nation'smost acuteinterpreters. hat thesishasrecast he studyand teach-ing of Americanhistoryin a new mold;it has alteredthe viewsof statesmenand diplomats; nd it shedslight on the murkypathinto the future thatthe United States s following today.For Tur-ner's theory, assumingas it does the alterationof men and theirinstitutionsn the New Worldenvironment, elps explain he dif-ferencesbetween the Americanpeopleandthoseof the nationsofthe Old Worldfrom which they came.Americans,t holds,have

27Turnero Farrand,Dec. 29, I905, HEH, TU Box 5,Corresp.28Turnero John M. Gaus,May9, 1923,HEH, TU Box 32,Corresp.29Turnero Farrand,March8, 1927, HEH, TU Box 36,Corresp.30The United States, 1830-1850:The Nation and Its Sections (New York, 1935).

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLYbeenendowedwith certain raits(mobility,wastefulness,material-ism, anti-intellectualism,he spiritof innovation,optimism,a faithin the ideaof progress)andwith certainbasicvalues(a ferventbe-lief in democracyand socialmobility,anintensified ationalism) sa resultof theirpioneeringheritage.Turnernevermaintainedhatthe frontierwas solely responsibleor thesecharacteristicsr fortheuniqueness f theAmerican haracter; e did insist hatthecol-onizingexperiencentensified ertain nherited ustomsor attitudeswhile weakeningothers.Perhaps can best illustratehis thesisbydiscussingwith you a few typicaltraitsand attitudes hatvisitorsfrom abroadrecognizeaspeculiarlyAmerican.One is ourmobility.We areconstantlymovingabout,with littleattachment o placeor tradition.Few of us in this roomlive todayin the houses n which we were born;fewer still in the houses nwhich our parentsor grandparents ere born.Yetin Europethisis the normalpattern,disruptedonly by the catastrophe f war.The New YorkTimes a few years ago believednewsworthyanitem to the effect that a manin Californiahad lived in the samehousefor fifty years-a journalisticudgment, assureyou, thatanyEuropeanwouldconsiderincomprehensible.31utthis s the Ameri-canway of life;we arepermanentlyransitory. angStephenVin-cent Benet in his Western Star:

Americansarealwaysmovingon.It'sanold Spanishcustomgone astray,A sort of Englishfever,I believe,Or justa mere desire o takeFrench eave,I couldn'tsay.I couldn'treallysay.But,when the whistleblows,they go away.32In recent years one in every five personshas moved each year, onein every fourteen has shifted from one county to another, one inevery thirty from one state to another. Today some 24 per cent ofus live outside the state in which we were born; if children areomitted from this group, the figure rises to two of every five.33

31New York Times, June I4, 1942.32(New York,1943), p. 3.33EverettS. Lee, "A Sociological Examinationof the TurnerThesis;'unpublishedpaperread at the meeting of the American Historical Association,New York,1957.

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AMERICAN FRONTIER THESIS"If God were suddenlyto call the world to judgment,'observeda South Americanvisitor,"He would surprise wo-thirdsof theAmerican population on the road like ants'.34We learned hisgameof musicalchairs romourpioneerances-tors.Movingon was a habit with them,for good landslay ahead,andgood landswere an irresistibleure. As earlyasthe seventeenthcentury the Reverend Cotton Matherwas complaining hat hisBoston flocks showed an alarming endencyto "Go out from theinstitutionsof God, Swarmingnto New Settlements,where theyand their untaughtFamiliesare Like to Perishfor Lack of Vi-sion";35 a hundred years later a Virginia governor lamented thatthe people"acquireno attachment o Place: But wanderingaboutSeemsengraftedn theirNature;and it is a weaknessncident o it,that they Should for ever imagine he Landsfurtheroff, areStillbetter than those upon which they have already Settled'.36A trav-eler n frontierOhio in theearlynineteenthcenturynoted anumberof goodfarmsalongtheroad,desertedby pioneerswho hadpressedon to find better land in Indianaor Illinois;37explorerson the remoteedge of the MissouriValley settlements in 8I9 were eagerly ques-tioned aboutthe fertilityof the PlatteRivervalley by an old fron-tiersmanwho obviouslyhad every intention of moving there.38The Westwas in the eyes of thosefrontieringgenerations;f any-thing in historyapproximatedn irresistibleorce, it was the pio-neer when good landslay ahead."Afterthey havepassed hroughevery part of the land of promise,'a travelerprophesied,"theywill, for the sakeof merechange,returnto the seaboardagain"39

