Sectionalism in 19th Century America

I. Origins of Sectionalism
a. Geographic and Economic:
i. Northeast developed industrial- manufacturing—merchant based economy
ii. South developed predominantly agrarian-based on slave labor and specific cash crops
such as tobacco, cotton and rice
iii. Early expansion to the west saw agricultural development- the south and the west
tended to be more politically and economically tied early on.
1. South and west had agriculture in common
2. Building of railroads caused the tie to shift from the north of the south
iv. 1810s and on- with advent of new transportations system being built (roads, canals,
steamboats, and later the railroads), the north and the west became more closely knit
politically and economically
1. West is the determining portion
b. Constitutional Convention of 1787
i. Slavery Issue:
1. 3/5ths Compromise: for representation and taxes
2. Fugitive Slave Clause- promise to return runaway “property”
3. 20 Year Guarantee Clause- to end the importation of slaves within 20 years
(1808)
ii. Representation Issue:
1. Fear that the larger, more populous states (tended to be north) would
dominate in the Congress
2. Solution = The Great (Connecticut) Compromise
3. Senate gets 2 reps
4. House of Representation is based on the population
c. A lot of this can be based on sectionalism. The roots of sectionalism are being formed during the
Constitutional Convention
d. Hamilton’s Financial Plan 1790:
i. Funding all debt at par
ii. The BUS
iii. Tariff for protection and revenue raising
iv. The Whiskey tax
1. Excise tax: a tax on a specific item (might also refer to as an inkind tax)
e. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798-1799)
i. Madison and Jefferson’s responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts
1. Wanted to nullify it
ii. Opens the discussion for “nullification”
iii. Emphasis is state rights
f. Emphasis on state power and where power should reside
i. Federalists back Hamilton’s Financial Plan
1. Backed in the constitution by the Elastic Clause
g. New England’s Treasonous Behavior 1908-1815:
i. Whining Feds
ii. The flouting of Jefferson’s Embargo (O grab me)
iii. Aiding the enemy during the War of 1812
iv. Hartford Convention
1. Want of $ assistance to compensate for lost trade
2. 2/3 vote in Congress for embargo acts, new states admitted, and war declared
v. See power being diminished and war being declared in the future
vi. Off handed discussion of nullification and secession during this time by Federalists
h. Expansion/New Land Policies
 i. Land Ordinance 1785:
1. Old Northwest land to be sold and $ used to pay off national debt
2. Landed divided into township- one section devoted to public schools
ii. Northwest Ordinance of 1787
1. Stage #1 = territory- subordinate to federal gov’t
2. Stage #2 = statehood application- 60k population
3. No Slavery allowed in Old Northwest
a. We’re saying that we don’t want slavery
iii. Land Act of 1820
1. 80 acres of virgin land @ $1.25 per acre
iv. These early policies were conceived by the Federal Government to encourage
settlement
v. To preserve sectional balance the precedent was set to allow new states to enter
alternatively free and slave (Missouri Compromise)
1. We have to set up some rules and that this shows some concern must come up
with rules to help us get along
2. MC of Compromise of 1820 is a good start for equal slave and free.
vi. By 1819 there were 11 free and 11 slave states
i. Clays American System 1816 into 1820s:
i. The BUS
ii. Protective Tariff
iii. Federal $ for internal improvements:
1. Not at all popular with the Jeffersonian Republicans- vetoed in 1817 by
President Madison
2. New England not all fond- fear of draining off their population
II. Key Names and Sectional Identities/Roles
a. North-National- Free
i. Alexander Hamilton
ii. John Adams
iii. J. Q. Adams
iv. Daniel Webster
v. Henry Clay
vi. Andrew Jackson
vii. Stephen Douglas
viii. Abraham Lincoln
ix. Charles Sumner
x. Thaddeus Stevens
xi. William Seward
b. South- States- Slave Confederacy
i. Thomas Jefferson
ii. James Madison
iii. James Monroe
iv. Andrew Jackson
v. John C. Calhoun
vi. Robert Hayne
vii. Jefferson Davis
viii. Preston Brooks
c. Great Compromisers
i. Henry Clay
ii. Stephen Douglas
1. Popular Sovereignty
iii. James Henry Crittenden
iv. Daniel Webster
III. Key Sectional Issues
a. The Tariff
i. Background:
1. Tariffs began with Hamilton’s financial plan 1790
2. Began primarily for revenue collection but also for protection of American
manufactured products
3. Cause us to pay high inflated prices
4. Tariff of 1816 was the first tariff established for primarily protective reasons-
set a precedent for higher and higher tariffs throughout the 19 th and into the
20th century until Progressive reforms
a. We wanted to protect our manufacturing industry that was starting to
grow and blossom because we were going to war and need
manufacturing to do so.
