Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Rise of Democratic Politics, 1824-1832: Republican party tearing b/c of pressures by 1824.
Generated by industrialization in New England, spread of cotton in South, Westward expansion. Would
lead to divisions between Democrats and Whigs. Republicans suspicious of strong federal
government, wanted states rights – would become Democrats; Republicans who believed that national
government should encourage economic development – became Whigs. Elections to office depended
less on education and wealth than on ability to identify and follow the majority; leaders could no longer
look down on the people.
Democratic Ferment:
-Political democratization took many forms.
-Most common: Substitution of poll taxes for the requirement that voters own
property.
-No new Western states had property requirements; Eastern states
slowly liberalized their laws.
-Written ballots replaced voting aloud (“stand-up” voting) – decreased
intimidation to vote for certain people.
-Appointive offices increasingly elective.
-Electoral college survived.
-Voters made choice of presidential electors, no longer state legislatures; only
six states chose electors in 1824; by 1932, only South Carolina did.
-Federalists vs. Republicans allowed expression of will.
-Republicans then Federalists tried to woo voters with barbecues.
-Each party tried to be the majority.
-Political democratization developed at uneven pace.
-1820, Repubs and Feds organized. Nominating candidates relied on the
caucus, not nomination conventions. Women and free blacks disenfranchised.
-Opposing democracy – political suicide.
-Politicians learned that they had to cater to the people.
Jackson in Office:
-Jackson – presidency was opposed because of alleged corruption.
-Jackson’s first policy: “rotation in office,” which was removing officeholders
from rival party. AKA “spoils system.”
-Didn’t offer reasons for removing people.
-Stand on federal aid for internal improvements was much more controversial.
-Jackson felt that public officials used aid to woo supporters; rejected
federal support.
-1830, vetoed a bill providing money for a road in Kentucky.
-Strongest support was in the South.
-Indian Removal Act of 1830 enhanced his popularity there. Tariff issue,
however, tested South’s loyalty to him.
-When Adams was pres, some of Jackson’s Congress supporters
passed a high protective tariff that didn’t favor the South. Jackson got
the blame for this “Tariff of Abominations.”
Nullification:
Tariff of 1828 formed a rift between Jackson and Calhoun.
-Calhoun, among many issues, wanted to be President. Jackson promised he
would only have a first term, so Calhoun thought that he would succeed him;
would need support of the South to become Pres. Calhoun’s home state, S.C.,
suffered a decline in the 1820’s that voters blamed on tariffs.
-Calhoun believed that federal laws had to benefit everyone equally,
so he was against the tariffs, because they didn’t favor the South.
-Anonymously wrote the South Caroline Exposition and
Protest, which said that the 1828 tariff was unconstitutional
and that states could nullify it.
-Opposition to Southern tariffs also rested on the fear the North would pass
anti-slavery laws. 1831, a slave revolt by Nat Turner in VA took place, as well
as William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. South
Carolinians thought that tariffs would lead to a possible interference with
slavery.
-Jackson had to maintain key states like PA and soothe the South at the same
time. Two policies:
-Distribute surplus federal revenue to the states. Hoped it would
remove the sectional taint of the tariff.
-Ease down the high tariffs of 1828.
-Calhoun didn’t like the idea of federal revenue going to sates; thought that
that would be an excuse to maintain tariffs. Didn’t want to break openly with
Jackson; needed him to increase presidential prospects.
-Congress passed slightly reduced tariff rates in 1832, but they didn’t satisfy
S.C.
-Before 1832 tariff passage, two personal issues shook relations between Cal
and Jack.
-Peggy Eaton affair – Secretary of war married Peggy, who had a
reputation for flirting while married to a former husband. She and
husband were snubbed by cabinet members and their wives. Jackson
defended them, because his wife was slandered during his campaign.
-1830, Jackson got documents that Calhoun, as secretary of war
under Monroe, had urged that Jackson be punished for unauthorized
raid into Spanish Florida. Jackson thought Calhoun was trying to
destroy him.
-Confrontation at dinner toast: “Our Union: It must be preserved.”
-1831, Calhoun acknowledged that he wrote the S.C. Exposition.
-1832, S.C. convention nullified the tariffs and forbade the collection of
customs duties within the state.
-Jackson called nullification an “abominable doctrine.” Began to send
arms.
-1832, said he would lower tariffs, but also said that nullification was
unconstitutional.
-“Olive branch and the sword” – Olive branch was the tariff of 1833 (AKA
Compromise Bill), which provided for reduction of duties between 1833 and
1942. The sword was the Force Bill – authorized Pres to use arms to collect
customs duties in SC.
-SC didn’t abandon nullification principal—nullified Force Bill-accepted
Compromise Bill, took back nullification of the tariffs.
The Bank Controversy and the Second Party System, 1833-1840: Jackson vetoing and rechartering the
Bank of the US – controversial. Then Jackson took steps to get rid of the bank forever. Stirred
opposition in Whig party and stimulated interest in politics. Lead to Panic of 1837 – faced Martin Van
Buren’s presidency. 1840 – Whig and Democratic parties divided: banks or no banks. There were
“notes” redeemable in specie, but no official currency. Fueled economic development – made it easier
for farmers to get loans. But if note depreciated after its issuance – wage owners not paid in specie
suffered. Paper encouraged speculative economy – raised profits and risks.