34Quotedin George W Pierson, "The Moving American' YaleReview, XLIV(Autumn 1954), I03.35Mather,The Short History of New-England. A Recapitulation of WonderfulPassagesWhich Have Occurr'd,First in the Protections, and Then the Afflictions,of New-England (Boston, 1694),p. 45.36Quoted n Pierson,"The Moving American' p. Ioo.37ThomasHulme, "Journalof a Tour in the Western Countriesof America:' nWilliam Cobbett, A Year'sResidence, in the United States of America, 3rd ed.(London, I822), p. 286.38EdwinJames,Account of an Expeditionfrom Pittsburghto the Rocky Moun-tains,Performedin the Years1819and '20 (Philadelphia,I823), I, io6.39EstwickEvans, A Pedestrious Tour, of Four Thousand Miles, through theWesternStatesand Territories Concord,N.H., I819), p. 39.

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212 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY-a consolingthought,perhaps, or thoseof you who bemoan hecontinuing nfluxinto southernCalifornia.If the habit of playing leapfrogwestwardwas bredinto Ameri-cansby theirfrontierheritage, o alsowastheirbuoyantoptimism,their infinitefaith in the future,and the relentlessimpulse o driveahead toward materialgoals. Visitors to the West noted the ac-celeratedpaceof life. "AnAmerican'oneobserved,"wants o per-formwithinayearwhat othersdo withinamuchlongerperiod.Tenyears in Americaare like a centuryin Spain"40 odaythat sameimpulsedrivesus alongthe roadto ulcers andheartattacks.As apeople we have never learnedto play; we pursuesportsto win,rather han for thepleasure f thegame,and starton holidayswitha grimdeterminationo havea good time if it kills us. Leisure, hetrue leisure hat anEnglishman r Frenchman nshrines shisgoal,has traditionally eensuspect n the United States.Popular n theI890'swasthe cartoonof a snobbishEnglishvisitorandhisAmeri-can hostess."It'sa defect in your country"'niffs the Englishman,"thatyou haveno leisuredclasses."Butwe havethem"'replies heAmerican,"onlywe call themtramps:'41n acuteobserver f morethan a century ago might have been writing of today when henoted: "The word money seems to stand as the representative fthe word 'happiness'of other countries'42The faith in progress hatunderlies he American"Go Ahead"spirit,a faithtraceablen partto the opportunityofferedby limit-lessunexploitednatural esourceson the frontier,hasbeenrespon-sible for accentuating he democraticimpulsesthat were trans-planted romEnglandby the earlysettlers. n pioneercommunitiesthe absenceof a prior leadership tructure,of firmly drawnclasslines tendingto perpetuate ontrollinggroupsor individuals, ndof traditionalocial divisionsbasedon the unequaldistribution fpropertytended to create a fluid society with virtuallylimitlessopportunityfor individualadvancement.The resultingattitudes

40Francis Lieber, ed. Letters to a Gentleman in Germany (Philadelphia, 1834),p. 287.41Quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger, "What Then Is the American, This NewMan?" American Historical Review, XLVIII (Jan. 1943), 232.42George W Featherstonhaugh, Excursion through the Slave States (New York,1844), p. 69.


