The American Journey · 2019-05-16 · The Rise of the Jacksonians The new Democratic Party formed...
Transcript of The American Journey · 2019-05-16 · The Rise of the Jacksonians The new Democratic Party formed...
The American JourneyA History of the United States, 7th Edition
By: Goldfield • Abbott • Anderson • Argersinger • Argersinger • Barney • Weir
Chapter
•The Jacksonian Era
•1824-1845
10
The Jacksonian Era
1824-1845
The Egalitarian Impulse
Jackson’s Presidency
Van Buren and Hard Times
The Rise of the Whig Party
The Whigs in Power
Conclusion
Learning Objectives
What factors contributed to the democratization of American
politics and religion in the early nineteenth century?
How did the Jacksonian Democrats capitalize on the new
mass politics?
What challenges did Van Buren face during his presidency?
What was the basis of Whig popularity?
Learning Objectives (cont'd)
What did they claim to stand for?
Why was William Henry Harrison’s death such a blow to the
Whig agenda?
The Egalitarian Impulse
The Extension of White Male Democracy
Individual states decided who could vote and many newly
admitted states eliminated property qualifications as did
older eastern states. Only Rhode Island, Virginia, and
Louisiana did not have universal white male suffrage by
the end of the 1820s.
The Extension of White Male Democracy (cont'd)
Suffrage reform was part of a general democratization of
state government structures and procedures.
The growing demand that all white men be treated equally
helped stimulate the democratic reforms.
Expansion of white male political opportunities was
paralleled by the curbing of rights for free black and
women.
MAP 10–1 Methods of Electing Presidential
Electors, 1800 and 1824
The Popular Religious Revolt
Between 1800 and 1840, the Second Great Awakening
transformed the religious landscape of America.
Baptists and Methodists led the religious revival that
promoted evangelical religion that supported democracy
by encouraging organizational forms that provided a voice
to popular culture.
The Popular Religious Revolt (cont’d)
Evangelical Christianity appealed strongly to women and
African Americans but race and gender limited access to
positions of power.
Second Great Awakening
Series of religious revivals in the first half of the nineteenth century
characterized by great emotionalism in large public meetings.
The Rise of the Jacksonians
The new Democratic Party formed between 1824 and 1828
had the perfect candidate in Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s
rise to prominence from poor origins made him a good
symbol of the democratic ideas of the 1820s.
Jackson was the antielitist people’s champion while John
Quincy Adams seemed largely out of step with the times.
The Rise of the Jacksonians (cont'd)
Martin Van Buren was a new breed of politician who
developed strong political organizations based on
discipline and strict adherence to party policies.
Jackson won a landslide victory in the 1828 presidential
election.
The Rise of the Jacksonians (cont'd)
Democratic Party
Political party formed in the 1820s under the leadership of Andrew
Jackson; favored states’ rights and a limited role for the federal
government, especially in economic affairs.
Albany Regency
Popular name after 1820 for the state political machine in New York
headed by Martin Van Buren.
MAP 10–2 The Election of 1828
Jackson’s Presidency
Jackson’s Appeal
Ordinary Americans identified with Jackson and he
convinced them that he was using his office to enforce
their will.
Jackson attacked special privilege by reforming the federal
bureaucracy. These reforms had more style than
substance and opened the way for the “spoils” system.
Jackson’s Appeal (cont'd)
Jackson opposed Henry Clay’s American system, vetoing
the Maysville Road Bill.
Spoils system
The awarding of government jobs to party loyalists.
Indian Removal
Native Americans held land east of the Mississippi River
that white men wanted, especially in the South where the
Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaws, and Seminoles
controlled large areas.
In 1828, the Georgia state legislature placed the Cherokee
under state jurisdiction, denying the Native American legal
rights.
Indian Removal (cont'd)
Congress passed the Indian Removal Act on Jackson’s
recommendation that opened a legal battle that
culminated in Jackson ignoring a Supreme Court decision
and the removal of Native Americans east of the
Mississippi River.
Indian Removal (cont'd)
Indian Removal Act
Legislation passed by Congress in 1830 that provided funds for removing
and resettling eastern Indians in the West. It granted the president the
authority to use force if necessary.
Trail of Tears
The forced march in 1838 of the Cherokee Indians from their homelands
in Georgia to the Indian Territory in the West; thousands of Cherokees
died along the way.
Indian Removal (cont'd)
Black Hawk’s War
Short 1832 war in which federal troops and Illinois militia units defeated
the Sauk and Fox Indians led by Black Hawk.
MAP 10–3 Indian Removals
The Nullification Crisis
The tariff issue precipitated the nullification crisis, the most
serious sectional dispute since the Missouri Compromise.
Southerners denounced the protective measures in the
Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The most strident protests came
from South Carolina lowcountry planters who called
themselves nullifiers. John Calhoun was their leader.
The Nullification Crisis (cont'd)
An 1832 South Carolina convention nullified the tariffs of
1828 and 1832 leading Jackson to push the Force Bill
through Congress that authorized military force against
nullifiers.
The Nullification Crisis (cont'd)
The compromise Tariff of 1833 eased tensions.
Nullification crisis
Sectional crisis in the early 1830s in which a states’ rights party in
South Carolina attempted to nullify federal law.
The Bank War
The Bank War broke out in 1832 when Jackson vetoed an
early rechartering of the Bank of the United States. Like
most westerners, Jackson mistrusted banks because of
their unreliability.
