PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE

• John Quincy Adams solves border dispute between US and Canada

• Acquires Florida• 1823 ISSUES

MONROE DOCTRINE

• End to European Colonization in the Western Hemisphere.

James Monroe 1817-1825

• Important Events during his term:– McCulloch v. Maryland- Marshall ruled that

Maryland did not have the right to tax a federal institution, the 2nd national bank.

• Development of the American System– Improve and update the countries roads,

bridges and canals. – Tax on imported goods. (Tariff of 1824)

James Monroe 1817-1825

• Monroe Doctrine- 1823– US Foreign Policy- Europe is to stay out of the

western hemisphere. – US would not interfere with existing colonies– We would remain neutral in Foreign Affairs.– This became the foundation for American

Foreign Policy for the future.

James Monroe 1817-1825

• Missouri Compromise– 1819, Missouri applied for statehood– Should it be admitted as a slave state or free

state?– 1820, Maine applied for statehood– COMPROMISE: Maine admitted as a free

state, Missouri as a slave state… as to not upset the balance of free/slave state. (12)

Chapters 7&9Life , Religion, Reform, in the

Pre Civil War Era

I. Religious Revival and Reform Philosophy

Finney and the Second Great Awakening

• On example was the flamboyant Charles Finney who preached every night for six months in Rochester, New York.

• Revivalists toned down the Calvinist rhetoric and preached a religion of inclusiveness. Predestination v. Acts of Faith and good works – a rational approach for pragmatic America

• From the late 1790s to the late 1830s, a wave of religious revivalism swept through the United States.

Charles Finney1792 - 1875

Burnt over district

• Throughout the 1800s religious fervor swept over Western New York. Shakers, Spiritualists, Mormons and others found peace and comfort in a land of free thinkers. (The American Frontier)

““Burned-Over” Burned-Over” DistrictDistrict

in Upstate New in Upstate New YorkYork

““Burned-Over” Burned-Over” DistrictDistrict

in Upstate New in Upstate New YorkYork

The Transcendentalists

• A small but influential group of New England intellectuals who lived around Ralph Waldo Emerson, the era’s foremost thinker.

• The group was called Transcendentalists because of their belief that truth was found in intuition beyond the senses. Faith not always fact.

• They questioned slaveryThey questioned slavery and the pursuit of wealth.• Members included Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry

David Thoreau (“On Civil Disobedience”)

The Transcendentalists

Henry David Thoreau

Walden Pond

Walt Whitman

Ralph WaldoEmerson

II. The Political Response to Change

"Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct

with the times."

— Niccolo Machiavelli

THE AGE OF JACKSON

“The Rise of Mass Politics”

1829-1837

Changing Political Culture• Andrew Jackson’s presidency brought politics

to the center focus of many American lives. No longer just for an elite group. i.e. Virginia dynasty

• Jackson promised a more democratic system of politics.

• Personally not very democratic, owned slaves, and favored the forced removal of Indians to the west.

• His administration did see the actual emergence of a competitive party system. Not just a theory any more.

Old Hickory’s Vigorous Presidency

Jackson’s key principles:• Majority rule• Limited power of the national government• The obligation of the government to defend the

nation’s average people against the tyranny of the wealthy

• Aggressive use of the presidential veto• Favored a rotational system of staffing the

government. “A new broom sweeps clean”

Jackson’s Indian Policy• Andrew Jackson favored forcible removal

and relocation westward on reservations.

• A Supreme Court decision in 1823 stating that Indians could occupy but not hold title to land in the United States made Jackson’s policy easy to implement.

• Using harassment and bribery, Jackson’s administration forced many of the Indian Nations to march west to present-day Oklahoma.

Jackson: 1829-1837• Indian Removal

– Forces all Native Americans to move West of the Mississippi.

• 1832: “Worcester v. Georgia” the Supreme Court rules that this is Unconstitutional. IGNORED BY GEORGIA.

• US Army “escorts” all Cherokee to leave Georgia. The “Trail of Tears”

Jackson’s Bank War• The Second Bank of the United States had been

in service since 1823 and had thirteen years left on its charter.

• A responsible organization, the Bank restrained smaller state banks form making unwise loans by insisting payment in the form of specie (gold or silver).

• American business wanted cheap, inflated, paper money to fund expansion.

• Jackson used the struggle to underscore differences between social classes.

• The sound fiscal policy of the Bank won out and caused The Panic of 1837. (Bank Failures) (Depression)

• Jackson Slays the National Bank Monster

Jackson: 1829-1837

• The Spoils System– Government jobs given to loyal

supporters of the party that won the election.

– Jackson fires 2000 gov. workers and replaces them with his supporters.

– “Kitchen Cabinet”: Loyal Advisors that met to discuss policy.

– Tennessee/Western friends become influential in D.C.

KING ANDREW THE FIRST

Jackson: 1829-1837• Worked to reduce high tariffs.

– 1828 tariff on imported goods to protect northern industry, but really hurt the south.

– South referred to is as the Tariff of Abominations.

• Issued a Doctrine of Nullification so they would not need to obey.

• National government is supreme and no state can nullify federal law.

•Threatens to send the US Army to South Carolina to enforce payment of Tariff.

III. Perfectionist Reform and Utopianism

Utopian Communities: Oneida and the Shakers

• Many reformers of the age sought to create the perfect representation in miniature of what life should be.

• John Humphrey Noyles founded a society of “free love” and socialism at Oneida, New York.

• The Shakers believed in communal property, perfectionism, and celibacy.

• Shaker worship featured a wild dance intended to release sin from the body.

Other UtopiasOver 100 communities like the

Shakers and Oneida were founded during the era:

• The Ephrata colony of Pennsylvania

• The Hopedale community of Mass.

• The Harmonists of Indiana

• The Ebenezers in Buffalo NY

o Closely related were the Millerites and Mormons

IV. Reforming Society

Temperance

• Nineteenth century Americans drank to excess.

• Early efforts at curbing the public’s consumption focused on moderation.

• The American Temperance Society (1826) was dedicated to total abstinence.

• The Society successfully used revival techniques of the Second Great Awakening to motivate “converts.”

Humanizing the Asylum

• Some efforts of reform were not aimed at the salvation of the individual but towards organizations such as hospitals or asylums.

• Dorothea Dix championed the cause of the mentally ill, believing adequate facilities and proper living conditions would go far to produce some sort of a “cure.”

Working-Class Reform

• In America, the institution most in need of reform was the factory.

• The reform movement gradually was adapted to the plight of workers and trade unions began to appear.

• Skilled workers began to organize to protect their crafts and to negotiate better conditions.

• The National Trades Union (1834) was the first attempt at a nation-wide labor organization.

Tensions Within the Antislavery Movement

• William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator—America’s first antislavery journal and helped establish the American Anti-Slavery Society.

• Garrison’s message was an immediate end to slavery with no conditions.

• The majority of abolitionists in America disagreed on how to reform slavery in America; most preferred religious education, political action, boycotts of slave-harvested goods, or downright rebellion.