Unit 4 Notes

Party Debates

  • Democratic-Republicans: strict constructionists (only power to do what the constitution says).
  • Federalists: loose constructionists (power to do whatever the spirit of the constitution says).

Louisiana Purchase

  • Thomas Jefferson (strict constructionist) approved the purchase, despite the Constitution not explicitly granting the president power to buy land.
  • Core of Discovery: Lewis and Clark (north and west), Seddon Pike (south).

Supreme Court

  • Under Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court grew in power.
  • Marbury v Madison: established judicial review (Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution).

War of 1812

  • Fought due to British impressment of American sailors.
  • Hartford Convention: New England Federalists opposed the war, some suggesting secession.
  • The war's popularity led to the demise of the Federalist Party.

Henry Clay’s American System

  • Aim: to unify the American economy.
  • Components: federally funded internal improvements, protective tariffs, Second Bank of the United States.
  • Madison vetoed some provisions, citing disadvantage to the South.

Westward Expansion

  • Missouri Compromise (1820): Missouri entered as a slave state; the 36°30′ line determined the status of slavery in new territories.

US Territory

  • US Canadian border: Established at the 49th parallel.
  • Joint occupation of the Oregon territory.
  • Adams-Onís Treaty: Spain ceded Florida to the US.

Monroe Doctrine

  • Established the Western Hemisphere as a US sphere of influence, opposing European interference.

Market Revolution

  • Linking of northern industry with western and southern farms.
  • Enabled by technology (cotton gin, interchangeable parts, steam engine).
  • Erie Canal: fostered regional interdependence for trade.

Immigration

  • Huge wave of immigration (1820-1840), creating a labor pool and cultural influence.

Middle class

  • Emergence of middle class in the North (businessmen, doctors, lawyers).

Cult of domesticity

  • Defined separate spheres for men (work) and women (home and childbearing).

Expansion of Democracy

  • Panic of 1819: led to calls for universal white male suffrage.
  • By 1825, most Eastern states followed the Western states and established universal white male suffrage.

Political Parties

  • Election of 1824: split in the Democratic-Republican Party.
    • National Republicans (later Whigs): loose constructionists.
    • Democrats: strict constructionists.

Andrew Jackson

  • Conflicts over tariffs (Tariff of Abominations), the national bank, and Indian removal.
  • Tariff of Abominations: raised tariffs by 50%; opposed by the South.
  • John C. Calhoun and nullification: South Carolina wanted to nullify the Tariff.
  • Indian Removal Act: Jackson expanded executive power despite Supreme Court opposition.

American Identity

  • Transcendentalism: belief in the transcendent power and beauty of nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau).
  • Hudson River School: romanticized landscapes in art.
  • Second Great Awakening: emphasized the moral reformation of society (Charles Finney).

Reform

  • Temperance movement: American Temperance Society advocated abstinence from alcohol.
  • Abolitionism: William Lloyd Garrison (The Liberator), American Anti-Slavery Society.

Slave Resistance

  • Nat Turner's Rebellion: slave revolt that led to stricter conditions for enslaved people.

Women's right

  • Seneca Falls Convention (1848): Declaration of Sentiments, demanding equality in education, legal rights, and voting.

Southern Culture

  • Most southern farmers were yeoman farmers (independent landowners) who supported slavery.
  • Economics and culture defined by agriculture, especially cotton, leading to westward expansion for more land.