Southwestern Louisiana Institute - Lacadien Yearbook (Lafayette, LA)

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For seven decades the political institution worked well. It was doing the job that the forefa- thers had planned — that is, to maintain a delicate balance between individual liberty and social order. In 1861 eleven southern states separated from the rest of the country to form their own union. The nation was at near collapse, and it was plunged into a civil war which lasted for four long years. In the decades after the war, an economical social and demographic order was transforming the country. The American way of life was pro- foundly altered. The railroads were grouping together to insure better and faster services and uniting the country from the eastern shore to the western plains. Also, at this time the Industrial Revolution was taking place. Some American businessmen, known as entrepreneurs, changed to a great extent, the business structure of the country. Businesses went from small shops and home businesses to a vast economic empire. This change-over of industrial and economic power brought on a huge migration of people from Southern and Eastern Europe. These people made up the labor force which was necessary to run the business establishments that were springing up. 13

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MANIFEST DESTINY The new nation developed and as the settlers moved westward, the country prospered. The farms yielded greater harvests and new factories were ever cropping up. Railroads, roads and canals were the main means of getting from one place to another. The governmental system ran smoothly and met the need of the changing times. Manifest Destiny was a result of the American need to expand and the answer to the zeal and enthusiasm. This phenomenon led to a war with Mexico, the aquisition of California and New Mexico, and to the settlement of Oregon. The free- soil Northerners resisted the demands of proslav- ery Southerners, that the territories be opened to .slavery. The Compromise of 1850 was, it was hoped, to be an end to the sectional strife on the issue of slavery expansion and economic policy. The Golden Spike ceremony at Promon- tory, Utah May 10, 1869 marked the com- pletion of the tran- scontinental railroad and opened up the last of the great frontiers. 12

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WORLD WAR I A DRASTIC CHANGE Thus, as the 20th century rolled around, the United States was a little over one hundred years old and the pains of age were showing in the prob- lems that were starting to arise. The Progressives, a political party during the ye ars before World War I, advocated that if people were shown what was right that they would act in the general interest. This was a very optimistic point of view. The Progressive Party sought to make government more responsive to the desire of the majority of the people. When World War I started, the Progressive point of view was severely shaken. They realized that the world would not be safe for the prog- ressive government. This progressive attitude was restored during the 1930 ' s, the Great Depression years, when Franklin Roosevelt ' s New Deal wa in operation trying to restore the nation to its former condition. The faith in the democratic form of government also was restored. u