ii. The North:
1. Leader = Daniel Webster- New Hampshire
2. Position: Future of New England is manufacturing
a. Have to protect American Infant industries
b. Need revenue for federal gov’t
c. A prosperous New England can buy agricultural goods from the South
iii. The South:
1. Leader = John C. Calhoun- South Carolina
2. Position:
a. Issue was used as a “scapegoat”
i. Underlying fear was the interference of slavery by the Federal
Government
ii. Tariff was a good issue to take a strong stand on regard states
rights
iii. Yankee tariff discriminated against them because:
1. Had to sell their agricultural products in an
unprotected world market
2. Forced to pay high priced manufactured goods in a
protected American market
3. If Americans buy less imports from foreigners, then
they will buy less from US- hurts southern exports-
Tariff Wars!
4. South is a bunch of whiny babies.
3. The Tariff of Abominations 1828: 45% protective tariff- infuriated the South!
a. South Carolina Exposition 1828:
i. Written in secret by Vice President Calhoun in response to
Tariff of Abominations
ii. Boldly denounced the tariff as unjust and unconstitutional
iii. Proposed that states should nullify the tariff
iv. The West
1. Leader = Henry Clay, Kentucky- The Great Compromiser
2. Position: Generally the West did not support protective tariffs- similar to the
south’s position
3. Tariff of 1832: Lowered the “abominations” by about 10% (35%) but the south
still viewed as protective
4. South Carolina’s Response to the Tariff of 1832: Special State Convention 1832-
The Nullies v. Unionist- the state legislature decided:
a. Tariff of 1832 = null and void
b. State should prep a military in case feds get ticked
c. State would leave the union if the feds attempted to collect the tariff
 5. Federal Government’s (President Jackson’s) Response: Ticket, Ready to send
troops
6. Compromise Tariff of 1833: Henry Clay the Savior
a. Lowered the ’32 tariff by about 10% over next 8 years
b. Included the force bill
b. The BUS
i. Background:
1. 1792: original charter
2. Rechartered by the Democrat-Republicans in 1816
3. Up for a recharter in 1836
4. As country expanded west, “wild cat” banks popped up:
a. Borrowed $ from the BUS
b. Generously printed their own “rag” money
c. Made hundreds of loans to land “speculators”
5. Panic of 1819
a. Imbalance in the $ supply of the specie relative to total $ in loans
b. BUS reigns in its western branch banks
i. “calls in” all loans
c. Debtors, farmers, and especially folks in the West really get hurt
d. This serves to galvanize hatred towards the BUS by the debtors,
farmers, and the West
i. See connection to the north
ii. The North
1. Support a sound $ system
a. No inflation
b. Metal money policy
2. Serves the business interests
iii. The South and the West
1. Both have agrarian interests
2. Both favored liberal monetary policy:
a. Soft $ (inflation)
3. Panic of 1819 will set stage for fight against the “monster” BUS
4. Will rally agrarian west and back country folk to Jackson in 1828 and 1832
iv. President Andrew Jackson (1828-1836)
1. First President from the West
2. Becomes a symbol of the common man
3. 1819- BUS had been declared “constitutional” in McCulloch v. Maryland
a. Set nation over state in terms of the banking issue
b. Marshall said that the bank was constitutional
4. President Jackson will proceed to kill the BUS on constitutional grounds:
a. It favored the plutocrats- the minority
b. It was a monopoly
5. 1832 Henry Clay (arch enemy) will seek an early attempt to re-charter the bank
as a political ploy (both running against each other in upcoming election for
president)
6. “The bank is trying to kill me but I will kill it!” Jackson vetoed the bill!
