UVM Theses and Dissertations
Format:
Print
Author:
Hausmann, Stephen R.
Dept./Program:
History
Year:
2011
Degree:
MA
Abstract:
In the post-Revolutionary United States, the burgeoning population and the availabilty of new lands on both the western and northern frontiers required an infrastructure far beyond the level of quality present at the time. Turnpike corporations filled the gap left by traditional town highway taxes in order to improve roads and provide easier transportation for the goods and people moving around the nation.
In Vermont, the turnpike era lasted from roughly 1795 to 1815. During this span of time, over one third of all the state's turnpikes were chartered and constructed, connecting towns to each other and to the waterways that fostered production and transportation to the port cities to the south and east. These turnpike corporations, however, proved to be fiscally untenable and most had failed and become town property by the mide and late nineteenth century.
Moreover, turnpike construction was not a unanimously popular enterprise. Petitions sent to the Vermont General Assembly in the early nineteenth century include long lists of signatures, memorializing people both in favor ofand opposed to turnpike construction in their particular towns. This study examines the roots of the turnpike movement in Vermont and the rise of private enterprise that they represented. By examining who was in favor and who was opposed to turnpikes, it analyzes what motivated people to their individual opinions. In post-Revolutionary America, virtue -selfless action for the good of the republic -was the watchword of the era. However, the youthful nation and newly opened and expansive economy tempted people into private enterprise to further their personal interests. As the economy grew, private interest became increasingly acceptable as a means of acting for the public good. This study analyzes how turnpike petitions and the corporations they referenced reflect this changing ideology of the Early Republic, as turnpikes inhabited a unique space at once both publicly virtuous and privately profit-oriented. These corporations indicate the changing attitudes and new ways of interacting with fellow citizens present in the first years of the American republic.
In Vermont, the turnpike era lasted from roughly 1795 to 1815. During this span of time, over one third of all the state's turnpikes were chartered and constructed, connecting towns to each other and to the waterways that fostered production and transportation to the port cities to the south and east. These turnpike corporations, however, proved to be fiscally untenable and most had failed and become town property by the mide and late nineteenth century.
Moreover, turnpike construction was not a unanimously popular enterprise. Petitions sent to the Vermont General Assembly in the early nineteenth century include long lists of signatures, memorializing people both in favor ofand opposed to turnpike construction in their particular towns. This study examines the roots of the turnpike movement in Vermont and the rise of private enterprise that they represented. By examining who was in favor and who was opposed to turnpikes, it analyzes what motivated people to their individual opinions. In post-Revolutionary America, virtue -selfless action for the good of the republic -was the watchword of the era. However, the youthful nation and newly opened and expansive economy tempted people into private enterprise to further their personal interests. As the economy grew, private interest became increasingly acceptable as a means of acting for the public good. This study analyzes how turnpike petitions and the corporations they referenced reflect this changing ideology of the Early Republic, as turnpikes inhabited a unique space at once both publicly virtuous and privately profit-oriented. These corporations indicate the changing attitudes and new ways of interacting with fellow citizens present in the first years of the American republic.