The Rise of Mass Democracy

Chapter 13Advanced US History

Two-Party System

Era of Good Feelings

Never entirely tranquil economic distress (Panic of 1819 & MO Compromise) and slavery issue

Change in political campaigns

Strong political parties arise 1828, Democrats form

1830s, Whigs form

Use of banners, badges, parades, barbeques, etc.

voter turnout rose dramatically

“Corrupt Bargain” 1824

4 presidential candidates (all Republicans)

John Quincy Adams (MA)

Henry Clay (KY)

William H. Crawford (GA)

Andrew Jackson (TN) Strongest personal appeal war hero

No one won a majority of electoral vote

12th amendment House of Representatives must among top 3 candidates (Clay eliminated)

Election of 1824: Polls

Election of 1824

Henry Clay William H. Crawford

Election of 1824

Andrew Jackson John Q. Adams

The President Elected

Adams elected President

Supposedly Adams bribed Clay with Secretary of State position (“Corrupt Bargain”)

No actual proof

Common practice condemned rising political change

John Quincy Adams

Ranked as one of the most successful secretaries

One of the least successful presidents

Entered the White House with charges of “Bargain” “Corruption” & “Usurpation”

“Minority President”

Would not create vacancies for party supporters

Adams’s Nationalist Views

Adams was a nationalist

Nation turning towards states’ rights and sectionalism

Construction of roads and canals

Proposal of national university

Astronomical observatory

Tariff duties

Possibility of slavery

Cherokee Indians in Georgia

Question

What was the 12th amendment?

What was the corrupt bargain of the election of 1824?

John Quincy Adams was not the popular choice for the presidency. During his presidency what reasoning did the people have to continue to dislike his ideas?

Going “Whole Hog” for Jackson

Jackson started working on presidential campaign the day John Quincy Adams was elected by the House

National Republicans v. Democratic Republicans

Jackson presented as a frontiersman and a unfaltering champion for common man

Adams presented as corrupt aristocrat

Will of the people thwarted by backstairs “bargain”

Needed Jackson to bring about reform

Truth Behind Jackson

Not a frontiersman wealthy planter

Born in a log cabin luxurious manor (many slaves)

Adams not corrupt uncompromising morals

Bare-Knuckle Politics

Followers of Adams Jackson’s mother was a prostitute and wife was an adulteress

Printed black-bordered handbills shaped like coffins

Jackson’s men Adams purchased gaming tables and gambling furniture

Accused of procuring a servant girl for a Russian tsar

Election of 1828

Electoral Split

Jackson’s strongest support West and South

Adams won his own New England and Northeast

Popular vote converted to electoral votes Jackson victory

178 to 83 Political center of gravity shifted from

conservative eastern seaboard toward the emerging states across the mountains

Jackson’s Presidency

Striking figure

Very irritable and emaciated dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, and lead poisoning

“Mischievous Andy”

First president from the West (TN)

2nd President without a college education

Owned many slaves cultivated acres of land lived in a mansion

Symbolism of Jackson’s Presidency

Ascendancy of the masses

Opened the doors of the White House

“People’s Champion”

“The Inaugural Brawl”

The Spoils System Spoils System

Name came from Senator William Marcy’s remark in 1832, “ To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy”

Jackson defended spoils system each generation deserved its turn at the public trough

Housecleaning

Question was not “What can he do for the country?”

But, “What has he done for the party?” or “Is he loyal to Jackson?”

Samuel Swartwout

Said to be untrustworthy

Given the position of collector of the customs of the port of NY

First person to steal a $1 million for the government

Spoils system was important element of the emerging two-party order

Loyalty to party Idea of picking a party

Jacksonian Democracy

Belief in the common man

Belief in common sense of common man (Jackson)

Expanded suffrage

Expansion of White male suffrage; nominating conventions

Patronage

Spoils system

Opposition to privileged elites

Duty to promote and protect the common man

Tariff of Abominations

Tariffs protected American industry against competition

Also drove up prices for all Americans (and exported goods)

Tariffs passed between 1816 and 1828 protection tariffs

Jacksonites promoted high-tariff bill passed in 1828

Southern flags lowered to half-mast

Southerners Angered

Claimed tariff discriminated against south

Old South sold cotton in a world market unprotected by tariffs, but forced to buy goods in American market heavily protected by tariffs

Protection to north but not south

John C. Calhoun South Carolinian against tariff

The South Carolina Exposition

Nullification Act

S.C. “nullies” need 2/3 vote to nullify

Protective Tariffs of 1828 and 1832

South Carolina wants to nullify tariffs

Congress threatened to use force to enforce tariffs

Force Bill

SC threatens to secede from Union

Congress reduced tariff of 1832 by 10% over 8 years

SC suspends nullification of tariffs and nullifies Force Bill

Trail of Tears Westward expansion

125,000 + Native Americans east of the Mississippi

Formal treaties (Washington)

Violation by Americans “Civilizing” and Christianizing

Indians

Native American Tribes

Cherokees of Georgia

Receptive to learn the “ways of the whites”

Cherokee National Council written legal code (1808)

Written constitution (1827)

Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Cherokees “Five Civilized Tribes”

“5 Civilized Tribes”

Steps to Indian Removal Act

1828, GA legislature declared Cherokee tribal council illegal

State jurisdiction over Indian land

Cherokees appeal to Supreme Court

Supreme Court protected Indians

Jackson refused to recognize Court’s decision

Indian Removal Act of 1830

“Voluntary” emigration

Forced uprooting of more than 100,000 Indians.

