Jacksonian Democracy and Its Limits - Comprehensive Notes

Jacksonian Democracy and its Limits

Introduction: A Popular Political Culture

  • Wealth/property qualifications for voting for white males lifted.
  • Political campaigns become a public spectacle and form of entertainment.
  • Parades and rallies for political parties.
  • Local papers highlighted political positions of Whigs and Democrats.
  • Jackson says government posts shouldn’t be reserved for the privileged.

Jackson’s Image

  • Frontiersman image.
  • Portrayed as a man for the common man.
  • Emphasized common sense over education (anti-intellectualism).
  • Cultivated a direct link between the President and the people.

Jackson's Critics

  • Critics referred to Jacksonian Democracy as "mobocracy."
  • There was commentary and criticism of Jackson's inauguration event.

Jackson's Image: Reading the American Past, 11-1 President Jackson’s Parting Words

  • Jackson addressed issues such as tariff revenues for internal improvements being excessive.
  • He argued that “the farmer, the mechanic, and laboring classes” disproportionately pay for these improvements.
  • He claimed that corporations and politicians primarily benefit from these tariffs.
  • Jackson asserted that these government actions are not “enumerated” in the Constitution.

Bank War

  • Jackson viewed the Bank as having “despotic” power and believed it could destroy businesses.
  • He argued the Bank aids monopolies, the rich, and corporations, giving a minority undue power.
  • Jackson contended the Bank hurts the common man, farmer, mechanic, and laboring classes.

Jackson and the Common Man: Battle over the National Bank

  • The charter for the bank was brought up early (1832, when the charter was set to expire in 1836) due to political interests seeking to hurt Jackson politically.
  • Jackson vetoed the bank because of states’ rights concerns.
  • He wanted less federal control over the money supply, advocating for more state control.
  • Jackson believed the Bank represented a concentrated power unaccountable to the people.

Significance/Consequences of Jackson’s Veto

  • Jackson’s rhetoric against the bank set the tone for the Democratic Party.
  • Jackson made political gains and was reelected despite (or because of) the veto.

Impact of Jackson’s Actions on the Banking System: 1837 Recession

  • Local banks (with national bank funds) were strengthened.
  • Banks issued more paper money, creating a financial bubble.
  • Speculators took advantage of rising land prices.
  • Jackson mandated that banks could only accept gold and silver for land purchases.
  • The 1837 recession was fueled by a bubble of deregulation and speculation.

Jackson’s Link to Nation: Nullification Crisis

  • A conflict arose over national tariffs to promote national industry.
  • J.C. Calhoun (S. Carolina) objected, citing state’s rights.
  • Calhoun argued that for stability in a large country, each state needed the power to prevent the government from infringing on its rights.
  • Major interests should have the power to veto measures through “nullification."
  • Jackson feared “nullification” would lead to disunion.

Famous Exchange About Nullification

  • Jackson to Vice President Calhoun: "Our Union: It must be preserved."
  • Calhoun’s response: "The Union, next to our liberty, most dear. May we always remember that it can only be preserved by distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union."

Supporters and Opponents of the Tariff

  • Tariff supporters advocated for the “American System,” defined as government support of manufacturing.
  • Protective tariffs were put in place in 1828 to help the N. East industry (and the West).
  • Jackson maintained tariffs in 1832.
  • S. Carolina cotton exporters had two main concerns:
    • Southern exports would decrease.
    • They would pay more for manufactured goods.

Why did Jackson support the tariff?

  • Despite being a states’ rights advocate, Jackson supported the tariff to gain support from the northeast.
  • He held a states’ rights position on internal issues but not on national issues.

Who Wins the Tariff War?

  • The Force Bill was enacted, but tariffs were also lowered.
  • In the short run, agrarian interests triumphed over industrial ones.
  • In the long term, the impact might not have been significant.
  • This foreshadowed future sectional divisions, with South Carolina being the first state to secede, leading to the Civil War.

Limits to Jacksonian Democracy

  • These limits apply to Free Blacks and the movement to abolish slavery, as well as Native Americans.

