Jackson & Antebellum

Spoils System

In which the political party winning an election rewards its campaign workers and other active supporters by appointment to government posts and with other favours

Democratic Party

Pro-Jacksonists

• envisioned a future of steadily expanding economic & political opportunities for white males

• wanted a limited role for the government

Whig Party

Anti-Jacksonists

• favored expanding the power of the federal government

• encouraged industrial & commercial development

  → embraced material progress

• cautious of westward expansion

• favored legislation establishing banks, corporations, & other modernizing measures

Bank Wars

Calhoun & Nullification

• South Carolina went through agricultural depression

  → Tariff of 1816 was put in place; South Carolinians in the 1820s believed that the tariff was the cause of the depression

  → possible secession ?

• Southerners looked to VP John C. Calhoun of South Carolina

  → he argued that states could reject national law as long as it was unconstitutional

  → he believed that this doctrine would stop South Carolinians from secession

Andrew Jackson — “president of the common man”

• his republicans believed democracy should offer “equal protection & benefits” to all WHITE MALE CITIZENS

  → favored no religion/class

  → a firm commitment to the continued subjugation of Black & Native people, and women

• believed that officeholders should be “men of the people”

  → removed a total of 1/5 (more or less) of the federal officeholders during his 8yrs

Indian Removal Policy (1830)

• appropriated $ to finance federal negotiations w/ southern tribes aimed at relocating Natives to the West

  → federal govt. worked steadily to negotiate treaties w/ southern Natives that would remove them to the West

  • negotiation process was too slow: Georgia’s independent effort to dislodge the Creeks & Georgia, Alabama, & Mississippi’s legislatures passing laws to regulate remaining tribes

Market Revolution

Marked Americans moving away from self-sufficient agriculture to the production of goods for sale.

The American System

• proposed by Henry Clay after the War of 1812 that promoted the…

  → use federal $ for internal improvements (roads, bridges, industrial improvements etc…)

  → enactment of protective tariff to foster the growth of American industry

  → growth of the National Bank

Southern Slavery and Cotton

• the south relied on tobacco, rice, and sugar— all crops were unstable in some way

  → the solution? cotton

• cotton could grow successfully in a variety of regions & soils

  → demand grew b/c of the rise the British textile industry (1820s-1830s) & the rise of the NE textile industry (1840s-1850s)

  → slavery increased

Panic of 1819

Many state banks closed, and unemployment, bankruptcies, and imprisonment for debt sharply increased.

National Bank

• Acted as the federal government's fiscal agent

• Collected tax revenues,

• Secured the government's funds

• Made loans to the government & transferred government deposits through the bank's branch network

• Paid the government's bills

Nativism

The political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants, including by supporting immigration-restriction measures.

German & Irish Emigration

• From 1840-1850, more than 1.5 million Europeans moved to the U.S

  → the majority from Ireland & Germany

  Causes of emigration:

  → Economic dislocations of the Industrial Revolution caused widespread poverty

  → the collapse of the Liberal Revolution of 1848

  → “potato famine” of 1845-1849 that killed almost a million Irish people

German Immigrant Demographic

• Moved to the Northwest

  → Became farmers or went into business in western towns

  → most had some $ to spare

• Most were part of familial groups or were single men

  → Movement to the agricultural frontier was promising & attractive

Irish Immigrant Demographic

• Moved to eastern cities

• Emigrated w/ virtually no $

  → most were young & single women; movement to the west was not plausible

  → Eastern cities offered factory & domestic work

Lowell System

• Enlisted young women (mostly farmers’ daughters) in their late teens & early 20s into the workforce

  → Women under this system worked in clean boarding houses & dormitories

• Carefully supervised

• Hiring women seemed vaguely immoral

  → Factory owners placed strong emphasis on maintaining a proper environment for employees

The Second Great Awakening

• A widespread religious revival movement that swept across the United States

  → Primarily in the first half of the 19th century

• Stressed a religious philosophy of salvation through good deeds & tolerance for all Protestant sects

  → rejected the Calvinist doctrine of predestination

• Attracted women, Natives, & Black people

  → stimulated reforms such as: the emancipation of women, the Promotion of Temperance, & prison reforms

Wanghia Treaty (1844)

The U.S’s first diplomatic relations with China—occurred during the Tyler Administration

• 1842: Britain forced China to open certain ports to foreign trade—Americans were eager to share these privileges

  → American mercantile interests convinced Tyler & Congress to send Commissioner Caleb Cushing to China

  → 1844: Cushing secured most favored nation provisions giving the U.S the same privileges as the English

• won the right of “extraterritoriality” — the right of Americans accused in China to be tried by American officials.

Aroostook Wars (1839)

• tensions flare over the boundary between Canada & Maine

  → disputes occurred since the Treaty of 1783

• 1838: groups of Americans & Canadians began moving into the Aroostook River in the disputed area

  → a violent brawl was created

Carolina Affairs

• residents of the eastern provinces of Canada launched a rebellion against the British colonial govt. in 1837

  → some rebels chartered the American steamship, the Carolina, to ship supplies across the Niagara River from NY

  → British authorities in Canada seized & burned the ship, killing an American in the process—no disavowment or compensation

• authorities in NY arrested a Canadian named Alexander McLeod & charged him w/ murder

  → British govt. was outraged—Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston demanded McLeod’s release & threatened war

  → NY jury released McLeod