Books, Maps, and Politics: A Cultural History of the Library of Congress, 1783-1861

Introduction: The Library and the History of the Book

1 INTRODUCTION g The Library and the History of the Book The Library of Congress occupies a crossroadsin Americanlifewhere the nation’s literary and political cultures intersect. Because of the Library’s status as a national, governmental institution devoted to the collection and preservation of books, maps, and other materials, its history provides a revealing lens through which to study American attitudes toward books, literature, and the relationship between the government and the world of letters. This is especially true of the period from the first attempts to found the Library of Congress until the Civil War, when the Library’s future was sometimes uncertain and its role in American life was continually redefined and contested by the country’s leading political and literary figures, who often entertained widely divergent views about the nature and functions of a congressional library. Though congressmen generally regarded the Library of Congress as merely a small legislative library, because of its location in Washington andofficial connection with the federal government the Library often loomed much larger than this in the public imagination. In this book I explore conflicting views about the function of the Library of Congress and the larger question of government responsibility for fostering American literature. By virtue of the range of books on its shelves and the way legislators used them, the Library of Congress was affected by, and in turn some- 2 introduction times affected, nearly every major intellectual, social, historicalandpolitical current in public discourse in the nineteenth-century United States. The cultural nationalism that inspired calls for a national literature; debate over the role of women in American life; the abolitionist movement and sectional animosity; imperialist expansion of the nation’s borders ; and the transformation of the nation from a republic led by a small groupofgoverningelitesintoamoreraucousandegalitariandemocracy— all these familiar themes of nineteenth-century American history find expression in a full treatment of Library of Congress history.TheLibrary of Congress is described in this book as a site where competing visions of the national character met and played out, sometimes in the discourse surrounding the Library and sometimes in its collections. This narrative of the Library’s foundation and growth is thereby connected to developments in American society that would escape the view of a morenarrowly focused history. Library of Congress historiography has much to gain from such a widened perspective. The Library of Congress performed certain key functions for its users in the nineteenth century. Primarily, the books in the collection assisted congressmen and highly placed members of the executive and judicial branches of government in the difficult task of crafting legislation for a young and growing nation. A look at successive catalogs of the Library, especially in its earliest years, reveals some of the books that early proponents and administrators of the Library believed were essential for this purpose. Analysis of Library of Congress catalogs and comparison of them with social library catalogs of the era indicate that law, politics, economics, geography, and history were the subjects most assiduously cultivated by members of the Joint Committee on the Library, who selected its books. The utility of these books is not difficult to discern. For statesmen of the founding era and the early nineteenth century, books about international law provided guidance in diplomacy and foreign relations, while texts on political theory helped legislators to define the principles of classical republicanism on which domestic law was supposed to be based. Up-to-date mercantile information and books on economic theory were necessary as Congress legislated trade and tariff regulations. In his initial proposal on behalf of a congressional library, James Madison had envisioned a collection of books strong in American history and geography that would help legislators to document the nation’s territo- the library and the history of the book 3 rial boundaries. In subsequent years, particularly during the 1830s and 1840s, the Library did indeed serve as a repository for the books and maps that described the virtues of the West for settlement, argued in favor of American expansion, and helped legislators determine the nation ’s boundaries with Mexico and Canada. A secondary function of the Library was providing reading material for the entertainment and instruction of congressmen and their families. Examining this aspect of the Library brings into focus the relationship between the Library of Congress and the nation’s evolving literary culture . Acquiring the products of...