Nature And Transcendentalism

Nature and expansionism greatly shaped the American identity during the Romantic era by showing that America would do what it took to expand and grow, even if it meant treating the natives poorly, as well as artists and authors creating an idealistic and worldly focus on nature as illustrated in Thomas Cole’s Falls of the Kaaterskill and Emmerson’s Nature. During Andrew Jackson’s presidency, America was undergoing a rapid expansion out west which meant there was a possibility to grow the economy immensely, but the natives were ultimately in the way of it. Jackson valued the growth of America over treating the Indians with kindness which is reflected when he says “What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic…”
This choice to exclude the man-made elements of the falls shows that Thomas Cole, like many other Americans valued the beauty of the land. This idea of preserving nature is something that is deeply ingrained in our American identity and something that we still value to this day (Cole Falls of the Kaaterskill). This focus on nature is also seen in the Transcendentalist writing of the time. Transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emmerson, describes what is means to really see nature when he says “The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who was retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of mankind” (Emmerson Nature). In this passage, Emmerson is explaining what a true lover of nature does and how he interacts with nature. He gives a very Romantic response saying that to love nature you have to be able to really relate to it from the heart and be one with it. This very abstract idea translates into people being much more conscious of nature and valuing the beauty of