Bureau of Indian Affairs-1836

Indian resistance

Osceola

Blackhawk

Ultimate location OK

Indian Resistance

Osceola Blackhawk

Questions

What was Jackson’s view on Native Americans?

What was the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

How did Jackson console himself once he decided to make the Indians move from their homeland?

What was the Trail of Tears?

The Bank War

Jackson distrusted monopolistic banks and excessively large businesses

“Moneyed Monster”

Minted gold and silver coins, not paper money

Paper notes printed by private banks Acted as a branch of government Private institution, Nicholas Biddle

Nicholas Biddle

President of Bank of the U.S.

Held an immense amount of power over nation’s financial affairs

Enemies of Bank called him “Czar Nicolas I”

Bank called a “hydra of corruption”

Bank War, 1832

Daniel Webster and Henry Clay present Congress with a bill to renew charter

Election year Clay vs. Jackson

Alienate Western followers or alienate the wealthy and influential

Jackson declared Bank unconstitutional (veto)

Amplified power of president

Mother Bank

Effects of Jackson’s Veto

Found Bank (personally) harmful to nation

Inadvertently claiming 2/3 power vote to the President

If the legislative and executive branches were partners in government, he implied, the president was unmistakably the senior partner

Clay failed to realize Jackson’s veto was more appealing to most than he thought

Bad for the rich, good for the the common people

Election of 1832

Clay and Jackson battling electoral votes

Jackson originally only wanted to be a 1-term President

Persuaded otherwise

3rd party Anti-Masonic Party

Appealed to evangelical Protestant groups

Seeking political power to effect moral and religious reforms

Jackson was a Mason

National Nominating Conventions

Adoption of formal platforms

Political Platforms

Henry Clay

National Republicans Bank of the United States

Andrew Jackson

Idol of the masses Final Victory

Buries Biddle’s Bank Financial crisis and panic of

1837

The Whig Party• Democratic Republicans Democrats

• Called Jackson, King Andrew I

• Recollect 18th century British and

Revolutionary American opposition

to monarchy

• Gained supporters

• Offended by Jackson’s stance on

nullification

Election of 1836

Martin Van Buren Jackson’s successor

“Little Magician”

Whigs still do not have a presidential candidate

“favorite sons”

General William Henry Harrison, OH

Van Buren wins over Harrison

765, 483 to 739, 795 popular votes

170 to 124 electoral votes

“Little Magician”

Van Buren, 8th President

First born under the American flag

Experience in legislative and administrative life

Above average intelligence

Resented by many Democrats

Inherited enemies of Jackson

Rebellion in Canada in 1837

Threatened trigger war with Britain

Attempted to be neutral

Battling Panic of 1837

Panic of 1837

Caused by rampant speculation

Building canals, roads, railroads, and slaves

Bank War

Failures of wheat crops

Europe’s economic distresses

Every major American panic has been affected by conditions over seas

Whig Proposals to Improve Economy

Expansion of bank credit

Higher tariffs

Subsidies for internal improvements

Jacksonian Democracy did not allow such intervention by government (Van Buren’s hands tied)

“Divorce Bill”

“Divorce” government and banking industry

Establish independent treasury (passed 1840)

Gone to Texas Americans greedy for land

Wanted TX US abandoned TX trying to

obtain FL in 1819 Mexico gained independence

New regime in Mexico City, 1823 Stephen Austin Had to bring 300 American

families

Immigrants were to be of the established Roman Catholic faith

Upon settlement needed to become properly Mexicanized

Mexican or Texican?

G.T.T.

Davey Crockett

Jim Bowie

“Genuine Arkansas toothpick”

Issues over slavery, immigration, local rights

1835, explosive issue Santa Anna wiped out all local rights and started to raise an army to suppress Texans

Lone Star Rebellion

1836, Texans declared independence Lone Star Flag

Sam Houston

Santa Anna The Alamo in San Antonio (200)

“I shall never surrender or retreat… Victory or Death.” Colonel W.B. Travis

American volunteers butchered as “pirates” Goliad

Jim Bowie and Davey Crocket killed “Remember the Alamo!” “Remember Goliad!”

“Death to Santa Anna!”

Sam Houston

Davey Crockett

Jim Bowie

Lone Star Rebellion

Houston’s army retreated to east lured Santa Anna to San Jacinto (900 vs. 1300)

April 21, 1836 Houston and Texans captured Santa Anna

Santa Anna signed two treaties 1. withdraw Mexican troops 2. Recognize Rio Grande as southwestern

boundary of Texas Upon release, Santa Anna repudiated

agreement as illegal

Predicament

Washington Government had obligation under international law to enforce its neutrality rules

American opinion favored Texans

Jackson’s last day in office extended the right had of recognition to the Lone Star Republic

Texans wanted to be part of Union Issue of slavery created hesitation by Uncle

Sam Proximity vs. Conspiracy

Politics for the People

Election of 1840: 2 Major changes in politics since Era of Good Feelings

1. Triumph of populist democratic style Politicians now forced to favor with

the voting masses Boast of birth in a log cabin

Politics for the People

2nd change:

2. Two-Party System Democrats and the Whigs grew out of

Jeffersonian republicanism and each laid claim to different aspects of the Republican inheritance

Jacksonian Democrats glorified the liberty of the individual and were fiercely on guard against the inroads of “privilege” into government

Similarities of 2-Party System

“Catchall” parties

Both tried to deliberately mobilize as many voters as possible for their cause

Both parties commanded loyalties of all kinds of Americans from all social classes

Horse-trading compromises

Prevented either from assuming extreme or radical positions

Geographical diversity

Stopped the emergence of purely sectional political parties