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AMERICAN FRONTIER THESIShavepersistedn our civilization.The United Stateshas never hada classstruggleof the sort that KarlMarxobserved n Germanyor England;the only classstrugglehere,as one historianhasob-served, s to climb out of one classandinto a higherone. Evento-day,in ourhighlyindustrializedsociety,we refuseto acknowledgesuch divisions;when I taughtat SmithCollegea few years ago, apoll showedthat all but one or two students elt they belonged nthe "middleclass' thoughsomewere daughters f millionairen-dustrialists nd others of day laborers.Sociologists,despairing fusinga traditionalvocabularywhen discussingpeoplewho refuseto acknowledgea graded society, have been forced to substitutethe term "stratification"or "classstructure,'and to stress the"open-endedness"f each level.These attitudesthrived in frontier communities.True, socialgradationwas apparentalmost from the start.Perhapsa travelerin early Indianawas exaggeratingomewhatwhen he noted thattwo classes existed: "the superiorand the inferior;the formershavedonce a week, the latter once in two weeks";43 ut eventhefrontiersmenwere conscious that the "betterelement" and the"commonfolk" were clearly distinguishable. wo features,how-ever, stamped he frontiersocial structureasunique.One was therelativeease of accessto the "upperclass"; he otherwasthestub-bornrefusalof both groupsto admitthatany differences xisted.To the westerner,all men were equal,and he defended hat con-cept belligerently.A strangerwho spoke of "servants"was sureto be reminded hat"They arenot servants, ll arehiredhands";44one who askeda workerwhere his masterwas was rudely told:"Ihave no master.Do you wish to seeMr.So-and-So?"45 oeuntothe pioneerhousewifeunlessshe seatedherhelperwith the guestsat table and invited her to tea with visitingnotables."Did a girlfancy . . herself undervalued?" rote a newcomerto the West,"-was she not asked o the firsttablewith company?-notincludedin invitations ent us from 'big bug'families?-not calledMissJane

43[BaynardRush Hall], The New Purchase: or, Seven and a Half Years n theFar West (New York,1843),I, 72.44JamesFlint,Lettersfrom America (Edinburgh,I822), p. 98.45Quoted in Everett N. Dick, The Dixie Frontier (New York, 1948), p. 332.

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLYor Eliza?-she was off in a moment!"46 A well-to-do easternernewly arrivedin the Ohio Valley lost a whole gang of hard-to-findhired workers when he forgot to invite them to breakfastwith thefamily;47a honeymooning couple were abandoned by their hireddriver when they tried to have one meal by themselves.48Equallyresented was any touch of snobbery; to use a silver fork or to sportgold buttons on a coat was to invite ridicule, slander, and evennear mayhem. "With us;' one frontiersman stoutly maintained,"a man's a man, whether he have a silk gown on him or not?.49This insistence on equality was not confined to the "commonfolk"; the "better sort" were just as eager to prove that they werehonest democrats and no better than their neighbors. When anewly arrivedhousewife in Michigan, distressedby the indiscrimi-nate dipping of forks and spoons into the serving dishes at table,offered to serve a visitor, she was told: "I'll help myself, I thankye. I never want no waitin' on."5 Those with a few more worldlypossessions than others constantly apologized, saying that carpetswere "one way to hide the dirt"' hat a mahogany table was "dread-ful plaguy to scour,' and that kitchen conveniences were "lumberin'up the house for nothin'"51 Nowhere was the frontier spirit ofequality better demonstrated than in the taverns, where three orfour guests were assignedto each bed, in order of arrival and withno thought of their social status. Because all Americans are gentle-men, the pioneer argued, and because all gentlemen are alike, whybother to separate judges from teamsters,generals from drovers-or to change the sheets more often thanonce a month? "In the west;'observed a French traveler, "all are equal; but not with a nominalequality, not equal on paper merely. There every man with a coaton his back is a gentleman; quite as good as his neighbor'"52

46[Hall], The New Purchase, II, ii.47Flint, Letters from America, pp. 142-143.48Frederick Marryat, A Diary in America (London, I839), II, I55-156.49SimonA. O'Ferrall,A Rambleof Six ThousandMiles throughthe UnitedStatesof America (London, 1832), p. 243.50[Caroline M. Kirkland], A New Home-Who'll Follow? or, Glimpses ofWesternLife (New York,I839), p. 86."I!bid., p. 309.52Michael Chevalier, "The Western Steamboats' Western Monthly Magazine, IV

(1835), 414.