a. Vetoes- pisses of the North
b. Passes- pisses off the South and West
7. 1832-1836 = slow death of the BUS:
a. Withdraw government $ to bleed the bank dry
b. Deposit new $ in “pet banks” throughout country
v. Results of Jackson’s Murder of the BUS:
1. Ironically wildcat banks will continue on their spree of speculative loans
 2. Issuance of Specie Circular in 1836
a. Request that all loans must be called in be paid in with hard money
3. Panic of 1837
4. 1840 Divorce Bill and Independent Treasury (Van Buren)
5. King Andrew
6. Formation of the Whig Party
7. Whigs in Congress (led by Clay) will twice seek to revive the BUS in the early
1840s
8. 2x “His Accidency” or “Executive Ass” President John Tyler (a Democrat in
Whigs clothes) will veto
9. The Whig Party will formally expel Tyler
10. Tyler’s cabinet will resign
11. A wave of the flu bug that spread through the nation was called the “Tyler
Grippe”
c. Land Policy/Expansion
i. Background
1. The early policies
ii. North:
1. Before the Panic of 1857 = fear of expansion west because:
a. Loss of sectional balance in favor of South/West
b. Draining of population (cheap labor) to a “politically” growing West-
likely to align w/ South
c. Moral issue of threat of slavery in new lands
2. After the Panic of 1857 = cry for “free land” will from the down-trodden in
North- industrialists will still have above fears
iii. The South:
1. Support for continued land policies because:
a. More crop land = more slavery = more prosperity
b. Affords them a way to keep sectional balance
2. But not for free land because:
a. Would encourage northern “free soilers” to fill up western lands
3. Did not support federal $ for internal improvements = states rights issue!
iv. The West:
1. Cheap sale of public lands
2. Internal improvements with Federal $
3. Soft $ to “set up house” and pay for mortgages/croplands
4. See the timeline for specific legislation and circumstances that bring in new
land and the issues that “crop up” as a result
d. Slavery/Abolition
i. Abolition
1. 1800 and on- The Second Great Awakening will help fuel the abolitionist
movement
2. 1817- The American Colonization Society
a. Idea is transport blacks back to Africa
b. They founded the Republic of Liberia in Western Africa (Monrovia=
capital)
c. 1833 American Anti Slavery Society established
3. 1830s-40s- Abolition Activists rise up
4. Theodore Dwight Weld
a. Preached throughout the old Northwest
b. Wrote American Slavery as It Is (1839) = propaganda
5. William Lloyd Garrison:
a. Passionate preacher (Park Street Church Boston!)
 b. Publisher of The Liberator (1831)
c. Hated by Southerners as terrorist and rebellion instigator
6. Wendell Phillips
a. Abolition “Golden Trumpet”
b. Boston “power broker” who advocated boycott of products produced
by slavery
7. Other Activists into the 1850s:
a. Harriet Beecher Stowe:
i. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
b. John Brown and his raids:
i. Bleeding Kansas 1855-‘56
ii. Harpers Ferry 1859
8. Black Abolitionists:
a. David Walker:
i. Wrote Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World 1829
1. Advocated bloody rebellions
b. Sojourner Truth:
i. Fought for women’s right and end to slavery
c. Martin Delaney
i. Advocated for mass re-colonization to Africa
d. Fedrick Douglass:
i. Escaped former slave
ii. Most prominent and articulate black for the cause
iii. Sought to use government/politics to fight slavery
9. Political 3rd Parties:
a. 1840 & 1844- Liberty Party
b. 1841 and into the 1850s- Free Soil Party LATER DEVELOPS INTO THE
Republican Party
ii. Slavery- A Defensive South:
1. More abolitionists in the south than in the north in 1820s
2. A turning Point- 1831-’32 Virginia State Legislature votes down legislation that
proposed emancipation-results:
a. Southern Anti Slavery societies silenced
b. Slave states tightened their slave codes
c. Slave states voted to prohibit any kind of emancipation
3. South’s “Bunker Mentality” spurred on by
4. South’s “Twisted Logic”- “slavery is not bad..it is really very good” defense:
a. Supported by the Bible
b. Blacks are better off being in a “Christian” civilization
c. Master/slaver relationship offers a “family atmosphere”
d. Treated better than the Northern “wage slaves”
5. The slavocracy’s Insistence on having its way equates to throughout the
constitution and the 1st Amendment
a. 1835- US gov’t orders Southern postmasters to destroy abolitionist
material in the US mail
b. 1846- GAG resolution pushed through the US House of
Representatives that tabled any debate on anti-slavery issues
(eventually defeated after 8 years)
iii. Northern Opposition to Abolitionist Movement
1. Not all Northerners were abolitionists or sympathetic to the movement
2. Lots of hatred towards blacks especially by lowly laborers
3. Talk of Northern secession by zealots like Garrison was a turn off
 4. Northern industry and labor had a heavy economic stake in Southern cotton
production
5. Many riots against the abolitionists
iv. Galvanization of Abolitionist’s Cause- 1850s:
1. Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law (the “Bloodhound Bill”)
a. Put a piece of the bill should address that the runaway slaves
2. 1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin
3. 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act
4. 1855-1861 “Bleeding Kansas”
a. 1857 Le Compton Constitution
5. 1857 Dred Scott Case
6. 1859 Martyred John Brown after Harper’s Ferry
e. Nullification/ Secession
i. Philosophical Basis:
1. The Compact Theory:
a. Begun in 17th and 18th century England with philosophers like Locke,
Hobbes, and Rousseau
b. In creating the National Government, the original 13 states (and those
subsequently to follow) had entered into a “compact” or a contract
regarding the National Government’s jurisdiction
c. The National Government was a creation of the states
d. The individuals states should be the final judges in whether the
national has overstepped its authority
e. Thus if concluded that it had, any state had the right to nullify an act of
the National Government
f. To the extreme any state had the right to break off or secede from the
compact
2. The Compact Theory Challenged
a. The people and not the states had made the original compact- in other
words the people (and not the states) had created the national
government
b. Therefore it was up to the Supreme Court- not the states- to nullify
unconstitutional acts passed by the National Government
c. In terms of secession, no state had the sovereign authority in and of
itself, to split a union of states created by the People of the Union
ii. Issues that Provoke the Threats:
1. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions 1798
a. Written by Madison and Jefferson in response to the Feds Alien and
Sedition Acts
2. Hartford Convention 1814
a. Feds pity part in response to the embargos War of 1812 and loss of
political clout
3. South Carolina Exposition 1828
a. Written in secret by VP Calhoun
b. Boldly denounced the tariff as unconstitutional
4. The Webster Hayne Debate 1829-1830
a. Senate debates springs up over a bill authored by a northeastern
senator that proposed to curb the sale of public lands
b. Debate degenerates into sectional concerns and the TARIFF!
c. Star Debaters:
i. Robert Hayne- S. Carolina
ii. Daniel Webster- New Hampshire
 d. Their arguments were each stored up by their supporters for future
use
e. Hayne argued passionately
i. Doctrine of nullification the only means to safeguard the
minority interests of the south
ii. Did not advocate secession but to protect southern rights
within the union
f. Webster replied back even more passionately
i. The people and not the states had framed the Constitution
ii. The supreme Court was the final authority on constitutionally
iii. If each of the states were free to go their separate way we
would only have a “rope of sand’
iv. “LIBERTY AND UNION, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND
INSEPERABLE”
5. South Carolina’s Nullifcation of the Tariff of 1832
a. Specialist State Convention 1832
6. Secession:
a. S. Carolina- December, 1860:
i. Makes good on their threat to do so if “sectional” Lincoln (the
“Illinois baboon”) was elected
ii. Unanimous vote of its state legislature
iii. Begins the landslide of southern states to follow
iv. A total of 11 s states secede and form a confederacy the
confederate states of America
b. North’s Response to Southern Secession:
i. “Oh for one hour of Jackson!” cried critics
ii. Crittenden compromise
1. Slavery in the territories prohibited north of 36/30
2. South of 36/30 slave territories were to be given
federal protection
3. Future states north of south of 36/30 could enter
with or without slavery as they choose (popular
sovereignty)
iii. Lincoln rejects
iv. Civil war!
IV. Timeline of Sectional Behavior Up To The Civil War
a. 1820- Missouri Compromise:
i. Note the Tallmadge amendment to Missouri’s application for statehood in 1819
b. 1824- Clay’s American System
c. 1828- 1833- Tariff of Abominations Crisis
d. 1829-’30- Webster Hayne Debate
e. 1831- William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator
f. 1835- Stopping the Abolitionists mail in the South
g. 1836- Gag rule in the House of Reps
h. 1836- Texas not annexed
i. 1846- Wilmot Proviso
j. 1848- Mexican Cession- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
k. 1848- Free Soil Party
l. 1850- Compromise of 1850
m. 1850 and on- the North flouting the Fugitive Slave Law (“bloodhound bill”)
n. 1852- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
o. 1854- Ostend Manifesto
p. 1854- Kansas Nebraska Act
q. 1854- Formation of the Republic Party
r. 1855-’61- Bleeding Kansas
s. 1856- William Walker in Nicaragua
t. 1856- The “caning” of Sumner by Brooks on the floor of the US Senate
u. 1857- LeCompton Constitution
v. 1857- The Dred Scott court decision
w. 1858- The Lincoln-Douglas senate race debates- the Freeport Doctrine
x. 1859- John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and subsequent hanging
y. 1860- The election of Lincoln
z. 1860-’61- The secession of 11 southern states