Final Chapter 10

Final Chapter 10

Democracy in America (1815-1840)

Focus Questions

• Inclusion and Exclusion:

  • Who was included in the flourishing democracy of the early to mid-19th century?

  • Who was excluded?

• Economic Integration:

  • What efforts were made to strengthen the economic integration of the nation during this period?

  • What major crises hindered these efforts?

• Nationalism vs. Sectionalism:

  • What were the major areas of conflict between nationalism and sectionalism?

• Andrew Jackson's Embodiment:

  • In what ways did Andrew Jackson embody the contradictions of democratic nationalism?

• Indian Removal:

  • Why did Indian Removal happen?

  • How did Native nations respond?

• Bank War:

  • How did the Bank War influence the economy and party competition?

Inauguration of Andrew Jackson (1829)

• Marked a significant shift in American politics.

• Attracted a crowd of 20,000 people to the White House, resulting in damage and chaos.

• Justice Joseph Story of the Supreme Court referred to it as "the reign of King Mob."

Perspectives on Jackson

• Supporters:

  • Viewed his election as the rise of genuine democracy and the "common man."

  • Philip Hone noted Jackson's popularity and democratic beliefs.

• Critics:

  • Considered him a tyrant and called him "King Andrew I."

  • Formed the Whig Party, named after opponents of royal power in 18th-century England.

Age of Jackson/Jacksonian Democracy (1830s-1840s)

• Andrew Jackson's career embodied major developments of the era:

  • Market revolution

  • Westward movement

  • Violent expulsion of Indians

  • Expansion of slavery

  • Growth of democracy

• Symbol of the self-made man, rising from a humble background.

• Born in 1767 on the South Carolina frontier, orphaned during the American Revolution.

• Displayed courage and impetuousness early on, serving as a courier during the War of Independence.

• Captured and imprisoned, nearly killed by a British officer for refusing to polish his boots.

Jackson's Early Career

• Moved to Tennessee.

• Studied law and entered local politics.

• Elected to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

• Became a judge on the state supreme court.

• Military campaigns consolidated American control over the Lower South, enabling the rise of the Cotton Kingdom.

• Acquired a large plantation in Tennessee.

• Symbolized the triumph of political democracy.

American Democracy

• Americans pride themselves on being the world's oldest democracy.

• Competing definitions of the first democracy exist (e.g., New Zealand's constitution of 1893).

• Some Latin American nations extended voting rights to free Blacks and descendants of Indigenous populations before the United States.

• Europe lagged behind, with Britain achieving universal male suffrage in the 1880s and France having an inconsistent history.

• Democracy became a central part of American nationality and freedom.

Chronology

• 1811: Bank of the United States charter expires

• 1816: Second Bank of the United States established

• 1817: Inauguration of James Monroe

• 1819: Panic of 1819; McCulloch v. Maryland

• 1820: Missouri Compromise

• 1823: Monroe Doctrine

• 1825: Inauguration of John Quincy Adams

• 1827: Cherokee Constitution

• 1828: "Tariff of Abominations"

• 1829: Inauguration of Andrew Jackson

• 1830: Indian Removal Act

• 1830-1860: Forced Indian Removals

• 1832: Nullification Crisis; Worcester v. Georgia

• 1833: Force Act

• 1835: Tocqueville's Democracy in America

• 1835-1842: Second Seminole War

• 1837: Inauguration of Martin Van Buren

• 1837-1843: Panic of 1837 and ensuing depression

• 1838-1839: Trail of Tears

• 1841: Inauguration of William Henry Harrison; Dorr War

The Triumph of Democracy

Property and Democracy

• The market revolution and territorial expansion connected with political democracy.

• Challenges to property qualifications for voting culminated in the early 19th century.

• States entering the Union after the original thirteen did not require property ownership to vote.

• Older states reconsidered democracy's economic basis during constitutional conventions in the 1820s and 1830s.

• Wage earners who could not meet property requirements demanded the rights of citizens.

• A petition by "non-freeholders" in Richmond (1829) argued that property ownership did not guarantee superior moral or intellectual endowments.

• North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia retained property requirements.

• Large slaveholders in Virginia resisted changes until a constitutional convention in 1850 eliminated the requirement.

Rhode Island and the Dorr War

• Rhode Island's legislature resisted lifting property requirements for voting due to fear of factory workers and immigrants.

• The state had a growing population of propertyless wage earners unable to vote.

• In October 1841, proponents of democratic reform organized a People's Convention and drafted a new state constitution.

• The new constitution enfranchised all adult white men while eliminating Blacks entirely (later restored in a referendum).

• Thomas Dorr was inaugurated as governor, but President John Tyler dispatched federal troops to the state.

• The movement collapsed, and Dorr was imprisoned for treason.

• The Dorr War demonstrated the passions surrounding the exclusion of white men from voting.

• The legislature soon eliminated the property qualification for native-born men, Black and white, but retained it for immigrants until 1888.

• By 1860, all states except Rhode Island had ended property requirements for voting.

• Personal independence rested on ownership of oneself, reflecting the era's individualism.

