parison between the talking politician of the east with the working politician of the west. Such a comparison yields a stronger version of politician in the west, one who instead of coming home to a life of ease assisted by servants takes off his working clothes and wields the plow. Turner viewed the democracy of the frontier as one that was selfish, individualistic, intolerant of both control and education, and one that pushed individual liberty to dangerous levels. He maintains that such a brand of democracy born of frontier individualism serves to threaten community unity and fosters dubious business practices. As Turner writes, ôIndividualism in America has allowed a laxity in regard to government affairs which had rendered possible the spoils system and all the manifest evils that follow from the lack of a highly developed civic spiritö (547).
Turner also maintains that other dangers of the frontier brand of individualism and democracy included a lack of business ethics, inflated paper currency, and wild-cat banking. Attempts to limit the boundaries of the frontier or to regulate it were all in vain. However, efforts at promoting educational and religious activities were as successful as any to influence the morals and behavior of those in the west. However, Turner maintains that despite its capacity to motivate dangerous behaviors and activities in human beings, the frontier conditions also imbued in individuals intellectual traits and character that are a hallmark of American rugged individualism and perseverance. As he explains, there are a number of striking characteristics that characterize the frontier spirit:
That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things; that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil; and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with free...