Chapter 12: The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism (1812-1824)

The So-Called 1816 presidential election Republican James Monroe destroyed the Federalist candidate; continued the Virginia dynasty and put an end to the Federalist Party Era of Good Monroe straddled the two generations of the bygone age of the Founding Fathers and the Feelings emergent age of nationalism Was not heroic, but rather was levelheaded and sensitive to popular opinion Early 1817 undertook a goodwill tour to inspect military defenses, was warmly welcomed even in Federalist New England The Era of Good Feelings was coined to describe the Monroe administration, but the Era was still troubled; there was debate over issues of the tariff, the bank, internal improvements, and the sale of public lands, strengthening sectionalism, and the beginnings of conflict over slavery The Panic of 1819 a paralyzing economic panic happened because of the national banks involvement in the overspeculation of frontier lands 1819 and the Was the first national financial panic since Washingtons inauguration Curse of Hard Effects: Times The West was especially hard-hit because the Bank of the United States forced the wildcat speculative banks to foreclose mortgages on many farms; vilified the Bank in the eyes of western debtors Deflation, depression, bankruptcies, bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, and overcrowded debtors prisons The poorer classes were also hard-hit, foreshadowing Jacksonian democracy Attention brought to the inhumanity of the debtors prisons, so some remedial legislation passed Growing Pains of the West 1791-1819 nine frontier states joined the original thirteen, admitted alternatingly free and slave-holding Causes of the sudden expansion: Westward movement had already been going on for generations Cheap land attracted European immigrants (Ohio fever) Land exhaustion in the tobacco states Speculators accepted small down payments, so was easy to buy land Economic stress from the war The crushing of the Indians by Generals Harrison and Jackson The building of highways, ex. the Cumberland Road which ran from MD to IL 1811 the first steamboat ran on western waters But the West was still weak in population and political influence, so had to ally with other sections Now allied, demanded and received: Cheap acreage in the 1820 Land Act Cheap transportation Cheap money issued by the wildcat banks

Slavery and 1819 the territory of Missouri requested Congress make it a slaveholding state the Sectional But Congress passed the Tallmadge amendment that forbade further importation of slaves into

Balance

Missouri and provided for the gradual emancipation of slave children born there People who opposed: Southerners because: Was a threat to sectional balance: At the 1788 adoption of the Constitution, the North and South were about equal in wealth and population But the North was becoming wealthier and more populated, so had an increasing majority in the House of Representatives But the South had maintained equality in the Senate because there were 11 free states and 11 slaveholding states, so were in a good position to veto northern anti-slavery bills, so did not want to lose this position Missouri being the first state from Louisiana Territory, could set a precedent for the rest of the area If Congress could abolish slavery in Missouri, whats to stop it from doing the same in the South? Pioneers affected by the depression who wanted unhampered westward expansion Many northerners, esp. hardcore Federalists, because wanted to use the issue to defeat the Virginia dynasty A small group of northerners emerged who cried out against human bondage

After deadlock, 1820 a compromise was made, led by Henry Clay of Kentucky The Uneasy The Missouri Compromise: Missouri Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, but Maine would be separated from Compromise Massachusetts and admitted as a free state, so kept the balance free and slaveholding states Missouri was permitted to retain slaves, but slavery was prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase above the latitude line of the southern boundary of Missouri The North and South both gained and lost something, and were neither happy nor displeased: The South won Missouri as an unrestricted slave state, and were not too disappointed by the slavelessness of the northern prairie land because thought it was not suited to slave labor The North won the ability to forbid slavery in the remaining territories The Missouri Compromise lasted for 34 years and preserved the shaky Union, but only avoided the issue of slavery rather than resolved it Despite the Missouri Compromise and the panic of 1819, 1820 President Monroe was reelected nearly unanimously; would turn out to be the only president re-elected after a major financial panic John Marshall After deadlock, 1820 a compromise was made, led by Henry Clay of Kentucky and Judicial The Missouri Compromise: Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, but Maine would be separated from Nationalism Massachusetts and admitted as a free state, so kept the balance free and slaveholding states Missouri was permitted to retain slaves, but slavery was prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase above the latitude line of the southern boundary of Missouri The North and South both gained and lost something, and were neither happy nor displeased: The South won Missouri as an unrestricted slave state, and were not too disappointed by the slavelessness of the northern prairie land because thought it was not suited to slave labor The North won the ability to forbid slavery in the remaining territories The Missouri Compromise lasted for 34 years and preserved the shaky Union, but only avoided the issue of slavery rather than resolved it Despite the Missouri Compromise and the panic of 1819, 1820 President Monroe was re-