Northern Free Blacks

  • Northern black free communities totaled approximately 200,000.
  • A small black middle class existed (e.g., James Forten, a Philadelphia sail-maker), including black business men and ship builders.
  • The black lower class consisted of unskilled laborers, servants, soldiers, and common laborers.
  • Independent black churches, schools, and periodicals were established.

White Superiority in Culture: Minstrel Shows

  • De Tocqueville noted that discrimination was strongest where slavery no longer existed.
  • Minstrel shows were a popular form of entertainment in the North for white audiences.
  • Whites would put on blackface to stereotype and dehumanize blacks.
  • These shows depicted free blacks as incompetent and unable to live independently.
  • Slavery was depicted as a benevolent institution and portrayed as natural.

Forms of Racial Discrimination: Politics & Law

  • Voting:
    • NY imposed property requirements for black voting.
    • NJ, PENN, and Connecticut saw blacks lose the right to vote after previously having it.
  • Testimony in court:
    • Several Northern states prohibited blacks from testifying in court against whites.

Forms of Racial Segregation: School & Work

  • Segregation in education:
    • Black children were not educated with whites.
  • Blacks prohibited from some professions:
    • In some states, blacks were prohibited from certain professions by worker organizations, which restricted professions to whites.

Forms of Racial Discrimination: Geographical Segregation

  • Some western states prohibited black migration.
  • Blacks faced discrimination and hostility in the west, and whites didn’t want to settle near blacks.
  • Scholar Jon Dippel termed this attempt to prohibit blacks from the west as: “white flight” and western expansion.

Segregation in Public Spaces

  • Public transport was segregated.
  • Hotels and restaurants were segregated.
  • If permitted in public theaters, blacks had to sit in the back.
  • Separate pews were designated in church.

Colonization: Another Type of Segregation

  • The idea of freedom and a white country emerged in the 18th century; Jefferson promoted it in Notes on the State of Virginia.
  • The American Colonization Society (ACS) started in 1816.
  • About 15,000 blacks did leave (most for Liberia).
  • Some blacks supported it, but the majority of blacks came to oppose it (in part because of hardships in Liberia).
  • Some blacks (like Martin Delany) supported colonization due to racism faced in the US.

Movement for Abolition of Slavery

  • Strands in the movement included gradualists and immediatists.
  • Abolition arguments:
    • Religious argument: all created in the image of God.
    • Economic argument: free labor is more efficient.

William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass

  • William Lloyd Garrison initially supported colonization and gradual emancipation.
  • In 1831, he published The Liberator and rejected both (gradualism and colonization), becoming an immediatist.
  • Garrison publicly burned the Constitution; he was targeted and attacked (dragged around Boston tied to the back of a horse).
  • Frederick Douglass, a prominent black abolitionist, was originally a disciple of Garrison.

Spread of Abolition

  • 1832: New England Anti-slavery society.
  • 1833: American anti-slavery society.
  • 1835: 1 million pamphlets distributed (some to the South).

Violence Against Abolitionists

  • Some abolitionists were killed.
  • Printing presses were destroyed.
  • Garrison was dragged on a rope tied to a horse.
  • An ear of a slave was sent to Garrison.
  • The headquarters of the anti-slavery society in Philly was burned down.

Reading the American Past, 11-4 David Walker Demands Emancipation

  • Walker (a black abolitionist) moved from the South to Boston and established a successful used clothing store.
  • He rejected colonization and fought against slavery and the slave trade.
  • In 1829, he released “Appeal to the Colored People of the World."
  • The book denied that slaves owed anything to their masters.
  • It called for spiritual renewal and immediate emancipation.
  • There was no call for violence.
  • His work circulated in the South and created panic, and was banned.

David Walker Demands Emancipation reading (continued)

  • Some of Walker’s assertions in the text:
    • Because slavery is profitable, its inhumanity is overlooked.
    • He preferred death over servitude.
    • ”Hayti”: “the glory of blacks and terror of tyrants."
    • Walker criticized some blacks for working against fellow blacks by collaborating with whites.
    • Message to free blacks: don’t “glorify and be happy with low employments”; work for “higher attainments."