Eastern Revivals:
-Second Great Awakening began to shift to the East in the 1720’s. New York “Burned-
Over District” home to most revivals. Americans wanted a new religious experience.
The Shakers:
-Founder and leader: Mother Anne Lee.
-Name came from a convulsive religious dance that was part of their ceremony.
-Settled in New Lebanon, NY. Able artisans. Invented clothespin and circular saw.
-Didn’t like materialism.
-Abstained from sex.
-Doctrines from Lee’s trances and visions. Said that God was both male and female.
-Would have quickly gone extinct because of abstinence, though they survived
because they found converts and orphans to join their communities.
-Lived apart from society.
The Age of Reform: Men and women tried to improve society. Abolition, women’s rights, temperance,
better treatment of criminals and the insane, public education, and the establishment of utopias. Gave
women and blacks some say, as they were excluded from politics. Reformers sometimes cooperated
with political parties (especially Whigs), but gave their loyalty to causes, not parties. Saw social
problems as clashes between good and evil – reformers thought they were always on God’s side;
fueled by religious revivalism. Saw drunkenness, ignorance, and inequality as sins. Reform movements
lacked national organizations. New England and parts of the Midwest settled by New Englanders –
reform activity. South – suppressed reform.
Public-School Reform:
-School reformers wanted to encourage orderliness in the common people.
-Said schools had to ready children for industrial society.
-Horace Mann, most influential reformer for schools.
-Became first secretary of his states newly-created board of education.
-Wanted to make schools paid for by the states.
-Wanted to extend the school term from two to ten months.
-Wanted standardized books; very structured curriculum.
-School reformers wanted to combat ignorance and cement uniform values.
-McGuffey readers created a common curriculum; emphasized industry,
honesty, sobriety, and patriotism.
-Made few gains in South, but North took to it.
-MA passed the first compulsory school law.
-Success didn’t come easily.
-Immigrants, especially Irish Catholics, said that public schools were anti-Irsh
and anti-Catholic.
-Rural and urban areas needed kids to help work.
-Supporters of school reform
-Manufactures, because they saw that school would teach punctuality.
-Native-born Americans, who wanted immigrants to conform.
-Black children rarely got schooling, and when they did, they were treated so badly that
blacks often preferred segregated schools.
Abolition:
-Abolitionist sentiment declined in the early 19 th century.
-American Colonization Society proposed gradual emancipation and the return of
blacks to Africa.
-Thought that blacks didn’t belong in American society.
-Few southerners were willing to free slaves.
-Economy rested on cotton
-Blacks opposed slavery.
-Formed abolition societies.
-Benjamin Lundy, Quaker, began Genius of Universal Emancipation, which advocated
that the slave trade be outlawed, that the 3/5ths compromise be repealed, and that
slavery should be abolished.
-William Lloyd Garrison was the editor.
-Launched The Liberator. Wanted immediate emancipation with no money
paid back to southerners. Very radical.
-Gained support from black abolitionists.
-Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth both lectured against slavery.
-Relations not always good between black and white abolitionists.
-White abolitionists wanted no slavery, but not social equality.
-Protestant churches thought that slavery was a sin, but rallied more behind
temperance.
-Should abolitionists campaign as a party?
-Formed Liberty party.
-Women’s role in the abolitionist movement.
-Women active in the movement in societies run by men.
-Feminists Sarah and Angelina Grimke wanted to women’s rights to be
acknowledged with blacks’ rights.
-Split abolitionist movement.
Women’s Rights:
-Women’s life had many contradictions.
-Could not vote, had no right to own property when married. But the reform
movement gave them opportunity for public activity without challenging the
belief that their sphere was in the home.
-Many feminists didn’t want to attack sexual inequality at first.
-Leading feminists: Grimke sisters, Quaker Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and
Abby Kelley.
-Usually women’s rights advocates gravitated to Garrison, who was a
huge feminist.
-Lucy Stone became the first abolitionist to lecture just on women’s
rights.
-At the World’s Anti-Slavery Conference, Lucretia Mott and other
women were not allowed to be seated. Also made a sharp impression
on Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
-Mott and Stanton organized women’s rights convention;
wrote Seneca Falls Declaration.
Utopian Communities:
-The belief that people could live perfectly grew into the development of utopian
societies.
-Founded by intellectuals as alternatives to the competitive economy.
-Interest in these communities came from Britain.
-British Robert Owen founded New Harmony in Indiana.
-Thought that if social arrangements could be perfected, people would
be better. He felt that people were shaped by their environments.
-Others came: Hopedale, Fruitlands, and Brook Farm.
-Brook Farm, near Boston, was the creation of transcendentalists, who had
started as Unitarians but then decided to change Christianity by saying that
men and women had infinite spiritual capacity.
-Attracted writers such as Emerson and Hawthorne.
-Most controversial: Oneida community in NY, established by John Humphrey
Noyes.
-Communistic; also believed that everyone was married to each other.
-Noyes was seen by critics as crazy, and Southerners cited him as an
example of what would happen if slavery ended.
-Oneida survived long after other utopias, like Brook Farm, collapsed.
-Oneidans had to stay together, as they were shunned by
society.
-Utopians clearly exemplified the idealism and hopefulness during the Age of Jackson