Missouri Compromise

• The issue at hand is that at this time there is the same number of slave states and free states

• Compromise (written by Henry Clay):

  • Missouri would be a slave state

  • Maine would be a free state

  • What is left of the Louisiana Territory north of the 36°30′ line (Mason-Dixon Line) would prohibit slavery

• This compromise passed

Universal White Male Suffrage

• New western states adopted state constitutions that allowed all White males to vote and hold office

• Free black men could vote too

• They omitted any religious or property qualifications for voting

• Most eastern states soon followed suit, eliminating such restrictions

• As a result, throughout the country, all White males could vote regardless of their social class or religion

• Voting for president rose from about 350,000 in 1824 to more than 2.4 million in 1840 mostly as a result of changes in voting laws

• In addition, political offices could be held by people in the lower and middle ranks of society

• However, this could also mean that those who aren’t knowledgeable or qualified can make important decisions

• Property owners (Whigs) didn’t like this because they felt that the poor and uneducated could cast an “inaccurate” vote

Tariff of Abomination

• Passed in 1828

• Secured by western and northern congressmen

• Provided extremely high rates on imported raw materials and manufactured goods

• Southerners hated this tax and called it an abomination

• South Carolina was the most vocal of their dislike

• Leads to the South Carolina Exposition and Protest

Pro/Anti Jackson

• Democrats favored Jackson, and Whigs did not

• This is due to Jackson’s rotation of office holders, his veto power, and his political policy

Indian Removal Act

• In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act

• By 1835, most eastern tribes had reluctantly moved west to reservations

• Cherokees challenged this law and won the case, but the act was passed anyway

• Led to the Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears

• Caused by the Indian Removal Act

• Most Cherokees denied the settlement of 1835, which provided land in the Indian territory

• In 1838, after Jackson had left office, the U.S. Army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia

• This caused the deaths of 4,000 Cherokees

Nullification Crisis

• Caused by the South Carolina Exposition and Protest

• In 1832, South Carolina was upset over the 1828 Tariff (Abomination)

• They decided to nullify the tariff and then threatened to secede if the federal government attempted to collect the tariff duties within South Carolina

• Jackson accepted the challenge and told South Carolina that nullification went against the Constitution, and that he would take steps against South Carolina if they nullified the law

• Caused the passage of the Force Bill

Jackson’s Veto Power (Veto of the National Bank)

• Many Whigs did not like Jackson’s veto power and how often he used it (King Andrew Jackson cartoon)

• Jackson interpreted the powers of Congress narrowly and, therefore, vetoed more bills—12—than all six preceding presidents combined

• Jackson took his re-election as a pronouncement by the people to revoke the National Bank’s charter

• So, in 1832, Jackson vetoed the renewal of the National Bank’s charter, saying that it enriched the wealthy at the common people’s expense

• The majority of voters approved of Jackson’s action

• Jackson creates pet banks/wildcat banks, which are state banks

• Jackson will order governemnt funds withdrawn from the National Bank and distributed to these state banks

• The problem is that there are no rules for how loans are to be given out and state banks printed too much paper money

• Caused many banks to go bankrupt and leads to the Specie Circular forcing people to pay in gold and silver

Manifest Destiny

• American expansionists who felt it was their God-given right to expand the US

• Promoted by:

  • Land-hungry Americans who wanted more land

  • Patriots who feared Great Britain would take land

  • Eastern merchants who wanted to begin trading with Asia and needed ports on the West Coast

  • Democratic-minded individuals who wanted to spread democracy

  • Nationalists who supported American greatness

Nativism

• Anti-foreign feeling

• Nativism grew within the US because of large numbers of Irish and German immigrants moving to the US

• Americans feared that immigrants would:

  • Outnumber and out-vote them (vote Democrat)

  • Take away their jobs

  • Cause the growth of Catholicism

• Directed towards Irish in the 1860s

• Changed to xenophobia (strong hatred of foreigners) around WWI to Germany and added Japan in WWII

Erie Canal

• Developed by Dewitt Clinton

• “Clinton’s Big Ditch”

• 364 miles from Albany to Buffalo

• Reduced shipping costs from $100 a ton to $8 a ton

• Caused more canals to be built across the US

Cotton Gin

• Developed by Eli Whitney

• Picks seeds out of cotton

• Turns cotton into the dominant cash crop due to textile industry growth in the North

• Grew the need for slavery and the Industrial Revolution

Lowell Girls

• Young female workers who came to work in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts

• Though pay was decent, conditions were unsafe and unhealthy

• Attempted strikes and advocated for the 10-hour workday

• Created the first union of working women

Second Great Awakening

• Middle class movement that was not in the south

• Began around 1800 and was over by 1830

• Series of “frontier revivals” because of excessive drinking and violence on the frontier

• Protestant, Baptist, and Methodist

Seneca Falls Convention

• Leading feminists met at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848

• The first women’s rights convention in American history

• Issued a document closely modeled after the Declaration of Independence called the “Declaration of Sentiments”

  • Declared that “all men and women are created equal”

  • Listed women’s grievances against laws and customs that discriminated against them

• After the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led the campaign for equal voting, legal, and property rights for women

• Suffrage movement: a movement for the right to vote

Important Figures (Matching)

• Isaac Singer: perfected the sewing machine

• Nathanial Hawthorne: author of the Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables

• Washington Irving: author of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow

• Samuel Slater: father of the factory system, introduced the first water-powered cotton mill

• Eli Whitney: invented the cotton gin and interchangeable parts

• Cyrus McCormick: invented the mechanical reaper

• Robert Fulton: designed and operated the first commercially successful steamboat

• Dewitt Clinton: developed the Erie Canal

• Dorthea Dix: founded 30 hospitals for the mentally ill and helped with prison reform

• Louisa May Alcott: author of Little Women