Ch 13: Rise of Mass Democracy (1824-1840)
Politics reflects the growing importance of the "common man"
A) President John Quincy Adams (1825-1829): A Chip Off the Old Family Glacier
1. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
-Won election via commanding respect rather than courting popularity
-Showed that elections could no longer be won by sheer ability alone-charisma was needed.
-Public reaction: waste of public funds & if fed gov could meddle in local concerns, it might even try to lay its hand on black slavery
-Adams tried to help Cherokees, but GA governor, by threatening to resort to arms, successfully resisted the efforts of fed gov to interpose fed authority on behalf of NAs
B) President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
1. Jackson’s presidential campaign started when Adams was elected by the House
C) The Tricky “Tariff of Abominations”
1. Tariff of 1824: Cong increased tariff, but South is not satisfied
2. Jacksonites promoted high-tariff bill, expecting to be defeated, --> Pres Adams look bad
D) The Trail of Tears
1. Orig, fed gov recognized tribes as separate nations & agreed to acquire land from them only thru formal treaties, but Ams violated their own treaties & continued to expand--> conflict. One sol’n: Civilize the NAs
3. Hwvr, “civilizing” was not enough
4. Democrats committed to western expansionà Indian Removal Act 1830
6. Jackson’s—and many other Americans’—definition of “common man” excluded non-whites.
E) The Bank War
1. Background:
-sought to effect moral & rel reforms (Jacksonians agst govt meddling in soc/econ life)
F) President Van Buren (1837-1841) & Depression Doldrums
1. The birth of the Whigs (rev war- agst monarchy)
G) Expansion into Texas
1. Mexico won independence from Spain in 1823 & granted land to Stephen Austin w. the understanding that he would bring into Texas 300 Am families. Stipulations (largely ignored):
3. The Lone Star Rebellion
H) Election of 1840 & What It Meant for Americans
1. Van Buren renominated while Whigs choose William Henry Harrison
5. Whigs: natural harmony of society, value of community, renewed nat’l bank, protective tariffs, internal improvemts, public schools, moral reforms
1. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
- Four candidates: John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, Andrew Jackson
- Jackson won as many pop votes as next 2 rivals, but didn’t win majority of electoral vote
- Election thrown to House, which must choose from top 3à Clay eliminated
- Even tho Clay is eliminated, he used influence in House to get Adams elected
- Adams names Clay sec of stateà Jackson’s supporters claim Adams bribed Clay
- Aloofness alienated the masses
-Won election via commanding respect rather than courting popularity
-Showed that elections could no longer be won by sheer ability alone-charisma was needed.
- Political morality alienated his allies
- Head still in age of nationalism
-Public reaction: waste of public funds & if fed gov could meddle in local concerns, it might even try to lay its hand on black slavery
- Infuriating land policies alienated Westerners
-Adams tried to help Cherokees, but GA governor, by threatening to resort to arms, successfully resisted the efforts of fed gov to interpose fed authority on behalf of NAs
B) President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
1. Jackson’s presidential campaign started when Adams was elected by the House
- End of the Era of Good Feelings (1825)
- Republicans split into 2 camps: Whigs/Nat’l Reps (Adams) & Dem-Reps (Jackson)
- Nat’l Reps = Fed-like; Jacksonite Dems: Anti-Fed-like
- Both Adams’ & Jackson’s followers engage in lowly mudslinging
- D-Reps presented their hero as rough-hewn frontiersman & champion of common man
- Jackson won pop & electoral votes--> political center of gravity had shifted away from conservative eastern seaboard toward emerging states across mountains
- Early orphaned, more interest in fighting than edu-->very passionate w/ temper
- Moved from SC to TN where he became judge & Congressman
- 1st pres from West & 2nd w/o college eduàrose from masses, but was not one of them insofar as he shared many of their prejudices
- Inauguration=”inaugural brawl”-->conservatives feared the end of the world & “King Mob”
- Jackson rewarded his pol supporters & defended the spoils system on democratic grounds
- Hwvr, the ppl brought in were more abt “what has he done for the party?”
- He brought in many ‘common men’: illiterates, incompetents, plain crooks
- Nevertheless, the spoils system formed important part of emerging 2-party order, cementing loyalty to party over competing claims based on econ class/geographic region. The promise of patronage provided a compelling reason for Ams to pick a party & stick w/ it thru thick & thin.
C) The Tricky “Tariff of Abominations”
1. Tariff of 1824: Cong increased tariff, but South is not satisfied
2. Jacksonites promoted high-tariff bill, expecting to be defeated, --> Pres Adams look bad
- Unfortunately, the tariff passed in 1828 & Pres Jackson inherited this issue.