Abolition: Not a Mainstream Movement

  • According to historian David Brion Davis, a consequence of the Missouri Compromise was a two-party system sympathetic to slavery.
  • Jacksonian Democrats were pro-slavery.
  • Since there were no sectional parties, Whig leaders were also sympathetic to slavery.
  • Northern textiles depended on cotton, and cotton was the main US export (essential to favorable terms of trade).

Davis on Slavery (continued)

  • Abolition was a marginalized movement; after the Missouri Compromise, both parties decided to “gag” abolition since both had pro-slave interests.
  • Davis asks why southerners were fearful of these (weak) abolitionists.
  • Britain was also in the picture; there was concern that Britain wanted to end US slavery.
  • Reasons for British interest:
    • Maybe for humanitarian reasons.
    • Also as a way to weaken the US dominance in agricultural exports.

Exclusion of Native Americans - Cherokees

  • Background:
    • Cherokee and “civilization."
    • The Cherokee adapted “American” lifestyles, influenced by Protestants.
    • They had a newspaper (bi-lingual).
    • They used private property and even owned slaves.
    • They developed a political system akin to the US system.

Jackson on Displacement of Native Americans

  • The push for removal came with white western expansion.
  • Jackson said if Indians would not sell their land, then it should be taken by force.
  • Jackson said the idea that they were sovereign nations was ridiculous.
  • When elected in 1828, southerners believed Jackson would advocate removal.

Jackson built his promotion of removal of Cherokee on 2 main arguments:

  • Georgia state sovereignty.
  • Paternalism (Indians need to be removed to be protected).
  • Despite opposition in Congress, the Indian Removal Act passed in 1830 (removing 16,000 Cherokee and 100,000 Indians in all).

Southern Whites on Removal

  • Jackson and states’ rights: Georgia claimed sovereignty, and Cherokee laws were null and void.
  • Georgian whites had an interest in removal since Native Americans’ land was auctioned off in state lotteries at below-market prices.

Northern protest to removal

  • Protestants (northerners) had invested in missions and protested.
  • Southerners responded that Indians were not “equal with the rest of the community” and passed the Indian Removal Act.

Cherokees Protest: Supreme Court Case

  • The Cherokee turned to the Supreme Court to protect their sovereignty, which it did in the 1832 case Worcester v. Georgia.
  • Georgia refused to follow the law.
  • Georgia began a lottery that gave Native Americans’ land to whites.

Cherokee Finally Forced West: Treaty of New Echota

  • The Cherokee had been united against removal for decades; a majority still opposed it in the 1830s.
  • A minority (Treaty Party) supported removal as a survival strategy.
  • Leaders of the Treaty Party received bribes from the US government (paid for their land at prices way above the land’s value).
  • The treaty was only ratified by one vote in Congress, showing significant opposition.

Reading the American Past, 11-3 Cherokee Leaders Debate Treaty New Echota

  • John Ross:
    • “The Great Mystification."
    • “We have no weapon to use but argument."
    • We turn to “Principles of white men” to which the US owes its greatness and liberty; and we will receive “redemption from our miseries."

Reading the American Past, 11-3 Cherokee Leaders Debate Treaty New Echota

  • Elias Boudinot's reply to Ross:
    • Cherokee cultural, economic, and spiritual decline owing to contact with whites.
    • Only a small minority of Cherokees have benefited (some mixed race).
    • Removal is the only practicable remedy.

Second Party System: 1830s-1850s

  • Democrats (grew out of the Democratic-Republican Party).
  • Whigs (had similarities to the Federalist Party).
  • Whigs declined in the 1850s, and the Republican Party emerged.

Whigs’ Platform

  • National Bank, tariffs, and internal improvements.
  • Region: N. East and South.
  • Class: business, planter, and laborer.

Democrats’ Platform

  • Local autonomy, low land prices, and low tariffs.
  • Region: South, West, N. East.
  • Class: middle class, yeoman farmer, urban labor.

Market Interpretation of the 2nd Party System

  • Antecedents:
    • Supporters of the Constitution tended to be in more urban/commercial regions.
    • Rural areas had less support for the Constitution.
  • The same divide exists between Whigs and Democrats, with the former being more in commercial/market regions and Democrats being in more rural areas.