Shelly Childers
September 23, 2000

The Price of Progress

When Thomas Jefferson penned his famous words in The Declaration of Independence in 1776, he caught on paper the essence of the American spirit. The "inalienable rights" granted to all men included "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…" This pursuit is the impetus for our American concept of progress. Moving forward or advancement is thought to be a march toward something better in a continual search for improvement. Yet, with this headlong rush toward progress, there is inevitably an experience of loss, and even in extreme cases, extinction. The pre-Romantic and Romantic period in American literature reflects this irony with small losses building toward a culmination in The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper.

Rip Van Winkle, written around 1819, by Washington Irving, shows evidence of progress as seen in the sleepy, little town that Rip called home. After a prolonged sleep in the haunted woods, Rip returned to find his village "altered: it was larger and more populous"(435). His own home, however, had "gone to decay" and where a huge tree stood in the center of town, there now stood "a tall naked pole"(436). The fact that this immense symbol of nature had been replaced by a flag pole flying a symbol of this new country was a less than subtle reminder that along with progress came loss. Rip also noticed that the "very character of the people seemed changed"(436). The tranquility of the past had been replaced by a busy, bustling pace. The ravages of time left Rip to muse, "everything’s changed, and I have changed"(437). The course of progress moves continually forward, affecting changes along the way that can only be viewed with a sense of loss. This loss seems to be a pivotal experience that is often represented in the period of American Romanticism

In The Pioneers, written in 1823, by James Fenimore Cooper, agricultural success led to "green wheat fields…spotted with the dark and charred stumps that had, the preceding season supported some of the proudest trees of the forest"(443). While the land produced a fertile crop, the loss of majestic, aged trees was a tragedy and a clear reminder that progress brought with it a certain loss. The scene that was played out for the reader was a contest of sorts, where the townspeople were shooting pigeons out of the sky. "The heavens were alive with pigeons" and the men were using a miniature cannon to knock them from the sky" (444). The massacre was so effective that the pigeons "lay scattered over the fields in such profusion, as to cover the very ground with the fluttering victims"(446). As our technology improved and weaponry was created with the ability to kill on a larger scale, Leatherstocking reminded the townspeople that progress must be balanced with common sense. "Use, but don’t waste"(447). Even though the pigeons were handed out to the old women of the village for pot-pies, some of the villagers began to realize that they had "purchased pleasure at the price of misery to other"(449). A footnote to this story records the plight of the passenger pigeons, which are now extinct. Those who progressed across this great country with superior weapons of destruction were left to weigh the loss of even a single species to the steady march of progress. Our ability to produce crops which would sustain us, unfortunately resulted in the loss of a wilderness filled with grandeur and nature’s plenty. Untamed nature gives way to cultivation and some of the consequences are still being felt today.

In the 1830’s, during the same time period that produced these great works of American Romanticism, the state of Georgia discovered gold on land that was home to the Cherokee nation. Within a very short period of time, the United States government instated the Indian Removal Act, stating that the entire nation should be removed to land located west of the Mississippi River. This Act gave them permission to "break up [the Indians’] society, dissolve their institutions, and drive them into the wilderness"(449). In order for white Americans to gain land and wealth in their quest for dominance of this new world, they were willing to sacrifice an entire race of people. The loss of their culture, abounding with the wisdom of the ages, was outweighed by our desire to possess their gold and the drive to reach ever further in our expansion movement. In The Cherokee Memorials, the Indians tried to plead their case before the courts and petition them to intervene on their behalf. They stated that their "attachment to the soil of our ancestors is too strong to be shaken"(455). As the Cherokee people tried to improve the condition of their life, the balance shifted and their losses were immense. Their writings begged that their "existence may not be extinguished"(455). They seemed to know that progress would lead to loss that could be magnified into extinction if it were allowed to continue on its path. In this instance, the path of progress and the Trail of Tears seemed to converge as one on their journey.

Progress was a concept that was glimpsed vaguely through the tangle of nature and war in The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. Natty Bumpo was the epitome of the American frontiersman. Even though he was one with nature and moved through the forest with ease, Hawkeye was actually the entry point for those who would follow. Farmers came next and destroyed the forest in order to plant crops. Soldiers fought battles that became wars over territorial control, destroying almost everything in their path. The frontier became a tragic vista and the frontiersman was the expendable piece--along with the American Indian. Americans were constantly pushing the frontier westward, but the course of progress was a difficult one that involved the loss of nature and even the extinction of an entire race. As the title says, Uncas was the last of the Mohicans. Tragically, his death brought about the end of the proud lineage of the Mohicans. Chingachgook, speaking after Uncas’ death, says, "I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the palefaces"(414). This reference to the cost of progress that was paid by the land itself was followed by his saddest statement. "My race has gone from the shores of the salt lake…" and "I am alone"(414). Chingachgook had seen time pass and the wheels of progress left the palefaces as "master of the earth."(415) The sorrow of extinction and the loss of an entire culture echoed through his last words -"I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans"(415). The price of progress was paid with the blood of the American Indian. Along with the carrier pigeons, the wilds of nature, and the changing landscape of America, the American Indian paid a heavy price for progress.

Our rush toward progress continues to have an impact on society even today. With each new step forward, a glance over our shoulder reveals the loss that we leave in our wake. The pre-romantic and Romantic periods in our history magnify this tragedy as we see the beginnings of a new country, and the loss that is revealed. In The Last of the Mohicans, we see that the price we pay for progress escalates from mere loss to the tragic extinction of a nation. The question that we continue to struggle with remains the same – At what cost, progress?