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AMERICAN FRONTIER THESISThese characteristics nd socialattitudes,anda dozen othersaswell, can be ascribed t least n partto thethree-hundred-year-longpioneeringexperienceof the Americanpeople.To those who be-lieved,as did FrederickJacksonTurner, hatthesetraitsendowedthe United Stateswith strengthandvirtuesunrivaledthroughoutthe globe, the end of the frontierera was an occasion or genuinealarm.In I890 the directorof the censusannounced hat an un-brokenfrontierline no longerseparatedhe unsettledandsettledportionsof the continent;duringthe next few decades he supplyof free lands still availableo pioneersdiminishedo the vanishing

point.Turnerwatched this transitionwith mountinggloom.The ma-terialprospectswere sufficiently errifyingwith no flow of newlydiscovered esources rom the West to revitalize he nation'secon-omy; in notes for a lecture prepared n 1923 he predictedtheexhaustion f the country'soil reservesn twenty years,of its coalandironandphosphorusn fifty years,and of its food suppliesbythe year 2o00 as its expandingpopulationoutstrippedts produc-tive capacity."Theprobable olution"'e added, s an "eraof war,friendlycomet or chemistsbomb,or Doing late what mighthavebeen donein time'"53Even more disturbing o ProfessorTurnerwere the ideologicalresultsof the frontier'sclosing.Sincerelybelievingas he did thatAmerica's democratic nstitutionsneeded constant revitalizationthrough rontierrebirth,and thatthe diverse ectionsof the UnitedStates remainedunited only because the cohesive force of na-tional partiesheld them together,he fearedboth the erosion ofpopulargovernmentand the Europeanizationf North America."Whenwe lost our free landsandour solation romtheOldWorld"he told a classat HarvardjustafterWorldWarI, "welostourim-munity from the resultsof mistakesof waste, of inefficiencyandof inexperiencen ourgovernment"54hose,Turnerbelieved,wereluxuries hat could no longerbe afforded,now thatescapeto theWest was impossible.At the sametime he dreaded he emergence

53HEH, TU File Drawer No. 15, folder marked "Notes for Shop Club Lecture1923-Winter"'54HEH, TU File Drawer No. io, folder marked "American Ideals of Liberty,1900-1914'' in "History of Liberty Lectures-MSS''

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HUNTINGTON LIBRARYQUARTERLYof sectionalconflictswhichseemed o himpossiblen a nonexpand-ing land."Itis inconceivable"'e wrote in apreliminary raftof anessay on sectionalism,"that we should follow the evil path ofEuropeandplaceourrelianceupon triumphantorce.Weshallnotbecomecynicalandconvincedthat sectionsandclasses, ike Euro-pean nations,must dominate heir neighborsand strike first andhardest"55

Despite his fears,FrederickJacksonTurner'sbelief in the per-sistenceof goodwas so deepthathe never osthopein democracy'ssurvival.The patternsof governmentmight be altered; he statemight assumethe protectiverole formerlyplayed by free lands;buthe felt thatfreedomandequalitywouldremain heidealsof thepeoplein the closed-spaceworld of the futureas they hadin theexpandingworld of the past."Weshall not' he wrote, "yieldourAmerican dealsand our hopesfor man,which hadtheirorigininour own pioneering xperience,o anymechanicalolutionofferedby doctrinaireseducatedin Old World grievances.Rather weshallfind strengthto buildupon our pasta noblerstructure....[Rather] we shall continueto presentto our sister continentofEurope the underlyingideas of America as a better method ofsolvingdifficulties.We shallpointto the Pax Americana"56

55HEH,TU File Drawer No. I5, folder marked"Essayon SectionalismI920'56Ibid.

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Documents

The American Frontier Thesis