- Southerners adopted formal protests
- All of US except Old South was prospering, so tariff = scapegoat
- Federal interference w/ econ could lead to interference w/ slavery
- In The SC Exposition, John C. Calhoun denounced the tariff as unjust & unconst
- SC’s state legislature called for Columbia Convention & 1) declared tariff to be null w/in SC and 2) threatened to secede if fed govt attempted to collect customs duties by force
- Tho Jackson didn’t support tariff, he wouldn’t permit defiance/disunion, so threatened to invade state & hang nullifiers --> could lead to civil war
- Henry Clay introduced Tariff of 1832, a compromise bill that would gradually reduce Tariff of 1832 by 10% over a pd of 8 yrs.; it squeezed thru Cong
- Cong also passed the Force Bill which authorized pres to use army & navy to collect duties
- The Columbia conventn met again, repealed ordinance of nullification & nullified Force Bill
D) The Trail of Tears
1. Orig, fed gov recognized tribes as separate nations & agreed to acquire land from them only thru formal treaties, but Ams violated their own treaties & continued to expand--> conflict. One sol’n: Civilize the NAs
- Society for Propagating the Gospel Among Indians devoted to “civilizing” NAs
- Cong spent $20,000 for promotn of literacy & agric & vocational instructn among NAs
- Cherokees (GA) gradually assimilated into Am culture
3. Hwvr, “civilizing” was not enough
- in 1828 GA declared Cherokee tribal council illegal & asserted jurisdiction over NAs
- Sup Ct upheld rights of NAs 3 times, but Jackson flouted Ct’s decisions
4. Democrats committed to western expansionà Indian Removal Act 1830
- Moved 100,000+ NAs living east of the MS to reservations west of the MS.
- The five "civilized" tribes were hardest hit.
- 15,000 Cherokees forced to march in freezing weather & w/ inadequate food supplies
6. Jackson’s—and many other Americans’—definition of “common man” excluded non-whites.
E) The Bank War
1. Background:
- Jacksonians hated monopolistic banking & big businessesàhated Bank of US
- Bank=private institution, accountable not to the ppl, but to moneyed investors
- Nicholas Biddle, the pres, exercised vast influence over nation’s financial affairs
- Clay wanted to make Bank an issue for the election of that year:
- If Jackson signed off on it, he would alienate the people of the West who hated the Bank
- If he vetoed it, he would alienate the wealthy class of the East who supported the Bank. Clay did not account for the fact that the wealthy class was now a minority.
- Presidential powers amplified at expense of other branches’ powers
- Declared that the bank was harmful to the nation
- This election featured a 3rd party: Anti-Masonic Party
-sought to effect moral & rel reforms (Jacksonians agst govt meddling in soc/econ life)
- National nominating conventions named candidates
- Tho Nat’l Reps (Clay) had a t of $$, Jackson was idol of the masses--> landslide victory
- Jackson felt that he had mandate from voters for its extermination & feared that slippery Biddle might try to manipulate bank so as to force its recharter
- In 1833, Jackson decided to gradually remove fed deposits to bleed the blank dry
- Surplus fed funds placed in state institutions who were Jackson’s political supporters
- Smaller, wildcat banks in west issued own currency, but it was extremely unreliable bc its value was based on the value of the issuing bank.
- In 1836, wildcat currency had become so unreliable that Jackson told the Treasury to issue a Specie Circular- all public lands to be purchased with metallic money-->panic of 1837.
F) President Van Buren (1837-1841) & Depression Doldrums
1. The birth of the Whigs (rev war- agst monarchy)
- Opponents of Jackson who condemned him as “King Andrew”- abuse of power
- Consisted of anyone who was offended by Jackson: supporters of Clay’s Am System, southern states’ righters, larger northern industrialists & merchants, Anti-Masonic Party
- Supported active govt programs & reforms- internal improvements
- Declared Dems party of corruption & themselves defenders of the common man
- Dems nominated Martin Van Buren: promised to follow in Jackson’s footsteps
- Whigs chose Gen William Henry Harrison & others-->not unifiedàlost
- Van Buren inherited Jackson’s panic of 1837, which was caused by:
- Rampant speculation prompted by a mani of get-rich-quickism
- Bank War & Specie Circular
- Crop failure, financial stringency abroad, failure of 2 prominent Brit banks, etc
- Am banks collapsed by the hundreds
- Commodity prices & customs revenues drooped
- Unemployed workers milled in the streets
- Not passed by Congress, it called for the dividing of the government and banking altogether.
- Cong passed Independent Treasury Bill: est indep trez & lock gov funds in vaults.
G) Expansion into Texas
1. Mexico won independence from Spain in 1823 & granted land to Stephen Austin w. the understanding that he would bring into Texas 300 Am families. Stipulations (largely ignored):
- Must be Roman Catholic
- Must be Mexicanized
3. The Lone Star Rebellion
- 1836 Texans declared indep & named Sam Houston comm.-in-chief
- Santa Anna butchered Texans at start, but Gen Houston forced him to sign treaty in 1836 after Battle of Jacinto.
- Texans desired not just recognition of indep, but also union w/ US.
- Hwvr, Antislavery Northerners opposed annexatn, which would bring more slave states
H) Election of 1840 & What It Meant for Americans
1. Van Buren renominated while Whigs choose William Henry Harrison
- Tho not the ablest statesman, he was the Whig’s ablest vote-getter
- Known for successes agst Indians & British at Battle of Tippecanoe & Thames
- Views on current issues were only vaguely known
- Whigs used Dems’ strategy agst them: denounced Van Buren as supercilious aristocrat and proclaimed Harrison a commoner
- Hard times blighted incumbent’s fortunes
- Ppl knew that Whigs sought to expand & stimulate econ, while Dems favored retrenchmt
- Politicians who were too clean, too well-dressed, too grammatical, and too intellectual were not liked. Aristocracy was not liked by the American people. The common man was moving to the center of the national political stage.
- There was a formation of a two-party system.
5. Whigs: natural harmony of society, value of community, renewed nat’l bank, protective tariffs, internal improvemts, public schools, moral reforms
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