elected nearly unanimously; would turn out to be the only president re-elected after a major financial panic John Marshall John Marshall still dominated the Supreme Court and increased the power of the federal government over the states and Judicial Nationalism 1819 McCulloch v. Maryland: The state of Maryland tried to destroy a branch of the Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on its notes Marshall invoked the Hamiltonian doctrine of implied powers and ruled that the bank was constitutional, and denied Maryland the right to tax the bank Was the most famous formulation of loose construction: The Constitution is derived from the consent of the people, so permitted the government to act for their benefit Also, it was meant to last for ages to come, so had to be adapted to various unforeseen affairs So all appropriate, not prohibited acts that follow the letter and spirit of the Constitution are constitutional 1821 Cohens v. Virginia: Virginia courts found the Cohens guilty of illegally selling lottery tickets, so the Cohens appealed to the Supreme Court Virginia won because the Cohens conviction was upheld, but the states actually lost because Marshall asserted the right of the Supreme Court to review the decisions of state supreme courts 1824 Gibbons v. Ogden, AKA the steamboat case: The state of New York tried to grant a monopoly of water-borne commerce between New York and New Jersey to a private entity Marshall ruled against, because the Constitution granted Congress alone control over interstate commerce Judicial Dikes Marshall also made many rulings that protected against democratic or demagogic attacks on Against property rights Democratic 1810 Fletcher v. Peck: A bribed Georgia legislature granted much land in the Yazoo River country (Mississippi) to Excesses private speculators The next Georgian legislature cancelled the transaction because of public outcry But Marshall ruled that the crooked contract was still valid, because the Constitution forbade state laws from impairing contracts Was one of the earliest clear assertions of the right of the Supreme Court to invalidate unconstitutional state laws 1819 Dartmouth College v. Woodward: The New Hampshire state legislature changed the 1769 charter King George III had granted to Dartmouth College Dartmouth had distinguished alumnus Daniel Webster defend itself: Webster was an expounding father of the Constitution; in Senate, repeatedly expounded Federalistic and nationalistic philosophies, and got the eminent chief justice to agree heavily with him Marshall sided with Dartmouth and ruled that the charter should remain unchanged, because the Constitution protected contracts against state interference Also protected business enterprise from state domination

 But created a precedent of chartered corporations escaping needed public control Effects of Marshalls decisions: Helped create a stable, nationally uniform environment for business Checked the excesses of popularly elected state legislatures In an age of increasing white manhood suffrage and popular control, shaped the Constitution along conservative, centralizing lines Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida President Monroe worked with nationalistic secretary of state John Quincy Adams to shape foreign policy influenced by nationalism Treaty of 1818 with Britain shared Oregon: Allowed Americans to share the Newfoundland fisheries with Canadians Fixed the northern boundary of Louisiana Provided for a ten-year joint occupation of the wild Oregon County by the British and Americans Acquiring Florida: 1812 Congress ratified the 1810 American seizure of West Florida 1812 a small American force seized the Mobile area 1816-1818 revolutions broke out in South America, esp. Argentina, Venezuela, and Chile, so Spain had to take troops from Florida to put them down General Andrew Jackson saw his chance and secured a commission to invade Florida under the pretext that hostile Seminole Indians and escaped slaves were hiding there; but was to respect all Spanish posts Early 1818 Jackson entered Florida and promptly exceeded instructions Most Cabinet members wanted to punish him for overstepping, but Quincy demanded huge concessions from Spain So in 1819 Florida Purchase Treaty, Spain ceded Florida and vague Oregon claims to America in exchange for vague American claims to Texas, and the western boundary of Louisiana was solidified to separate the Spanish from the American holdings

The Menace After Napoleon, the European autocrats worked together to stamp out democratic tendencies of Monarchy from the French Revolution, ex. ruthlessly put down rebellions in 1821 Italy and 1823 Spain in America There were rumors that Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France were planning to restore the revolted colonies of Spanish America to Spain So Americans were alarmed, because were sympathetic to democratic revolutions, and their safety would be endangered by the proximity of such powerful and unfriendly forces 1821 Russia issued a decree extending their jurisdiction down most of the coast of present-day British Columbia, and already had trading posts as far south as the San Francisco Bay, so Americans feared that it was planning to cut off California from the Republic Britain refrained from joining the European powers in restoring Spanish-America to Spain because profited from Spanish-American ports August 1823, British foreign secretary George Canning proposed to America that they jointly declare that they had no interest in acquiring Latin American territory and that the European despots should keep away Monroe and John Quincy Adams opposed the alliance because: His Doctrine Why would the powerful British need weak America as an ally? Realized that the British feared that America would someday seize Spanish-American territory, which would jeopardize British holdings in the Caribbean

 Realized that the European powers had not made definite plans for invasion Reasoned that the British navy would defend South America because South American markets had to be kept open for British merchants So December 1823 President Monroe delivered the Monroe Doctrine: Said that the period of American colonization was over, and that the powers should keep what they have but seize no more Told the powers to keep monarchy out of the Americas Monroe's Doctrine Appraised The powers were offended by the Doctrine, esp. because of its contrast with Americas military weakness, but their hands were tied because of the power of the British navy In South America, most realized that Monroe was mostly concerned about America and secondarily about them, and some realized that it was really the British navy that was protecting them So the Doctrine did not have much effect Even before the Doctrine was issued, Russia retreated to the tip of the Alaska panhandle in the 1824 Russo-American Treaty The Monroe Doctrine was mostly concerned with Americas security, but its strength in the absence of the British navy was no bigger than Americas small military force Was never law; was just a statement of policy made by the President, which successive presidents have ignored, revived, distorted, or expanded Mostly, was an expression of patriotism and gave a false sense of isolationism