Today, the United States is a country, a nation, and we tend to think it has been since its birth. But in 1776, and for ninety years after that, Americans could debate whether the U.S. was a country or a complex alliance of many countries, like today’s European Union.
Would loyal support from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut have saved the capital during the War of 1812?
The Founding Fathers saw themselves as citizens of their own states — Virginia, Massachusetts, etc. — and not of the Union. But they weren’t sure. So when they wrote the Constitution, they left the question unanswered. In fact, they rejected a draft that said the Union was “perpetual,” which would have suggested a country. As a result, no one knew whether a state could leave the Union. New Jersey thought a state was a sovereign country and so could leave — and it repeatedly considered secession during the early 1800’s. So did several states in New England during the War of 1812, and these same states actually refused to send their militias to support the U.S. war effort. California, Oregon, and Utah also considered secession during the decades before 1860. And of course, eleven southern states tried to secede in 1861 to protect slavery, triggering the Civil War. Plus, Texas and California originally set up independent countries, despite the fact that most of their voting citizens where what we’d call “Americans.” None of these people saw themselves as traitors. They weren’t sure the U.S. was their country.
The question also cropped surrounding “nullification”: the idea the states, as independent countries, could decide how much to participate in the U.S. by nullifying federal laws they disliked. During the War of 1812, several New England states flirted with nullifying federal law in their territories. And South Carolina actually tried twenty years later. Who first suggested nullification? Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Even the U.S.’s name, or lack thereof, suggests a problem of identity. Founders of new countries generally give them unique names, like Bolivia (named after Simon Bolívar), Pakistan (based on an acronym), and South Africa. But the U.S. Founding Fathers made no attempt to give their new … thing its own name (like Washingtonia, Trans-Atlanta, Avalon, or even Great America). “United States of America” named a political organization, not a country. America, after all, referred to two whole continents, not the much smaller land the new Union occupied.
The confusion ended with the Union’s 1865 victory in the Civil War. By force of arms, the northern states ruled that secession was treason, federal power was supreme, and the Union was a country. That Union ceased to be “these United States,” plural, and became “the United States.”
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Fore more, see Jay Winik’s excellent book, April 1865, The Month that Saved America (Harper Collins 2001), pp. 15-23.
© 2014 by David W. Tollen. All rights reserved.
Wow. That was really interesting. Thank you!
That would mean that a person from the united states is called an united states person, and not an American first? All inhabitants of both North and South America are Americans so that would suggests a problem of identity.
I,m from The kingdom of The Netherlands (Friesland) in Europe. I call myself Frisian first then Dutch (Nederlander) and as last an European. This also would suggests a problem of identity. Having none or having three identities makes it not easier. Friesland also has its own language which is not understood outside our province. So that identity is firmly established in me. Even my last name de Vries means the Frisian.
Maybe USA people should be using demonyms to identify themselves. Floridian, Californian, Utahan, Oregonian etc.Then they have a firm identity and we know immediately where someone is from in the USA.
http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/countries/demonyms_usa.html
Being an American is the same as being European and tells you nothing about where a person is coming from, were it not that the American people outside the USA have a country name they use first. As an American from Brazil is Brazilian.
Another option would be that the USA takes a name for itself.
We are not called American by other countries any longer, but “unitedstateans”, i.e. etatsuniens, in French; estadounidenses, in Spanish; estadunidenses, in Portuguese, etc. “American” inow refers to inhabitants of the American continents and is used like European, African, Asian, etc.
when the Europeans came to North América it already had the name of America,discovered by Spanish explorers in 1492. In the first of these voyages of exploration, Américo Vespucio participated, who has been credited with being the first European to propose that the lands to which Columbus had arrived were not actually part of Asia, but of a continent unknown to Europeans and the from which the name “America” is derived. (Américo Vespucio)
For more information and understanding we recommend
Daniel Immerwahr who is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University and author of How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Great United States. He has written for Slate, Dissent, and other publications. The article When Did the US Start Calling Itself “America,” Anyway? It was originally published in Mother Jones and translated by Eduardo Pérez for El Salto. The text is adapted from How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.