Tocqueville on Democracy

• By 1840, over 90% of adult white men were eligible to vote.

• A flourishing democratic system had been consolidated.

• American politics was boisterous, partisan, and engaging.

• Democratic political institutions defined the nation's identity.

• Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1835) analyzed American society during a political transformation.

• Tocqueville believed democracy meant more than just the right to vote; it was a "habit of the heart."

• Democracy encouraged individual initiative, belief in equality, and an active public sphere.

• Tocqueville saw democracy as an essential attribute of American freedom.

• The idea that sovereignty belongs to ordinary citizens was a new departure in Western thought.

• Political philosophers had warned that democracy could degenerate into anarchy and tyranny.

• The founders sought to shield political authority from excessive influence by ordinary people.

• Pressure from those excluded led to the triumph of democracy for white males by the Age of Jackson.

The Emblem of Citizenship

• Democracy reinforced a sense of equality among those who belonged to the political nation.

• It deepened the divide between the included and the excluded.

• Participation in elections and political pageantry defined the "people" of the United States.

• The right to vote increasingly became the emblem of American citizenship.

• Voting was still legally a privilege, subject to state regulation, but it was commonly understood as synonymous with citizenship.

• Suffrage was considered "the first mark of liberty, the only true badge of the freeman."

The Information Revolution

• The market revolution and political democracy expanded the public sphere, leading to an "information revolution."

• Steam power increased newspaper printing output, leading to the rise of the mass-circulation "penny press."

• Newspapers like the New York Sun and New York Herald emphasized sensationalism, crime stories, and exposés of official misconduct.

• By 1840, the total weekly circulation of newspapers in the United States exceeded that of Europe.

• Low postal rates allowed newspapers to circulate widely.

• Organized political parties spurred newspaper publication.

• Government printing contracts were essential to most newspapers' survival.

• The publication of magazines, travel guides, advice manuals, and religious titles also rose dramatically.

Growth of the Reading Public

• The reduction in printing costs led to new newspapers, including Freedom's Journal (the first Black newspaper), Philadelphia Mechanic's Advocate, The Liberator, and the Cherokee Phoenix.

• The growth of the reading public opened doors for women writers like Lydia Maria Child, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, and Catharine Beecher.

• Women established a public presence through religious and reform movements.

• However, no woman in the United States had the right to vote after New Jersey added "male" to its voting requirements in 1807.

Voices of Freedom

From the Second Constitution of New York State (1821)

• Older states rewrote constitutions and changed voting qualifications as political democracy expanded.

• expanded for white men, they became more out of reach for women and people of color.

• The New York State Constitution vested legislative power in a senate and assembly.

• Voting rights were granted to male citizens over 21 who had been inhabitants of the state for one year and paid taxes or performed military duty.

• Men of color required three years of citizenship and possession of a freehold estate of 250 over and above all debts, as well as tax payment, to vote.

From the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation (1827)

• Native Americans participated in 19th-century political changes, but identified with their own Native nations.

• The Cherokee Nation drafted and ratified a constitution reflecting both different and parallel priorities to those of white Americans.

• The Constitution established justice, ensured tranquility, and promoted common welfare.

• The boundaries of the Cherokee Nation were defined by treaties with the United States.

• Sovereignty and jurisdiction extended over the country within the boundaries, with land being common property but improvements being the property of citizens.

• The government was divided into legislative, executive, and judicial departments.

• Eligibility for the General Council required being a free Cherokee male citizen over 25.

• Descendants of Cherokee men by free women (excluding the African race) and posterity of Cherokee women by free men were entitled to rights and privileges.

• Persons of negro or mulatto parentage were ineligible to hold office.

• Many Native nations within the United States operate under written constitutions.

Questions

1. Similarities between the New York State Constitution and the Cherokee Nation Constitution include establishing legislative bodies and defining citizenship.

2. Article I of the Cherokee Constitution exists to define and protect the nation's boundaries and land rights.

3. Beliefs about governance and freedom changed in the century following 1700 due to the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, leading to the adoption of written constitutions.

The Limits of Democracy

• By the 1830s, the principle that "the people" ruled was universally accepted.

• Defining the boundaries of the political nation became necessary.

• The vigorous public life of antebellum America was simultaneously expansive and exclusive.

• Limits were essential to its nature.

• Democracy in America absorbed native-born poor white men and immigrant men but excluded women and non-white men.

• The "principle of universal suffrage" meant white males of age constituted the political nation.

• The intellectual grounds for exclusion shifted from economic dependency to natural incapacity.

• Gender and racial differences were understood as a natural hierarchy of innate endowments.

• Exclusion was seen as part of nature.

• Women were considered too pure for the rough world of politics, while non-whites were limited by fixed character and abilities.

• The debate over who is qualified for American democracy continues into the 21st century.

Exclusion of Women

• The Constitution was not amended to allow women to vote until 1920.

• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 swept away restrictions on Black voting.

• Controversy persists over voting rights of immigrants, persons with prison terms, and the poor.

• The 19th-century political world was defined in contrast to the feminine sphere of the home.

• Even radicals were conservative regarding marriage.

• Beyond decent treatment and property control, women had no public right.

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