The business community and eastern elites attacked the
bank veto. The Bank became an issue in the 1832
election which Jackson won handily over Clay.
The Bank War (cont'd)
Jackson moved to destroy the bank by removing federal
deposits.
During Jackson’s second term, land speculation reached a
frenzy and when the bubble burst, Democrats were
criticized for their economic policies.
Bank War
The political struggle between President Andrew Jackson and the
supporters of the Second Bank of the United States.
Van Buren and Hard Times
Van Buren and Hard Times
Facing a sharp economic downturn, Van Buren appeared
indecisive and unwilling to advance a bold program. He
also awkwardly straddled the divisive issue of slavery and
failed to offer a compelling vision of his presidency.
Abolitionist movement
A radical antislavery crusade committed to the immediate end of slavery
that emerged in the three decades before the Civil War.
The Panic of 1837
Martin Van Buren’s presidency opened with a financial
panic that helped send the economy into a dive that
eventually became a severe depression.
Numerous bankruptcies, the drying up of investment capital,
stagnating business, and unemployment rocked the
nation.
FIGURE 10–1 Cotton Prices and the Value of
Federal Land Sales in Five Southern States, 1825–
1845
The Independent Treasury
The Whig party was emerging in the late 1830s. They
criticized Jackson’s policies, including the Specie Circular
of 1836.
To curb government intrusion in banking, the Independent
Treasury System was established in 1840 but was largely
a political move.
The Independent Treasury (cont’d)
Whig Party
Political party, formed in the mid-1830s in opposition to the Jacksonian
Democrats, that favored a strong role for the national government in
promoting economic growth.
Specie Circular
Proclamation issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836 stipulating
that only gold or silver could be used as payment for public land.
The Independent Treasury (cont’d)
Independent Treasury System
Fiscal arrangement first instituted by President Martin Van Buren in
which the federal government kept its money in regional vaults (“pet
banks”) and transacted its business entirely in hard money.
Uproar over Slavery
Led by William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionists stepped up their
attacks on slavery.
Beginning in 1835, hundreds of antislavery petitions flooded
Congress, most calling for the abolition of slavery in
Washington, D.C.
Uproar over Slavery (cont’d)
Southerners pushed through the gag rule to eliminate
debate on slavery.
Gag rule
Procedural rule passed in the House of Representatives that prevented
discussion of antislavery petitions from 1836 to 1844.
The Rise of the Whig Party
The Rise of the Whig Party
By 1834, the anti-Jacksonians started calling themselves
Whigs, a name associated with 18th century American
and British opposition to tyranny.
By 1840, the Whigs had mastered techniques of political
organization and mobilization and swept to electoral
victory.
The Party Taking Shape
Congressional reaction to Jackson’s actions against the
Bank led to the founding of the Whig Party.
Local and state coalition of the Whigs elected a majority to
the House of Representatives in 1835.
The Party Taking Shape (cont’d)
Lacking an effective national organization, the Whigs fielded
three regional presidential candidates in 1836 but Van
Buren won the election.
Anti-Masons
Third party formed in 1827 in opposition to the presumed power and
influence of the Masonic order.
Whig Persuasion
Whigs viewed government as a force to promote economic
development.
The Whigs were the party of bankers, manufacturers, small-
town entrepreneurs, commercial farmers, and skilled
workers.
Whigs tended to be native-born Protestants who supported
evangelical religion.
Whig Persuasion (cont'd)
The Whigs supported reform efforts, especially ones
directed at non-English and Catholic immigrants.
The Second Party System
The Election of 1840
Beating the Democrats at their own game, the Whigs ran
William Henry Harrison for president in 1840, stressing
his military background and supposed log cabin origins.
The Election of 1840 (cont'd)
The Whig campaign featured a lively mix of slogans,
parades, and pageants that imparted a carnival
atmosphere to politics.
Harrison won the presidency and the Whigs gained control
of Congress.
MAP 10–4 The Election of 1840
FIGURE 10–2 Voter Turnout in Presidential
Elections, 1824–1840
The Whigs in Power
Harrison and Tyler
Harrison’s death brought former Democrat John Tyler to the
presidency. Tyler espoused a states’ rights, agrarian
philosophy that clashed with Whig policies.
The Texas Issue
Tyler’s secretary of state, Daniel Webster, negotiated the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty establishing the Canadian
border.
Tyler wanted to annex Texas but the Senate rejected
annexation. Antislavery advocates saw the Texas
annexation as a slaveholders’ conspiracy.
The Texas Issue (cont’d)
Webster–Ashburton Treaty
Treaty signed by the United States and Britain in 1842 that settled a
boundary dispute between Maine and Canada and provided for closer
cooperation in suppressing the African slave trade.
The Election of 1844
In the election of 1844, both Clay, the Whig candidate, and
Van Buren, the strong Democratic candidate, opposed the
annexation of Texas.
Van Buren’s anti-Texas stance cost him the Democratic
nomination, which went to a dark horse, James K. Polk of
Tennessee.
The Election of 1844 (cont’d)
The Democrat platform supported American expansionism,
seeking to annex Oregon and Texas.
Polk won the election and Texas was annexed in 1845.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Jacksonian era stimulated a revolution in American
politics, leading to the rise of disciplined parties that
appealed to a mass electorate. Voter participation
skyrocketed.
The national issues argued by the Democrats and Whigs
until 1844 were largely economic.