JACKSONIAN AMERICA“Age of the Common Man,” or triumph of demagoguery

I. End of the Era of Good Feelings

A. Panic of 1819

1. 1st national economic crisis

2. “wildcat” banks

3. Blame directed at the “monster bank”

B. The Missouri Compromise

1. 1819, balance between free/slave states

2. 2nd MO Compromise- exclusion of “free negroes and mulattoes”

Sovereignty: state or feds

C. The Corrupt Bargain

1. Election of 1824

J. Quincy AdamsFederalist tendencies

2. Split Republicans“buck tails”1826 – Democratic-Republicans

D. Expansion of democracy

1. 1830 – 5 states require property to vote- “majority rule” sentiment

2. Martin Van Buren- find popular leader

II. King Andrew

The first “modern” President

Rise of “mass American society”

Manipulation of two-party system

A. Modern Presidency

1. Loved, hated

2. Rested his legitimacy on “will of the people”

Compare w/ “Lyceum Address”

B. Mass society

1. Vertical v. horizontal society

2. No boundaries means no safety nets- economic growth breeds uncertainty

A. De Tocqueville political democracy leads to cultural democratization

C. Permanent two-party system

1.Democratic Republicans – Democrats

2. Whig Party (1834-1856)

3. Advantages of two-party system- multi-sectional; bring compromise

4. Disadvantages- “demonize” opponents for political gain

- too associated with regional interests

III. THE “DARK” SIDE OF DEMOCRACY

Tyranny of the majority

A. War on the Bank

1. Inhibited prosperity? - market revolution

2. Withdrew federal funds- Panic of 1837

B. Tolerated mob violence

1. Attacks on abolitionist presses

1833 – Elijah Lovejoy

2. Religious intolerance

- Joseph Smith

- Mormon Extermination Order, 1838

C. Jackson’s Indian policy1. Five “Civilized” Tribes

Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole

2. Northern tribes Peorias, Kaskaskians, Kickapoos, Sauks, Foxes, Winnebagos

3. Indian Removal Act, 1830- carrot and stick approach

4. Black Hawk’s War,

1831-32

Black Hawk

5. Cherokee

- 1820s, bicameral legislature, courts, constitution, alphabet

- 1828, GA nullifies Cherokee constitution; gold rush

6. Marshall & SC, 1831, 1832

All GA legislation null and void

“John Marshall has made his decision, now let himenforce it.”

7. Trail of Tears, 1831-1838

John Ross

D. John C. Calhoun and the “Nullification Crisis”

1. 1828 “Tariff of Abominations”

2. Va. & Ky. Resolutions (1798)

3. 1833 – Jackson’s “Force Bill”

IV. “PROGRESSIVE” DEMOCRATIZATION IN THE AGE OF JACKSON

Reform in a “horizontal” society

A. Industrialization1. Bourgeoisie, “middle class”

2. Civic activism as response to social illsreject laissez faire

Liberalism – Jeremy Bentham, “utilitarianism”

B. Alternatives1. Utopian Socialism

Robert Owen – New Harmony, IN

2. MormonismJoseph Smith

Communitarian lifestyle

3. Civil disobedienceHenry David Thoreau

no obligation to follow immoral laws

C. 2nd Great Awakening

1. Rejection of materialism

2. Temperance, abolition William Lloyd Garrison

“A covenant with death and an agreementwith Hell”

D. Origins of feminism1. Cult of domesticity / “separate spheres?”

2. Middle class women and powerconsumerism, associationism

abolition, temperance, child labor, education

Politicization of women’s concerns

3. Seneca Falls Convention, 1848Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott

Declaration of Sentiments