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Jon Kukla, American Historian
Further Reading |
The importance of the Battle of New Orleans in American historyThe headlines that you see in the newspapers when word of this thing reaches are just...they're trying to figure out how to put enough exclamation points, and the whole country just erupts with pride.It's hard to overestimate the importance of the battle in American history. It secured the Louisiana Purchase. In terms of American nationalism, it gave people a sense - you know, the outcome of this battle and the outcome of the war has been called a second American Revolution, a kind of a feeling of having decisively defeated the former Mother country. It set the stage for the march across the continent and what became Manifest Destiny - the notion that somehow America was destined to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It propelled [General Andrew] Jackson into politics. You know, General Washington was our first President. General Eisenhower was a President. Jackson is another one of our notable military figures who goes on to capture the White House. In newspapers throughout the country, as late as the 1840's, you'll see...particularly at Democratic Party events...there'll be toasts that are offered to the 8th of January. It became sort of like the 4th of July in terms of American nationhood, I suppose, until it was eclipsed by other wars. Certainly, you don't see that kind of celebration after the Civil War, for example, because I think the perspective changed.  |
