The Frontier in the Formative Years 1783-1815

While reading Reginald Horsman's The Frontier in the Formative Years, I got the feeling that the author was trying to avoid direct involvement with the Turner thesis. Horsman is extremely ambivalent in his discussions of how the frontier process may have influenced the development of both the American country and society. Because Horsman's book reads like a textbook, and because it deals more with presenting the tangible facts of settlement rather than interpreting the intangible influences of the frontier, I found it difficult to apply this book directly to Turnerian theory. Since the main purpose of this paper is the discussion of whether Horsman confirms or denies Turner's thesis, I have decided to throw caution to the wind and state that Horsman repudiates Turner's thesis for the most part, although he does at times seem to agree with certain aspects of Turner's hypothesis.

Horsman agrees that the frontier contributed to the development of a more democratic system of government in the United States. However, Horsman disagrees with Turner in their interpretation of how the frontier brought about this change. First of all, Horsman gives the frontier little credit as far as changing the mindset or world-view of the American frontiersman. Horsman says that the pioneers that settled in the frontier region already had views predominantly different from those views that were being espoused in the East. Horsman says that "it was not so much that the enviroment created a frontier democracy, rather that the distant frontier attracted many in Southern New England who disagreed with established authority."¹ Horsman then asserts that the "advance into the wilderness had not created a brand new frontier democracy,"² and that the western reforms were caused mainly by the fact that "the frontier tended to attract those dissatisfied with established institutions."³ At the end of his chapter entitled "The Organization of Government," Horsman states that there "seems good reason to suppose that the West in these years at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century reflected quite closely in the political field the interests and inspirations of the population of the rest of the country."⁴ Horsman allows for the surge of political participation which began to gain momentum during this period of western expansion and settlement, but he attributes this surge to the general populace's demand to make the ideas espoused in the Revolution more tangible, not to the creation of a new American spirit built on the frontier. To be sure, Horsman believes that the West played a role in the movement for expanded suffrage, but he does not believe the West played as important a role as Turner believed. For Horsman, the surge of democracy in America during these years was in no way "peculiarly western in nature."⁵

Later in his book, Horsman refutes Turner's idea that western pioneers discarded the values and traditions which they carried from the East upon reaching the frontier. Horsman does not see the West as transforming the pioneers by stripping away their values and instigating the creation of new ones. Rather, Horsman sees the frontiersman as having reverence for traditional Eastern practices coupled with a desire to establish these practices in their newly acquired land. The society which the pioneers were shaping, for the most part, "echoed in its significant features that which they had known in the East, and that which their forefathers had known in Europe."⁶ Once again, Horsman illustrates the point that any reforms established on the frontier were not caused by the influence of the frontier itself, but that they were caused by pioneers who had the ideals of reform implanted in their psyche long before they reached the wilds of the West. For the most part, the pioneers simply wanted to enhance their position in an already established society; they had no desire to go and create a new one. Near the conclusion of his chapter on "The Development of Frontier Society," Horsman says that "there is little doubt that they [the pioneers] did a great deal to transplant into the West the culture that was known in the East."⁷

Finally, Horsman denies Turner's idea that the frontier consistently reduced social distinctions and status groups. Horsman states that in certain areas, isolation and sparse population may have actually encouraged the establishment of a sort of frontier "aristocracy." Horsman points out the fact that outposts isolated from major settlements offered an ideal opportunity for unscrupulous men to try and establish their own tiny "princedoms." Horsman says: "In such a sparsely populated area as Michigan Territory, the inhabitants with power were few in number; all knew Hull and the judges; personal rivalries and cliques became all important. It was a narrow, clannish, political society."⁸ The wide-open space and sparse populations of frontier regions did not always lead to a more equal or just social structure.

While I feel that the above topics are Horsman's most significant (though tentative) approaches to Turnerian theory, it must be noticed that Horsman does make a few concessions to Turner. First, Horsman says that one Eastern institution which the West did in fact modify was religion. The pioneers leaned more towards the newer religions of the Methodists and Baptists as they began to discard the the more traditional views held by Episcopalians and Congregationalists.⁹ Western pioneers were creating a religion with its own unique features, a religion which appealed specifically to them: "an optimistic religion in which the primary appeal was to emotion rather than reason, in which faith was more important than doctrine, and in which ministers preached salvation not damnation."¹⁰

Horsman also agrees with Turner by confirming the fact that the frontier region of the United States helped create a strong sense of nationalism in the country, and that this influence helped unify the country and strengthen support for the fledgling Federal government. Western pioneers "showed the ardent nationalism common to empire builders."¹¹ The frontier region displayed its patriotism and nationalism by contributing a disproportionate amount of men to the battles fought against the British in The War of 1812. Horsman believes that this frontier sense of national pride did indeed help to maintain the process of building a young nation during an era when things were still very much "touch and go."

I feel that Reginald Horsman has written an excellent book on the role of the expanding West during the early stages of U.S. development. Horsman's book is well written, provides a great deal of documentation, and progresses in an intelligent and rational manner. However, I think that this proved to be a poor book for the purpose of this paper. First of all, the author is more concerned with stating historical facts than he is with presenting interpretations of the frontier's influence. Secondly, the areas in the book where Horsman actually discusses topics relevant to the Turner thesis are relatively brief. Thirdly, the author never even mentions Turner's name; therefore, in the areas where Horsman is agreeing or disagreeing with ideas presented in Turner's thesis, Horsman does not credit Turner with the ideas he is confirming or denying. Finally, Horsman is not very emotional about the Turnerian debate. His statements are very "matter of fact" in nature, and he does not offer very exciting or extensive arguments to back his few assertions concerning the influence of the West. In conclusion, if you want to read a straight history of the frontier region in the U.S. during the years 1783-1815, read this book. But, if you want to read a book which analyzes the frontier region using the ideas of Frederick Jackson Turner as some sort of reference point, read something else.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eblen, Jack E. review of The Frontier in the Formative Years 1783-1815, by Reginald Horsman. Pacific Historical Review 40 (November 1971): 535.

Horsman, Reginald. The Frontier in the Formative Years 1783-1815. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

Rice, Otis K. review of The Frontier in the Formative Years 1783-1815, by Reginald Horsman. Journal of American History 57 (March 1971): 911.

NOTES

¹Reginald Horsman, The Frontier in the Formative Years 1783-1815 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), p. 85.

²Ibid.

³Ibid., p. 87.

⁴Ibid., p. 102.

⁵Ibid., p. 103.

⁶Ibid., p. 147.

⁷Ibid., p. 145.

⁸Ibid., p. 95.

⁹Ibid., p. 139.

¹⁰Ibid.

¹¹Ibid., p. 169.